SaudiStitcher

Long Time

2010-07-31T23:25:00.000+03:00

Well. I am finally getting around to blogging after nearly 7 months of not doing so! I will be surprised if anyone actually reads this! So much has happened to me these past 7 months and I am too tired to go into it all right now. However, I do want to post some new pics of my sweetie, Harper! She has grown and changed a ton since the January pics. I saw her in April when I flew home for ten days. That is only a little over 3 months ago. At that time, she wasn't even reaching out and holding anything yet. Now, she's sitting up, laughing, STANDING already holding on to things, rolling over and over and basically managing to get from one place to another before you know it! It's amazing to me how fast babies develop and grow in the first year! If you want a really "feel good" chuckle, click on my blog list on the left here under Great Danes and Baby Names. You will be glad you did!

Look at this thing! Hee Hee!

Pretty in Pink!

Stylin'

Daddy's Girl!

2010-01-24T19:20:00.001+03:00

I only have a moment, but wanted to post this latest pic that I got from Chris. Not sure when it was taken, but it can't be THAT long ago! Harper, is, after all, just over three weeks old! Hard to believe! Is it just me or does she seem older?
I love this pic! Talk about look alikes! And her is one also with Aunt Kelly! Auntie love!

Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetched!

2010-01-21T14:10:00.000+03:00

January has been a wild ride month for me! My new year started out wonderfully with the birth of my beautiful granddaughter, Harper! The only dark spot there is not being able to actually hold her! I can't WAIT for April!
Over two weeks first Lynnae, then Kelly and their dad, went to see Rachel, Chris, and Harper and spend time getting to know her and helping Rachel out. It was a sad time for me, knowing that everyone was there except myself.
Work has been very stressful. Lots of situations that I don't want to talk about here. Suffice it to say that my workplace has NOT been a pleasant place to go to everyday. On top of that, there have been a few days where I have had to both teach, and handle "principal" duties, since I am the Vice Principal as well as teacher, and must handle things when the principal is absent from the premises. My stack of papers to grade kept multiplying like rabbits! I finally took all of last weekend to get caught up on all the grading. I just finished another bunch from yesterday, and now have to tackle math workbooks (30 of them times 3-4 pages in each). Once I get those done, I have to do lesson plans. If it weren't for having to grade papers and do lesson plans, teaching would be a perfect job! LOL!
On top of all this, I started my online Master's course with Marygrove college. I am now in week two and have two papers along with some other things due Saturday night. This is difficult since some of those things are based on responses to group discussions whose deadline is midnight Friday (EST) and Saturday morning my time! Of course, at that time I am on my way to work, then have to do Crash Courses (that also started a couple of weeks ago) an hour after school! I have to keep enough energy throughout the day Saturday to KEEP working when I get home!
In between all of this, I am sad that I haven't had enough time to devote to crocheting. :( I have SO many things in my "queue"! I am going to take a "breather" when I am done here on the net and work on Harper's monkey. It's a good thing that I got her blanket done before this month started!
I just hope things settle down soon, and some of the stress is relieved. Of course, as long as there are DEADLINES, there will always be STRESS!
Here are some new pics of Harper. Doesn't she look MUCH older than not quite 3 weeks in the pic of her sitting up in the chair?!

Baby Pics

2010-01-09T20:44:00.000+03:00

Here are some more pics of Harper. A week old already! Her Auntie Lynnae got to Arizona on Thursday for a week's visit to meet her new niece, and Auntie Kelly and Grandpa Steve will be arriving tomorrow to spend a week! Lucky them! The first one here is the circular baby afghan I made her. Will be trying to get that mailed in the next few days along with her monkey! Do you think she's a Daddy's Girl or what?! Rachel says she's got Chris wrapped around all TEN fingers! LOL!

Groundhog Day

2010-01-09T20:33:00.000+03:00

Check this out on Ravelry!

SHE'S HERE!

2010-01-01T08:41:00.000+03:00

I am a nana! Harper Gray (or Grey) made her appearance yesterday, December 31, 2009! Just in time to be a tax deduction! LOL! She weighed in at 6 pound 15 ounces. Don't know her length yet. She looks like she has long fingers! I believe the time was 1:41 PM!

Christmas Hat

2009-12-28T22:50:00.000+03:00

Please ignore how horrible I look! Just look at the beautiful hat that Gian made me for Christmas!

Duct Tape

2009-12-17T23:10:00.002+03:00

Okay. Here it is, the duct taped wonder! Just like books (or people) might be pretty on the outside, but hoo boy, if you could see underneath! LOL! Also a few pics of "my place" with a few decorations.

Christmas Tree

2009-12-16T21:52:00.008+03:00

I finished my crocheted Christmas tree! I was up until 2 AM last night finishing it up and taking pictures. None of the pictures I took really do it justice. The little garland that I chained is much more sparkly than it looks in the pics. I just finished making a table top tree. I used to make these all the time out of coat hangers. For the life of me, though, I could NOT remember how to assemble the coat hangers! I finally was about to give up when I noticed this wooden paper towel holder that I had sitting in here (was supposed to be to aid in rolling yarn, but didn't work) anyway, I ended up bending coat hangers and using LOTS of duct tape (sometimes I do things like a dude! :D ) and made a tree like frame contraption! I then took another 45 minutes to wrap lights around it and tape them in place. However, when I wrapped the garland (had to used two 18' lengths together to make it full enough) I discovered the lights were mostly hidden! Well, I'd NEVER made one with the lights on the outside before, but there's a first time for everything! So I undid them all (another 30 minutes) wrapped the garland back around, and then the lights on top. Pretty! I was done in by that point, so I put the whole shebang on the table in the living room. I have little mini ornaments, so tomorrow morning I will decorate it. THEN I will take some pics! I kind of wish I'd taken pics of it UNassembled first! :D Only two more days before it's back to school! :( But, that's okay. Now that I have everything cleaned up, who needs time to crochet, craft, burn dvd's etc.? Here is also a pic of my coffee table decoration. Bibi has gotten very used to having her "mommy" around! She's not going to know what to think when there's not a warm body to cuddle with in the cold! Ooops! I forgot to give you a link to find the Christmas tree pattern by my friend, June Gilbank! Do go and check out her wonderful patterns and other great things! http://www.planetjune.com/blog/christmas-trees-crochet-pattern/

Close up

2009-12-09T22:59:00.000+03:00

Here is a close up of Gian's Glove.

Gian's Glove

2009-12-09T22:56:00.000+03:00

Here is a picture of Gian. He came over today to get some red yarn from me, and he was wearing this fingerless mitten that HE made himself! He was explaining that it had a ribbed cuff, and he used increases and decreases! He said he followed a video on You Tube! Go You Tube, and GO GIAN! Hope he has enough yarn to make the other one :D

Long Time

2009-11-30T15:17:00.002+03:00

I haven't posted in AGES! Sorry 'bout that~ School finally started with students on the 17th of October. I spent the three week delay mostly doing "Vice Principal" stuff! The hospital had a BIG inspection to get re-licensed, and of COURSE, our school had to be included. This meant TONS of paperwork, clean up, etc. etc. etc. On top of all that, I had my OWN "new" classroom (I moved to a room across the hall to get internet reception!) to prepare! It was a mess! They took everything from my old room and just basically dumped it all in the middle of the new one! Rebecca, who used to work here, was up for a weekend and helped me get the room in some semblance of order! So, finally school was up and running (as was I, constantly it seems!) and I got my class of only 16 students! Nice! Turned out at the end of the first week I discovered that three of them should be in 2nd grade because of their ages! So they got moved. I now have 13 students, and am expecting another sometime in January, from the States! I am now on Hajj break until the 16th of December. Yes, we will be in school working the week before Christmas. :( But the GOOD news is that Christmas Eve is Thursday, and Christmas Friday, which just HAPPENS to be MY WEEKEND! :D so I will at least be OFF on Christmas this year! I am crocheting away, trying to get ready for the coming little one! Rachel and Chris' computer got majorly messed up. They may not be able to fix it. SO, I haven't been able to video skype and "see" the big belly bump lately. I hope they get a computer soon! Rachel has had a bit of trouble the past few weeks with her heart racing. She had an ekg, blood work, etc. done, and all came back normal. She also saw a cardiologist who had her wear a monitor for 24 hours. She has not found out the results of that yet. I just pray it is nothing serious and that Rachel will have a normal delivery! Gee, just realized that starting tomorrow, I can say my grandbaby is due NEXT MONTH! Wow!! Of course, when the baby is born you can be SURE that I WILL be posting on here! :D Biggest news is that I am TRYING to get enrolled in Marygrove College in Michigan to get a Master's degree online. I am going for the one that focuses on K-5 math. I enjoy teaching math at this level, so I think this will be a fun major for me. Unfortunately, I tried to apply online yesterday and ran into all kinds of trouble! Kept getting error messages! THEN, I went to apply at FAFSA, and it said that the deadlines have passed! So, I don't know HOW I can get financial aid! I wrote to the counselor yesterday when all this happened, but with it being Sunday, and after Thanksgiving, I don't imagine she will see it until today. And with the time difference, I hope to hear from her within the next couple of hours. So, a lot going on, but now I'm on break, and not going anywhere, just home and relaxation, I should be able to start posting more. I am thinking of starting a classroom blog where my parents can go to see information on our class. I know a web page would probably be better, but I don't know how to go about getting one. I am pretty sure I would have no trouble designing it, just how to get started. If anyone has any ideas on this, please post! That is, IF anyone is still reading this thing!

End of Summer?!

2009-09-25T10:11:00.002+03:00

Well, the day has finally arrived. My LAST day of summer. Well, summer VACATION! We teachers go back to school tomorrow. We have a glitch in our system, however! The KING has decreed that students will not go back to school until October 10th for grades 6 and up, and October 17th for K-5!! SO, that means I will be working at school for THREE weeks SANS kids! I will gleefully be taking advantage of this to come up with super quality lesson plans (I HOPE!) and to get my room in top notch working order! Don't know how or IF we will make up these lost days! If they will not be made up, then I will have to go through the books and find out what I can consolidate! It will be good to get back into a routine of getting up at a certain time each day, even if that time IS 6 am! (I may cheat every other day when I don't have to wash my hair and make it 6:30 :D) One last day of freedom! I plan to enjoy it! Sorry US colleagues.

Better

2009-09-12T22:29:00.004+03:00

Things seems to be stabilizing a little bit. The past few days, Firefox has been opening multiple windows! One or two of which have the WOT warning about dangerous website! Yikes! SO, tonight I remembered a program I USED to use consistently. Don't know WHY I stopped. Anyway, it's called Ad Aware. There is a free version and a paid version. I USED to have the paid one, but tonight I just went on and installed the free one. When I ran it, it came up with TWENTY-THREE threats! Yikes again! So, I removed them, and lo and behold, when I re-opened Firefox, NO WOT warning or multiple pages, AND my blog seems to be well again! I even got my new MEEZ on twice! Have to delete one. :D All the blogs I am following seem to be current too! I like the new MEEZ. Although our school looks NOTHING like this one, at least it looks like a school, and that's where I will be headed two weeks from today! The new principal should be on her way here from the airport as I write this. Between one thing and another with my wrist, I STILL haven't gotten up to the school to work on my classroom! I am determined to do so tomorrow, though. I have a feeling that these last two weeks are going to be spent "pre-working" with this new principal. I just hope I have SOME leisure time left! Actually, I am pretty much ready to go back to work. This has been an extremely long break, which is going to make it harder to get back into the swing of things, but I think I am going to enjoy having a set schedule to my days again. It's amazing how easy it is for me to WASTE time! I think of all the crochet projects I intended to get done this summer! Of course, having wrist surgery right after school ended AND still having problems with it today, has not allowed me to do as much crocheting as I would like. I DID however, make an apple keychain, coaster, and mug cozy for the new principal, along with some other stuff as a welcome gift. I am making four more sets of everything for the new teachers who should arrive in the next two weeks (hopefully BEFORE school starts!). I am on the third coaster now. They don't take too long to make. The keychains are really cute AND very easy and fast as well. I got a great cozy pattern from sukigirl on Ravelry. She makes it easy in her directions to modify for your own mug size. I will try and get pics up of these items in the next couple of days.

Internet Problems

2009-09-08T12:54:00.002+03:00

I am getting VERY frustrated with Firefox and GOOGLE! Firefox keeps popping up with blockers on web pages or links, even though I have checked my settings and NOTHING in there is checked that could be causing this! Also I keep getting some kind of Security Access Denied thing! When I reload, the page comes up. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH FIREFOX!!!????? I am about ready to chuck it! IE is worse, so what's left? I tried Google Chrome, but with the problems I am having with Google lately, I am very reluctant to give THEM a try! NONE of my blogs that I follow will update on this page!! Even with reloading and reloading, posts that took place over a week ago are STILL coming up as recent as 2 HOURS ago! Grrrr. I don't even know if this POST will show up! Twitter. Another Google program! JUNK! 90% of the time after writing something and clicking update, it just spins around and around and does NOTHING!! I left it spinning for 20 minutes, went back, and it was STILL spinning! So, Firefox has joined the ranks of Microsoft and Internet Explorer for BAD service. (NONE, really. Google the same. NO SUPPORT! All they have are these stupid Forums that are NO HELP AT ALL! Am I the only one having all of these problems? I would maybe blame it on my ISP here in Saudi, but these problems started BEFORE I left the States, so I know that is not it. IF this stupid blog will show comments, PLEASE let me know if you are having similar problems and if you've found any solutions! You can email me at my aol address (don't trust my gmail right now!) SgtJana@aol.com Thanks, all!

Female Medic Sally Clarke Saves Seven Soldiers in Afghanistan

2009-09-03T14:27:00.003+03:00

Female Medic Sally Clarke Saves Seven Soldiers in Afghanistan Shared via AddThis As a retired Army Reservist (where I was, myself, a medic, and then a dental assistant) I was so proud of this young lady in this article! She proves that women CAN be an asset to the military! She is a definite heroine! This is the kind of person our children should be looking up to.

Saudi Bound

2009-08-26T17:28:00.002+03:00

I can't believe my time here is almost gone. This time next week I will be back at Al Hada dealing with Jet Lag! It has been a busy month. I have been in Atlanta, Phoenix and Prescott Arizona, Las Vegas, and Hoover Dam! It's a good thing I don't have to go back to work right away! I will need a week, at least, to rest up from my vacation! Going back is going to be so hard this time. Though it's been a longer time home than ever, it still feels like I haven't really gotten much time with my girls and guys since their lives have to go on, and so many days I have spent alone while they go to work. I wish I had rented a car so that I could get around on my own. It's not fun being "home" and having to sit around stranded just as if I were back in Saudi! So many places I want to go and things to do, but none of it happening. I have requests to bring things back to Saudi with me, but time is running out, and I have no way to go find these things! I am a bit worried about the weight of my luggage. I came here with both suitcases little more than half full, so I am hoping that I won't actually go over my weight. I will be having dinner with Lynnae, whom I haven't hardly seen, tonight, and then staying over so we can "hang out" tonight. She will bring me back here to Kelly's in the morning before she heads to work. Saturday night I am cooking and making her a cake for a birthday bash. Her birthday was on the 14th, but I was in AZ and she was in Florida at the time! We will all likely stay over then hit Cracker Barrel and a movie on Sunday. Then it will be time to come back here and get packed. I leave Monday around 6 pm, and will need to be at the airport by around 3:30 to be safe. Ahh. Two days of travel to look forward to. Good thing, though. At the end my Bibi will be waiting for me. I have missed that little critter. If you haven't done so, check out my daughter Rachel's baby blog! The link is on the side of this one. Great Danes and Baby Names. They have the ultrasound from last Friday posted and you can clearly see the baby's face!

Leaving AZ

2009-08-23T09:24:00.002+03:00

Well, I have not blogged since the morning that I was coming here. It's been a packed two weeks, a long time, but very short as well. Rachel had her ultrasound yesterday and Kelly and I were both able to go into the room and SEE the baby! Just awesome! I SAW my grandchild! There is no other feeling like it in the world. I actually saw him/her yawn and jiggle when Rachel laughed. So sad to be leaving and knowing I won't actually have the chance to put my hand on MY baby's belly to feel HER baby. The next time I will be here, the little one will be almost 3 months old already. One more week in Atlanta to spend with my other two darling daughters, and then it's back to Saudi. At least I have my Bibi to see when I get there, and a few friends. It will be VERY hard to leave home again this time. Harder than before I think. It was nice to get to spend five weeks with my girls, but being here so long makes it very difficult to leave. When I get back to Saudi, I will have three more weeks off till school starts. Anyone who is a teacher knows that those three weeks will NOT be spent being idle. I will be going up to the school and moving my things from one classroom to another. After that I will be spending many hours planning out lessons. Those three weeks will go by very fast. In addition to getting ready, I will also be meeting and greeting a new principal (who I have spoken to on the phone) and a few new teachers (one of whom I have been corresponding with) so everything is going to be quite different. Alma, our secretary, goes in for her 3rd chemo treatment on Tuesday. She emailed me and says that so far she is doing well with it. Not too much sickness. That is very good news. She is a very brave and inspiring young woman. Arizona has been wonderful. Prescott is a beautiful small city in the mountains. There are lots of small shops and local restaurants. The people are very friendly and the weather is gorgeous. This is definitely a nice place to live. I will look forward to seeing it again in April.

Arizona

2009-08-09T13:31:00.002+03:00

Hi. It is 6:30 AM here in Atlanta, and I am getting ready to pack for my trip to Arizona. The past 11 days have flown by here. I will be in Arizona for 15 days. Rachel said they were painting the baby's room last night, which will be MY room the next couple of weeks. I will get to help Chris put down new carpet in their because, to quote Rachel, "The carpet in there right now is gross!" :D Lynnae and Mike left yesterday for Florida, and tomorrow is Kelly and Brian's first wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been a whole year. That was the last time I was home! I was very glad to have five whole weeks home this year, but the downside is that I will be missing my girls and their guys even MORE when I go back this time. I did online "check-in" with Delta yesterday. I have a "boarding pass" printed up, but NO seat assignment! THAT makes me nervous! I mean, I will STILL have to stand in line to get a seat assignment when I get there (I am NOT going to wait for them to call my name to the boarding desk, like it says on the pass!) PLUS, I paid my 15.00 baggage fee online at the same time, but they have NOT sent me a receipt! So, how in the world am I supposed to "curbside" check-in my bag without that? I will have to call them to find out what the deal is. I am NOT going to pay them twice! OK, time to pack!

Hello from Atlanta

2009-07-31T21:14:00.002+03:00

I am finally starting to get over my jet lag, I think. I just had lunch with Joanne Chico, who is the lady who has done the recruiting for teachers at Al Hada for years. She is the one who hired ME four years ago. It was nice to put a face to a person's name. Yesterday, I kind of got a makeover! Lynnae, Kelly, and I went to the mall and got our hair cut by this wonderful Turkish gal at JC Pennys. Kelly has been going to her for a year. Anyway, I basically just got my hair trimmed, but my daughter's could not comment enough how much they liked it all day long! Made Mum feel good! :D Then we three went shopping! I ended up getting a few tops that I NEVER thought I would wear, but actually liked when I tried them on! So, for lunch, I got a bit spruced up with my new 'do and new top. It was fun! Even more so since I didn't have to COVER EVERYTHING UP to go out! :D Kelly and Brian are both at work, so I am "home alone". Well, not completely, Burton is snoozing on the chair in the living room! I don't think he's moved since Kelly left! Kelly's home for her break, so more later!

Frankfurt

2009-07-28T10:47:00.002+03:00

Hello from Frankfurt. Flight here was nice. I had an exit aisle seat with no one next to me and lots of leg room! I actually slept on the plane which I never do! Almost missed breakfast! The cart was way up the aisle when I woke up. I was starving so I went quickly to the stewardess and asked for my food! There are NO electrical outlets here in Germany's airport! My battery has just enough juice to get this post out, and then that's it. I really need to find out if HP has a better battery than the one that came with this computer. This one is junk! I should be in Atlanta in about 14 more hours. I was glad that I found some Euros in my drawer and brought them with me. It was nice to get a cappuccino and a muffin and have the cash to pay for it. Online service here is through T-mobile, which I have my State's cell phone with. This is different, though. It's 8 Euros per hour. Well, no chance of going over that! Well, I can't play on my computer BUT I DO have my crocheting and books to read. So I will not be bored. It was funny, I had to go through yet another security to get to this gate. They put my carry on through x-ray twice. I couldn't figure out why until I saw my crochet hooks on the screen. The man was baffled!! I kept trying to explain what it was and said they could open the bag to look, but I guess he didn't hear me or understand English. At any rate, another man came over who must have known what they were, said something to the other guy, laughed and clapped him on the shoulder! Funny, especially since the one who knew was YOUNGER than the other one! Ok. Got to close. Battery about gone. Will post more probably Wednesday. I will be too exhausted when I get to Atlanta to do much more than eat and crash!

On my way

2009-07-28T01:58:00.002+03:00

I said it before and I'll say it again! Ain't technology GRAND?! It is 2:00 in the morning, and I am sitting in the Jeddah International Airport with my laptop in my lap :D My 3G modem works better here in the airport than it's worked anywhere else! Of course it may have something to do with being in Jeddah. Now I can be online for as long as my battery holds out, which, unfortunately with this HP, is less than an hour! No outlets visible. Sigh. The trip here was terrifying! A Malaysian couple and myself were onboard one of the company vans. The driver was a typical Saudi maniac driver! He was doing 140K PLUS down a two lane (one lane each way) DARK road! Passing trucks with lights showing just over the horizon! I thought for sure it was going to be my LAST ride! The escarpment road is now open, so it is possible to hit the outskirts of Jeddah within 2 hours. However, he got me to the airport in two hours! The airport is on the OTHER side of Jeddah! Realistically, it should have taken at LEAST 2 and a half hours! The other couple had to go to the Saudi Airlines terminal which is about twenty minutes to a half hour away from this one! (It is first, I guess he decided to get the "Westerner" out of the way first!) Anyway, it's strange. The entire waiting area for ALL the gates is one big wide open space. EXCEPT gates 41-43 which are enclosed by glass and have yet another security check in! I go to gate 41 except I have to wait out here in the big area till they decide to open it up. So, I will have to do security yet again. BUT, that's the difference between the East and the West. The West takes passenger safety and security a whole lot more seriously! So, I really don't mind. Makes me feel safer. I got lucky and had a porter to take my bags from the van who spoke excellent English and took me right to Lufthansa check-in. He took me up to first class, and I said, "NO! I am not first class!" He said not to worry, the guy was a friend of his! I asked for exit aisle and the guy said I must be lucky! We'll see when I actually get on the plane! I have had them say that I got the seat I wanted but it WASN'T when I got on the plane! My friend, June, just googled me and let me see the Great Dane she finished! Yay, I have been asking her to design one for ages, and now it's done! I can't wait to make a mini Guinness and Damar for Rachel and Chris! Well, can't post much more since this darn battery doesn't last very long. Almost no power left! Yikes! Maybe in Frankfurt there will be wireless AND an outlet! If so, I will post more from there! Cheers! As my Chris says!

Home and Traveling Creatures

2009-07-22T20:42:00.001+03:00

I am getting excited! I will be home in six days and seeing two of my beautiful daughters!
Then, two weeks after that my "glowing" daughter! :D
I am also excited about a fun thing I am doing in Ravelry. I am in a group called Traveling Creature Laboratory. I am in Circle #1, and we have around 8 people I think. Anyway, each of us is making a "body" (amigurumi!) which we will in turn mail on to another person. Actually I will have 3 bodies to mail out the first time, then two after that. Anyway, when I get my two bodies, one will have a head added to it by another person. I will then make up some arms. The other one, I will put a head on. Then I will mail my headless, armless, body along with one with a head and another with a head and arms. This will all cycle around so that I will end up putting heads, arms, legs, and whatever other cool things I want, to the other bodies that I will get. Eventually, I will get my OWN "body" back, but it will then be some kind of creature! The fun part is not having any idea how the finished creature will look. In addition, each creature has a "passport" that will go along with it to tell of it's many travels. Since I live in Saudi Arabia, all the creatures will spend some time outside of the States!
I am REALLY hoping I can get at least one of my girls interested in doing crochet. Lynnae already knows some. She made me a beautiful scarf Christmas of 2007! I will have to tempt them with all the great baby patterns out there! :D
Lynnae, Rachel, and Kelly, your mum will be seeing you SOON!! I love you!!

Avatar

2009-07-18T22:27:00.002+03:00

Strange. I discovered that I could have FIVE avatars in an album on MEEZ, so decided to make a 2nd one for fun and to use later. WELL. I just came to my blog to check for comments, and THERE is my NEW MEEZ!! It automatically changed! THAT is very strange! I have to figure out how to get my airport gal back. That is more in keeping with my life the next few weeks!

Paperwork

2009-07-18T16:51:00.004+03:00

OK. Time to heave a HUGE sigh of relief! I am FINISHED with all the darn bureaucracy that I had to get done. First, I had to close my bank account with NCB (National Commercial Bank). THAT process took almost a week. The day I went to get the necessary paper that I needed to show the account was closed, I spent almost one and a half hours WAITING. With the paper in my hot little hand, I went to the personnel department to request a letter of employment for SABB (Saudi Arabian British Bank) which I needed to open a new account THERE. That took two days. By the time I got the letter Wednesday afternoon, it was too late to go to SABB. (Remember our weekend here is Thursday and Friday). This morning, I went to town to the SABB. The men in there are VERY courteous and helpful (which is the MAIN reason I left NCB, those guys are SLOWWWWW, AND they have no desire to really help anyone-for example, every payday, there are at least 30 people waiting in line to cash checks etc. and they only have ONE teller! It takes a minimum of 30 minutes up to an hour waiting time!) So. The guy at SABB was very helpful and I got my account opened. He knows I am leaving for home soon, so is having my new ATM card sent to the bank instead of my address here. WISE move! Kelly sent me a birthday card on the 1st of July. As of today, it is STILL not here! I had lunch at KFC and won a cooler bag (I won a BIG duffle last week there!) and did a tiny bit of shopping at the Al Anoud grocery next door. As soon as I got home, I dumped everything and took off for finance. On my way there, I thought about getting my passport first, but then decided they MIGHT want my Iqama for some reason. WELL, it was a darn good thing I went on! When I got there the guy said they were just about to CLOSE out everything for July's payroll! He talked his "boss" into getting me into the computer first. PHEW!! If I HAD stopped at the passport office, I would have been in deep kimshee! With that taken care of, I made my way to the passport window in the hospital. There were at least 20 people waiting for passports and other business. Lots of them were being turned away with, "Bukra Insh'Allah" which basically means, "Tomorrow, God willing"! Lucky for me, my passport AND Visa were ready. We are now being given a piece of paper instead of a stamp! that paper is like gold, and I was warned NOT to lose it! YIKES! Then it was off to the ticket office. Only ONE guy was working! I waited about 30 minutes and finally got my ticket AFTER paying my 50 riyal "airport tax" which SHOULD be paid by Al Hada. I guess I should be thankful, this is the FIRST year I haven't had to pay for my Visa! THAT has been 200 riyals PLUS a 15 riyal "fee" for someone to use their card at the ATM machines that give the Visa receipts! I knew when I came here that Al Hada was SUPPOSED to be paying that, but never did! I guess the government finally caught up with them! So, as I said at the beginning.....SIGGHHH! As soon as I got home I folded the Visa paper up in my passport and put two rubberband around both edges of my passport! No WAY am I going to lose THAT thing! My ticket is tucked away safely too. In ten days I will be in Atlanta! Yay! I will miss my Bibi, though. But I know Gian will take good care of her. I'm glad I will have almost 3 weeks of vacation left before school starts so Bibi won't have me taking off every day right when I get back. I have to make sure to bring her plenty of treats back! :D Well. I just had the perfect ending to a good day! Chris got his and Rachel's computer set up for Skype video, and I got to talk to Rachel for an hour and actually SEE her and the dogs and Chris! She was able to show me her little "baby bump"! And she was able to visually share the few baby clothes they have bought and at the same time we looked online at the baby furniture they want to get. ISN'T MODERN TECHNOLOGY GRAND???!!!!!!!!!!!

Avatar

2009-07-15T15:05:00.003+03:00

Do you like my new avatar?! I think it's fun! It is supposed to be me at an airport and the bag looks JUST like my own carry on. Very appropriate for the next couple of months as I will be in plenty of airports: Jeddah, Frankfurt, Atlanta, Phoenix, and back again! We had three people at our class last night. Not as many as I'd thought, and only one "newbie". That was Nehal. Ola and Gian were a big help. Now all I have to figure out is how to get this great avatar onto Ravelry! Anyone have any ideas?

Here We Go!

2009-07-14T15:30:00.003+03:00

I FINALLY got the go ahead to use the classroom upstairs at the Community Center for my crochet class! We start today at 4:30. Thankfully I will have three of my students there to help me show the newbies what to do! LOL! Gian is really doing great! I should be getting pictures of his last four projects at the class. He made me a beautiful sky blue rose for my birthday! I am taking him a hat pattern and a care bear pattern to the class! I will report later or tomorrow about how it went!

Happy 4Th

2009-07-04T19:10:00.002+03:00

Happy 4th from the land of camels. No fireworks here. Though there COULD be some IF I had a nice cold beer and drank it in view of a mutawa! LOL! Hope everyone in the land of the free is enjoying their freedom to drink beer, watch fireworks, and eat PORK BBQ! Enjoy and be thankful for our great nation!

Camels

2009-07-02T13:20:00.004+03:00

I always liked camels. I remember having a camel each year we did The Journey at my church at Christmastime. The last time, we had a baby camel! He was so cute. Since coming here to Saudi I see camels almost every day when I am off the compound! I had never seen a white camel until I saw the one above on a trip to the crater almost two years ago. Isn't he a beauty? I am itching to design my OWN amigurumi critter, and a camel is exactly what I want to do first. Most people don't think of camels being white, hence camel as a color! However, as you can see, there ARE white ones. I think when I do make my camel, I am going to make him a white one. White camels are considered of very high value here. Used to be (and maybe still is?) that a bride being bought with white camels was high on the list indeed! Another cool thing is the sheep. A couple of days ago, when Martin went on the on ramp to head to Taif, there was a sheepherder with at least 50 sheep grazing on the side of the entrance ramp! I was SO mad that I didn't have my camera! It was a really cool sight. Here are some pics of some critters here in Saudi. The camel pic here was taken a few days ago in the village of Al Hada outside the compound. Now that the escarpment road and summer are both here, Al Hada is PACKED with tourists! The most unusual thing you will see here is hundreds of families picnicing. The unusual thing is that they plop down a rug anywhere, but particularyly on the sidewalks along the roads! I must try and get a picture to post here. It is really unlike anything you've ever seen before! Anyway, the camel ride operators are in 7th heaven now! The baboons are also ecstatic! For the past three years, they have been on our compound, around the school, and even breaking into apartments (like they did at Carol's last January!) all that because the escarpment road was closed. They had no food source. When the road is open, people stop and feed them. So, now with the road open again, they should get fat and happy again. I'm glad. This guy was on the escarpment the other day. If you look closely as the moving baboon, you will see her baby hanging on to her belly! Here are also a couple of pics of the new escarpment. I will be posting more pics in the next few days on Flickr.

July

2009-07-01T15:39:00.002+03:00

July has usually been a fun month for me. It's the month of my birthday for one. But this month is going to be even more fun! I am hoping to start the crochet class SOON, like hopefully Sunday. I am going to see (IF I can SEE the man!) if Zuhair will go along with Friday and Tuesdays from 4-6. Those are both "female" days, so hopefully he will agree to let us use one of the upstairs classrooms that I didn't even know were there! I can crochet again. Yesterday I made a cell phone cozy in purple to match my phone. :D There are plans right now for Martin to take me, Thess, and her sister on the cable car ride on my birthday. It goes down about 4,000 feet! At the bottom we will have coffee. So, that should be a nice time. And THEN, best of all, I fly home to see my girls on the 28th! I haven't seen them all since Kelly's wedding LAST August! After two weeks in Atlanta with Lynnae and Kelly, I will fly to Arizona to see the expecting mommy, Rachel, for two weeks. Then it's back to Atlanta for one more week and then back here to Saudi. I will STILL have over THREE weeks MORE vacation time when I get back. The only downside is that it will be Ramadan, and NOTHING will be open during the day AT ALL! So, I will have five weeks at home. The LONGEST stretch of time since I came here four years ago, thanks to Uncle Sam's tax laws! I can only be in the States 35 days out of a twelve month period, or I have to pay tax on the salary that SAUDI ARABIA pays me! The Brits have it good. They can be home for 6 MONTHS each year and not pay tax! Nice. I wish they would up it to 60 days or even 40 would be nice. Ah, well, that's the price I pay for a good job with steady income! Can't complain, since so many others are out of work completely! I met Gian at the Community Center earlier to give him some yarn for a lapghan he plans to make. That boy has REALLY taken off with crochet! He brought the octopus he made! VERY cute! I am meeting him later to help him with the pattern, so I will have him bring the octopus back so I can take a pic with my regular camera instead of cell phone as I did earlier, then I will post it for him. He also has his own blog now! You can check it out from this page under my blog list. He is wizardknerdgian. Enjoy!

Freedom

2009-06-28T12:24:00.002+03:00

Well, the stitches are OUT! Yay. My wrist is still sore and stiff, and the back of my hand below my thumb is numb, though the doctor assured me that he did NOT his the nerve! I have to go back again to see him tomorrow morning, because I think he may be a bit concerned about these things. We will see. It was wonderful to take a shower and use BOTH hands to wash my hair this morning! AND to blow dry it so it doesn't look like a limp rag! It was difficult to hold the dryer though with my left hand. Caused a bit of pain. Ah, well. I was told I could do "light" exercise with it, but still not to lift anything heavy. Maybe the dryer was too heavy? LOL! I am busy winding and organizing my vast stash! I found some good tips on crochet soiree, so I numbered my plastic see through boxes with my label maker. Someone said to cut a snip of yarn, tape it to an index card and file it. Well, I didn't think the snip was really necessary with my brand name yarn (though I WILL do this with the stuff I've bought here in Saudi!), so I just wrote stuff down on the index card. What yarn was in what box. THEN I discovered a neat thing that is part of the "stash" thing on Ravelry. There is a place that says, "stored in"! So now I am putting the box number there which is very convenient because it also tells (and shows!) where the yarn is, the brand, quantity, etc. So, unless Ravelry ends up folding, which will probably NEVER happen in MY lifetime, my organization will be preserved in case the file cards get lost. Pretty cool! I am going to try doing a little crochet this afternoon and see how my wrist does. I may just crochet for like ten minutes and then stop for 30 and see how it does. I want to work up to being able to crochet for an hour without pain before I go ahead and start the crochet class. I also need to go to the souq and try and find some hooks for the students!

Alma

2009-06-22T12:25:00.002+03:00

Alma, our school secretary, is in surgery right now for complete mastectomy. She is only 32. Alma has a long hard road ahead of her with chemo treatments the next few months. If you pray, please pray for Alma to make a complete recovery both physically and emotionally. Thanks.

Language Problems

2009-06-19T12:33:00.002+03:00

Anyone know how to KEEP blogger settings? Everytime I CHANGE anything on my blog, the header comes back in ARABIC! Lucky for me I have an idea of where things are (backwards! :) and can figure out how to get places. I am proud of myself! The SIGN IN page came up ALL in Arabic, and I managed to get signed in anyway!

Ff Fixed?

2009-06-17T22:37:00.004+03:00

I just followed some advise that I go from a FF forum on June 1 where I deleted some things in my FF profile. I just re-installed some asdd-ons that I used to have plus a couple of others. For the moment, FF is ZIPPING along! AND, it seems to be loading pages twice as fast! Here's hoping it stays this way! YAY! OK so I am going to see if I can upload the pics of Umair's Funshine Bear. Here goes! Awesome, working so far! Now here are a couple of more pics of Aziz with the dragonfly I made him his last day of school. He left a week before school let out to go home to Lebanon for the summer. He never got to be student of the week, so I thought I would make him a little something. He was very surprised! OK. Now to see if it will actually publish. Fingers crossed!

firefox on the fritz?

2009-06-17T12:08:00.002+03:00

anyone out there use firefox? has YOURS gone CRAZY!!??? I don't know what the heck is going on, but I am getting VERY frustrated! Myu blog header is now back to Arabic (it WASdoing ok for a couple of days) but now, even WORSE FF keeps FREEZING!!! I can't load ANYTHING and have to close everything down!! I want to post pics but am afraid it won't work! GRRRRRR!!!!!

nana

2009-06-14T21:33:00.002+03:00

YAY!!!!!! I CAN FINALLY TELL EVERYONE!!!! I am going to be a nana!!! my baby is HAVING a baby!! Rachel, after 7 years of marriage (as of tomorrow,happy anniversary rachel and chris!!) i love you! click on the great danes blog link to see the 1st ultrasound pic! hope my wrist heals quickly! i have a LOT of crocheting to do!

1 handed

2009-06-14T21:22:00.002+03:00

i had the surgery today, so am currently one handed tonight so can't type much. was at hospital almost 7 hours! i don't go back for 10 days. have sling for a couple of days. no heavy lifting for 4-6 wks. time should be up when time to go home. i basically finished the care bear. just have to glue on the eye pieces that i cut out this am prior to going for surg. will post pics mybe tom. now am tired and ready for sleep!

Problems

2009-06-12T19:31:00.002+03:00

I have been having SO many problems with Blogger! I have NOT been able to sign in for days! Not only that, but the top portion comes in in Arabic! I right clicked the B icon today and saw where I can "switch to English" but when I clicked on that, it took me to the dreaded Saudi "This URL is BLOCKED"!! I have Alias from a friend, but it doesn't want to take the proxy addresses! Grrr! BUT, for some strange reason, THIS time when I signed on, HERE was my dashboard! Here's hoping it POSTS!

squares

2009-06-08T21:52:00.004+03:00

Oops. I had SEVEN kids do squares! I forgot that Abdullah's MOTHER made one! Here are some individual pics of the kids and their squares. Ok. From the top: Jumanah, Gian, Amr, Abdullah, Ola, and Farah. I will put Mohammed's on later.

Endings

2009-06-08T21:26:00.002+03:00

And beginnings. Sort of! I now have internet again. They finally came and got the problem solved on Saturday. The past three days have been a bit hectic and crazy. Heck and whole last WEEK has been crazy! We had three days of testing (and the grading to go along with it!) and then Saturday, kind of a regular school day, except the upper graders had control of the playground most of the day and my kids didn't get PE. Then, yesterday was our closing ceremonies, which made the entire day totally hectic! Today, I gave my kids a "fun day". I made them all ice cream sundaes and gave them popcorn and free time to play games. Then we had a long recess and watched "Back to the Future" which, being an old flick, they haven't seen! We had water come into our room again! Thankfully, Erdem saw it on the floor but not until it had traveled all the way under my desk and my power cord for the computer was sitting in it! The 6-10th graders were wild and out of control and filling WATER balloons in the bathrooms which are right outside my classroom door! The floor does some weird sloping thing at that corner of the building! Anyway, we didn't finish the movie, but will on Wednesday. We have a teacher workday tomorrow, no students. But I have a TON of stuff to do! Report cards, packing and cleaning my classroom, etc. Gian is going to come at 11 and I am going to put him to work! I have to go in the morning to get my pre op blood work and chest xray done at the hospital before I go to school. On Wednesday, the kids leave at 10:30! As will most of the teachers! I have been tutoring two very nice Saudi girls in English the past week. The 9th grader is Sara, who is 15 and doesn't speak much English. However, she CAN read and write it quite well! Her sister, Nada, is 17 and a senior. She has exams coming up so I am trying to help her get ready for those. She speaks and understands, naturally, a bit more English than her sister. They have two younger sisters, 6th grade: Haneen, and 2nd grade: Hanan. There is a brother ending his first year of college (haven't seen him) and a little brother, maybe 6, named Omar. All of them are very nice kids and very respectful. It's quite challenging for each of us trying to communicate! I am quite enjoying it, but know I will enjoy it MORE when I am not teaching all day before going over there in the early evening for another hour! Last week I STAYED at school till six o'clock and then went over there. I was worn out when I got home! Yesterday and today, I came home, even though it means walking BACK up the hill. Actually, I don't mind it as much as I thought I would. I guess it's easier than in the morning because A. I'm not carrying my computer or dragging my crate, and B. I can leave in plenty of time to walk SLOW. This is actually an advantage since I will continue to get exercise AFTER school is over! I have my wrist surgery on Sunday, so I will be tutoring tomorrow, Wednesday, and next Saturday nights. We will decide Saturday if I will come again at all next week. I KNOW I probably will not be able to type much if at all and probably NO crocheting at least for a couple of weeks. I hope it heals quickly. I HATE having all this free time to crochet and then NOT being able to do it! I sure hope the surgery makes things better and not worse. I must admit to being a bit nervous about it. Well, I had EIGHT of my 14 students complete a square to send to South Africa! Here they all are yesterday with them. Mohammed wasn't there yesterday, but I got his picture today with his square. He isn't in the group shot though. I am VERY proud of these kids! They all want to participate in a crochet class this summer. The nice thing is that they now KNOW the basics, how to hold the yarn and hook, chaining, and single, double, and some half double and triple crochet! Gian made a fish toy COMPLETELY BY HIMSELF last week! I mean he followed the pattern and made it without ever asking me ONE question!! So, in the "class" I will actually be able to help the kids MAKE something, like maybe a simple amigurumi toy! One girl, Ramlah, said her mother and sister want to come to the class too. It should be fun. Hopefully I will be able to start it the first of July. I want to do two two hour classes a week. I may even continue doing it in the Fall after school starts again! I hope I can do at least one more post before the surgery. I MAY be able to do a short one one handed afterwards! We shall see.

Big problems

2009-06-05T21:54:00.002+03:00

When I got home Monday night, I found that my landline was stone cold dead, which of course, meant that my DSL was too! I called (on the cell) STC who did send a tech out on Tuesday. He told me (through an interpreter!) that the problem was NOT with STC but here on the compound! I then called a tech here (the STC teach gave me the #) and he said I had to call in a work order. So, I did. On Wednesday, I hadn't heard anything, so called this tech back. He asked if I had made a work order. I said I did and he said he would check on it. I didn't hear anything so after an hour, I tried calling him back. NO answer, not THEN nor the 6 more times I tried! So. I am typing this now using my 3G modem which has also been totally unreliable! It keeps disconnecting! VERY frustrating! I get charged by the MB so I have to be careful not to go over my limit! For everyone I owe emails to, I hope you are reading this! I WILL respond and READ emails hopefully tomorrow night IF this darned tech guy decides to DO his job! It is VERY frustrating here, since ANY workorder you put in for anything takes SEVERAL phone calls and sometimes 2 or MORE weeks before you are "gotten around to"! Here's hoping this will be an exception. Especially since I am STILL paying for internet and phone that I don't even have!!

Google on the Fritz?

2009-05-30T20:26:00.002+03:00

Seriously, I don't know what is going on! I keep getting signed out of Gmail and IGoogle, though they are set as homepages. Also, everytime I go to my blog and look to see what others have written in my "follow" area, it says a post is one day old when it's at least TWO! Basically, no matter WHAT I do, closing completely out then coming back in, signing in or out, it doesn't matter, my blog is NOT updating! GRRRR! Also, does anyone else out there use Firefox? I really love Firefox, and would NEVER go back to IE (shudder!) but since I updated to the Firefox 10, NOTHING has worked right! Including the blog! I used to be ASKED if I wanted to close tabs, etc. now it just closes! All of my wonderful add ons have disappeared! AGAIN! This happened with the last two updates! Come on, Firefox! What is UP? Ok. Got that off my chest! LOL! Abdullah brought me another square that his mother made this morning! I'm glad that a couple of families are joining in the square making! I finally saw Mr. Zuhair today and asked about the classes. His reply? Mafi mushkalla! (NOT, I am sure the proper spelling! But phonetically spelled :) ) which means, no problem! He even offered to give me a room upstairs! I made sure to explain to him that it would be boys AND girls together. He kind of frowned until I said they were young, like 8 or 9, then it seemed it was ok. Crazy, huh? Unfortunately, it seems that I will not be able to start the classes right after school gets out. Or at least there won't be more than one or two till probably the end of June. I went for my appointment with the plastic surgeon, Dr. El Dieb, whose son I taught last year. He concurred with the Ortho doc who recommended this "release" surgery on my left wrist. So, I go in on the 14th. You wouldn't believe the rigamarole involved in getting a minor surgery done here! Gads! I had to go to employee health to get this form, then bring it back to Doc ED for him to fill out a portion. Now I have to get it signed by Pat, then BACK to Employee Health for another signature, and THEN on to the Medical Director of the whole hospital for HIS signature! I also had to make an appointment (THAT took over 25 minutes of standing and waiting!) with the anesthesiologist (I am getting a LOCAL, so what's up with THAT?) who I will have to see the day before (weird). I also have to get a chest x ray, AND blood and other lab work! Yikes! You would think I was going in for major open heart surgery or something! I think the procedure will take less than ten minutes! Doc ED said he did the same surgery for his mother in law. Hmmm. He says it is better than getting the cortisone shots. Well, ok. As long as I can CROCHET by at least two weeks after the surgery! Here's hoping!

Getting There!

2009-05-25T06:20:00.002+03:00

Just a quick update. I now have FIVE squares done from the kids! The following kids have finished their squares: Abdullah, Mohammed, Gian, Amr, and Ola! That's FOUR boys and one girl! You GO guys! I hope to have more squares turned in by Wednesday. Their deadline is Sunday, May 31st. I will take a group pic with all the kids and their finished squares to post then.

Ami Fun

2009-05-20T21:13:00.003+03:00

Here are some of my students with their Ami's they received this year. Missing are the following students who left during the year: Jumanah E. received a kitten, Sara who received a bear, and Rana who received a bunny. Also missing is Farah, who has a bear but was out sick today. Pictured here are from top left: Ola, Abdullah, Erdem, Gian, and Isra. How neat to think that maybe these toys will last through the years, and may be handed down to their children! I think they will be something that they will keep far more than a new pencil case! Hopefully, I will be able to take a pic with at least three more students and their gifts before the last day of school! I am working on the Funshine Bear for Umair right now. Next I have to make a scarf for Ola, then a Lion for Jumanah A., a sweater for Yasmina, and a hat for Ramlah! Phew! I think Yasmina will have to get her sweater in the Fall! I don't think I can make a garment like that in just a few days! As you can see from my counter, there isn't much time left! Fortunately, most of these kids live on the compound, and since I will be, hopefully, teaching them crochet this summer, they can collect their goodies AFTER school ends!

New

2009-05-19T19:47:00.002+03:00

I read somewhere in the Blogger help forum about changing your template to solve problems. Well, as you can see, I did, AND it does seem to have solved the problems! I was able to redo the world clocks and add a timer till the end of school. I put a different "monkey" picture on and "shrunk it to fit" which allows you to see the pic without it being huge! I must say, though, that I am rather disappointed at the limited number of templates. I need to check out a couple of other blogger blogs and look at their templates. I am sure that at least one of them has a totally different background than the ones I saw. Does anyone know if there is a way to get a template NOT offered by blogger? The baboons in this pic are sitting on the fence that surrounds our school. The are looking at the mountain of rock that looms up just a few feet from the playground side. I can't believe that there are only 21 days left till school gets out! Time is going by VERY fast. The ticket agent at the community center is only in until 12 every day, so I didn't get to see if he has gotten me a reservation to go home in July. Now I will have to wait till Thursday morning to see him. The company is telling these guys that they MUST book everyone on Saudi Airlines! I don't mind, that much, because that would fly me directly from Jeddah to New York or Washington and then on to Atlanta. This would HAVE to make the travel time quite a few hours shorter. HOWEVER, at this time, the dates I need to fly (and a week on either side!) are fully booked! That means I am on a "waiting list"! Of course I cannot be so "iffy" with my travel dates! I have to book a flight from Atlanta to Arizona to go see Rachel, and I need to know for sure when I will be there! The agent CAN get me on a Lufthansa flight going through Frankfurt, Germany, on the dates I need, but the ticket is more expensive, and he said he'd have to see if the hospital would approve it! I am going to check with the "head" of the community center here to see if I can hold a crochet "class" two mornings a week in June and July. About half my class is interested in coming to it (one girl even asked if her mother could come!). I just want to use the lobby area where they have nice tables and chairs. Believe it or not, the main thing that may be a problem is that I will be teaching boys and girls together! Even though they are only 8 and 9 years old, they may say NO!! If they do, I will have to see if I can do it at the school. Abdullah, with the dragon below, FINISHED his 8" double crochet square today! He did a great job! I was VERY surprised! I really thought Gian would be the first one done. Even so, I think it's interesting that it was one of my boys who finished first! When they are all done (or as many as can GET it done) I will take a pic of everyone with their squares to post here. Well Bibi is laying on my lap and chest with her head in the crook of my left arm and her tail on my right sound asleep! Have you ever tried to type with a Kitty across your arms? I am getting pins and needles in my hands! Better wrap up for now! More later.

Problem Solved

2009-05-18T20:50:00.003+03:00

I have been really frustrated since last night and not getting anything to show up on this blog! WELL, I came back to it a few minutes ago, and the blogs that I follow were messed up too. One of them said, "posted 11 hours ago" I went to it, and it was posted on teh 14th! OK, major problem! I tried reloading a few times, THAT didn't change anything. THEN I decided to CLOSED THE TAB! I use Firefox, which allows me to have as many "homepages" as I want that come up when I go online. My blog is one. So. I closed the tab, then went in the old fashioned way and TYPED in the URL in the address bar. Up comes my blog with, you guessed it, ALL of the pics, posts, etc. that I had done but had disappeared in the ether somewhere! So. Lesson learned. I am NOT going to make my blog one of my start up tabs! I am progressing quite nicely with Umair's Funshine Bear. I have the head and body done, and one arm. Hey, that's a LOT better than the progress on the dragon! Of course, the bear has a LOT fewer parts! I should have him done by Saturday (I hope, since I have several more things in my queue that have to be done by June 10th!) New note. I clicked Publish Post and went to see how things were, and the baboons were GONE, AGAIN! AND THIS post was NOT there! I ended up having to sign in to google AGAIN to get to this post, which WAS in my post history, just NOT on the blog page! SO, I really think this is a GOOGLE issue and NOT a Firefox one! GRRRR! BTW, the picture, for those of you who can see it, was taken Saturday from in front of my school. The "monkeys" are baboons which we have PLENTY of around here! They especially come out after school and jump all over the roofs of the main building and portakabins! I just happened to notice these guys climbing up the side of the building you see which is a residence building! Once blogger is behaving again, I will post a couple more of the ones I took. Here's hoping this posts!

BLEEEGH

2009-05-18T06:35:00.001+03:00

WILL THIS POST POST? ONLY THE SHADOW KNOWS!

Computer Problems

2009-05-17T21:00:00.002+03:00

Is anyone else out there having trouble with Blogspot? I have tried repeatedly to change the pic at the top of my blog! It uploads the picture, I press save, but when I go to the blog, the old pic is still there! When I go BACK to edit, the NEW one is showing! Weird! I hope this is a temporary Google glitch and NOT my computer! I used Firefox, and it seems that since update 8 or so, that my browser is NOT behaving right! it is STILL better than IE! I downloaded and installed the 8 in hopes of getting rid of a "blank page" issue, but all it did was totally MESS up my computer! I just uninstalled it, and things seem better, except for the blogspot issue! I know Google went offline globally a couple of days ago. I wonder if this is part of it? Anyhoo! I am not sure it will take, but (hopefully!) here is a pic of Abdullah with his dragon! He LOVES it! He brought it BACK to school with him today! Sometimes I hate giving these things away (you get so ATTACHED ya know?! LOL!) BUT when I see the joy that these simple toys brings to my students, it makes all the effort worth every minute! OKAY, well THAT seems to have worked! We shall see when I "save" it!

Dragon

2009-05-14T13:34:00.003+03:00

Well, here he is! Finally! I finished Abdullah's dragon this morning! Yay! Now I am going to start on Umair's bear. I have TWO requests for two more dragons from two coworkers who want them for grands! After the rest of my "queue" is done, I will be making a green and orange dragon, and a purple and pink one! Who knows, after I finish the 3rd one, maybe I won't have trouble with the pattern anymore! If you want to see more pics of him, they are, of course, on Flickr! I should have pics of Abdullah and the dragon together when I finally present it to him on Saturday. Hope you like him! He was a LOT of work!

Bones

2009-05-13T17:40:00.002+03:00

Well, I can't sit here and write too much (I STILL have to tell everyone about Lebanon!)because I went to the doc for my follow up after last weeks CRASH (my body hitting the floor, along with the chair!) and THIS doctor said my tail bone IS cracked! Even showed me on the x-ray! The doctor last week told me everything was fine, no breaks, etc. The Saudi doctor I saw today was VERY good. He took time to explain things, showed me my x-rays on the computer, pointed things out, etc. He ALSO diagnosed that I have osteoperosis! NO ONE has every said that before, though plenty of doctors have seen x-rays of my bones in the past year or two! He pointed out how transparent my vertebrae are! So. The tail bone is cracked. Like a toe, I just have to bear up and wait for it to heal (pain, he said, for at least six weeks!) he put me on calcium, vitamin D, and some kind of hormonal thing that helps with osteo as well. As my bones get stronger and new bone forms, with any luck it will speed the healing of the tail bone. Hope so! I don't relish sitting on a plane or the layover and hauling of bags that I have to do by end of July with a broken tail bone! WORD OF ADVISE: NEVER STAND ON CHAIRS TO GET SOMETHING DOWN FROM A PLACE HIGHER THAN YOU ARE!!

Spring

2009-05-08T11:03:00.002+03:00

New header. This is a pic of the courtyard in front of my building. The Jacaranda trees are smothering everything in purple petals! Flowers are everywhere! Very pretty here at this time of year. Who would have thought that Saudi Arabia looks like THIS?!

Hello again

2009-05-06T18:39:00.003+03:00

I haven't blogged in almost three weeks! Yikes! I am NOT blogging now (really!) I took a BAD fall off a chair yesterday morning, and am VERY sore right now. I will just be resting all weekend, so will, hopefully, be able to sit up and do a proper posting tomorrow! I want to answer Rayan, who posted a comment asking about larger hooks. Sorry, Rayan, larger hooks are a rarity here in Saudi! However, I HAVE found some bigger ones in Al Nowari in the Hera mall! It's a small yarn store, and they DO have bigger hooks there! Since it is not easy for me to get to Jeddah, I mostly order what I need online. If you sign up with Aramex Shop N Ship, you will get a UK and New York address so that you can buy online from places that do NOT ship internationally! They ship to NY instead, and then Aramex gets it here to Saudi. Check it out, or check out the Hera mall.

Gian's Rose

2009-04-20T21:40:00.002+03:00

My friend, June, asked me to test a rose pattern for her. I made one, and decided that the kids might be able to make it as well, so I gave them all the pattern. Today Gian asked to come over after school for some help in making his. He was going to make it with his green yarn, so I gave him a bit of gold that I had in my stash. There was a bit of "frogging" but Gian eventually got 80% of the rose made. Since he had to get home, I made the stem and calyx for him. I think he did a great job!

Lebanon

2009-04-19T20:22:00.002+03:00

Lebanon was fantastic! What a neat country! I have changed my header pic to one taken up at Notre Dame du Liban, or Our Lady of Lebanon church that also has a very famous statue of Mary that you can climb way up on and look out over the coast of Lebanon! I will post more pics and more details this weekend. Glad to know some people ARE reading the blog! Thanks! When I don't see any comments or even any opinions checked, it makes me think no one is out there or interested! If you can't leave a comment, can you put a check? Then I know someone is reading! Thanks a lot! More later!

Hello?

2009-04-19T16:44:00.000+03:00

I'm sloggin, bloggin, and not posting about Lebanon. Is anyone even out there? Should I bother?

Quick Post!

2009-04-10T00:28:00.003+03:00

Hi. Just a quick post. I have to be up in 5 and a half hours to get ready to go to Lebanon! I am all packed, but I had a couple of last minute computer things to take care of. One of them was to post pictures of Erdem and his bear!! Yay! I finally finished him! Also, I'm throwing in a couple of pics I took a few days ago outside the school at sunset. Hope you like the pics!

Progress

2009-04-03T10:51:00.005+03:00

I had my first "official" crochet class/lesson on Wednesday at school. I showed the kids parts of the crochet video. I showed them the "tools" of crochet, and the parts on techniques, and finally the slip knot and chain. I paused the video and physically showed the ones in class who didn't know it yet, how to make the slip knot. I then showed them the video on chaining, pausing and pointing out hook and hand position, etc. THEN, instead of ME trying to show 6 kids how to actually do the chain, I used the five in my class who are already doing it! It was wonderful to see! And so much fun to listen to! It's funny how kids pick up on the things and ways you say things! I heard myself coming out the kids mouths! LOL! Anyway, I figured out that this is the BEST way to teach crochet! Teach a small group one on one, and then THEY can help teach after. Two of my girls seem to be naturals, their chains were very even and not too tight after just a few tries! I imagine they will also become tutors! CrochetDad (Gene) in California, who I met on Ravelry, is being so kind in helping the ones who have joined Ravelry with their crochet! It is especially good for the boys in my class to have a man who crochets to look up to! A big thank you to CrochetDad! So far just the two boys in my class are on Ravelry, but I hope that soon more of my students will join. We have a group on there now called International Kidz Krochet! If you are on Ravelry, pop on over and and check it out. Any encouragement for these kids is welcome! Probably above (wish I could figure out how to put captions under my pics on this blog!) are pics of the kids helping each other, and a few of them doing their stitches. Helpers: Ola helping Erdem, Abdullah helping Jumanah, Aziz (alias Batman for Spirit Day!) helping Umair, Gian helping Isra, and Farah helping Yasmina.

New Pic

2009-03-31T21:19:00.002+03:00

The new header pic is one I took a couple of weeks ago at the top of the stairs from the school to the road (a short cut I don't mind GOING DOWN but not UP!) It was incredible, I thought, with the beautiful red flowers against the unexpected fog!

Kids on Ravelry

2009-03-31T20:58:00.003+03:00

Gian Concentrating on Single Crochet! To the Right: Aziz showing Erdem how to chain. My kids are really getting into crochet! Two of my boys have already joined Ravelry! Gian was the first, and then Aziz. Ola requested an invitation today, and I suspect some of the others in class will follow soon! Gian and Aziz have even started their own groups! Well, Gian TRIED today with me at recess (took the laptop and 3G modem to the playground!) but something went wrong. So, I just did it again a short while ago successfully. Thought I started it, it is Gian's idea. International Kids Krochet. If you are on Ravelry, check it out! Tomorrow we will have our first "official" lesson as a class with the crochet video! Will let you all know how it goes! Here are some more pics.

My Daughter, the Banker

2009-03-25T17:36:00.002+03:00

I spoke with my daughter, Rachel, this morning. She told me she opened a Savings Account at the Chase bank she works at for ME! She had a great idea. One, I admit, I should have thought of myself! She said I should take whatever money I would use for a car payment, send it to her, and she would put it into this savings account! That way, it can be accruing interest and then, when I come back for good, I will have a SUBSTANTIAL down payment for a car! Smart girl! So that is what I am going to do beginning May 1st! Part of my wanting to get the car now was so that Chris could be driving it, but Rachel said they would figure something else out for Chris. So glad I have SMART daughters! :)

Crocheting Kids

2009-03-24T21:38:00.003+03:00

I have the best class of kids! All but one of them has now gotten their hooks from me. The yarn will hopefully be here by Sunday. That doesn't deter MY great class! A bunch of them have gotten their OWN pieces of yarn to try and get started! I spent a bunch of time today during snack time and recess showing how to make a slip knot, hold the yarn, and chain! They are getting it, slowly but surely! I love their enthusiasm! Here are a bunch of pics I took today of HALF of my class choosing to work on crochet at recess instead of playing! Abdullah looks SO serious! :)

Kids, Crochet, and Slip Knots!

2009-03-23T17:52:00.003+03:00

I got the hooks for my kids on Saturday and took them in to school yesterday. Those that had paid me so far got their hook. Happy kids! Then, this morning, 3 MORE kids came in with their money wanting THEIR hooks! One boy, Mohammed, Mr. Secret Service Man in the pic below, brought in some thick chenille type yarn in red! Not a bad yarn for the experienced, but I warned them that they would need to get a regular yarn in order to see the stitches! Well, Mr. Mohammed starts cutting off pieces to give to the others that have their hooks. To backtrack a bit: I gave each of the kids their "My Learn to Crochet" book on Saturday. Gian, (Mr. Accountant), Farah, Ola, and Mohammed all came to my desk at snack time wanting to know HOW to "put" the yarn on the hook! I tried to show them the slip knot, but it wasn't going very well. So, I remembered seeing somewhere where someone put the yarn on a flat surface, looped it over, put the hook through the loop, and grabbed the yarn. I wasn't sure if I myself could do it! But I did, and it was easy. The kids all thought it was easier too. At recess, while I was sitting on a bench working on the PJ's for Erdem's bear, Mohammed and Gian were sitting near the steps trying to crochet! I had to show Gian how to hold the yarn, but someone had already shown him (and Mohammed) how to make a chain! When we got back to class, Gian showed me the red "bracelet" he made himself! It is SO neat to see the kid's enthusiasm, especially the boys! I read them an article yesterday about a man in the States who crochets caps for the poor and puts them on poles to be taken. He just started to crochet in January. I want to find as many good stories (true) of men and boys who crochet, and what they are doing with their craft as I can (and young girls too!). If any of my readers knows of any, please let me know! The yarn has not left New York yet (as of an hour or so ago) but I hope that I have the yarn for the kids by next Saturday or Sunday, and we can REALLY start to learn to crochet and get working on our "Square Circle" squares! I will try to get some pics tomorrow of the kids crocheting.

Car and Future

2009-03-23T17:03:00.002+03:00

Hi! Thanks for the responses about the car. I will probably only be here another year. I, personally, wanted to get a new car, but Rachel talked me out of it. I figure if I get say a one year old car, it won't be so bad. Chris will be driving and taking care of it while I am here, so no worries there. I don't know. It needs a lot of thought! I guess a lot depends on WHAT kind of car and WHAT kind of DEAL I can find, if any! If I end up finding the deal of the century, I will probably go for it. I guess the whole thought is more appealing right now cause I MISS driving!! AND having my own car! Of course, like you all said. I won't be THERE to drive it! :)

Waiting is Over

2009-03-22T18:10:00.002+03:00

Well, good news! I asked Alma this afternoon if she could find out SOMETHING about my contract! AM I getting renewed or NOT! I NEED to know I told her. She went out and came back a while later and told me that she talked to personnel and everything is "good". I asked her if that meant I had a contract, and she said yes! HUGE SIGH of relief! I will still be a ton better, though when I have MY SIGNED copy in my hand! So, I have at least a years reprieve to get my "act" together! I will have to start paying off some bills and saving some money! I can't/won't count on them renewing me again next year! I think what I may do is be "prepared" to leave, but ask to re-contract. Then, if they don't, I will have a plan in place. I really think that two more years would allow me to be totally debt free AND have a good chunk of change saved up! I had spoken to Rachel before all this happened about buying a car this summer. She insists that I should get a used one. She said I can get a good used right now for around 5,000! If I do find something, then I will leave it in Arizona for Chris to drive while I'm here. They can just pay the insurance on it, and I will make the payments. Another reason to stay on two more years. Well, I definitely will NOT count on it! So, all my readers out there, should I purchase a car or not? I will need one when I finally DO go home, and chances are that they will cost quite a bit more as the economy recovers! Leave a comment as to your opinion!

Uncertainties

2009-03-19T09:20:00.002+03:00

Hi. I got disturbing news yesterday. Pat told me that she had received a note on me and Sophia, the grade four teacher. They were NOT going to renew our contract because of some new 55 age limit rule they've come up with! However, in the note, which was sent to Education and Training, the former checked for a recommended "exception" because it was hard to find experienced teachers for the International School! So. Now I am sitting on pins and needles waiting to see IF they will sign my contract! I already signed MY copy two weeks ago, but the program director has not. Now I know why. It really burns me that they have such a STUPID rule! Now you can only stay here 10 years, and when you are 55 they can send you home! I won't even BE 55 until July! I can't even try to go to another International School! If you pray, please pray that they WILL renew my contract for another year. If they don't, it will be a financial disaster for me! Not only will I be out of work, but out of work with bills to pay! If they DO renew, I will be spending the next year paying off my bills with every spare penny. This means NO MORE new crochet books, yarn, or anything else fun that I have been able to indulge in since I came here. :( I do NOT want to return to the States now with the economy the way it is. I did, in fact, want to stay here TWO more years in order to pay off bills AND save! I guess my trip to Lebanon next month will probably be the last bit of traveling I will be able to do in this lifetime. I REALLY wanted to see a lot more places in the world. Sigh. Right now, the most pressing concern is whether they will sign me up for next year. If not, I need to know SOON, so I can at least try to get a teaching job in the US before they are all taken! I do NOT want to teach there again, but it looks like I will have little choice in the matter. I am not married, so I have no one to depend on but myself. It's funny. I never thought I was OLD before! This is a wacky place. At home, I can't even draw FULL Social Security until I am SEVENTY years old! AND, I won't even get my military retirement until I am SIXTY! So what's with this stupid 55 deal?

Sandstorm and Serious Day

2009-03-13T22:28:00.003+03:00

I have seen some fantastic pictures of the sandstorm in Riyadh! I will have to find a way to get them into my computer so I can put them here as my header! I mentioned before, I think, that I thought it was fog on Wednesday instead of the dust it was. Well, TODAY, late this afternoon here at Al Hada a REAL FOG DID roll in! The temperature dropped down to about 60 degrees and the rolling fog started! Very strange indeed. Another teacher said that she was told that ANOTHER big sandstorm is coming. Apparently, they haven't had storms like this here in Saudi for over 30 years! Another sign of climate changes. Here are a couple of picture of some of my students on March 1st. We are having a Spirit Day on the first of each month now. This one was "Serious Day" where the kids had to dress as their future career choices. I especially liked Gian's outfit as the "nerdy" looking accountant (or computer tech?) and Mohammed with his dark suit and glasses! He looks like Secret Service to me! :) If you like to crochet amigurumi, you MUST check out June Gilbanks newest patterns! I have a link to her blog on here. I was chatting with her the past few days and found that she also has a BOOK coming out late summer at Barnes and Noble! No, it's not a crochet book! She also does fantastic papercrafts! This book is on that subject. June is also going home to the UK for a week on Monday. Have a wonderful trip, June!

New Look

2009-03-12T01:05:00.002+03:00

I hope everyone likes the new look! I decided I'd had enough of the pukey pink! Well, it wasn't pukey to begin with, but it has been steadily getting that way! :) Anyway, I LIKE this new template a LOT better! The picture is one I took up at Al Shafa, which is at least another 1,000 feet higher than Al Hada and quite a beautiful place! I have seen some fantastic sunsets here in Saudi Arabia! Now that I see how simple it is to change things around, I will try to change the header picture weekly! I have SO many wonderful Saudi pictures to show everyone! More tomorrow! It is 1:10 in the morning! And even though tomorrow is Thursday (MY Saturday) I STILL have to get up before noon! :) Oh, another new thing! I finally broke down and bought a new cell phone tonight! My old one's internal antenna was NOT working well anymore! I could NOT get any signal at school! So, I was using this cheap Samsung that I got to take to Egypt with me. It was a PAIN! It didn't even show the time! Anyway, I got a Nokia Classic3290 or something like that. It's DARK PURPLE!! Very thin and lightweight! I LIKE it! It also has a built in web cam! I got the phone PLUS a 1GB memory card for 500 riyals! That's about 133.00! NOT a bad deal at all! It also can take a usb cable to connect to the computer, however, this was not included, so Martin and I are off to the phone souq tomorrow morning (another reason to get to bed!) to try and find one. I DID have one minor glitch with it! After it was fully charged, I turned it on to discover that everything on it was in ARABIC!! AND I started getting a bunch of text messages from STC! One of those was in English, but I didn't know what buttons to press to get to the right things! Martin and I took it down to the all night guard office, and finally this one guy came, took it away, and brought it back in 5 minutes in ENGLISH!! Yay! Now I get to play with it to see what kind of ring tones, etc. it has! Off to bed! More tomorrow!

Lebanon!

2009-03-05T19:16:00.002+03:00

I'm going to Lebanon! I will be flying out of Jeddah on the 10th of April (our Spring Break) and coming back the following Wednesday, the 15th. I may not be able to (or have TIME to) blog while I am gone, but I will surely blog when I get back and tell you all about it! I will, of course, have lots of pictures posted on Flickr! I am going to see my friend Lilian. Lilian is a physical therapist who worked here at Al Hada. She went to Kuwait for a short time last Winter and Spring, but didn't find it to her liking. She finished at Al Hada and went home to Lebanon. I just spoke with her on the phone, and she is getting ready to open her own physical therapy clinic in Beirut! She will be gone the next few weeks to take courses in the States (New York, and possibly Orlando, IF she can get her Visa!) and then to Europe. However, she assures me she will be home in time to pick me up from the airport! Her mother lives up in the mountains in a village, so I am hoping that we will be able to go there so I can meet her. I don't know, but I imagine that Lilian WILL be going home for Easter Sunday, and I will get to meet some of her sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews! I need to find out if we will be going to church! I will need to find something nice to wear! Lilian is Catholic, so it's likely this will happen. Lilian has a car! Women ARE allowed to drive in Lebanon! Yay! I am really looking forward to this trip. I now have a SWEATER to add to my list of "to do" items for my students! I am almost finished with Erdem's bear. My wrist is still causing me a lot of trouble, so, since I signed by contract for next year yesterday, I am going to the clinic on Saturday to see if we can figure out what it wrong with it. Aramex is moving a bit slowly the past couple of weeks, but I think, from what they have said in the tracking section, that many flights have been cancelled (for whatever reason!) and the weather has been bad in New York. I am waiting on FIVE packages right now. One of those is the package from Maggie's Crochet. They are re-sending the order that has "disappeared" in "postal cyber space", but I just received an email saying that it hasn't been shipped yet because they are waiting for some items that were out of stock to come in. Four packages ARE either in New York, or Riyadh, or HERE! I will have to check with Aramex in town on Saturday or Sunday.

Erdem's Bear

2009-02-24T16:08:00.002+03:00

Well, I am finally on my way with Erdem's bear! He is thrilled! I have completed the body, head, and one arm. I am halfway through the other arm. Of course, when I DO finally get the whole bear done and assembled, I have to make his PJ's! I am using a smaller hook than called for because the yarn I am using is a bit thinner than the worsted weight called for and I didn't want any gaping holes like happened with Fatima's kitty! I have been thoroughly enjoying Ravelry for almost two months now! I have "met" some wonderful people AND gotten some awesome new patterns! Last night I got a pattern for a really cute kitty! Also a "Flaming Demon"! The kitty is named Jiji. I don't remember offhand the designer's name, but if you go to Ravelry and search for Jiji, you will find it! I wrote to her how I was going to make it into a calico kitty like Bibi, and she wants to see it when done! Also, check out June's latest creations! "Lemmings" or Mop Tops! The basic pattern is donationware. She made a whole group of them to look like the lemmings in an old video game! SO cute! You can see a link at the side of this page! Please help support June with a donation. We all want her to be able to keep designing! Okay, off to finish arm "2" and then the "thumbs"!

Finished Projects

2009-02-20T18:26:00.005+03:00

Well, I finally got the hat and scarf done for Hazem as well as the fuzzy kitten for Fatima. Here they are! Now I have to start on the bear for Erdem, then the dragon for Abdullah, the Funshine Bear for Umair, and the Lion for Jumana! Phew!! Hope my hands don't fall off! :)

A Venting Letter

2009-02-16T20:50:00.002+03:00

Dear AH Security, I am very angry at you for taking my friend’s bag with the flowers she took from our “social” and the box of chocolates and card I gave her. She was NOT doing anything wrong. She was merely waiting for another friend when you and your “religious police” accosted her and grabbed her bag because it was red, she was wearing red, and you KNOW it’s Valentine’s Day in most cultures except yours. The enclosed card was from ME, a woman and co-worker, NOT a MAN! Horrors! NOT! She was attending a social get together with her colleagues. A movie, some nibbles, a mini gift exchange to show we care for each other as friends and, since we are all far from home, as “family”. WHY do you consider so many things to be HARAM? Many Muslim friends tell me that most of your "harams" aren't even IN the Holy Koran! I wonder sometimes how the women in your culture here are able to BREATHE, especially since you make them cover every inch of their bodies. Sorry, I was raised to believe that “God don’t make no junk!” which translates that a human being is a thing of beauty (in God’s eyes, at least) and made to be SEEN. You terrorized my friend, humiliated her by reading her card aloud to a crowd of people gathered around. YES, it did say, “Love, Jana”. It did NOT say “I Love You”, nor was it from a man. Jana, NOT JOHN. Every single one of us here signs things “love,”. It is NOT sexual, it is NOT wrong. If you are going to treat people (especially women) like criminals for having flowers and chocolate and wearing RED on Valentine's Day, then you should POST A MEMO OR WARNING! How would YOU feel if a traffic cop stopped you and gave you a ticket saying you were going faster than the speed limit, but the speed limit was not POSTED? This is the SAME thing. So, dear security, I hope you break out in hives as you eat the chocolates you took from my friend, as well as all the OTHER things you took from other innocent people because they DARED to celebrate loving their fellow human beings!

Package

2009-02-10T23:31:00.002+03:00

Got a call at school today. You have a package! Yippee! I went running to the community center as soon as my kids left tutorial. I was SURE it was the missing Maggie's package. Nope :(. However the package WAS welcome! :) It was, surprisingly, my gorgeous wine and royal blue softee chunky yarn I'd ordered from Royal Yarns! It was only sent on the 27th of January. So, 15 days for THAT one. Maggie's was sent on the 15th! Tomorrow is Wednesday, so if it doesn't come tomorrow, I will have to wait for Saturday, and if not then, Sunday....................................... Grrrr. Yay for Aramex, however! I ordered three puzzles from a place in England a few days ago (Saturday or Sunday, I think) and it is IN my "mailbox" in Berkshire, England! Now we shall see how long it takes a package from the Uk to get here. I also ordered a few other things from Maggie's the other day. It shipped yesterday, so we shall see how long it takes th USPS to get it to New York! I am thinking I will probably get that package BEFORE I get the one sent the usual way in January, if EVER. I have a couple of REALLY great pics to share from the mall here in Taif, but it almost midnight and I have to get up early for school (MY "Friday" Yay!) So I will try to post them tomorrow. They are TOO funny!

In My Hands

2009-02-07T16:56:00.003+03:00

Well, I GOT my package! Though NOT in the way it was meant to be! On Wednesday, after posting last, our water went out yet AGAIN in our building. When I got up Thursday morning, it was still off. What happened next was almost comical! Around 9:30 or so, CELL PHONES went out! A bit after that, so did the landlines, and with that, the internet! So. I was waiting on a cell phone call from the Aramex delivery person to set up where to meet me to get my package. Understand that I am in a FEMALE building, and NO men (except maintenance at hours BEFORE 4 PM, an usually with a house mother or security) are allowed in! So I needed to arrange a place to meet the person and get the package. Well, THAT was now impossible! They couldn't reach me and vice versa! Martin came and picked up Pat, Tess, and I for a going away party at the BA Thursday night (which included a great Elvis impersonator!). When I told him I hadn't gotten the package, he suggested taking me to the Aramex office in Taif to see if they were still open and perhaps the package would be there. We didn't know exactly where it was, but had been told near building one. Building one is the drop off point of our compound busses! I jumped out, went into DHL and asked where it was. It was just around the corner. I stepped in (it is VERY tiny!) asked about the package, and finding out that THEIR phones had been out as well. The guy started looking through some things on the counter, and when he lifted an envelope, I said THERE it is! I was SO excited! The cost was exactly what I was expecting, no more. They were kind enough to give me a couple of boxes and some Aramex envelopes for mailing things OUT. I have a package for my daughter, and I understood that it would only take a week going THERE as well! I am SO happy to finally be able to order just about anything I need online and actually GET it here without having to worry about finding places that will ship internationally. Yay for Aramex, and double yay to the wonderful lady in Jeddah who told me about them! Thanks, CrochetSarah! A little side note. The package I am waiting on from Maggie's Crochet that was SENT on January 15th STILL has not arrived! I wonder how long or IF it will get here? Once that comes and my Royal Yarn order, I am FINISHED with the Saudi and American post offices! Hooray!

Aramex Delivers!

2009-02-04T16:24:00.002+03:00

I do not have my package in hand YET. However, I just received a very nice phone call from Aramex in Jeddah, and my package will be delivered to me tomorrow morning! So, 1 week and 1/2 a day from order to delivery! The gentleman that called was friendly AND spoke good English! The deliverer will call me on my cell phone in the morning to arrange everything. Since I live in a "woman's" building with restricted access to MEN, I will have to tell him to meet me at the community center or something. In future, I hope that he can deliver further pkgs right to the school! I am STILL waiting on a package from Maggie's Crochet that I ordered on January 7th! And my Royal Yarn order from December 31st (that was FINALLY shipped about a week ago) may be another 2 or 3 weeks getting here! Both of these are coming via the good ol' USPS AND Saudi Post. Thank God I don't have to deal with THEM anymore! Well, other than stuff getting TO New York! :)

Aramex Rocks!

2009-02-03T22:19:00.002+03:00

I just checked on the status of my Frugal Haus package. I wrote before about ordering something to test out Aramex. Well, I placed the order online last Wednesday evening, my time. By Friday, it was at Aramex in New York. I have been able to track it the past few days. Last night, it was in Dubai, and I just read that it was received in Riyadh today at 7:30 AM! So, 6 days since I placed my order with Frugal Haus, it is IN this country. Now we shall see if the Aramex employees are any faster than the Saudi Post ones! I even know the cost already! 100 riyals. That is about 26.00 US. FH charged me 1.99 shipping, so we are looking at about 28.00. I check the USPS web site last night to see what THEY would charge for a package of the same weight with the same destination. Well, I CAN, supposedly, get a package here to Saudi within 7 days. HA! I wonder how they can make THAT happen when it takes them TEN days to get from Atlanta to New Jersey? Anyway, in order to get that wonderous QUICK package, it would cost (for the same weight) 38.50 US! If Aramex comes and puts that package into my hands tomorrow, exactly 7 days from the day I ordered it, I will indeed be a VERY happy camper! Low cost AND speed! What more can an expat ask for? :D

Aramex

2009-01-30T20:15:00.002+03:00

Well. I've done it. I finally went ahead and ordered a couple of things from FrugalHaus and had it sent to my New York Aramex address! I ordered on Wednesday night (here) and it is THERE in my New York mailbox NOW. It is Friday night here! I am not quite sure what happens now. I THINK they will send it on to Saudi, and I THINK I will get a phone call or something from the Taif office to let me know I have a delivery. We shall see how long it takes. My cost for a 1.35 pound package? 100 riyals. That's roughly 26.00. The shipping from FH was only 1.99! So, if all goes well, I should have my package within a week or so, for about what it would cost via the USPS! I am very excited! Will keep everyone posted!

K2 Assembly

2009-01-26T18:49:00.001+03:00

Below this is the video of the K-2 Assembly as SAIS. It's rather long, so if you want to skip around and look at the little kids of many nationalities singing, etc. in English, you might like it. If not, just ignore it!

shwup media

2009-01-24T22:30:00.001+03:00

Ravelry and New Beginnings

2009-01-23T19:17:00.004+03:00

This month has been more than just the start of a new year for me. It has been the start of many new things! 1. I finally got going with Flickr and have managed to post all of my crochet pics and almost all of Kelly's wedding pictures. I have learned how to upload, classify and arrange my pictures here. 2. I learned about "tagging" in Windows Photo Gallery. What a time saver! I didn't have a clue before what tagging WAS. 3. I started this new blog, which all started because I was looking for other crocheter's blogs on "My HQ Poet" crochet pattern and everything else site. If you haven't checked it out, you should! Here is the link: http://www.myhq.com/public/c/r/crochetpoet/ When I tried to view a blog, it came up in Arabic! I researched what the problem could be, and as a result, ended up starting THIS blog! I had two blogs before. One was with Blogger, but that was in 2006. The other was started last spring with Wordpress, but that one was FAR too difficult! Most of the time when I went to it, there was no place to sign in and post! This one has proven to be not only easy to use but FUN as well with all the gadgets and ways to post things. 4. Through one of the blog's hostesses, I found out about Ravelry.com. WOW is all I can say! If you don't know about it and you crochet, knit, design, or sew, you should check this out! They have groups on there from all over the world! There wasn't one in Saudi Arabia, so I started one! As a result, not only have I "met" other crocheters/knitters here in Saudi, I found out, through a wonderful lady in Jeddah, about a shipping service called Aramex! This service is probably going to be an answer to my package problems! No more Saudi OR American Post Office for me! 5. I have purchased a device that will allow me to get on the internet wherever I am! I just have to get a SIM card for it and set it up on payday. This will allow me to connect to the internet at school! This will be a great way to actually show the kids some of the great sites there are for them on the net. I have given them a brochure with a list of sites, but I doubt many of them have checked them out. This way, I can hook my computer to the projector and we can "play" some of the games available together. When they actually see some of these sites, I am confident they will go home and want to play on their own. This will, I hope, help them with their learning. Well, it's Saturday tomorrow. My Monday, the start of a new week. Only 8 more days till payday! :) AND only two more weeks till the end of Term 2. The school year is half over. Hard to believe.

Finally

2009-01-22T21:28:00.002+03:00

Here they are, finally. Lynnae, your scarf is on the left (but you knew that!) and Kelly's on the right. I re-did Kelly's scarf after I found out how to do a sc foundation row as opposed to working the first row into chains. It LOOKS and feels much more professional! I only did one thing wrong! When I was taking the pictures, I noticed that the fringe was uneven so I got out my scissors to trim them. Well, I managed to angle the fringe on Lynnae's scarf! Good thing it wasn't someone's hair! But it's no problem, I will just have to redo 4 things of fringe! :) This pattern is VERY easy but turns out very pretty. The colored stripes are done in a slanted V stitch, and the black is simply done in the back loops for a ridged effect. I have now make FOUR of these (A solid black one for Sophia, a co-worker, for Christmas, and the other pink and black for Kelly with the chain base, I am keeping for myself!) and I think I could probably do them in my sleep!

PS

2009-01-21T17:56:00.002+03:00

I forgot to mention that in Carol's boxes she had kindly shipped a bunch of stuff for ME, as well as Bibi! She got me some potato mixes (scallop, etc) some new Stovetop stuffing with cranberries (can't WAIT to try that!), and some more treats for Bibi! So, it was a DOUBLE Christmas! :)

They CAME!

2009-01-21T17:40:00.002+03:00

Yesterday, after getting Fatima, the other grade two teacher, to call and speak to the post office guy in Arabic, we were told that there were several boxes for us! Carol and I. So we raced down there after our staff meeting. Sure enough, my box from Kelly was there AND my Lands End package! Carol got four of the boxes she'd mailed herself before leaving Texas after Christmas. There are two postal guys who speak a little English. One is Obaid, who is a REALLY nice old Saudi man, and another guy (don't know his name) who is in a wheelchair. Both of these guys are pretty helpful, Obaid, more than the other. He will CALL us at the school when we have pkgs. AND there is a third guy who is Saudi and speaks NO English, talks on the phone and smokes incessantly. You can be standing at the window and he will NOT hang up and help you. I wonder how he manages to get the mail in the right boxes! Must only go by the numbers! Anyway, the guy in the wheelchair and THIS guy were both there when we went. The crass guy was going on (the other interpreted) about how HE went to Taif and HE got our packages for us! Well, duh! THAT'S his job! I remarked to Carol that it was really strange that the day after we complained and talked to the head of the community center and called a dozen different places trying to get an answer about the missing boxes, that they SUDDENLY show up the NEXT day! Hmmmm. Does anyone else out there think this strange? I think that they have probably BEEN in Taif for a week or even two, but this guy was just too lazy to be bothered making more than one trip in and out! You see, the guys here (probably only Obaid and THIS guy) have to go into the Taif post office to pick up the mail for Al Hada. I told Carol that as soon as I sign a contract for next year, I am going to open a Box at the Taif post office. I don't have that much mail sent to me here, but if I open a box, I will at least have a chance of seeing it! I feel like going to the Taif post office and seeing if they have any unclaimed packages! Who knows, maybe the 3 or 4 missing packages of mine are sitting on a shelf somewhere! Kelly had sent me an envelope with mail and my Lands End gift cards at the SAME time as the pkg! I got the envelope and placed the Lands End order right before New Years. Strange that I should get the Lands End order at the SAME time as the package that was sent at the same time as the gift cards! Does this make sense? LOL! Now I am waiting on one package from Maggie's Crochet and, if they EVER ship it, an order from Royal Yarns. I need to have Kelly send me a couple of other things, but even though it's expensive, I may just have her ups or fed ex it to me! As for my boxes! Well, it was just like Christmas! Especially for Bibi! She got two bags of Kitty treats (which I can't find here) and two new wands! I gave her a handful of treats and then put one of the wands together. She was ecstatic! My pants and sweater I ordered from Land's End with my gift cards fit perfectly! :) So, in a way, it was all well worth the wait!

Mail

2009-01-19T21:25:00.003+03:00

I am so frustrated! A package that Kelly sent me on the 17th of December still has not arrived! I found out, through tracking, that it took ten DAYS to get from Atlanta to New Jersey! It was another SEVEN days before it arrived here in Saudi Arabia. It got here on the 3rd of January, according to the USPS. Tomorrow will be the 20th, and there is NO sign of my package! Carol, the grade two teacher, has four boxes coming. Two of those (ALL mailed the same time in Texas) got here on the 5th, and the others on the 10th! Okay. So here, maybe it's on a camel caravan from Damam or Jeddah to here. (HOPEFULLY!) But what's the excuse for the UNITED STATES POST OFFICE taking TEN days to go from one state to another?! Especially since Kelly mailed my package, INTERNATIONAL PRIORTY MAIL! She was told I would have it in 7-10 days. Well, to my way of thinking that's just plain LYING. I don't LIVE in New Jersey! Duh! So, bottom line is, the good ol' USPS is a pack of liars. As for Saudi, well, I believe that the customs people here are a pack of thieves. I have had too many packages go missing, not to mention the package I got a few weeks ago that was MISSING merchandise! Strangely enough, they LEFT the empty packages IN the box! Go figure! And try getting ANY help here! Impossible. It's pass the buck or "I really don't CARE" time. Ok. On a positive note, I DID get some pattern books that I ordered from Frugal Knitting Haus. THEY mailed my First Class International Priority ENVELOPE on December 22nd. Five days AFTER Kelly mailed hers. Well. Maybe there is still hope that I will get it. Bibi REALLY wants her treats! And I seriously need my Lawry's spices! I will be out in another week! Horrors! As expensive as it is. I think going by way of Fed Ex or UPS (which is, unfortunately, NOT here in Taif) is the surest way to get what you paid for! Anyone else have any thoughts on this issue, or experiences, please post a comment! Oh. Another side note. I mailed myself two boxes the day I left the states, back on August 15, 2005. I mailed them the "slow" way, to save money. I was told 6-10 weeks, since it was going via a ship. Ok, I figured I could live without the contents (craft and school stuff) for a month or so. Well, by the end of October, I still did not have them, so I checked online. They did not GET to New Jersey (AGAIN) until September 22nd! You want to know when I DID finally get them (thankfully!)? They were waiting for me when I got back here from my CHRISTMAS vacation in January 2006!! It took FIVE MONTHS! I still want to know.....WHAT is the excuse in the States?

Shoot

2009-01-16T19:32:00.001+03:00

Well, darn. I put, I thought, a link to the Flickr page, but it didn't take! So here it is again. Click on Kelly's Wedding collection to see the newest pics. http://www.flickr.com/photos/crochetmumma/

Pictures

2009-01-16T19:22:00.002+03:00

Hi. Well, tomorrow starts another week. I have been busy all day grading papers, and in between doing THAT, I have been posting wedding pics! Only a few more to go, and then Kelly's wedding collection will be complete! I think I will work on Lynnae's wedding next! In between I am going to continue to have fun making muvees! What an awesome program! I need to make a pact with myself to view at least 5 of the "unknown" video clips I have in my computer every day! I have hundreds with nothing more than a Q and a number! Once I get THOSE organized, I will be able to put like things into more muvees! Fun! It's crazy to me how the daylight hours just slip away when you are busy doing something. Our weekends are too short! Especially if you are a teacher! I found that Muvee Producer 6 has a great Kid's Pack of styles. I have decided to take my camera to school every day and shoot lots of pictures and short video clips of my students! At the end of the year, I will put all of these clips and pictures into Muvee and make one with one of the kid's styles, then put it onto a dvd for each student! I think the kids AND parents will love this way of remembering their 3rd grade year! I just wish there were 48 hours in a day instead of just 24. Sigh.

Shwup New Post

2009-01-15T12:05:00.004+03:00

Hi. I just re-posted the Kelly and Brian video I made. I was not totally happy with the first one. It was done late at night, and was NOT the best! So, I re-made it. I think you will all like the new one even more than the 1st! I added some captions AND a couple of pics of Kelly and Brian from the first year they were together! Enjoy! And let me know what you think! Oh, by the way! Be sure to also check Flickr for pictures that stand still! LOL!

shwup media

2009-01-15T12:05:00.001+03:00

Taif

2009-01-13T17:50:00.002+03:00

I haven't written anything here this week (or past four days!) because two of the four nights I was in Taif. Now, you must understand that going into Taif (a small city about 20 minutes away by bus) is a huge endeavor! 1. You have to wait for the compound bus (set times, and sometimes they come early and leave early!) 2. You have to FIGHT your way onto the bus! People in the Philipines must have to fight to get transportation because here, the majority of the women will literally knock you down to get on the bus first! The bus is usually crowded and there have been many times when I have not been able to get on, AND a few times where I have been pushed and shoved and hurt (mildly) trying to get on. OK. 3. When you DO get to town, if you are lucky (as Carol and I were both times this week) you will be dropped a block or so away from the mall, then you have to cross a couple of streets of crazy drivers! 4. You get to your destination, and more times than not, you have to "sit out" at least 2 "salas" or prayer times when everything shuts down for 30 to 40 minutes. 5. When you are finally finished, you must then find a taxi to take you back to Al Hada. This is not too difficult, and you usually haggle a price. 6. The fun part. Having to try to carry your purchases from the road into the building, elevator, and then room. It's about 100 yards from the road to the building. Not much unless you are lugging 20 or so bags of groceries! On Saturday night Carol and I went in to go to Xtra (the computer, appliance, etc., store, kind of like Best Buy) and Panda supermarket, and then on to Al Anoud supermarket (a 10 minute taxi ride away from the mall) Well, when we went to Xtra to buy Carol's printer cable and to see about ink for my printer, we found that they had the BandLux mini modems that you get a sim card for and plug into your computer to get on the internet! Well, Carol bought the last one and we headed up to one of the two main telephone services here Mobily to get a sim card. The guy spoke little to no English and the other guy slightly more. There was a problem getting the card to work (network down or something), so we did our little bit of shopping at Panda and headed to Al Anouds (8:30 PM now). Well, at Al Anoud's I went a bit crazy! They had a LOT of Western type stuff! I actually got a couple of bottles of V8, an A&W Rootbeer Float drink (that turned out to be awful!) and Irn Bru! The latter is a soft drink that is mentioned over and over again in the series of books I am reading based in Scotland! I was SO excited to see it! I had been intending to look it up on the internet to see just exactly WHAT this stuff was. Well, it turns out to be a kind of energy drink, orange in color, and a slight cream soda taste. Not bad. Anyway, I didn't finish shopping and checking out until 11:00! Almost two hours in there! Yikes! THEN we were having trouble getting a taxi! The young man (who spoke decent English) who took us there from the mall was not answering his phone, and two drivers that I know and called weren't working as well as one that Carol tried! We were getting a bit concerned, to say the least! Well, I finally got hold of Baba Ali. Baba Ali is, I am sure, at least 70! And, unlike the majority of the drivers here, goes about 80 K instead of 120-140 like the rest! So, you don't get home as fast, but I feel very safe with him. He was funny. I didn't know he knew so many English words, and we three were going back and forth with English and Arabic words on the way back. One of these days I am going to see if he will let me take his picture. His face has SO much character! I am sure he probably will. On Sunday, neither of us was up to a return trip even though we needed to go back to Mobily to get the sim card (you see, Carol is technologically challenged! LOL! and needs ME along to help with these things :) ) Well, yesterday we went EARLY, the 3:10 bus. We got the sim card and everything worked fine. We then had dinner and had to go back to Al Anoud to return a couple of things and for Carol to get one of her dvd's from a friend that works there. I popped next to the store and bought some flowers for my boss, Pat. She was home in Canada in December and didn't have a very good time. A week after getting there she came down with pneumonia AND they found she had Septicemia (blood poisoning!) so she spent almost a week in the hospital there. Well, we hadn't been back to school a week when Pat started to get sick again. Bottom line, she now has acute pneumonia! She refused to go in the hospital (though they wanted her to, but she claims it is too dirty and she is sure that's where she got the blood poisoning from-she had an allergic reaction to meds a couple of days before going to Canada and had been on an IV there in the ER) so, we are all trying to take care of her by checking on her and making sure she has meals, etc. I hope she gets well soon. She has me in charge at the school, and thankfully, the past couple of days there have been no crises to deal with! We managed to get back here by 7:30 last night, so it wasn't so bad, except that after seeing Pat, it was after 8:30 before I got back into my room. Carol asked if I wanted to go back to town tonight. I was trying, unsuccessfully, to get the modem thing to work with her laptop at school, so she was going to take it in to the Mobily place. I HAD to pass! I just couldn't deal with the bus and all that again tonight! You never realize how much you rely on a car until you don't have one! Of course, even if I HAD one here (don't even think I can BUY one) I wouldn't be allowed to drive it! Not being able to just hop in the car and go to any store you need to, is definitely draining on your energy! So, anyone reading this, be grateful for your old car and the 5 minute hops to the grocery to buy milk! Above is a picture taken in Taif a couple of months ago at sunset. I thought it was neat because you have the mosque dome at the bottom, mountains above that, and then clouds that LOOK like more mountains! There are some spectacular sunsets here, but not as many as South Africa has! Oh, one more thing. At the top right of this blog there is a link to a Muvee that I made of Bibi. I was just trying it out and playing with it the other day (15 day free trial-but I LIKE it!) but I WILL be making and posting more muvee's of Lynnae and Kelly's weddings and then other neat things (well, I HOPE they'll be neat!) So stay on the lookout!

Shwup

2009-01-09T23:35:00.002+03:00

Awesome! What a great way to end my weekend! I discovered a movie making software today called muveeReveal. The link to my first "Album" and video is right here on my blog! Just a couple of clicks, and there it is! Check out my first video of Bibi and her Mousie! Fun! This came about because I tried to upload the video at Kelly's shower, only to find that the file was too big! So I went hunting to see how I could make it smaller! Well, now I don't have to! I will just direct friends and family to shwup for videos! Off to bed. WORK tomorrow (It's MY "Monday")

SC Foundation and Mail

2009-01-07T19:45:00.004+03:00

OKAY! I have done my sc base chain plus my first row on Lynnae's scarf! I had to do 162 stitches, but once I got the hang of it it went pretty fast. And boy! The results are fantastic! I can see already that this scarf is going to look SO much nicer than any I've made before! It's going to look a lot more "finished" on BOTH edges instead of just the one. I am VERY glad I decided to give this a try! I don't know that I will use it for everything, but I definitely will use it for anything that the normal chain base would show. Awesome. Whoever invented it, CHEERS to you! While SCing away, I came to a decision. I am NOT going to race to the Post Office here where no one speaks English and you have to show each and every thing you are mailing! Instead, I have decided to call the Fed Ex guy to come pick it up from the school on Saturday. The cost, actually, will NOT be that much more expensive going that way, AND I will have the peace of mind in knowing that not only will the pkg arrive in a matter of days instead of weeks, (which means that my girls will actually have time to WEAR the scarves!) but that it will also arrive intact! Right now I am waiting on FIVE packages! Kelly sent me a "care package" on the 17th of December. That is THREE weeks ago today. Of course she sent it International Priority Air Mail. But either here, (or EVEN in the US!) someone is taking their time over it. Kelly sent me a bubble envelope with my Christmas gift cards and mail in it at the same time as the package. I got the envelope almost two weeks ago! I have already used the gift cards (Lands End) and THAT order has already been shipped! One of the five. Of the others, 2 of them were mailed 18 days ago. The mail system here is horrible. The reason it takes so long (or sometimes doesn't show up at all) is because packages go to either Jeddah or Damam to a customs warehouse. Each and every package (AND, I found, MAIL) is opened and inspected. I am under the firm belief that some of the men who work there (women aren't ALLOWED!) help themselves to whatever they fancy. I have at least 4 or 5 packages that never reached me here. One of them was my Leatherman tool that I mailed MYSELF from the airport in Atlanta when I couldn't take it on the plane. That was the end of June 2007. Not here yet. Probably never will be :( My care package has treats for Bibi as well as a couple of new toys. Also my Lawry's spices that I CANNOT do without :) Who knows what they might consider "haram". Of course I will post a picture of the scarf when it is done, and another of Kelly's with the changed fringe. Chow!

Rana and Bella

2009-01-07T16:35:00.003+03:00

Here is a pic of Rana and I with Bella. Rana told me this morning that she WILL be here on Saturday! She leaves for Egypt on Sunday. Ok. Now I have on my waiting list: a scarf for Lynnae (MUST do that one tonight so I can mail hers and Kelly's tomorrow), a camoflage scarf (half done) and hat for Hazem, a grey fuzzy kitty for Fatima, an 18" sleepy bear WITH pajama's for Erdem, the blanket for Martin's grandchild (should know by tomorrow if a boy or girl, Heena is at the hospital in England at this moment! The blanket has about 5 inches done), and finally the cow for Oscar! The blanket it done there, as is the cow's body! So, 8/10ths there on this one! Is it any wonder my wrists are giving me trouble! :) I was smart, though, I did NOT pick a student of the week for this week (therefore no NEW project on the list!) but rather let the last five do one day each! I will have to go to the post office, Panda (grocery store) and then spend the rest of the day with my hook tomorrow! Thank goodness for weekends! On Friday I will have to go up to the school and spend several hours grading papers. Actually, it may not take that long since I haven't had more than 11 kids there any one day! :) I am going to experiment with the chainless sc base row for Lynnae's scarf. I have read about it, and watched two videos, so I think I am ready. At least I hope so! I only have one problem with it! No one says how to COUNT the stitches! I will just have to figure that out for myself, I guess. Problem is, I must make sure that I have a multiple of 4 plus 2 for the scarf! I think I will do five repetitions then turn and look at how many sc show on the next row. I really don't like the way a base chain and then sc row look like, especially on these scarves. The scarf is done length wise, and one edge doesn't look as neat at the other. So, we shall see how this works! I have to undo the fringe on Kelly's scarf, because both her and Lynnae want me to put the same color fringe below each stripe. Not mixed, and not opposite! Ok. Better get busy!

Mission Accomplished

2009-01-06T21:24:00.002+03:00

Meet Bella the Bunny. I finished her just in time. Rana's last day is tomorrow. I hope she likes her Bella! I will, of course, take a picture of Rana with Bella, AND with me. This time, I will NOT wear a hijab! Bella the Bunny is a Lion Brand free pattern.

Hello?

2009-01-05T15:40:00.002+03:00

I don't think anyone is reading this. Oh, well. Today I had two kids absent in addition to the 3 that are still gone to Canada and the Phillipines and, I think, Sri Lanka. Ramlah's dad sent a memo to the school today saying that she was supposed to be back from Sri Lanka on Saturday, but that there is a problem with visa's, so it they are hoping she will be back middle or 3rd week in January! Gian, I know won't be back till the 17th, and I am not sure about Deni. Rana and Mohammed were both absent (Rana's last day is Wednesday) so I only had NINE kids in my class today! I almost hate to go on to too many new things with so many missing, but I can't wait for them. I managed to get the head and body of the bunny done last night, so only have the arms, legs, tail (which I finally get to use my pom pom maker for!) and ears. I should have it done tonight. The usual January weather is here. It is getting cloudy and foggy outside. The clouds LOOK like they should dump rain, but they seldom do. I got a few more pictures sorted and tagged today, but still have a long way to go! For anyone who IS reading this blog, please shoot me a post now and again, so I know I'm not doing this in vain! Thanks!

Rana's Bunny

2009-01-04T16:00:00.002+03:00

I realized last night that there was NO way I was going to be able to make the giant bunny that Rana had picked out for her Student of the Week Prize (the week BEFORE Winter break. Yeah, I know, procrastination is my middle name!) So, I got up early this morning and went hunting on the internet for "bunny" patterns. I found four really cute ones (a couple of which I already HAD). I saved them onto my laptop and printed them out while the kids were doing their warm up. Thankfully, Rana immediately picked probably the simplest (not intentionally, I'm sure!) pattern of the bunch! So, I am off to play with white yarn!

Back to School

2009-01-03T19:58:00.002+03:00

Well, it was back to work today after a very LONG vacation! The only bad thing about such a long vacation is that the NEXT 6 and a half months are going to be VERY long indeed! We have a couple of professional development days, which will give a long weekend, but not until April do we have a one week Spring break and that's all till school ends. I really can't complain, though! We started school August 30th, and 3 days later went on a Ramadan schedule which meant school started at 9:30 instead of 7:30 but STILL go over with at 1:30! This went on for 3 weeks, and then we were off for TWO weeks! Then back to school for about 6 weeks, and then a MONTH off! It hardly seems like we've had school at all this year! So, now it is time to get SERIOUS! :) This year we had over 30 third graders. There was supposed to be a second third grade teacher there when school started, but there wasn't. At one point right before the Ramadan vacation, I had 31 kids crammed in my room. And I do mean CRAMMED! The poor kids could barely move! Then the new teacher, Sofia (who is from Canada) came and took her "half" the last day before the break. After the vacation, I "lost" two students who both went back to Egypt. That put me down to 14 kids! A very nice size class! You can get a ton more taught and have a lot more fun doing it too, with that few kids! Well, first thing this morning, Rana, the girl I owe a bunny to, told me that this is her last week! SHE is returning to Egypt for good! I will then only have 13 kids! I have only ever had that small of a class when I taught at two alternative schools back in '96 and '97 in Savannah, GA! Of course, the next three new third graders that may show up during the rest of the year will come to my class. I need to get hoppin (pun INTENDED, LOL) on making Rana's bunny by Wednesday!

New Pics and Core-Art International

2009-01-01T19:57:00.002+03:00

I hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve. I finished a striped scarf for Kelly today. Pictures are posted on Flickr. I finally got all of my 15,000 plus pictures weaned from 45 gig to 20.6! I did use the sort by date taken tool to get pictures into some kind of order so that I could then put them into proper folders. Strangely, pictures that I took in 2007, have an April 2003 date on them! I didn't even KNOW about digital cameras then! Weird! I have some pictures that don't have dates on them for some reason, and then all the ones I took in South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia in the summer of 2007 were all taken with, HORRORS, film! :) My digital was in for repair! Now that I think about it, all the pictures I DO have that are digital, were taken with Kelly and Brian's old camera! They must have had their date settings wrong! Oh, well, at least they are all together! A few days ago I got a surprise email! Lelo, a young man that was in 13th Floor with Rachel and Chris in South Africa wrote to me! He had found my name in his contacts and wanted to know if I were still in Saudi! This was a wonderful surprise! Lelo is one of the crew who called me "mum". It wasn't just a title, I really tried to be a mum to them all on tour. Lelo and I had many intense talks about faith and life and became quite close. I lost touch with him because he left 13th Floor at the end of that summer, and Rachel and Chris returned to the States in January. Lelo had asked me to crochet him a Newsboy type hat in grey, which I did, but never knew where to send it! Lelo returned to Swaziland, his home, and started his own arts ministry there! Here is the link to CoreInternational's web site. I am SO proud of all that Lelo has done! http://www.coreartinternational.page.tl/ Check out the hat! This is my Lebanese friend, Lilian, posing with the hat that I made for Lelo. Lelo, you will FINALLY get your hat! Will mail it soon!

FLICKR Address

2008-12-31T19:06:00.002+03:00

I have had a few people ask me what my Flickr address is. Well, I just MADE one. Here is is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crochetmumma

http://www.flickr.com/people/crochetmumma

You can use either one to take you to my pics. I spent hours last night and today getting rid of duplicates and triplicates in my photo files! Egads! In one folder (the one I imported from my Dell) there were FORTY FIVE GB of files! By the time I finished with it today, it was down to 20.6 GB. Of course, this also includes videos! But all my folders combined have over 12,000 files! Good thing everything is digital! I would have to be a millionaire to afford it if it were film! I will continue to work on getting the pics into proper folders and then onto Flickr. There is a nice feature in Vista. I was able to just click SIZE, and it set all the pics of same size next to each other, which made it a long, but not impossible task. Of course, any semblance of order that was there (ie, all together from previous folders) is now gone. I am hoping to be able to get them somewhat together by clicking on date taken. As long as it doesn't think the date I imported them all is that day, I will at least have similar photos together which will make the process easier. I think if I set a goal of sorting 2-400 photos per day, I MIGHT be done by the end of January! Will keep everyone posted. Have a safe New Year's Eve!

I Did It!

2008-12-30T19:32:00.003+03:00

I finally got going with Flickr! Yay! I have had the account (free one) for months, but had never even tried to upload any pictures. Granted, my old Dell has not been very stable the past few months, but I HAVE had my HP since August, so no excuse, really, other than not making the time! I saved all of my pics from the Dell onto an external (HuGE capacity!) flash drive. However, when I loaded them onto this computer, my nice neat folders that all the pictures were in categorically, had dissappeared! Yes, the pictures are there, some 5,000+ of them! I just figured out what all the folders were that I had on the old computer, so now I need to re-make folders and start getting all the pics into them! I guess it's like putting paper ones into albums! Time consuming!! BUT, a lot less messy! :) As I get them sorted, I will post new ones onto Flickr for anyone interested in looking! I have pictures from Africa, Egypt, here in Saudi Arabia, Wedding pics (Lynnae and Kelly) and some of my Bibi and flowers and nature shots (I LOVE taking pics of flowers and stuff :) ) and, of course, CROCHET! I wish I DID have a picture of EVERYTHING that I have made the past couple of years, but I don't. I am determined, however, to start making sure to get at least ONE pic of each project from now on! School starts back on Saturday, ending a rather LONG Winter break! It's going to be hard for the kids and myself to get back into the swing of things, I am sure! I am glad, though. I have become quite a lazy bum the past month! It's crazy how time just slips away when you aren't even doing much of anything! Once again, as always seems to happen, all of the "goals" that I had envisioned for this long break, seemed to slip away with the time! I DID get some things done, just not all that I had intended! I just realized that I still have a few more English tests to grade! I now have a digital projector mounted on the ceiling in my classroom, and a cord running right to my desk (and my laptop). This is really nice for being able to show movies and do lessons in multi media, such as Power Point. If any of my readers are teachers and have any great ideas they can share about how THEY might use this tool, I would love to hear from you! It is chilly (I live above 6,000 feet!) here at Al Hada, mostly in the evenings, but I am kind of looking forward to the real cold and the fogs that we get here in January! The fogs are really neat! They kind of roll in and out. I remember the first time I saw it. I was sitting at the table in the living room that was then by the balcony door. I was eating soup and reading a scary story. I noticed that it got dark all of a sudden and looked out to see this weird fog rolling and blowing outside the window! VERY creepy! I grew up in California where we had PLENTY of fog; but that was more like pea soup. The fog here is the kind of stuff you see in ghost movies! I have a couple of short videos from past years, and now that I can even post those on Flickr, I will put one on so you all can see it for yourselves! A question for anyone willing to answer it! :) For the past week or so, I have been having a heck of a time with Firefox! I LOVE Firefox (and even when it's acting weird, like now, I STILL will not go back to IE!) It seems that 2 out of 3 times when I click on a link or bookmark, or whatever, I get a Page Not Found message! When I click Try Again, it goes right to it! This is more annoying than anything, but yesterday, when I paid for the Flickr Pro, that happened when I clicked to confirm! Fortunately, right after, Flickr sent me an email to my google account that showed up right before I could click Try Again! The thing went through! Who knows WHAT might have happened had I clicked TA! I might have been charged twice! VERY frustrating! It also seems that when I have it set as my default (I have to KEEP going back in to my system to make it so, darn vista!) and I shut it down in the normal way, I occationally get this box saying Firefox has crashed! Which it certainly has NOT done! Crazy! I am wondering if it is a problem with the latest update. If anyone has any thoughts, please share them! Well, I am off to make picture folders!

Fancy Pals!

2008-12-29T18:21:00.001+03:00

Fancy Pals!
Originally uploaded by saudimumma

Follow this bride and groom to see other pictures on Flickr!

SaudiStitcher

Long Time

Daddy's Girl!

Streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetched!

Baby Pics

Groundhog Day

SHE'S HERE!

Christmas Hat

Duct Tape

Christmas Tree

Close up

Gian's Glove

Long Time

End of Summer?!

Better

More problems

Internet Problems

Female Medic Sally Clarke Saves Seven Soldiers in Afghanistan

Saudi Bound

Leaving AZ

Arizona

Hello from Atlanta

Frankfurt

On my way

Home and Traveling Creatures

Avatar

Paperwork

Avatar

Here We Go!

Happy 4Th

Camels

July

Freedom

Alma

Language Problems

Ff Fixed?

firefox on the fritz?

nana

1 handed

Problems

squares

Endings

Big problems

Google on the Fritz?

Getting There!

Ami Fun

New

Problem Solved

BLEEEGH

Computer Problems

Dragon

Bones

Spring

Hello again

Gian's Rose

Lebanon

Hello?

Quick Post!

Progress

New Pic

Kids on Ravelry

My Daughter, the Banker

Crocheting Kids

Kids, Crochet, and Slip Knots!

Car and Future

Waiting is Over

Uncertainties

Sandstorm and Serious Day

New Look

Lebanon!

Erdem's Bear

Finished Projects

A Venting Letter

Package

In My Hands

Aramex Delivers!

Aramex Rocks!

Aramex

K2 Assembly

shwup media