PRE- big adventure

NOTE to self - we do not need anymore babies hehehe
Pre-big adventure we took the cats down to Khobar to kennels (Wednesday morning). Meouwie our oldest obviously gets car sick because she did similar on her long trek up to Rastanura last July.
Halfway into the drive Meouwie decides to have a nice runny pooh in her cat box and in her efforts to 'cover' it up she steps in it. SO we pull over to try and clean up - Andre NEVER touched a pooh nappy for his daughters but HAD to help me clean up Meouwie (me holding her while he wetwipes her paws clean hehehe). No sooner are we back on the road then Ramadi decides its toilet time in her box. So theres me sitting in the back back of the car with all the catfood and two cat boxes, Nicholas on my lap so he'll calm down and I have to clean out Ramadi's catbox.
I thought I was done with cleaning up after babies - obviously not hehehe

Almost a year

In the last year (when this poor blog was on the back burner) SOOOOOO much happened - tha'll be my excuse for neglecting the poor blog :)
Andre moved jobs/companies and so we moved house. When we arrived in kingdom 8 years ago, Andre was contracted to Aramco. Aramco is the largest oil company in the world and basically the kings bank account :) Well July 2009 Andre was employed directly by the company and returned to work at the refinery he started at in 2001. Rastanura is a coastal town - now its confusing when people say I live in Rastanura because .... the town is Rahima, the housing complex is also known as Najmah and its actually the refinery itself that is Rastanura. We do not live IN the refinery.
Life is good here, Andre starts work at 7am, and is done by 3:30pm. He has time and space to cycle more and run along the beach if he so desires. The ones really hard done by is the girls and I. We have stayed 'working' in the same location and so must catch a bus everyday. The bus leaves the compound at 6:30 (which means we leave the house a little after 6am) - we get to school approximately 7:40 (with traffic) and we get home a little before 5pm ------ loooooong days.

BUT a year down the line, we are still happy and settling in slowly. Here follows some photos, from the last year, of our new home :

And we're back ...

Two school years have passed since my last posting :(

So here is a quick update --

Andre has changed companies - huge move for us - he now works for Saudi Aramco and we moved home from Khobar to Rastanura. This means the girls and I travel on a bus to school each day, approx. 60mins on a good day with little traffic. Makes for a very long day but the home is good, the husband is happy and we live at the beach :)

Aimee is finishing up with elementary school and will be starting Middle School (grade 6) in the Fall. Lucy will be going in to grade 4. Both girls are doing well. Everyone keeps saying just wait until they are teenagers - my response --- you mean its going to get worse !!!!!

Me -- I am still working at ISG - DEMS. What can I say, its work.... it has its bad days, its good days, its brilliant day and well everything inbetween :)

Soccer World Cup 2010 is in SA this year so in a bittersweet twist, we are not going home. Watch this space for updates of our Big Adventure as the Bosch family tackle the USA. Sadly will be missing family this June/July but looking forward to the 'American Experience'.

So in a nutshell, we are still breathing, haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just got busy with living.

Happy Birthday Lucy

Ocotber 7, 2008... Lucy Kate Bosch turned the ripe old age of 8 ! Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday Darling Lu-cy... Happy Birthday to YOU ! hip-pip-hooray, hip-pip-hooray, hip-pip-hooray nog 'n piep, hoora There was a very happy little girl on Tuesday morning when her eyes fell upon the new iPod that she had been begging for for abolutely ages. And a very happy mommy who can now have hers back hehehe.

September/October Break 2008

We started off our break celebrating Saudi National day (September 23), a wonderful family day, Ashton, Sandi & Tyler joined us for some shopping in Bahrain before home, relax and then spinning in the evening. The next few weekdays, Andre was still working so while he headed to work. the girls of the house had a lazy pj-day watching movies and eating junk ! A wonderfully relaxing time together !

Once Andre was on leave for Eid though we headed down to Doha, Qatar to visit with Larry & Nikki Kenton (friends from SA). We arrived after a long but uneventful journey on September 30 - Larry's birthday ! Happy Happy Larry =) We enjoyed a picnic on the corniche in the evening before collapsing after a tiring day. Then is was off to shop for our camping trip. Once back the girls enjoyed a swim while Nikki prepared for Larry's birthday dinner with friends.

Thursday saw us head out to the desert for a day/night of playing on the quads and camping. Mmmmm an experience ! The girls had a ball on the quads and as usual it was difficult to get Aimee out of the water when we took a walk down to the beach hehehe. All in all a hot, windy but fun experience, made all the more fun spending it with special friends.

Only low-point of the whole break was that Snowbell took a turn for the worse. She ended up being taken to the vet midway through the week and had to stay for treatment. We were due to fetch her on Saturday after we returned from Doha. Dr. Seega was confident the antibiotics and other meds she was taking would clear her kidneys and the parasite that was causing her aneamia. He called on Thursday but we missed the call... when we called back on Friday, we received the sad news that Snowbell had passed away the night before. Sad news for us but finally she wasn't suffering anymore. Snowbell we love you, you were quite the character, you will be missed !

School 2008

Aimee Julie Bosch is now in Grade 4 at Dhahran Elementary Middle School.

Lucy Kate Bosch is in Grade 2 at Dhahran Elementary Middle School.

These photos from the first day/s of school - kept trying to see if we could get at least one decent photo from one of the days when the camera didn't mist up from the humidity :(

September saw mom and dad visit school for our Annual Open House where the girls showed us around, introduced us to their teachers (Aimee - Mrs. Cooke, and Lucy - Mrs. Flanders). They both wowed us when we visited their Arabic classrooms, with their ability to write their names in Arabic !! We got to meet the Bob family in Aimee's classroom - some characters who have become regular visitors to our home over the weekends.

Looks to be an awesome, busy, colorful year !

Uncle Jorg....

.... stopped in Bahrain for a visit ! We were so lucky to get the opportunity to visit with Uncle Jorg when he stopped in Bahrain on his way home to visit Aunty Luanne.

Jorg and Luanne (for a bit) lived on our compound in Saudi a few years back. Luanne is back in the States and your is back in the Middle East although not Saudi.

We drove over to Bahrain after our first day at school to meet Jorg at The Ritz Carlton. Girls had a ball swimming while the adults did a little catch up. Then it was over to Trader Vic's for a quick bite and drink before heading back home --- school in the morning !

Was a fabulous visit, just way too short ! Next time longer and with Mrs. Jensen too =)

Snowbell

This is our Snowbell, another cat we adopted along the way ....

We have had her for 6 years and she has only just started liking us hehehe. After her recent visit to the vet to be shaved, the vet finally decided that what previous vets had been calling 'hairballs' in her abdomen were lumps in her mammary glands. So she was booked in the following week for the lumps to be removed. She returned home with a cut the length of her belly :( and we thought we were done...... However, on our return visit for stitches to be removed, it seems they might have missed one and we'll be making another appointment for surgery. Good news about the entire surgery thing is that she has finally figured out we like her and she can like us. She follows me around constantly now, sleeps in our bed and has even started talking - previously, she didn't make a sound !

Hmmmmm cats are such interesting pets huh !

Swimming lessons

It's taken a while but finally finally finally after the 5th swimming lesson, Lucy is putting her head IN the water more than she's not. Irony is, this is meant to have been our water-birth baby and she can't 'do' water hehehe This was the last class before badges next week, so now we just have to hold thumbs that she'll be able to do the 10m (width of the swimming pool) completely on her own, no stopping. She did this in August but on her back because she still refused to put her head in.

Aimee is doing well, she was moved to the advanced class eventhough she hadn't completed the 50m badge requirement. She has been finding it tough but has persevered. Her lessons start with at least 50m freestyle, then 10minutes of treading water, 50m of breaststroke and then some diving ! Today they had to do 100m of breaststroke, treading water, 25m freestyle and finish with some diving.... She found the 100m very long and the last 15m were veeeeeeeeerry slow but she made it - complained of a pain in her side afterwards :) Possibly her very first stitch hehehe She has done an awesome job and it looks like she'll prove to be a better swimmer than either of her parents !

Happy Fathers Day

Growing up, I can remember my gran saying once that if it were possible to come back as anything, she'd come back as a man ! Being about 10 years old at the time (I think, because afterall it was sooooo long ago) my cousins and I asked why .... She responded by saying that what was better, you get to sit around and women serve you hehehehe ! Well not anymore and I think she would have been rather impressed by all of the fabulous 'Dads' we have in our extended family, I know I am !

From Holidays.net : Father's Day is a day of commemoration and celebration of Dad. It is a day to not only honor your father, but all men who have acted as a father figure in your life - whether as Stepfathers, Uncles, Grandfathers, or "Big Brothers."
Andre -- Happy Father's Day, from your very first one where you spent the day on the rugby field at Kearsney (1999) to this (the photo) your second one in kingdom (2003), and now your tenth (2008) - spending it on the other side of the kingdon, far away from your girls.... we're thankful for you and love you so very very much !

Latest Updates

I know I know the blog seems to have been forgotten....
Not at all, we've finally finished for this school year and well the last two weeks have been so very very hectic getting finished, add to the mix Andre being away on the other side of the kingdom again and well..............blog just went by the wayside.
BUT...... it has got some finally posted 'old' news :) take a look at :
Moms and Muffins
My boy's birthday
Student-Led Conferences
and the compound Luau
more to come in the next few days, once I have stopped going in to school to finish things up :).

The king is coming, the king is coming ....

Saudi Aramco was celebrating their 75th anniversary this last week. So King Abdullah, the 6th king of Saudi Arabia was visiting to participate in the celebrations. He was almost 9 years old when the company was started in 1933. Due to celebrations and demonstrations at Aramco Dhahran (main camp) as well as other venues in and around Dhahran on Tuesday, we had a virtual day. This meant our students stayed home and used blackboard to particiapte in either online classes or download worksheets set by their teachers. Teachers were meant to be at school for the day but this turned in to a half day only as we had reports of roads being closed completely. Meant we left school at 11:30, sat in traffic for an hour but at least we got home !

We heard on Wednesday that the king would be visiting KFUPM on Saturday and so we scheduled a half day for school...... Saturday was spent completely at home though because late on Friday we received reports that roads would be closed much earlier and so it wasn't worth getting everyone to school only to be stuck indefinitely.

Don't you just love royalty and the way they affect your life ;)

Farewell Kiwi

My baby boy is missing .......

He was last seen on Sunday the 11th. In the three years he has been with us, he has never not slept in our bed ! So when he didn't turn up on Monday .... something must have been wrong !

We have walked the compound up and down, inside and out, several times a day, calling him. Now some of you might say, but cats don't come when they're called - Well ours do, especially Kiwi, in fact he will call you back :) ! We have signs up everywhere, we made all the necessary phonecalls to check on whether he could have been "found" and taken elsewhere, nothing !

We are choosing to believe our boy has been adopted (imo forcibly because I can't believe he chose not to come home - afterall he was king of the castle here hehehe) into another home because his vanishing into thin air is just too much of a puzzle.

So, farewell my beautiful boy, hope you're happy where ever you are now
xoxoxo

**of course if you should ever manage to find your way home, you'll always be welcomed with open arms**

Luau 2008

Next stop on Thursday was the compound organised Luau - kindof end of year function at the main pool. It started at 2pm, so when Andre and the girls left me at school they went straight there and I joined them after work.

There were organised games, the inflatable island, wonderful food and well just relaxing by the pool. An altogether fun-packed afternoon. The evening events were adults only but we did not attend so I can't comment on how that went ;)

Aimee and Andre competed in the island dash, Aimee made it to the end but not in a winning time. Sadly Andre fell off the side - kids were allowed to throw wet spounges and bounce the island while the dads tried to race. Andre also competed in the raft race at the request of his daughters - after a very sinking start, he managed to finish 4 out of 6 :) And then also at the request of the girls, we all took part in the mixed doubles raft race - Aimee and I paired together and Andre and Lucy paired together. Wow the length of a pool is long ! We didn't win but Aimee and I did manage to beat Andre and Lucy, and that was a win for us !

Student-Led Conferences 2008

And here we are again, just exactly where the year drained away to I have no idea but once again we prepare for the annual student-led conferences.

I was busy with my middle school students and the presentations of their very successful electronic portfolios - we used blogger this year and it worked so very well, I am so proud of their efforts.

After Andre had taken Lucy to swimming lessons, they came in to school just in time to have lunch with me. Sadly the cafeteria was not open so our only option was muffins and milkshakes at Joffrey's. Not very healthy but hey when you're hungry, you're hungry hehehe. After lunch we headed down to the classrooms. First for Lucy's conference which went really well. She has come a long way since the begining of the year, still a way to go but we're getting there. We then headed upstairs for Aimee's conference. She did well, has thoroughly enjoyed her year and done some excelent work. We even got to have a sneak peak at the scrapbooking pages she's been making in a scrapbooking club she's been going to after school.

All in all, how could we not be proud of our girls !