July 2020

July took a number of turns on us, some that we expected and some that we didn't.

It started with flights home being cancelled.  This was expected.  We were really just waiting for the official word.

We decided that for our family in our situation that we wanted/needed to get home by any means necessary.  Stephen had people to meet in Houston and endless vacation to burn.  We also had ailing family members and new family members that we hoped to see.  So we opted for a repatriation flight that took us through Frankfurt for big bucks.  Oman Air sold every single seat on that flight except 1 that I could see which really just hacked me off.  Our flights on Delta from Frankfurt to Atlanta then to DFW weren't even near full.  Much better experiences there.

Grammy and Grandpa greeting us at the airport.

June 2020

The end of June brought the end of school. Hallelujah!

Since school proceeded all the way through June, nothing much changed for us.  Sunday through Thursday consisted of schooling through the morning until around 2.  At that time, we had a movie and snack.  After we finished all of our animated Disney movies, we switched to rotating through who would get to choose the movie each afternoon.  We celebrated the end of school with a small ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.  It was delicious, but I don't have a great picture because J was unhappy about stuff right as I tried to take a picture.  I can't stand to look at the picture of him nearly in tears, so I deleted it.

E was super excited to receive his year 6 hoodie!

May 2020

I love May, but this was a long one!  It is the month of my birthday and Mother's Day which provides me with a nice "Megan Week."  My boys spoiled me on my birthday with a painting by an artist friend who does lovely Omani artwork with her Colombian flair.  My meals didn't go as planned thanks to Ramadan, but our backup options and everyone being happy worked for me.  To be fair, one back up option was actually my favorite option here, but I had decided to go with something different since I had just had it on a date with E.

Option C or D for lunch was McD.  To be fair, I love their fries, the large drinks we can get and now the chicken sandwich I order.  Plus, it is J's favorite.  He was getting McD regardless of what the rest of us ate to keep the peace.

April 2020

April during Coronavirus means we were still not in school.  Schools are closed "until further notice."  This means I will be teacher/mom for the foreseeable future.

We did get a break in April when we had our 2 week Easter break.  We were supposed to go to a favorite local hotel, Millennium in Mussanah, for a few days, but it was obviously not an option.  We were also supposed to join Stephen in Bahrain where he was supposed to have a conference.  That also obviously did not happen.  Instead, I pulled out my summer schedule to give us something (a teeny, tiny, little bit) of a schedule.  Basically, every day the boys would have the morning to read/watch TV/play video games/ride bikes.  The afternoons would be filled with a small amount of school time (in the summer this is to keep them engaged), a fun activity, and a movie.  Let's be honest, the movie is a daily activity around here now.  It's too hot to do anything else in the afternoon when they are done with their school work.

One of the fun activities:  board games 

March 2020

Remember how I thought things felt like they were about to get crazy?  I wish I had been wrong.  March was insane and loooooong!  Welcome to the world with COVID-19.

A little normalcy:  St. Patrick's Day breakfast

A last restaurant meal at Five Guys before COVID-19 restrictions.

Kargeen after restaurants had to close to eat-in service.

Before COVID-19 shut the world down, the boys' school celebrated world book day on Thursday, March 5.  The kids dressed in costume (J as Pikachu and E as Harry Potter), and I spent much of the day at the school helping out in various ways.  I helped the senior library with a bake sale booth then I helped the primary library as they sold books from the author that was in town (poet Valerie Bloom).

At the end of that day, it was announced that extra activities at the school and parents on campus would need to cease.  This meant no more volunteering at school.  This meant no more soccer practice.  And as an extra wrinkle, this meant that all of the pick up procedures needed to change.  It took a couple of days to sort, but everyone was starting to get into the groove of where we were allowed to be to pick up our kids when it was announced that schools were to be closed for a month.

That announcement came on Saturday, March 14.  Our school quickly transitioned to online learning which began promptly on March 15 (schools run Sunday-Thursday here).  The first day was a little rough.  All of the assignments for all of foundation stage (years 2-6 or grades 1-5) were in 1 long email which just meant I was scrolling up and down to instruct the boys on what to do.  But that was really just the school's quick solution to get things rolling the first day.  By day 2, they had Google sites set up for each grade.  I loaded the Google page for each child on different devices, then instructed them to start at the top and work their way down.  It has worked well for us.  The boys are assigned lessons on their Google site with occasional videos or voice memos.  There is even a recommended maximum time to spend on any particular lesson to make sure the children don't spend too much time in front of a device, especially at one go.  Their assignments are often on Showbie which is a site they had been using already.  On Showbie, they can upload completed assignments, ask questions of their teachers, and receive feedback.  The teachers are all available to provide feedback and answer questions during normal school hours.  I say all teachers.  Poor E has lost his teacher through this as he needed to go home due to a family emergency, and he would not currently be allowed to return as our borders are closed.

I said it has gone well, but that doesn't mean it has been perfect.  I haven't been perfect.  I've been short tempered at times.  I've needed me time.  I've yelled.  I've cried.  But I'm trying to remember to show my boys grace and show myself grace.  We are all learning.  I've tried to remember to stop and read the instructions to help answer questions (I don't know about everyone else, but at least my kids are really bad about reading the questions and instructions accurately and retelling them to me).  This small step helps to slow things down and squash any miscommunication frustrations before they start.  And I've restructured my day so that I'm being productive while the boys are doing school so that we can all unwind together with a movie in the afternoon.

So that is our COVID-19 update, but how about I end on a high note?  In early March, my parents came for a visit.  Their plans were changed, but I'm so thankful they were able to come.  They were here March 9-18.  The highlight was taking them to a desert camp for one night on March 13.  We stayed in tents raised above the ground, watched the sunrise and sunset, and rode camels.  The original plan was that they would be here before heading to Dubai on March 18 to take a cruise around Oman, through the Suez Canal, up to Rome with some really cool stops at Musandam, Salalah, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel.  That was obviously cancelled.  No big deal.  There's always next year.  But my mom really wanted to ride a camel at one of their stops, so I'm glad I decided to plan that for while they were with us.

Grammy and Grandpa arrived!

J, Grandpa, and Grammy riding camels.

Sunrise over the campsite

The rest of us riding camels.

Family picture with the camels

Another oddity of the month that ended well was that I had an MRI about mid-month.  Long story short, I found a lump in my breast.  No need to fear, it is not cancer.  But here's the story anyways for those who are curious.

So the long story is I found a lump in maybe December, but I would feel it then not.  I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to feel.  I finally made an appointment to get it checked out in February.  By then, my self-diagnosis said it was probably nothing because it swelled with my cycle.  But I went, had it examined, and was given an ultrasound to confirm that it was nothing to be concerned about.  However, the ultrasound showed a dark spot in my other breast that needed an MRI to see more clearly.  I had to wait nearly a full month for this MRI because it needs to be precisely timed with my cycle.  This meant that I went in after COVID-19 was taking affect here.  (My temp was taken before getting too far into the hospital, and everyone was wearing masks.)  Before the MRI, they set me up to be able to do a contrast.  They used a vein in the side of my wrist (painful), and they did the typical (I assume) test/rinse of saline (again, I assume) before taking me back.  They asked if it hurt.  It didn't, and I told them it was cold.  Then the world started to spin and swim.  I felt like I was going to pass out, but there was little I could do since I was sitting up in a tiny room.  I told the nurse I felt light headed, so I was just going to lay my head down.  Next thing I know, the nurse that was on my left was now on my right.  The doctor that had left the room was on my left.  It all seemed chaotic, and I had no idea what was going on.  Y'all, I've felt like I was going to pass out before, but I've never actually done it.  I have no idea how long I was out.  I asked if I could lay down, so they brought in a stretcher.  After a few minutes of laying down, sipping water, and getting toweled off (I had sweat a lot), I was able to get up to walk to the MRI.  Now you should know that I'm fairly claustrophobic, so I saw the machine and tube but decided to focus on the bed I would lay on.  They had me lay face down which helped me to block out the being in a tube thought.  My hands were above my head which caused them to go numb then (after I shifted my position slightly) my shoulders to ache.  I was nearly in tears by the end I was in so much pain.  After a week, being told I couldn't make the needed follow up appointment with my doctor, then going to the hospital to pick up the results (this time I was stopped outside the hospital to have my temp taken) they scheduled the follow up with my doctor while I was there.  The MRI showed nothing of concern and confirmed the benign lump in the left breast.  I'll apparently do follow up ultrasounds at 3 and 6 months, but I can handle those.  Hoping and praying I don't have to do an MRI again ever!

Here's to a hopefully better April.  Happy Easter to all!

February 2020

This February both continued the relative chaos and uncertainty of this year and felt a bit like the calm in the eye of the storm.  The period of mourning ended on February 19.  But concerns of Coronavirus definitely started to grow before the month ended.

We started the month with Mamaw and Papaw still in town.  Then right after they left, Stephen had 2 weeks of trips.  It was basically back to normal as far as home life goes.  We even squeezed in date nights with the boys in between his work trips (J took me to Jollibee, and E took Stephen to Five Guys).  We didn't watch the Super Bowl because it began at 3 am.  I was happy that Kansas City won, though.  E had a one day wadi trip mid-month, and J went on his first overnight trip at the end of the month.  It was a year 4 camping trip in Muscat Hills.  He had so much fun boating, drawing maps, creating sand designs for retention walls, and all sorts of other activities crammed into a 2 day, 1 night trip.  He is excited for longer trips in the future.  My favorite part was that they taught the kids how to set up tents so that they set up their own tents with their tent buddies.  My second favorite part was going on a day date with Stephen to hike and snorkel.

My date at Jollibee.

January 2020

January 2020 has been an interesting month here in Oman.  We kicked it off on a boat finishing off our trip.  We arrived back in Oman a bit late for the first day back to school, so that was one day off.  At the end of that week, J woke up sick to make a second day off for him.  Then came Saturday morning when we learned that Sultan Qaboos had passed away.  An official mourning period was declared for 3 days.  The official mourning period started the next day (Sunday) which meant 3 more days off school.  Then came the last of the heavy rains for the month which cancelled the first day of school after the mourning period thanks to flooded classrooms and no electricity.  5 days off for E and 6 for J in 2 weeks.  Good thing the rest of the month didn't trend the same way.

Back to the passing of Sultan Qaboos.  He was a truly beloved leader as he led Oman from being a poor, oppressed, left behind country, to one with much improved roads, hospitals, and educational systems.  He made Oman a symbol of peace as he quietly led by example inviting arguing leaders to the table to discuss solutions.  The people here live much more free lives, though it is still not the level of freedom Americans experience.  He had been sick for quite a while as he was battling cancer.  While it wasn't shared in local news (no freedom of the press), Wikipedia indicated that he came home after his early December doctor appointment because he wanted to pass away in his home country.  The only news released here came at the end of December to say that he was in stable condition.  He passed away Friday, January 10, in the evening.  The new sultan (Sultan Haitham) was named Saturday morning.  Sultan Qaboos was laid to rest later in the morning.  It was a crazy morning/weekend/week of searching for every bit of information that we could find online to keep up with what was going on.  We dealt with closed roads as diplomats and world leaders came in to pay their respects during the days of mourning.  I sent Stephen to the gas station for emergency milk the first morning because I wasn't sure if it would be respectful for me to be out in public, and the gas stations were about all that were open.  We went to the grocery store the next day after they were asked to be open.  (The grocery store is in the mall... It was super weird going to a mall with all the stores closed.)

December 2019

As you may or may not know, expat life is actually a lot like regular life.  I deal with oddities like no Amazon, signs and menus in another language, and some uncertainty about what I will find at the grocery store.  But, I encounter those as a part of normal things like shopping (in my case more "window shopping") online, eating out, and grocery shopping.  It can be quite mundane.  With that in mind, December started like any other (though admittedly warmer).  The kids went to school, they had some typical end of term days of assessments and reviews, and they had a Winter Fair and program.  We decorated the house for Christmas and enjoyed Christmas decorations as we would see them at hotels, restaurants, or the grocery store.  By the way, Christmas decorations in hotels is what "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" means here in Oman as well as many parts of Asia.

For school, J had an explorer day where he dressed up like an explorer (space explorer in our case because I already had the costume) and did fun recaps of what they had learned about Tudor Explorers this term.  E had a decades day where all the kids dressed up to represent a decade of the 1900s to wrap up their learning about the 20th century.  E went as a boy from the 30s, and he took a cool board game we made with trivia questions dealing with the 30s.

E ready for 30s day at school.

November 2019

I know I've been gone a while.  When summer arrived, I was intent upon posting at least once a week, so I wrote a bunch of posts and scheduled them to post.  Problem was, I didn't really like any of them.  I didn't have anything I wanted to write about concerning Oman.  It didn't feel genuine to post about Oman while I was in the States.  Then we came back to Oman, school, life, and some rather demanding projects right from the start.  I was overwhelmed.  I was stressed.  I was not a happy camper.

Life settled down around mid-october into its new rhythm.  But I still didn't get back into blogging.  I thought about it, I even wrote a couple of posts in my head, but I never put "pen to paper" (or is it fingers to keys?).

My goal is to re-start with fewer posts "required" of myself.  Maybe something like a monthly update unless I have something cool to share (a trip, for example).  I also hope to go back and post about our time in Ohio this summer or our trip to Salalah over our mid-term break or our snorkeling with whale shark adventure.  But those will come when I have time.  For now, the November update:

November in Oman is National Day celebrations.  The streets are decorated.  The stores are decorated.  Pictures of the Sultan grace buildings, stores, and cars.  This year, we celebrated the 49th National Day.  To commemorate the day, there was a military parade, there are fireworks, there is singing and dancing that pops up all over the place, and schools tend to celebrate in their own special ways.  At BSM, the children were allowed to come in traditional Omani dress or dressed in the traditional dress of their home country.  Last year, I sent my boys to school in Texas Rangers shirts and shorts.  This year, they wore their dishdashas and hats that we had picked up last year.  They were definitely a bit small almost a year later, but we made them work.  Underneath, they were US shirts from Mamaw and Papaw.  Good thing because J got hot and removed the dishdasha sometime during the day.  The school day started with an assembly with singing, dancing, and musical performances.  Neither of us was able to attend, which is a bit of a sore point for me.

My boys in their dishdashas and massar for J and kuma for E.