Ramadan Kareem

It is the Holy Month of Ramadan. A month of fasting, celebrations and a focus on directing the thoughts and spirit to Allah. The title photo above was taken at a mosque near our home. I have always loved driving past the mosque during prayer time and seeing the many shoes on the steps of the mosque. A symbol, to me, of people leaving part of outside world behind and going into prayer. Finally, I got a picture of the shoes on the steps. I have wanted this photo for such a long time.

Thursday Again?!

It's Thursday already and I still haven't blogged..I miss my blog....
I've been so busy with the kids, homework, Cairo's swim practice...driving back and forth and Brad comes home for lunch almost everyday (YEA!) But with all that and my work outs and Ramadan schedule at school..I have no time left to blog.
I have made a promise to myself that I will blog today. Right now it is only 12:05am and not the right time to start blogging, although the house is quiet and I'm alone...I just can't.

I do need to say I have been spending a lot of time lately trying to live in the moment. Megan Clark, my dear friend from Provo, is helping with nieces and nephews who's parents were in a private plane crash the 3rd week of August. Both were severely burned and are recovering at a burn center in Arizona. Nie Nie, Megan's sister-in-law is covered in burns..up to 85% of her body. Her husband and sweetheart, Mr. Nielson, she calls him, is also covered in burns but not as badly. Nie Nie was an inspiration to so many people all over the world through her blog that the New York Times has now covered the story as well as the Today Show. My heart aches for this little family. I feel so blessed to have my health and the health of my family. I also feel extremely fortunate to know that I have an awesome extended family (like Nie Nie) who would totally step up and love our kids and pray for us and continue to inspire the world for us if something so tragic happened.

I must go to bed..I'm tired and emotional...Hug your kids and love your family. Anything can change tomorrow...No Regrets!

Check out the blogs about Nie Nie and Christian:
www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com
www.nierecovery.com
www.cjanerun.blogspot.com

Summer Fun at Bobbi and Grandpa John's in Logan

I drove Sam to Sun Valley to spend a week with Drew at a Warrior Camp. To save the other 3 kids from a long drive, they stayed with Bobbi and Grandpa overnight. They managed to have loads of fun in just a short amount of time.

Park City, UT Summer '08

Cairo's Camp at Felsteds

Our Provo neighbor Amber Felsted held a week long camp for the girls in the neighborhood to dance and tumble. Cairo attended and loved every bit of it. Here are a few photos of her last day.

Jet-Lag...It's Brutal

We are back and trying to get adjusted to the time change. We totally lost our Wednesday, August 13th. We gain that day back when we go home next time. It's best if one stays awake the first day here and gets plenty of sunshine. 108 degree heat and extremely high humidity make that part of it really difficult. Keeping tired kids awake is another challenge. We did our best but it proved to be impossible. We took the family out to the mall for dinner and by the time we arrived at the mall all 4 kids were fast asleep in the back seat. The two oldest kids woke up and ate. Jack and Charlie were basically comatose on the benches at Fuddruckers. I would wake them enough to take a bite but I was never certain they had even swallowed the food before they were back to sleep. Yesterday, after church, we just let nature take it's course. The kids played with friends and with new toys..we were tired because they had kept us up the night before. (After the early sleep during dinner the boys were up for good by 4am.) So we napped, hoping we would still be able to sleep last night. When we woke from our naps Jack and Charlie had each crashed in different locations. Check out the pictures below.

The Face-Lift is Complete!

Our exterior upgrades are nearly finished. We have some finishing details we need to complete but these photos show the new roof and the new paint color. What do you think? We are really happy with the results. A lot of work and a lot of $$$ later, we have given our home some LOVE..

This is the "Before" picture that was shown on an earlier post:


This is the front porch. If you look closely at the wreath above the front door you can see a little bird nest that Brad found in a tree when he was trimming. I decided to put it in the wreath because I couldn't bare to throw it away. It is kind of symbolic of our little nest here in Provo.

Extreme Home Make-Over Meets the Cooks

OK, so we wish Ty and the group were doing all the work inside and out (on their budget) and they would have sent us away on a great vacation while the work gets done over a week's time...with the final "Move that bus" dramatic ending. But it's sponsored by Brad and Terri and. like all home improvements, it keeps growing along with the bill! It is going to look so great when it's finished. It will be just in time for us to enjoy it as we drive away to the airport for our return to Abu Dhabi.
All the work needed done to preserve the home and whether we enjoy in now, later or never the home holds so many great memories and holds a special place in our hearts just like all of our previous residences.
Cairo is having a difficult time adjusting to the idea of a change in paint color. She is a child that hates to even get a new car. She is emotionally attached to parts of our lives like cars and house color. Yesterday she was asking us if we could please just paint it the same color it has always been. It shouldn't have surprised us really. She will adjust and she will grow to like the new color just as she has grown to like Brad's new truck..that's 2 years old. She did ask me if, when we get another van if it can be the very same red color of the one we sold before we moved to Abu Dhabi.
This is not the most flattering angle to take a photo of our home but I wanted to include the roof because that will be replaced. I also wanted to include the driveway because Brad spent so much time power washing it and it really got a good "face-lift" to go with the rest of the home. We may be the only ones who notice the improved look of the clean driveway but it really does look a lot nicer. I just hope it stays clean long enough to make it worth Brad's time and energy.
You can see the places on the front of the house where the workers have already cleaned off the paint that was pealing away. I must say, the power wash they gave the house made a huge difference in it's appearance..(I didn't realize it was actually this color!)
The back of our house looks so stark and plain. The backyard is amazing and is really a showplace with views of mountains and enormous cottonwood trees. Brad has spent so much time and energy cleaning it up and getting it into shape so the sprinklers can get through all the ground cover and to the roots of the trees. I feel terrible that his time off is spent working so hard in the yard. He has worked so hard to maintain the yard and it looks fabulous!
This is a shot of the north side of our house. It shows the new paint color sample. We gave the thumbs-up and they will go buy enough to finish the entire house. (I'll be so happy when they are finished not only to see the finished project but to get the masking and paper off the windows so we can get some sunlight in here!)

A Family Heirloom

The 10 year old rocker. We purchased this chair when I was pregnant with Sam. We stained and finished it for our first condo in Utah. Granted, it wasn't the most comfortable chair to nurse a baby or even rock in. Most Moms are buying those fancy gliders. I'm not sure they even had those 10 years ago, surely they did, but I just wanted an old fashioned, basic looking rocker for our first born. Since then we have had 3 other kids and I'm not certain whether any of them were rocked in this chair.
The chair has been painted since then, in fact, Barb spray painted it for me last summer to match new cushions for our deck furniture. (The rocker was moved outdoors after we moved to this house 6 years ago.)

After we returned from Abu Dhabi this summer I found the rocker in this state of disrepair, peeling paint, mainly. Along with what used to be a cute Coke cooler that has since been sun faded, I told Brad the two items could go to the dump if he was making a run. Today, Brad asked if I really wanted to get rid of the rocker. He, who usually loves to unload "dead weight", was second guessing my decision. He commented that there was a lot of sentimental value to it.
After thinking about his comments I remembered that not only had Sam been rocked in the chair but Grandma Watts had spent a lot of time rocking and dozing in it on our deck in the sunshine during the summers. I am so glad that Brad was wise enough to question me on this chair. It looks worn and quite bad, but it holds a lot of great memories for me. If this chair could talk or show a list of all the people who have spent time in it, it would have a great list of valuable memories for our family. There is no reason to unload something that has grown old or is no longer attractive...after all, that may be just a sign of the experiences it has had or the service it has rendered. Just like people.