If Memory Serves

Hey guys,

I know I know, it's been a while.  Thomas was out of town so I decided to refrain from posting out of laziness concern for safety and such.  Now here's the hard part, remembering what we did this week...

Sunday Thomas left in the late afternoon, so we got to see him a little after lunch.  Benjamin and I had a normal evening.  Honestly he was really sweet this week, which is a gigantic blessing.  I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but being alone with a toddler can be tough.

Letting Daddy know Benjamin misses him.

Monday I had my class, which ended up just being me and my instructor, then ate lunch on my own in the embassy cafe.  The co-op had replenished with their big quarterly stock-up, so I bought some Jiffy cornbread mix to tide me over until my long-awaited Amazon order gets here.  I got some other random stuff, then headed home.  It was great to get out on my own for a bit.  That night I decided to make my favorite cornbread and hot dog muffins.  After greasing the pan, mixing the batter and cutting the hot dogs, putting everything in the pan, I realized that the oven fuel had run out.

I was not going to let the food go to waste, so I ran upstairs and asked the Marine who answered the door if I could borrow their oven.  He said sure, but watching him light the oven was a little scary.  He lit the end of a rolled up paper towel, then set it in the oven and turned on the gas.  Yikes.  Thankfully nothing exploded.  After a while, Benjamin finally got his dinner and we settled in for the night.

Fun with blocks.

Concentrate...

The next day I called to get a replacement gas tank and Thomas had emailed me to explain where the tanks are kept.  I walked out of the house Tuesday afternoon to try and locate our boab, who should be in charge of switching the tank over to the full one, when I saw Heidi.  She was an angel and showed me how to close off the empty tank and open the line to the full one.  Something I would never have been able to do on my own.  With that fixed, life got back to semi-normal.

Wednesday I had class again, thankfully Laura came so it wasn't one on one again.  Afterward I met up with Kristin and we got our nails done.  It was awesome to just hang out and relax for a while.  There was enough time to grab a quick lunch at the embassy after we finished, then I headed home.

Thursday morning I met up with another girl from the embassy, Rebecca, and her son at a park nearby.  I hadn't been before but it's pretty nice.  (Despite the constant annoyance of cigarette butts in the sand.  But that's ubiquitous here.  Yuck.)  We had a good time chatting and playing with the boys.  Benjamin and I left a little after noon, and had a late lunch at home.

Emy came by about 2pm so I could go shopping with Kristin in Swefieh, a crowded shopping district not far from our neighborhood.  She drove, thank goodness, since it's a little crazy.  There are a few intersections where there aren't any signs, you just make a way and go.  Naturally we passed a minor accident on the way to our destination.  Kristin wanted to pick up some souvenirs and I was happy to be introduced to some fun stores.  I ended up just looking and not buying anything, but there's lots of neat stuff to be had.  Another time, when I feel very brave, I'll go down there.  But I'll probably make Thomas drive.

Thursday about 4pm I got a wild hair and decided to take Ben to the park at the embassy, to get out of the house again and check mail.  Naturally no mail had arrived, but we got to run around the park and talk with some friends who came by as well.  I ended up eating dinner with them at the Asian Night in the cafe.  (Now that the pool is closed the Thursday night dinners are inside.)  It was really fun to be out and about, and chatting with adults. 

Friday I decided against going to church, since I'd need to hang out in the children's area anyway and wouldn't be able to listen to the sermon.  Benjamin and I were pretty house-bound, I was definitely feeling tired and lethargic.  I succumbed and put in a movie for Ben in the evening, we sat and watched a little of "Ratatouille" when I just couldn't do anything else.  He wasn't being fussy, I just had no energy.  He really was super sweet all week, and slept like a champ.  Here's hoping that trend continues!

Today we got up and just played at home until Thomas got home around 11:30am.  It was so great to see him, and Ben was pretty excited.  He'd said "Daddy" a couple times during the week, but wasn't upset about him being absent, which was really good.

After he got up from his nap this afternoon we walked to the park nearby and walked around a little.  Benjamin played a little on the see-saw (he called it the "sawsee") and Thomas tried to get him to play with his trucks in the dirt.  Ben isn't too sure about the sand, so I don't know if he's just a naturally neat kid (fingers crossed) or I'm just not giving him enough tactile experiences.  I probably need to make him a rice box or something that he can play with inside, since it's getting cooler.

I was so excited to see the weather change yesterday and today.  Most of the week it was in the high 70s/low 80s, but today was high 50s/mid 60s and cloudy until late afternoon.  I finally got to wear my new boots out to the park!  And realized that I need to buy some gel insoles if I'm going to wear them for any length of time.  Oh well, they're still super cute.

Here's an old video of Benjamin figuring out how to climb up (the right way) go down the slide in his playroom.

Hope y'all have a good Veterans Day!
-Rachel