Hoorah for new appliances!

The dishwasher arrived last week although we didn't get to run it yet as we didn't have any dishes yet. Ha ha! And we couldn't open up the dishwasher door all the way because of the handle on the cabinet door. So maintenance switched the door handle from vertical to horizontal.  Fixed! Hmm... guess no excuses now for not doing dishes!

Our new fridge finally arrived today. Love it! It's super HUGE! Would you think any different for an American expat? ;-)

Charlie is having a much tougher time opening this one.  The one in the hotel apartment looks like a built-in so the fridge door is easy to open like a closet door. And yes, that's a little opening on the right that you can open to get to something inside the fridge, so there is minimal energy wasted by just opening that little door!

Oh, he's trying so hard!!!  Too funny!

And here's the bulky but almost necessary microwave these days.  There's a setting where you can set a cup of water in it and the function will produce steam from the cup to clean the inside of the microwave. How clever!

And our new fancy washer and dryer. I took so much time on this one - convinced that I was going to get a top-loader. At least I get a matching set but I still don't understand why is it that the dryer is so much more expensive than the washer! I should have asked the guy installing the washer/dryer before he walked out the door, but I'm not sure if there's suppose to be so much slack on that outlet hose from the washer.  I guess as long as it doesn't leak, I'll be alright. I'm going to need to put some sort of rolling shelf in front of it so the boys are not tempted to tug on it!

So the only thing left is the stove.  We did purchase a nice gas stove but looks like the company apartment is only allowing electric-stove cooking. I'm so bummed! Oh well, maybe it will be a good excuse to eat out a few more times during the week once we do get back into the routine of cooking during the week again :-)

And so much for having the drapes ready in 2-3 days for installment.  I guess the guy didn't realize how much more window space and sliding doors we needed to cover up so it will take more than a week to get all of the material sewn up.  I'm so excited about it. I hope it turns out well!  For the price, I sure hope so!  Anyhow, I was so busy chatting with the drapery guy that I didn't even realize that Charlie was busy taking pictures.

He took about 20 photos.  Thank goodness for digital cameras! Speaking of taking pictures, we need to work on Graham looking at the camera.  I think little girls like doing that more than little boys.  Here is Graham after one of our many trips to IKEA. We left him at the playarea for an hour and this is what happens.  He loved it!

And this was when Bobby got Graham a new Manchester City football club jersey. I'm so jealous that I didn't get one! Anyhow, he's good at saying "cheese" but just won't look into the camera!

Things are moving along here in Abu Dhabi.  Just waiting for the date when we can finally move into our apartment!

Our own cars

Finally, after a month - we are finally car owners.  Well, Bobby is since both cars are under his name.  He is the one with the UAE visa AND driver's license, where as I have been carrying my passport around and my Oklahoma driver's license around.  Hopefully I don't get stopped by a cop and have to explain to him where Oklahoma is!
So funny enough both our cars are silver in color and both are 2012 models.  They are very different though.  I ended up sticking to a minivan.  I guess I really don't mind that "soccer mom" thing :-)

Plus, I think I mentioned about that sliding door with the minivan.  Just so much easier with the kids when these parking spots are a little bit narrower. I've actually been having a tough time parking this minivan.  Thank goodness for these all-around sensors that beep when I get to close to something.  That would have come in handy in the VW minivan when I bumped it into our neighbor's SUV back in Tulsa!

And here is Bobby's car.  It's a VW Jetta. I think he was hoping to get a Mercedes or at least something a bit fancier since his title is now a little higher up in rank.  But the combination of the price and low mileage on this car was hard to beat.  Plus, we bought both cars from the same guy so he was able to give us a really good price/discount.  Both cars cost us less than one brand new 2014 mid-range Honda Odyssey!

After getting Bobby's car in Dubai earlier this week, we decided to drive to Dubai Mall.  There it is again, the tallest building in the WORLD - the Burj Khalifa:

And after maneuvering around the massive parking lot in Dubai Mall, we finally found Bobby in the mall as the boys and I were split up from him while driving separate cars.  And so Bobby says "I'm in front by the dinosaur".  And there it is - right in the middle of this atrium, a Amphicoelias Brontodiplodocus (try saying that 3 times fast! ;-)

I guess I should have taken a better picture but anyhow, "Dubai Dino" as it is dubbed was discovered in 2008 in Wyoming, USA!  And the skeleton is 80 ft long and 25ft high.  Pretty impressive! Crazy enough, I think the next thing we saw was even more impressive - this MASSIVE fish tank! I think Dubai Mall even out did Disney World when it came to this fish tank!

Charlie was super happy with this fish tank.  He loved seeing the fishies. And I guess the sharks are small by his standards because a big one swam by and he said "baby shark!".

And so this part of it is public viewing.  You can pay to see the aquarium itself.  Now that I'm browsing through the website (www.thedubaiaquarium.com), there is also the Underwater Zoo. Oh, here we go... "The 10-million litre tank located on the ground level of the mall is the largest suspended aquarium in the world." See! They did out do Disney! And they are Dive packages too where you can learn to dive, there's a cage snorkeling package, and you can also be a "shark walker".  What does that even mean??!  Anyhow, needless to say, there will probably be numerous visits to this mall in the near future. Thankfully Dubai is only about a 1 1/2-hour drive away.

New apartment update

So we have a few new things at our apartment.  Well, Graham finally picked out his own rug.  I think he did a pretty good job!  And come to find out, it's actually silk which is why it's so nice and fluffy.  Perfect for some wrestling!

And here is our dining set. Nice and big! We have 6 chairs and 2 junior chairs, for the boys of course. We will probably buy 2 more chairs for each end, but no hurry yet as we are obviously not expecting any visitors yet.

 And here is our first plant - a bonsai.  We'll see how long this one will last!

We are also trying to figure which drapes to put up for all the sliding doors and windows. Phew! So much to choose from!

I think we have it narrowed down so it will be just a quick call and the guy will come out to the apartment to take measurements.  He said after that it will only take 2-3 days to have everything ready for installing. Amazing how quick that is! Guess I'll believe it once it's all done ;-)

Happy 2nd Birthday to Charlie!

Can't believe our little Charlie is now 2 years old.  Funny enough, we ended up at Applebee's for his birthday.  I asked the waiter if we could just have one scoop of ice-cream with a candle on top and we ended up with this hot plate - with an apple muffin and sizzling caramel and then, the ice-cream scoop and candle!

And then of course, came the singing.  I think Charlie was a little shocked, surprised, confused, and maybe just a tad excited at the end :-)

By the way, he loves using the word "baby" for something small.  And that even includes things like the opposite of loud, which would be "baby loud" for him. Too funny!
Family picture!

And then of course, it's the train ride at the mall. The boys love this!

Choo-choo...!!!

And then we let the boys play the the indoor fun fair for a little bit.  Graham loves to fish! Plus, I think it was one of the games that guaranteed a prize :-)

And then, it was time for the carousal.  Charlie is so serious!

And then it was time to go.  The boys love the water feature too that's by the front of the mall:

We forgot to pick up a present for Charlie but I think the boys have enough toys as is for now. Plus, Charlie really loves the leap-pad.  He's getting pretty good with some of the games, especially this Team Umizoomi one!

There are moments for sure, but thankfully both boys have been pretty good at sharing.  The 10-minute rule (give or take :-) has been working quite well... so far!  I think Charlie is already at the terrible 2s stage when he was like 1 1/2 years old.  So who knows how he's going to turn out in his 2s!  Hmm... I'm almost scared to think what will come in the 3s then. YIKES! Maybe I shouldn't think so far ahead yet.  Just going to enjoy his "cuteness" for now :-)

Yay! Some new furniture!

We purchased a whole bunch of furniture from IKEA and after spending over a certain amount, the company delivers everything for free and also has a couple of guys in their team to assemble everything. There were about 3 cart loads of boxes and the 2 guys spent over 5 hours at our new apartment!  I sure hope they recycle.  That's our new couch by the way, in the background.  And oh, come to find out - our new rug in the living room sheds! NOOOooooo...!!!

More boxes! This was just from Graham's room.

Guess he had a lot going on in his room, but I'm so glad it turned out great!

I'm glad I did my homework on the width of the furniture. Everything seems to fit really well, although perhaps a little bit too much white. So glad the bed worked out.  The guy had the footboard on the wrong side, so he had to start all over! I love Graham's bed. There's a little compartment by the side of his headboard where it pulls out, so perhaps he can at least hide a few things from Charlie. And it has a under-bed for future sleepovers!

Graham has been so fussy about picking a rug. He wants a "fluffy" one, whatever that might mean to a 4 year old!  Hopefully the room won't look so stark once we have a little "color splash!".

And here's Charlie room.  I love the rug in his room! So far, nothing too much in his room but good enough for now. The chaise lounge doubles as the "changing table" - hopefully for not too much longer! And the chaise is also the same set as our sofa in the living room (just in case we change our mind on where to put it!)

His crib was suppose to come with two drawers at the bottom.  The guys said that it's suppose to be a separate purchase but I think they might be wrong. Anyhow, the inquiry is already on it's way to customer service :-)

We did purchase a dining room table too with chairs and of course 2 junior chairs for the boys.  I forgot to take a picture of it, so that will be in my next post. And hopefully we'll have a few more other things to show as well.  Seems like there's still so much to do, but now I'm only down to 3 boxes out of 10 to unpack! And oh, our first appliance!

There's so many new buttons on this dishwasher, I may actually have to read the manual!  And oh, wait... it doesn't open all the way.  Oops!

Thankfully this was already fixed today :-)
But bad news... no gas cooking at all allowed in this apartment. I'm so SAD! :-(  We've actually already purchase our gas stove and it is to be delivered next week.  Looks like we'll need to change up that order. Urgh!

Quick trip ino Oman

Unfortunately, the kids and I did not get our UAE visas before the end of our tourist visa.  So, that meant having to leave the country so we can come back in and in essence, renew our tourist visa for another 30 days.  I suppose it was a good excuse for us to do something different.  Bobby did get two days off from work because of the Eid holiday. 

So off we went!... to Muscat, Oman.  It was about a 6 hour trip and that included the trips for Bobby into the immigration and custom offices along the border.  On our way out, there were just sand dunes everywhere. Makes you wonder how those few trees survive in that sand!

Almost across the border!

And the minute we cross into Oman, the terrain changed from sandy to rocky and mountainous. Amazing!

Pretty cool gate:

And amazing sights... Ha!

Yes, that's a sign to watch out for goats:

Goats! Goats!  I see goats!

And I thought these were interesting looking bus stops:

And we came across a few areas of construction.  They have these "fake construction men" here in Abu Dhabi too. Quite funny :-)

The trip of course almost always goes along with someone crying in the backseat. Hmmm.... I wonder who that could be.  "Play leap-pad! Play leap-pad! Play leap.." and then, he falls asleep :-)

Here's the view from our balcony when we arrived at the hotel.  Pretty nice!

The boys enjoyed the beach and the pool.  Look at this leisure pool!

It was a good little short trip.  I'm glad Bobby didn't get a cramp in his foot because there was no cruise control in our rental car! Although, now that we've seen all these sights once on the way to Muscat, maybe next time it might be easier to just fly :-)

Random pics

Just a handful of photos that we've taken these past week or two.  Here's one of Bobby and the boys by the dock at a golf course that we were visiting.  Graham and Charlie loved the spaghetti there :-)

Here we are car shopping in Dubai.  Bobby noticed this one and said it looked exactly like the one his grandfather used to drive. What a small world!

And we did find a golf club to play at.  The boys were obviously excited about it too:

Still need to work on that split grip lefty swing!

And here's the club house by day. By the way, I just learned a new word yesterday - Falconry: the sport of hunting with falcons.  Learn something new every day!

And here are the boys... just lounging and watching cartoons in Arabic.  They don't seem to mind it at all!

And this was Charlie one morning when I was getting him out of his crib.  He had tucked Teddy Bunny in for his "night night".  Too cute!

We're slowly but surely also building up on memories here!