My ticket for "texting" (updated with poor quality image of ticket)

So you know how I post often about TED talks and This American Life?  I spend an hour a day or more, driving around in my car listening to podcasts.  When the kids are in the car, we don't listen to podcasts though.  We listen to fairy tales.  And they kill me.  I mean, they are horrible.  I have some solutions lined up for this problem, but believe me when I tell you it is a problem.  (Lizzie is painting right now, and as it happens she's painting me, and she just said, "Do you like your hair, Mom?  It's falling like golden rain."  Guess why? Because that's how Rapunzel's hair is described in the story we turned off an hour ago to come into the house.)

So yesterday, I got Lizzie into her carseat, plugged in the fairytales, and set off.  My drive home from school is much shorter than my ride to school because of how the roads work here and the shortcuts I'm able to use, but the last 75% of the ride has only one stoplight and if I don't hit it, then I go for about 20 minutes without stopping.  This is of course something to celebrate, except for the rare occasions that my preschooler has fallen asleep and the damn fairy tales are still on.  In these situations, twenty minutes feels very very long.

Because I NEVER touch my phone when I'm driving.  NEVER.  So I don't turn them off.

Except that yesterday, Lizzie had fallen asleep and I was in the middle of a really interesting TED radio hour so guess what I did?  I picked up my phone, put it right in the center of my steering wheel and started to change the fairy tales back to the TED talk.  And the police drove right by and saw me.

I noticed them drive by and thought, "I'm lucky I'm not in Seattle; I'd have a ticket for sure!"  And not thirty seconds later, the same police car was behind me flashing their headlights.  I had no idea he wanted me to pull over from the headlight flashing, so it took him driving beside the car and gesturing to the side of the road to get me to stop.

I know.  Great beginning of my interaction with the ROP (Royal Omani Police).

He came back and demanded the title to the car and my driving license, and of course I gave them to him.  He spoke NO English, which is of course fair, but made the interaction a bit more difficult.  He went to his car, wrote out a ticket and came back and handed the pad to me along with a pen.

The document was entirely in Arabic and you guys I am a lawyer.  I don't sign stuff if I don't know what it says - but when I reached for the phone to call Eli so that one of his Arabic speaking coworkers could speak to the officer, the policeman became irritated and so I stopped.  And then I signed it.

I'd love to tell you how much the ticket is for, but here tickets are paid when you renew your car registration each year.  For us this happens in August and I will be sure to let you know.  Speeding tickets are 10 OR ($26) so I'm not too worried about it and anyway, as I told Eli, I deserve it and I'll pay it.

Don't anybody send me an email about how I shouldn't use my phone while I drive.  That's the infuriating part of this.  SO MANY people here drive around texting and talking and I am not one of them.

Should I add that this is the very first time I've been pulled over by police, ever?  Sigh.

Here I am

Hi friends,

I am one totally uninspired blogger these days and I don't know why.  I think it's just the January blues (come on, February!) but here were are in the first month of the year and unless I do some quick posting, I'm not going to make my ten-post-per-month goal.  That's no way to start the year!

Eli thinks I need to start some series -- he suggested that I show you my menu plans and completed meal photos.  Or maybe the kids' outfits one week (Lulu is wearing her new dress from Auntie Chinka which does warrant a post of its own; it is super adorable).  I dunno.  None of it sounds particularly exciting to me, but rather like a proclamation of my stay-at-home-parent status.  But of course I am a stay-at-home parent and I read exciting things like, "The Whole Brained Child" and so what else do I think I'm going to blog about?

But I'm still here, and I'm actually surprisingly busy.  And when I'm not busy, I spend my driving time listening to the "TED Radio Hour" and then the rest of my time discussing what I listened to (sorry, Kathy, Leigh and Eli).  If you are in the mood to be totally blown away, listen to the program called "Hackers."  It is full of the craziest stuff you've ever heard.  I love those TED talks but they also make me feel ever so slightly inadequate because what if the TED people call me and ask me to do a talk? I mean, I could talk for ten minutes no problem, but not about one amazingly brilliant idea!!

If I could wish for one amazingly brilliant idea it would not be a solution for climate change (nay, that already exists, listen to "Hackers"), but rather a simple, life changing (saving?) idea to end sibling bickering.  Unfortunately, I could probably talk for ten minutes about the approaches I've taken which have not worked, but I have yet to hit on the solution.  Get in touch ASAP if you have.

My funny children (again)

Lizzie and I played with a seahorse that Uncle Andy bought her a couple of summers ago, and she was cuddling it and being very sweet, so I asked her, "would you like to have a baby someday?"  She said, "no, I want a seahorse.  I'm going to be a grown-up mermaid."

***

Tommy had to use "into" in a sentence, so he wrote:  "Into the Samurai's lair crept the Ninja."  (Except in terrible handwriting and with 'samurai' misspelled.)

***

Lizzie:  "Hey.  Your tummy doesn't open."
Me (oblivious):  "That's right."
Lizzie:  "So how do they get the baby out?"

***

Lizzie:  "If the whole world were bread, I would eat all of it."
Me:  "Is bread your favorite food?"
Lizzie:  "Yes!  And cereal and popcorn!"

***

While watching Land Before Time:
Lizzie:  "What's happening, Tommy?"
Tommy:  "It's an earthquake.  That's what made our continents."
Lizzie:  "Oh.  What does it do?"

***

Lizzie uses the word 'disgusting' often these days, but she pronounces it "buh-skusting."  Here is a list of things that are "buh-skusting":
* the smell of trash
* the smell of dinner cooking (often)
* kissing
* a patch of dry skin on my hand

***

Tommy, after tipping off his bike into a thorny bush:  "This is the worst bike riding moment EVER!"

The best part of my day and the worst part of my day

It's Saturday which is our Sunday and which is typically the hardest day of my week because Eli goes to work but the kids do not go to school.  It's not that I don't love to spend time with my children, because actually I do love to spend time with them, but Saturdays are hard because they don't have enough to do and I have loads of beginning of the week jobs to do (and to be honest, sometimes end of the week jobs as well).

Today, the kids have taken things to a new level and are doing things like writing with marker on each other's clothing, shooting arrows at boxes full of messy things and causing spills, talking loudly in an incredibly grating baby voice they favor at the moment and - most critically - not leaving me along for a second.  (Lulu has called me four times, "muuuuh-deeerrrrr", since I began typing this paragraph.)

Don't worry too much, things will get better, but I have yelled a couple of times and have yet to feel the wave of guilt that I usually feel after losing my temper.

Now let's move to the best part of my day which is that we are the proud owners of a big box of fresh locally grown vegetables!  You've got to be an insider to know about this guy who distributes veggies out of his house every other Saturday, but my friend Kathy can get me in anywhere in this town pretty much and so I'm sitting at this computer feeling very virtuous despite the French chocolates that are in my pantry.  Here is a photo before I trimmed all the green beans and put everything away.

Yesterday we went to an amazing birthday party (it was a carnival and honestly, I have no idea how the hostess managed to put it all together) and then we went to Shatti beach and hung out.  Guess what my kids had to say about going to the beach? "NO, WE DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE BEACH! WE HATE THE BEACH!"  This, after we went to a different beach and Lizzie cried the whole hour we were there, complaining that she wanted to go home.

It's like they could not possibly be my offspring, but I'm absolutely certain they are.  Baffling.

Anyway, yesterday was even more fun because we ran into Leigh and Peter and Grace and even though Leigh and I had a nice chat on Thursday afternoon while the kids swam in the pool (and let me tell you, they were so happy to be swimming that they were giddy), we still managed to visit for an hour while Peter and Eli dealt with the kids.  (Shockingly, the kids all ended up quite wet.)

And with that, I sign off until next time which will hopefully be a bit sooner than it has been lately.  I know posting has been slim but you gotta have inspiration, you know? I mean, typing that makes me laugh as you all know that I am full to bursting with opinions so OF COURSE there is something I could post about.  But I worry so much about being boring on this blog!

Christmas

There are three things that really stand out about Christmas to me:

First, it was amazing how much family we managed to squeeze into such a short visit (two weeks, but that's including jetlag).  Sid and Ollie came for a few days from Laramie; Em and Sid and baby Dylan came from Sydney; we got to see my dad's Seattle family multiple times.

Second, it is astonishing to me how many weapons Tommy received.  I joke that we now own an arsenal but actually, he broke one sword before we even left Seattle so it might not qualify as an arsenal anymore.

Third, the cuteness of my baby Dylan knocked me over daily.

Let's start with number 3, shall we? One day after New Year's, we got all the kids dressed up matchy-matchy and took them to Yuen Lui.  Isn't that a nice background? I know.  And tell me, WHY did I not just tell the guy:  "Oh, can I look at your backgrounds? That's not what we're looking for."  But whatevs.  Here we are, with pictures that capture us at a particular moment in time and they already make me emotional for when my kids looked like that, ten days ago.  Imagine looking at them in a year.  I can look back at our early London photos and they blow my mind because the kids have changed so much.  Other than the heinous background, the kids look great and the photographer was totally making them laugh and I should focus on that.

During these photos, my dad was standing right next to Tommy to catch the baby if necessary.  (It wasn't, but there were some hairy moments.)  I don't want you to think that we go around endangering babies.  There are photos that are much more traditional than these are but these are my very favorites.  You can see that Dylan is willing to play along for a while and then he figures out that he might be in danger, being held by a hysterical six year old.

****

Below are photos of Christmas morning (and a few from the day or two afterward).  Tommy left a note to Santa that said,

Dear Santa,

Have you brought me a bow and arrow and quiver? It's all I want for Christmas.

Love, Tommy

So Santa hustled to Toys R Us and Tommy got way too many gifts for Christmas.  But these things cannot be helped, can they.

Reading with Grandpa Ollie on Christmas morning, while eating a chocolate (which, let's be honest, really makes it feel like Christmas because there is no way they would be offered chocolates before eight am on normal days).

Doing the science kits from Aunt Katherine and Uncle Andy.  These were a big hit and I just let them go for it as we were in my parents' house.

Looking at these photos (most of which were taken by my mom, I think, but some by Eli maybe) makes me realize that Lizzie mostly likes to be around her grandparents because she has a wide selection of readers available to her.

She did a lot of 'helping' in the kitchen, as well.

 Playing with the crystal mining kit from the Rebkas.  A perfect present for Tommy.

 Lizzie's turn!

 (The election sign was the target and is far superior to the glass windows that are on two sides of my house here.  The 'thwack' noise really puts you on edge.  Eli assures me that the arrows cannot break the windows...)

 My cousin Will and his wife Cassi gave Lizzie this makeup for Christmas.  It might be her favorite present.  It's meant for lips but obviously Lizzie knows better.  (It was hard to get off.)

YOU GUYS.  There are more photos but I am worn out.  I'll be back.  xoxo

The reasons I hate my fitbit flex

I don't post too much about my exercise program on this blog because it would make me look totally crazy.  The truth is that I am totally crazy about exercise (and not only because I don't work outside the home right now; I was like this in London).

This makes me a perfect person to own a fitbit.  My father-in-law recognized this over the summer and bought a fitbit zip for me, which I loved completely.  When I received it, I thought it would be interesting to know my daily step count, but I ended up on the treadmill at ten pm trying to make my 10,000 step goal on the days I went to a yoga class or lifted weights (and therefore didn't do too much stepping during my workout).

The fitbit zip is the most basic step counter made by fitbit and doesn't track elevation.  I have three levels in my house and go up and down a lot of stairs per day, so I was interested in that metric as well and told Eli I might upgrade to the fitbit one when we were in the US for Christmas.

Eli bought me the fitbit flex instead - which was very sweet.  It's sort of a neat looking bracelet, and it's the most pricey (I think) of the fitbits and I think he figured it would track elevation, which it does not.  I have now been wearing it since December 26 and I am ready to throw it away and reconnect my sweet little zip.  (If I could do this myself I would do it now rather than write this post, but I am nearly ready to declare myself technologically incompetent as I couldn't get an attachment off of gmail last night, so I'm waiting for Eli to do it when he gets home.)

You had to read three paragraphs before the list, sorry:
1.  I hate that the flex does not track my stairs.
2.  I hate that the flex is a bracelet.  It's rubber and gets sweaty and gross.  Also, it makes it uncomfortable to wear my watch.
3.  I hate that the flex doesn't have a screen to tell you your metrics!  It's so STUPID.  It has five lights, and everytime you hit two thousand steps, one lights up.  So you can tell if you're, say, between six and eight thousand steps, but that's as close as it gets.
4.  I hate that it doesn't sync quickly with my iPad and iPhone.  It has to think about it and then only updates when it feels like it.
5.  I don't think it's accurate.  Today it's DEFINITELY not accurate as it's only 11 am, I've been to yoga for an hour and I just hit 21,000 steps which I have never done before.  This is a nutty example and I think it could be due to the fact that I accidentally dunked my hand into the bath last night but I took it off right away and dried it and you're supposed to be able to wear it in the shower.  I should note that neither of my fitbits are accurate in terms of mileage and I'm positive of this because I have checked them against my GPS watch.  But, for some reason, I don't care much about this; I am more interested in (and motivated by) step count.

The end.

Jetlagged again!

For the third night in a row, Tommy has appeared at our bed at 2:30.  For some reason, at the forefront of my mind is the fact that if we lived on the East Coast, that would be fine -- I can handle waking at 5:30.  But, my people are on the West Coast and we spent our entire vacation in Seattle, and so here we are.  Eli agrees that the kids had an easier time this summer and by night three were not waking so early, so we are both very curious about this and one of us (it's me) is very grumpy.  (Eli slept perfectly the first night and only had a hard time last night because he got up with the kids.)

I will now give you a brief summary of our journey back here.  The fourteen hour flight from Seattle to Dubai was great.  The kids slept a lot of it and so did I (I think I get really stressed out about these long flights so by the time we get on the plane, I just collapse).  We had a hotel room in Dubai to help with  our seven hour layover (none of us slept even though it was in the middle of the night) and then we climbed on our forty minute flight to Muscat and both kids konked out.  Whatevs.  It was a great trip.

Now, in an ideal world, I now would launch into a description of our trip.  You guys, it was so nice and I am so grateful we got to spend Christmas with my family and Sid and Ollie this year.  (In another week, I will think it was worth it despite the jet lag, I know it.)  The major problem with writing about the trip is that I have nary a photo to put up here.  (Already blowing my New Year's resolutions, sigh.)  We had to send Eli's (brand new Olympus) camera in for repairs and he used mom's camera over Christmas but we don't have those photos.  Or, if we do, I don't know where they are and Eli is sleeping.  I have a few on my phone and iPad, but they aren't on this computer yet.  So.  Let's agree to wait on the play-by-play Christmas post and I will meet you back here later this week.  I'm sorry.  (I will make it up to you in delicious baby Dylan photos.)

The kids went back to school yesterday and despite being quite tired, they did really well.  Lulu didn't sleep at all during the day (hooray) and Tommy didn't fall asleep on the bus home (though he did have a spectacular fit in the evening when I made him take off his sword and get in the bath).  I also had a decent day yesterday but most of it was spent running errands and chopping vegetables.  The highlight was when Leigh and Grace came over for a visit and I realized that Leigh sounds much more Scottish having been home for three weeks.

The kids are talking a lot about Seattle and missing their grandparents (they were lucky enough to spend Christmas with all four of their grandparents!) and that part of this adjustment feels hard to me.  But, we'll be back in the US in six months and while ...

I just noticed Melora's comment and I have no idea what I had typed (intended to type?) there.  So we'll just chalk it up to exhaustion and move on, shall we? Thanks for reading, my sweet friends.