My mom’s biggest nightmare has come true...

She should have seen it coming by the fact that I married a man that loves to wear pink shirts and since I bought a Prius a few years back but... I have turned into what my mom has always feared... a tree hugging hippie or should I say, a palm tree hugging hippie!  Well, sort of... I watch locals over here throw trash out of their cars all the time and want desperately to drive alongside them and give a stern wag of my middle finger but alas, I don’t want to have my visa revoked!   Jon and I still can’t get over the plastic bags that they give you at the grocery store... they are like quadruple ply!  And they are not stingy when it comes to loading bags either... i think stores pride themselves on how many bags they can use on so few items.  I bought 10 things at the store the other day and left with three bags. Seriously, is that really necessary!?!  

For example, say i am getting a fast food meal to go at Wendy’s... yes there are Wendy’s over here... there is also McDonald’s, Churches Chicken (known as Texas Chicken), Subway, Arby’s and even a Popeye’s and a Dairy Queen!... America, doing its job of fattening up the world!  Anyways, they put your sandwich in a bag, your fries in another bag, your drink in a holder in yet another separate bag and then they put all three bags into a larger bag with handles with your ketchup and straw.  Wasteful?  Apparently no one over here thinks so!  You would think I have an alien twin who suffers from turrets growing out of my face by the way these people look at me when I say I don’t need a bag for my things... what do you mean you don’t need a bag?  Oh, don’t worry, I will just have my twin with her twitchy mini baby arms help me carry my things to my car.

People also like to randomly dump their trash in the middle of the desert… here is a nice little pile were we take the dogs running.

  

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/uae-tops-world-on-per-capita-carbon-footprint-1.139335

I am sure if i moved back to Austin I would be a wasteful, golden cheek warbler hating, salamander poisoning, old school Austinite, but over here... I am a freak of nature!

Until later...

 

For our own enjoyment…

This video may not be funny to anyone else out there, kind of like when you let your dog chase a laser light in your back yard and no one laughs and your friends politely say, “maybe if it was our own dog it might be funny.”  That completely happened to us by the way… thanks Jes and Mark!  However, we got a kick out of this (you can obviously tell by our laughing on the video) and of course at Little Leighton’s expense… but that’s why you have kids right, to use them as comedic props?!?

Until later...

We be Iftaring…

We are in the middle of Ramadan over here in Dubai.  Ramadan is a Muslim holiday which celebrates the Holy Koran being revealed to Mohammad and therefore given to the world.  During Ramadan Muslim adults refrain from eating, drinking and doing the hanky panky during day light hours for a full month.  Throughout the month you are supposed to work on being patient, practice humility, charity and work on your submissiveness to God.

Our good family friend, Marjie Walters, gave Leighton an outfit and bib for every single holiday during her first year but little did she know we were going to be moving to Dubai… so I made little L this onesie to add to her “1^st” pictures…

 As a Westerner I am not expected to fast during the day, but it is against the law and inconsiderate for me to eat and drink in public while others are fasting around me… I am not even supposed to drink in my car, but I am a rebel and totally sneak sips before and after passing other cars!  There are a few restaurants that get around the law by putting up black drapes in their doors and windows, but they are few and far between.  There are way more in Dubai than other places since Dubai is a little more relaxed and far more western than other places.  I found a Starbucks in Ibn Buttuta Mall that was “open”.  You can enjoy your latte while avoiding the awkward situation of sipping it down in front of a local who hasn’t had a drop of water in 10 hours.   

Anyways, when the sun goes down, Muslims can break their fast in a traditional way by eating a date, praying and then enjoying an Iftar.  Iftar is the evening meal but they have turned into big buffet style dinners and they are a BIG DEAL in Dubai!  Our good friend, Tarek, invited us out to an Iftar the other night and we had a great time.  We enjoyed traditional food; hummus, lamb with rice, tabbouleh, fried cauliflower, shawarma, yummy desserts and much much more!  Jon and I got there shortly before sundown, waited in line, filled our plates and waited.  You can’t eat or drink until the call to prayer, aka the sun set happened… but once it did, silverware was dinging and glasses were clinking.  I think these restaurants have a good thing going because everyone’s stomachs have shrunk throughout the day from fasting so they only eat a little and pay for a lot… it’s a good business model! 

Tarek and little miss sleepy thang…

Leighton was Iftared out when we got home...

Somebody had a little too much fun at their first Iftar the night before!

Until Later…

Juicy…

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may claim that Iran has neither nuclear weapons nor homosexuals, but I can tell you one thing…. They sure do produce a mean watermelon!  You may have a blatant disregard for human rights Iran, but you are winning when it comes to your melons… nice priorities!

Until Later…

I swear we are funny, kid…

So, Leighton is officially three months old! She sort of rocks… sleeping through the night (most of the time), always ready to get out of the house for play dates and shopping and hell, she only poops every five days (like a lady I might add) so we don’t even have to deal with a bunch of poopie blow outs! Don’t get me wrong, she does have her sassy moments but they are few and far between. 

Little L is on track with all of her milestones… but she isn’t doing two things;

She isn’t rolling over yet… which is okay, she still has time to get this one done.  However, we think it is because she is a little chunky so she can’t get the momentum to get her large and in charge self flipped over!  Although, when she does figure it out we are going to have to watch out, because once she gets that weight moving she might not be able to slow it down… that first roll might turn into two or three!

And... even though she is a smile factory, she doesn’t laugh.  She still does her little chuckle… a deep slow a ha, a ha, a ha… but we haven’t had a real gut busting laugh yet.  Jon and I keep insisting that we are funny parents, but I think we are getting a glimpse into her teenage years with the eye rolls and the exasperated looks. One day those looks will be followed by, “stop embarrassing me, Dad” or “Mom, you just don’t understand.” But for now I just keep telling her that she is going to have to come to terms with the fact that she is stuck with us and she needs to give into the feeling… just laugh already kid!!!!  

I mean how could you not laugh at this Leighton?!?

Until later…

I’m feeling HOT HOT HOT…

It has officially become HOT over here!  I feel bad even saying anything because it is so hot back home… I think Dallas is on its 27th straight day above 100*… but it was confirmed by Tracy that it is definitely hot in Dubai.  The weather is not only hot, it is humid too!  Luckily, since Jon grew up in Arizona and I was raised in Texas, we are somewhat used to this heat and living in Houston for the past three years has made us accustom to the humidity… BUT, it is toasty.  The only way I can describe the weather is like this… you know how you feel when you open a hot oven door and that blast of heat hits your face and makes your eyes water and your glasses fog up… yep, sort of like that!  Is it completely unbearable? No.  However, are you going to find me hanging out in the heat, absolutely not!  I find myself staying at home all day or making trips to the air conditioned malls…..being outside for long periods of time is out of the picture for the next month or so, unless it is before the sun comes up when it is only in the mid 90’s.  The picture below is the temp as we left dinner the other night at 9:05 PM!  Who needs to pay for a spa day… we officially live in a sauna! 

 Until later...

Wood, pots and poo… oh my!

Jon and I recently had our 5 year wedding anniversary (and we have been together for almost 11)! Some days it seems like I just met him yesterday… some days, especially the days that he thinks he is funny, it seems like I have been with him for a life time… you all know what I am talking about! Anyways, the 5 year anniversary gift is something made of wood.  You can only imagine the jokes Jon had about what he could give me as a present and always followed them with a “booyah!”… that was one of those days that felt as if we had been together forever and I rolled my eyes  more times than I could count.  Jon gave me a Kindle in order to save paper, aka wood, and I gave him an IOU for a wooden humidor (IOU you are saying.  Yes, I just had his kid… he is lucky that I even thought about it enough to get him an IOU).  The gifts were nice but I am assuming like most new parents with no family around or a babysitter yet, we just stayed in and made dinner and watched a movie… old BORING couple, I KNOW, it makes me sad too!  But, we used the money we would have spent on a nice dinner on pots and plants for the back yard.

 I did a little research on plants and drew out a picture of what my ideal backyard would look like in my dream world.   I also found out about the Garden Souk, where you can get super great deals on pots and plants… it is the place that all the local gardeners go to get their stuff at wholesale prices, so I figured with penny-pinching Jon in tow we would manage to get at least half of what I had drawn out.  We headed out at 8 in the morning and it was already 100 degrees out... no bueno.  After a few wrong turns we found ourselves at the souk.  There are probably 50 shops randomly placed in a small area just off the side of a busy road and all the stores are basically set up the same.  They have two Arab men sitting in white lawn chairs at the front dragging you in with the promise of “the best deal for you” or “I have anything you need”.  Each shop is about 50 feet wide and 30 yards deep with every single type of plant you could think of and more pots than you can count.   Like most things in Dubai, the plants at most of these shops are not native to the UAE, so we had to go with a game plan so I wouldn’t kill everything in the first week!  After an hour or so and a few dozen shops, Jon had haggled the price down to something reasonable and we left having purchased 10 large pots with soil and plants with delivery for a third of what it would have cost in the States.  Later that afternoon one lone Pakistani man showed up to unload the ridiculously heavy pots, which at this point already had the plants potted in them… so not only did we get a decorated backyard, Jon got a pretty sweet workout in at no extra charge!  Lucky Jon!

Even though you can’t tell, Leighton was representing TEXAS

 with a bluebonnet onesie from her Auntie Mon! 

Happy Boys!

 

My Cholo husband enjoying the fruit of his labors...

We were very excited to have something alive in the back yard and some color from the pots to cheer up the space.  I must say I was also excited to see the dogs’ fake grass get put into the garbage!  Jon meant well when buying the grass and was told that it would drain and there would be no “potty” smell.  Well, don't ever trust what someone tells you who sells their goods at a place called Dragon Mart… lesson learned!  So I was beyond happy to see the stinky peepee grass find its final resting place in the trashcan.  However, the dogs were not so pleased and were even a little confused on where to “GO”! 

Bless Walter’s heart!  I am however happy to report that it has been a month and they have figured out what they need to do in a timely manner and all the plants are still alive.  The Cumberworth’s are winning!

Until Later…