Hello from the Richards Family! Can you believe we have been here two months now? It still feels pretty surreal, but we have settled in nicely. The house has been painted, the furniture has been replaced with new stuff (yippeeee no more Aramco itchy tacky furniture!) I am still working on the window coverings as we are still sporting the lovely seafoam colored ones, but
whose complaining?
This is us at the pool by our house, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we can go swimming everyday and not have to pay to get in, that's right we don't have to pay the $10 per person to go swimming! That means I'm not losing $30 bucks when the kids have a meltdown 10 minutes into the swim adventure we had back home, see so I'm saving money and not spending it like Rob thinks I'm doing...okay well I had to furnish the house didn't I?
Please read before scrolling to the next two pictures
Ah yes the infamous speed signs! Okay here's the situation, here on the camp we have our own "police"department. They do radar and will give you a ticket if you are travelling 3km over the speed limit! They are very serious about traffic violation (rather humorous considering their driving). If you get pulled over for speeding or other traffic violations, like talking on your cellphone, the police pull you over and write you up a ticket, so how do you pay the ticket you ask? Well that's the problem, the ticket actually gets taken out of your husband's paycheck along with points, these points will affect the year end bonus and pay raise! So needless to say when I started driving the rental car around camp, I was scared to death not to speed, this is where
the speed limit sign pictures come in:
Now as I was scared not too speed, I proceeded to call Rob on my cellphone (did I mention that's a traffic violation?) because I wanted to know what the actual speed limit was on this road, was this just a range? Was I supposed to pick a number between 0 and 50? As long as I didn't go over 50, I'd be okay right? What about the one that said 70 or 65? Which one did I use? Was it better to go with the smaller number or would they pull me over for driving under the speed limit. Were they just giving me a guide line to follow, it was all rather stressful. Rob had no idea what I was talking about so I took a picture of the sign and showed him the pictures when he got home later, he laughed so hard because the top number on the sign is in Arabic, so the sign that has 70 and 65? the speed limit is 65 not 70! Yes it was a very proud moment for me!
Needless to say I have not received a ticket...yet! Any whooooooo....
This is how sophisticated we are here, you can actually purchase Kleenex for men. Haven't found Kleenex for women yet, but I'm sure there is some out there....right?
Pictures of Jaymee's classroom and new friends
Jaymee and her classmates! (Jaymee in front row with birthday hat on)
Jaymee and her classmates, gotta love the silly face ones!
Jaymee's teacher, Mrs. Waite
Mrs. Karim the assistant teacher
It was hot that day, we all enjoyed a nice dip in the pool, clothes and all!
This is for all you golfers out there....
Front of golf course
The boys try to golf evert Tuesday night, it costs $26.00 for 18 holes
more golf course
more golf course
pondering their next shot?
Local wildlife, this is fox the kids have named "Foxy Roxy"
Air conditioned outhouse...kidding...I hope
Rob in the ruff...yes even in Saudi Arabia Rob manages to hit balls into the ruff! Some habits are hard to break!
Rob and Trevor (fellow Calgarian, they just arrived about a month ago), funny story: Rob and Trevor actually interviewed for Aramco on the same day in Calgary. Small world huh?
Fore!
Rob enjoying life
More pics of the course
Sunsetting on the course, rough life huh?
5:59pm
6:05pm (kidding, the sun does drop pretty fast but not that fast, but it is pitch black by 6:30pm every night, but bright and sunny at 6:00am too!)
Golf course at night
Golf course at night
I love this picture of the golf course
ABC's LOST Finale PARTY
For those of you who know Rob and I we are HUGE Lost fans, I have to admit the reason I first purchased the DVD set Season was for Mathew Fox...yummy. We started watching it and we were hooked (Barbo's this is the next TV series ypu need to watch!) and I was introduced to James Sawyer (character on show for you that don't follow the show, but for you fellow Lostees you know who I mean, lets just say there weren't a lot of episodes where Swayer was wearing a shirt...yummy. Sorry I was getting sidetracked, I was thrilled when we found fellow Lost fans here, so what else do you do in Saudi Arabia, when the questions are swirling in your head to see after six years do they get off the island? You throw a massive Finale party is what you do! So we did! Yes we went all out, but come on, we...okay I needed to bid farwell to Mathew Fox!
Yes t-shirts were made up! I told you we went all out! That's Lani for you! You rock Lani! Notice the red walls? We have our house painted now! Yippeeee, no more white walls!
Lani and myself
Me and my guy!
The Dharma Christmas tree I made for the party.
The LOST cake I made
Wine?
Beer? Oh my.....
Dharma food...yes we went all out, what else is there to do on the island...I mean camp.
More Dharma stuff
Poor Roger, never quite made it off the island!
Oh my. Rob's shirt was a little small (they only have XL here).
If you haven't followed ABC's Lost you have missed out!
Funky Treats is a hit here!
Well I'm excited to say that FUNKY TREATS is getting rave reviews. I'm baking like crazy, but I love it. Here are some of my creations so far:
The Lost Party cake (Do you think Mathew Fox would have been proud?)
Pirate cupcakes for Jaymee's year end T-ball party (I hand made the pirate candies)
Jaymee's 6th Birthday cake
Sunflower cupcakes I made for Jaymee's class birthday party
Mini cupcakes I made for Jaymee's school play...I made 90 candied flowers and 72 cupcakes!
More Fun Pictures
Jordyn and Sienna. Jordyn says they are two peas in a pod! Jordyn and Sienna go to preschool together and have become quite good friends...they are sooooo cute!
I mean this is what life is about!
Before picture.
After picture
Jordyn vs Chocolate ice cream...hmmm
Jaymee doing her homework, she has worked so hard, we are so proud of you sweetheart!
Jordyn doing some worksheets too, gotta love Brainquest workbooks!
Little Miss Jaymee
Goggle girls!
Daddy and Jaymee enjoying the pool
Daddy and Koochee (aka Jordyn)
I'm comin to get ya!
Mommy and Jordyn
Well like I said earlier, we can't believe that we have been here for two months! We have met some really incredible people and thank them all for making this transition easy for us! We still miss you guys back home like crazy!
New things I have learned since moving to Saudi Arabia (aside from learning to read speed limit signs!):
- The health care here is free and timely. What do I mean by timely? Well remember Aug 15, 2009? That was the day Jaymee went anaphylactic on me and I had the police escort to the children's hospital (day is still vivid in my mind) anyways, we always knew she was highly allergic to fish, so she always stayed away from it, so what made her go anaphylactic on us? We thought it was the exotic fruit juice she drank at my parents house, so we kept her away from all exotic fruits, like kiwi, mango, passion fruit and pineapple. In Calgary we were put on a 26 month wait list to have her allergy tested! We have been here 2 months and Jaymee has been tested for all fruit allergies and her results came back negative, she isn't allergic to any fruits! She still is HIGHLY allergic to fish, so the only conclusion that the doctor could come up with was that the juice may have contained Omega 3 which can sometimes include fish oils. Jaymee was over the moon with the news and we have celebrated with all kinds of fruits, we've had mango, passion fruit, kiwi and pineapple and no reaction! What a relief to finally have some answers, we still carry an EPI pen wherever we go, but at least she can have fruit at friend's houses now with out worry! They will to test her again in 6 months, that's right 6 months not 26!
- I've discovered that no one really says what the actual temperature is, it is purely measured on the number of showers that are required in a day. If you are hitting 3 or more showers a day, that means we are roughly around 45 degrees Celsius! We have hit 47 and that was a 4 shower day! The humidity is rolling in, when I went to take Jaymee to school, my sunglasses fogged up! I thought that only happened when it was -30 and my eyes would steam up my glasses...guess not.
- Another thing about the heat here is the toilets. Okay ladies, we have spent most of our time getting our men to put the toilet seats down, but here? You don't do that, why? Well every time I went to the washroom, I would yell at the kids or Rob for peeing on the toilet seat, but they kept denying it, until one day I figured it out. When the toilet seat is closed condensation forms on the seat giving it that wet feeling....yummy! See the things we have to go through here? Life is hard!
- Rental cars here are NOT recommended. We have this rental car that we use to get around until we decide what vehicle we want to purchase. Rob and some of the guys went car "shopping" in Al-Khobar. What an experience that was, they practically had to beg someone to give them information on the vehicles! There is no such thing as high pressure sales! At one point they were in GMC and no one was around, but they sat in all the cars and walked around the showroom, the only person they saw was the cleaning staff. Very strange indeed! On their way home the rental car broke down (Note: That was the day it hit 47! And if you are going out of camp you need to dress conservatively, which for them was long pants and golf shirt!)
Well that is all for right now! We send hugs, kisses and sunshine to all! Love you and miss you!!!
Love the Richards Family!
Each child in the play got their very own "stage poster" with their words from their part and the song they sang on the back...so cute.
Jaymee giving flowers to Mrs. Waite for the wonderful job she did on the play.
Mommy and her little starlet!
Hey beautiful!
Jaymee getting ready to take the stage!
Jordyn is very popular at Jaymee's school, all the kids just love her!
