another year gone by

Here we are in June. JUNE! - that blessed time of year when teachers and students everywhere rejoice that the academic year has come to an end and two months of separation prepare us for the following year. I have three work days left. Can you tell I'm excited? Somewhere between when I last posted and this post, I dropped scalding hot tea on my leg. After about three weeks, it's healed well enough that I will risk exposing it to the sun, so I'm really ready to hit the pool.

The tail end of May was a whirlwind, as I mentioned getting ready for our International Day Show at school. It turned out to be pretty amazing, and of course, my students had the best performance. Chris was even able to come, so I was glad to have him there, too.

my little Frenchies

all of Grade 1

caught giving "teacher eyes" during the National Anthem

I closed out the hectic week of rehearsals and performances by celebrating my 29th birthday for the first time on May 31st. If ever there was a weekend full of fun and laughter, that was it! I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and "family" over here, as well as around the world. We had a few great meals prepared for us, and I received a number of sweet notes and presents from family, students, colleagues, and friends. Thank you again! I think the most exciting present was the guitar Chris gave me. I'll be sad to leave it this summer...

This past Wednesday, we had our annual end-of-year breakfast for my school's elementary staff, which is always a lot of fun. After we go to work, we usually leave around 9:30 for breakfast, and then we have the rest of the day off. Pictured here are about half of the amazing ladies that I work with in the AAG elementary school.

 

Pictured below is my amazing teaching assistant, Gehan, and our awesome ES secretary, Shaima'a. Without these two ladies, I would probably go gray a lot sooner.

 

Chris is preparing to leave for Jordan and his summer Arabic study tomorrow. As far as I can tell, here is a tentative schedule of what our summer will look like. It's always an adventure!

- June 9: Chris leaves for Jordan
- June 18: Stephanie leaves for Boston
- June 22: Stephanie leaves for Pittsburgh
- June 29: Chris returns to Kuwait
- July 1: Chris leaves for Boston
- July (2?): Stephanie returns to Boston
- July 8-16: Chris & Stephanie travel to Iceland
- July (28?): Chris & Stephanie go to Pittsburgh
- August (18?): Chris & Stephanie return to Boston
- August 20: Chris and Stephanie return to Kuwait

"The heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

Valentine's Baby

None other than the spectacular Chris Freeman is a Valentine's Day baby. Ok, there probably are some other people that have the same birthday, but how many that you know? I tried to keep it low-key the other night since it was a work night, but we still wanted to do something out of the usual. Since it's Chris' birthday, I like to do the planning for this holiday, but he was sweet enough to pick up something I've grown to love- dried fruits.

First, we went to a piano recital that was held at one of the local library/concert halls. We left with what I thought was enough time to get there, but I didn't take into account the extra traffic for Kuwait's National Day month-long visitors. (In general, traffic during the entire month of February is awful, especially around dinnertime.) The concert started at 7pm, but we didn't arrive until 7:25pm, which is a major no-no for a musician. Chris didn't seem to be terribly affected by it though, so we had a really enjoyable hour listening to some amazing, young Kuwaiti performers who have been preparing for international competition. I found out about the free recital on a website that I follow called The Grapevine Kuwait, which gives notice for a lot of local social events.

After the recital, we drove over to a restaurant called Rangoli, which is at one of the seaside hotels. It usually serves Indian cuisine, but they had a variety of menus for Valentine's Day. We ate. A lot.

There was live music and funny little "love" decorations were worked into the appetizer display, making it a unique evening.

The restaurant is situated under a dry-docked boat, which actually houses another restaurant. Here's one of two Arabic bread ovens that are located near the entrance of the restaurants, serving both. The smell of "khubz" is near heavenly.

"underneath" the boat

We had a really great time on Tuesday evening, but it's nice that having a date isn't out of the ordinary for us. We try to have a "date night" every week, a habit we started early in our marriage at the encouragement of others. It has really allowed us a lot of face-to-face time over the years and respite in the middle of each busy week. We don't always do something formal; sometimes we just go for a walk along the seaside, but Chris has been really good at leading us to block out this time just for each other.

 Happy Birthday, Christopher,

my beloved, my friend.

Drawings that are Endearing #2

Quite the clever birthday note, from Ghala
I guess she's never seen a real banana tree...

...almost there

I am really excited for the summer to be here. That's all I have to say about that.

Tuesday was my birthday, and my friends Dana, Dina, and Rasha took me out to dinner, and then we all got manicures and pedicures. Yes, that sounds like a really girly thing to do for my birthday, but believe it or not, I enjoyed it. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age. Chris was off performing at the first showing of The Desert Song, so the girls devised a plan.

Wednesday, I went out for a quick bite with my friend Anita that I hadn't seen for a long time. She gave me a really unique gift, which was a hand/beach bag made out of plastic shopping bags. There's a "safe house" here in Kuwait that keeps women who are either run-away maids or are waiting on any number of deportation processes, but their embassy can't house them. One of the ways that money is raised to house these women is through a trash to treasure sort of program, which teaches the women to make things like jewelry out of old magazines and hand bags like mine. It's really quite a neat process and helps the girls contribute to their well-being, and it also gives them skills to use when they are finally released from Kuwait.

On Thursday night, some other friends and I went to see The Desert Song. It was a light, comical musical that was a little cheesy (intending to be that way), but the musicians and singers did an amazing job. My friend Jumel (seen in red) sang on the worship team with me when I still attended the 6 o'clock service, so it was nice to hear him in his "professional" element, too. Afterward, a number of us met up at Costa Coffee (move over, Starbucks!) to meet and greet and generally cause a ruckus.

Today, we had an awesome church service and went out to eat lunch with yet more friends...I guess I've done a lot of eating out this week. We came home for a quick nap and Chris headed out to his last performance of the show. I'm sitting here working on report cards. Well, I was working on report cards until I decided to write an update.

We're excited to be in the States in two weeks, though it seems kind of surreal. This year has been so full and has gone by so fast, that it's hard to imagine summer is really here. The 120' temperature is a great reminder, though. All I have to do is open the balcony door to get a blast of stuffy, hot air, and it feels real again!

...and Nicholas!

Ok, as of my last blog post, I was thinking of birthdays that had already happened in February, but my sister gently pointed out that my nephew Nick's birthday is technically in February, too. It just so happens that he was born in a leap year, and his birthday is February 29th. I wonder if the little drop down categories on important websites always allow you to select the 29th day of February, or if they only let you do so in a leap year. Hmm.

Anywho, he's as cute as a button and I hope he has a great birthday tomorrow, if indeed that's when they're celebrating it. He loves Toy Story, so he will be pleasantly surprised by the present I have waiting for him already at Grammy and Pap's house.

Happy Birthday to Rebekah, Chris, and Kuwait!

We have a lot of February birthdays around, including several of my friends', my niece Bekah's on the 12th, and Chris' on the 14th. This year, a few friends and I bought Chris a new flat-screen TV for his birthday; it was a little tricking having the company deliver and wall-mount it while keeping it a surprise, but I pulled it off! Chris was spoiled this year with a surprise party, two fun weekends of activities, and a big present, but I don't think he minded. More pictures of our adventures are to follow.

This year's National Day celebration is a big one for Kuwait, as the country celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence, its 20th anniversary of liberation from Iraqi forces, and the 5th anniversary of the current Emir being in power. On Tuesday at school, our students showed their Kuwaiti pride by wearing the colors of the flag: red, white, green, and black. On Wednesday, each student wore a dura'a, a tanora (traditional Kuwaiti dresses), or Kuwait colors again. We also had a special Grade 1 luncheon with Arabic food, and a show with performances by different classes. This year, my class did not participate, but maybe we will next year. Here are some of my little divas doing their thing:

25

It's not every year that one turns 1/4 of a century. I can say that it seems no different than 24, and will probably be no different than 26. How did anyone ever start celebrating birthdays, anyway?

On Sunday, I had a fairly normal day of teaching and church in the evening, so Chris and I went to a tasty Arabic restaurant on Monday night. I would venture to say that no one else in my family has ever tried raw minced lamb, and probably never will, so I guess that's a one-up on my part. Once I got past the fact that I was really eating it, I found it quite good on bread! Beside that, we had lamb chops, hommos, and baba ganoush (Don't quote me on spelling). Talk about a protein diet.

We can see the end of the week approaching, albeit too fast for me. I only had one set of my exams taken until today, when I received the other 72. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day! Since Chris is nearly finished with his grading, he will help...I love that guy.

Everything else around here is fairly quiet. Packing mode has not kicked in yet, so I will end up doing a lot this weekend. Tonight, I had my last tutoring session until we come back. Things are wrapping up quickly!

19 days to the U.S.
Oh my gosh! 19 days?

Our Summer is Already Full

I don't have many exciting updates, other than the fact that we have four teaching weeks left! We're looking forward to visits with our friends and family across the States, and enjoying a much needed respite. Here is our tentative schedule:

- Bask in Turkey's beautiful sunshine during the 3rd week of June
- Arrive in Boston June 21st (I think)
- Stay with Chris' family in Worcester through July 4th
- Return to Indiana with my fam July 6th
- Head to Eastern PA in the last week of July
- Maybe take a trip to Dallas/Ft. Worth area to visit friends and fam the second week of August
- Back to MA the 3rd week of August
- Return overseas August 25th (I think)

It makes me tired to think about traveling around so much, but I know we'll love it.

Also, a loving Happy Birthday goes to my mom, who turns 39 again today. Love you! We'll share a cake with no icing when I get back.

the sands recede

While visibility off of our balcony is slowly increasing, there's still a fair amount of dust floating around. My sinuses are not getting along nicely with this new season, so maybe it's not quite as good as a snow day. We had school today as usual, but there was a drop in student attendance; this is not a bad thing at the end of a long week.

Starting tonight, it's another full weekend. We have church home group this evening, and tomorrow morning, we go to the embassy church. In the afternoon, I have a softball game (at 2pm), and we're off to dinner with friends in the evening. Saturday morning, I have a student at 10am that I tutor regularly, and then it's a special surprise for Chris' birthday. At 5:oo, I'll be headed to worship team practice. Afterward, I'll just spend some relaxing time with my Valentine. It sounds crazy even typing all of this out, but we're just busy for a season.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

A Garfield Birthday

For those with January birthdays:



source

Just fun

A little birthday fun to kick off the New Year...

In honor of the October birthdays

(Be sure to let it load first for maximum hilarity.)