April 10, 2011
I headed to the airport early on Sunday morning to catch my flight to Brussels. I was exhausted after our desert safari the night before. The trip was very uneventful and I made it to Brussels right on time. The one thing I noticed when landing in Munich and Brussels was that Spring had Sprung in both cities. When I flew there in February, it was dark, dreary and grey with almost no green in sight. It was like flying into a different city this time. It was a sunny spring day with flowers blooming, grass everywhere and leaves and flowers on all the trees. Also, with daylight savings time, it was light when we left for work and it didn't get dark until after 8:30 in the evening. When we were there before, it was dark when we left for the office and dark when we arrived back to our hotel. Much more enjoyable!
There were 9 of us that had come in from all parts of the globe so, luckily, the company arranged drivers for us the whole week! YEAH!!! NO COMPANY CAR! I was chauffeured to and from the office and didn't have to get behind the wheel...not even ONCE!! Much safer for me, my co-workers and the local citizens!
Monday night after a long day of meetings, a large group of us wandered out to an Italian place near the Grand Place. Almost all of us ordered pizza and it was DELICIOUS! After dinner the waiter asked if we wanted an after dinner drink, cognac, lemon-cello, etc? We all declined UNTIL the waiter said they were on the house! Not one of us passed up the free drink! Most of us ordered the lemon-cello that was a shot in a chilled glass that tasted like lemon Pledge!
The rest of the week was filled with meetings during the day, dinners and some meetings in the evening. We got a lot accomplished but it was exhausting!
My flight home was at 7PM on Thursday evening the 14th of April. I flew overnight and got home around 7AM on Friday morning. I was only able to sleep for a couple hours on the flight and I crashed when I got home. I slept for about an hour before Chad woke me up so I could get ready for church. Luckily we only live about 10 minutes from church. We didn't go to church when my parents were in town so I really missed it and wanted to go but BOY I really wanted to stay in bed!
After church, we ran home, got changed into our beach clothes, packed up our beach gear and headed to meet two other families at the Royal Meridian hotel for a day at the beach. We all made reservations for a Mexican lunch at the hotel that included access to their pools, beach, etc. for the day. We arrived around noon and got settled into some chairs and the kids were OFF swimming, playing soccer and running around the grounds. We visited and relaxed until it was time for our 1:30PM lunch reservation. We rounded up the kiddos and headed to the restaurant.
They seated us at a large table on the covered patio of the restaurant overlooking the grounds with views of the beach. There was a band playing and fans going overhead. It was very relaxing (just what I needed in my sleep-deprived state). They started bringing the food and it was all delicious! First they brought chips and salsa. Next were some fried appetizers (felt right at home!) At this point we were already stuffed and they hadn't even brought the main course. We asked them to slow down the service and we sent the kids off to play some more to work up an appetite again while the adults sat around talking and drinking. Sometime later they brought the main course that was delicious grilled prawns, beef, chicken and lamb (almost every meal out in Dubai includes lamb). Finally they brought a variety of ice cream flavors for dessert! Our friends knew the chef and he came out and spoke with us. He was from Mexico so we got to speak a little Spanish (probably sounded like idiots after a few margaritas!) We finally paid and left the table at 6PM!!! I've never before had a 4 ½ hour meal! The time just flew by getting to know each other and sharing Dubai war stories!
We headed back to our chairs that we had been hogging all day and not using. We finally got in the pool and headed straight to the swim up bar. We ordered one drink and then were told that the pool was closing in 15 minutes! We finally left the facility around 7PM, still full and thoroughly exhausted! We all went to bed around 8PM and I slept until around 8AM the next morning. For those of you who know me well probably don't even believe that's possible!
Saturday April 16th, 2011
On Saturday, we decided to head to the Dubai Outlet Mall (God forbid we rest!) Got a little lost on the way but eventually made it there. Shortly after arriving, we realized this was mainly a mall for RICH people looking for BARGAINS who wanted to spend $500 on a pair of shoes instead of $1000! Mitchell was NOT happy about shopping and he asked us if there was a kid's area where he could play. Many of the malls here have play areas where, for a small fee of ~ $7, you can drop your kids off to play while you shop. We found one and, to his delight, dropped him off to play. The sign read that the area was for kids 6 and under so I asked the woman working the counter if I could drop him off (acting like I hadn't seen the age limit on the sign). She asked how old he was and I told her (a little white lie) that he was 7, he had JUST turned 8 two weeks before (he WAS 2 weeks early when he was born so it SHOULD have been true!) Mitchell started to argue saying BUT MOM, I'm 8! I quickly shushed him and asked him if he wanted to play, he better pretend he was 7! GREAT PARENTING teaching my 7/8 year old to lie! Bad mommy! Bad, bad mommy!
After shopping and only finding a couple good deals, we picked up Mitchell and treated him to a late lunch at Chuck E Cheese Pizza. It was the largest Chuck E Cheese Pizza I had ever seen. They had an ice skating rink, 4 bowling lanes a couple rides and a ton of games. He was in 7th Heaven (so was Chad)! By the time we were finished eating and playing it was around 3PM and we all were ready to go home!
After we got home, we finalized the e-mail invitations to Mitchell's birthday party. Because of Spring Break, my Brussels trip and Easter weekend we had to schedule his birthday party for Saturday, April 30th ~ 3 weeks after his actual birthday. That night at dinner Mitchell told us he couldn't WAIT until his 30th birthday! We were very confused until he clarified he meant his April 30th birthday PARTY! We've been laughing about Mitchell's 30th birthday ever since! We may not be laughing when there are 13 - 8 & 9 year-old boys in our apartment that day! Yikes!
Monday, April 18th, 2011
The first Friday we attended church at Fellowship of the Emirates Chad noticed they had a vacancy for Small Group Director. He had been discussing this job with the pastor for a few weeks. Chad had his final interview with our church's executive committee for a part-time job as Small Group Director tonight. It lasted about 1 ½ hours and the pastor told him to check his e-mail the next morning.
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Chad checked his e-mail first thing this morning and he was offered a job at the church working 25 - 30 hours per week. They want him to start TODAY! :-) Hooray!
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
On my way home from work today I was behind a square looking mini-van. In the back storage area I could see a GOAT pacing around! YES! I said A GOAT! I could see a lot of people in the car and was thinking how funny, the family is traveling with their pet goat! As I passed the car I realized this was no family...there were 6 grown MEN riding in the car! What the heck!?!?!? Pet? Entertainment? Dinner? I'll never know! CRAZY!!! Just another day in Dubai!
Who hoo! Chad will do a great job! Jim
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