PS.....it's hot here!

             Well I have been back in the kingdom since the beginning of april and it feels like it was yesterday. It was a blurr , flights home with the kids we all fine and dandy , 2 hours in customs line when we got here was a bit fun…there were tears from all ! Picture customs surrounded by 200 other people….all of which are MEN and there i am with my 3 always chearfull kids who have been flying for 24 hours …mom who has not slept in that amount of time and the kids where fighting and screaming and everything else….lets just say the next time I Fly in the Saudi i will have Brandt with me and it will be a walk in the  park!

The kids were SUPer lucky , they got to meet the captions' after the Calgary-Germany leg of the fight.  It was a really big highlight for them !!

              So Once we all returned to the tower we call home (for now..) everyone fell back in to the swing of things until it happened , sickness .Now as fun as it would be to elaborate on this one let’s just say that for the next month i had someone home from school sick at all times  , so that month is blocked from my mind which makes the summer trip home even closer.   

                And now here we are a couple weeks away from our repat trip out of this country  and Ican’t believe it!  Repat is the term we use for Re-patriet trip , the short version is that we have to leave this country for a certain peroide of time for our visa’s . It one of those “you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here” things. Company pays you to leave ,most wife and children leave as soon as school is over if not a little before , as we can leave for the entire summer . Then the men get about a month off , so in our case me and the kids are leaving the middle of June and Brandt will join us the middle of July.  I’m looking forward to it! 

Now being a Canadian Girl i NEVER thought the heat would get to me….and I can’t say that i’m complaining by any stretcht , but it is getting really hot! average in the morning is about 35…..and afternoon is about 45.  I’m starting to understand why all the locals come out at night because it’s really enjoyable at night . So needless to say there has been a lot of pool/beach time!  We Drove out to RT which is another Armco compound on the ocean about an hour away it's a little slice of paradise here .  This past time while driving out there were a few new additions on sides off the road a little ways. Now they may have been there before and I had never noticed them . Anyone watching the news these days knows things on this side of the globe are tense , more so than they have been for a while so there are deffinatly a few more things you notice that You didn't before. This trip was the tanks/Armoured vehicles on the sides. Now if I had seen these about 10 months ago there would have been pure fear in my world , this time I though ummm that's handy!  The kids thought was Wow that's cool!! looks like another transformer! We see Star scream all the time multiple times a day! and it's still cool!! And now the kids are always debating if that guards machine gun is bigger than the last one they saw. Simple things , small minds right.  But made for a fun drive to the beach   then once we were there its was all normal again .  

Speaking of normal we have been spending a lot of time at the Golf course , it's so pretty! green grass everywhere , the driving range is cheap!! like $2 bucket of balls and like everywhere else on camp there is never anyone around so the kids hit some we hit some then off the the restraint they have there. This cute little mexican place that serves about taco bell quality food  , but it's so pretty and wonderfull   , we are there about once a week   , order the same thing evertime and it's fab!

Next big EVENT ...the tower got a food store!!!

It's a market that is based in Bahrian and has the best little selection of normal food ! and it's only an elevator ride away!   It's is the new highlight of my world! I go everyday , take a child with me they have little shopping carts and so many brands that i used to see at home! Love the market 

Some of the things I found there .  I'm stalk piling jelly tots for my sister when I go home. Growing up these were our favourite candy then one day we could not find them in Canada.  We searched for years and now the store in the building has them (for now)  So I buy  a bag every time i'm there  , the other day Brandt said should't you leave some for someone else? And the hoarded in my said Forget it I never know when I will see this again! Let's just say i'm up to 11 bags and the store has only been open for 10 days:) 

Another thing we have been doing a lot of is buying silver , there is this store in the Suke's called the silver museum.  Its a jelwelry store that specializes in Silver and I love me some silver! When we were there once we herd a lot of women coming in and asking for custom item's and I thought up!! i could do that. So we dissigned our first piece of silver jewelry . 

Here it is!!!   My hidden disney Bling , reminds my of my kids who's favourite movies was always Toy story . We got skylar all sparkled up with bracelets and necklaces and ordered/designed a new mickey/priate pendant for kayden . What kid doesn't need some bling:) We are getting much better at going to the Suke's we went this past weekend and Got brandt and Kayden hand made leather sandals for whopping total of 26$ You can not me a male and live in this country with out a pair of lather sandles! 

So we all remember how the story of the Tower and the tracey's came to be , phone call From Huston " you are moving to the Tower....TEMPORARLY until you are housed on camp"  Now at the begingn we were like great so in 2 years we can move from the tower to main camp . Armco said they are building new houses for all of the people that are not living there now....Great!How long can it take right?....Well we drove past the place where they are building these houses it's been since august last year that they started...

Well here they are!    can't you see all the new houses for all us people who live off compound! Umm NOPE not happening in my Saudi time. This is just one of the things that makes life here frustrating! You think these things are simple...they are not!  You think the company would not lie to us ...would they??meh i'm past it , 

  So we are in the midst of a new and exciting adventure ...a little bit more waiting and ill be ready for the big news!Story of my Life hurry up and wait....

Let's just say   , this is one of the new Tracey toys waiting for us!!

#SaudiAdventureContinues

Until next time , only a couple more weeks of  beach/pool and friends , then back to my home an native land. I'm going all out this year Stampeed breakfast  , Canada Day fireworks  , Bike camp , dance classes  , and A trip to Disney of course!

Keep Moving Forward

Your aunt...Eh??

Brandt here again and I’d like to share a brief experience I had with a co-worker this past week.  I’m sure you were all hoping for a driving related post but Michelle thought that this would also suffice.

So I was in a company provided course this past week (excellent training by the way) and on the final day one of my coworkers from my previous department started talking “family” stuff with me.  It all started with my family here, then my family back home, then my in-laws, etc.  How everyone felt about me living here, how I felt about being away, ya-da, ya-da.

This fellow was, like most locals I work with, quite opinionated and didn’t hold back on anything.  Like most locals I work with he automatically assumed that we lived in the main camp which has now been re-named to the “Senior Camp”.   I told him that we lived off-camp in a local compound and that for this reason I was considering switching over to an operations role so that I could work 28/28.  He said that I should do it because the money is better.  I countered back saying that I felt that keeping my family together was more important at this point.  He continued to argue about money and how it would be better, blah, blah, blah.  I then started to explain to him the 5 Languages of Love (disclaimer: I’ve never read the book but Wikipedia explains it well haha).  I told him that my wife’s “Love Language” is quality time and that it’s important to her that we keep our family together.  This is how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: Ya my love language is “gifts”.  I like receiving nice things.

Him: Yes, my friend, my mother-in-law loves to get money.  All Saudi women love money.

Me: Man, you’ve got it made in the shade if you know how to keep your mother-in-law happy.

Him: Yes, my friend, my aunt really likes it when I give her money

Me: *confused* I thought we were talking about your mother-in-law?

Him: Yes, Brand-it, my aunt, my mother-in-law (aside: trying to explain the silent “D” in my name is painful)

Me: Oh right, they both like money, women LOVE money, hahaha

Him: What you mean both?  Same-same.

Me: Same-same?

Him: Yes, my friend, my mother-in-law and my aunt are the same.

Me: Oh they’re twins, that’s cool

Him: No, my friend, same person

Me: *raise eyebrow, slight jaw drop, confused look*

Him: I married my cousin

Me: *horrible poker face* oh ya, that’s interesting

Him: In Canada you do not marry your cousins?

Me: Uh, no.  In Canada we DO NOT marry our cousins?

Him: Why not? Makes things easy for wedding.

Me: Uh, well, it’s kind of frowned upon *cough-illegal-cough*

Him: Hmmm, that’s very strange.  Here we like it this way; it keeps the family strong.

Me: Ya well, my cousins are all really nice but that’s just not how we do it in Canada. (In my head: stay calm, change the subject, keep eye contact, don’t show weakness)

Him: well you live here now, you should have one come for a visit and then take her as a second.

Me: a second what?

Him: a second wife

Me: *stunned, completely and utterly stunned* huh, I never thought of that, anyways, it sounds like we’re going to be done early for the day; are you going straight to Bahrain or do you have to pick up your wife/cousin first?

This guy was dead serious that I should “take my cousin for a second”.  While I know that some of my female cousins are going to read this let me just say this: you’re all really wonderful people and it’s really super that we’re part of the same family.  Our family is strong enough.  Period. Khalas (done/finished).