Grumpy Smurf

Moving to Qatar has been quite an adventure in so many ways. Just getting here was a Herculean effort of wading through paperwork, procedures, and packing. And of course that didn't end once we got here... more paperwork, more procedures, un-packing... It's been challenging in a lot of ways. I have so much respect now for people who do these expat assignments. It's not all fun and adventures, it's a lot of drudgery.

Today I am not going to get out of my pajamas. I am in a bad mood. I am a firm believer that you can choose your attitude and make your situation better. But today I'm choosing to stay in my pajamas and be mad for a while. Tomorrow I'll change my attitude :)

But I'll tell you why I'm in a bad mood today, in no particular order.:

1. My husband left for a week to go to his grandma's funeral. I'm the one who told him to go because I missed my grandma's funeral and have always regretted it. But I wanted to go with him, I loved Grandma, too. Plus, I'm sad to be here in a foreign country for a week without him. We'll make the best of it like we always do when he's gone, but I am taking today to be grumpy about it.

2. I can't drive. Did you know that if you're from, say, Great Britain and you come to live in Qatar, you can walk right in to the drivers license office, show them your license and they will give you a Qatari license on the spot? Even though they drive on the other side of the road and everything? Not so if you're an American. The story goes that a Qatari sheikh visited America a couple years ago and was not allowed to drive on his Qatari drivers license and from that moment on Americans have to take a written driving test as well as an in-car driving test in order to get a license here. Factor in that I have to get my Qatari residence permit before I can take the test, it's Ramadan and most government offices are on scaled back hours so everything is really slow, and I have to wait for Dan to get all his paperwork and permits before I can even start mine, it's going to be a while. I am so sick of calling the taxi service and lugging around the boys car seats wherever we go. But I've never been good at just staying at home. It could be several more weeks before I get my license. And when you do go to get it, they always schedule your appointment at 5:30 in the morning, it always take about 5 hours total to do the tests (that includes the waiting and waiting and waiting in between the 4 parts of the test), you have to ride in a bus with 20 other people and follow the car as they do their test, and they will randomly fail people (sometimes whole busses) because they feel like it. So I'm taking today to be irritated about that.

3. Most of my stuff is somewhere over the Atlantic ocean, and some of it is sitting at the airport waiting to pass customs. Actually, not having most of my stuff is making me realize how much I don't need most of it. Part of me kind of hopes it just gets lost in the ocean :) but there are a couple things I am ready to have again. Like our baby crib and toddler bed and my sewing machine. To be honest the thing I am really ready to have is my pull up bar. I know it's silly, but I've missed it! So I'm taking today to be impatient about that.

4. My dear friend is home after a life changing month away from home, and I'm not there for her. It's driving me insane. I've been her first responder, she's been my therapist, we have brought each other dinners who knows how many times, we've spent hours watching each others children, and just being kindred spirits. I have full faith in all the sweet friends we have at home to help her out, but today I'm mad that I'm not one of them. So I'm taking today to be sad about that.

I feel like Toad from the "Frog and Toad" books today. BLAH!

Tomorrow I will be myself again.

Life as we know it..

Some things I find worthy of note about Doha:

-The people here are very, very friendly. It's an interesting mix of people because the population is made up of mostly expats from all over the world - 85% of all the people here are non-Qatari. I notice it a lot when I go out in public with my kids especially. Just yesterday in the supermarket 1 person patted one of my kids, 2 people asked to pick up the baby, and 2 people smiled and waved at the kids. It's such a friendly atmosphere. And most people you interact with are from all over the world. The people at church and in the compound are likewise very friendly as well. Everyone is away from home, so they have become each others family.

-Communicating with others here is sometimes sort of difficult. Yes, pretty much everyone speaks English, but good luck understanding their accent! The very best episode so far was when we were asking a Filipino man where to find a bathroom. He was pointing in two separate directions and saying what sounded like "peel" and "peepee." Dan was so confused and looked at the man and asked, "Peepee??" the man laughed and repeated the word he had been saying about 5 times, each time more slowly until I finally figured out what he was saying: Male and Female. We about died laughing that Dan had said, "Peepee" to another grown man. We've had to decipher accents from Sri Lanka, India, Ethiopia, Bangledesh, Philippines, and even England (like when our tour guide told me I might need a "cardi" because they keep the air conditioning so cold... a cardi? It took me a minute to get cardigan out of that...)

-The culture is extremely service-oriented. You can get fast food delivered to your house. You can get your groceries delivered to your house. I hear "yes, ma'am" a hundred times a day.  You can't even fill up your own gas tank. EVERYONE has a maid or a live-in nanny. We went to a Haagen daas shop thinking we would just get a scoop of ice cream, but a waiter came and sat us down and gave us a menu and served us a fancy ice cream plate! (Pictures below)

-Qatar has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. They just don't tolerate anything here. You can only be here if you have a job and if you don't you get deported. You have to have a sponsor  even to be in the country. 

-People seem to be extremely trusting. Dan said he didn't have cash to buy his lunch yesterday and the cashier gave it to him anyway and said just to pay him next time he came. Dan said you can only pay in cash at the gas stations and it's the same way. Crazy, huh?

-It really is hot. People weren't exaggerating. I feel lucky that I made the decision a few years ago in Houston just to enjoy myself outside even if it was really hot and I was really sweaty, because now I need that attitude. We are still enjoying ourselves and we go on little walks every day, sometimes at night (you know, when it cools down to 95...), but overall, I'm fine with the heat.

-I kind of love that it never rains here. You can basically always plan to be able to go outside because it rains maybe 6 times a year.  

-Islam is the state religion of Qatar. They expect everyone here to respect that. When you go out in public, you are expected to dress modestly. Right now it is the holy month of Ramadan and Muslims fast from dawn to sunset. You are not supposed to eat, drink, or chew gum in public and a lot of businesses close during parts of the day. A lot of people told us that it is really hard to be here during the month of Ramadan. One sweet woman at church told me not to listen when people say Ramadan is hard. She said Ramadan is wonderful and you have to just find ways to enjoy it. You just enjoy your family during the day and enjoy the "nightlife."Dan and I think it's fun because the city kind of goes nocturnal. Everything, including grocery stores are open until midnight or 1am. And as I've already mentioned, since this place has one of the lowest crime rates in the world, you're not worried about being out late. We've still gone on outings in the day, I just have to make sure no one eats while we're out, which requires slightly more planning, but it's not prohibitive. I think it's fun to see "Ramadan Kareem" and "Ramadan Mubarak" (both essentially mean "happy Ramadan") on everything from store windows to food packages. Dan and I will also be going to an Iftar dinner through Dan's work (Iftar is the meal after sunset when the muslims break their fast). As an aside...It kind of makes me see what non-Christians would feel like in America around Christmas time. And honestly, I like it. It's fun. And it makes me extremely irritated at people in America who act like they're all offended when they see Christmas decorations, etc. when they're not Christian. But I digress....

-You get used to hearing the call to prayer. There are mosques everywhere and they play the call to prayer over a loud speaker from a tower on the grounds of the mosque. You'll even be walking along in the grocery store, or even in IKEA and the call to prayer will come over the PA system. There are also prayer rooms everywhere.

-I remember once Dan and I drove through Las Vegas on one of our road trips and we walked from the hotel to the car and both of us were covered in a layer of sand just from that little walk. We hated it and wondered how anyone could ever live there. Um, well, yeah. That's how it is here. There is just fine sand on everything. If the boys walk outside on our back porch, you can see their little footprints on the patio, perfectly outlined in super-fine sand. I feel like I need to wash my hands when I come back in from being outside, even if I never touched anything... my hands just feel dirty from being outside. It's a major chore to keep the floors in the house from feeling dirty as well. Some days are worse than others, but it's just kind of dirty here.

-It is singular in that everything is brand new and beautiful, with no expense spared. There is so much money here that if they can dream it, they build it. And a good deal of it has happened in the last 10 years or so. The downtown area looks like a scene from a Star Trek movie or something, the architecture is amazing. They also do things like build entire islands, just because they want to. 

Which leads me to my original reason for this post... :)

Dan and I went on a date last night to The Pearl-Qatar (interesting side note, if you tell people you went to "The Pearl" they have no idea what you are talking about, but if you say "The Pearl-Qatar" then they know what you are talking about.Weird.)

The Pearl-Qatar is a man made island. It has tons of extremely high end shops (we're talking real designers like Vera Wang and a million others I've never heard of but would have to mortgage my house to buy any of their stuff....You could also buy a Ferrari while you're there...). It's kind of amazing. Everything is intricate and beautiful and new.


I found this picture on the internet, just to give you an idea what it's like:

(Each one of those buildings is a large high-rise)

Here I am on the boardwalk area, this is right on the water.

Can you believe this tree?? We looked at it for several minutes, in disbelief that it was real!!

Inside the shops area:

The Pearl-Qatar is built out into the water in the shape of a circle, so the boardwalk is encircled by matching buildings all the way around, which then encircles a little island in the middle. There are huge yachts in the marina surrounding the little island, you can see some behind Dan in this picture.

We had a really hard time deciding which restaurant to eat at, and we finally settled on this one. It was called Pampano and it was a seafood restaurant with some South American influence. The food was incredible. Like everything else at the Pearl, it was kind of spendy, so we decided it was our anniversary dinner, since on our actual anniversary we ended up spending the whole evening working on the sale of one of our cars. We were the only people there. Apparently around that time in the evening (about 8pm) most people are at the mosque saying their nighttime prayers, then they head out for their big nighttime dinner.

The wall behind me was really interesting, it was all textured and wavy, hard to tell from the picture...

Just a floor to ceiling mirror with giant fish on it, of course...

Ok, one of my favorite parts about living here is that since you're not allowed to drink alcohol (not a problem for us :)) there are all sorts of amazing drinks. Dan and I are kind of crazy about fun drinks, so we were in heaven! I couldn't decide so I ordered a hibiscus water and an Arab Delight (pineapple, strawberry, and date drink) and Dan's was called a St. Kitts but I don't remember what was in it... but it was pineappley :). The hibiscus water was so very delicious, kind of fruity and flowery.

The humidity hit this week. It's as bad as everyone said. The Qataris are really good at air conditioning (they keep it FREEZING indoors) so when we walked outside after our meal, Dan couldn't see for a few minutes.

Now one of Dan's other passions is ice cream, so of course when he saw this we had to stop... and like I said above, they sat us down and served us like a restaurant.

Our ice cream menu....

Oh my goodness, yum.

So that was our date night. It was a really lovely evening. 

This week we will be attending an Iftar dinner and going to the beach this weekend. I'll be in touch.

Dates

A little known fact about me is I minored in sociology at the University of Texas. I have always been very interested in people and the way they behave. I find it fascinating. From a sociological perspective, this move has been absolutely fascinating. I have enjoyed the people watching here more than I ever have before. I have loved watching the muslim women, with their fabulous accessories, the muslim men with their fancy shoes and sunglasses, and both sexes smoking their shisha (pronounced sheesha) out of fancy pipes as they dine at a restaurant.

 The thing that has surprised me is the expat culture. EVERYONE has a maid to clean their house, and everyone with kids has a live in nanny. It took me a long time to wrap my brain around having someone else come clean my house. In one way it's like a dream come true to kind of have an excuse to have someone else come clean my house, but in another way I find it very troubling. I have always kind of been "anti-maid" for myself... Maybe it's a pride thing, I don't know, but I have never wanted to have any sort of formal "help" with my house. In fact, one of my new years resolutions this year was to "bring housewife back": my idea was to take pride in keeping my own house and cooking all my own meals. Being that 1950s housewife that everyone so disdains these days. Keeping a house and cooking for a family is not in any way degrading, but something one can take pride in and it is a blessing to have a home and family to look after. I have actually gotten really angry reading news articles or blog posts that imply that when a woman is "reduced to domesticity" it is the lowest possible place for her. Not this girl. I am not perfect at it, but I try my best. And I think it's a very honorable place to be, and I keep thinking that despite what I hear from outside my home. And I'm awesome.

 So coming here has rocked my world a little. Some people I have talked to see having "help" as spreading the wealth. We are here making money off the natural resources of this area and these people need our help to make a living, so we help them. And of course they help us. I finally caved in and from a recommendation from another woman in the compound, got an Indian woman named Geena to come to my house once a week to clean for me. Can I admit something? It was really, really weird for me, and actually kind of sad. This lovely 60 something woman came in and cleaned my whole house. The house the company gave us is 4800 square feet (actually the main reason I conceded to get a maid... I raised up the white flag in defeat, it's too much for me) and she spent four solid hours cleaning and working so very hard. It kind of broke my heart. She had cleaned another house that morning and had to leave my house because she had to go cook dinner for someone else. I was tired just watching her. Meanwhile, she's fawning over my babies because they make her miss her grandbabies back in India. It stirred up all sorts of emotions in me, most of them I didn't like. I felt guilty, lazy, undeserving. It was such a strange day for me. While it was really nice to have so much of my house clean at the same time, I don't really think I'm looking forward to having her come back. It just made me so sad.

I have almost felt pressure to get a live-in nanny. It's just not something I'm interested in, but people who have them act like there is no other way to go. I just feel like the one thing I've chosen to do in this world is be a mom and I am not going to outsource that. I just can't. I have never even sent my kids to preschool because, well, they're mine! and I only have a finite amount of time with them. Every moment is so precious, I just can't send them off that early. (I have to insert here that these are just my thoughts about my own personal world... I am very much a live and let live type of person... you do what you want and I do what I want and I'm ok with that. I'm not trying to judge or comment on anyone else's choices). Dan has talked to people who say they felt like I did when they got here and then they "changed." Of course, if you know me, you know that makes me want one even less (if that's possible). I was surprised at how much it bothered me to even think about it.

Blah.


Moving on to why I actually started this post....

Soooo anways, the weekend here is Friday/Saturday. Friday is the sabbath. You go to work/school Sunday through Thursday. So Thursday night Dan and I were more than ready to go out on our first date here. The last couple of months have been extremely stressful with getting ready to move and all. So we finally had a moment to decompress. Geena came and babysat our kids for us and Dan and I went to Souq Waqif for the evening. It was such a cool place. Definitely the type of adventure I was imagining when we moved here. It's tons of tiny little twisty streets with little storefronts lining each side. There are souqs that sell spices, some sell traditional clothing, some sell gold, some sell pets, some sell shisha pipes, some sell home improvement items, cooking items, you name it. There are even art galleries and restaurants with cuisine from all over the world (Dan and I spotted several we want to go visit). And of course there are very touristy ones that just sell a bunch of junk. And the people watching is fantastic.

It struck me while we were there how very much in the minority Dan and I were. It was kind of a strange feeling. But I digress...

I wish we would have gotten more pictures of our night out, but the thing that the pictures don't convey is the SMELLS... the line from Sense and Sensibility kept coming into my head, when Margaret is asking Colonel Brandon what India is like and he answers: "The air is full of spices." That was really what it was like. Spices, incense, perfumes, shisha, street vendors cooking pastries while you wait... The smells alone were half of the fun. There was also an outdoor concert going on, so it was a full sensory experience. I felt like we needed to go back 10 more times, just to eat at all the different restaurants, and find all the alleyways. We especially loved the spice shops with mounds and mounds of spices, they were so fragrant. Other favorites were the nuts/sweets shops. One shop owner handed us fresh dates to eat, and insisted that we eat several. I didn't know if Dan would know to spit out the pit so I ate mine quickly and made sure to spit the pit out in front of him. He said he was glad I did that because he wouldn't have known, haha. I have never had a fresh date before, just dried ones, so that was a fun little first. In another shop we were looking at all the mounds of dried peas and nuts and the shopowner told us to sample them. When we both only took one he laughed at us and told us to dig in. It was so funny.

This is a little pastry called a dosa. It's similar to a crepe, but made with cheese and honey. There are groups of women, each sitting with their own little stove set up with a big round stone on top and they make these while you wait. We could have gotten one made with egg instead of honey, but we'll have that next time :)

 Just a big old incense burner outside a shop.

 My drink was a work of art! It was as delicious as it looked.

 There was an outdoor concert and they were rocking pretty hard. The music sounded like nothing we had ever heard before! Notice the men all in white and the women all in black.

This man is smoking his shisha and looking at his iphone... When we walked around the corner, there were 6 or 7 more men sitting in a row against the walls smoking their shisha. We were too chicken to take a picture of them, so we sneaked one of this guy...

 The bins of nuts and dried fruits.

 Shisha pipes right next to the candy.

 Candy and spices and roses. We bought some candy with those little roses crushed on top. It was surprisingly delicious!

 These bins had the dried, spiced peas and beans. These were the ones the shopowner told us to eat from. YUM.

These are probably 10 gallon bags. These are outside a lot of the shops.

The outdoor concert we happened upon.

Me in front of the islamic cultural center.

 One of our favorite shops of the evening. This was along a little alleyway with all hand made items. The men were sitting on the floor making all these little lamps, and carving them out of gypsum. There was another shop a few doors down where there were probably 8 men just sitting on the floor sewing clothes. I wanted a picture of them but of course, I didn't take one...

 The workbench in the nightlight shop.

 Some of the nightlights, up close...

Doha skyline on our way home from our date...

We had a lovely evening and can't wait to go back again. 

 Friday we got to go to church for the first time. It is a really interesting, loving group of people from all over the world.  It was so nice to go to the same church all the way across the globe. It was very comforting. I think we will be happy there.

This is our church building. It's a house, but it is only used as a church.

More adventures to come...

Adventures

Whenever I told anyone we were moving to Qatar, 90% of the time they would reply something containing the word "adventure." We have had a couple so far, some not necessarily the type I was expecting.


Our first Saturday here we took a driving tour of Doha. We went to a HUGE shopping mall with all sorts of indoor activities for the kids: a roller coaster, ferris wheel, bowling alley, go carts, a gondola ride, an ice skating rink, and more. It was kind of amazing. We will be spending a lot of time there, I think :) Our tour guide also drove us all over town and showed us all the major points of interest. I am most excited to visit the souqs and barter with the Arab vendors. So those will be adventures to come.


One of our unexpected adventures kept getting better and better as the night wore on. This house is huge and bare, and there are 3 keys to every single door in the house. It took me like 5 minutes to open the door for someone who stopped in to see us that morning because I had to sift through 50 keys to find the one that would open the front door. So Dan decided that to make it easier on us, we should just leave a key in the lock on the inside of the doors to our house. That night we decided to go to IKEA to try to make our house more homey and since we don't have a car we have to hire a driver to take us anywhere we want to go. Aaand since we have so many little beasties we have to take 2 cars wherever we go. We loaded up the car with 4 carseats and a stroller and I shut the door to the house behind us. I tried to lock the door behind us and I couldn't turn the key. I had Dan come over to see if he could and he couldn't either. We were locked out. We decided to just deal with it when we got home since we had everyone all loaded up already and the drivers ready to go. So off to IKEA we went.


When we arrived we unloaded the kids and then the drivers started unloading the car seats. When Dan made the reservation they asked if we wanted to have the drivers wait for us or leave us and Dan said for them to leave us! He hadn't realized we would have 4 carseats with us. Siiiiigh. So we walked into IKEA with our 5 kids and 4 carseats and asked the security guard where we might stash the seats. They were actually really nice about it and opened a little secret passage where they keep wheelchairs and let us leave them there. We let the big boys play in the play area while we went shopping, and they give you one hour of childcare. IKEA in one hour?? Ready, set, go!!! If you have ever been shopping with Dan you know that he can spend an hour on one ITEM, much less a giant monster store like IKEA. But he felt the urgency and we were able to move at a pretty good clip. That hour went by pretty fast, then we went to pick up our boys and have dinner at the IKEA resturant. IKEA really does an excellent job of making their store family friendly, even down to having a specialized cart to carry three foods trays at a time. So I was able to go buy food for the family and actually bring it all back to the table in one trip!


I posted this on facebook, but for those of you who didn't see it: Cultural lesson of the day: I bought what I thought was a little bottle of milk for Jack and when I opened it, it looked and smelled rotten. I took it back to the counter and asked if I could switch it out. They let me and I got another bottle. It, too, looked and smelled rancid. So Dan took it back to get another one and the clerk realized what was going on... It was not milk that I had picked up, it was "fresh Laban" which is more like very runny plain yogurt. It's supposed to look/taste like that! Now we know.




Anyways, we needed to call our driver 30 minutes in advance to pick us up. So we called and finished up in the store and went out to the loading zone to wait. (Another cultural lesson: Qataris take the words "LOADING ZONE" to mean "Great Parking spot for my LANDCRUISER." (They seriously ALL drive Landcruisers)). So, we stood and waited and waited and waited with our 5 kids, 4 carseats, and 2 carts full of stuff waiting for our driver. When we finally found him (4 phone calls to the taxi company later...) it had been almost an hour. The driver had gone into the underground parking area instead of to the exit. We finally found the second driver and loaded up.
When we got home we unloaded everything and sent the drivers on their way. Dan had told the security guards at the front gate that we had locked ourselves out and they came with a key to the front door and one to the garage entry door. But since Dan had put keys on the inside of both of those doors, they couldn't get it in either one. It was almost 10pm by this time and the boys were getting restless, so I walked them down to the mini market to get a treat or something while they worked on getting us in the house. Even though the mini market says it's open until 11, it was closed when we got there. Grrr. On our way back the security guard passed me in his van and said he had gotten in. When I got home I asked Dan how they had done it (fully expecting to hear that they had broken a window or something..) and Dan said they had just gone to one of our kitchen windows and shaken it up and down to loosen the lock and got right in. Good to know our home is nice and secure! Oh well, we got in and could finally put our beasties in bed. WHAT A NIGHT!

WE MADE IT

Well, folks, we made it. The flight was ridiculously easy. You can hardly count flying business class as really flying, though. The seats completely folded down into beds so we were able to just put our kids to bed and they slept all night. The boys were so excited to get to watch movies while they were awake. That's all they did! Jack got restless a few times, but overall was a champ.

When we arrived at the airport the company had arranged for a meet and greet service to get us through customs. That all went quickly and smoothly. (We are pretty terrified for having to do all this ourselves next time, like flying economy and standing in the super long customs line.) Then came time to load up our 20 suitcases and drive home. Buuuuut, the meet and greet service hadn't reserved us a car. So they called someone to come pick us up. So we waited and waited and finally a driver arrived. In a Honda Odyssey. For 7 people and 20 suitcases. Right. So we loaded up the suitcases in the Odyssey and there was just enough room for 2 people to ride. So Jack and I loaded up and Dan went with the driver to go call a taxi for the rest of them. The driver had left the van literally in the middle of the road, and people kept honking and honking and getting all mad. I was a little nervous sitting there all alone!

Anyways, we made it to our house after 21 total hours of travel time. The boys had slept really well on the plane, so even though it was bedtime here, they were all wide awake!

It was a really strange feeling coming into our new house and realizing that this is no weekend trip. We're really not coming back for a long time. Even if we come home at Christmas time, it'll still be the longest I have ever been away from home. This is an adventure for sure, but the realities of every day life hit pretty quickly. I admit that I took a moment when we got here and just had to sit on the floor and .... I don't even know the word. I just had to sit and stare at the wall.  I didn't even know where to start, there was too much and it was too overwhelming. I just knew the place I felt the most comfortable was in the kitchen.

So we're here and now we have to feed a family of 7. We feel like it's 4 in the afternoon, but it's midnight here and we have no car. The company provides a "care pack" with 6 eggs, a loaf of bread, some milk (1 liter), some jam, and some cornflakes. So we had to ration that out between dinner and breakfast. I did, however, have a moment of accidental genius. On our way out of our house, I put a cake mix in my suitcase. My goodness, did it ever raise our spirits to have a cake the first night in our new house!! Of course, I didn't have a cake pan, but there was a roaster pan under the range, so that did the trick! Other moment of accidental genius was when I put an unopened jar of Nutella in our suitcase. Nutella toast is especially delicious when there's nothing else around. Funny how just having those two items made us feel so much better. I realized something that I may have known subconsciously but had never articulated to myself: cooking for my family actually makes me feel good. In all the disarray of arriving and having suitcases everywhere, and being in an unfamiliar place, I knew I could bring comfort to us all by putting food on the table.

One of the first things I did when we got here put up one of the only decorations I brought with me: my Rosie the Riveter magnet. For some reason it gives me so much strength. And I know WE CAN DO IT!!!

3 years ago

I don't have time to write a blog post right now... which is usually when I write blog posts...Scroll down to the pictures if you don't want to read the birth story. :)

June 1-Three years ago tonight I was making dinner for my little family, when suddenly I began to have some pretty intense contractions. I was right around my due date and having delivered my last baby about 40 minutes after I got to the hospital, I decided to call my mom to come over so I could get to the hospital sooner this time. I had decided not to use any pain killers, since my last delivery showed me I could do it and live to tell the tale... I also called Dan at work and told him to get his tail onto a bus pronto.

So my mom and Dan showed up about an hour after I called them... but my contractions hadn't gotten any more intense. In fact, they were somewhat erratic. I felt like a moron for calling everyone home. So we decided to wait a while to see if they got any worse. I had a few intense ones here or there, but there was no clear intensification. I asked my mom to stay the night in case I need to leave for the hospital at some ungodly hour. I had maybe one or two bad ones in the night, but otherwise got a good night sleep.

June 2- I had a regular OB appointment that morning at 9, so my mom stayed with the kids and I packed a bag just in case she sent me to the hospital. I felt fine, but was having only irregular contractions. When I got there I told the doctor what was going on and she checked me. I will never forget what she said next, "Well, you're a 7 with a bulging bag. Go straight to the hospital and don't hit any bumps on your way there." Soooo off we went. I knew they wouldn't let me eat once I got to the hospital, so I did the only prudent thing: I stopped at Burger King and got a large Oreo milkshake. :)

The doctor had called ahead to tell the hospital nurses I was coming. When I arrived at the hospital, the nurses were in disbelief that I was just walking into the hospital at a 7! I really still felt pretty good. So they got me to a room and hooked me up to a monitor. Then they pretty much disappeared for a couple hours. Dan and I just sat watching TV. The anesthesiologist came in and asked if I wanted an epidural and I said no. He asked me if I was sure and I informed him I was pretty sure.  A few minutes later a nurse burst into my room and breathlessly asked me if I was OK. I was a little baffled but I told her I was doing just fine. Her response made me laugh: "Well, I heard a scream and you're the only woman on the floor who does not have an epidural, so I assumed it must be you." Well, anyways, finally the doctor came in a broke my water then left saying, "Push the call button when you need help." Approximately five and a half seconds later I had a crazy intense contraction and pushed the call button for help. Of course, I pretty much couldn't talk through the contraction, so I kind of moaned for help :). At that point I turned to Dan and said, "Dang blast it, I could have had an epidural..." Oh well...I did it and this little guy was born about 15 minutes later....

And from the very beginning, he has been one of the sweetest little children I have ever seen. I am so in love with this child, I find it somewhat overwhelming - it almost makes me feel breathless. 

I know every mom thinks her baby is the most beautiful. And I think every mom is right, because babies are straight from heaven, and they radiate that heavenly light and beauty. Babies are so, so wonderful. And, yes, I think my babies are extremely beautiful. 

I am so grateful this boy joined our family three years ago. He has brought so much love and such a gentle spirit to our home. Happy birthday to my darling boy.

A slice of life.... and cheese.

2:50 walk to school to pick up George.

3:10 get George from school

3:40 get home. We all have a case of the grumpies. We make banana peanut butter smoothies to try to feel better (I never measure, but it's roughly: 2 bananas, 4tbsp peanut butter,  1 cup of milk, 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1 1/2 c. ice and BLEND!). I realize I have no plan for dinner. Dang it.

4:10 I realize George has scouts in 20 minutes. Dang it. I tell George to go get ready and load the other boys into the car.

4:34 Drop George off at scouts. I run into a friend who compliments my dress today and tells me I look like I should be walking through a French market or something. We chat for a few minutes and I head toward home....

4;55 Arrive at.... La Madeleine... The closest thing to a French market anywhere around here, but it does the trick. The power of suggestion was just too strong to resist! So with pain au chocolat and a baguette in hand, I head back to my car.... Don't judge me...

5:15 Arrive at home and realize there's not even time to get out of the car, so I head back to get George from scouts.

5:50 Arrive home. Still no plan for dinner, although now I at least have a baguette. It's a start.

6:00 The kids really want to play in the sprinklers in the backyard. I say ok.. Within 5 seconds there are several little nakiepants running around looking for swimsuits...

6:10 The boys want me to blow up the pool. I don't want to. I haven't made dinner yet! But I guilt myself into it and blow it up for them...

6:30 Shoot, I forgot to nurse the baby... Boys are outside filling up the pool. So I sit down to nurse on the couch where I can see the boys playing outside. Pray they'll be ok while I nurse... They turn the hose on to the trampoline and are shooting each other with it while they jump.

6:45 I put baby soap all over the trampoline so the boys can jump, have fun, and get clean at the same time...Multitasking!

6:50 Call Dan to see if relief is coming soon. He won't be home until 7:40. Dang it. Well, at least there's more time to think about dinner...

7:00 THINK! what can we have for dinner... Looks like we might be eating a baguette...Hmmm what goes with baguettes. Cheese! I look in the fridge and find all sorts of random cheeses left over from various random recipes... Fontina! Parmesan! Dubliner! Let's have a cheese plate! I also find "Parisienne Carrots" in the freezer.... Sounds French to me! Then a couple cans of tomato soup, just so something looks like a main course. Voila!

7:45 Dan gets home and I try to convince the boys to come inside.

8:00 Everyone is in and ready to eat. We have fun talking about France and French food.

8:30 Everyone declares dinner a success. They loved it! I think we'll have another cheese plate night again soon!

Bon apettit!