My Weight-Up Call

So, I put on the Anthropologie dress I wore when I married Scott in Memphis (before our big LA wedding) 3-years ago. We were going out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. Reality hit me BIG time! It fit. It zipped. It looked OK. But it didn't feel right. It just didn't fall properly. So, I have started to take charge of my eating and exercising. I workout 5-6 times a week, but I don't push myself. I need to push myself to the next level. I miss my personal trainer so much. He transformed my body. He knew what I needed and he pushed me to get there. The eating isn't that much of a problem. I don't pig-out. But, I am trying a lot more stuff since we've been living here & when we travel, which is every few months, I eat whatever I feel like. So, this time next year, that dress will look as good as it did on me three years ago! You'll see. Side note to Scott.... stop bringing home chips & nuts! My metabolism is nowhere near as fast as yours.

We've been celebrating our anniversary all week, pretty much. Why not? We certainly waited long enough to get married, so we might as well make-up for lost time. Some days it's hard for me to believe I got married at all. What a different life I led only four years ago. If I was given a choice, I would choose my life now. Scott is the best guy I could have ever asked for. We are enjoying all our adventures together.....and we have had many the last few years. I wouldn't change things at all. We just want to get back to southern California. We still have not heard where we go next. We hope to know within the next few weeks to months.

Tuesday night we went see Edwin McCain perform live on base. He was awesome. We really enjoyed every song he performed and he was funny, too. It was an intimate gathering which was nice. It was not advertised very well at all on base, so not too many people showed-up. I'd say there was less than 100-people there. It's odd because some things are overly advertised and others aren't. I don't know who's in charge, but they need to get their act together! As is typical, there were dozens of empty seats all over the place, but a group of teenagers decided to sit right behind us for a while. Their cell phones were ringing all the time and they were talking and laughing so much. I gave them a few dirty looks, but they could care less. Eventually they left. I hate when people talk so loudly during performances or movies. It's so rude & selfish!

Last night we went to a Thai restaurant, Monsoon. It also serves all other types of Asian food. The ambiance was great as was the food. Sitting next to us was an Asian couple and their about 2-year-old daughter. The girl never shut-up. She was going on and on and on and on! I think what bugged me the most was that I understood nothing of what she was saying and it sounded like babbling. It was like an annoying background noise that you could never stop. Her parents never even acknowledged her. So much for our romantic anniversary dinner! Fortunately the food was great and my fresh mango juice was very refreshing!

Both Scott & I are busy with work. We're just going week by week. Counting down, down, down! My kids were actually pretty good this week. They received their penpal letters from LA and were beyond excited about it. I threatened to stop the letters if they didn't improve their behavior. It seems to have worked, at least for this week. My kids were amazed at how much their penpals looked like them. I think they're realizing how similar we all are. The names were tricky for them, as I'm sure my students' names were for the LA kids. I really think this will be a great experience for them. So many have already told me that their penpal is their "best friend." The parents are just as excited as the kids. A few kids told me their mothers jumped up and down when they heard the letters had arrived. I can just see the drama now! The women here are highly dramatic people. Everything here is overly exaggerated.

Benny's doing great. There are 3 boys that live two villas away from ours. For some reason, their bus drops them off in front of our villa everyday after school. Benny rarely barks, but he always barks at these boys. The privacy screen on our front gate is customized so that Benny could have the bottom two feet open so that he can see what is going on outside of our place. I often see these boys walk up to the gate & kick the gate to make Benny mad & Benny barks like a mad man. His tail is wagging like crazy, but he's a mad man. I usually miss being able to catch them in the act and yell at them. Well, this week was different. I came home a little later than usual from work. Just as I let Benny out and turned to go in the house, they struck. I grabbed my keys and ran after them. I caught up with them just in front of their villa. I yelled, "Hey! Please stop kicking my gate and upsetting my dog!" The two younger boys, probably aged 12 and 10 immediately denied doing anything. I recognized the 12-year-old's shoes as the ones who had just kicked the gate. I told them to stop lying. I knew they did it and that I've seen them do it before. This local guy across the street was watching me yell at them. The oldest (around 16-years-old) stepped forward and apologized. He said they wouldn't do it again. I thanked them and went back home. Let's see how long this lasts.

Cooler Days...............Sort of!

We're finally in the 80's & 90's instead of the triple digit heat everyday. It's such a weird feeling. I'm so used to being so uncomfortable when I'm outside. Now, I rarely complain. My negativity is gone for the most part. I don't know what to complain about now. I'm sure I'll find something. Oh wait! I remember something......the 32 pains in my side I deal with 5-days a week at work. They will definitely keep me complaining for a while. It's still hot, don't get me wrong. It's just not miserable all day long anymore.

Since it's "cooled off" Scott, Benny, & I find ourselves doing a lot more stuff outdoors. We took Benny on base for the Oktoberfest event. He ate half my bratwurst and enjoyed all the attention he received. It's been a while since we've hung out on base and since he's been the center of attention. Needless to say, he enjoyed every minute of it. Scott started running with Benny again. All Scott has to do is approach the little bench by the front door and Benny knows it's running time. He gets so excited, he runs around the living room grabbing and spitting toys out of his mouth.

Today we took Benny to the beach to run around. He was a maniac, as usual. People around here always stare at him. I'd like to think that they are thinking to themselves, "Oh look at that really good looking dog." But, I think they're actually saying, "I've never seen such a fat dog here in Bahrain." Compared to the stray dogs around here, he is a beast! Plus he always has this wild look of excitement on his face. Anyhow, it was nice to spend time outside. It was a really nice afternoon.

Scott and I ventured out to the souq. The souq is an indoor/outdoor shopping area. You can pretty much find anything there. As you're walking around, you're constantly harassed by different store workers. That stuff bugs me, but I know that's how things are done here. We dealt with it in Italy & Greece & I've dealt with it in Egypt plenty of times. Still, it bugs me. I just like to shop at my pace and leisure without anyone attached to my back. I made a very nice purchase for Scott. Our wedding anniversary is the 20th of October. I know he'll like it, because he had pointed it out to me. I can't wait to see what he gets me. I'm constantly pointing things out to him, so he should have no trouble at all. I can't believe we'll be celebrating our 3rd anniversary this week. Boy have we done a lot in 3-years!

After the souq we went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant. It's a middle eastern grill. It's definitely a dive, which is probably why it's so good. We are never disappointed there. It's packed with locals and Americans. We've always been lucky to get a table, but then again we do everything earlier than most over here. We're asleep just as the rest of the population is starting their evening. My students tell me daily that they went to sleep at 1 or 2am. I just don't get it! It's funny because most days I'll get the same excuse from different students as to why they didn't do their homework. They'll tell me they needed help but their mom couldn't help them because she was asleep. That's nice. She stays up till all hours of the early morning and then sleeps all afternoon. Must be nice! Good thing all these women have one or more maids and nannies to help out!

Year One.....Done!

We've officially passed the one year mark here in Bahrain. It was a momentous occasion for us. We celebrated by eating at Coco's, the first restaurant we ate at on our second day here. What's funny is that our landlord owns the restaurant. We love this place! Lucky for us, we get to eat there for free now. Just one of the perks we get from our landlord. I guess it makes up for all the days we are without water and/or electricity.

We have not yet heard where we are going next. Scott says we can hear anytime starting now through January. So, I'm just planning to hear closer to January, otherwise I'd go crazy. I remember waiting to hear where we were going while living in Memphis. It was supposed to be Washington D.C. Then, a new detailer came in and changed everything on us. Scott was given the option of Iraq or Afghanistan for a year. Luckily, this position in Bahrain came up. Scott was originally coming here alone for a year, then they allowed me to come with Scott and changed it to a two year assignment. Was it the right decision? We think so. We've been together rather than apart and we've been able to get a lot of fun travels in. It was such a stressful time last time. I am doing my best to not think bad thoughts this time around. My fingers are crossed that we are going back to southern California. We shall see.

Scott is doing well. He worked until 8pm or later all week including Friday (which is a day off for us here). He gets Sunday (a work day here) off for Columbus Day. I have to work. I'm always so jealous when he gets the day off and I'm working. He deserves the time off though. This has been a demanding job.

Benny is his usual self. We're taking him to the local vet today. His skin has been dry and flaky for the last few weeks. We think it's from the chlorine in the pool. Hopefully she'll figure it out. He will be on cloud 9. He absolutely loves going to the vet. They can do anything to him and he wags his tail. I think he just loves that he's getting extra attention. I'm bracing myself for when she tells us he's too fat. She brought it up 4-months ago and I'm sure she'll bring it up again. Now that the weather is cooling down to the low 100's - high 90's, we'll start running and walking him more. We just couldn't do it before. As the months move on we'll be back to our routine of running and walking him several times a day.

I'm still busy trying to manage 32 wild kids alone at school. I am so exhausted at the end of each day. Some days I regret taking this job again this year. Last year was so fun. This year is mostly not so fun. We have many fun moments, but this group of kids are just wild. An exciting thing I started this year is a penpal program with my niece, Lily's, 3rd grade class in LA. My kids have already written letters to the LA students. They have received them and written back just this week. All my kids are super excited to have a friend in America. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the letters. My sister, Caroline, informed me that news of this penpal program has made the local paper. Exciting stuff!

My Big Fat Greek Vacation

One of the nice things about teaching in Bahrain, is that there are many week long Muslim holidays which translate into school closing for a week which translates into us traveling! Not a bad deal! We are slowly but surely hitting all our destinations. We recently returned from an 8-day trip to Greece. We spent 3-days in Athens and 5-days on the island of Crete. The most special part of the trip was seeing my family & introducing them all to Scott. We had a great adventure, as usual. The weather was perfect! We had highs in the low 80's and lows in the high 60's. It was like being back home in LA for a week. We hit all the main tourist spots in Athens. Although it was the middle of September, there were quite a few tourists, more than we expected to see. I would say 99% of them were German. We came across a few Americans. They are never hard to spot. They are usually loud, overweight, and wearing baseball caps. We ate like pigs the entire trip. Whatever we felt like trying, we tried. We loved every minute of that trip and feel very fortunate to be able to travel now. Our next joint trip will hopefully be to Cairo. Scotty needs to meet that side of the family as well. I hope to travel alone to Lebanon & Dubai to visit more relatives. Scott is restricted from traveling to those locations, unfortunately.

I'm starting my second month of teaching 3rd grade again this year. I have to say that I am not thrilled so far. I have 32 students and no help whatsoever. There are 19 boys and 13 girls. I think the best way to describe them is as a bunch of wild animals. I have never seen kids like this before. They are wild. I even threatened to quit. They shaped up when I made the threat. I may go through with it though. I also have a group of mothers who are driving me absolutely crazy! They hover around before and after school and just drive me nuts. I guess this is what I get since last year was a breeze. Who knew?!

We're dealing with the day to day realities of living in a borderline 3rd world country. Two weeks ago our air conditioner broke and we were miserable until it was repaired. Last week we had no water for about 10-days! That was horrible. The electricity stops when it feels like it and now our satellite dish is not working properly. Even with all these issues, we are enjoying our time here. There is one exception.....the heat. I don't want to complain too much because it has actually cooled off a bit, but we're still in the triple digits and will be for at least another month to month & a half. I've been knitting 2 scarves and hope to have them done by December/January when it cools down enough.

Locally, there are elections taking place later this month. For the first time ever they are encouraging women to run for office. We have seen candidate signs go up all over town. We can't read the signs since they are in Arabic, but you can imagine it's the usual stuff. There is also a big picture of the candidate. I wonder how the women will be recognized on these posters. How do you know who is who when all you can see are their eyes? It's easy with the men. There they are in all their glory. The women, it's another story. I often ask myself this question everyday at school. How do these kids recognize their mothers when they come to pick them up? For many of them all they see are the eyes. The black hijabs all look the same. Yet, these kids go running to the right mother each day. It amazes me!

Scott is doing well. He is working a lot and is very busy. He is riding his bike to and from work everyday now, since the weather has cooled off. We laugh because we think 110 is cool now. He's also keeping busy around this house as usual. There's always a project to keep him busy. Of course, he always has Benny boy right next to him trying to help, but usually getting in the way. Benny's up to his usual antics. He's as energetic & dramatic as ever. Nothing slows this guy down. When we picked him up from boarding after we returned from Greece, we figured he'd sleep all day since he had a week of non-stop playing & attention. No such luck! He was ready to play from the moment he stepped in the door.

This week we will celebrate our one-year anniversary of living in Bahrain. I'm amazed at how quickly the time has flown, while at the same time I feel like we've been here forever. We are grateful for every day we've had together & hope year 2 will be just as memorable. With that said, we are ready to get back home! The other day I realized that I haven't heard a lawn mower in a year. That horrible noise used to be part of my normal everyday. I used to hate the sound of lawnmowers. Now it's gone. It's these little things which remind us that we're not in Kansas anymore.