In case you were wondering...

In case you were wondering what the inside of a palm tree looks like... well, here you go!

So many fibers!  You'd think the trees would be quite sturdy, but look how this one snapped in the trunk:

There were so many others that snapped on the golf course as well:

So needless to say, the smaller trees stood no chance against the strong winds last week:

In any case, things are back to normal on our balcony.  The boys were very helpful rolling out the artificial turf:

The weather has been gorgeous lately after the storm. Still can't believe how bad it was. I wonder what that means for our summer.  Only time will tell!

"I Lava You"

This was such a cute little note that Graham stuck on the door the other night.  It's in reference to a Disney Short about a volcano looking for love and eventually finding it.  I always cry at the end of the video because it's such a happy ending!

It's so cute that Graham is able to read and write a little more now.  Hopefully there will be many more notes on the door. Perhaps he can get some Post-it notes from Grandma ;-)

Busy Charlie

We recently put up an Art Wall, where the boys can hang their art.  Well, Charlie has been very busy filling it up!

It seems that all of a sudden, he really enjoys drawing!

Here's his handy paint work:

It's a good thing we have all sort of mediums for him to be creative with:

If you're curious what mask he has one, it's... Bumble Bee!  Yes, another toy from a Happy Meal:

Last but not least, there are always Legos.  He built a vehicle for each of us. Too cute!

Charlie has had so much time recently because he's been sick and staying home.  He's been having a runny nose and nagging cough for a couple of weeks now.  Poor fella, but at least he is sleeping better at nights now.  And now, I get to deal with a cough too! BLAH!

Crazy weather!!!

Wow... I never thought we could experience such weather here in Abu Dhabi!  It rained the last couple of days, which is a lot for a place that doesn't rain very much.  And what are the odds of a golf game being canceled because of it?  Well... at least one now!

This was the message on our golf cart when we were on the 16th fairway. We were so close to getting done!

By the time we got back to the clubhouse, it really started to pour!

The golf course was entirely saturated after a few minutes!  I never thought it could rain this hard here:

I left the golf club a couple of hours later and the road leading out was completely flooded:

Luckily I was able to pick the boys up from school with little trouble.  Just a couple of detours since I wasn't sure how deep some of these flooded areas were.  I am always so nervous about getting the car stuck in water. I wonder if this has anything to do with the time when I did get my mom's car stuck in flood waters when I was 17.  Oops!

So all this happened on a Tuesday.  The next day, Graham woke me up and somehow I couldn't see the time on my alarm clock.  Gosh, I didn't think I was that blind without my contact lens!  Well, the power had actually cut off during the night. As usual, the boys were up early - 6:15am, enough time to get them to school. But later in the morning, a couple of notes had come in about school being canceled.  I guess the Education Ministry is expecting some weather again for Abu Dhabi.  And they did not disappoint!

And I was suppose to meet up with some friends for lunch in the city at 12pm.  I'm so glad we decided to cancel it!

The storm blew in just around noon. WOW!!!  As you can tell in the video, I was not expecting the wind and rain to pick up so quickly!  I was on the balcony but had to step back in as I was being pelted by rain.  Poor Charlie was so afraid, especially when I was trying to save our patio cushions from flying off the balcony!

I still can't believe how hard it rained and how strong the wind was.  The wind was swirling too. I thought that only happened in Oklahoma!

As for the aftermath, we really should be thankful that none of our glass windows or glass doors blew in (note to self: Don't stand in front of one during the next storm!) or having a roof collapse above us. It was quite something looking at photos and videos of damages from the storm in the city and the other Emirates/States.

As for us, there were a couple of really strange things actually. First... this little fishy. I found it on our balcony on the 6th floor! 

And also this paint bucket on our pergola.  Did I mention that we are on the 6th floor??!

Just some minor clean up - rolling up our artificial turf and drying up the tiles underneath.

I'm so glad this type of weather doesn't happen very often around here. Calluses were forming on my hands having to use that squeegee broom toady. And that's on top of my golf calluses!

Here's the big balcony that we never use. It's such a shame because it is so nice and big.  But everything just gets so hot and sandy so quickly!  It's looking quite clean here as I had just cleaned it. Anyhow, hope to turf dries out by tomorrow. It was a perfect sunny day today.  Oh, school was canceled again today!

I suppose eventually we'll get that bucket down from the pergola! Well, definitely a day to remember. And oh, where was Bobby during the 2-days worth of rain?  In Rome on a business trip!  Somehow, he keeps missing out on these eventful days.  Nonetheless, another one to put in our adventure/memory book!

Recent happenings

It's been almost a couple of weeks since the last update. Hmm... let me see what's new!

Instead of the usual Captain America, Charlie is now into... Batman!

And I had a chance to take a photo with a camel the other day.  It was parked at the hotel next to the golf club. So I took to opportunity to pose with it, with my golf bag of course.  Only in Abu Dhabi! :-)

There was a little incident when the boys were showering together the other day.  Who knew the opening of a plastic shampoo bottle could hurt!  Thankfully it wasn't another inch lower!

Graham seemed pretty content with the big bandage!

Graham had to practice a little with his video presentation on "Friction" for school.  Here it is!

And of course, anything Graham does for school, Charlie has to do it too! The early practice will definitely prep Charlie for sure when he starts big school in Sept:

And last but not least, a new color belt for Graham - yellow to orange.  Hiiiiya!