Tony's New Baby

Well Tony and I had a great weekend. We played poker this weekend and the Muegels cleaned up. Tony got first and I got third. The best part of the night for me though was the Mexican layer dip! Poker was over Dan and Deb's house (who are just wonderful people) and Deb made the most delicious Mexican layer dip. I don't think I've had that in over a year and a half! It's funny the things and foods that are are normal in the States that you just forget about here.

On Saturday, Tony, Kasey, and I went to the beach and just happened to meet Mike there. We had such a great day. The weather was finally perfect to be outside and the water was wonderful-we made a point to enjoy the water because everyone tells us that even if you are brave enough to go outside in a couple months, the ocean gets so hot it feels like a hot tub.

While Kasey and I enjoyed our strawberry daiquiris and the ocean, Tony had his own toy to play with. He just bought a new fancy-pants camera. I wish I could tell you all the reasons why it's the best camera ever, but that's more Tony's area-I just know it's a Nikon D380 and it's accessories have taken over my kitchen table! So while I played in the water-Tony went chasing birds!

The pictures really are beautiful and I'm so happy he got the camera before we leave for Italy this week. So there wont be any posts for a week and a hlaf while we're on vacation-but there will be a ton of pics when we get back!

Great Weekend With My Hubby!

Well, the bad news is that my brother didn't get to come this weekend-his ship didn't dock where it was supposed to. So that was a huge bummer, I was really looking forward to getting to see some family! Tony had already taken Sunday and Monday off work and since he's been working so much overtime he decided to go ahead and keep those as vacation days. I'm SO glad he did-we had a WONDERFUL weekend.

Thursday (which is the last day of the work week here) night we BBQ-ed and played Dominoes with all of our friends on the roof which was a lot of fun. Then a couple of us went out on the town which is always a great time.

Friday was even more fun. Tony and I met some of our friends down at the beach for the Red Bull Race. The Red Bull Race is an annual event where huge pilons are set up on the water between the beach and the Corniche and piolets race airplanes through an obstacle course to try to get the fastest time. I know, I'm not an airplane person like my husband is but this was pretty cool. Unlike airshows, the airplanes were flying pretty close to the surface of the water and not that far ahead of us so everything was realy close.

In between the race there were some really cool things too. For instance there was a helicopter that was flying upside down and doing barrel roles-I never knew helicopters could do that! And then another time time there were parachuters swooping. What made the swoopers really cool was that their landing site was right next to us so as they were coming down I was convinced they were going to land on us.

We had a great day-we just wished that we had known we would be ON the beach because we would have worn swimsuits. That didn't stop us from playing in the water some!

Saturday turned out to be shopping day where Tony and I went and got some stuff for the house-including my new aloe plant. An aloe plant is an essential Abu Dhabi purchase to me because of all the sunburns I've been getting this year!

While we were shopping I had asked Kasey and Kyle to watch Kieley because she still has stitches and I'm afriad if we kennel her she'll eat them out. Kyle and Kasey have houseguests though who just moved here and have been staying with them the past week. Tom and Rachel are wonderful people and so nice, and their sixteen-month-old daughter, Jessica, is just too cute. Tony and I were thinking about it though and we realized that on top of having Tom, Rachel, Jessica, their own son, Andrew, and their kitten, we were adding a dog to the mix. (The kitten, Lara, and Kieley actually get along, but they chase each other all over the house and leap over furniture, knock over children....they're just a little chaotic.) So Tony and I decided to invite all of them over for dinner to say thank you. Tony was making pork tenderloin sandwhiches (which are SO delicious) and somehow dinner turned from three couples eating over-to practically all of our friends in the building eating in my apartment. It was great! We hadn't had that many people over since Thanksgiving and it really made me want to have another dinner party.

Well after those eventful few days Tony and I decided to relax on Sunday and Monday. We read upstairs on the roof or lounged around our apartment. Tony got to play his PS3 which he hasn't had the time to do in a while and I spent most of the time reading. I just finished the book this morning and it was WONDERFUL! It's The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It definitly makes my top ten favorite books of all time. It looks a little intimidating because it's 1000 pages-but I was sad to see it end. Definitly worth a read when you have some lazy days coming up!

While I was sad to see my weekend with Tony come to an end I'm also really excited because we leave for Italy in a week and a half!

Fun in the Sun!

Well last weekend Kasey and I decided that we had to get out of our houses so we loaded up Andrew and spent the whole day at the pool. It was so wonderful! And Andrew did so well-he wasn't scared of the water at all! He wasn't a huge fan of the kiddie pool-but he loved the deep end. I think this is because in the deep end Kasey and I were throwing him around. Kasey and I drank Coronas and laid out when we weren't playing with Andrew.

Well after 5 hours of this we both went home sunburnt and sore. Well, Kasey was more sunburnt because she burns easier and I was more sore becuase I'm not used to throwing Andrew around all day! We had such a fun day though and we need to do it again soon before it ges too hot out!

So what was Tony doing while his wife was hanging around the pool? The poor boy was working overtime and weekends. Needless to say he crashed on the couch at 8:30 more than once this week. Hey-you know how they say dogs and their owners begin to look alike...

Kieley's doing great. She was fixed on Monday-I have never seen a more doped up dog! They put the cone on her head to prevent her from liking the stitches...and I dont think she ever even knew it was on! As she started waking up she realized the cone's presence more and more...and is not a fan! So I started wrapping her belly so she can walk more than two feet without hitting something-but I'm still making her sleep with it on. I'm way paranoid about her ripping her stitches open. When Tony and I got out first dog , Reba, fixed he came home one night to all of her guts on the floor...she had chewed out all her stitches. So he had to grab her and put her guts back in and run her to an emergency vet. So even though I feel bad about how mad Kieley gets at the cone...it's definitly prefereable to waking up to puppy guts!

New Posts...Coming Soon!

So I've been getting a lot of coments about how I don't post very often. The truth is...there's not much to post about! Tony's going to work, I'm reading and cross-stiching, we BBQ and play poker on the weekends...

But April SHOULD be busy for us so I thought I'd clue everyone in on upcoming attractions! Next week we finally have Kieley's big surgery (the mange didn't come back-YAY!) so she will be miserable-especially since she has to spend the night in the kennel. She already has seperation anxiety and I'm sure this wont help! Then, next weekend is the Red Bull race on the corniche where pilots fly obstacle courses which should be a fun day out! Then, HOPEFULLY, my brother is going to spend a few days with us which I am SO excited about! Then, we're going to top of April by spending 8 days in Italy (We decided that since what we need is relaxation, we shouldn't spend three weeks trying to see everything, so we've decided to spend the summer taking shorter trips.).

In the midst of all this the apartment upstairs may become ours! Right now it's the laundry room/pool table room and they are going to turn it into an apartment again. It has the balcony where we all BBQ and I go up there to tan at least a few times a week. So hopefully in the middle of our incredibly busy month we'll be moving upstairs...if we get the place. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sorry our lives have been un-post-worthy lately but fun stuff should be coming soon!

My Brother's Coming!

It's been about a year since Tony and I have seen any family. And it's been even longer since I've seen my brother Brian! Well I think I get to see him for a couple days next month! He's in the Navy and cruising around this area for a while so we've been hoping to get a chance to see each other and now we think we'll have it! I highly doubt my Dad ever thought his oldest child and youngest child would ever meet up in the Middle East-pretty crazy!

I got to see Brian at my and Tony's wedding in 2004-his youngest daughter Brianna was even my flower girl-and the cutest flower girl ever if I do say so myself!

Then in 2005 his family drove all the way down from Fargo to Fort Worth to celebrate Christmas with us! We had so much fun-there's nothing better than celebrating Christmas with kids in the house! They get the best toys! And my parents flew down too! It really made my and Tony's first Christmas in our first house special.

We all loaded up and hit the Fort Worth Zoo-I know, we kinda look like the mob in all the black huh?

Speaking of the Crume family liking to wear matching clothes!!! LOL! Here's my sister-in-law Teresa, myself, and my mom in our matching Christmas p.j.s! (And our matching cosomos!)

Dad got his first opprotunity to read The Night Before Christmas to his grandchildren which was nice (He's read it to me EVERY year (even over the phone once!) so it was fun to continue the tradition.

We had such a wonderful time...I can't wait to have a big family Christmas again! Even though it will probably be a while before we get to do that, I'm still so happy to get to see my brother for a couple days!!!

Keeping Busy

I think I start every post by saying that nothing too exciting is happening-and that's true for this month too! Abu Dhabi seems to lend itself to laziness...especially since everyone delivers! Well with me not feeling well last month Tony and I fell into a little rut of ordering food every night and skipping date nights. Well last week I made a deal with him that if I cooked dinner Sunday through Wednesday, Tony would take me out for a date night Thursday (remember our work week is Sunday-Thursday here) and Tony readily agreed. Well so far I've been keeping up my end of the bargain and Tony's been eating well! So Thursday night after he gets off work we're going to a movie and then we're going to BBQ to give me a night off! Providing I cook tonight of course!

We're still playing poker on Friday nights. I've been getting second or third lately but have yet to get first! (Good thing you get money for second and theird place too!)

Let's see, what else. I've been doing a lot of cross-stitching. I'm making Christmas stockings for Tony and me! When I was little my Grandma crocheted stockings for the whole family which was really special. I got the same pattern and tried really hard to make Tony a stocking and it just wasn't happening. So I decided that Tony and I should start our own tradition and I'm cross-stitching us stockings. I used a really big brand name for the patterns so when we have kids I can find a pattern for them too. I finished mine a few months ago-all I have to do is buy materal for the lining and the back...and then hand sew it all together!

I'm about half way done with Tony's which will feature a river and some deer when it's done. I'm really excited that I should finish by Christmas!

That's about it right now! Just wanted to say hi to everyone and prove that I'm going to get better at this blogging thing!

Internet Problems

Well, all of you in the States probably haven't heard but we've been having internet problems over here. Some ship dropped anchor and severed two internet cables (rumor is it was on purpose) so our internet has been touch and go lately. Sorry to all the people we haven't written back in the past few weeks!

We haven't been up to too much. Tony is a happy boy though! When he got his promotion last summer we decided that he deserved a little congrats present but we had the whole Germany vacation going on. Well, a few weeks ago he FINALLY got his present. It is the biggest flat screen tv I've ever seen!!! It doesn't even fit in the entertainment center so it's sitting on the coffee table! The best thing about the humongous tv is that for the first couple days I noticed the tv stretched out shows so ALL the women on tv looked so much fatter! I loved it! And then I mentioned it to Tony and he adjusted the ratio so now all the women are back to being skinny.

We still have poker night every week and I don't want to jinx it but I'm doing pretty well! I haven't gotten first yet but all except two times I've gotten second or third (which you get money for!). Tony and I are also talking about taking a vacation to Italy, Austria, and the Chech Republic in the next couple months! I know-we've already been to Austria-but we want to go back to Hallstatt so bad!

Also-we may be moving! No, not back to the States-to Al Ain which is about an hour and a half away. Lockheed is hiring a bunch of new people so they're getting more apartments and the ones in Al Ain are really nice. Al Ain is much cleaner and prettier than Abu Dhabi. Besides, this apartment is really ticking me off. The seal on the bottom of our guest toilet is broken so the bathroom flooods every time you flush it, my kitchen sink is leaking, the fridge makes a really high pitched sound most of the time, and the washers in the laundry room STILL aren't fixed and the one in my apartment has had to be repaired three times in the last week! Yea-I want to move! Since we'd get nicer housing, Tony and I are thinking about staying another year or so. We'll let everyone know!

Well that's about it! I guess I should start taking more pictures because I don't really have any new ones to post! But here's a cute one of Kieley helping with the laundry! Oh-speaking of Kieley, she went to the vet a couple days ago and she's officially mange free! Yay! So we can get her fixed anytime! We also bought a crate for her when we're gone because she ate two pairs or my favorite heels and my cell phone all in one week!

Hope everybody's doing great and we miss you all!