He Speaks

Zach was asked to share some personal thoughts about family scripture study in front of our congregation of 100+ members a few weeks ago.

He was not super enthused to do so at first which surprised me because he has already participated in readings for a Children's Program last fall and then at Christmas stood and read our family's part of the program.

I came to find out it was that he just didn't know how to gather his thoughts about this subject. Once I got him to sit down and focus for a few minutes I began to as him questions such as: Where do we have scripture study? Why do we have scripture study? etc. etc.

The answers to these questions are below in an wonderfully written talk by Zachary.

Our family gathers every evening in the living room for scripture study. Sometimes it is quiet and peaceful but most of the time it is a bit crazy. Everyone takes turns reading or repeating words. When it is my turn I read many verses sometimes more than I have been asked to because I like to read the stories. Once I read 17 verses!

After we read our verses we talk about them. We discuss what they mean, we ponder them, we pray about them, and talk about how we can be more like our Savior.

Sometimes I don't understand the scriptures but Mom, Dad, and the Holy Ghost help me to understand them. One night I felt the Holy Ghost so much that I almost exploded with happiness. I wanted to read them for an hour.

I really like the story of Moses because he showed great faith to be able to free his people. I hope we can all have faith like that.

I know its important to read the scriptures so we can prepare for our Savior to come again.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

The World Is My Inspiration

It wouldn't truly be Pre-K if my child weren't prolific in art.

I was sure these art pieces were inspired by our travels of the world these last few years but I guess I over romanticized it a bit because I thought this painting was similar to the ones the elephants made in Thailand. But no, Ethan said his teacher just asked him to paint a flower.

Or this gorgeous Mother's Day creation (which I love) was in remembrance of the flowers the flamenco dancers wore in Spain. Again not really, it was just the craft his teacher had prepared for the kids to do.
This one I knew was a lady bug because they had just finished a unit on insects. However, I had to laugh because when Ethan showed it to me he was pretty ticked to realize that the spots were lopsided. He swore up and down that he had painted them balanced and equal.

I found the title Ethan gave for this one quite unique and fitting:

Mud On Everything

This one came soon after watching the monkeys climb around at Animal Kingdom.

For his desert theme painting he chose two main elements: the first a Pyramid, which we saw last December in Egypt and some cacti which we saw the December before last on our drive through the American Southwest.

This whale was surely painted because of his longing for all things Alaskan but again I was wrong as he was asked to just paint something that lives in the sea.

This last and final stunning piece; I knew without a doubt came solely from his love of glitter paint and the dot paint bottles his class uses.

I'm glad to know I got at least one guess right.

Ethan, we are so proud of all the progress you've made this year in school. Not only did it give Mom a few hours of peace and quiet in our home but you were able to share all your insights, eagerness to learn, and curious intellect with Mrs. Glabb and Mrs. Edgington. You are beginning to read and can count to around 100. You have been a good friend to your class mates and a leader especially when it comes to building cityscapes with the blocks. Mrs. E will miss you terribly as she has been weepy every day since she heard we were leaving. You almost burst the flood gate of tears when you generously gave her your Woody doll because of her love of the Toy Story movies.

A Night Of First Grade Highlights

10 or so years ago Mrs. Solares and her husband left Anchorage, AK to finish out their careers here in Saudi. They both will be retiring in September making Zach's 1st Grade year her last as a full time educator.

We were so blessed to have her as Zach's teacher. It is obvious that even after all these years she still loves teaching by her dedication, patience, and love for the children.

Highlights night was special not only for the children-they get toshow off their hard work and receive a special book from their teacher-but also as the closing and final chapter for Mrs. Solares career.

Zach read us several original stories including one about camping with Grandpa Slocombe. One of the illustrations shows a grizzly bear coming into camp and Zach running away. Grandpa on the other hand is not phased at all and while roasting a marshmallow says, "I'd rather stay." All and all I think the story sums up our camping experiences rather well.

Here is a scroll where Zach has been writing his numbers up to 1300's.

After a small potluck it got a little crazy for Mom and Dad trying to keep G and E entertained and out of all the school materials.

When Zach and his best friend M* showed up in their suits and ties for the event some of the kids thought they were just trying to be silly and dress up as George and Harold from Captain Underpants. Instead they were just following one of their teacher's final instructions to please dress nice for the evening.

These six are the last remaining children from the original class of 12. Some moved away during the year and others have already left for the summer.

We are thrilled with the progress Zach has made this year in school. His reading is on a 3rd to 4th grade level, his math is right on schedule, and his writing, though the spelling is often unique and sometimes difficult to read, is always entertaining.

3.2.1.Blast Off!

Attending a middle school rocket launching party last year ignited Ethan's desire to build and launch his very own rocket.

Fortunately for him is best friend J*'s mother is the middle school science teacher in charge of the rocket launching materials. Once Ethan and Mr. Me Too designed their very own Lego inspired rockets from soda bottles Ethan then become relentlessly insistent, as only he can, about setting a time to launch these bad boys. With only days left we finally squeezed in an hour of launching between school, packing, graduation ceremonies, and everything else that comes right before skipping town for the summer.

Mrs. Karen only had to show the boys once how to fill the bottles with 1L of water and they made sure each and every subsequent bottle was full and ready to go.

No one minded at all a few water mishaps along the way- even in our shady spot the heat was intense.

There are a couple of ways to actually launch these rockets one of which uses a compressor. To simplify things we used a bike pump instead.

Always the teacher Karen had the boys figure out how much pressure they needed and where to find it on the pump.

After one last technical difficulty......

the real fun began.

Graham was loving everything about this! It's not often that 2 year olds get to be so involved.

My favorite part was watching Graham get blasted back with each of his launches.

Right before touchdown.

I'm not sure who had more fun here- Mrs. Karen or the boys!

We love, love, LOVE the Hasiuk family. We've made some of the best memories (laughing crying, talking, and talking, and talking some more) of our stay here with you all and we will miss you dearly. Let's not let Dubai and Shayba be our last vacation destinations together.

The Road Less Traveled

Especially by ladies in spandex.

If felt quite liberating being out of camp in such a fashion considering where we are.

We went on one last Social Pace (meaning the guys didn't hammer it so the ladies could keep up) ride of the season. Everyone is packing up for the summer and some of us for good so we celebrated in Udhailiyah Cycling Club Style.

Our camp is surrounded by oil field roads. Some in excellent condition and others a bit pitted and ruddy and after 6 days of shamals the dunes have crept across parts of the road.

We rose before the sun and set out at 4:30AM. The wind was minimal, the dust low, and a commencing heat of 90 degrees for the 50 mile ride. Other than a camel crossing and a few photo stops we rode on an on passed nice garbage free dunes. There was the occasional dead goat dumping ground but thankfully the stinky microbe phase had passed.

By the end, even after drafting Chris most of the way home my legs were shot. I'm so glad the pack of wild puppies we passed decided not to charge because I'm not sure I could have out run them. Sad I know.

1600 calories later we ended with celebratory Krispy Kreme and some mango milk.

I was pretty much a waste of space the rest of the day but am so glad our hubbies took us out for one last ride.

Taking It To The Next Level

To take it to the next level you need:

To get up at 3:30AM before the real heat sets in.

You need to pack water....bottles and bottles of ice cold water.

You need to endure 120 degree heat over the pavement.

You need to keep the paceline.

You need to take the roads less traveled.

You need a lot of testosterone... natural not synthetic.

You need some of the smoothest legs in the Eastern Provence.

You need to know when to kick back in the shade.

You need to be just a wee bit INSANE!

You need to be on a first name bases of the proprietor of the local Bedouin-11.

You need a Sag Wag with a driver, A/C, and cooler of extra water.

You need 2 liters of fluid to replace the 13 lbs you left behind in the desert.

When you take it to the next level you start out a 105 mile ride as friends but you end as brothers.

Father's Dusty Day

Father's Day was also Day 6 of a Summer Shamal. Not only is the air hot like a blow dryer it is also full of grit which burns the eyes, nose, and throat.

The weather sure is making it easy to Adios it outta here.....for good.

After Chris received an extremely thoughtful card from Zach and book from Ethan depicting things they enjoy doing together we met up with the Hasiuks for dinner at the golf club.

After dinner there was a friendly Father's Day putting competition.

Out of the 5 putters Chris, the non golfer, surprised us all by taking first place followed by Dan. Chris could be into golf but cycling, his first love (after me of course), takes precedence as both sports in UDH are generally scheduled at the same time.

Chris won an Udhailiyah golf shirt and hat while second place won some golf balls. Who knew all that mini golf on the cruise would pay off!

Hello and Goodbye Shawarma Man

After 2.5 years I finally met the Shawarma Man all my DHA friends talk about, while out for one last night of shopping and eating in Khobar with the Reynolds and Dillies.

I'm sorry we met just as my Exit Visa is being processed for my departure. Shawarmas are the fast food of the Middle East. The ones I've eaten on camp have not been Blog worthy.

But this stacked chicken meat on a skewer grilled all day to perfection was DIFFERENT. Honestly this was not a place I would have stopped if my friends had not sworn they were some of the best in Khobar. Just looking at the place made me wonder how much time I would be spending in the bathroom the next day. They promised they've eaten here regularly without consequence so we went for it.

I love and will miss this Chicken Shawarma wrapped in flat bread with tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and garlic sauce (they also add soggy fries which I tossed) almost as much as Graham will miss his little buddy O* from nursery. For the last several months it has just been these two cutie pies.

The next afternoon we gathered with 60+ of our closest friends in Dhahran to eat Sourdough Waffles with oodles of toppings like homemade buttermilk and apple cinnamon syrups and say our goodbyes.

Moving on is so bitter sweet. We love the friends we have made and the community we've lived in but we do feel it is a good time to move on. It isn't all that unlikely to cross paths with many of these people again as church and oil connections make this world seem so very small.

One person Ethan is sure to miss will be his special buddy Rusty M. They first bonded when Rusty would sub Ethan's class in Primary for his wife.

Ethan really loves Rusty and was showing him his homemade kites on Friday. Unbeknownst to Ethan Rusty just happens to be a kite enthusiast and went home to gather everything they needed to make REAL miniature kites.

They spent the entire afternoon teaching Ethan and perfecting the method. I am not sure who was more delighted with the out come.

I just want to make one more huge shout out to say THANK YOU to all those that have hosted and fed our family every Friday before our two hour journey home.