Terry Fox Day Run

Better late than never!

Earlier this year in January, TAISM had it’s annual Terry Fox run.  Our wonderful colleague and friend, Laura (who saw Terry Run through her town when she was very young), organizes the event yearly to raise funds for cancer research.  The funds are used here in Oman at Sultan Qaboos University Hospital where they seek to better research leukemia, which occurs here in Oman at a higher rate than other places in the world.  Events include purchasing a run spirit item (this year was bandanas, last year was bracelets), a “Shave for the Cure” fundraiser in the HS, and then the run itself.  

Terry Fox runs are held around the world each year, and to date, since the beginning of world ride runs in his name, $600 million dollars have been raised.   

You can learn more about Terry Fox and the organization here:   http://www.terryfox.org/

There is also a great video about Terry Fox here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjgTlCTluPA

An amazing blessing for our school this year was that Judith Fox, Terry’s sister and International Director for the Terry Fox Foundation, came to visit our school personally and to be a part of the event.  We were touched by listening to her present about her brother, the run, and the impact the foundation has.  She ran with our students and interacted with those that she could. 

A real special treat was that she joined the EC run, which is short and small, so she could interact with many of the students involved.  Since I was there early to help out and take photos, I spoke for awhile to Judith and she is such a wonderful, inspirational, and caring person.  Aberly got special help from Judith putting on her Terry Fox tattoo, and got to stand with her for the group photograph.  Aberly will not understand the unique experience she got to have for many years, but it truly touched my heart that day.

 

 

Isla is probably about the age Laura (her mom) was when she saw Terry Run through her town. 

 

All ready to run! 

 

Of course, Aberly was thrilled to get to hang out with her favorite big kid friend, Cassie Irish.  A group of MS students helped run with the kids that morning.

 

They are off!

 

 

Group photo with the school Terry Fox banner

 

Popsicle treats for everyone post-run

Happy Valentine's Day from Oman

 

A very Happy Valentine's Day from these two sweeties!  It may have taken 6 attempts to get this shot, but I did.  Both the girls were in great moods on Valentine's Day morning and Aberly was especially excited to get dressed in pink and red to celebrate the day.  

To start the day, I made us red pancakes. They were actually supposed to be pink, but I was not very careful when I poured the dye into the batter and the color matched Aberly's shirt!  Of course she loved it and they tasted wonderful.  We added pomegranate seeds on the side and used strawberry syrup as topping.  I can't say this is the most attractive picture of the cook.... I spent so much time getting the girls ready and in their Valentine's wear that I didn't take any time for myself by the time I was getting pestered for breakfast by rumbly tummies.  The life of a mom.

 

Good pancakes mommy! 

The next stop on our Valentine's Day morning was their gifts.  Since we are trying not to overload our children with sugar, I decided to forgo the classic chocolate filled heart box and got them each a few fun things.  Of course, wouldn't you know it, Aberly decided to test our "love" that morning and melted in to tears when she was told her bag was the one on the right.  "But I want the BIG bag!".  I caught this picture right as her face began to fall.  No matter our attempts to ease the situation, she melted down more and more until she was sent to the living room to cry "until she was ready and not fussy anymore".  We listened to about 5 minutes of bawling as she huddled in a ball on the couch. 

 

After Aberly finally calmed down and got a little "talking to", the girls opened said gifts.

 Aberly was a good helper and showed Emalyn her new sprinkler.

 

She then opened her own gift and was thrilled with a new "fancy" pair of pink sandals and some rockin' jewelry.

After a failed attempt to go ice skating for our fun family Valentine's adventure (they just decided to be not open that day EVEN THOUGH their hours were posted as open online and on the door), we took the girls to a nearby park for some fun in the sun.

Aberly climbed all over the structures while Emalyn played in the grass with us.  She loves giving us this funny face all the time.  Colin did it first to get her going.  Haha!

And what our us parents, you ask?  Don't worry, we did get away that evening for a lovely date at Duke's English bar overlooking the beach.  We had a nice pub-style dinner with drinks, and cherished having kid-free time to talk and stare lovingly into each others' eyes.  

We hope you had a wonderful and love-filled Valentine's Day too!

Updates!

I meant to post this a few days ago, but after the bus tragedy (see earlier post if you missed that one), these updates got sidelined for a few days.

1. 

After one year, I finally took advantage of my father-in-law’s Christmas gift to me (plus some extra money from my honey this Christmas) and enjoyed a spa afternoon at the Chedi.  Last year, being pregnant, they were too nervous to do some of the treatments I wanted, like the Reflexology foot massage (honestly, that is what a pregnant woman wants most!), so I decided to wait till after she was born.  Well, the first two months with a all-the-time nursing baby wouldn’t work, and then we were gone all summer, and then well, life got busy. 

Christmas break ended up being the perfect time to slip away and get pampered, and boy, I did!  The spa is super posh and I was taken to a big room with a tub large tub on one side, a glass shower in the middle, and the beds on the other side (clearly a room for a double's massage if desired).  I was given a massage by TWO people at one time; one does your upper half and the other does your lower.  They mirror each others movements so you get this fluid massage all over your body.  I was like a double rainbow massage.  Then, one did my facial while the other did my foot massage.  Last, one of them did my body scrub while the other cleaned up and prepared my bath.  That ended up being the only odd part of my experience.  While I’ve learned that they are more lenient here on nudity at spas  (odd, right, since this is a more strict country on morality) and being in the room when you disrobe (they just look away), I was surprised by the last part of my time.  After the scrub was done, the lady told me I could get up and shower, but she clearly wasn't leaving.  Say what?

So, I quickly realized that it meant that I would have to put on my robe, go into the all glass totally see through shower, un-robe, rinse off, and then go get in the bath, with her in the room cleaning up the bed.  Again, I know she wasn’t watching me (well, I hope not!), but it was awkward to say the least.  And then when I was in the bath, hunched over to cover my front, she wanders over to bring me tea and fruit, pours some fragrance in the water, and tells me I have a ½ hour to bathe.   All I am thinking is “please leave me!”. 

Afterwards, I enjoyed a glass of wine by the pool in the sun before heading home.  It was lovely.  Thank you Skip and Colin!

2.  Emalyn is a rapidly changing and growing girl.  With Aberly, I remember always watching and waiting for the changes, wondering when she would reach the next steps.  With Emalyn, I’ve been there and done that (and distracted with work and a 4 year old), so I’m always surprised when she is hitting milestones.  She is standing, cruising, grabbing, feeding herself, exploring, clapping, and on and on.  I know we’ll have a walker soon.   She is outgrowing clothes and is already in mostly 12 month things.  She loves playing and going outside.  She LOVES being around other kids and watching them, especially her big sister.   We cherish that she is a cuddly baby (something Aberly wasn’t until about age 2) and snuggles into us when tired.   Her only “downside” is that we are still battling the nights with her.  While we have had some good ones (ie. one feeding) we backslide and have 2-3 (like last night!).  Emerging teeth aren’t helping that!  She has her two bottom ones through, one top has just come through, and the other top is on its way.  All and all, she is a super happy, fun, engaged, and loving baby and keeps us smiling.

 

Oh yeah, look at me stand!

Easily fitting into the 12-month cool subway line onsie Uncle Andrew bought me!

 

Hanging out with buddy Benjamin (1 year) 

 

Adorable....

 

3.  Colin and I got out last weekend together to see the Vienna Ballet Company and Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra perform at the Royal Muscat Opera House.  The ballet was beautiful and the orchestra sounded amazing.   It was also fun to dress us up for the formal event and be inside the Opera House.  It’s like, overwhelmingly beautiful!  I sometimes have to stop and think how blessed I am to be living somewhere that offers me such experiences.  While I could go to these things in the US, they would be further away or more expensive.  Here, we can pay about $50 for our two tickets and drive 20 minutes across town.  We have a live-in nanny who cares for our children so we can go.  I always find myself cherishing these experiences, knowing they will be more far and few between when we come home some day.

4.  Aberly has entered the “I know everything and will challenge you” phase of life.  She can also be quite bratty and dramatic, breaking down over EVERYTHING.  While sometimes it makes me laugh to see how pathetic she’s being, it can also be maddening (i.e. when we are trying to get ready in the morning and she falls to pieces that I put on a shirt that she didn’t want, EVEN THOUGH she told me to pick her clothes).  Despite the challenges, she is also a joy.  We love seeing her continue to grow and learn in school.  She comes home singing songs, saying rhymes, and playing games.  She has learned all her letter sounds and is beginning to read; recognizing simple words and names.  She even read to the class last week (a simple book she knew by heart).  Next week, she begins swimming lessons again and will be in Level 3, after completing Level 2 in one session.  Huge improvements since last year, which is exciting to see.  At school this week, they had "EC Sports Day" which was pretty much the three classes of pre-schoolers going from station to station, doing things like parachute, throwing, kicking, etc....  It was fun to watch and Aberly had a lot of fun.

 

All ready for sports day! 

  

Being in school means lots of birthday party invitations!  Aberly was thrilled with her face painting from one party.

 

Best pals (Aberly and Isla)

 

5.  GeeGee (Nancy) came to visit this weekend while attending the a NESA conference held at our school.  As she joked, everyone figured she came to it just to visit us and the girls, but it was a conference that she really did want to attend and many others from her school were there too.  Aberly was super excited to see her and started counting down the days two weeks ago.  We were a little unsure of how Emalyn would react as she can be nervous around "strangers" (not that GeeGee is a stranger, but it's been a few months and that is a long time in baby world), but she was unphased and immediately warmed up to GeeGee.  She laughed and smiled at GeeGee antics and attention!

 

Higher, GeeGee!

 

Ooh, what did you bring me? 

6.  This is one of my new favorite desserts to pick up at the grocery store bakery.  The name is abbreviated and sadly so (should be barfi, why removing the "i" was necessary I don't know).  Totally misleading, cause it's amazing!  Colin and Connor would be happy to agree with the name, but don't believe them.  I have considered telling the bakery what the tag means to English speaking folk, but then the humor would be lost.  I'll let someone else do it.

7.  They said we couldn't.  They said it was too hot here.  But we have succeeded.  Swiss Chard and Kale grows happily in our pots on the upper patio!  The success is due to the cooler nights (60's and morning sun only).  We have lettuce and nasturtiums happily growing as well.

 A thing of beauty! 

The master gardener... :-)  Haha, Aberly snapped this shot of me after Sports Day and it came out pretty well!