Baby, baby.....

Yesterday my roommate from college came down to visit. She is having her first baby girl in January so my mom and I showered her with some gifts. Lots of baby books and some other things. Books are the present that keep on giving year after year.








Then we made some good fall food. Apple crisp and squash risotto.

To grandmothers house we go......

Yesterday, I went to visit my nana and pop pop. I do this on every trip.
I didn't get a photo with nana but I did with pop. He was sick so we ended put taking him to the doctor but we still made our traditional outting for breakfast.

Fall things.....

I think i figured it out! I don't want to act like an old lady and stop learning how to do things so i had to google it after i posted my question.

A few things I love about the fall......





Pumpkin spice tea and pumpkin muffins.






More to come!


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I'm off to the States tonight. It's good to get home so often. I can't wait to smell the clean air and see the colors and feel cool weather! Sooooo excited.

I'll update while I'm home. Should be a really good time as always.

Trey will be here and of course everyone invites him over while I am gone because they feel badly for him. He'll enjoy the peace I'm sure. He said he has some things he wants to read while I'm gone and he'll probably make pasta 6 out of 7 days.

So excited but hate the long plane ride.

Give me 2 Pina Colada's.....

We've had an empty space in our living room since we moved in.  We kept thinking about what we wanted there but we finally found it.  Some of my readers might not think it was a necessary piece for our house, but it is.  We do a lot of entertaining and enjoy having a good time with friends. 

We were looking one day and found a wine cabinet that we liked.  The only problem was that it was open with no doors.  With the amount of dust here, I could only imagine how dusty our wine glasses and bottles would have been.  Until we found this one.  We love it. 

My parents bought this antique Whiskey/Scotch set for Trey last year in Boston when we were checking out some stores.  It's beautiful and has an etched sailboat.

It even has wheels which means we can move it around the room as we'd like.  There is a sliding glass door right next to it, so when it's cool outside, we can open up that door which goes out to the patio and position this just right so that people can come in and out and help themselves.

 The thing I love is that the top counter opens up to make a longer bar-like thingy so you can use it a few ways. If we turn it around we could put some high stools by it.

And as you can see, above the new cabinet, we put a picture of Sheikh Zayed (the founder of the country).  Man of the locals will have a picture of him in their home and so we thought we'd join along for fun. 

Come on over.  Drinks on us.

Show your support......

Last night our Oasis guys football (soccer) team played against NYU Abu Dhabi campus.  It was a blast and felt like we were actually going to watch a football game in the fall....minus the chill in the air, sweaters and blankets.  We were sweating like crazy. Abu Dhabi is sooo humid compared to Al Ain. 

 A very small fan supporting his daddy.

 The Oasis team showing their support for CURE International. 

The CURE logo was on the back of their shirt.

 We lost but I think everyone had fun all around.  Considering we have a team with a mixed age range --some men have been married for a bit meaning that they have some bellies that probably weren't there when they were in college.  NYU brought a large team so they had fresh players for both halves.  We might need to do some Get In Shape boot camp for the Oasis team before the next game.

Shake, Rattle and Roll......

Every morning since March, I make a fruit (with lettuce) shake for breakfast.  I love my fruit shakes. They are easy, tasty and a good healthy breakfast. 

This means that my blender gets lots of use.  I bought a fancy, shmacy mixer when we moved here which has been well worth the money due to the amount of use that sucker gets from me, Trey and Melissa.  One of us are always making something and especially on the weekend it probably gets tired.

This mixer has the blender attachment which worked like a dream....until one day it got tired. The motor works great but it won't turn the plastic thingy-ma-bob on the bottom of the glass container anymore.  I tried to figure it out, but gave up because I realized that I had a blender attachment on my food processor.

Ever since oh probably June, I've been using the blender that goes onto my food processor (thank you Jenna--that thing also gets a ton of use!) .   Then just this week, it decided to get tired, too. Not the food processor --that still works. Just the blender. The motor works great and even the plastic thingy-ma-bob that turns the blade, turns when I do it with my hand....but not when I put it on the base.  What the heck. 

I hate extra gadgets. I don't want to buy another blender.  So I started using the food processor now.  But the liquid shoots out the side sometimes which makes an agrivated girl when trying to get ready for work in the morning and you end up with mango-strawberry-romaine-lettuce water on yourself.

Anybody have this same problem?  The motor on the actual gadget works.  The blade turns when I do it by hand.  It just won't work together when I put the glass blender canister on the base.  Do I need to get the plasticy thing on the bottom replaced somehow?

So the shakes.  What do we put in our shakes? 

• Romaine, spinach or another kind of lettuce I can find here
• Frozen fruit such as mango and strawberries. Those are my favorite.  I add blueberries sometimes too because they are so good for you but they can make the shake a bit "grainy" in my mind.
• Banana--this smooths the shake out
• Water.  We tried coconut water but it didn't make any difference so I just do plain ol' water
• (You could do yogurt, but I don't because I am trying to ditch dairy due to sinus stuff here and Trey doesn't really like yogurt.)

These boots were made for walkin.....

So.....say you were going to buy cowboy boots.  Even if you hate everything cowboy, just pretend for a second with me.  Put a little Garth Brooks on and imagine..........

You could buy one pair. What would you choose?

Do you go the traditional brown leather route?

Or do you go the fun route and bust out the teal and Harley Davidson pattern?  Really, it looks sort of like a pattern on a motorcycle...don't you agree?

 Or do you play the line and go with a traditional style but a bit of a reddish boot? 

My opinion was to go all out and get the teal boots.

I like it, I love it, I want some more of it......

I think I'm the # 40,965th person sucked into Pinterest.   Another time waster.  It actually is a great site where you can save the things you love!  I have already pinned so many ideas for decorating, recipes, etc.  There are so many thing that I have found that I love on the internet and then I try to remember where I found it....and can't seem to find it......well now the problem is solved.

Why Pinerest is more valuable than Facebook:

1. You can still stalk people but all you are stalking is their ideas, not their family portraits, past boyfriends, latest gossip, etc.
2. It's keeps your mind active.....gives you new ideas of things to do......Facebook makes your mind stale.  If you don't agree, your mind is probably already stale.  
3. Keeps you organized for party planning.  
4. I can already start planning out the inn.....thanks to Pinterest I can save linens, house styles, decorating tips, recipes, etc for my future Inn at the Sea.....what was the name again!?
5. You don't have to reinvent the wheel.....find someone elses idea you like and steal it.
6.  I'm just a sucker for anything like this.  I'm pretty sure Martha is, too.

Are you sold?

It takes some time.....

So we've been in our house for oh let's say over a year.  Most people probably would have put all their pictures on the wall, bought lamps, you know...the things that make it feel homey.

Well I was saving a few of those things for no apparent reason.  This weekend I decided that I wanted to stay in and get em' done.  I borrowed our neighbors drill and got to it.   Here is Home Depot Girl above--in her special outfit.  Please ignore it. I had just gone to Zumba and was feeling extra energetic and wanted to finish the projects before the work week started.

I fixed up the office a bit (which also doubles as a spare bedroom and storage) and bought lamps.  It's amazing what lamps will do to create a good atmosphere. I'm sad that I haven't had them over the last year....but you know, I got over it quickly.

Rain down on me.....

IT RAINED YESTERDAY!

Trey came home and said "It's about to rain."  I didn't really believe him because usually it rains about 1 second and stops. 

Then I heard it. I took a look.  Then I kept hearing it.  I took another look.  It was legitimately pouring.  I ran outside for a photo to prove it to you!

It smelled like rain.  It looked like it in the sky.  The air felt like it.  It was just how it should be.   Then my husband told me to step outside into the rain for a better picture...and I almost took a digger as you can see from my face above.

It was a great day at 4:00pm on Saturday!

New Hospital Update.....

The new hospital is really coming along!  It's going to open up next spring and we are all excited to see the doors open.  I want to show you some photos so that you can see the progress along with us. 

I went to visit another hospital here in town last night.  Oh man, I think our current hospital and new hospital feel so cozy and warm compared to that place.  It felt so institutional and like a hospital from WWII or something.  I hope I never need to go there.  Ship me back to America.

Our new hospital should be fabulous. State of the art equipment.  State of the art medical and administration staff:)  A coffee shop.  All the things a hospital should have.  The start of the "ski jump" looking design piece at the entrance has been started.  Can't wait to see this finished.

The clincs are in the lower building to the left.

I am working on volunteer teams who will help us move from our current hospital into the new hospital.  Also, I get to work on the interior decorating stuff which I love. It's been so fun.

We'll keep you updated.

Grease Lightning....

I've never really had a desire for oil in my hair....UNTIL NOW!  My hair is falling out in clumps here.  It's sort of gross and I talked about it to my sister-in-law the other day.  She said hers does the same and that other American women were saying the same.  What in the world?!  Is this normal in a very dry climate or do you think it is something bad in the water?

It's normal for some hair to fall out each day and especially when you wash it.  I understand.  Yup. Normal.  I'm thankful for a full head of thick hair which helps make me not so nervous about this situation, but if we live here for even 2 more years, I might start having"thin" hair.

So the Indians may have some good tips here. They do weekly hot oil treatments.  Any suggestions what might help me out here?  Has anyone ever had this problem back home or know a hair dresser with some good suggestions?

If this post grosses you out, sorry.  It's reality here and I need help.

Happy Labor Day.....

HAPPY LABOR DAY

to all those back home.

Hope you have a great day being outside and eat at least 1 hamburger. 

We labored at work today.  I even forgot it was Labor Day weekend at home. 

I think I'll go make burgers on the grill. 

Chowda'

Yesterday I was dreaming about having clam chowda' while sitting outside by the water in New England on a warm summers night.....

But then I came back to reality and realized that I was stuck in the desert where the weather is one bajillion degrees still....and I'm afraid to eat clams from here (what do they know about clams!?).....and it's nothing like New England.

So I made Chicken Corn Chowda'.  And I did say it like that.  How can you really get into the moment if you don't say chowda' properly.  The recipe is from a New England friend and she got it out of an old New England cookbook so it felt pretty close.

So here's the recipe for you. 

1 to 1 1/4 pounds bone-in chicken breast
2 cups water

1 rib celery, cut up
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp salt
-milk (see directions)
1/4 c butter
1/2 c diced onion
1 c diced celery
2 tbsp flour
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 (17 ounce) can cream-style corn
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Combine chicken, water, celery, bay leaf and salt in 3-quart saucepan.  Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, covered, until chicken is tender, about 25 minutes.  Remove chicken from brother' cool, discard bones.  Dice chicken; set aside.  Strain broth; add enough milk to make 3 cups; set aside.  Melt butter in 3-quart saucepan; saute onion and celery until soft but not brown.  Blend in flour, gradually stir in milk mixture.  Add potatoes;  simmer until tender, 15 to 20 minutes.  Stir in chicken, corn, salt, and pepper; heat through.  Garnish with chives. 

Fiesta Bunco Night......

We had a blast at our Fiesta Bunco Night last evening!  I think everyone else would agree with me.

 So everyone is asking, "What is Bunco?"  It's a dice game that is super easy to play with anybody and everybody.  You play 4 sets and in set are 6 rounds.  So in the first round, your goal is to roll 1's on the  3 dice, in round 2 you want to roll 2's, in round 3 you want to roll 's.....get it?!  Pretty easy, right?   Then, for example, if you are in round 4 (the round where you are trying to get 4's on the dice) and you roll 3 4's on the dice (there are only 3 dice) than you get a BUNCO.

 Are you with me?   There are 3 tables with 4 people sitting at each table.  So 12 people total.  There is a Kings table, a middle table and losers table.  Depending on if you lose that round or win, you move up and down to the different levels of tables.  Alright, that's enough.  Google it or go buy and throw a Bunco party for your friends if you want to know more!  It's fun and easy. Promise.

Now comes the Fiesta part!  We had a salsa contest.  Each party member had to bring a home made salsa of their choice.  We had 3 categories that we voted on.

1. The best overall salsa
2. The hottest salsa
3. The best tomato-less salsa 

 We even had a picture corner with all sorts of props.

And there's always a few characters in the group....... meet Ty and Cheryl.  A sweet couple from Connecticut.  Ty reminds us of Trey's dad and is also making comments that crack us up.

Then it was time to announce our winners!  There were Bunco winners and Salsa winners.  Crazy Ty above won the best overall salsa, and senorita Cheryl above won the most Buncos.  They were the happy winners of a TRIP TO MEXICO.   Just kidding.  But they did go home with a portable grill and cooler. I would say that they are ready for a fun winter b-b-q at a park.   Poor Brent--the guy with the toilet paper on the right.  He could not get away from the LOSER's table at Bunco.  But since he had the most losses, he too won a prize. 

Min has been working on making this pinata for a while.  It was a fun way to end the party.  Who doesn't like pretending they're back at their friend Susie's birthday party from 4th grade?!