of late...

Soooooo...what has the Lanning family been up to lately?

Our top 10 most exciting things:

10) The mad dash for the end. School is almost out and that means we are having to do all of the obligatory "writer's cafe's" and "class parties" and "soccer parties" and "friend parties" and....well...you name it and there is some kind of assembly for it. I think every parent can commiserate with my disgruntled feelings on all of this. I mean...just end it already! We keep stringing things out...why!?!?!?! Let us start our summer break. I think in America that last week of school is always blown off to parties...over here...it is like the last 2 months. Why are we paying for one giant 2 month party? Frustrating to me.

9) Figuring out ways to entertain ourselves at home. My outside playing kids have turned into inside playing kids. "It's too hot Mommy!" If I knew we were staying in Doha I would invest in a trampoline and put it upstairs...I'm that desperate at this point. If they are in the house then they watch TV. I'm going to have to start putting restrictions on that. In their defense it DID get up to 40 C a few days ago which is 104 Fahrenheit. In may. I feel bad for whoever is staying in Doha for the summer...

which brings us to the next one....

8) Plotting our exit. This hasn't been easy. We don't know if we are leaving or staying to live in Doha. The percentages either way keep shifting on a daily basis. I really wanted to hang up my vinyl lettering that says "For we WALK BY FAITH not by sight - 2 Corinthians 5:7" but all I can do is tape it to the wall. I can't actually bring myself to rub it on. I know as soon as I do we will move. This has definitely become our family motto as of late as all of our planning has had to just kind of wait or be leapt into blindly with the hopes of a positive outcome.

7) Summer vacation plans? Huh...well, will we be moving? Will we be staying? Will David be going to a conference in Atlanta? Will we get cast in a production if we audition? Will we leave school early to get to said auditions? Soooo....many questions...so many options. So, I leapt on the summer planning thing. We have a 2 bedroom rental condo in Beaumont for 6 weeks with an option to extend. It is my friends condo and is super cute. I'll be immediately moving things onto shelves when we get there. Since it is in Beaumont it is half way between my parents house and where the show might go on.

6) The show. There needs to be a show this summer. Again, there are multiple options here. Earlier, one of the local theatres were going to do Beauty and the Beast. When I told the girls we might get a chance to see it...they started boohooing...not because they wanted to see it, but because they wanted to BE in it. With me. My heart was so touched I gave in. Honestly, it was easy to give in as I have been constantly on the cusp of losing my mind due to the unavailability of any real theatre here. So...I agreed. And then the show got rejected...but now it is being filled in with the Sound of Music. So...I suppose we will audition for that. I would love it if both of the girls could be in the Von Trapp group...BUT...with them being SO DANG CLOSE IN HEIGHT...well...one of them will just have to practice wearing heels :) Madelyn or Angelina? I'm taking votes and input on this one. NOW...if the sound of music doesn't work out...there is a plan B. I will have to do my best to produce a small production on my own and send the girls to a small theatre camp where they still get to be in a show. If they are lovin' it...I can't deny them. Here's hoping that this leap of faith pays off in the end.

This picture was taken the day after I told them about Beauty and the Beast....they came down wearing their Music Man shirts to help "convince me"...their efforts have been rewarded.

5) Preschool is still in full swing. Due to circumstances such as heat and friendship...there is a lot of preschool love going around. The kids LOVE playing with each other and they are so adorable. I get them again this week. Last time I had X. I forgot to take pictures, but the time before that I had the letter T. We played with trains and made trees out of brownies and celery. The kids (all but Parker) LOVED making trees.

4) Planning another girlcation. Yep....1/2 of our team from last time can't go. Which is a TOTAl shame, because we make such a good group. Between all of us we know everything. Terah is hanging in there though and between the 2 of us we are going to make it to Beijing, China and have an incredible time. We can't wait to hit the trail and conquer the great wall of china.

3) Maids. So, between friends not having maids and some friends having more...we have coined the last month 'musical maids'...my friend Terah blogged about: She wrote:

3. Maid drama has been happening in my circle of friends as of late. First, I have been connecting my friends with a few Nepalis for work. Nepali women maids are rare in Doha. It seems that they only accept Filipino and Indian, but the desire for Nepali women to work here is great. I have at least 7 different friends looking for maids right now. Finding maids in Doha is tough, not like in Dubai where they are everywhere. I felt like hooking up my friends with Nepalis was a win/win situation. In the process, we have been looking for a second maid. Just after we received approval for our second maid, the following obstacles have taken place for my friends:

a. One friend could not receive approval for a Nepali. Filipino, Indonesian, or Indian-yes. Nepali-no.

b. One friend was sponsoring a Filipino maid from the Philippines and she was denied entry because her maid had medical problems.

c. Another friend had to get rid of her maid because she was illegal.

d. One friend's maid ended up leaving on vacation for 5 weeks with very little warning.

How could I be excited when my second maid arrived when at least 4 of my other friends were without a maid? It really explains to you how Doha can be so unfair. One time it may work, and the next? Forget it. Slowly but surely these issues are being resolved, but there was a lot of chatting and discussing going on between friends on how we could optimize our maid situation. For now, my second maid is working part time for my friend. It works out well for me because it smoothly transitions Sarita with our new Nepali maid, Kamala. Currently, these issues are working out and in about a month, everyone will have their maid and happy day for everyone! Such situations could only happen overseas.

For the record, I was friend letter C. I sent my current maid to be with friend B. Terah sent her second maid to friend A...and a whole lot of other confusing swapping happened from there as well.

NOW - Mylene, our first maid is legal again. She was involved in one of those terrible rackets where she paid to come over here and then they kept taking more and more of her money...it was awful and cruel. In the interim, we started the process to get our second maid, Meena here. She is finally here...somehow...we now have 2 maids. I'm not entirely sure how that happened only that it did and it was quite the struggle to make it happen. Meena is from Nepal and our application kept saying she was from Sri Lanka in the computer...so she couldn't come until Doha got that straightened out. That took awhile. Then she had to get here which is an entirely other awful experience as she got stuck in Delhi because the airline Jet Airways refused to board her. But, finally she is here! YAY! Just in time for us to go away for the summer. Figures. The real issue has been that Mylene can't stay with us. Because she is sponsored by someone else, if we move or go on vacation - she can never come with us. We love Mylene. She is kind, efficient, hard working, honest and caring. She has been the foremost in my mind with trying to find her a new working situation in case we leave. Of course, if we stay in Doha, I will probably be homeschooling and will need 2 maids. One to do the normal cleaning, and one to help keep Parker occupied while I teach. So, I hesitate to just get rid of her until I know what is happening....sigh...

Anyway, this account doesn't even touch on the subject to the degree to which it could be...let's just say that the way things have worked out for these two maids has been difficult and eye opening. I cannot believe the way people treat other people. The world can be a very bad place at times.

2) Parker is 4. Again, he doesn't know it yet...but I do. I can't stop having little moments of complete heart aching. Tears come up...I mourn the loss of babyhood in my life. Seriously, I need to get a dog I can baby.

1) Stress. Ok...if you haven't already figured it out...we don't know where we are going to be living for sure...this causes stress. Especially since the boss told David not to reenroll the kids in school since we weren't going to be here...then to find out we might. Grrrrrr. Curse! Criminy! Their places are gone.

Combine the top 10, add in a dash of the regular mundane things like dust and crazy driving and allergies and that is our life right now.