Tuesday, October 9, 2012

I'm back

Well, that was a longer hiatus than I meant to take.  The past few days have been challenging internet-wise.  After hooking up the new VPN-compatible router, it seems we burned through our allotted data limit pretty quickly.  Thomas spoke with the Zain guys and we've upped the monthly plan until we can get DSL installed.  So today the internet is working at normal speed again, thank heavens.  It was such a shock to see how much it impacted my mood to have the slowest.internet.ever for a day and a half.  I'm officially addicted.

Not too much thrilling stuff has happened over the last week, Benjamin turned 20 months yesterday on the 8th.  He's a big walker now and likes bringing books over to read with me or Thomas.  He's officially transitioned to one nap a day, usually 1/1:30 to 3:30ish.  His sleep schedule has improved slightly, he usually wakes up around 7am.  It's still way too early for me, but Thomas is generous and usually gets him started with breakfast so I can have my necessary lying-in-bed-until-I-can-face-the-day moment.  Which also involves checking Facebook on my phone.

Out-of-focus Benjamin being cute.

I like buttons!

Stop taking my picture while I eat.

Yesterday I decided to make a change from my normal frumpiness and curled my hair and did makeup (including eyeshadow! and brow definition!).  It was nice to get out of the house, do my Arabic class, and eat lunch with Thomas while feeling a bit more like a real adult lady.  Speaking of Arabic class, I had the realization that I've gone as far as I can with no studying/preparation and it's time to get serious.  So I started on some flash cards.  Now if I can just force myself to review them...


Wavy hair!

Snaggletooth.

Thomas had Sunday off for Columbus Day this past weekend, which was great.  We laid around the house most of the weekend, except Saturday when I forced him to come shopping at Carrefour with me.  We had lunch at the mall, Buffalo Wings (chicken and fries, pretty good) and did a big shopping trip.  I had hoped for a Pinkberry treat, but Thomas hates shopping and Benjamin was way overdue for his nap, so we hightailed it home.  I enjoy our family excursions out of the house, even if it's just shopping at the mall, but Thomas hates it.  I still make him go so we don't permanently fuse with the couch.

Since Benjamin is doing just one nap a day now, we went grocery shopping at Spinney's this morning.  It was great to feel productive and accomplish something before lunch.  We ate with Thomas at the embassy, and I got to (finally) surf the Internet while Benjamin took his afternoon nap.

Tonight I went to book club, a girl from the embassy organized it.  It was awesome, I met a couple new people and it was fun to read a book I never would have picked out on my own.  We read "The Dog Stars" and it's set in a not-too-distant dystopian future.  Not an amazing book but worth it for something different.  I'm excited to have an adult outlet and night out once a month to discuss and gab and generally chill out with some fun girls.  Yay!

Hopefully I can get back in the routine of more frequent postings.  Since we're not doing anything interesting it's hard to think of anything to talk about, but maybe we'll try something new soon.

-Rachel



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