Stuffed Up Juice Troubles

Ashlyn, you have stuffy nose today. Do you want a tissue to blow?

Yeah. I already got all the boogers out, it's the juice that's making the problems. The boogers left all their juice in my nose.

Ashie-ism of the Morning

"Mommy I want a pony tail today up high."

"Up high to the sky?"

"NO! I can't go to the sky!"

"You should get some wings then so you can."

"I cannot, there is no wing store. Send that funny message to Jennifer."

"Okay. Why?"

"Because she will totally flip out! Do people flip out if we send them funny messages? Like flip out of this country? She's going to love that message today!!"

Yawn Medicine

Madison has a nasty hacking cough so I gave her some medicine this morning. Ashlyn asked me if she could please have some medicine too, specifically some yawning medicine. She was not able to sleep well last night and requested that I email her teacher and tell her she was too tired to go to school today because she "didn't rest well because of all the yawns" that kept her up all night long.

Ashie-isms

Out of no where she comes to me and says, "Mom, God made us washable." 

That's some deep thinking for a three year old but spot on. 

Yelling from the top of the stairs to me in the kitchen, "Mom, where is my sock?"

"I don't know," I replied as I continue to scrub dishes.

Hands on hips, "But you are a MOM and you said you know EVERYTHING."

I've been caught.

Big Goals

Madison told us tonight that she set a goal last year to live to be one hundred years old. Then she complained that it was taking a LONG time to do it.

The GPS Stole My Voice

We bought a mini van with built in GPS. The system has three voice choices. One is a male that sounds like a robot, one is a female robot and the last one is Angie. Well, the display actually calls it USA - Michelle but they stole my voice. It used to completely wig me out every single time I heard her give me directions.

Finally I am getting used to her but yesterday while driving Brian put his hand on mine in the passenger seat and said, "This is not going to sound right but the GPS sounds so much like you I just tune it out and don't realize someone is giving me directions I am supposed to follow. I don't even hear her most the time."

Ashlyn Loves Daddy Best

Yesterday Ashlyn was asking for dad this and dad that. I am rarely allowed to help, hold her or do anything at all. Just dad. I asked, "Don't you like me?" To which she replied, "I like you better than Peter." I confirmed - she means Gina's Peter. You aren't forgotten Ms Espina Gina!! We love and miss you. ❤️

Kids Discover Differences Here

The kids are noticing funny things that make us laugh. As I write Ashlyn is asking why daddy is pumping gas, where are the workers that have to do it for us and suggesting maybe they are just inside the shop waiting. Earlier she thought it was hilarious that daddy was allowed to drive at all and we didn't have to call a driver. The GPS tells us to go so many miles then turn and her friend is named Miles and she told us that Miles didn't need to turn there. 

Ashlyn Gems

Our household belongings are now sea freight and on the ocean slowly making their way to Houston. This morning Ashlyn asked us, "Where's Johnny?" He left this morning on a cruise with his family so Ben told her he is on a boat. "OHHHH!! With our stuff." I hope his cruise accommodation is a little bit better than a freighter. 

Discussing sharing rooms in Houston and who is with who Ashlyn got REALLY EXCITED! "I will share with mom and dad and we can have three pillows!" That's not what we had in mind. We get fly told her that even though we have a king bed here that fits three pillows here in Saudi, our Texas bed is a queen size and only two pillows are going to it there.

Cucumbers

At dinner. 

Mom: "Jacob will you take some salad and pass it to Ashlyn please?"

Ashlyn: "I don't want any salad."

Mom: "I know but you have to some cucumber."

Mom heard: "I don't want a que number."

Ashlyn meant to say: "I don't want a cucumber."

I will miss little kid speak in a few years from now. 

Heath Care in Saudi

Brian had a check up tonight and I have to say after that experience how much health care scares me in this country. The doctor actually asked, stethoscope in hand, "where is your heart?" 

But she was cute so we will forgive her her shortcomings and probably visit her clinic again soon. I was highly entertained when she kept taking into the stethoscope and then pulling it away because it was so loud in her ears. Such an amazing thing to figure out it made her laugh.

What Made You Red?

Ashlyn was giving me a massage tonight. She pushed my shirt up a little bit and poked my belly button. Then she saw on my side a mark and asked, "Mommy, what made you red there?"

"You did."

"Huh?"

"All my babies did it."

She thought that was pretty cool and started listing off all my babies I had that made that mark. You know, "Ben and Maddie and Jacob and Ashie and Brian and Gina. All my Zufelts did it. Mommy is Gina a Zufelt?"

Inside the Lines

I'm trying to figure out the car pool for next week when I'm away and Brian is on duty with the kids. So I printed this week and crossed out the day the kids have no school. Then to make sure I didn't mistake it for another week I wrote in big, sloppy letters across the top "Hong Kong" but Ashlyn says it's a big fail.

She's feeling an incredible amount of consternation over my schedule and has instructed me that "Teacher Vera says trace the things like this and don't go out of the lines. 

This is the right spot to write.

This is the wrong place to write.

She's been chastising me for about five minutes.

Shopping

We loaded the kids in the car to run out shopping for a garden hose today. Of course they asked what we were going to get so Brian told them we were going to get something so great it was better than their wildest dreams. So Jacob immediately requested a lion, Ashlyn two giraffes and Madison a unicorn.

We may need a bigger car to get all this home.

I Need an Answer

Having a driver is a blessing and a curse. I do a whole lot of riding these days since it's illegal for women to drive and its about an hour to take the kids to school in the morning or pick up in the afternoon. So I either talk and play with Ashlyn or make use of my data plan on my mobile phone. But today I had some legit stuff I needed to do in the tiny window of time during the drive and Ashlyn was super chatty. Finally I knew I was too deeply involved in my research when I noticed from her car seat she was saying, in a very stern parent voice, "Mom! I need an answer from you!"

M & M Disease

I have a diagnosed condition called M&M Equality Disease. I can't just eat and enjoy my M&Ms. I have to sort and match them by color. Then I eat them in sets of twos and I must chew them with one on the left side and one on the right side of my mouth. A bit quirky I realize but I didn't know it was passed down via my genes the same way I passed along my rotten, eye-glass-needing eyeballs.

Ashlyn just got a little pile of M&Ms as her daily reward for wearing her eye patch. She matched up the oranges then held up the red one and said, "This guy doesn't have a match M&M."

And about the patching, she's actually doing very well. We started last week. She hates it of course and doesn't want to wear it but after three days she has given up fighting and is willing to wear the patch, even at school she leaves it on and I can trust it to still be on when I return to pick her up.

All About Quickly

Around here my kids think they are fast. They proclaim they move at the speed of lightening. They don't understand why the most common phrases out of my mouth all have approximately the same meaning from dawn to dusk. They come in many forms. "Come on. Hurry up. You have to the count of three. Focus. Didn't I already ask you to do that? How many times did I ask you to do that? How long do you think it should take you to do this job? Let's go. Move it. Where are you? Now you are late. Because you ____ we don't have time to ____ now."

They all mean the same thing though: "Move faster."

Yesterday I had a bit of a revelation about where their heads might be coming from. Jacob was super proud to show me this cool lego creation and explain all about it in impressive detail. One particular feature however sticks out in my mommy brain far more than the others.

See the two spears stuck tightly into the back way behind the soldiers? Jacob felt that to give the soldiers best access to their weapons to use to defend their lives that they should be stored in this handy location.

"So when they are driving along and they get surprise attached then the two guys just quickly pull over their car, climb down to the ground and run around the back and grab the spears."

Did you see if? Did you catch the quickly? He believes they will be able to be fast and effective in battle still. I'm pretty sure they will be dead by the time they get to the spears. It's all in perspective and now I have just a little better picture of what my six year old thinks counts as "quickly". Now we go about the work of finding a middle ground defining "quickly" at our house. 

Good Day

From Jacob at dinner:

"Mom I had a mostly good day. Only one not good part."

"That's great news. What was the bad part?"

"It was when Owen got really, really close and breathed in my face."

"Was he upset with you?"

"No. It's just that it was stinky. And you know...nobody actually likes stinky."

Skin Tone Queries of the Night

From Jacob tonight:

"Do you think that there are any people that drive construction trucks that have white skin like us?"

Madison explaining how people ended up with darker skin than our family in response to Jacob's question above:

"One person worked outside and got tan. Then she had a baby. That baby got big and got more tan in the sun then they had a baby and it was even darker. Then that baby got tan and grew up and got a baby. That's how people got so dark."

Belgium Waffles

I'm making some waffles to sell at a Bazzar to raise money for the workers in the compound. I planned a dry run test night yesterday for dinner. 

Then there were some hiccups and we had to have leftovers. I finished cooking them about 9:30 last night and we are having them for breakfast this morning but in all my mess yesterday I was told that this recipe is a dessert waffle not so much a breakfast or dinner waffle. 

We told the kids they were special waffles and didn't need syrup or sweets on top because it was baked into them. Jacob pondered only a few seconds before declaring, "That's okay. I want it to be a super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super, super sweet waffle so I'll still put syrup and nuttella on it."