And a month later...

Today marks our 1 one month anniversary of being in Abu Dhabi.  I'm rather surprised at how little I have blogged.  I honestly thought I'd blog some more.  But I didn't know where to begin to describe the rollercoaster that we have been on.

After moving into an efficiency apartment shortly after we got here, we started our villa hunt.  We were on our own for the most part which made the whole experience challenging.  But we now have a villa and it's being painted and cleaned up as I type.  I am counting the minutes until we can get in there because it feels like that our life can really get started once we are our own house.  But then there is going to be this massive craziness from the word go to go and get appliances and furniture to make the villa home.

This evening we met up with a man to buy his car that we found on the internet classifieds here.  We should be able to take possession of it by the end of next week.  It's a 2007 Volvo XC90.  It's the car I've wanted for several years.

We are doing very well, otherwise.  We are very happy with the church and we have made some instant friends here.  The Emirati people are very welcoming to people of other nationalities and faiths here.   But while they are very welcoming, we are still noticeably separate.  Our activities rarely blend... like there's no Emirati boys on the Rugby team.

I'm afraid that some of our struggles with our villa hunting and our car hunting have colored some of my perceptions and I hesitate to publish some of my feelings as I do not want to rush to those judgements.  I'll give it more time and more careful consideration.

But we are in a comfortable hotel that has a small kitchen and we have a good rental car.  I know that we are well taken care of despite our frustrations.

I will write more as we progress into our new home.

With love, Joan

It was only a little fire

Jud read my blog last night and I asked him his opinion on if I had missed something.  He said "Bread Heaven".

"Bread Heaven" is the display of international breads during the breakfast buffet hours.  Our daughter Ellie loves all things bread.  When she saw that display of breads during our first breakfast she just stood there with her jaw on the floor.  She was in awe.

So, this morning, I decided to take a picture of the bread display for this post.  Just as I was pulling out the camera, Ellie had put a croissant into the toaster.  Apparently, it was the wrong part of the toaster because when she frantically called her dad over to the toaster oven, flames shot out!  The waitress and the omelette chef rushed over to assist them.  The croissant that she was just trying to warm up came out in ashes.

It was quite smokey in the restaurant.  But really it was just a little fire because it did not set off the fire suppression system overhead.  Thank God!

~~Joan

First Impressions

It's hard to believe that we have only been here a day and a half and I already feel I am behind on my blog. Lots of things are happening all at once. I'll try and give you the good stuff.

We landed in Dubai after our 15 hour flight and then had to drive an hour to Abu Dhabi. It took 3 Volvo sedans to move all of us and our luggage from one city to the next. It was quite a circus and I'll spare you the details. We arrived in Abu Dhabi around 2 or 3 in the afternoon on Thursday, August 25. My concept of time was totally off so I can't remember exactly what time it was.

This suite is well suited for our family for a short stay. Jud and I have a large room all to ourself with our own full bath. The girls are in a room with two double beds and they also have a full bath. Poor Jethro's stuck out on the rollaway in the living room but I think he likes it that way so he can do what he wants to do after we are all in bed. We're on the 25^th floor and have a fantastic view of the Corniche (reminds me of the Seawall in Galveston, only nicer). My only complaint is that the air is rather stale.

Tomorrow afternoon, we will move into some better, long term accommodations that will be more comfortable for us as we wait to find a villa. It's more like an efficiency apartment and is fully furnished. It even has pots and pans. It will be really nice to start cooking our own food again and getting settled.

This evening, we had dinner at Jud's boss's house. We'll call him Billy. Billy's wife and daughter were not at home yet. They're still stateside. Another of Jud's coworkers came. He's JJ. I met JJ years ago when Jud had to spend a few days in Louisiana working on a special drilling tool. That's when he worked with JJ in Nigeria. We had a great time getting to know everyone. We took a tour of Billy's villa because it's very similar to what we will be looking at in a few weeks for our own home.

Everybody is settling in quite nicely. Jud's so excited he can barely contain himself. I'm excited and anxious at the same time. As a woman, the culture is very different for me than it is for Jud. The girls are doing well as long as we manage the jet lag proactively. Jethro is making friends quickly. I think as long as he stays busy, he'll be OK. We will meet one family tomorrow that he met through Facebook. It turns out, they live across the street from our new hotel!

The whole country is taking a week off to celebrate the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. This delays a lot of our forward processing to get a house, to get our visas, etc. I hope we can take advantage of the time and enjoy our new home in Abu Dhabi.

With love,

Joan

We made it!

We have settled into our hotel in Abu Dhabi!  I will blog more when I am not jet-lagged.

At the airport

I'm writing from the Houston airport. We are resting in the lounge and have about an hour before we get on the plane. We will fly 15 hours direct to Dubai and then drive an hour to Abu Dhabi.

Our morning went very well. We somehow managed to get all the last minute things stuffed into the suitcases. Jethro's girlfriend came over to say goodbye. My heart really went out to her. After she left, we waited just a few minutes before our ride came to load up our 16 bags of luggage and take us to the airport.

After such a long wait to get this move over with, Jed and I are very excited. It feels so good to have just our carryon luggage to worry about at the moment. The girls have already made a friend in the lounge but still have Geary moments. Jethro is just happy to have Internet to maintain contact with his girlfriend until we take off.

We have had so many messages of prayers and well wishes. Right now, they are sustaining me. Love to all.

Joan

Fun time!

Schlitterbahn

If you need me, I'll be in the lazy river...

This past week has been so intense, I haven't had a minute to write.  The last few days in our house were really emotional.  So many lasts... but when Friday morning came around and we awoke for the last time in our house and were anticipating the movers, it was such a relief.  All the prep, sorting, packing, etc. was over.  Relief!

The packers and movers got there around 8:30 and they were gone with all over our things by 5:00.  We moved into the hotel and have been chasing all of the last minute before you move things for days.  Cell phones, cable, trash, mail, etc.  Just a circus.

So, tomorrow, we are going to a water park to just escape our world for a moment.  So, if you need us, we'll be in the water park's lazy river sippin lemonade and trying to relax and not think so much that within 24 hours of that time, we'll be on a plane to the other side of the world.

The making of a memory

Before I start writing this blog, I need to get a hold of my sister.  This post is about our day together and she needs a "Hillbilly Name"....

Ok.  After quickly messaging her... she turned down Minnie Pearl and has decided to be "Mary Ellen" of the Walton variety.

I called my sister the other day to ask her when we might be able to spend some time together.  We worked it out to go shopping today.  We went out to the Outlets with our daughters for school clothes all around and just had the best time.  It seems like yesterday that we would have been in Gymboree and Carter's for babies clothes.  But this trip included grown-up stores, Shoes for Mae's size 10W feet and a treat from Starbucks and we all had the same drink.

There's a lot of history with my sister and her family while we have lived down here.  And if things weren't so well off with our families, leaving her just wouldn't feel right.  But we feel we have a Divine Appointment in Abu Dhabi as much as we had a Divine Appointment to live in Houston not just for ourselves, but for my sister's family as well.  And now that those "obligations" have been met... it's now time for us to move on.

We've planned on leaving this area for a very long time.  But the truth is, this major move is what it was going to take for it to happen because it's been so comfortable to stay here in the close proximity of my sister and our church.  (Mary Ellen and I go to the same church.)  This opportunity in Abu Dhabi is what took to get us out of our comfort zone here.  But it's only that it's the right time that it's happening.

I'm gonna miss you sis.  Second to leaving our church, it's the hardest part.

~Joan

The Goodbyes have Begun

What a difference two weeks makes.

Since I last posted, we've finished and turned in our physicals. We have been to the travel clinic and just today we finished our last dose of oral Typhoid. I will be glad when that is out of our system. It made me very tired and some unpleasant intestinal upset. Mae has had a headache and maybe even a mild fever all week. Ellie seems unaffected by it. Kernel opted for the injection and was spared some of these unpleasant side effects. But his vaccination is good for just two years whereas the girls and I have immunity for 5 years. When we get to Abu Dhabi we will probably start taking Rabies vaccine as well.

Our house is now on the market and we had our first showing today. That was a scramble to get the house ready for that! But today was very nice and relaxing until we got the call that somebody wanted to see the house. I've never been through a house sale in my entire life.

But Saturday night was our going away party. Our dear friends had offered to host it in their home for us. We had just about 50 friends and family there. The biggest surprise was that my mom flew in for it. That was a great surprise to have "Granny from Pennsyltucky" there (I'm hoping that gets a giggle out of them. It was her idea for our aliases and now that she is part of the blog, she needs one too.)

Our party was really wonderful. The only bad part was that it was the big start to all the goodbyes that we will have ultimately say as we prepare to leave Texas as our home state. It is not our intention to come back here after our time in Abu Dhabi is over. But we enjoyed having a wonderful BBQ with our friends and visiting with them for hours before some of them had to go home. Most of them are from church and so we will see them for the next two Sundays but some of them we genuine goodbyes and we all came back home feeling very loved, but heavy hearted for those we said goodbye to.

The kids seem to be doing ok right now. We all have had some stressful and teary moments. But for the most part, they are doing ok. Our youngest, Mae seems to be having the most outwardly emotional struggles. We all just can't wait to have this stressful time behind us.

This week sees us finishing up the visit with my mom. She goes back home early Wednesday morning. I hope we can do something fun with her. Judd has his last full week at work as he only works 4 days the following week and then the week after that, we leave. We should also get our guaranteed buy offer (this is where the company buys our house from us, but for less than the ideal price) and I think that if it is a reasonable amount, we are just going to take it. We also need to get our air freight shipment together so that it is ready to go a week from today. That's starting to look like a 500lb. camping-in-our-house kit.

Explore the Emirates

I thought some of you might like this.
Click this link - Explore the Emirates

Hurry up and wait

There's a saying associated with the military - "Hurry up and wait". That's what I'm doing right now. We got the kids' medical appointments done and now we have moved on to the hospital adjacent with the doctor's office for my chest x-ray.  The kids and I have all had TB tests and I also get this x-ray.  I was also tested for Hepatitis and AIDS.  We should have all of those results by the end of the week. 

The kids did well at the doctor's.  Every where they go they tell people that they are not happy with the move.  This has been an especially long and drawn out process for them.

Time for my x-ray.

Strapping ourselves in!

I'm not a huge fan of rollercoasters.  I don't like the feeling of losing control.  I did recently ride Expedition Everest at DisneyWorld.  But I did enjoy that one.  It's coasters that go upside down that I seem to have a bigger problem with.  I avoid those.

For years, I've heard about this ride that has a lot of twists and turns.  It does sound exciting.  I've always been intrigued by it and have stated that I wouldn't mind riding it.  It's called "Moving Overseas".  I told Jud that I feel strapped in.  He thinks we were strapped in weeks ago.  I told him we were only standing in the long line before... watching other people coming off the ride either elated or getting sick.

Yes, we're strapped in.  Jud received his official acceptance notice and now all sorts of things are happening all at once.  There seems to be something happening every day this week (part of the ride, I guess).

Yesterday was Monday.  The relocation company (should I call that Conestoga?) has a specific realtor they typically use and that realtor came over yesterday.  Our realtor needs a hillbilly name... let's try "Shorty".  My apologies to anyone who takes offense at that.

We liked "Shorty".  He's a very successful listing realtor and liked the house and doesn't feel we have to do much staging at all.  Staging as in "rent furniture".  I just need to get the house spotless.  Probably get the house on the market early next week.

Today is Tuesday.  As I write this, we're getting ready for our medical clearance appointments.  The kids all have simple appointments with the worst of it being a TB test.  Mine's a bit more involved with a blood draw, a TB test and a chest x-ray.  Should only take the entire day with how far we'll have to go from one side of this doctor's office to the hospital facilities.

Wednesday is all about driver's licenses.  Somehow, my license was lost up in Pennsylvania.  Just don't ask how it happened.  And since our son Jethro is ready to get his real driver's license, he and I will drive out to a rural testing center 50 miles away and see if we can get his test over and done with and I can get my license reissued.

Thursday, my sister is coming over to help me pack up some pictures and stuff.  I need to thin out my closet for showing the house and that's where all that stuff is.

Friday is open at the moment, unless I forgot something.

In other news, we trained the dog to use a cage water bottle.  He needed to know how because that's where his water will come from in his own flight to Abu Dhabi.  Just wiped peanut butter on the nipple end and he quickly figured it out.  Now we just need to train the cat.  Anyone ever train a cat to do that?

~~Joan

The WEIGHT is over!

Jud went into work this morning for what he hoped was his last weigh-in.  He got on the scale, fully clothed and was 2 lbs over.  He threatened to get down to his boxers, go sweat it off in the steam room - anything - to unload those two pounds.  They gave him the clothing allotment.  He's officially at a 39 BMI and good to go.  The paperwork was going to be set from the health office here to Abu Dhabi and we will probably hear something by Tuesday as to how this whole process will go from here.

The relief is extraordinary.  I think the stress I had been feeling "snapped" because shortly after hearing form him about this, I developed a migraine, complete with light sensitivity and nausea and put myself to bed and woke up 4 hours later.  I'm pushing lots of water now and am feeling much better.

In other news, the kids and I leave tomorrow to drive up north and get our camper settled into a permanent spot.  While we are doing that, the house will be completely repainted and the upstairs carpeted.  I expect this whole process to go into hyperspeed when we get back from our trip.

Stay tuned...

Joan

The weight is almost over

Jud had a great weigh-in on Friday.  He's lost another 10 lbs. and only had 11 more to go.  I think losing this weight, especially this fast, is one of the hardest things he has ever done.  I'm incredibly proud of him but I can't wait for him to get to this goal so that he can slow down and start dieting in a much healthier way.  As a side effect of his intensive dieting, I've lost 20lbs. myself!

We are continuing on our home improvements.  The painters are scheduled for the last week of this month and we should be able to align the new flooring right up with that.  The kids and I are going to drive to Pennsylvania so that we aren't home for that excitement.

We expect that Jud will meet his next weigh-in and after that, this whole process to move that has been on hold since early April is going to go into hyper-drive.

Hang on,

Joan

Our waiting or "weight" update

Since my last post, we haven't done a thing that I'd planned on.  It's been a bit frustrating.  As the days went by and Jud was losing weight so quickly, we started realizing that we needed to get on with getting some things done around the house.  We need to paint and do the flooring upstairs.  So, we were back to clearing closets and getting rid of a bunch of junk.  Today was just about the end of that as both Ellie and Mae's closets are empty and Jethro made a huge dent in his closet as well.

So we didn't get school accomplished as I would have liked.  The kids did all take an achievement test to see how they stood in getting into private school once we have moved.  We should get the results of that in 4-6 weeks.

As far as Jud's weight is going, it's quite remarkable.  He has lost 26 lbs. this month.  Just incredible.  But when he weighed in, they measured him shorter.  His height is a wee bit over 5'11" and it always depends if they round up or round down in regards to his BMI requirement.  So, his goal has just become a lower weight than it was.  That was very discouraging news because he thought he only had 13 more lbs to go and now he has 21 lbs.  He has been dieting very hard (and for the most part, under a doctor's supervision) and is eager to move on to this new assignment and have this upheaval behind us.  Unless he hits a troublesome plateau, he still should be able to meet this goal by July 4th.

In the meantime, we will get the house spruced up and ready to be sold.  We're going to spend some time back in Pennsylvania to get the camper situated and we'll be ready when Jud meets his goal.

Thanks for sticking with us,

Joan

P.S., Friends who know me, please keep your comments anonymous.  I don't want to have to delete them.

Back to school

I think I may have forgotten to mention that we are a homeschooling family. When the news of this job opportunity came upon us, school just fell apart.  Now that we know we have more time, we need to get back to the books.  I've even recommended to our son Jethro that he get a job.  He's going to look into life guard training.

So, Monday we are hitting the books again.  I don't think the kids are going to like this to much.

Back from the Happiest Place on Earth and I have news

In the midst of the serious frustration and stress we have all been under as of late, we decided to run away from home for a week.  Last week, Jud and I surprised the kids with a trip to Disney World.  We were there for 5 days and just had the time of our lives.  It was so nice to have a mental break from the stress of home improvements, packing, selling, etc.

We were disappointed when we returned home to have *zero* news about our move.  The days since then have led to some depressive thoughts that Jud had lost this opportunity to work overseas.

But today, we finally have news!  Jud heard from someone from upper management that the job is still his, but they are sticking to their weight restrictions and if Jud can lose a little bit of weight, the job is still his.  It was clear that this suggestion is not coming from Jud's company here, but from the partnership company in Abu Dhabi.  Jud has already lost a 25% of the weight they need for him to lose, so he has a good start.

We have renewed encouragement and are going to take advantage of our extra time to do some of the home improvements on the house by ourselves.  We're going to paint and put down laminate flooring.  We're thinking of this extra time more as a blessing than a disappointment.

~~Joan

Holding on the runway

Jud went to Abu Dhabi several weeks ago and had his interview and his medical exam.  The interview was a smashing success with his Emirati interviewer zipping down the hall after it was over saying "Hire Him!"  But there were some concerns on his medical exam.  But after careful consideration, the doctor signed off on it.

But those concerns raised some red flags for an individual in the human resources department and he has put this entire process on hold as he considers the exceptions they have made to Jud's coming on and our move to Abu Dhabi.  The delay has been so frustrating for us and frustrating for the team wanting to bring Jud over that one of Jud's "big bosses" has flown over to Abu Dhabi to motivate this process along.

Jud has taken a few days of vacation this week to take a deep breath and walk away from the stress of the last several weeks.  But if all goes well with this big boss's visit over there, we should have much more information and can resume all the processes of visas, home improvements/sale by the end of this week.

The complete LACK of information has been more frustrating than anything we have experienced so far and to know that there is forward motion on some of these things has been a huge relief.

I'll keep you posted when we hear more.
~~Joan

Good neighbors are hard to find

Since our announcement of our move, we have often found ourselves sitting outside in the evenings with our current next door neighbors.  We've lived next door to them all the years we have lived in Texas and previously, from time to time, we'd sit outside and "shoot the breeze" and share memories of our kids and our own childhoods.  But those times were few and far between until now.

As we sat together this evening enjoying each other's company, I thought about the other neighbor's that we've had over the years.  A good neighbor is such a treasure.  There are a few of them that I still keep in contact with who have become lifelong friends.  I hope that after we leave, I can still keep in touch with these neighbor's.

I'm going to miss them.
~~Joan

Garage sale SUCCESS!

After weeks and weeks of cleaning closets and clearing out cabinets, we had our big and FINAL garage sale today and made **drumroll** over $700!  And we were priced very, very low.  We got rid of so much stuff.  It feels so incredibly liberating to have it all GONE!  The little bit that is left is going to go to Katy Christian Ministries for their resale shop.

It was a great day!

~~Joan

Wordless Wednesday

It's Ground Hog Day!

You know the movie "Groundhog Day" where Bill Murray's character awakes every morning and discovers Groundhog Day is repeating?  We've had a few days like that lately.  Every day is more of the same sorting, cleaning and pitching of stuff in preparation of the move.  It's very difficult to find motivation, let alone find motivation in 3 kids who are not big fans of the whole process.  It's been tough.

Today we learned that our loan was approved and a representative from one of the flooring stores we will shop came and measured the upstairs for the carpet.  Other than that, I don't feel like I accomplished very much.

Selling a house is hard.

We have never sold a house. We are still in our "starter" house that we bought when Jethro was just 3. So this is a completely new process for us.

This evening we had a husband and wife team of appraiser/realtor (a family from our church) come and give us a complimentary walkthrough and verbal appraisal that we can use as a jumping off point. It went better than we had expected. We still have a lot of cosmetic work to do, but altogether we are not doing to badly. Of course, we also have the option of contracting with this realtor for selling the house. But it's so overwhelming. We are not even sure how to go about choosing a realtor in the first place. We have a few other names that have been referred to us. But we do have a good jumping off point thanks to this realtor and we are grateful for that. Halfway through the appraisal walkthrough the power went out due to the transformer blowing up next door to us. Made it fun to check out the closets with no lights.

Other than that, the day was busy with spending lunch with my friend and her sweet little baby girl, going to the bank on my own to inquire about a loan, looking at carpet and then the appraisal.

I'll be much happier when this part is over.

And so it begins...

It was just two short months ago that my husband made himself a stiff drink and then sat me down on our bed to tell me he was being considered for an assignment in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  There were a lot of questions up in the air since then but now it's official, we're moving to Abu Dhabi.

Moving to such a beautiful place as Abu Dhabi is... well... it's just nothing that my husband and I ever saw that we might do.  We had a very simple start and both of us come from small town America.  Thus, the name Hillbillies.  For security reasons, we've decided to keep this blog private.  I know it's going to jump start with people who know us, so just know that "Dad" is Jud.  Mom is Joan.  Our kids are Jethro, Ellie and Mae.

For those who do not know us, welcome to our Grand Adventure!

Here's what is going on...

We have to sell our house, sell most of our stuff and then proceed onto Abu Dhabi.  The kids and I are going to go on to my parents for the summer while Jud heads on to Abu Dhabi.

This week, we have a complimentary home appraisal from a friend from church.  He's going to give us a number we can start with so we can go into our realtor appraisals with an educated number on the value of our home.  I also need to pick out some carpet to replace the 15 year old carpet upstairs.  Another friend is going to help me with staging our home to sell.  We will also finish up weeding through each room and all of our stuff to our final garage sale.  This week also means that we need to get the passports for the kids finished up this week.

More dates for when and what is going on are still unknown yet.  I'll keep ya posted.

Enjoy the ride...

Joan