Saltine, Caramel and Chocolate

I posted this about 1 year back.   I made it again recently and it's just darn good. It's so easy but good.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces saltine crackers
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
2. Line cookie sheet with saltine crackers in single layer.
3. In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread t cover crackers completely.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts. Cool completely and break into pieces.

All the ladies now.....

On September 18, we hosted a Women's Dinner for local ladies who come to the hospital or who have been friends of the hospital for a long time.  This event was part of our 50th Anniversary series of events.  We have our big 50th Anniversary Party coming up in November.  We're gearing up for that now.

Something different here for me was planning the event in Arabic and English.  We needed to plan everything with the local ladies in mind.  So our emcee needed to speak in Arabic and English.  Our invitations, programs and other such things were all in English and Arabic.   

Rocky Mountain Chocolate (yes, we have those in the US) made chocolate spoons for us and wrapped up a hospital mug with chocolate spoons as the gift for each lady.  Also, we were able to get some donated gifts from local places to give out to the women for different awards (such as the attendee with the most sons, grandchildren, great grandchildren, daughter, educational degrees, etc). 

It turned out to be a great evening.  We didn't get a ton of pictures as local ladies don't like their picture taken ....so we had to find a few who were willing and we snapped away!

 We had a local artist come to display her art.

 We were having a hard time finding women who were willing to get their picture taken so we had a few people "set a scene" for us but they couldn't stop laughing. 

Give it up for my shorty.......

We wanted some blinds in our house for the windows.  A man came to measure last week and we had pretty fast service.  We got home one day and most of the windows were finished.  Not exactly how we planned, but they were done.  Then today they came to finish the last window because he had "measured wrong".  Just wait.

So this is the window he came back for since he "measured wrong".

I think we don't agree on what the right measurement might be!

They're a tad bit too short.  

Then 

ARE

YOU

READY

FOR

THIS!

Presenting the worlds largest mini blinds......

duh duh duh........

 You can even lay on the bed, hold the plastic twisty thing and close your blinds all at the same time!

I hope it's as amusing to you as it was to us the day the three of us (Trey, Min and myself) came home from work to this. 

Busy.....

Lately we've been BUSY!   Every weekend doesn't even feel like a weekend.  I want  a break.  Since we got back from vacation, we hit the ground running and it just has not stopped.  Really, not stopped. Our weekend is over already and Trey, Min and I all just said that it doesn't even feel like we had a weekend. I think the Friday/Saturday thing still plays tricks on our mind, too.

I had a Women's Event that I was planning.  It was last weekend and all went well.  We had 3 dedication services this week for work stuff --1) new housing, 2) our new church renovations, 3) our surgery center to our first surgeon who worked here back in the 70's and 80's.   In the middle of all of the events (last week), Trey's sister arrived.  Oh man, I wish we weren't so busy so that we could help her settle in properly. 

We went shopping for mattresses on Friday so that she can get her room set up.  Oh boy, those suckers are expensive. We decided to ditch the regular stores and hit Ikea next weekend to find a cheaper one that will do the job. 

I used to think busy was fun. Mmmm...not anymore. I enjoy a good night at home, making my house all clean and neat or just walking around the mall for a bit or going to the gym or making a nice dinner.  I actually really am wishing for a Barnes and Noble right now.  I want to go, get a good coffee, sit down and read some fun decorating books or flip through travel books to find out what a fun trip would be. 

We really need to work on protecting our time or at least carving out some "us" time. Otherwise, easily I could see how life will only become about work and nothing else.  Already, there isn't a ton to do in Al Ain so it's easy to let work activities take up your time, but we need to get out and do some fun stuff.  The nice weather is coming so I'm pretty pumped about that.

We have our big 50th Anniversary party coming up....we're gearing up for that now. 

Cover Up.....

In B-town, it was easy to make friends.  Our friends there were so welcoming, friendly and we felt instantly like family with many of them.  Here, not so much.  I specifically mean the nationals...not the expats.  Our friends who are Indian, Filipino or other Americans have been very warm and welcoming.  I'm not saying the others AREN't welcoming, they are just a bit more closed and harder to get to know.

We've been working on a few friends.  Gradually we meet a new member of the family each time.  We had lunch with 2 one time, then 3, then 4 and this past time there were 5 of them!  This feels like success.   And for this place that is a miracle.  So we're thankful.

They aren't big on showing their face in pictures...so we told them to COVER UP....and since Min and I are SOOO culturally sensitve, we covered up, too:)

They left me with a few house warming gifts which was so sweet.  I'm being a little silly in this photo....or maybe I was really THAT excited.  The tea cups are rather cute and I used them tonight for guests.

We had some other friends over tonight.  We're starting a tradition of dinners weekly with friends........I'm going to try to get them all to play BUNCO together in a few weeks.  If you haven't played with a group of friends, do it...it will become a monthly activity with friends.  There are women who play this game with friends for YEARS and YEARS.......maybe this is the start of something big in the UAE.  C'mon dice rolling can cross all sorts of cultural and language barriers. 

I have been working on this Women's Event that we held for local ladies for a while now. It was a good amount of work but rewarding and all went well.  I'll post pictures soon.    I feel like I haven't had a chance to breath in the past week.  I think once next Sunday comes, maybe life will get less busy or at least that is my hope.

Stay.....

She's here. Min arrived.

She came to the hospital today to fill out some paper work and then go on the awkward hospital tour where you meet EVERYONE and you hear 8 million names that you can't even understand.    Then to top it off, she was introduce as Trey's sister. Ha....the reactions were hilarious .....but a blank stare to an out loud laugh.  There's a reputation you want to follow.  Just kidding. 

She's working hard at keeping in touch with everyone. 

We're bad, though.  It's Thursday night, the end of the week. We're just sitting here on our computers. I'm writing a blog about Min typing her computer. LAME. But it's okay.  We'll get more fun from here on out.  Promise.   Our goal is to make her STAY, not run away.

She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes.....

Trey's sister arrives today!  Woo hoo.  She'll be staying with us for a bit until she gets a bed, etc. 

We're excited to see her and experience life together here. It will be nice to live near a family member again! I haven't had that in a while.