The Twins Travel

I never, in a million years, had any intention of homeschooling my kids. Ever.  For one, I didn’t really understand what homeschool IS - I thought homeschool was either regular school at home for eight hours a day, or ultra religious families who wanted to teach flat-eartherism and creationism.  For another, I’m a single parent and it just wan’t an option when I worked full-time. My kids had to be in school or day-care when they were younger.  But then I retired from the Air Force. And then COVID-19 happened and schools shut down in March 2020. Of course, we all know what happened then... NO ONE DID WHAT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO DO  ...so schools went to virtual learning. When the county we were in announced they were going to virtual learning for the first nine weeks of the 20/21 school year, I knew it was not going to work for Declan and Harper. The end of 2nd grade was honestly horrible for everyone. It wasn’t the teachers - let's be clear about that. They were both...

 We're off on a new adventure! This time to Chennai, India for two years. We arrived three days ago and immediately went into two weeks of quarantine in a temporary apartment. Our permanent house is undergoing some construction and upgrades. Due to COVID-19 and some funding issues, the construction was delayed. The good news is, our UAB is here and waiting for us to move into our house! First impressions: I am SO glad I hired a driver. I know...that sounds so bougie, but I don't think I'll ever be comfortable driving here. I thought driving in Kuwait was bad. No...no it wasn't. At least there, they kind of adhered to the rules of the road. Here: lanes area a suggestion. Mopeds gaggle at lights. Horns are used copiously. Merge willy-nilly. It's truly frightening. But everything is so lush and green and vibrant and I can't wait to be able to get out and explore. As much as possible anyway what with COVID restrictions.  Jet lag has hit us hard. I've tried to st...

This post is a little late, but here's my (our) take on Messila Water Village. It's located just down from the Jumeriah Hotel and Messila Beach. It has four water slides - one where you take an inflatable tube for either two or three people; and three others that you slide down without a tube. There's a lazy river, a toddler pool and play area, a pool and play area for older small kids, a wave pool, a plunge pool (where the slide dumps you out above the water), and one of those almost vertical slides that you slide down on a mat. My first impression is that it's a little run down and could use some updating. The tiles in the lazy river were painted over at one time and the paint is chipping, along with some of the tiles. There aren't a lot of inner tubes available for the lazy river, so everyone kind of just swims/floats along. The fiber glass of the slides is faded (understandable given how hot the sun is) and could probably use some patching. But...the kid...

I know...strawberry picking in Kuwait - who'd've thunk it. BUT, it's not like strawberry picking in the US where they hand you a bucket and you go to town.    This is easy strawberry picking. No bending over and digging into the plants for strawberries. They plant the strawberries in vertical planters and you have to use scissors to cut the strawberries. Strategizing Yummy strawberries! I went with a friend and her kids and last year she was told it's because if you touch the berries, they'll stop growing. I think it's because they're planted so shallow (shallowly?) that if people yank on the plants a lot, they'll pull them out of the planters. Either way, they hand you a small container and a pair of kid's scissors and you cut the strawberries into the container without touching the berries. Yes, we did try a few - they're delicious. In addition to the strawberry picking they have a couple of money sucking areas for the k...

I have to say, I'm very glad this was an organized trip on a bus and I didn't drive, because it would really not have been worth it. The ride is about an hour - the farm is only a few miles from the Saudi Arabia border - and there is very little to see once you leave Kuwait City. I was amazed by three things - the camel herds (cool), the amount of tent cities (workers, I guess), and the amount of trash in the desert (not cool). From the description on the website, I was expecting an in-depth farm tour - how they grow produce in the middle of the desert - that kind of thing. Once we arrived, we loaded up in a golf cart, the driver said, "This is potato." Pointed at a field. "This is lettuce." Pointed at another field. We drove through an open sided barn with milk cows in it, and were dropped off at a kind of petting zoo place. The kids loved this part, I will say that. They got to pet and feed the goats; Harper rode a donkey, they got to see camels u...

We've been in Kuwait for almost two months (I know this, because I've started getting notifications that it's time to change my password at work) and we're settling in nicely. Declan and Harper have made friends with a little boy their age who lives two doors down from us. The great thing about living on the compound is they can run back and forth between the two houses and I don't think anything of it (unless I know the baby is sleeping at the little boy's house, then I don't let them do that). There are a lot of kids close to their age and Declan and Harper usually have someone to play with when we go to the park. We spent the day at the pool this afternoon and a lot of other families had the same idea. There's usually something planned for at least one day of the weekend, even if it's just having the jumping castle out for happy hour on Thursday. Harper has it in her head that she wants to do a pajama party, so I'm going to send ou...

I decided that every year on Christmas eve, I wanted to make handprint ornaments.  Well, this year, it's footprints.  We started off trying to get Declan's handprints & he kept grabbing onto the dough.  The footprints were a little iffy as well, since he kept digging his little monkey toes into the dough.  Cute little monkey toes.  But here is the finished product.  They're a little larger than I expected, so we might not be able to hang them on the tree next year, but the handprints should be ok. Merry Christmas!

Went back and read through my old posts & realized, I'm hilarious!!

I was posting all Declan & Harper's photos to FB when I remembered I had this blog.  I'm not planning on uploading ALL the pictures I have taken of them so far, but I figured this would be a much better venue for updating everyone rather than doing it on FB.   I wish I had kept the blog while I was going through the whole process of getting pregnant with them...it would have been great for them to look at when they get older.  So here's the short version: I decided in my mid-20s that if, by the time I reached 35, I was not married or in a long term relationship where that was the next logical step, I was going to have a family on my own.  There are a lot of reasons for my decision; (more than I'm willing to go into on a blog) the strongest reason being I wanted a family & it wasn't something I was willing to put off until I found "the one".   So when I got to Wright-Patterson, I asked about the possibility during my yearly exam & got a r...

I did not get an overseas assignment, so I won't be going to SHAPE or Turkey. Apparently, two long & three short tours are enough as far as the AF is concerned. Of course, I wouldn't be racking up so many short tours if the AF didn't deploy me so much...I'm just saying. My state side list comes out 13 April, so I will know what my options are then. I'll be given a list of options & I'll have to rank them in order of preference. I'll find out three to four weeks after that what my next assignment will be.

This is the hotel I stayed in while I was in Cairns. It was located in Yorkeys Knob, which is a beach 15 mins north of Cairns. This is the beach which I had pretty much to myself. This is a stinger net. They put these up for people to swim in so they don't get stung by jelly fish. Not sure if it was because of all the weather from the cyclone or if the beach is always like this, but these small shells were just piled up along the tide line.

I flew down to Sydney the day before I had to leave and spent the night there. I stayed in the Mercantile Hotel in the Rocks. It was a short walk from the Central Quay train station (pronounced "key", which is weird because they don't pronounced queen as "keen") and steps away from the Sydney Harbor Bridge and right across the bay from the Opera House. The hotel was right over a pub & reminded me of the hotels in Ireland, which probably makes sense since it was an Irish pub. I checked in and then walked up to the the bridge to do the bridge climb. It was neat & there were some great views, but I can't say it was worth the cost. You aren't allowed to take your own cameras with you, which I understand since they might get dropped on the bridge & then smash into some car below. what I don't understand is the price gouging for purchasing the photos taken by the guide during the bridge climb. $25 for the first print & $10 for each p...

Got out to the Great Barrier Reef today but I didn't get to go diving due to the medication I'm on. That kind of sucked, but I still got to snorkel around the reef. We went to three different locations on the reef & were able to see small reef sharks, sea turtles & giant clams. The weather was perfect & visibility was great. FABULOUS day!!

Can't say I'm all that impressed with the city of Cairns. WAY to touristy. There is literally nothing except shops, places to eat & backpackers hostels. There isn't even a beach in Cairns. The city built a "lagoon" (read 'pool') so that people would have a place to swim. Other than the multiple choices of places to eat, I'm SO glad I decided to stay out here in the 'burbs. It's peaceful, quiet &, oh yeah, I'm 50 m from the beach. Plus, taking the bus into town took an hour. It's really only about a 15 minute drive, but the bus goes everywhere. I'm going out to the reef tomorrow. I'm going to get dive certified again. So excited!!! And a baby lizard just crawled across my floor.

Got into Cairns (pronounced 'cans') late Wednesday & took the shuttle from the airport to my motel. It's a self-contained apartment style room half a block from the beach & about a 10 minute drive from the heart of Cairns. I spent Thursday walking around, finding all the stores, getting some food, & spent a little bit of time on the beach. Cairns reminds me a lot of Hawaii. You have the city on the coast, with sugar cane fields & mountainous rain forest surrounding it. Today, I took the scenic railroad up to Kuranda, which is an old hippie town in the World Heritage rain forest just north of Cairns and which now mainly draws in tourists. The whole trip is narrated & there are some really beautiful shots of the valley & coastline. The train goes through 15 tunnels & over however many bridges & stops at Barron Falls for pictures. In Kuranda itself, there is the Koala Gardens, Bird World, Butterfly sanctuary & the venom zoo. I just we...

Lungkata, a blue-tongued lizard man, traveled to Uluru from the north. He went to Uluru because he heard there were many other beings there and he was lonely. As he was walking around Uluru, he came across an emu that had been speared through the thigh. This was a dilemma: although Lungkata was lonely, he was also hungry. Although it was wrong to take another hunter's prey, Lungkata decided to kill the emu and take the meat. Knowing the hunter who had speared the emu would belooking for the bird, Lungkata cut the emu into pieces and hid them. Shortly, two brothers who had tracked the wounded bird found Lungkata and asked him if he had seen the emu. Lungkata told the hunters he had not, but that he had heard what sounded like a wounded emu way, way off in the distances and sent the brothers off. Lungkata gathered all the pieces of the emu and set off to find a place to hide. In his haste to get away, Lungkata dropped pieces of the meat, leaving a trail behind him. Meanwhile...

Long, long ago, there was a young Kuniya (python) boy was surprised and ambushed by a Liru (poisonous snake). Liru threw spears at the boy striking him and killing him. The spears were thrown so hard that holes were left in the rock of Uluru, which can still be seen. The boys aunt felt the evil that happened to her nephew and went to search for the Liru, leaving traces of her tracks around Uluru. When the python woman (the Kuniya of the story) found her nephew she fell to her knees in mourning. Liru, seeing this, began to mock Kuniya. In her grief and anger, Kuniya took her digging stick and struck Liru three times, killing him. This is the only spot on Uluru where water from the rock runs red. Even though Liru was dead, Kuniya curled up on the spot and keeps watch for his return. The first photo shows the path of Kuniya and the second shows her curled up watching for Liru's return. If you look at the rock, the top of it looks like the head of a snake resting on it's ...