Disgruntled Employee

I couldn't help but giggle and snap a picture of this note left on the fridge at school.  It reminded me of a certain episode of The Office. . .  

 

Now to come up with a snarky reply note. . . 

So much time for activities!

Due to unfortunate water circumstances, we are stuck on dry land instead of doing our baller island camping trip this weekend.  There apparently is a threat of 8-10 foot swells which I am not keen on experiencing in a dhow boat.  Plus the thought of sea sickness or something of the sort ruining an amazing experience is a little off-putting.  We will reschedule and have our amazing trip in a month or so.  We previously thought it would be on the World Islands, but discovered it will actually be on Moon Island.  It is roughly a 4 hour boat ride to the island where we can swim, play beach games, snorkel, fish, take a sunset cruise and relax while having a supremely amazing time.  Ben and I are both incredibly disappointed about having to reschedule, but we also like the idea of living a little longer. Ben did point out that we could combine the thrills of 'The Perfect Storm' and 'Castaway' all in one weekend.  We do have previous crab hunting skills which would come in handy if we were marooned on an island. :)

Since spring break is nearly upon us and we have plenty of free time this weekend (boo!), we went ahead and finalized our plans for our time off! As mentioned previously, we are staying in Dubai since we have financial obligations that come before travel and we want to be responsible. Instead of pouting about our lack of ability to venture to another part of the world, we have decided to make the best of our spring break and fill it with all sorts of fun things.  Our Dubai Extravaganza will include:

March 31st - SkyTrail

'SkyTrail is a multi-faceted obstacle course that is suspended along the ceiling of the mall (13 meters above ground) that truly tests the physical and mental ability of the participants.  Located adjacent to an 8 meter climbing wall, SkyTrail can be accessed directly through an auto belay system or form the more adventurous, by climbing the wall.'

April 2nd - Sunset Camel Ride

  We will have a night of interacting with camels! We will have the opportunity to brush, pet and make friends with the camels prior to going on a sunset dessert ride. We also have the option of trying camel milk.  I hear it is disgusting, but I must try it at least once. 

April 3rd - SkyDive Dubai

We will be skydiving over the Palm! 

April 4th - Jamjar Painting

We have BOGO coups for a canvas painting session. We each will have a 36x48'' canvas to fill with our creativeness. 

April 7th - Stable Tour

We will do an early morning tour of the Dubai Equestrian Club stables.  Maybe we'll get to feed the horsies! 

The rest of our time will be spent either by the pool or on the beach.

Addendum: Due to unforeseen expenses and lack of funds, we only did the sunset camel ride and sky diving.  We also spent a TON of time at the pool, went out for supper with Ben's co-teacher and her husband and read a lot. Seriously - I read 5.5 books over spring break!  Success!
 

Playlist: The Lucky Ones

I am inspired by my sister-in-law to start a blog play list. It will be a fun way to share music with others and to have some of our favorites listed in one place.

This song is one of my faves from the late 90's. Enjoy! :)

The Lucky Ones by Radney Foster

Day after day, the search goes on
No one's explained that craving so strong
Love runs so deep down in your soul
It hits me so hard, all that I know is

Baby, the lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
For a moment or two
Get to fall in love with somebody like you
Get to fall in love with somebody like you

They say use your head, don't lose control
To hell with that pride, I swallowed it whole
'Cause nothing but love, no one but you
Could make such a hero of such a fool

Baby, the lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
For a moment or two
Get to fall in love with somebody like you
Get to fall in love with somebody like you

Baby, the lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
For a moment or two
Get to fall in love with somebody like you

The lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
Baby, the lucky ones
For a moment or two
Get to fall in love with somebody like you
Get to fall in love with somebody like you

Ben's 25th Birthday

Delicious brownie for Benjamin!

Ben has successfully made it to his 25th year of life.  To celebrate this milestone birthday, he wanted to do something low key.  His birthday was on a school night, so we decided to make supper together and I made him a brownie with a cream cheese and strawberry topping.  We had a few friends over to share dessert and good company, and made plans to go out for supper the following night.

Casey photo bombing.

Ben chose to go to Cucina for supper.  It is a delicious Italian restaurant that also offers an array of fresh seafood that you select, they weigh it and then cook it for you. They also offer delicious desserts and when our waiter asked if we would like to see the dessert menu, I told him, 'Of course! This guy especially needs to check it out because it is his birthday!'.  Ben was not impressed, but it did get him a free dessert and the waitstaff sang to him loudly. :)

Happy birthday!!!!! :)

While it will be a late celebration, we made the decision to go camping on the World Islands as Ben's big birthday treat the 22nd and 23rd.  I'm sure many pictures and stories will follow after next weekend!

Café Céramique Date!

It is my belief that even though you're married you should continue to date your spouse.  So for something fun, different and inexpensive, I suggested we paint pottery!   I found this cute little place called Café Céramique where you can go for a meal and artsy-fartsy time.  It was beautiful out when we went, so we took a seat outside.  Once we had ordered a bite to eat, we picked out what we wanted to paint.  We both chose mugs and decided to do a 'his and her' type thing. Ben had the awesome idea to put on the mug how we prefer our coffee - him: black; me: honey and milk. We drew our preliminary designs while waiting for our meal.  We worked with our waiter to select our paint colors, he gave us some tips, and we let the creativity flow! 

When we were finished,  we turned in our masterpieces to be dried and fired. It was a fun day spent with the hubs and we both enjoyed doing something out of the norm!

Our Lives in Photographs: Snuggle Buddies

My snuggle bunnies.  :)

Our Lives in Photographs: Happy & Healthy

 Healthy hearts.

Long happy lives. 

Mini Performances

I apologize for the poor video quality, but I wanted to post these two videos so you can get a glimpse of what Ben has been working on.  I will let Ben explain the rest!

March 7th signaled the end of my xylophone unit with my 3rd grade classes for the year. This year I chose to teach the xylophones using a variety of videos that I made on my computer. My aim was to teach kids specific vocabulary and content while giving them an opportunity to explore the instrument for themselves instead of mimicking my own moves to learn the songs. This was actually pretty successful as every kid by the end of the unit was able to play through each of the three parts shown in the videos individually. I chose them for their parts in the performance randomly. The video in the link was the only one I posted and it was extremely effective for teaching the melody. The other two parts I taught using print outs that the kids explored on their own in a given time period and then put together.

Things for me to remember the next time I teach this unit: 1) The bass part was an eighth note rhythm that alternated between the lower octave and the higher octave for each note played. Essentially the kids were playing C-C, D-D, E-E, G-G, but alternating between the low and the high. The bass instruments are big and so next time I will have the alto instruments play this part to make it more manageable for the kids. The altos had a straight quarter note rhythm playing four two note combinations repeated. This would have been excellent on the basses as the steady beat would have been more prominent and the speeding up may have been avoided. 2) The kids will always speed up. This is an unfortunate inevitability no matter how hard you work at it. It makes the eighth note rhythm that much more difficult too. 3) I will teach the basic eighth note rhythm (two hands playing octaves at the same time) instead of the alternating rhythm first. This will give me a chance to differentiate to the higher level for kids who can do it rather than trying have kids who have trouble managing the harder rhythm go to the easier (which they refused--good for them?)

I am very proud of my students in the 3rd grade. They consistently work hard during music lessons and have made extreme advances in many different areas this year. I plan to get them all more performance opportunities throughout the rest of the year because they really deserve to show off their work. -Ben 

A post for post's sake.

As is evident from previous posts, my homesickness is a never-ending roller coaster ride.  I will be happy once the crazy train comes into sanity station, because it is just exhausting.  I really struggle to feel like myself in this country because the homesickness can be crippling.  It turns me into a crying, needy mess at times which is completely contradictory to my normal independent self.  Boo. [This paragraph was written a few days ago when I was feeling a little blue.]

On a brighter note, we have officially booked our skydiving experience!!  We will be flying through the air on April 3rd!! We are going through the company Skydive Dubai, which my mom made sure to remind me to check their mortality rate. She may or may not be a little nervous about us jumping out of an airplane.  :)  We also have our camping trip to the World Island's booked! (for the most part).  We will be doing that the 22nd and 23rd of this month, prior to spring break.

 

Fun things to look forward to this month!!  Can't wait!