It's March 16th.  I promised myself that when March came I would start gearing up for the move back to Utah.  With the month half over I made the first move today.  I got an estimate for a 20ft. sea crate packed and shipped door-to-door.  The door on this end is obvious....Brad kindly inquired, "Where are we going to have it sent?"  hmmmm.  I think I know the zip code.

 I'm not ready to take on this huge move.  When we came here we were packing 16 suitcases.  Now we have a house full of furniture and enough junk to fill 2 houses.  It becomes more complex and difficult when I allow my emotions to get involved.  I don't want to pack up our Abu Dhabi home and say good-bye to Fortress Compound Villa #11.  It was easier when I could look forward to the suitcases packed for a summer of fun, leaving the home here in tact and waiting for our autumn return.  This is NOT going to be easy.  What's that I hear? My head is calling it wants to go back into the sand.

Etiquette Dinner at the Cooks

We have been trying to help the kids understand basic table manners.  They are slowly catching on but there is still work to be done.  Tonight I cooked a big dinner so at the last minute I decided to host an "Etiquette Dinner Party" for the family.  I quickly typed up a formal invite and delivered one to each of the children.  They were told they needed their invitation to get into the dinner because it was only for my very favorite people.

We had candle light and Cairo acted as the hostess and seated each of the others as they appeared with their invitation.  She then took drink orders and served them.  During dinner we talked about basic manners at the table and knowing how to act appropriately in different situations.  Brad is always a great teacher.  He brought up how we act differently at a birthday party than we would in school, etc.. The kids responded so well to the whole thing.  They really stepped it up and used their best manners.  We followed up dinner with popcorn and a short movie before bed.  It was a really fun night and didn't take much more energy than dinner usually does.  We have set a goal to try to have a special etiquette night at least once a month to really practice our table manners...We'll see how it goes.