Salsa!

It is no secret to my regular readers that my favorite part of living in Muscat are my friends.  And some of our friends like to dance.  So, on Thursday evening we hired a salsa instructor (see photo below, he's dressed all in black and has his back to the camera - his name is Fernando) and he came along with a partner (also, see below) and taught us how to salsa.  The verdict? We were amazingly good.  He said that we were as good as most people in their third class, actually.  I attribute our excellence to alcohol, at least mine and Eli's.

The friend who hosted got a copy of the CD of dance music, and for those uninitiated into the world of salsa-learning, there is a voice that talks over the music and says, "one-two-three..five-six-seven".  So this morning my friend texted, saying she accidentally played the salsa music last night, "And we realized we've been missing 4! All along!"  See? We're amazing :)

Paris and hair cuts

Hello my sweet friends.  My trip to Paris is scheduled for this coming weekend, and it looks unlikely that I will go.  Thank you so much to all of you who emailed me to make sure I was safe, and I'm sorry I didn't update the blog sooner.  I am a-okay, but very sad for all those who are not.

On a lighter note, we have had some haircuts around here and they are cute.  Lulu was adamant that she wanted hair that "swoops over one eye" and when I asked who has hair like that she said, "a little bit you do" which is the most flattering thing ever of course.  When she's 15 and we're fighting about her hair, I'm going to remind her that when she was five-nearly-six, she wanted hair like me.

Tommy had to get short hair because of the lice scare, and I think he just looks so cute but he hates it so we have agreed he can grow it longer.  But I just think he is adorable.

New iPhone Font

So I updated my iPhone a couple of weeks ago, and while I can't really figure out how to play music and podcasts (half joking), I have to tell you what I totally and absolutely love about it.  The new font.

As it finished updating, I turned to my husband and asked him to admire the new font.  While this is normally something he would appreciate, he was surprisingly calm about it.  I think he's jealous that he doesn't have an iPhone and the beautiful new font to accompany it (but this will change as he will receive a work iPhone shortly).  Anyway, I thought I would tell you all that this nice font makes my life better because I notice it about every three minutes, when I check my phone, and I'm still not used to it.  I think the numbers are the very prettiest.

Since I'm here, I'll tell you the other things that are new.

First, we got an email on Thursday that there is LICE in the kindergarten (they won't say which class because they don't want the child to be identified and heckled).  So Lizzie wears her hair in little buns and looks absolutely adorable and has to have lice checks every couple of days.  She has worked it so that she gets candy while she gets lice checked.  I realize that I have to get over my lice-phobia.  I had lice when I was a kid, I know that nice people get it.  But OMG the idea of having bugs crawling in one's hair is just revolting to me.  (And now my head is itchy.)

Second, I'm going to Paris in a few days!  To spend a longish weekend with Hanh who has to be there for work.  I am excited except that I don't have a chic winter coat here (they are all in Seattle, where I have no need at all to be chic, sorry Seattle) and that is a real bummer.  Same goes for boots.

Third, I have spent the last couple of weeks reading the prequels and sequel to Lonesome Dove (one of my favorite books ever) and so far they all suck.  So don't spend your time doing that.

Fourth, I finally learned how to make stir fry well.  And now you know what a truly crappy cook I am.  Because stir fry is pretty easy.

Over and out.

Halloween 2015

You know that we are the worst when it comes to costumes and we didn't disappoint this year. Actually, Tommy looked pretty proper as a knight. I bought him grey skinny jeans (SO ADORABLE ON HIS SKINNY LITTLE BODY) and drove all over Muscat to find gold spray paint but ended up with silver, and spray painted his sword. He wore the knight tunic and helmet that Grandma Nancy sewed for him (!) and he looked good.

For the Fall Festival, Lulu was Cinderella (made sense; a knight and a princess) but last night she insisted that she wanted to be a fairy. So she wore:
- Hand-me-down orange wings that don't fit too well and have lost quite a bit of glitter;
- a bright pink leotard with silver sparkles at the collar;
- a multi-colored, multi-layered tulle skirt;
 - a pale pink tiara and wand.

She looked silly. But she LOVED how she looked and scooted and ran all over the Wave like she owns the place.

We met up with lots of friends for trick or treating which was fun for the adults and the kids.

Jack-o-lanterns

Eli and I went to a party after we got the kids to bed and we suck so we
had to go for costumes in the costume box.  I was Harry Potter.