Day 2

We woke up at the early time of 1pm...Yes we are really off schedule. We rode out to Golf Gardens (the compound we are living) to see our new villa. I really really love it. I am so excitted to live there. The compound is really nice and the villa is perfect. Lance did a great job picking it out. There is a small grocery store on the compound for quick buys and two larger ones close by. I was excitted to see all of the new developement around. We ate dinner at the Al Raha mall near by and bought a few more groceries. We also checked out some appliance stores and bought myself a new camera since mine broke just before leaving to get here. It was a really great day. Camille was up until 4 am last night. We have to get on schedule around here. I tried to hook up my magic jack phone today to my computer, but the UAE is blocking the website. I am so frustrated with that. Mision today- try to get on UAE time. :)

Day 1

Yesterday we all slept until around 1 pm, except Camille I think she slept until 2/3. We went by Lance's office and wow it is so impressive, all of you would be proud. We adventured for our first grocery store excursion. It was very very crowded. The weekend is on Friday and Saturday here, so Thursday night starts the weekend. Needless to say everyone was at the grocery store. We got the essentials: peanut butter, papertowel, bread, etc. Oh and I got the must haves: hairdryer and curling iron. The best part was when we got back to our hotel, they unloaded our groceries and brought them to our apartment for us. As well as park our car. NICE! Just after getting home the dogs arrived and they were just as excitted to see us as we were to see them. We all went to sleep around midnight last night and Camille woke up at 4 am just like the night before. After being up an hour or so she went back to sleep. We all slept until around 1pm today. At least we are sleeping, just have to try to get on Abu Dhabi time now.

Our Apartment

I love our apartment in Abu Dhabi. We are staying here for 2 weeks. We have 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and 1 1/2 bath. The best part is our views of the water from both bedrooms and the living room.

The trip over

We started our journey by waking up at 5am Tuesday. The driver showed up with a small SUV that would not hold all of us and our luggage so he had to go back and get a large van with a trailer. We dropped the dogs off at the pet transport people and checked in to the airport. Ofcourse, Camille had a poopy diaper just as we were going through security. Stinky!! The first flight we took was to chicago and went well. Camille slept the way and Evelyn colored. Then we had a 5 hour layover in Chicago. Thank goodness for the playground at the Chicago Airport. The girls played for 1 1/2 hours, then we went to check in, ate supper and boarded our 14 hour flight on Etihad airlines to Abu Dhabi. The airplane was really really nice. We rode economy but it had all the comforts of buisness class on United, just not as much room. Evelyn, ofcourse, spoke with everyone along the way. Telling them were we were from etc. She befriended a gentlemen behind us on the flight, he was from Saudi Arabia. He was very nice and he even helped me carry Camille's car seat off the plane. Camille slept about 10-11 hours of the 14 hours on the plane ride. She did very well. Evelyn slept less, but watched movies the rest of the time. I could not have asked for a better transit experience.

One More Day

Well we can not believe that we actually leave tomorrow. Time has flown and it crept up on us. We are excitted, sad, and nervous all at the same time. To finally reach this point feels good, because we have been preparing for this for that past 5 months. Tomorrow morning at 7:30 am we are going to head out of Beaumont to Houston Intercontinental Airport. We as in Lance, Nancy, Evelyn, Camille, Ruffles, Fraizer, and ALL of our luggage. Our first stop will be to drop the dogs off with the pet travel people and then we will head to check in at the airport. Our flight leaves at 12:24 pm to Chicago arriving at 2:57pm. We have a long layover in chicago then we board Ethiad flight at 8:30 pm and arrive in Abu Dhabi at 7:25pm their time (10:25 am Texas time).

Last Week

Needless to say after Lance pulled a muscle in his back last week, it complicated things. Last week was crazy buisy. We thought we were going to close on Tuesday, but the buyers were waiting on underwriters and it was delayed until Friday. I just thank God that we closed before we left. We also finalized plans for our dogs to be trasported and our van to be shipped. We finally got our papers from the UAE Embassy in Washington on Friday. That is only a few things that went on last week. We were so buisy I can't even comprehend all that went on. I just think all of our family that helped us out because we could not have done it without you. Especially my dad who stepped in for Lance since he was down with his back.

Lance's Back

I am sure most of you know that Lance pulled a muscle in his back last Sunday. He is doing much better now. He can walk and function normally. He is still hurting, but hopefully it will continue to get better day by day.

NO TV

We had a wonderful weekend hanging out with the family. Were are back at our empty house now and Lance is on his way to Washington DC to get paperwork sorted out. We have everything we need to survive except a TV. Hummmm! I don't know how we are going to manage, but it will definately be interesting. I now realize how often I turn on the TV just for background noise. Thank goodness more family are joining later this week and we can plan some serious games for entertainment.

Paperwork and Packing

Yesterday, I got a huge blow...just when I thought I was just about through with paperwork, The UAE Embassy called to let me know I missed a step. UGGGGG! Everything needed to go to the US Department of State before the embassy. Well the Dept. of State has a 3-4 week turnaround on paperwork if mailed. Needless to say, Lance is going to make a trip to DC next week to get some papers stamped.

The packers started packing today and got the majority of it packed. Suprisingly Evelyn is handling everything really well. I thought she may friek out when she saw her things put in boxes, but she wanted to help. I guess I prepped her enough, so she understood.