Nicholas' Really Bad Day!

Oh the perils of a preschooler!!!  Today was the boys last day of school and as I was entering Nicholas' classroom, his teacher stops me and pulls me aside to warn me that Nicholas was going to say he had a bad day.  Sure enough, as soon as he saw me, he put on his very best pout, stomped over to me and said, "I had a really bad day!!"  Why you ask??  Apparently it was 2 things - first, he couldn't find Jaden on stage during the end of year program.  He told his teacher "I don't think that was a very good program.  I couldn't even see Jaden" and then he proceeded to cry for 10 minutes.  Nicholas is crazy attached to his big brother - most of the time it's a blessing to witness the love between them, but sometimes it can get a little ridiculous.  And then, after the disastrous program, they went back to their classroom and played Candyland, but Nicholas didn't get to be the blue guy!!  Oh NO!!!  He had to be ... green??  GASP!!!  What ever will we do??!!!  Like he said, it was "a really bad day!"

At least yesterday balanced it out ... I've never seen Nicholas happier!!!  All year long, all he has wanted was to be part of Jaden's class - and yesterday, his dream came true!!  Together we went to Jaden's End of Year Program and then his class party.  Of course, the best part of the whole thing were the water games at the end!!  Who knew a couple of buckets and sponges could be so fun???  The kids has a BLAST!!!  Here are a few pics...

Jaden's last day of school...

Ready for some water games!!

Pass the sponge!!

Nicholas' turn!

PURE JOY!!!

Another funny Nicholas story ... he randomly started going around the house hitting things and saying "Bam It!!"  I have no idea where he got this from, but you can imagine the way it sounds when it comes out.  The first time I heard him, I stopped and asked, "what did you just say?"  My little smartie pants looks at me and says, "Bam it!  You know b-b-b-bam it!!!  Like when you hit something and it goes Bam!"  I just let it drop.  No need to tell him that it sounds like anything else ... right?  That night at dinner, he does it again, "Bam it!"  Except this time, Jaden was there and he asks the same thing "what did you just say?"  Nicholas gave him the same answer, except Jaden explains how "Bam It!" sounds a lot like "damn it" and "damn it" is not a nice thing to say.  He went on and on and on.  I sat there stunned!  I didn't even know Jaden knew those words!!!  How do these kids pick up all of this stuff up?!!  At least Jaden knew it was a bad word and that we don't talk like that!!!  Smart kids I tell you!!

Ken has officially moved!

Ken officially moved to Doha today (on paper anyway). 

It was surreal watching him pack up yesterday.  He filled a suitcase full of his clothes and that was it.  I filled another suitcase with some of my clothes and some of the boys' clothes and a few toys.  Might as well send a few extra things along with him!  He will be moving into our new (furnished) townhouse when he arrives.  Jaden kept asking when we get to move.  They are both really excited about our new house and their new schools!!  I'm so glad they don't seem the least bit scared or concerned!

Ken will be back for Memorial Day weekend when we head to San Antonio with our friends and then the packers come May 30 - June 1.  We plan to head to St. Louis on Monday, June 4.  Not sure how long we will get to visit before taking off to Doha.  Flights still haven't been booked.  It's crazy to me that we only have a few weeks left!!! 

And I'm glad I was able to make it to St. Louis this past weekend to do some shopping with my mom, my aunt, and my cousins!  We had a great ladies weekend at the outlet malls in Osage Beach!  I spent entirely too much money, but I got lots of fun new clothes for Doha!  There is a whole team of people to thank for making it happen!  My friend Sarah spent the night with the boys Thursday night and got them up and ready for school Friday morning.  Nicholas is completely enamored with Sarah!  So cute to see a 3 year old in love!!!  He was looking forward to Sarah's sleepover for weeks!!!  And then my friend Nancy took them to school and brought them home.  My mother in law and father in law watched them in the afternoon until Ken flew home from North Carolina.  It takes a village doesn't it?!

~6 weeks to go

It was nice having Ken home for a few days, but he left again this morning for a leadership training course in North Carolina.  It's kind of pathetic to get excited when your husband is only 1 time zone away, but such is life!!  Call me crazy, but it's nice to be able to pick up the phone just about any time we want and talk!!

While Ken was home, we put together a very long (and rather daunting) to do list.  There are so many little things we have to take care of!  Gratefully, ExxonMobil handles a lot of the big ticket items for us, so it's not so bad.  We should have plenty of time to get it all done ... but I still have the occasional anxiety attack when I look at the list!  Usually the anxiety attacks occur at night when I'm trying to go to sleep.  :-( 

We hope to have our packing and departure dates finalized this week, but it's still looking like early June.  Our last day in Houston may be June 3 and then a few days in St. Louis before we fly to Doha. 

Not much else to report ... we enjoyed a wonderful dedication celebration at church this morning!  We recently completed the construction of a new fellowship hall as well as some fairly extensive remodeling to the existing building.  It is awesome to see God grow His church!!  What a blesssing it has been to be members of Faith Community Church!!!  We love our church family and will miss them all terribly when we move!!

Progress?

I feel as if we've made a lot of progress in the last week or so, but in reality, it's all just beginning.  The boys passports arrived on Friday and we are nearly complete with our medical clearances.  That ended up being way more effort than I expected!!!  Since I don't have any records of any of my immunizations, I had to get 5 shots on one occasion!  Not fun!!!  I also had to have lots of bloodwork, a chest x-ray, and a skin test for TB ... all in all, 7 appointments in the last 10 days.  The boys and I still have to go to a special clinic on Monday to get a Typhoid vaccine and then I think we will be ready to submit all the paperwork to apply for Ken's work visa!  Yeah!!

More importantly, I bought a Christmas tree this week!  :-)  We always have a real Christmas tree, but I don't think we will have much luck finding one in the desert or in an Islamic nation.  So I shopped on line for a fake Christmas tree to take with us.  Christmas in April?!  It arrived this past week, but I don't want to open the box and fight to put it back in, so I guess I'll wait and be surprised at Christmas.  I hope I like it - all Christmas trees look the same on the internet!! 

Ken left last week Sunday for Tokyo, but after just a few hours in the office, he and his boss agreed it made better sense for him to be in Doha.  So he scrambled to get his travel plans changed and off he went.  Looks like another trip around the globe!  He returns this Wednesday, but he will only be here a few days.  Then he is off to a training course in North Carolina for a week.  At least it will be in the United States!

So I guess I should explain a bit about Ken's job.  I think the official title is Business Lead for the Barzan project.  He will be responsible for cost and schedule control on the project - engineering, procurement, and construction of a new facility (a duplicate train to the existing facility actually) in Doha, Qatar.  The engineering is being done by a company in Tokyo.  So he goes to Tokyo to followup on the engineering and to Doha to oversee the construction progress.  Barring any delays, construction should be complete in ~2 yrs.  When construction is complete, his assignment in Doha comes to an end.

I continue to make slow and steady progress sorting through our house deciding what goes to Doha and what goes to storage. Our townhouse in Doha will be furnished, so we will be sending a lot of our things to storage until we return.  Ken was able to email me pictures of our future townhouse, I'll share some here ...

This is the front exterior - carport for 2 cars, small balcony on 2nd floor and a large roof top patio (which would be totally fabulous if it wasn't 110 degrees for 6 months of the year!)

Kitchen looks spacious and modern

Living room on first floor

This will be the boys bedroom.  So glad to get 2 twin beds since they are used to sharing a room!

The townhouse has 4 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths and since the boys share a room, that leaves a lot of space for visitors!!!  So come see us!!!

Other news - Qatar was just named the world's fattest nation!  Yeah!  :-(

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2129799/Qatar-named-fattest-nation-earth-HALF-adults-obese.html

Japan and Easter Pictures

I finally got all my pictures from our Tokyo trip downloaded onto the computer, uploaded to Snapfish, and organized into an album so I can share with everyone.  I hope this link works... you may need to register or log in to your account with Snapfish in order to see it.  Enjoy!!

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/projectshareewelcome/p=670111334146023573/l=10814349017/g=1193274/cobrandOid=1000/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPRJ

It was really nice to have Ken home for Easter weekend!  We were able to spend a lot of family time together and even got a little bit done toward the move.  More on that later... 

Ready for the Easter egg hunt in the backyard!  Don't all children collect easter eggs in their astronaut costumes?  And wear their baskets on their heads??  Silly boys!!!  This is very normal in our house - old Halloween costumes are some of the boys very favorite toys!  If they aren't dressed as astronauts, then they are Spiderman, Batman, Captain America, or Sheriffs.  Sometimes it's a little ridiculous, but they are so cute, who can say no??  I digress, it's Easter egg time ...

Too many eggs to fit in their baskets!  The boys had a great time collecting the eggs and opening them all up!  Nicholas must have eaten a dozen pieces of candy before we realized it, but not Jaden ... he's our saver.  I asked him if he wanted any of his candy and he said, "No, I want to save it for 'later.'"  Really??? 


Now for a quick update on the move ... the key for this week is to get all the documents together to apply for Ken's work visa.  We need the work visa before we can list our house for sale and before we can secure a place to live in Doha or register the boys for school.  So we've applied for the boys passports and we have doctor appointments for everyone to get medical clearance.  Ken leaves on Sunday for Tokyo, but he will only be gone 1 1/2 weeks this time.  Yeah!  Other than that, the sorting and purging of the house continues!  Still looking like an early June departure. 

Back home - let the purge begin!

Gosh ... I realize now that I should have made more frequent posts.  There is so much I could write about, but I'll keep it brief.  Ken arrived home from his business trip yesterday - just in time for Easter.  It's good to have him home! 

Ken started his new assignment in Yokohama on March 12.  I took the boys to stay with my parents in St. Louis and joined him in Yokohama a few days later. I had an AWESOME time touring Tokyo and the surrounding area!!  Someday, I'll have to post more about the trip and include a few pictures too.

After 10 days together in Japan, I returned to the states and brought the boys back home to Houston.  The boys had a fantastic 2 weeks with my parents in St. Louis (thanks mom and dad!!!), but my time there seemed much too short! 

Ken stayed in Yokohama for 3 weeks and then spent a week in Doha before returning home.  His journey literally took him around the world - he flew west to Tokyo, then west to Doha, and then west back home to Houston - a trip around the globe.  He will continue to have one heck of a commute for a while - back and forth between Houston and Tokyo/Doha. 

We still don't have an exact date for our move, but it's looking like early June.  I've started to go through the house room by room - deciding what to take with us, what to leave in storage, and what to just get rid of.  It's a daunting task for sure!  How did we accumulate so much stuff in just 7 years in this house?? 

New to blogging

I have absolutely no idea what to include in my first blog posting!  Does anyone really want to read about our mundane life??  So why blog?  And what's with the name??

I thought I'd start a blog as a central way to keep in touch with friends and family as we prepare for our new adventure.  Hopefully it will help us all to stay connected when we move overseas.  The skinny on Ken's job is that he will begin traveling back and forth to Tokyo in March and then we will be relocating to Doha, Qatar, sometime this summer.  We're very excited for this great opportunity, but of course, it will be EXTREMELY difficult to say good bye to our friends and family.  More to follow on the job front as we learn more ...

Now, for the name of this blog site ... after many readings of the children's book "Guess How Much I Love You?" my children started telling me "I love you up to God."  Of course, they had to one up each other, so that's how we came up with "I love you up to God and back."  Sometimes they even add "two times."  :-)  It melts my heart every time I hear it.  I just adore my boys!!!  So I thought it would be a perfect name for this family blogspot.