FestiveNow

It's been too many "Arabian Nights" since I posted last because I am beginning to forget things. Before we launch into Arabian Nights, here are a few more Northwest memories (above): one last Woods (Coffee) stop, a 15 passenger van that was lent to us and my parents drove back for us (sooooo blessed), and leis @ SeaTac from our sweet Coral-Mom-Grmie :) (yes, the "a" is gone from Gramie). Here is a list of amazing Arabian things we've experienced (we've been here THREE weeks, like three wishes, "count 'em: one, two, three!"): 21: L lost his front, top tooth! 20: @ Mall of the Emirates we watched a special Chinese dragon and monkey dance (it's the year of the monkey--Happy Chinese New Year, ya'll!) 19: visited with our future landlord @ his home, and he gave the kids soda and ice cream Mars bars 18: attended a garage sale and was given some SCREAMING deals to help set up our villa ('fridge, stove/oven, washer, etc.) 1

Emirates flies directly from Seattle to Dubai. We spent around 15 hours on the plane, but Emirates makes it nice. Complimentary newspapers upon boarding; headphones, pillows, blankets, and a device (I watched some of "The Middle," TD!), music, news, TV & movies--plus kids' versions of all of those. They gave us each a zippered travel pack: sleeping mask, a fresh change of socks, and a collapsible toothbrush complete with a cute & tiny toothpaste tube. They had separate packages for the kids. Wowed by his blue zippered & insulated pack, L declared, "We could put our school lunches in these!" The cute, young flight attendants offered hot towels and later snapped Polaroids of us w/ our kiddos (the latter: something that didn't happen when we flew Emirates w/out children) and one made a special clay-art commemoration take-away for K. They fed us 2 meals, 1 snack that could easily be counted as a 3rd meal, & gave us lots of bevs & snacks. Anyo

Truly, I ain't never had a friend(s) like: Andres, Durbin, Erickson, Francis, Hargrove, Heidersdorf, Holtrop, Kwiat, Leatherwood, LeViere, Lewis, McMahon, Michel, Walker, and York. There are many others--so thankful to have these friendships and more! If I named every friend I ain't never had one like before, this blog would be infinite. And, for that I ain't nothin' but genuinely grateful. The reason I mention these friends is that: these were the friends that cleaned our toilets, scrubbed our showers, patched and painted our walls, tended to our children, came right over for some heavy (& tricky/awkward furniture) lifting, organized, dusted, cleaned out, vacuumed, peeled, unscrewed, swept, washed, and picked up our house, petted & dog-sat Luna, packed, hauled, dump & recycle tripped, re-homed, worked on, tidied up, and boxed and towed away our belongings, laughed with us, cried with us, helped, loved, advised, recommended, prayed with us, hugged