It's been since mid December and yes I have been busy. I know that's no excuse but...
We moved the week before Christmas. Which just goes to prove how incredibly insane we are OR how badly we wanted to live at the beach (maybe a little bit of both!). Either way we packed up our life in Arad to move 15 minutes away to the BEAUTIFUL Tala Island on Amwaj. The Amwaj Islands are located in the North East corner of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
While Tanner's favorite part of the morning is STILL hopping on the school bus mine has changed over the last month. I LOVE pulling back the curtains every morning. It's like opening a birthday gift each day. What is it about turquoise water that makes my head spin and my heart smile?!?!? To be honest, I actually feel a little sad when I come down stairs in the morning and the curtains are already open (it's like the wrapping paper and bows are already torn and on the floor (LAUGH!)
AND... not to rub it in to all my family and friends in Oklahoma (but I think I'm going to do it anyway) I have an ocean view out of both the North AND South sides of my house. YUP! You read that correctly. EVERY window I have displays the most stunning blue you've ever laid eyes on! AND it's mine, each and every day! (Oooooo, I'm sounding a little bratty right? Wait, don't answer that! LAUGH!).
Oh course moving to paradise does have a few down sides.
Now I've got your attention, right? We were the first ones to live in our home and it had just been completed (like the day before we moved in). In Bahrain (apparently) nobody does what we call in the States a "walk through". One would think the owner, property manager or God forbid the realtor would do some sort of a "yeah, it's all in working order" before handing the keys over to the new tenants at 7:00PM in the evening right? (Did I mention that we acquired the keys the night before Ashura, a week long Muslim holiday?) I can see the images floating around in your cranium and let me tell you they all happened.
First off the place was recently tiled and by recent I mean yesterday. The tile-guys did their job, went over the grout with a wet cloth and then they were done. The place was a plaster mess and being that it was evening and the beginning of the holiday I had no choice to clean it myself before our boxes show up in the morning. NOBODY wants to move into a dirty house, NOBODY. My dear friend Hollie heard about the drama and as only a GREAT friend would do showed up with cleaning supplies and a giver's heart. The two of us as our Okie buddies would say "went to town" and tried to get it as clean as possible. Dust, dust and more dust accompanied by grout splatter EVERYWHERE.
The truck loaded our Arad life and transported it to Tala where for the next week I worked feverishly to make the place "homey" before Christmas. TALK ABOUT A HARD DEADLINE! I was completely unwilling to have a house full of messy boxes when Santa arrived! As Tanner said, "Santa will think he came to the wrong house and then just leave!" Agreed. So as any good military wife would do I unpacked and organized with two little boys "helping". Did I mention Tanner was already out of school? YES, two helpers under the age of six IS "priceless".
Our first night in the house was GLORIOUS until Daddy went up for his shower. Funny. As I was doing the dishes my toes were feeling damp. I turn off the sink to see where the water is coming from. There was a leak under the sink. GREAT! As I'm wiping up the water with the only dish towel I can find (remember I used up all the paper towels the night before with Hollie) I hear water. This "water sound" is not like any other I have ever heard before. I asked Tanner to look in the down stairs bathroom to see if Daddy is showering downstairs and to tell him to wait because I haven't found the shower curtain yet. Tanner goes down the hall has gives the biggest display of "FREAK-OUT" I have ever seen. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!!!! There's a WATERFALL in our bathroom!!!! HURRY, HURRY, HURRY!!!!!! HELP, HELP, HELP!!!!!"
Yes indeedie! A "waterfall" pretty much sums it up! Water was pooring out of the light fixtures and air conditioning vent into the bathroom located directly under the master bathroom. Thank goodness it wasn't a bedroom full of boxes, luckily it was just another tiled bathroom! It's funny, I did two things while processing what I was witnessing. I told Tanner to tell Daddy to turn off the water and then I grabbed my camera. If you know me (and I'm assuming you do since you're listening to the crazy melodrama) I ALWAYS have my camera handy. It was hand carried and stored in my purse. I knew where it was before I knew where the coffee pot was (THAT'S SERIOUS COMMITMENT!). Aren't you glad I keep my camera close, if I hadn't you would have missed out on these FABULOUS shots of our first shower in Tala...
OK, OK you can stop laughing now. It wasn't THAT funny, control yourself PLEASE! ;) The funny part is... remember that week-long holiday I told you about a few paragraphs ago. OHHHHHH YEAAAAAH! Let's just say we were showering in the guest room bathroom and doing our dishes in the boy's bathtub. WELCOME TO THE GLAMOUROUS LIFE JANN FLUSCHE, WELCOME!
Other than that everything has worked out LOVELY! Our shower was fixed 16 days after we moved in and the kitchen sink four days after the shower. Please note the primitive handmade tools and mystery substance grout our "plumbers" used. Do you think that could be part of the reason why it took them so long? (Laugh!)
I guess that's just the price for living in paradise. (Sounds like a nice title for a book, right? Hmmmmm?!?!?!) I just might be on to something here... ;)
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