Tomorrow's To Do

I enjoy To Do Lists. In fact, Brian says I probably make more lists than actually complete. But there is something about having my thoughts down on paper that helps me to feel better organized. I looked at my to do list for tomorrow and am so glad that I only had two days a month that are this insane......

Night Before
 Pack Gym Bag
 Lay-Out Gym Clothes
 Lay-Out Kids Uniforms
 Prepare KM Lesson Plan and place in Car
 Pack KM Music Instruments in Car
7:00 a.m. – 7:45 a.m.
 Get Kids Up
 Feed Kids Breakfast
 Pack Lunches
 Dress Cameron
 Pack Extra Diapers in Diaper Bag
 Get Dressed and Ready to Go
7:50 a.m.
 Kids get Picked Up for School
8:00 a.m.
 Leave for Gym
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
 Racquetball Game
 Shower & Get Dressed
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
 Storytime at Ferndale Library
11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
 Gymnastics Class at Bellingham Bay Gymnastics
12:15 p.m. – 12:45 p.m.
 Lunch at Subway on Northwest
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
 Teach Kindermusik at Gardenview Montessori
2:25 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
 Pick up Kids at Assumption School
 Carpool Home Sawicki’s
3:15 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
 Prep for City Council Work Session
 Figure out Dinner for Kids
 Pack Protein Bar in Purse for Meeting
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
 City Council Work Session
6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
 City Council Meeting
8:45 p.m.
 Home

The Short List

Brian notified me a couple weeks ago that he made the "Short List" for the Abu Dhabi job. This means he is one of the top three being considered for the job. Now we wait for a call about an interview and we wait and we wait and wait. The government has no timeline for this kind of thing, at least not one that they have shared with us. I feel like I'm kinda putting my life on hold while we wait to see if this is going to pan out..

The Middle East????

The Middle East????
Brian has been mentioning going overseas for quite some time now. However, until a few months ago, I have not been on board with the idea. I've never lived (or visited) anywhere outside of North America. I'm a little hesitant to give up our entire lives to venture into the unknown. Have you met me? I don't do well with the unknown, the unexpected, and things out of my control.

But, over time time he has worn me down.

So...a few months ago when Brian said that a job had opened up in Austria that he was thinking of applying for, I decided to give him the go ahead. I then spent the next several weeks OBSESSING. What is the housing like? Where would we live? What are the schools like? How expensive is it? What do they speak there? How could I get around? Could we travel to other areas in Europe easily? What could we rent our current house for? What activities are available there for the kids? and on and on and on.

Unfortunately, because it's a government job, we have no way of knowing where he is in the process. There are no phone calls saying..."we got your resume"..."we are in the process of interviews"....."you are in our top 20"......"thank you for applying, we went another direction". No...it doesn't work like that. All that happens is he gets a confirmation EMAIL that his application has been received and then we get to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait until eventually you find out the job is filled and it wasn't by you. ARGH

So....when that job didn't happen - it was frustrating. My goodness - I was mentally prepared to go there and my head was in it and we were set. I even started looking up teaching jobs for my mom so she could move there too!

So...a few weeks later, Brian came to me and said that a job opened up in Argentina and I said, "no thanks". I had it in my head that I only wanted to live in Europe. I don't know why. I felt it was more in my comfort zone to go to a bigger city in a more English speaking area and blah blah blah. I later found out that Argentina would've been a pretty good spot to get for a variety of reasons but the ship sailed on that one.

Then....London opened up. I thought, great! They speak English there and it's in Europe and that would be good. He applied and we waited and waited and waited and waited and NOTHING.

Another one in London opened up a few weeks later. He applied and we waited and waited and waited and NOTHING!

This is no a process I enjoy, let me tell you.

Brian explained that some places have a lot more people applying for them and so his chances go down.

Fine, I get it. But...mentally I'm prepared for the day when we will get an overseas assignment.

Then....a couple weeks ago he came to me and asked what I thought of Abu Dhabi, UAE. I told him to find out more information. He was surprised that I didn't shoot it down right away. I'm working to be more open-minded.

I have a friend who's husband is from Dubai (1.5 hours from Abu Dhabi) and she had just visited there with her family (husband and two kids) a few months ago. She came back and spoke about how clean things were and how good the food was and that she could handle living there if/when the time came.

So...I figured, why not?

I started throwing it out there to see what I could find out and to put some of my ignorant, naive ideas to rest. No people don't ride camels there to get around. No women don't dress in clothing covering them from head to toe. Yes, women can drive there. Yes, women can talk to men looking in their eyes. Yes, it's very safe there and you can walk outside at night by yourself no problem. Yes, people speak English there. Yes, there are lots of Americans and British there. Yes, there are soccer clubs and rugby clubs and gymnastics there. Yes, there are Fast Food Places and Clothing places that we would recognize there. Bonus - labor is cheap and maids/cooks/nannies are available for pennies on the dollar. Bonus - Dry Cleaning is cheap. Yes, the Government would make a house available to us (yes, it would be nice and comfortable and not a tiny apartment). Yes, the Government would place our kids in an International or US School and pick up the expense. Yes, the Government would pay for our move there. Yes, the Government would pay for us to visit back here once a year. Yes, there are Mommy Groups out there. Yes, there are gyms out there. Yes, Brian would get a cost of living adjustment out there. Yes, you can drive cars out there. Con - it's hotter than heck out there getting into the 120's July - but everything is Air-Conditioned. Pro - you can enjoy different things like Camel races and Dune Buggy rides. So....the more I read about it and saw about it, the more I thought that I could do it.

I found out that I had a friend of a friend that works at a University there. Another friend of a friend that works at a Public School there. Brian works with someone who is friends with the Supervisor at the office he would potentially be working in. He emailed him and called him to talk about the job and living there (the guy is married with a couple kids himself). He had positive things to say too.

Brian thinks that his chances would be better for Abu Dhabi then for London or Austria because less people would apply.

The job would be for two years with a chance to extend if he liked it. I would want to come back here after....but my mind is open. Brian is hoping that I will enjoy being overseas so much that I'll be ready to try somewhere else for a couple years.

As for the kids....Isabella is ready to go today, Alexander wants to live with my mom instead of going and Cameron has no clue.

As for me....I'm open and ready for anything. I would miss my friends and my family and my life here but I value the experience that would be had for all of us by going somewhere else. I look forward to having an excuse to pare down on all our stuff if we go somewhere else. I have a MILLION questions still that will get answered as the process moves on. My biggest concern is, what do I do all day??

Brian will have a job that he will go to. I don't plan to work. I can only shop and do the touristy thing for so long until it's not enough any more. Hopefully I would just find things to be involved with. I wonder how expensive it is to talk on the phone from there??

Brian officially put in his application yesterday and now, we wait.........

Black & White

First a little background.....I have a fantastic group of girlfriends. There are actually 12 of us in all. We go away to a Girls Weekend each year and the last one was in March. As we were traveling back from our last Girls Weekend, a few of us stopped to do a little shopping. I was with one of the gals and was encouraging her to get a cute dress and she didn't see the need for it. She was going through a tough time with her husband and said she had nobody to go on a date with, why should she get a dress? I told her that I would go on a date with her! I encouraged her to get a really cute black & white dress and I picked one up and before I knew I I had grabbed a dress for another friend with us and mentioned it to a few more. Thus....Black & White Date Night was born. Here we are a few months later and that one friend has actually reconciled with her husband and they are off to a wonderful new beginning. Our Black & White Date night continued on in a much brighter mood than it had been started in.

It is very difficult to plan something for 12 people. It's hard to find a day that works, it's hard to find something that works for everyone. Needless to say, 7 of us made it for last night's event.

A few came to my house early to do make-up, borrow jewelry and do their hair and we headed down to meet the rest. We had quite a few people do double-takes or ask if we planned it or ask why were doing it. When it was explained that we did plan it, and it's just for fun they all thought it was a great idea.

We ate a restaurant called Fino's and the food was amazing, the view was amazing and the company was amazing. It was a nice restaurant and it looks right over Bellingham Bay. It was beautiful outside and we had a portion of the restaurant all to ourselves. When no one was talking, it was really, really quiet. Ahhhhh. We met for dinner at 6:00 and by the time I figured out our unsplit bill with the help of paper, a pencil and Nicole's calculator we were out of there around 8:30.

I had gotten a list of places that had live music in town and we spent the last part of dinner having some of the gals with the fancy phones looking up some of the groups online. We agreed on a group and headed to somewhere called The Acoustic Frog Cafe or something like that. There was a $10 cover and it was packed and standing room only. We opted to pass. At this point, one gal (Cindy) decided that her feet had enough and she was heading home. We were now down to 6.


I was driving a minivan and the back of my car has two captain seats. Apparently, one of the seats wasn't locked in place and everytime I took a turn, the person would go flying from one side to the other. The gals in back were having so much fun, that I wish I had just pulled over and asked to switch. I'm also pretty sure that the cars behind me were questioning my driving skills as I was screeching the corners and swerving.

We decided to just head to Bellingham Bar & Grill. They have really good drinks, it's not too loud and we could sit and talk which is one thing we all agree one and can never have enough of (drinking and talking). So....the six of us headed down for more visiting time. It was a lot of fun and silliness.

We wrapped up there around 11:30 and four more gals decided it was time to head home.

As for me...I knew the kids were asleep and Brian was asleep and this was a night I could be out later and no one would care. I committed to being the one to get up with the kids in the morning and that was okay.

So, Nicole and I headed out for dancing.

We parked outside of Rumors (our local gay bar - but even if you're not gay you can go there and dance and it's no big deal place). They were having a "foam party" - which I must admit I had never gone to, looked a little fun and a little scary. We skipped this (for now) and headed down the street.

We went to The Royal. I like the music and I like dancing there. Nicole grew up in this town and she runs into people she knows everywhere we go and of course ran into old friends there that showed off baby pics amidst the loud, pumping music and girls wearing thing that wouldn't of even worn in my more confident, skinnier days. It's a great place to people watch and I'm always amazed at the self-confidence or liquid courage of some of the people out there dancing.

By the time we left there it was about 12:45. We headed back to the car and had to pass by Rumors again. I glanced, no better stared at the people exiting. Some were covered head to toe in soapy foam. I thought it looked crazy, a little fun and I was a lot intrigued. Nicole saw an old friend and we took a picture with him outside of the club and then contemplated about going in or not going in and how late it was and how maybe we should head home but I kinda wanted to go in only for a second but maybe we shouldn't because we're not dressed appropriately for it, but maybe just a little. Yeah...this went on a while. Eventually...I paid the $10 cover for each of us and the guy at the front let us through (after commenting that it was the longest decision process he's ever seen). He wasn't with me at dinner...I guarantee that was a longer decision process. I take a while to commit to things, what can I say?

So....we entered in to a scene out of I don't know where. I'm pretty sure I looked like a deer caught in the headlights and I couldn't help it. There were people in bikinis, people in their bra and jeans, guys with no shirt on or people fully clothed. There were guys making out with other guys or girls making out with other girls or just everyone else dancing in gigantic mounds of foam and having a good time. I think I stuck to the wall and couldn't move for a good 5 minutes. Nicole had a few people ask her if I was okay. She convinced them I was. Then....I started making my way out into the craziness while mumbling....I'll be fine, I'm okay, this is no big deal, it's only soap, I'm okay, I'll be fine....I think I looked like a crazy person.

Then, some soapy person would bump into me and I would freeze and Nicole would have to hold my hand or touch my shoulder to make me okay.

I think I felt like people could be trapped under the huge amounts of soapy foam. What if someone was dead under there and you didn't know? What if someone drowned in the foam and no one has any idea and we're all just dancing away out here? What if the foam keeps rising and rising and rising and then it gets to me and I can't breathe and I suffocate in the foam, admidst half-naked people at a gay bar in Bellingham? That is not how I want to go. What if I get trampled under the foam and I can't get up? I was having serious panic issues. Nicole said she would look out for me and it would be okay.

She even asked if I wanted to leave, but I didn't. It was out of my comfort zone and I was okay with it. I wanted to be carefree and bouncing around in foam. Everyone looked like they were having so much fun. I wanted to get the stick out of my butt, relax and enjoy myself.

I would not drown in foam. There are bouncers watching everywhere and it would be fine.

The foam was soft and slippery on my legs and it felt nice once I got over the idea that I was taking a gigantic foamy bath with 200 people. I eventually relaxed and enjoyed it. It took a while for me to be okay, but I was. I had fun. I got foamy and I danced and I would totally do it again. They're probably having another one in July and I'm going to try to convince others from our group to go.....