Pictures as Promised

Here are some of the pictures from Christmas.  

One of our advent calendar activities was to build a stable and sleep in it.  Big E thought that was a great idea.

 Miss A enjoying our warm fire while waiting for Big E to wake up.

Isn't she cute?

She loved Nana's gift of a pillow pet.

 Big E enjoyed his oh so nutritious breakfast of gummy bears and orange juice.

 The turkey was so big there was nothing to put it on to serve it.  Our only platter was pathetically small.

Did She Really Say...?

Yesterday we went back to City Center Mall to exchange the dress shirts I got for Steve.  They were too short for him.  Not surprising really. We went in the morning to beat the traffic, plus the kids are happier in the morning. When we found the store (yes that could be an issue. The mall is large and has about 4 floors and many stores.  I did know what the store was called, but the maps are not helpful at all.  There's a "You are here" mark at every place there's map not really where you are, so you don't actually know where you are.) Anyway, we found the store and they only had one shirt in a larger size.  There weren't any other shirts, even in a different color in a larger size.

Steve asked for a refund.  And then the Cashier said, "We don't give refunds in the morning, just in the evening."  Really?? What kind of store policy is that? The sign behind her said, "Original invoice required for refund or exchange", but nothing about having to come at a certain time of day.  The receipt also said nothing about refunds issued only in the evening. They apparently can't refund money on your card.  A debit card can only take money out of your account, not refund it. So they don't keep enough cash in the store to do refunds.  But we couldn't come back later.  Even though distance wise, it wasn't too far, it would take too long in the evening to get there, then find a parking space (which would be awful in the evening and close to impossible) just to return a shirt.  After a bit of a discussion, we did get a refund.

What a difference place we live in.  Sometimes it's hard not to think that the way things are done in America is better.  A lot of times it's just different.  There are things that are done better in America or other parts of the world, such has how traffic and accidents are handled.  But many times  it's just different, albeit frustrating. 

Merry Christmas

We had a nice Christmas this year.  It was low key and the kids were happy.  This was our first Christmas alone and I'd say it went well.  But it didn't really feel like Christmas to me.  Steve says that it felt like it to him.  But for some reason it doesn't to me.  Maybe because it was in the 80s yesterday and today and kids were riding their new bikes that they got for Christmas outside on Christmas day.  Or the fact that Big E put on shorts and a t-shirt to go out and play.  Or maybe because I'm away from home.  I don't know but it wasn't the same.  And maybe that was a good thing.  I got home sick, but I didn't cry like I did on Thanksgiving.  I felt like it, but it wasn't so overwhelming that I couldn't deal with it.

After our 2 kg chicken for Thanksgiving, I decided to order a turkey for Christmas, even though it was expensive.  We couldn't have ham, like we're both used to, so turkey it was.  I ordered a 5-6 kg turkey after Thanksgiving. It was to be delivered sometime between Dec 22-24.  Since I couldn't guarantee that it would be here before Christmas Eve, I decided we'd have Christmas dinner.  On the 23rd, in the evening, I got a phone call from LuLu Express informing me that the turkeys were in.  I thought the man said that the turkey was 4 kg, which would have been perfect for our little family.  But all the workers have thick accents and sometimes it's hard to understand on the phone.  When I went to pick up the turkey a manger came to talk to me and said, "There's been a mistake.  We opened boxes and all turkeys 8kg. Do you still want turkey?"

Now for those of you who don't remember how to convert lb. into kg it's 2.2lbs per 1 kg. So that 8 kg turkey weighs 17.6 lbs! I felt a big obligated to buy it since I ordered a turkey. But that was twice the price I was expecting to pay and it was a lot. I'm not going to tell you how much I spent on a turkey, but let's just say that it was more than I've ever in my life spent on one turkey. That turkey was probably heavier than Miss A.  :)

Christmas Eve we were invited to go to a home of a couple that have been coming to church.  They are from Lebanon. We got there around 5:20 and were informed that another couple was coming but he gets off work at 5 and had to go pick up his wife. They didn't come until 7:20ish.  Then we had dinner. We had to excuse ourselves early because we wanted to do our Christmas tradition of reading the Christmas story in the Bible with egg nog (which I made since there isn't any here) before it got too late.  But by the time we got home it was after 9pm and we were full.  So we had a little bit of egg nog, quickly read Luke 2:1-18 and Matthew 2:1-12 with a very fussy Miss A and put the kids to bed.  Not quite what I had in mind.  I should not have accepted the invitation to go out that night.  I should have seen if there was another day.  Lesson learned. That probably contributed to my feeling like it wasn't Christmas.

We were able to skype with my parents and two of my sisters, who were all together.  Mom and Dad got to watch Big E and Miss A open the gifts they sent them.  They sent pillow pets and the kids love them.  Miss A saw Big E's and wanted it. So when she opened hers she hugged it and then laid on top of it, and when she saw it after her nap, she did the same thing.  Steve set up the TV in the living room next to the tree and then downloaded a video of a burning fire. So instead of stoking the fire every so often, he had to hit play.  :)  He also turned the AC colder so that it would feel chilly inside, a bit more like Christmas....sort of.

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Well, Steve and I did. Big E got himself a Christmas gift of gummy bears, which he wrapped and waited until Christmas day to open.  It wasn't a big bag, but that's all he ate for breakfast.  Not even cinnamon rolls tempted him.  Miss A was awake before Big E, so she had breakfast before and so wasn't tempted either.  Big E enjoyed eating whatever he wanted whenever he wanted and he had candy the whole day.

Even though it was different, it was nice.  But of course this year was the year that snow was expected on Christmas day back home.  Figures.  The last time they had a white Christmas, we had gone to Utah.  The whitest we got was some fog in the morning.  But I'll take what I can get.  :)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas Day.  We miss everyone back home and I know that I at least think of you all often.

p.s. I haven't uploaded picture from yesterday yet, but I want to get this posted tonight.  So I'll post pictures soon.  

We Need Blue Eyed People

An interesting thing happened on Thursday while we were at City Center Mall.  Well, two things really.  We went to do some Christmas shopping.  In the mall there is a small amusement park type area for kids to play on, for a price of course.  Big E really wanted to ride on the merry-go-round with the animals on it.  We don't usually let him ride things like that because they are usually over priced and back home I almost never had cash.  Here you have to buy a card and put money on it and pay that way.  So much more of a hassel, or so much more convenient since you dont' need cash.  But it's Christmas, so we let Big E ride. As he was getting on our neighbors came up.  They were going to go shopping as well. They had a buy one get one free ticket for the play area and invited Big E to play with them.  Steve stayed with big E, which was very convenient since I had to get him something for Christmas.

I took Miss A with me and walked around to find something Steve would like.  As I was walking, a man came up to me and said, "Come. I want take your picture" (He had a thick accent so it was a bit hard to understand).  At first I was quite leery about this.  Here is this strange man asking for my picture.  I don't normally let people take pictures of us.  Not that anyone has really asked like that before.

"Come. I show you. Come.  See." He said. "It's for magazine in Qatar Airways or Emirates."

So I decided to go and at least look. We walked to a restaurant ahead called Richoux which says that it's based in London. After a bit more questioning and repeating what they said to make sure I understood I figured out that they were making an advertisement for an in-fight magazine which is on Qatar Airways and Emirates flights.

"We need blue eyed people," a Qatari woman said. There was another lady there who had just finished and she confirmed what they were doing. So I agreed. They sat me down at a table that was already set with a meal.  Amelia was in a high chair next to me and they took the pictures, some with the waiter pouring the sauce and some with just us sitting there.

When the photographer was finished the Qatari woman said, "Eat. Go ahead."  "Really?" "Yes, eat." So I did. I had salmon and seasoned rice with steamed veggies. It was probably the best salmon that I've ever had.  But that doesn't say much since I don't eat it a lot, but it really was good.

The odd thing was that I didn't have to sign any papers or anything.  I gave them no personal information.  The man gave me his card and said to call in a week, maybe two (read probably three), to see if they are going to use the pictures.

I've never been singled out because of my eye color or hair.  So it was quite interesting.  At least it wasn't an awful experience, as it very well could have been. I've seen the migrant workers here watch as I drive past while they're in the bus, or as their bus passes me on the road, but that's it.

The other interesting thing happened while Big E, Miss A, and I were waited for Steve to pick us up in the front of the mall.  We were standing by a water fall and a restaurant called Hippopotamus. (strange name) and what should I hear over the speakers but "The Little Drummer Boy"! Next came "Joy to the World"!  There weren't any lyrics, but I knew what songs they were.  Big E even recognized the first one.  It's his favorite one this year. It almost felt like Christmas being in a mall and hearing Christmas music over the speakers.  

Rainy Days

Today has been wonderful.  It has been gloomy and raining off and on all day.  In fact, it's almost 8 pm and it's still raining.  It's music to my ears to hear rain falling into puddles outside my window.  It's also a chilly 59 outside.  That's the coldest it's been since we've been here.  It's beginning to feel a bit more like late fall. 

Christmas Party Doha Style

Our ward at church had a Christmas party yesterday.  But it was unlike any Christmas party I've even been to.  We went to the Singing Sand Dunes and had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and sang Christmas carols.  

Qatar is not a sandy place really.  There's sand at the beaches, but most of the land is hard rock with some dirt/sand on top.  When there's construction (most of the city has one part or another under construction, especially here in Education City) they have to dig through rock to make a place for the foundation.  

The Sand Dunes are just piles of sand spread out among the rocky land.  Like so:

 One sand dune is curved  and that is were we met to have our Christmas party.  The ground around the dunes is very rocky.  Miss A did not get down to crawl. (And there was a spot or two of broken glass and a lot of trash near the dune - sadly.) And the drive from the paved road to this spot was quite the bumpy ride.  But thankfully there weren't any spots of sand to drive through.  

This dune is very tall and the sand is soft.  This is a view from the top to give some perspective to how tall it is.  The large-ish dot just left of center in the picture is the wood pile for the bon fire.  There are people at the bottom of the dune on the left side of the curve.

It's called the Singing Sand Dunes because when you slide down (really you're just pushing yourself down, even though it's a steep slope you don't just slide) and get the sand moving, the dune hums and vibrates.  It's a deep hum and if you're standing at the top and someone or a bunch of people get the dune to hum, you can feel it vibrate.  The dune doesn't move,  so you can't see it vibrate, but you can feel it, even as you're going down making it vibrate. 

The treck up to the top is a bit of a workout, but we did go up the steepest side ;).  If you went up the side, it wasn't so bad.  Big E had a blast going up and down the dune.  Here we're about a third of the way up. 

He loved playing in the soft sand.  He also liked eating the chips and the hot dogs and the marshmallows.  He came home with pockets filled with sand.   We did take our shoes off when we were in the sand, so thankfully we didn't come home with shoes filled with sand.  Steve and I also had pockets filled with sand.  I think I swept up about a quarter cup of sand from each of our pants and Big E's shirt.

Once the sun started to go down, it felt quite chilly, and I was glad that I put tennis shoes on the kids and myself and that I brought jackets.  The bon fire was also quite nice.  The sad thing is that when we left around 7 pm it was 65 outside.  It felt colder than that.  It makes me want to ask, "What has happened to me??"  I mean, 65 did feel cool back home, but not cool enough to huddle around a bon fire and be glad that you have a sweatshirt on.  But I wasn't the only one who thought it was chilly. I wasn't the only one with a sweatshirt on and even Steve put one on. 

The only Christmasy thing about this whole party was that we sang carols.  But even singing a few carols with other people didn't make it feel more like Christmas. Playing in the sand and roasting hot dogs over a bon fire just doesn't say Christmas to me.  But we did have a lot of fun and will be going to the dunes again. 

First Steps

It's getting late (okay and by late I mean it's 9:08 pm), but I just wanted to say that Amelia took her first steps today!!  Soon I'll really have a lot to pick up around the house.  :) 

At the Races

Qatar Foundation (QF) and Texas A&M University arranged for some people who work for QF to go to the horse races.  There were only a small number of tickets available (they were free), and some how we were able to get some.  They also provided buses for those who wanted to take the bus.  Steve decided that would be best for us.  But of course something would happen.  We got on the bus at the designated place and waited.  Nothing ever happens on time here, except church, but we're expats.  We saw a family that we know.  I watch their daughter after school during the week and she and Elliott are good friends. The bus we were on was full and so they got on another bus. Steve suggested that we get off the bus and join them so that Elliott would enjoy the ride with some one to talk to.  But we didn't.  And we should have because as it goes, no Doha adventure is complete without something going wrong. Yesterday was no different.  Our bus driver didn't know where we were going.

The event was held at the Equestrian Club.  I knew where this was as I've driven past it a number of times on my way to other places.  It's a huge compound like area with a number of large beautiful buildings and a race track.  There are large letters on the building closest to the street that say "Equestrian Federation." I knew this was were we were supposed to go.  But the driver took us to Al Shaqab, which is on Education City campus.  (Steve went there to tour it a few weeks ago for work.  He wrote about it here.)  It is a horse raising facility.  Al Shaqab, though it does have a race track, is not the Equestrian Club, and it was obvious that there was not an event there.  There were no cars in the parking lot, nothing was being set up in the area.  There were no people.  And besides, why would there be a special bus service for something that is on Education City campus?  Oddly enough, the guards who let us in didn't seem to know the difference either.

We tried to tell the driver where we were supposed to go, but he didn't seem to think that we knew what we were talking about.  Steve even brought it up on a map on his phone, but that didn't convince the guy either.  so he drove us around the complex again and the guard tried to tell us again where to go in the complex, which wasn't right either.  Finally the driver parked the bus near the administration office and asked someone, but by that time someone on the bus had called another person on the second bus to ask her where the event was supposed to be.  They were already there even though we left before them.  She went and told the driver where we were supposed to, which was were Steve's map showed it to be.  When we got there, the driver of course didn't know where to go, so he just stopped the bus at the nearest building.  And...wait for it... it wasn't the right place in the complex.  The event was actually at the opposite end of the rather large complex.  A number of us got out and walked around to find out where we were  supposed to go. And after finding out, we started to walk, but a two people drove up and offered us a ride.  Actually it was a Qatari man (who helped organize the event) and a women and her 7 year old son.  Her husband was in a car behind them to help pick up people.  This Qatari had a nice car.  I think yesterday was the first time I've even ridden in a BMW.  I was surprised that he was the one to pick us up.  Not because Qataris aren't kind, but because he was in the car with another woman that wasn't his wife (I don't know if he's married or not).  I know it depends on the guy as to whether he'll be in a car with a woman that's not his wife.  I was just surprised.

To look on the bright side, we arrived just as the ponies were being brought in for the kids to ride. Elliott loved riding the ponies.  The event was from 3:30 until 7.  We, of course, didnt' get there until about 4.  But all throughout the time we were there, Elliott kept asking to ride the ponies.  So Steve and I took turns going to take him to ride a pony.  And when the ride was done, he didn't want to get off.  "But I'm not done riding," he'd say.  Amelia wanted nothing to do with sitting on a pony, but we took a picture with her and me and a pony.





Here is Elliott watching the horses race.


Each ticket had detachable stubs for popcorn, cotton candy, and ice cream.  The ticket itself also got us a boxed dinner.  And all of this was free for us.  Elliott got his first taste of cotton candy and of course loved it. Steve even let him have two cups of ice cream as Amelia didn't need any. That boy was so happy.  He even asked for popcorn before we left, which of course he didnt' eat because he never eats popcorn.  But Amelia enjoyed feeding me the popcorn as we waited for the bus.


Amelia was content to watch and walk along the railing in front of our front row seats.  On the way home on the bus, she sat on my lap and lead up against me and clapped her hands the whole way.


There were boxes to place bets in, but no money was exchanged.  The race was funded by an Al Thani, someone from the ruling family. The last race was the big race.  The winner got QR 500,000.  (QR stands for Qatari Riyals) That's $137,340!  I'm glad we got to go.  It was my first horse race, and it was neat to see how fast the horses ran.  When they were at the opposite side of the track, it looked as if they were gliding on wheels, rather than running.

So here's to another Doha adventure.

Car remotes

We bought a mini van last month.  It's a Chevy Uplander.  I never thought we'd have a van here since they're almost unseen.  I wasn't hoping for a van, but it does have its advantages with getting kids in the car in a tight parking space.  When we bought the van, the remote was broken.  So we asked a guy at church, whose job is taking care of people cars, if he would take the van to the dealership to get another one.  (He was with us when we made the purchase and looked over the car). He used to be an official car inspector, so he knows what he's talking about.  When he took the car in, the dealership not only got a new remote, but they also made a new key.  Now, before you think that they were just being kind, you'll have to hear about the old key now.  It no longer starts the car.  It'll turn on the the radio and lights and such, but won't turn the car on.  It will unlock the car though.  So without us asking for another key, they did it anyway.  They did what they could to get more money out of us.  Had we been in the US I would have refused to pay and made them put it back.  There was nothing wrong with the old key.  But here I feel that we just have to pay it.  And this happened with someone who knows about cars and the dealership I'm sure knows it!  I can't imagine how much we'd be ripped off if we did it ourselves.  Grrrr.  

Thanksgiving Doha style

I'm happy to say that our little Thanksgiving meal was successful. Nothing burned, or didn't turn out right. And it tasted wonder.  The kids, well, they ate the rolls.  Elliott doesn't seem to like pie yet, so I bought some blueberries, which were on sale for about $2-$3 a pint.  He loves them and was so anxious to eat them he could hardly stand to eat dinner.

We had the normal fare, except sweet potatoes...and turkey.  Steve says he's not a big fan of sweet potatoes, so I would be the only one eating them. But I'm making some for Christmas.  When I went shopping for things for dinner, the only whole chicken the store had were very small ones, like 1 kg little birds.  It was like the Cratchit's Christmas bird when Scrooge sees their dinner.  And oh how they were grateful for that bird.  We were grateful for ours, too.  But it wasn't quite like a turkey.


Elliott entertained himself while waiting for the food to cook by playing outside and admiring the rolls rising on the stove.

Amelia entertained herself by playing on the little riding truck we have.


Even though I was homesick after the kids went to bed and Elliott and Amelia don't really care about Thanksgiving, I'm glad we had a dinner at home.  We still need to have our traditions that we did at home.

The Holidays

I began this post on Tuesday.  I'm going to keep it as it is and add in what's happening now in ( ).

The holidays are now here and yet I hardly feel that it's time for them.  The weather is still warm, though pleasant.  Right now at 1:32pm it's 81.  Two stores I've been to have Christmas trees and decorations for sale (Christmas before Thanksgiving even here).  One even had a dancing santa that sang Christmas songs, though not any relating to our Savior, but that's not surprising considering where we are and the commercialization of Christmas. But even with that, it doesn't feel like Christmas is coming, or that Thanksgiving is two days from now.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday with our ward at church.  It was very nice and fun to share our tradition with people from the UK or New Zealand or Africa, but it wasn't the same.  And I know it won't be, I'm just sayin'.  I did find that I had to get only the traditional Thanksgiving meal items.  I heard someone say at the dinner that it was kind of an "east meets west" kind of meal as we had all the traditional foods for Thanksgiving as well as some curries.  Normally I'd love to try new things, but I had to stick with tradition this time.  There were also many different kinds of deserts, and I always like trying new sweets, but I had to stick with the pumpkin pie and sour cream raisin pie that I brought. It's tradition.  One tradition I miss is the left overs.  As the dinner was potluck, we didn't have leftovers.  So no pie for breakfast the next morning, which was a tradition in my family, no turkey sandwiches on rolls for lunch.  Steve and I decided to just have that be our Thanksgiving dinner.  LuLu Express had order forms for turkeys for Thanksgiving a month or so ago but they were expensive.  And then Steve and Amelia ended up not going because Amelia had a fever and Steve wasn't feeling well.  I'm starting to wish we had planned to do one on our own.  But I don't know how I would have baked all day and watched kids as well, especially since as of today Amelia still isn't feeling well and needs more attention.

(Amelia still isn't 100% better, but she's close.  After writing the above and thinking about missing home for the holidays, I decided to make our own Thanksgiving dinner.  It is a bit odd in that today is Thanksgiving, but Steve still went to work.  We're going to have dinner at the actual dinner time, rather than a late lunch/early dinner like we usually do, that way Steve, who does get off early today [normal for a Thursday] can help.  I'm excited to have our own Thanksgiving, but to be honest, I'm also quite sad about it.  I can't help but think of how it would be with my family if we still lived in Carthage.  We'd be at my parent's house already and helped on Wednesday make the pies. My sister and her family would probably come up, or we'd all go to her house and enjoy the day together.  If I don't think about it, I feel fine, but it's when I think about how it could be or how it was that I start to get really homesick. I'm trying to look at this time as a time to start our own family traditions for the holidays.  So far Steve and I have been with family for Thanksgiving and Christmas our whole married life. So how about some hummus and veggies while you wait for dinner rather than ranch dressing and veggies? Oh and this time around we don't have a turkey.  There were some turkeys at LuLu when I went on Tuesday night but they were and I wasn't sure that they'd thaw out in time to cook today. They cost QR 154 which is about $42. I think we'll splurge and order a turkey for Christmas since we can't have ham. They have order forms for you to order what size turkey you want.  They order them from the UK, supposedly fresh. We'll see next month.)

Christmas could be months away and I'd still feel the same.  It's hard to feel the excitement and it makes me sad.  I love Christmas.  I have only missed 3 Christmases with my family.  The first was when i was a missionary, the next two Steve and I were with his family, (which is still being with family and so probably shouldn't count.  I think Christmas here will be harder than Thanksgiving, just because it's a bigger holiday for me and we're not in a Christian country.  The store managers, and for that matter the government officials who allow things to be brought in the country, are kind to have Christmas things like trees and lights and decorations in stores. It's kind of the Qataris to put up with it. I think I'm going to have to put in extra effort to decorate the house and have Christmas music playing all the time.  I don't want my kids to miss out on the feeling of Christmas just because we're in a Muslim country.  I don't want to miss out on it. *I just put on Christmas music even though it's still Thanksgiving :).

I am a bit worried that with the efforts of getting into the Christmas spirit, it'll only make me more homesick. When we go about our daily life, I don't get too homesick anymore.  Or I should say that I can ward it off better now. I still get homesick. But I'm afraid with the holidays it'll be harder to ward off the homesickness. I probably won't be listening to "I'll Be Home for Christmas" this year.)

A Day in the Life

This is mostly for me to remember what a normal day is like for us in the first few months here. But some of you might like to know what we do here. 

We've been here for almost 3 months, and we've settled into a nice routine.  The alarm goes off at 5 am (not a big fan of this part, but school starts earlier here and there's traffic to deal with).  Steve gets up and gets ready, while I stay in bed dreading having to get up so early.  Amelia doesn't nurse any more so she tends to sleep a bit later than the first two and a half months we were here.  She would get up by 5:30, most days it was earlier.  Now she's up by 6. Elliott sleeps until 6 or 6:30.  Most days he's up before Steve has to leave at 6:20.

I watch 4 girls, from two families, in the mornings before school.  So they arrive around 6:15.  I feel bad for the kids here.  School starts so early and they have to be out of the house so early.  Anyway, Steve catches a ride with one of the families. After the girls' ride picks them up at 7:00 to take them to school, Elliott, Amelia, and I head up stairs to get ready for the day.  By the time Amelia and Elliott are dressed, teeth brushed, and I've put on make up, it's at least 7:30.  I usually have Elliott dress himself, but he needs constant reminders of what he's supposed to be doing.  I'll tell him to pick out his clothes and then I go get Amelia dressed, and I've found Elliott in various states of dress playing in the curtains, or the blankets or the closet.  I found that he does best when I give him one task at a time.  I can't just say, go get dressed, because he'll get distracted along the way.  So it's, take off your pjs, put on your shorts, etc.  

The morning has already worn Amelia out and she's down for a nap by 8, which actually works out well.  After she goes to sleep, Elliott and I have a reading lesson.  He's doing really well with them.  He can sound out/read "the fast way" almost all the words in the lessons without my help.  Again, keeping his attention focused has been a challenge at times, but most days I can help him focus on the task at hand.  

After Amelia wakes up we either run errands, or rather an errand since it's almost impossible to do more than one thing and be back before the kids get hungry for lunch, or read stories and play. Lunch prep is started around 11. Quiet time at 1 follows lunch and Elliott and Amelia take naps at the same time, which is wonderful and I'll enjoy it while it lasts.  I watch 5 girls after school.  The first arrives at 1:50 and the other 4 arrive at 2:30, except on Tuesdays when they all come by 12:50.  They all play well together and I only occasionally have to intervene.  Steve gets home around 3:35 and the girls' parents start coming at the same time.  

I've started going to a spinning class with two of the women in my compound.  It's quite a workout, but it's good to get some exercise in.  The weather is starting to get cool enough that I can run outside after Steve gets off work, though we usually take turns on who gets to work out.  

After dinner the kids play and then Amelia goes to bed at 7 and Elliott goes down at 8.  With the play ground next door and so many kids to play with, he doesn't usually have trouble staying in bed, which is nice.  Steve and I relax with various things after the kids go to bed.  I was able to watch "Downton Abbey" Season 3 with our VPN, and we've enjoyed watching shows on Netflix or reading and we're in bed by 9:30.

So there you have it, a normal day in the Stay house in Qatar.

Siblings

I have always knows that Amelia won't put up with things she doesn't like.  She screamed for quite a while in the nursery right after she was born.  For the whole hour of recovery the Drs. or Nurses would come in and tell me she was just screaming. She's very vocal about what she doesn't like, or with what she wants but can't get herself, i.e. food.  But she seems to have gone farther than that now.  The past few days I've caught her hitting Elliott if he takes something from her.  And just this morning, she pulled his hair!  Where on earth did she learn to do that???  Elliott has always been good with her and only once or twice (more recently) pushed her.  So she didn't learn it from him.  To be quite honest, it's rather comical to watch this little one year old scream and hit a three year old and have the three year old just sit there and cry.  I have a feeling I'll be hearing, "Mom!  Amelia hit me!" a bit more often now.  :)

I've also in the past few days had to take toys away from the two of them because they were fighting over it.  I'm not sure what has changed, but something has, and I'm sure we'll have many more fights to break up in the future.  

UN Climate Control Conference

So Doha will be hosting the UN Climate Control Conference which is to begin around the 26nd of November and end December 7th. But delegates will start coming on Sunday the 18th for a convention prior to the conference.  The conference will be held here in Education City, just down the street from where Steve works.  In order to accomodate this huge influx of people school will start at 6:45am, which means that Steve will have to be even earlier to work.  Traffic, which is already a huge problem here, is going to be a nightmare.  We've been told, or rather the employees of education city have been told, to find the back ways to get out of Education City and to avoid the main road (which runs past the school) all together, which is expected to be in a dead lock all day every day of the conference.  Buses will run from a near by stadium right by our road to get to the conference 12 hours a day for the first two weeks.  Then for the last week or so they'll run for 24 hours.

I plan on getting anything I can't get at LuLu Express this week, stocking up if necessary, and then not planning any outings for the next three weeks.  Fortunately LuLu Express is so close that I won't have to worry about basic grocery shopping.

I do find it a bit ironic that one of the countries leading in waste and cardon footprints is hosting this conference.  Though it's illegal to wash your car with a hose, the guard will wash the side walks and the road in our compound.  AC in buildings is insanely cold. We spend most of our travel time waiting for our turn at traffic circles.  I'm sure environmentalists will have a hay-day here.  It'll be interesting to see how things go. 

The City

I thought I'd post some pictures of what some of the town looks like.  This is not what everything looks like, of course.  There are areas that are a bit more run down looking.  But the odd thing is that you can have a compound that looks a little beaten down and right next to it is a huge villa.  When we first came and were learning the back way to our compound there was a hut made of cinder blocks that someone was obviously living in as there were clothes hanging on a line by the door.  It was across the street from a beautiful villa that we've been told belongs to the man who owns our compound.  So there is a huge gap between the workers and the employers.  But that's a topic for another post.  

Doha is a city under construction.  Everywhere you  go you can see construction.  Downtown has a number of buildings under construction.  What's amazing about this, and also probably explains it a little, is that  my parents' generation (maybe a bit older) of Qatari's were still living in tents and traveling by camel.  So in not too many years they have built a metropolis and are now the wealthiest people in the world. (It helps that Qatar is above one of the world's largest natural gas reserves.) 

Some of the downtown buildings look like they came from a sci-fi movie, or maybe the Jetsons.  (I didn't take this picture, but I have seen these buildings.) 

Others are zigzags.  Yes you're seeing it right.  They really are zigzagged. 

 Here's a view of downtown from the "back".  So we're facing the bay and are more inland. Notice the orange and white construction barriers.  They are everywhere.

 Elliott calls this the "water rainbow".  It's the highlight of going home, or one of them at least. This round about is called "Arch Round About". We pass it on our way home from church every week.

 This is Elliott's other highlight when we are out driving.  This is a bit closer to home.  He calls it the "rainbow wall".  It's an underpass that we drive through that has tile murals on the walls.  He loves them and used to always ask if we were going to see them. He gets really excited when we drive by them.

 This is Sidra Hospital.  It is still under construction.  It is on the edge of Education City and served as a great landmark for us when we started driving.  If we could see this hospital, we could find our way home.  Sidra will be a learning hospital for the universities here that's supposed to have all the state of the art stuff.

So we really aren't in the middle of nowhere.  And it would be very easy to fall into step with many people here and have a house cleaner.  I've already had about 3 people knock on my door offering their cleaning services, 1 offering child care, and another offering ironing services.  Many expats have maids  and/or nanies, and many of the houses outside of education city have a maid's quarters.  At the gas stations (called petrol stations here) there are attendants who fill your car for you (I have to remember to have cash on hand at all times). In mall parking lot there are men in orange/red jumpsuits waiting to wash your car for a fee.  Since we don't have a maid, a housecleaner, or get our car washed in the parking lot (and don't plan to have/do any of these), our life style hasn't changed too much.

What Can't I find?

I've had people ask me what things I can't find here that I would usually buy at home.  When we first moved here the list would have included flaked coconut, vanilla extract (I knew about this one before coming), pinto beans, salsa, tortilla chips, maple syrup, cocoa, dijon mustard, and probably more things that I can't think of right now.

 But I have been able to find a lot of these things with time.  I learned that items aren't put in the most logical spot.  Cocoa for example though it is in the baking isle (which is more than you can say for flour) is put with the powdered milk and UHT milk (nasty stuff). The two combined take up most of the small isle in the LuLu Express (which is a small grocery store walking distance from our villa) and shoved up on the top shelf is the cocoa.  Short people like me can easily miss it.

I looked and looked for flaked coconut and couldn't find it anywhere in the three stores I went to. (I didn't go to these stores just for coconut, but while I was there I looked for it) I found a lot of other coconut products like powdered coconut milk in many different types packaging, dried chunks of coconut, fresh chunks, or even whole.  But no where was there flake coconut like I can get at home.  Then one day it was there at LuLu Hypermarket.  So even though it wasn't on my list, I bought a few bags.

Pinto beans is one thing they just plain don't have in any form.  It's also rare to find refried beans.  I used to make my own refried beans, but since I can't find any pinto beans I was willing to buy canned refried beans.  I only recently found some at LuLu Hypermarket and bought two, though I should have bought all that was on the shelf because they will most likely be gone the next time I go.

That is how it is here.  If you see an item at the store that you know you want and haven't seen regularly, you buy a lot of it or even all that's on the shelf because you may not see it again for a while. This is a really hard thing for me.  I'm so used to making a shopping list and sticking pretty strictly to that list.  At home I only occasionally bought something that wasn't on my list that wasn't required for that week's meals.  But it just doesn't work that way here.

Now, I've have found everything else on that list except dijon mustard and I'm not going to find it because it has white wine in it. Muslims follow a strict no alcohol code, which is fine with us, but that also means no vanilla extract because of the alcohol.  There is vanilla, but it's "sugared vanilla" in a powder.  It's not very good and I use less than half of what the recipe calls for.

Some of those items on the list I just wont pay for.  Salsa for example.  I found some in a 7.95 fl oz jar for around $8.  It wasn't even the best kind of salsa.  Tortillas are $3.26 for 6.  I tried making some on my own and they were pretty good.  But I did find something similar to tortillas near the bread, but it's not always there(surprised?).

For a non-food item - I haven't found a three ring binder.  There are binders, but they have 4 or 2 rings. We brought our three hole punch, but it looks like that just took up space in our boxes.

So for any of you who might still be worrying about us over in the Middle East.  We're doing just fine.  

General Conference

I know this was a month ago, but I wanted to remember how it went for our first general conference here.  For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, every 6 months (the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October) our church has a conference lasting two days and takes place in 5 sessions.  4 of those sessions are for all audiences, one on Saturday evening is for the men 12 and older.

We always watched all sessions live via streaming on the internet or at the church house via satellite. Even growing up we always watched conference at the church and we had a tradition with another family to go out to lunch at a restaurant on Saturday in between the morning and afternoon sessions and on Sunday we would have a picnic lunch.  General Conference was a signal of changing seasons, a time to reflect on spiritual matters.  Granted attending is a bit challenging with two little kids, but we haven't missed a session.  This was the first time I haven't been able to watch all sessions live.

We were able to watch the Saturday and Sunday morning sessions live (which begin at 10 am Utah time, which was 7 pm here) via the internet. But the afternoon sessions start at 2pm in Utah, which would be 11pm here.  Both nights are school nights (remember, the work week is Sunday through Thursday here). So we couldn't start a two hour session at 11pm and have any hope of being pleasant the next day.  Besides, anyone who knows me knows that I wouldn't have been able to stay awake until 11, let alone through the session.  So we watched Sunday afternoon's session at church the following Friday and watched Saturday afternoon's session one talk at a time throughout the week.

Though the feeling of general conference was not the same and I missed it, I am so grateful to have the internet and that the church streams conference online.  It wasn't too long ago that we had to wait almost a week before the talks were put online in print and longer before video was up.  But now we could watch the talks any time we wanted.  What a blessing.

A week after we watched general conference at church (which was almost a week later than it happened) we had stake (geographical area with 8-10 congregations) conference. Our stake is the Abu Dhabi UAE stake, and it covers 4 countries - The United Arab Emerits (UAE), Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait.  Needless to say we could not all meet together in person.  So members of our ward volunteered to host stake conference.  The leaders here have grouped people together depending on where we live.  Steve volunteered our house as a place to watch stake conference for those of us who live in or near Education City.  We shipped our screen and projector (and they survived the trip). We also have a lot of space.  So about 28 people came and we watched conference live via the internet. It was quite strange to watch it in our living room.  But I'm glad that we were able to have it and participate, even though we couldn't go to Abu Dhabi.

Here's our set up.  We didn't realize that our kitchen table won't fit through the door, so we had to have overflow by the stairs.

Camping in Qatar

Steve has a break from work right now. It has been so nice to have him home and to just relax.  We went camping on Sunday and Monday.  (It's still weird for me to say that I went and did something like camping on a Sunday.  Even though we had sabbath on Friday and Steve goes to work every week on Sunday, I'm so used to Sunday being the Sabbath. I miss it, Friday sabbath still throws me off and I almost never know what day it is.) We went with 4 other families, and camped at the beach.  It was quite the experience.  We had to borrow a car from one of the families because right now we still have our rental car, which is just a small sedan and would not have made it without getting stuck in the sand. Not to mention the fact that we wouldn't have fit all of the stuff we brought in the Tiida.  How much do we need for a night on the beach?  But we did use everything.

We all met Sunday morning at our compound and headed out in a caravan.  We headed for a beach south of Doha. After turning too soon and having to back track and go a bit farther, we made it to the turn off.  There are almost no left turns, and so to turn left we had to go past where we wanted to go until we came to a u-turn area, (this is on the high way), make a u-turn, and then turn right into where we wanted to go.  In order to get to the beach, we had to drive through a junk yard, and then it was all off-road.

There were two sandy patches that could have posed a problem, but Steve managed the car very well.  One car in our group didn't have four wheel drive and got stuck and had to be pulled out of the sand.

We drove until we came to the end of the beach really.  It was were the mangroves became thick.  We had stopped in town and bought some masks and snorkels so that we could snorkel in the mangroves.  One of the guys bought a spear so that he could hunt crabs and cook them.  After making a quick lunch  in the shade of the car, we set up camp

(This is our little tent and umbrella. )

and headed for the water.

Elliott built a sand castle with Steve and decorated it with sea shells.  Here we are on a sand bar that would disappear when the tide came in.


It was a hot day on Sunday, but the water was nice.  Not hot like it has been (yes, the ocean water has been hot), but not cold either.  It was the perfect way to cool down.

The water never got deep.  It came up to a little above waist, maybe, at high tide.  There were a ton of sea shells, which the kids loved to collect and use to decorate sand castles.  Elliott loved hanging out with the other kids.  He wasn't scared of the water, which he has been in the past.  I think seeing the other kids go right in helped, and the fact that there weren't any waves.

Amelia was a trooper.  This was her very first camping experience.  She didn't mind the water and loved to hold on to sea shells and hold them up.  She was tired enough to sleep in the tent and not be bothered during naps.

I can't say much for the night time, though.  When we arrived at the beach, there was only one other family there, but they left shortly after we came.  Throughout the day, more people came.  One group came and set up a generator to power a loud speaker and lights.  We were a bit annoyed as we didn't want to hear their teenage dance music.  Elliott and Amelia thankfully were so exhausted that they fell asleep through the noise.

But by 10 pm the music was still going so one of the guys went over and said, "We have kids who are trying to sleep, could you please turn off the music?"  They did, but were still loud.  I couldn't sleep with them talking and laughing so loudly.  Had we been in the states, I'm sure there would have been at least alcohol there, if not drugs as well.  They left probably around 12.  Shortly thereafter, Amelia woke up and was up for the next 2-3 hours.  Lovely.  Once she calmed down, it was kinda peaceful being by the ocean in the middle of the night and hearing the tide come in.  But I still would have rather been sleeping.

We did get a beautiful sunrise though.


We were going to stay two nights, but after the first night Steve was not in the mood to go through another night like the first.  I don't blame him; I didn't want to either.  We decided to stay through dinner and then go home with another family whose tent broke as they were putting it up the first day.  Darkness comes around 5:30, so it was dark after dinner and marshmallows.  The way back should have been easy.  Just follow the mangroves until then end, then turn right until you see the junk yard and follow that to the road that goes to the street.  But in the dark we couldn't see were to turn left after the mangroves.  There were some people camping nearby.  So Steve stopped one who was on a four wheeler with a 3 or 4 year old and asked how to get to town.  He responded "Let me drop off the kid and I'll take you."  So he drove us to the high way, and he did not go the way we came in.  It was in just a random path that I felt that he was making it up as he went.  We'd be going down one way and then he'd randomly turn and then get onto another "path".  Remember, there are no road. This is just through a bunch of nothing, packed sand mostly, but with some loose sand to keep you on your toes.  It's a good thing Steve was driving.  I was so nervous just being a passenger.  But we made it to the highway and from there it was a straight shot home.

Camping in the sand is a whole different ball game than camping in the woods.  I had a bucket with water outside our tent just to wash our feet off when we went into the tent to try to control the sand in the tent.  It worked pretty well.  My calves ached by the time we got home though from walking in the sand for two days.  But we all had a great time and want to do it again.

Want Some Cheese with that Whine?

We have been told that we are the first people living in this villa, that our compound is brand new.  But there are sure a lot of problems for being new, as I'm sure I've mentioned.  Also, I've noticed that building standards aren't even close to what they are at home.  Here are some examples of what's "wrong" or not done well in our villa, and some of this is not just our villa, but how things are done here. (I write this for a few reasons.  (1) So I can remember this. (2) Some of you readers might get a kick out of it, and 3. To remind myself when/if we leave that it wasn't all grand here ;) I am not complaining.  I am grateful for what has been provided for us.  It's just not built as it would be in America).  Here's the list:

1. The exhaust vents in every bathroom and the kitchen (and not just in our villa, everywhere I've been) are really just a hole in the wall with a small box fan permanently attached to the wall in front of the hole. I can see daylight and the wall outside. So, that means that if you dont' keep the fan on at all times, the room gets super hot and an extra layer of dust finds its way into the house. And when it's so hot outside, you can't leave the fan off or you can't go into the bathroom.  So we waste a lot of electricity keeping every exhaust fan on so that the rooms stay cool and not as dirty.  The vent in the bathroom between Elliott's and Amelia's rooms broke (already? we had only been here a month and half.) and for two weeks we couldn't use the bathroom because it was like a sauna in there. It took the maintenance guys two week and about three phone calls just to come and look at it.  It took me calling the guy and saying, "The vent is broken.  I can't use the bathroom for my kids.  I want someone here tomorrow to come look at it." And that's when they came.  Unfortunately, another one it broken now.  We had been told when we first got here that we would have to be firm and almost exaggerate how the situation in order for things to get fixed.  I didn't exaggerate, but I was direct about it.

2. There is absolutely no weather stripping around the doors.  Daylight comes in through the door in the kitchen and even more dust.  The other two doors aren't as bad, but they also let in a bunch of hot air and dust. Some people have gaps under their doors about an inch wide.

3. The windows in the bedrooms and the living areas are all double windows.  Where the two windows meet (overlapping each other) there is a gap in the top corner with nothing there!  In Elliott's room, you can see the line of dust that has been blown in.  I first noticed this just a few days ago when I opened Elliott's curtains and noticed that the air was significantly warmer.  I hadn't opened his curtains at all because his window faces west and it always felt warmer in there.  But it's cooling off so I opened the curtains. And then I saw the dust.  And then the gap.  There isn't another pane of glass.  I can feel the air move in.  When it's so hot and dusty, wouldn't it make sense to seal off the gaps?  This morning our whole house smelled like a bon fire probably because of so many gaps in the walls, doors, and windows.

4. Our air conditioners drip water. The one in the front room dripped so much water that we had to keep the couch away from the wall so it wouldn't get wet.  Then the one in our room started making a loud popping sound and then it dripped water quickly, requiring us to move our bed right before we went to sleep the night it started.  We called maintenance and they fixed both.  But now another one leaks, just not as bad, but it's leaving an orange line on the off-white wall.

5. There is caulk and grout missing in places.  In bathrooms it's missing near showers.  Around the house grout it missing in random spots between the tile on the floor.  Grout falls out from between the tile below the outside lip of the tub and the tub if I lean on it to wash the kids.  Our toilet, when we first came, had a "fix" that required caulking a pebble in between the lid and then tank.  Steve asked them to fix that and so they just caulked the whole lid to the tank.  Lovely.

6. A transformer in the tube lighting in the kitchen caught fire.  (This could be a whole post on it's own.) On Saturday Oct. 20 I went to turn on the kitchen light, and it tripped the braker.  So Steve switched it back and I turned the light on again.  The braker was tripped again.  So Steve called maintenance and someone came to look at it.  Well, he didn't look at the light at all, he just moved the wires to a spare braker.  But later that evening there was a hot smell, like something burning, but we couldn't see any smoke or really pinpoint where the smell was coming from.  We assumed the guy fixed the problem, then there was a pop and a flash and the transformer was on fire.  This time the braker was not tripped, the emergency light didn't come on (like it had when the braker was tripped earlier) and the smoke detector didn't go off.  I had to manually switch the braker, but it wouldn't have done any good b/c the guy never mentioned what he did and he didn't label the switch on the braker box. Steve took the panel off and the woosh of air put out the fire. The maintenance guys came withint 15 minutes.  He wanted to just replace the transformer, but Steve requested a whole new fixture since there was a fire, there's a likelihood of damage.  Two days later we had two new fixtures.  He replaced the other one as well.  It looked like it was about to go as well.  This whole experience doesn't inspire confidence in their system here.  If the turning on the light trips the braker, wouldn't that suggest that there might be something wrong with the light? But we survived.

That's quite the list.  The strange thing is that none of these things are new and are common enough that even I know about them.  So why don't they do them?

The Souq

Last night Steve and I went on a date.  We found a babysitter and everything!  It was so nice to get out by ourselves.  Elliott loves when our babysitter comes over. Amelia not so much, but she was sleeping when we got home last night, so things seemed to go just fine.

We went to the Souq Waqif (pronounced sook wakeef), which is one of the oldest in Qatar.  It is an outdoor, covered market, that was rebuilt a while ago and so it is not the original structure, but it was fun to imagine that this is what it would have been like hundreds of years ago.  The souq is on the original spot of the old souq, and looks like it would have hundreds of years ago.  The literal translation of Souq Waqif is "the standing market" (according to Wikipedia).  There were tons of little shops selling perfume and fabric, traditional clothing, gifts, handicrafts, spices, and so much more.  There's also restaurants of many different ethnicities.  Here as some pictures I found online.  We didn't take any ourselves.

This is what it's like on the inside.  Different little shops line each side.


This is what it's like outside.  Again little shops line everything.

This is the restaurant area.


It took us almost an hour to get there (but only 20 minutes to get home) because of the traffic, but we have come to expect that and so it didn't bother me as much.  Parking was insane.  But again, we expected that and so wasn't as stressful.  We decided to wander around for a while before eating dinner.  And that's really what you do.  I never saw a map or anything. You could get so lost in there, and we really weren't paying attention to where we were going; we were just turning corners here and there.  Thank goodness for gps on Steve's phone.  We were able to navigate our way out again. We found a Malaysian restaurant to eat at, which wasn't as busy as some of the others.  The food was okay.  I wouldn't mind going there again and ordering something different.  Steve tried squid and offered me a piece, which I did end up trying.  I'm not a fan.  The taste of the dish was good, but the squid was a rubbery as I imagined it would be and if I hadn't been at a restaurant, I would have spit it out.

We had a great time.  It was a bit strange to be out on a date and not hold hands.  It is culturally uncomfortable for the native Qataris (and maybe others from around the area too, but I'm not sure) to see any public display of affection, even hand holding.  So we don't hold hands anymore.

I want to go back sometime and get something traditional to Qatar, something made here, as a momento of being here. 

Happy Birthday Amelia!

Today is my little Amelia's 1st birthday.  I can hardly believe that one year ago today she came to our family.  She has grown so much. 

6 days old

 1 year old.

Here's the cake we had to celebrate.  She liked it.  I didn't take any still photos of her eating, just video. :(  But she was cute eating it!


I look forward to what the next year will bring. 

Miss A

I wrote this before we went private, but the internet wasn't working, so didn't post it.  This is a really long one.  But a lot of it is for my memory. 

Miss A has really grown in the past few months both physically and developmentally.  She has quite a strong will personality and when she doesn't want something, she lets you know.  She also is quite vocal when she wants something.  When we're eating a meal and I'm not giving her food fast enough, she lets out a scream.  It's like she's saying "Hey! I'm hungry! I want food!!" just as loud as she can.  And since there is nothing on the walls and no carpet, it sounds really loud.  

She's starting to say a lot of sounds.  One of her favorites is "MmmmmmA" like she's blowing a kiss.  I've had her blow kisses to Nana and Grandma and now sometimes she says "MmmmmA" with her hand over her mouth.  Miss A also has started to babble like she's actually saying something.  She'll look at me and babble and I'll respond with a "Oh really?"  and she'll keep babbling.  She also says other sounds, but they almost always end with an "A". So "bA" (the 'A' is accented).  I think she likes to hear the echo in here, or how loud she can be because sometimes she hollers just to holler.  

I've been trying to teach her baby sign.  She hasn't copied anything that I've done yet, but she does know how to ask to be picked up.  She throws up her arms and sticks out her belly and arches her back.  It's so cute.  When we first came if I walked away from her, even if I stayed in the same room, she'd immediately start to cry and look at me like, "How could you, Mom?!?!" She wouldn't follow me, even though she could crawl and had been crawling for a month or so.  She was so distraught that she couldn't do anything but cry.  Poor girl.  But now she's used to being here and she crawls all over the place.  She'll come to me now when she wants to be picked up.  I love that she's interacting with us now and starting to communicate her wants more.  When she wants me to pick her up and I do, she pats me on the back or shoulder.  It's so cute.  

She is quite active.  She crawls all over and I have to keep a wide chair in front of the stairs so that she won't crawl up the stairs.  She loves the stairs as any baby does.  If I'm not careful and don't have the stairs blocked, she's up them before I know it.  We don't have a gate yet.  Our banister is metal and the stairs are very wide. We've been told that there is a guy who custom makes stair gates, so we may look into that.  

I do get more cuddle time than I did with Big E at this age.  She loves to give hugs and she even puts her arm around my neck.  Right after she's woken up is the best time to catch a snuggle, but she's likely to give hugs through the day unless she's tired and then she arches away from me.  She's also a big Daddy's girl.  When Steve gets home from work, she makes a bee line to her Dad.  If he comes in without picking her up and saying hi, she cries.  

Miss A has found that she can open things, cabinet doors, drawers the kitchen and the TV stand, the dominos tin.  One of them that I think is funny is that she's found she can open the drawer under the stove.  We have a standard electric range with a storage drawer under the oven.  She likes to open it and put things in here.  So sometimes I find the hand towel in there or tupperware containers that she's taken out of the cupboard.  She'll put something in, close the drawer, then open it again and look at it.  

Sometimes I'll find her sprawled on the floor.  She'll crawl somewhere and then just lay down, by a door, in front of the fridge, at your feet.  It's the funniest thing.  

Miss A loves her brother.  Big E can still get her to laugh and he loves to make her laugh.  He's so good with her.  She does watch him and I'm sure that when she's more mobile and capable, she'll be trying to do what he does.  

This picture isn't exactly the best depiction of the how much she adores Big E.  She wasn't into pictures that day.  Big E is in his new church clothes and so is Miss A.  Thanks Grandmas!

As for physical growth, Miss A has grown a lot, but she's still small for her age.  She's about 16 lbs.  At the moment I can't remember how long she is, but it's written in her baby book.  I looked up how old Big E was at about the same size; he was 5 months.  :)  She's below 5th percentile, but she's growing, so I'm not worried.  Since we've moved here she's cut 4 new teeth (6 total), all within the first 4 weeks of being here.  So on top of jet lag and adjusting to a new place, she was teething.  I'm sure she was miserable even with a teether and Ibuprofen.  

Here's Miss A showing off her new teeth.

Oh and another big thing is that she's started sleeping through the night again!  She started at the beginning of May all by herself, but the day after we moved she stopped and woke up at least once a night until about two or three weeks after moving here.  Now she sleeps through the night.  We've also been sleep training for about a long as Big E has been potty training, so about three weeks-ish, and we're just now seeing a change.  She sometimes cries for maybe a minute but then is quite.  It has been so nice.  

Her birthday is in 3 days.  I can't believe that she'll be 1!  She has been a wonderful addition to our family.  I look forward to seeing how she'll be as a toddler.  I have a feeling that we'll have a bit more drama in the house.