Cheese

Leighton has not always been known for taking the best pictures.

Just take these recent examples...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Jon and I have tried to tell Leighton that she needs to smile for a camera and I guess when we have shown her how to smile.... Well, maybe we are over exaggerating just a smidge because this is the result...

 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think Leighton has an awesome smile when she genuinely smiles but when she is faking it you can tell! Here are some candid natural smiles…

With school pictures fast approaching we talked about her smile every day and she got into the swing of a normal, natural, sweet smile…. Then picture day came and went.  Leighton’s teacher reassured me that my first born was totally into picture day and that she couldn’t wait to see the fabulous results.  Two weeks later, I show up to school to this peach of a picture…

 

 

 

And then this one…

Are you kidding me kid…. Seriously?  Well, don’t you worry Leighton… every one of your high school boyfriends will see this gem of a picture.  Thanks for the blackmail material youngin’!

Until Later...

Yes, Like Hillary Clinton…

I may or may not have an addiction to Starbucks.  I try to hide this addiction from my husband (since prices are higher here than in the States) but it is time to share and come forward!  Hi, my name is Hillary and I am addicted to a grande café mocha, skinny with whip (yes, skinny with whip, don’t judge) with an extra shot!  I have tried Costa (tastes like cardboard), Caribou Coffee (way way too sweet) and every local place I can find, but I always come back to the sweet nectar of Starbucks… it just makes me happy. 

You want to know what else makes me happy?  The way my name is spelled by the baristas!  I would say in Dubai 100% of the Starbucks workers’ first language is not English… I wish more than anything that I was bilingual, but my brain just doesn’t work that way… so I can’t be mad or frustrated or annoyed… but I can laugh!  The only time that my name is ever and I mean EVER spelled correctly is because the Barista makes a joke about my first name being the same as Hillary Clinton.  It usually goes like this…

Barista: “what is your name?”

Me: “Hillary.”

Barista: ”like Hillary Clinton… haha!”

Me:”yep… just like Hillary Clinton.”

And then I get something like this on my cup…YEA!

 

 

 

 

Here are the close calls…

 

Getting colder….

 

 

 

 

 

Way off…

 

And my all-time favorite…

 

 

Lord only knows what they think I am saying my name is but it is always good for a laugh… just like the fact that it only took me a few weeks to compile these pictures... all though my wallet isn’t laughing!  Alas, I will still order my addiction and continue down the road of no return if only for the amazing linguistic surprise that I receive at the end of every order.  Bless you Dubai Baristas and keep those gems coming!

Until Later…

 

Halloween

 

 Yes, we carved watermelons this year.  I was going to buy a pumpkin at the store... Just a normal orange pumpkin, nothing fancy.... And get this, it was going to be $68.  Not even joking!  I did some research and found I could buy them at normal prices at a fruit and veg market, but time got away from me and I ended up just buying watermelons for about $9 total....

Shhhhh, they're Iranian, don't tell anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year we were supposed to have a baby chick and a flamingo (thanks once again to the Middlebrook girls!)... We even perfected the one leg up move on the scooter, but come game day, well, we weren't having any of a fluffy, padded winged costume.  We wanted to be a Cinderella princess damn it!  Seeing as we don't have a princess dress in our house (yet), I did my best to convince her that a Texas cheerleader is a princess. She just wears a burnt orange dress and not a glittery silver dress.... It didn't really go over so well but she begrudgingly put it on when I told her she couldn't get any candy without a costume.  Parenting  done right people, ha!  We then went to our old community's golf course get together, met up with a few of Leighton's amigos, and Jon joined us after work.

 

Before we knew it Leighton and Corby were ready for bed and Halloween 2013 had drown to a close in a flash.   However, not before our newly potty trained child urinated all over the driving range....

Keeping it classy in Dubai.... Always keeping it classy.

 

 Until later...