4th of July

We had a pretty eventful weekend. It seems like we do very little anymore, both since it is so hot now and because we’ve pretty much done everything there is to do until winter comes back around and we can enjoy the outside again.

Happy 4th of July! Look at our patriotic family! Red, white and blue!

So Thursday night we had Rainy and Marcelo (and Benji) over to hang out and eat Arabic food (from the palace, thanks to Marcelo as usual!). We always have a good time with them, so it was nice.

Then on Friday we went over to Stef and Tony’s for the 4th of July. It’s still weird to me to have a holiday come around and there is NOTHING that would indicate there was one unless you already knew. Just goes to show (just like my Easter flop) that if we’re not reminded, we’d probably forget holidays altogether. Anyway, so we grilled out and had snacks and hung out just likewe would have done back in the States… just without the fireworks. After watching CNN about the California fires, it’s probably a good thing. I saw report after report of homes being burned to the ground because a bottle rocket went astray. Still, it was kind of a bummer missing them. Especially since last year we were treated to a fabulous show courtesy of some 15 and 16-year-olds, at Marcia’s neighbors’ Tracy and Randy’s house. We set up a line of folding chairs and watched as 15 feet away stuff exploded. Too much fun! (Especially since it was July and it was the last holiday I’d have to brave as a prego blimp)

Me, Kasey, Stef, and Andrew being a cutie pie.

Kaden with his new friend Mikey.

Kaden and long-time buddy Matt, just hanging out.

Matt playing Kaden's guitar, and Kyle... pondering???

Kaden walking with the big kids!

Louie, his son Alberto, and Kaden, playing "ride the horsey"

Speaking of which, Stu and I took another picture of ourselves since a year ago today we took one and found it again recently. Boy have things changed in a year! Especially our mass! Haha. A year ago today I weighed in at a light 183 pounds and Stu was pushing 200. Today we’re 125 and 160, respectively. We’ve lost almost a whole person! Haha (Well, I really DID lose a person, but MY person only weighed 8 pounds!!! So by that standard I lost more than 7 people! Hehe). Anyway, so I figured I’d post Stu’s creation commemorating a year of up and downs (mostly on the scale).


Anyway, so we had a good weekend and it is always nice to get together with other humans and remember that we aren’t SO isolated here on this little brown island in the middle of the Middle East.

Just had to throw this in here too... these are two trucks parked back-to-back with guys unloading garbage from one truck and putting it into another... what the heck?

Typical Thursday

Thursday today: grilled again. It was nice, but it is getting so humid these days. Once the sun goes down it isn’t too bad because you get a pseudo-breeze that passes through occasionally, but during the evening hours beforehand, it’s just plain old hot! I went to open my camera today to snap some pictures up there and it completely fogged over so much that I had to physically wipe it off and it just kept forming droplets on the lens. I had to wait for the camera to warm up and basically become accustomed to the humidity before I could take any pictures.

Rainy and Marcelo made it again tonight. I just love having her around. She came over to hang out yesterday too. Having an American woman here that I can actually connect with, one that I would have chosen to befriend back home, has been such a lifesaver for me.

Then we were supposed to play cards down in our apartment and had J.J. come down too, but everyone was too wrapped up in getting Kaden to walk to actually sit down and play cards. All in all it was a good night.

The roof of the building next door through the fogged-over lens of the camera.

Baby mad at me for making him play outside in the heat.

Being dorks...

Daddy dancing with Kaden.

Kaden thinking, "What the heck are you doing?"

Rainy and I

Post-baby body weight-loss program: Move to the Middle East where they don't have junk food!

He thought this was pretty funny!

Laughing!

Blood Money

So if there was ever something worth mentioning, it is this. Here, there is this law where if you hit and kill someone in a car accident, you have to pay their family basically what they are "worth" as a punishment (and sometimes jail time too, depending). But, in light of this, it is not very uncommon for these workers here (see construction worker below balancing on flimsy wood a hundred feet off the ground) to decide their 5 bucks a day just isn't supporting their families back home. They will choose instead to jump in front of vehicles so their families can get money. Sad huh?

So this weekend we grilled on our roof again (we missed last week because of the tournament). Marcelo, one of the coaches, and Rainy, his wife, came too. I met Rainy at the tournament sitting in the VIP section and she is an AMERICAN! Has family from Idaho no less, lol. Go figure, right? So, needless to say we bonded right away. She is a very interesting person too. She is a former Marine who then contracted with the DOD in Iraq as a translator for interrogations. She speaks perfect Ababic (Iraqi dialect). So it has been great. We went to the mall on Wednesday and she told me what the prayer call says, and taught me some other words in Arabic. How cool is that?

So the roof was fun. Especially having them over. Marcelo is going to be training Stu in private lessons (we figure might as well take advantage of this opportunity... as always). Here he is teaching Kaden! haha

Kaden wating his sunglasses.

Smiling Joshy.

Stu getting "punched" in the face... By Jeff.

Matt showing off his mad dance skillz.

Oh yeah! Do the "Q-tip"!