Happy New Year's Eve!

We hope everyone had a wonderful 2007! Tony and I definitly had a big year! It's fun to think about last New Years-Tony and I had a big party at our home in Texas and we got even the most reluctant of game players to have a blast playing cranium. We had no idea what life had in store for us in 2007. We moved to Abu Dhabi, I finally got to travel Europe (which had always been a big dream of mine), I have become a pretty good cook-considering how bad I was before. Lately I have been rocking the kitchen and all my dinner's have been delicious-Even with my devil oven! Tony's favorite dish I make is Mushroom Porkchops which has the most AMAZING sauce!

So of course I have made New Year's resolutions-and I have made the to most cliche resolutions ever! Number 1: I am going to quit smoking. Tony's not doing it with me which is going to be hard, but my friend Kasey downstairs is so I'll have some support from her. We are even rewarding ourselves on our first day of not smoking by going to the spa to get our nails and toes done! Number 2: Get healthy! Notice I didn't say lose weight-lol. That will be a plus, but really I just want to be healthy. Tony and I joined the gym yesterday-it's SO beautiful. I know, how many people have gym memberships they never use-but this fitness center has rewards for going! Included in the price of the gym are access to their very nice pool, their beach, and cheap massages...to name a few! So here's to a healthier (and tanner) 2008!

One of the first things we are doing in 2008 is taking Kieley in for surgery-she needs to be fixed-poor puppy! Everyday her personality is coming out more and more which is great! When we first got her, Kieley didn't know how to be dog. She didn't get excited about treats, didn't know how to fetch, or tug, or any tricks. In just the past month she has learned how to shake, LOVES treats, and can tug and fetch-but she has to be in the mood to play! I was actually excited yesterday when she tore the squeaker and fluff out of one of her toys-my dogs in Texas accomplished that within the first five minutes of getting a new toy! The other thing she loves for some reason is laying on bathmats. I bought a new one for the bathroom and she was always laying on it so I went back to Ikea and bought another one for the kitchen and then I bought her one of her own. Well instead of being excited she had a mat of her own, she thinks she has three now! Tony and I just LOVE having her in our house, she makes it feel so much more like a home!

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's and a great 2008!

Eid and Christmas

We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks to everyone for all the cards and well wishes-it made us feel like we weren't so far away.

The week before Christmas the boys had a five day weekend to celebrate another Eid-we're not quite sure what this one was for though. We spent most of the time relaxing. One day a bunch of us went to the beach which was nice. It is still warm enough to go swimming but we didnt really get any color even though we were outside for most of the afternoon. (I used to turn pink just by being out for half an hour.) The boys tossed the football while us girls layed out and swam. Kieley is still afraid of the water. I took her out in the deep end a few times and she's a good swimmer-she just doesn't like to do it. On the other hand, our friend's son, Andrew, loved being in deep water!

The boys had to work Sunday and Monday before Christmas. Christmas Eve, Tony and I went to a party at a friends house and had a great time. They made Christmas dinner, and we played pool and had a White Elephant exchange that was a lot of fun. We didn't do much Christmas day. (Tony got that day off.) We just relaxed and enjoyed the middle of the week break. Tony did some studying because he is going through midterms right now. Even though it's lame, we picked out our own gifts this year. I got a new iPod that I love! Tony got a new PS3 which may not have been the best idea with it being midterms right now...

That's about all we're up too! Just wanted to day hi to everyone and we hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

New Friends to Play With!

Well a lot has happened the past couple weeks that has totally changed my daily routine-for the better!

First-Tony and I got a dog! On accident! What happened was our friend Matt decided to get a dog from the pound. I was going to watch her during the day while Matt was at work. I was so excited to have a "part-time dog." Tony and I were adament that we were not going to get a dog in Abu Dhabi because it is a very expensive hassle to ship a dog back to the States. Well after about a week it wasn't working out between Kieley (the dog) and Matt so he decided to take her back. He couldn't take her back for another week though so Tony and I volunteered to keep her during that week.

Kieley fit in perfectly in our house! She's a little cuddle bug and has a hilareous personality which comes out more and more as she gaines confidence. Well the day came and Matt took her back. I had a horrible weekend and missed having Kieley around. So Tony and I decided "What the heck!" and went to the pound and adopted her. She makes my days so much happier! And she is such an easy and loving dog. After we adopted her, Tony and I found out that the dogs can only be at the kennel for six months before they get put down to make room for other dogs (the kennel can only hold 6 dogs at one time). Well Kieley had been there four and a half months. This fact confirmed we had made the right decision!

This is Kieley on our window sill. She likes to sit up there in the sun and and growl & bark at the people waiting for taxis or playing cricket.

To be honest, Abu Dhabi is not the greatest place to be a dog. The people here do not see dogs as pets but as animals, and they do not understand why the British and American population here would let an animal live in their houses, clean up its poop, ect. This often results in stray dogs being abused. There are only two shelters here. The dogs you find at pet stores (like the one two blocks down from here) are often half-starved, abused, and have all kinds of diseases. It is a little humorous because when I walk Kieley many of the locals are so intimidated by her that they will actually walk across the street (usually in a hurry) to get away from her. And she is a very timid 30 lb dog! On the other hand, the local children who play cricket across the street love her. I always make sure to stop and let them pet and play with her, hopefully, so that they'll grow up with a different attitude towards dogs than the majority of the population.

My other exciting news is that Kyle's wife, Kasey, and son, Andrew, moved here a week ago! I love hanging out with Kasey and it's so nice to have a female friend to hang out with during the day while the boys are at work. The other day Kasey and I loaded up Andrew and Kieley and walked to the beach which is about an hour away. It was Andrew's first time to see the beach and he had a blast!

In two weeks I went from spending weekdays alone to having two great friends so things are going great here! Now that it's cooled off in the evenings we have been BBQ-ing a lot and having game nights. We actually need to get the new Cranium edition because we've gone through all the cards! Tony only has to work two days this week because of a local holiday so I'm sure there'll be some more beach trips and BBQ-ing soon!

We hope eveyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Love you!

Thanksgiving and a few other tidbits...

Well, we hope everyone had a wonderful turkey day! We had a bunch of fun...even if things were a little hectic. We spent the night before playing euchre and making some cheesecake. We gave our friend Matt the job of crushing up grahm crackers and let's just say he really got into the roll.

Tony took the day off, so while the rest of the boys were at work Tony and I got to sleep in. The morning didn't start out too well for me. I was making breakfast and after burning the first batch of bacon, I ended up dropping the whole pan of bacon, grease and all, on the floor. Then, I decided to rearrange the living room so we could put the island in the dining room table-and I broke the coffee table somehow. You name it and Thanksgiving morning I either broke it, spilled it, or triped on it. We still had a great time.

With all that was going wrong I was really nervous about making homemade rolls from scratch which I had never done before. Thank goodness they turned out beautifully!

Besides taking all day to make dinner, Tony and I were using all of our friends ovens as well which means we had things in 5 ovens at once sometimes!

Even through all the craziness, Tony and I had a wonderful day together. Dinner turned out so YUMMY! I know Thanksgiving is all about the food, but I have to admit that my crowning glory was the table. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it the table all decked out...but check out those napkin roses! Yep-I did those! (If Aunt Elaine and Uncle Ron read this-yes those are bottles of Amorone on the the table-I think the exact same wine we had at your house! We managed to find three bottles here and it was a big hit at dinner!)

Prior to Thanksgiving we had told all of our friends that in order to eat dinner they had to dress up as either an indian or a pilgrim. We were joking of course, but thought it'd be pretty funny if anyone actually did it. And someone did! Here's Kyle who was a wonderful sport-he actaully went to the Carefore (the grocery store here) and bought crayons and spent and evening making his costume.
One of the firends who joined us for Thanksgiving was Kat who is from Iran but lives in Dubai now. We had a wonderful time explaining Thanksgiving to her. And since it was her frist Thanksgiving, we let her do the wishbone-but first, Tony taught her how to win. And she did of course!

We spent the rest of the evening playing euchre and Cranium. While we were sad not to be home for Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful time celebrating with all of our Abu Dhabi friends! But after making that meal, Tony and I are thinking instead of making Christmas dinner in a couple weeks, we're going to have everyone over for desserts and drinks instead!

The next day Tony and I had to drive to Oman-AGAIN- to get my passport stamped. This is the new mosque that is being built in Abu Dhabi-the largest mosque in the world. I think I read something that said it could hold 45,000 people during prayer!
The other interesring thing we saw on the trip was a little pickup with a gigantic camel just laying in the back...weird! What was even more surprizing than seeing seeing a camel in the bed of a truck crusing down the highway, was that the camel seemed to enjoy it!

Since then Tony and I have just been hanging out. We had another Lockheed party last night that was in a beautiful ballroom. The reason for the party was to welcome Ralph Heath, second in command of Lockheed Martin. He got up and made a speech and everything and as soon as he was done the power went out in the entire hotel! Tony and I used the sudden pitch black darkness to make our escape!

Well that's about it for now! We love and miss everyone!