Musical Inspiration

So I just love music.  I am kind of that cheesy person that can relate everything to a great song.  I love songs that bring me to tears and that I can relate to my own life!  I had to share this song today.  My sweet new friend Sarah shared it with me.  These were her exact words to me "I wanted to share a song, that was my theme song last year. I believe God sent me these lyrics just at the right moment. I truly believe that we were sent here by Jesus for some reason, and  I know we were picked and it was not by accident, just like you and your family. I hope "someday" I will understand why, but if not, I have faith that God's plan is perfect and I will continue to believe that His plan for my life is somehow better than I could ever hope or want for myself"  How amazing was this message to me?  I was sharing with her yesterday how I have had been having some hard moments missing home,family and friends and just getting adjusted to life here!  She was so sweet to listen and share with me that she felt the same feelings when she first moved here.  She shared with me something that inspired her to embrace this adventure and I so appreciate that!  This song has a whole new meaning for me!  It's the little things that can make you feel good and today it was a song!

Speaking of songs..I have to share another song that Deric and I love.  It kind of became our family's theme song when we were apart all those months and had the impending move upon us.  Blake could not hear this song without welling up with tears!!!  My favorite part has to do with "teaching my kids to fly".  I hope you enjoy these two songs and maybe feel a little inspired by them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaltg7Xg960

The Palm

Friday afternoon we had dinner with some great new friends who live on The Palm.  Their backyard is the beach!!  For those of you who don't know The Palm is part of what makes Dubai famous!  It is a group of man-made islands in the shape of a palm tree.  Our new friends live on the very end of one of the "fronds".  The "fronds" are the large divided "leaves" of The Palm.  The kids had an amazing time! They found some pretty cool things in the water.  We left their house that night with a little villa envy....hahahahaha!  Seriously though it would be a really neat place to live!  Our new friends are from California and have two precious daughters that are our girls ages.  They just arrived in Dubai as well and are an ASD family.

Amazing sand dollar!

Our new friend's backyard!  That is a new hotel being built in the background.
Of course there are many cranes!

This is what they have found in the their "backyard!"

This is the life.

Luke was the jellyfish catcher with his little clam shell.

Live starfish!

Great new friends Caroline and Georgia..oh and a sea slug!!!

The sea slug....

Catch and release

Walking along the "frond"

Liv and her crabby friend.

Look what they handed me!  A live starfish...

Hmmmmm?  Looks tasty

All of my kids look like this guy!

Sun is setting..Check out The Atlantis in the background!

School

So we have now been in school for almost a week and every day seems to get better! The kids seem to be adjusting well and are happy to go everyday.  No one even complains about the 45 MINUTE drive each day to and from.  This is hard on me because I am just not used to facing that kind of drive every day.  It involves a major freeway with major crazy drivers!   Today I actually saw someone trying to back off of an exit ramp from the freeway along the shoulder!!!  Remember if you take the wrong exit or turn you could be lost for days!  I guess this person just thought they would undo their mistake!  Another phenomenon I see in the mornings are large white vans parked on the side of the freeway letting out laborers for their day of construction work.  These men just disperse through major traffic to their destinations!

Since school has started though I am meeting many new friends who all have been telling me different ways to get to school from our neighborhood The Meadows.  I now have a new more peaceful route that involves driving alongside the beach for much of the way.  The speed limit is 70km and there are cameras everywhere so no one speeds.  Mama-likey-this.  It also takes me right by a great mall/grocery store that I can pop into before I pick them up.

I asked Blake what were some of the things she liked about ASD.  She said that she gets to eat her lunch outside when it cools down.  She has a locker and that they get 3 recesses!  Three times a day the kids go out for 10 minutes at a time to play.  I think this is great!  They get to run and release some energy and then go back to work.  I think this is because a long recess would just be too hot.  Speaking of the weather, this past week the humidity has dropped significantly!!!  In the mornings the wind is blowing and it feels wonderful!!!  They say it will continue to change each week.  We are loving loving this weather!  Blake really is enjoying learning Arabic and she tells me the new phrases she is learning on the drive home.  Not going to even attempt to write them for you.

Olivia is very happy with ASD as well.  We hear stories daily about her classroom friends and her playground friends and her lunchroom friends.  As we are walking to the car everyday I hear "Hi Olivia, Hi Olivia, Hi Olivia"...from many different kids!  She will then clarify to me if that is a playground friend or a classroom friend.  Olivia is also loving finding different ways to accessorize her uniform.  See pictures below.

As for The Duke..He is doing great too but he does tell me "Mama it is just too long to be away from you!"  This usually happens at night before bed when he is so tired.  It is a long long day for him.  We leave the house around 7:20 and we get home at 4.  When we get home he is off to the little park to ride his bike.  He is riding with no training wheels now on this little bike that Latha and Anura gave him.  It is so too small for him but he loves it.  You can often find him shirtless cruising through the park playing with all his little international buddies!  The park is the happening place to be in the evenings.  The park being right across the street was a huge factor in picking our villa and I am so glad we did!  It makes it so great for the kids to have a safe enclosed place to play.  Lilly loves seeing all the other little babies.  We have to watch her though because she is a sand-thrower and sand-eater!  She threw sand in another little baby's face the other night!  I was mortified! I think we are in trouble!

So I can't believe we have been here almost 2 months!  I look back on those first weeks and feel proud of how far I have come!  I feel much more confident driving..yes, I still get lost but I now have a visual picture of the Dubai roadways which helps me get unlost.  I am using Nav Lady less and less!  I am making friends daily.  Two that I need to mention are my fellow "Nalco-wife" friends Carol and Trinka. They are so wonderful and we have been having fun lunching/shopping and exploring Dubai.  We can whine and laugh together about this crazy/different/foreign/fascinating place we are now calling home!  We are all ASD parents as well which is great too.

Luke on his mini-bike!

Three tired B's on the way home from school.  Look at the red faces
from the long walk to the car!

Nav Lady...

Day 2's outfit.

The sand parking lot that I did get stuck in the other day.

Don't drag your backpacks through the sand!

Proud Little Texan!

Walking in for a day of learning in the desert.

Most handsome boy at ASD!

Kids get to play in the morning before school starts! 

Dropping Liv off with her class.

Have a great day at school Blakey!

Where'd they all go?

Beach Bryants

A few days before school started Deric and I very spontaneously took the kids to the beach.  We parked in front of an area called the Jumeriah Beach Walk.  This is a very neat part of Dubai where you can live in high rises right along the ocean!  Our new friends the Sneedons from Katy are living there!  It has lots of great restaurants and shopping and a great view of the beach!

This night was probably my favorite we have had in Dubai.  The kids were so happy playing in the sand, collecting amazing shells and swimming in the warm water.  The weather was perfect and the people watching was superb!  I sat on that beach with my precious family and felt so at peace.  Blake and I went out and played in the waves right as the sun was setting.  I told her "Blake, do you realize we are swimming in The Persian Gulf right now?"  How cool is that!

On the way home we decided that there must be many, many more nights like this!  When you have a big family planning things to do together can get tedious and exhausting.  Spontaneous fun is definitely the best in my opinion!

Twas the First Day of School...

Twas the First Day of school in this land called Dubai
Mama Bryant was thinking "Oh, please no one cry"...

Uniforms were pressed, lunches packed tight
Now if only she could get them there...she had to get it right!

Pearly whites clenched, hands gripping the wheel
The long summer is over..this is the real deal!

Exits with no names, locals whizzing by
Safely to ASD the Bryant's did arrive!

Mom and Dad walked them in very sweaty from the sun...
Handed them over to sweet teachers for a year of desert fun!

Texas schools we will miss you but it's exciting to be here!
Bring on this big adventure and we'll see yall in less than a year!