Me and my big Sam

Sam.  My Big Sam.  Man, I love this kid.  He is growing up so much.  And I do mean 'up' in more than just his height, although that is true too.  I'm so proud of the young man he is becoming.

I have had the very wonderful privilege of teaching him in early morning seminary this year.  I was asked to teach in January, and we are almost finished for the year.  We have been studying the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History.  We have a small little class of just four kids, we had five for a while, but one boy moved back to the States.  We meet at 5:30 in the morning at my dining room table.  I wake Sam up at 5:20, just enough time for him to stumble out of bed, throw on shorts and a t shirt and be down for the hymn and prayer.  It has been so good for me to teach, and I love the conversations it leads to during the day with my family - especially with Samuel.

This year Sam has been playing hockey with a team an hour from here.  It's a long miserable bus ride for an hour, then he has to find a ride to the rink, another 25 minutes, then either he has to get a ride back to the Big Camp and either take a taxi home or sometimes Peter and I go and get him.  Over all, it's pure dedication in my book.  He leaves here at 5 p.m. and is home at 10 p.m.  He gets to play for 1 hour and 35 minutes of that time he is away.  But I have never once heard a complaint or even, "I don't want to go tonight."  He loves it and I am so happy for him.  He does this route twice a week, then on Saturday's he has games.  Peter has been wonderful in getting him everywhere he needs to be.  Including driving him to Qatar and flying with him to the UAE  for tournaments.  Peter's dad drove thousands of miles for Peter in hockey, so... I guess what goes around, comes around.

Sam is just getting ready to finish ninth grade and leave our company schools.  This is a big move and will be a great test for him.  While most of his friends will be sent to boarding school this fall, he will remain here with us and ride the bus for 90 minutes each way to school and back.  I have no idea what will become of hockey, but we'll do our best to make it work.(with most kids leaving the kingdom, there are not enough to play hockey competitively at 15, so he will be able to practice, but no more competitions.  Bummer!)  Of course he would prefer to go to boarding school like his friends, but we believe that families should be together where at all possible.  It won't be easy, but we are trying to make it work.  It's especially hard because there won't be many kids his age on camp, let alone no other members of the church his age.  There are, however, a few kids that are LDS and his age at his new school this fall.

Anyway, he is growing so much.  During the few times that he and I get to have conversations without the younger kids, we have such a good time.  I am looking forward to him getting a bit older and him becoming an adult where our friendship can really grow.  At this point I am still mom, and have to keep my mom face on more often than not.  But I can see in the not too far future us being very, very good friends. Can't wait, I love this boy.

Solomon is Seven!!!

Oh my goodness!  I cannot believe that Solomon is SEVEN!!  He turned seven all the way back in January, and I am a good mom - and thought I would write about it here.  Since I haven't written much at all in the last few years, I can try to do some catch up - right???

Anyway.  We just love this boy!  And he is nothing but BOY!  He loves all action and adventure.  If there is a LEGO involved, he will be there.  If there is running, jumping, karate chopping, dressing like a ninja or knight, cowboy or combat - Solomon will be there!

Lego cake, anyone?  He picked out all the Lego guys he could find to make a crazy lego cake!

Solomon's best friend lives just down the street - Mitchell.  They adore each other.  They are like little bear cubs.  When they have been apart for a bit, they always have to run and hug each other.  Then wrestle around.  He would love Mitchell to be his brother - which I think is funny because, well, Sol already have three brothers of his own!  But Mitchell has none, and they really do love each other.

Breakfast in bed for this guy!  Look out world, Mr. Enthusiastic is on his way!!!

Even the older kids are jealous of Sol and his amazing-ness!  He is good at everything he does.  He is really good in school, smart.  And very well behaved; his teacher told me she wished she could clone him and have an entire class of Solomon's.  (who wouldn't love that!?)  He is also super awesome at all sports or anything active.  All he has to do is give something a try, and bingo!  He's a super star at it!  We've all decided this kid is going far in life!

This year he has also begun to gain his own testimony of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father.  This has been so fun to watch come out in him.  He has been a tough little cookie to raise so far, and still is!  But he is still my most tender child as well.  He has to be cuddled and snuggled more than anyone else.  He is happier than any of my other kids, and on a dime can be the saddest, whiniest, least content.  But he has begun to recognize the spirit in his life and develop a love for the gospel.  He just told me today how when he sings primary songs he feels happy and warm.  Me too, Chach.

At seven Sol loves to play the Wii, more than any other human I think.  You may recall from posts years ago, this kid came out wanting to play video games.  He is only allowed to play on weekends, and only for a few hours,  But he talks like he plays 24/7.  Imagine if he did! Yikes!

He likes to read, but prefers action books filled with super heroes and/or lego junk.  (Ninjago or Chima - heaven help me!) He's got big wonky front teeth and more often than not, crazy hair.  He is particular about how he ties his shoes, and changes his clothes several times a day.  He LOVES Tiger scouts and can't wait each week to go.  He loves his family, but especially, 'his baby' - Giddie. (remember that Gid is 5 right now.  baby?)  They still love each other to death.  They cuddle, wrestle, play, tease, giggle, run all day.  They truly are best little friends.  Sol has friends out of the family for sure, but when push comes to shove, he loves playing with Gid more than anything.  I love that they still love each other.

Seven is a great age!  Full of hugs and snuggles.  Eight is exciting.  It's when growing up really starts.  But for this mom, I'll take seven forever.  I am still the brightest star in Sol's sky, he thinks I hung the moon.  And the feeling is mutual.  I love him so very much.

Diving: with Pictures!

This post is almost two years old, but I finally added photos!! Originally posted October 6, 2013

Well, we finally finished our PADI Open Water dive course.  It's been a huge feat for the whole family.  Our dive days in the ocean have had Peter, Sam and I gone for 12 hours at a time.  Not to mention several evenings of classes. Simon has been the main person in charge of the kids, with neighbors and friends on back up.  He's been great and the other kids have had to really pull their weight as well.  Nothing like leaving a ten year old in charge of your seven, five and three year old - all day.  Oh well.  The things we do here; that we would never do any where else.

The salt in the Persian Gulf is out of control.  Like acid.  Part of the training is having to take our masks off under water, then put them back on and clear them.  Oi!!!  Talk about painful!  Between the burning eyes and the nose and throat on fire - it's one of the worst things ever.  Then there is the feeling of wanting to throw up while coughing your guts out into the regulator.  I swear - it was bad.  But as our nice little Filipino instructor likes to remind us; learning in the worst place in the world, makes everywhere else that much better.  You can only go up from here!

Our first dive site, two weeks ago, the visibility was almost none.  Like, a little scary.  And there was nothing to see.  Well, I saw a ton of little snails in cone shells making their way across the bottom of the ocean floor.  There must have been thousands of them.  When I say the bottom of the ocean floor, I mean like, 15 feet.  The Gulf is realllllly shallow.

Our second dive was much better.  Well, better and worse.  The first was at a private resort beach, and was quite clean for standards around here.  The second, while the dive was better, was at a public beach (if you can imagine that here), and was FILTHY!  People just pull up on the sand and get out right there.  Women get in, covered head to toe on their abaya's.  It's no wonder people drown here.  I guess they missed the memo about yards and yards of fabric draped all over you in water and pulling you under.  Hm.  At any rate, it was a little unnerving being in 'public' trying to put on my dive suit over my swim suit.  Luckily it was quite remote.  Being the only female is always a little scary anyway.

Upon arrival, the first words out of my mouth were - "well, good news.  we don't have to bring our own garbage - it's already here."  And I mean garbage like you really can hardly imagine.  I mean horrific.  Just think of every gross and disgusting thing you can, and it's there. We had to tip toe and step over piles of yuck just to get in the water.  Most disgusting sites?  Raw, spoiling in the sun, huge chicken leg.  Soggy, soupy containers of middle eastern food fare.  Bottles, napkins, bags,...a salt shaker?  Wrappers soaked in shwarma sauce, wet tissues, and so on and so on.  Oh yeah - and poop.

It was bad.

Granted, it was on Saturday.  Friday is the day that all the locals head to beaches and parks and 'picnic'.  Which means they bring a lot of food and goods, then just stand up and go home.  This is absolutley the standard practice.  Not even one effort made to pick up after themselves. It's so disheartening.

I was really worried the water would be swarming with garbage as well.  And while it wasn't exactly clean, it was much better. (I'm going to attribute this to the wind, currents, and the giant floating garbage dump somewhere in the middle of the ocean)  The temp was nice and warm up top, and by the time were down to 15 or 18 feet, it was quite chilly.  It's crazy to to feel the thermocline.  Weird.

At this particular site, the government has sunken some trucks and what not, as artificial reefs.  And as far as wildlife around these parts, I wasn't disappointed.  We saw hundreds and hundreds of sliver and and yellow small fish.  Maybe four or five inches long and tall.  Lot's of 10 in, purple angel fish.  We saw several bottom dwellers and one big-for-here crab.  (hard to compare crab sizes to the pacific northwest giant crabs)  Another of our instructors, Mohammad (the minnow - I refer to him as he is SO tiny!), brought flat bread to feed the fish.  It was SO fun to see them just swarm around us.  Sam got to feed them some of the bread, and as far as I can tell he was in heaven.

I realize that there are much lovelier places in the world to dive; but for outdoor fun here,  this was pretty darn fun.

Sam collected small round oysters along the way, hoping to find a pearl.  Once we were home and opened them, besides a lot of muck and smell - we found nothing.  Some awfully pretty mother of pearl and lots of fun were the catch of the day for us.