Saudi is still Saudi, but I think we are starting to feel a little more comfortable being here. Prayer time seems to be a little less intrusive on our schedule (we're learning how to think ahead a little more), we have met some more people that we enjoy spending time with, our evenings are becoming a little more "normal", we're getting things hung on the wall, finding places to get the car washed, etc. The weather is still hot (mid 90's during the day), but the mornings and evenings have a nice breeze and I think the humidity must be going down because it doesn't seem as hot. We get so jealous hearing of the nice weather in Texas, but know that our time will come when we are having beautiful weather while Texans are getting quite cold.
In preparation for coming to Saudi we weren't sure which holidays to come prepared for. Come to find out, within the compound we do all the holidays. We had everything from a pumpkin carving competition to a haunted house and felt quite festive. Halloween is one we never got super dramatic over anyway, but I guess we could've at least brought some costumes. Thankfully, we have a dress up box so we acted a little like Mary Poppins and got creative.
Funny story: Ok, so there's no way around it -- WE MISS BLUE BELL!! The Saudi's are crazy about their ice cream, but let's face it - you haven't had ice cream until you've had Blue Bell. The next best thing around here is Baskin Robbins. You can't find many flavors in the grocery store so Tim went to the Baskin Robbins to see about getting some Mint Chocolate Chip scooped into a container to bring home. He was trying to explain to the guy what he wanted and the guy suggested he by a Third. Tim was a little confused but agreed to it anyway. (which is often much easier than trying to understand or get them to see it your way) So the guy pulls the big cardboard tub of ice cream out of the display freezer. He put it on this jig and proceeded to cut the bottom third off of the entire carton. So Tim walked out of Baskin Robbins with a Third of ice cream!
We did some digging around in our dress up box to find costumes to wear. Katelynn didn't want to be a specific princess, just a princess. (And all princesses know that purple shoes go with a blue dress any day!) Olivia is a ballerina/fairy type person (a girl in pink with a tutu who forgot to wear her angel wings). Benjamin was Superman boy and wore a cowboy hat for most of the night. :-) Maybe the most creative Halloween yet!!
Tim and the kids with our Texas cowboy pumpkin! The competition wasn't quite fair, since the chef's were all available to help carve whatever design you wanted, but we came out with 4th place in their age group!
Benjamin got his hair cut the other night. It ended up very short and "bowlish", but we were noticing as we sat watching all the other boys get haircuts that the bowl cut must be in!
I guess Benjamin wanted a different outfit from the dress up box! This picture will show up again later in life I'm sure!
This is one mode of transportation for errand running around here. Benjamin and I went to pay some bills, rent some movies and get some water. And of course no errands are complete without a stop by the market to get something gummy!
These are the plants of the vendor we bought from. There were 4 or 5 vendors out there with all their stuff layed out on the parking lot.
There were also 4 or 5 trucks out there full of rams for sale. The rams are slaughtered for sacrifices this week for Hajj. Hajj is the annual pilgrimage Muslims take to Mecca, which is required of every able-bodied Muslim once in their lifetime.
These are some friends on our compound that God sent us - The Reeves'. We have a great time with them and we enjoy having another Christian family to hang out with. They are from South Africa and have been a true blessing to our family already!
Our RAIN!! Can you see it??!!
