We are back in the desert! After 24 hours of traveling with two children, you could say we are mildly exhausted. I was so thankful Josh was with me on this long haul. Claire was not loving the plane ride this time.
The flight from Houston to Istanbul was interesting. I'm starting to feel really bad for flight attendants. People are just so rude and....weird. On this past flight there was a wide range of characters...Someone was in Josh's seat when we first got on the plane, so that took about 5 minutes of arguing until finally an attendant came to help us rectify the situation.
We were seated 3 and 1, so somehow Josh got to be the 1...I'm not sure how that happened. Nevertheless, he had the aisle, the middle was empty and a lady had the window seat. She was very angry when he took his seat. She says, "Is that your seat?" Josh replies-with a tentative..yes...She explains to him that she had requested an entire row to herself and she needs the room for her legs (mind you she's telling this to my 6 ft. tall husband while she is maybe 5 feet tall herself...and 120 soaking wet...maybe). She tells him that her legs will have to be up on the seats while the plane is in the air. I'm not sure what Josh said--because his anxiety-ridden wife was sitting behind him with two children--one of them continuing to page the flight attendant on the phone.
Anyway...plane goes up in the air and this woman is good on her word as she proceeds to put her legs up on the seat--touching Josh's arm. At several points during the flight Josh and I switched seats so I could rest. As soon as I would get up there, she would literally put her feet on my legs!! I finally had enough and was going to tell a flight attendant, when Claire started screaming again. Had I not had to deal with children I would have tattled on this very strange and insensitive lady.
This is the exact opposite of what it is like traveling on a plane with small children....
I can't believe that one short year ago at this time we were hugging Josh goodbye for him to start the journey to come over here. Time truly does fly by.
We landed at 2 in the morning and ended up getting to the compound around 4, surprisingly the girls slept until 10 AM the next day!
I don't think jet lag gets any easier, I'm just better at realizing it's going to be a crappy week. It's really hard to come back to Saudi after being in the states for as long as I was.
Here we are though, Carpe Diem! Ready or not, Elise started school on Sunday and life had to move on. No time for whining or crying or afternoon naps for mom!
It was so great to see all of our friends. Elise was really happy to go back to school and see her teachers too. We have had a lot of fun catching up this past week!
We were thrilled that Elise's car came in the mail! She "helped" Josh put it together so she could drive around the "village."
Claire's first day of "school"
