Church in Oman

This morning wasn’t great.  I woke up with an overwhelming feeling that we should have rented a house in a different part of town.  I got up and started researching that part of town to try to prove to myself that the grass wasn’t greener over there.  It failed.  That community has garden areas, beach access, restaurants, shops, a grocery store, a hair salon, a doctor’s office, a dentist, a gym, pools, and so much more.  But, it is rather far from the boys’ school, which is the real reason we didn’t look there too much.  I could have put them on a bus to school, but I didn’t want to force a new school and bus ride on my kids.  I opted for school convenience over living convenience for me.

Things will get better.  Eventually I will meet people.  Eventually I will have a car and can get to more than just the school, a grocery store, a handful of American fast food restaurants, and coffee shops.  Bad days happen. 

"Some days are like that.  Even in Australia."

Throwback Thursday: Anastasia

Yesterday, I finally convinced the boys to watch Anastasia with me.  It was probably my favorite non-Disney movie growing up.  I loved it!  But my boys saw it as a girl movie, so they wouldn’t watch it with me.  That is, until we were down to the last few animated movies the boys hadn’t watched recently.  Ha!

The film is a fanciful adaptation of what happened to the Grand Duchess Anastasia.  It features a young Anya who has forgotten her past and a couple of con-men who are trying to pass off a fake Anastasia as the real thing to the Dowager Empress who lives in Paris.

What is That Smell?

This is a question I ask myself almost constantly (and, no, it's not because I'm the only female in a house of boys).  There really is an aroma to the air.  I think it has something to do with the heat.  I say that because there is a stronger smell in rooms when the air conditioning has been turned off.  And I don’t mean always bad smells, but some of them are overwhelming, which isn’t pleasant for people like me that are sensitive to smells (thanks, Mom!).

Let’s start with the perfume shops or stands in the mall.  Really no different from the perfume sections in US department stores.  But, I hold my breath as I pass those, too.  This dates back to the time I had an allergic reaction in the men’s cologne section of a store.  We must have stopped on the edge of it for some reason, and I began to sneeze uncontrollably.  My mom saw what was happening and moved me to a different part of the store presumably while my dad kept browsing.  The sneezing subsided and all was fine.  But ever since then, I’m overly cautious.  Back to the present, I’ve learned where some of the perfume shops are in the local malls and I try to take routes that don’t go past them.

Weird Days

Today could have been horrible, but we really made the most of it.  It started out nice and relaxing, then we headed out to run some errands.  After our second stop, the car wouldn't start.  The heat had already killed our battery.  So there we are, outside in the heat, with a car that won't start.  I could see the boys were ready to complain, but I explained how we knew they were hungry and hot and didn't want to be standing outside.  I explained how Stephen and I felt the exact same way.  I also explained to them that telling us wouldn't make them better and would just add to the stress of the situation.

Stephen set about calling some coworkers to come help.  I headed off down the street to some shops and a Pokestop.  Anything to entertain the kids.  After looking around the blessedly air conditioned shops, I received word from Stephen that someone was able to jump his car and he would head our way.  A battery place was just down the street, so that would be our next stop.

Luckily, it was just the battery that was no good.  And even more luckily, there were a couple of restaurants nearby because it was well after noon and we were hungry. 

“What is a weekend?”

If you’re not familiar with that quote, then you never watched Downton Abbey.  I’ve been watching a lot of it lately because I have the entire series on my phone.  Without TV, it’s a good way to relax and grab some time for myself.

In the show, the Dowager Countess asks this question of Matthew Crawley when he refers to learning about Downton on the weekends seeing as he’s a lawyer during the week.  Oh how middle class of him.  Lol.

Friday at the beach

Settled Yet Not

Have you ever tried to move into a house without your furniture?  Let’s just say, it doesn’t feel like your house.  I know it will take time to feel like your home, but it doesn’t even feel like a house.  It feels like a hotel, maybe?  For probably 2 weeks, we will have no couches, no TVs, and none of our beds.  Stephen bought a guest bedroom bed for us and a futon for the boys, so we do have places to sleep.  A table and chairs were delivered on day 3, so we could stop eating dinners on the floor.  

Playing under the stairs

We bought a pan and this thing here that is a flat pan so we can do some cooking.  We never did see a spatula, so we have been stirring and flipping with a plastic fork and knife.  We bought 2 bath rugs because this house has 5 bathrooms so we knew we wouldn’t have enough coming from our 2 bathroom house.  We bought a kitchen trash can and 2 bathroom trash cans.  Yes, we dealt with no trash cans for a couple of days.  That was as long as I could stand it.  We do need to buy curtains.  The sun comes up around 5:30 am here.  I feel like we are not quite on the right time zone, but that would be an outsiders perspective.

When Lasts aren't Lasts

We were supposed to leave on Sunday, August 19.  We had our last family day with my side of the family.  We had our last meals at our favorite restaurants the last two weeks.  We hit up Shipley’s Donuts, Chick-fil-A, David’s Barbeque, Taco Bueno, Moni’s, and Whataburger.  Some of these were expedited by Eddie’s birthday.  Bless that kid and his similar taste buds to mine.

            

But then we didn’t get to leave.  We were told that we could do visas on arrival, but U.S. based airlines may not let you check in without that visa.  Now, it’s not all their fault.  Sometimes it’s the cause of our lovely laws.  Or it could have been because Oman visa rules had changed so recently that the check-in systems hadn’t been updated yet.  Either way, I should have done it myself online before like my gut said I should do.  It’s not that hard.  You go to evisa.rop.om to get your evisa.  You do have to set up a log-in, but then the system guides you through the steps (sort of).  It does bring up your visa options after the first step.  And it’s important to note that you probably want to click “next” not “save and ___”.  I just saw “save” and clicked.  Then I had to figure out how to get back into my application (which is at least 3 unnecessary steps).  But you do all the steps, check your work, pay, and it will probably get approved within the next work day in Oman (so keep in mind the time change).

             

So there we were, at the airport, with no way to get to Oman.  We left, and I called the travel agent to re-book (by the way, she screwed it up royally.  Stephen’s normal person saved the day and fixed the new reservations Monday afternoon).  So then we had two extra days before leaving.