This is a picture of the girls getting ready for group. All of the kids go to some one else's house. Elise had a blast--Claire stayed with me as she is still pretty quiet!
.JPG)
Friday afternoon, we had a lot of work around the house to do. We are still organizing and putting away things! It's really hard to be motivated to get it all done when everything is upstairs--where no one else can see it! My downstairs looks immaculate, but the upstairs is a whole other story. I can't wait for our sea shipment to get here so I can finally make the house look like a home.
We celebrated Mardi Gras here. The kids got all dressed up and we had a parade on the compound! We all called it "Saudi Gras."
Saturday morning our driver came to pick us up at 8 AM to go to the doctor to get some lab work done for the kids and myself. We were told earlier in the year, the kids would not need any blood work so needless to say this momma was not happy! Josh had already warned me about the facility, so my expectations were very low. So, I will say, I was pleasantly suprised to notice that it wasn't as dirty as I was expecting. The problem that I had with this blood work, is that it wasn't taken at a pediatric unit. These nurses (who by the way, were very kind and sweet) do not know how to deal with taking children's blood. There are no heel pricks or finger sticks here...they tried to take blood from my babies through their arms!!! It was a terrible, horrible experience. I had to hold Elise down and cover her eyes throughout. They stuck Claire several times, and finally Josh had enough and told them to stop. Claire still has bruising on her arm. Then, we had to go get x rays. That wasn't as big as an issue--even though I do not like the fact that my children had to have x rays when we had a note from our pediatrician saying they were in good health.
OKAY--end rant! If you want me to complain some more about it-I could go on forever. Bottom line--we should have been sent to a pediatrician's office and should have been warned about how traumatic this was going to be for the kids.....
I also had to get an x ray done. They made me take a pregnancy test before they would scan me. I had to wait a few NERVOUS minutes for that one! I thought--please Lord...if you tell me I'm pregnant I would just have to laugh at this point!! No pregnancy for me though! The nurse took me back into the x ray room and told me to remove my ababya. So, I started to remove it while she was talking to me and she turned her back to me and said,"no, no, miss...discretion, go behind the curtains!"...I was not naked under my abaya people!! I had a shirt and shorts on! However, they think legs and arms are considered sexy I guess! It was very interesting to me...and she made me feel like I was crazy for taking it off in front of her.
After that, we went to IKEA and the mall. It takes about an hour to get there. The girls both napped on the way there. They were exhausted from the morning. I finally really cried when they fell asleep. I hate that we had to put them through that today.
The girls loved IKEA and Elise was very happy because her new friend Lauren was there also! We treated the girls to ice cream since they had such a crazy morning! We picked up a few organizational things and left around 3. The IKEA was just like the one in Houston. We also got a chance to swing by Pottery Barn Kids and had lunch at Outback. The food was great and I was so happy to get to a small taste of home! Now...if only they would franchise a Sonic and a Pappasitos out here!!
Some interesting things we found while shopping. They use a sharpie on every single box that has women's skin showing. How would you like to have that job?
So, the other issue that came up was the restroom. There are very few American toilets. When you have a 3 year old who doesn't know how to squat over a toilet--let alone be tall enough to do that...you have a messy problem! I tried holding her, that didn't work. My solution is I'm going to have to bring my travel potty with me everywhere we go. It is so disgusting and the ground is covered in water from the sprayer. This is a picture of the "Western" potty we used.
Driving around Saudi, you notice that they really should implement an "adopt a highway" program for all the trash/litter. The streets have trash everywhere and they also do not recycle anything!! It feels so wrong to throw our soda cans in the trash.
Elise started playschool this last week and she has really been enjoying it! It goes up to the age of 5 here and Claire can start when she turns 1. There are lots of children in the school and they all play very well together. It is on the compound, which I love--We just walk down the street! How convenient!
Next year, I'm probably going to send her to the International school here. I am very hesitant to do so, because 1. I don't want to send her to school all day!!---I can't let her go--I feel like she is too young 2. The school is off the compound.
I do think it's the best decision for her though. She needs to start doing some type of academic work and even though I am a teacher...she will not listen to me!!=)
We were on our way shopping and Claire stole Savannah's bottle! It was so cute! She loved it!
Well, nap time is almost over and if I want to have any time to get anything else done, I better finish this post!!
No comments:
Post a Comment