Positives

When we first moved to Saudi I tried to list a few positives with each post. There is no doubt that this can be a tough area to live in...so it's always good to look for the positive. I haven't listed any positives lately so I'll try and do that now.

1) Cap'n Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal at the comm! Imported items are hard to come by- it's hit and miss- people tend to hoard items if they see it on the shelves. This isn't just food either...I've had people tell me about hoarding toilet paper and flushable wipes (the local TP is like wiping with sand paper- just trust me on this).

2) Cooking class- I met a lady in our fellowship group that is a talented cook (and her last name is "Cook"- seriously, how awesome is that?!)- I asked her if I could round up a few people would she be willing to teach a cooking class for us? She agreed. And there were so many people interested that she's teaching 5 classes per month...free of charge. She's so generous. So now I take a monthly cooking class and it's been such a fun experience!

3) I've got plenty of running buddies that motivate me to get up and out the door for a 5 am run each morning. Starts my day out right. And let's me eat what I want free of guilt.

4) Australian mangos at the comm! Yes, I realize I already talked about food...but Aussie mangos are the best- they deserve to be mentioned separately.

5) The weather in December is great- 60's and 70's is just perfect.

6) I had to go to a dentist off camp for a root canal- that's not the positive part, obviously. The positive part is that the dentist spoke great English and went to dental school in California. And as far as root canals go, it went as good as to be expected.

7) It's nice to know that the ER at the hospital on camp works quickly when it needs to. How do I know this? B/c I ate something with peanut butter last night...which is not a good thing to do when you have a peanut allergy. My throat was swelling up and it was pretty hard to swallow so we decided to be safe and take advantage of the free medical care (another positive)! There was no wait at all. I got a shot of adrenaline, a big intravenous dose of Benadryl, and had to stay awhile for monitoring. And there wasn't any admit/discharge paperwork b/c it's all free of charge. PS. I feel much better today.

8) A kind friend bought a new holiday tree and gave us their old one. It's short and tiny...but it's something. When we moved, we were told not to bring any of our holiday decorations b/c it might get confiscated. So we feel very grateful that we our home looks a little festive during this holiday season.

9) 3 week winter break from school starting mid-December...yes! We leave in 2 weeks for Sri Lanka!

10) I participated in a service auction and won a kid-free weekend. An awesome family will watch our kids...and Brian and I will head to Bahrain for some Chrissy shopping, movie watching (no movie theaters in Saudi), and yummy food.