update

ok, I am so far behind, but I have news and will briefly sketch it all out. I would say I am going to elaborate...but eh, that would probably be a lie.

1) after a long trial and no one telling us that it didn't happen, then it sort of happend but fell through and finally that it DID in fact happen - our house in TX sold. I loved that house and I guess a part of me was hoping to keep some kind of property there - now I feel a bit displaced and not so solidly Texan. The entire selling process was absolutely ridiculous. Everyone working on the sale was absolutely inept. In order to keep the negativity at bay I will stop there and move on to other news.

2) There is a reason I have not posted pictures from our trip to paris and other events since being back in Oman - I lost my beautiful bright orange underwater/abovewater camera...woops...more negativity? I guess the good thing is that I won't have to post pictures with me in them now - right? Because I don't have ANY pictures at all. That was a really bad attempt at a positive spin on things...but I tried.

3) I went to youth conference in Abu Dhabi with my church. At some point anyone over here in the middle east will realize that I am LDS...ok? I'm LDS. I have tried my best to keep religion off of the blog, but that is getting really difficult to do because it is such an integral part of my life...so, I failed in my attempt of just being this super cool mom living in the middle east without being identified by my religion, but I failed. Because let's be honest. I say "mormon" and you say "polygamy?" or "weird underwear?" or "freaky preacher/missionary" or any other number of things...although you could also be saying "full of integrity" or "honest" or "a really good person". But I have also tried to keep it under wraps because I'm personally too...I don't know...spunky?....snarky?....bold?....opinionated?.... outspoken? and might be a bad example. Oh well, I am what I am. Back to Abu Dhabi - wow! HUGE mosques. We turned a corner and this giganto white mosque just appeared to rise out of the sky. It was amazing...too bad I didn't have my orange camera. I felt like I was in a scene from Aladdin where the castle is lifted magically into the air.

4) I need to try on my bridesmaid dress again, but I am too scared...I stopped working out around the time of my abu dhabi trip...and desperately need to get back to the pain...and purchase a blender because I have all of the necessary smoothie ingredients, but no blender.

5) David and I started taking scuba classes together. That was nice. Above ground we can't hold hands here, but who's to stop us below 12 meters of water? :) So, training/certification has become our dating activity when he is in town. Although clearing a mask with contacts is no picnic. And man, do I wish I had my camera because David couldn't get his mask equalized once and jerked it off of his face...it acted basically as a suction cup. He had two crazy black eyes and the eyeballs themselves were actually bloodied up. Disgusting! When we both went to Youth Conference I just told everyone I beat him up...none of those teenagers tried anything around me! HAHAHA! But you have to imagine this to find the humour...David is 6 foot 5 inches....I am 5 foot 3 inches. He looked so horrible...I'm sure that he still does and will for several weeks, but he is back in the desert again so I don't have to see it. I cut my hand up on some barnacle...devilish stuff.

6) A fellow blogger friend saw me in the mall and said hi. She remembered my name and all I could think of was her blogging name while I looked at her friends who might not know about her blog...so then on the way to introduce my husband I had a totally embarrasing brain freeze. I was thinking her blog name...I felt like such a total idiot asking her name. I panicked! I am usually so calm and cool...not this time. Don't hold it against me if you read this!!! I am so sorry!!!!!!!

7) I bought a yamaha keyboard/piano thingy. I never thought I would own some awful clavinova...but I do now. I gave my piano back to my parents because we had limited space (ok, a 4x4 box) but I also didn't want to chance ruining it. Not worth it. But we needed something. This way when we move, it won't have to be tuned. You can even plug headphones in so that you don't have to hear the kids practicing but they can hear themselves! Great when they are a bit more proficient...right now I have to be able to hear them. So, they started their first lessons...that was definitely not something I want to do for long. I felt like this demon mother - "fingers curled! Like you have a bubble underneath that you don't want to pop! GROWL!" Yes, an actual growl from me...many times. I had to back off totally. I don't want to make it not fun for them. I might be a more forgiving violin teacher so I will be bringing my violin back and two tiny ones for them...although that might become a big tension match as well...oh my...I am a terrible teacher to my children. Why is it so much different than teaching other children? It totally is though. I just feel like screaming at them and breaking something or ripping some paper or completely grinding my teeth to powder when I am teaching. It is ultimate restraint at all times for me...so we are taking it slow...very slow...mostly because of my temperment while teaching them, and also because I don't have any kind of curriculum for them, so I am just making it up and trying to remember from when I was a brand new student. I need to find a piano teacher before I suck all of the fun out of piano for them. And I am worried about them not being in ballet as well...and about me not being in ballet. Maybe I should bring back some slippers? Or maybe I will be a horrid teacher for them...like piano. Do you think it is just the piano? Or everything? Maybe I am just this horrible wretched demon mother...why do I find it so frustrating to teach my children? I always dreamed of sharing my skills and love of things with them. Tap dance, ballet, violin, piano (well, I don't really love piano...but it is useful at times and I hope they are far better at it than I ever was) singing. Any advice on this? Oh my, I am a bad mom.

8) Went to Muscat Festival. It was nice. All the kids said they wanted to ride a camel, but when we got around to the line the girls freaked out, so we started walking away. Parker, however would have none of that! He even let the man pick him up (he never lets strangers touch him) he climbed right on that camel like a pro. David was supposed to stand beside him, but couldn't keep up. And my little two year old was the king of the camel. Alas, no camera! So, adorable. I thought he would be the one to freak out.

9) We are moving. In a day or so it will be official. Sometime over the summer we will relocate to Doha, Qatar. I won't bother writing about that because I am really not sure. how I feel about it. I will have to say goodbye to my sweet living conditions as we have 6 bedrooms and at most in Doha we will have 4. No playroom or office room. That is going to get a little bit crazy! And a little bit squished. I hate squished.

10) I'm pretty sure there was more. I've been really busy lately. But I can't think of anything else so maybe another entry?

I did want to reflect upon some thoughts I have been having. First, it was really nice to go to the muscat festival and be surrounded by lots of Omani's. The evening we went and for those few hours I saw maybe only a handful of expats. And there was something really really nice about that...don't know how to explain.

ooh - the community theatre back home is doing the Scarlet Pimpernel and it is tearing me up inside because the role of Marguerite is one of my top 5 roles to play...and so I question my existence...all over a stupid role. It has really really been wearing on my mind lately. I don't know if I would get it - but here I can't even try for it. I feel so....powerless here at times. I mean literally, my career is dead. I am not advancing in any way, shape or form here. I'm tired of mourning over it though...I'm done.

One last thing...we all have special skills, traits, treasures if you will, that we possess. I don't like it when people horde them to themselves and don't share. We could all grow if people would share. I was just thinking about that. Just random.