Long time...

So I know its been a while. Many things have happened in the last month or is it 2 since I've posted?

I'm typing this without checking so just go along with it!

So first of all, at the end of March, we moved from a 2 bedroom apartment into a 4 bedroom villa. Its super nice to have the extra space, and for Zalen to have more room to run around and play, but its a hassle to keep clean. Scratch that, I've gotten down a schedule on cleaning so now its not as hard but moving in and starting to clean was a challenge. Now its ok, I'm ok!!

Its a 2 story, and most of our walls are concrete. We did have concrete walls in the apt. but I could still hear our neighbors when they were loud, plus we had someone living above us and that was an anxiety holder for me. But then again that is a whole 'nother story I don't want to get into right now. Needless to say after a while our upstairs neighbor was nice enough to stop moving his furniture at 2am. And now that we are in a villa, I'm happy that I don't have to worry about upstairs noises. I haven't gone to see who my neighbors are yet, and we have been here almost 3 weeks.

I did get a new DSLR Nikon D3200 camera! Its amazing! To me its an advanced camera because I'm coming from my camera phone/ small digital cool pix camera. Its definitely an Upgrade, and I'm still learning how to use it! I'll have to post some pics I've taken with it!

I'm typing this blog from my new computer my husband bought me as an anniversary present. I really didn't need it but he wanted me to have a good desktop computer to play WOW with him. I was able to watch my team DUKE win the 2015 NCAA Championship title!!! It was nerve-wrecking to watch being here in Saudi because the internet would have to buffer the live feed every couple of minutes and most of the time it would start to buffer right as someone was shooting a basket and the ball was in the air.

Zalen and I haven't really been off the compound much these last couple of weeks. On Resurrection day (aka Easter) we went to the beach, first time after a month of not going. It was so nice. We were in the company of some wonderful friends, the Lomedico family! It was my friend Jo, her husband Mike, and their 2 girls, Rebecca and Angelina. Zalen and I both adore this family in general, they are fun people who helped me out when I was moving into the villa by entertaining Zalen for me!! It took us 4 hours to move from one side of the compound to the other. So it was nice to not have to worry about Zal needing me.

I was worried coming to another country and not being able to have a babysitter if I needed. It is hard to find people you can trust to watch your kid. I've been very blessed with the wonderful ladies I've met being in Saudi. Its nice to have at least 2 people here I fully trust to be alone with Zalen!!

There have been a few sandstorms here, and it looks all yellow outside. The weather has been hot and humid (always around 85* and I'm not sure on the humidity) all I know is I walk outside; from a 66* house and step outside and immediately my glasses fog up and its getting to the point to where its a little hard for me to catch my breath outside. I'm really dreading the summer here because I hear it gets waaaaay worse. I guess I'll let y'all know how it goes as far as weather!!

I've been drawing a blank on what to make for dinner and lunch for that matter! Back in Jan. I was trying to get my son out of the eating habit of just the basic: bread, pasta, and cereal diet. Well I tried for weeks to serve him healthier foods and to get him to eat whatever I was making dad and I. But now.........after doing that for 2 1/2 months, I'm back to the basics of bread, pasta, and cereal. I do feel like I've failed, but I'm not a short order cook anymore. Zalen now knows whatever I give him, if he doesn't eat it, he won't eat until the next meal. I'm worried because next month we will be taking a vacation to Dublin, Ireland. I won't be cooking for a whole week, so I'm praying the first couple of days won't be horrible because I know he won't want to eat whatever they have there if he doesn't think it looks appetizing. My son will NOT taste new food, he just looks at it. Even if he has had it before, like rice or shredded chicken, he just looks at it and pushes it away. But any little thing he finds on the floor: dirt, hair, paper, etc. he will pick up and put in his mouth. Its a bit frustrating but like I said I'm not a short order cook anymore.

I'm more cautious about what I do give him, and I do try healthier versions of things to see if he will eat it but that's always a challenge. He still isn't talking either. But I do know that God has my back, and I just have to keep my faith up that he will grow out of this phase soon!!!

Well I must go make some lunch now......until next time!!

Don't sweat the small stuff

If you ever get a chance to live in another country, I say go for it!

Its a great chance to grow, be thankful and count your blessings!!

Being outside of your comfort zone really gives you opportunities that you wouldn't think are possible! I used to live my life in a box. I would wake up, go to school/work, come home go to sleep and do it all over again the next day! It was the same routine day in and day out. I was content, to some extent but didn't think I would ever have an opportunity to explore life outside of El Paso,TX! I would joke with my mom, when I was younger, that I would get married and move in with her. Or that if that didn't happen, when I turned 25, I was going to join a convent and be a nun. I was raised Christian, but when I was a kid I would go to church with my grandpa who was Catholic, so I thought that would count for something!!

When I met my husband, I still believed I would stay in El Paso and not be blessed enough to travel. When I was dating my husband, after about 2 years we took a trip to Seattle. I fell in love with that city! Not only did it have mountains (which I love) but it was on the coast, so ocean was near (which I love more). I had made a goal in my head that I would eventually end up in Washington state in one way or another. Not only did God give me my husband but He blessed us with him being in the military. (Which at the time, I didn't think was a blessing, but I will cover that later) After we got married (2 months to be exact) I was moving to OK, and experiencing life outside of my comfort zone of EP (and my mom). Yes I was terrified, and leaving home was so hard! But God opened a door, and I walked right in and said "oh....uh...hi" world! 

While Jon was in the military I was able to live in 2 different cities. I was away from my box, and man was that an eye opener!! Now that I'm blessed to live in another country, that's even more of an experience/eye opener. If God is teaching me a lesson right now by granting us this opportunity to live in Saudi, I believe it would be "Don't sweat the small stuff". I've learned to not take anything for granted.

I've also learned that things aren't always going to be consistent!! Saudi likes change and is changing things all the time.

I remember from my first post about my first impression of Saudi, and how I thought it looked run-down. I've realized now its more like, they are improving things/buildings/areas. Something is always under construction. Saudi doesn't want to live in a box, they want change, they want to grow and be something better!

While many people see the bad side to living here, I can't help but be grateful and try to remain positive about this whole opportunity! Yes some things stink, like me not having much freedom, but if that is what it takes for me to realize and experience a whole new culture/way of life, that there is something out there other than the routine day to day activities........my eyes and ears are now open God!!!

I do find myself complaining sometimes about my blessing, which is normal because I'm human. This last month the grocery store I shop at stopped selling my blue bonnett butter. That made me sad! They also change up the types of foods they sell....for example, we tried a new brand of fish sticks. We go back a week later and they don't have that brand. Change, change, change. No consistency!!! That gets on my nerves sometimes, but I'm learning, even more so now, to just go with the flow! And it could just be that I go to late and that brand is already sold, but man I don't want to have to go to 3 different grocery stores to get everything on my list like I know a bunch of families do here.

Being in Saudi has also brought out my inner chef! I've had to make things from scratch because being in my box back home in EP was too easy, lol. So far I've made: tortillas (which I make at least once a week), empanadas (pineapple and apple), red velvet cupcakes, and tomorrow it will be Brownies! Its so great to hear my friends ask me to make something for them from scratch. It makes me feel wanted and loved! I got a request from my husband's co-worker to make brownies so I'll be making some tomorrow!

Anyway, I'll be posting soon about my son's 2nd birthday. 2 years old, and the apple of my eye (when I'm not pulling my hair out, hahaha). Until next time.....................

Happy New Year!!

Its a New year!! New Adventures, New beginnings, new start for some!!

I don't have resolutions this year because I never keep to them, so instead I have things I'm just going to do! My bff and I are going to read through the Bible this year (which is great because I've always wanted to do that but would always get distracted and forget). Since I'm in Saudi and its hot, I have more motivation now to get a better "beach body" so I have a work out partner that I'm waiting to get to Saudi. But I have already started exercising so Good job me! To also get me more motivated I've taken some pics so I can have before and after's!

I guess that's it for the most part, I mean there are other things, more that are personal that I need to work through that I'm hoping with Prayer and more Bible studies, they will work themselves out!

I haven't been off the compound much, since I last posted. I've been to a new restaurant, a TexMex type of place which was really good. Been to the beach more. My legs are a nice light caramel color I can't wait to see how dark I get before i go back to the states! I'm lying, I have been to 2 different places on the bus! They have a bus that takes us wives places during the week so we aren't stuck on the compound all day bored. I've been to a "$2.50" store (kinda like the dollar store, which was nice, I could have spent more than what I had easily). I've been to what was called "Space Mall" which wasn't a mall at all, its just like a giant Dillards type store. 85% clothes, shoes, kitchen stuff. I did get Zal some shoes, 2 pairs of sandals, which was an adventure in itself because the units of measurement are European so I'm getting used to that. I did learn my shoe size is a 40, sounds big and here (at least at that store) it was hard to find my size in a nice shoe that I liked. I am super picky about shoes though so that's not surprising! Now in clothes I have no idea and I don't even plan to start looking until 6 months from now when I know I've lost weight. Even though everyone here is pretty thin but we will cross that road at another time!

My husband took Zal and I to the beach just the family. It was super crowded on the weekend and it took us about 30min once we got to the right area to figure out what entrance to take. Mostly everywhere here is blocked by high walls. So most of the roads look like alleys, best way I can describe it. Houses have huge walls and gates, so you can't see what the front of them look like. The beach 'resorts' are the same way. You have to pay attention or know where your going because there are hardly any signs. Thankfully I was paying attention the first time I went on the bus to the beach we went to, so I kinda knew where we were going. I'm so glad my son is a fish like me, he loves water!!!

I mailed my parents a card and a friend of mine a card, and stamps here are expensive. It was 2 SAR, which in American terms meant about $0.52 each. Hahahah I know that's not expensive I was just complaining for no reason! I do feel bad when it comes to tipping here like when we order food and have it delivered. In dollars we usually tip about $0.52 or 0.78. I've been told they don't even expect tips here when delivering food but I like to because to me its like a thanks.

I'll be getting Arabic lessons soon from a very nice lady who grew up in Jordan. I'm excited. If anyone reading this prays, can you please keep a friend of mine in your prayers. Its classified to the topic but her name is Mindy! And thanks in advance!

Over the next 6 months I'm going to try my hardest and lose 50 lbs. that is my short term goal! Perfectly achievable since my son is so active and loves being outside! He gets to the point that he will come get my hand and lead me to the door because he wants to go outside. Its cute but he does it when I'm mostly cleaning.

Well today was a short entry. I need to go exercise now! Until next time.....

American food in Saudi

Food.....a yummy thing necessary to live!

I don't know what I was expecting when I left the States when it came to different tastes in food. I know at times I can be ignorant, but I'm not sure what all I was thinking when it came to food, I guess I expected to find all the things I'm used to seeing (ie: brands), half way across the world!!

Yeah, not the case!

Granted, the Panda does have some American brands I'm used to seeing,(I'm not sure if they are American....but you know what I mean) like Doritos, Blue Bonnett butter, and Philadelphia cream cheese! I was super excited to see the butter because that is what I used in the States. And being from the south (Yes Texas is considered the south) I do use butter a lot!

There is a restaurant on the compound. They have ok food. Their menu tries to cover a range of variety. They have breakfast items, like pancakes. Lunch items like a Chicken club sandwich. Dinner entrées like Pizza and desserts like carrot cake. In all honesty, I was expecting things to taste more American, and that is ignorant I know. There are many people here of all different backgrounds; people from Asia, Europe, and the States, as well as neighboring Middle Eastern countries.

Things I've eaten from the restaurant include a "Mexican grilled chicken sandwich" which only consisted of Jalapenos and tomatoes, lol! Pizza- which is super cheesy and delicious. A Taco "basket" aka Taco Salad- which was good, they mince their chicken rather than chop or grind it.

My husband ordered some Coke, and I was thinking it was imported from the States. Wrong! Saudi makes their own Coke. It has a peppery after-taste. Which made my chicken taco salad taste funky. Have you ever smelled something.....not necessarily bad, but then ate something and it tasted like something you've smelled before? Well Saudi has a certain smell to it, its not bad its just a certain humid, a little musky, dusty smell to it. Well when I tasted the coke, it tasted like Saudi Arabia. So that was something I wasn't interested in.

There is a 7-11 type convenient store on the compound which tends to be a little pricey at times, but that's expected. They have sodas there, which are the regular 12oz size, they sell Dr. Pepper, imported from the states, so that tastes the same. They also have Pepsi which I haven't tried yet.

When I first arrived, husband had bought some eggs and milk so that way we would have something to eat for breakfast. Well the milk tasted kinda funky, it could have been goats milk or something. When I looked at the expiration date on the bottle it was a couple months so I'm sure what kind of "whole milk" that was. Labels and signs here are in Arabic and English. So we have to read the labels real carefully and found "100% cows milk" and that tastes like what I'm used to!

This last weekend- speaking of which, the work week in Saudi is from Sunday to Thursday. Their weekend is Friday and Saturday. Schools use that schedule as well. So on Friday we went to a restaurant called "The Counter", with our friends. Jeddah, is full of stores like Prada, Coach, Gucci and DKNY. Its pretty interesting to see women here with their MK purses and designer shoes, but the city, so far from what I've seen, is run down. And the cars here........When in the States and people see a Lamborghini they are amazed. You come here and its like "oh I see that on a daily basis", its super common to see super nice cars here.

So back to going to The Counter- trying to find parking in front of the restaurant was difficult because like I said, everyone and their dog have a car so its packed. But it was nice outside, not too hot so walking was perfectly ok with me! The restaurant specialized in burgers. Really good burgers I might add! Our friends had raved about the milkshakes there so I was excited to try some. I had a Birthday Cake milkshake. Which tasted super sweet and exactly like a birthday cake!! The whole time I was eating I could feel my whole body tense, (because of the horrific driving here) and that will be another blog for another day. So once we got home, (we had taken the shake to go), I was able to relax and enjoy my burger and shake!

I'm really excited to try actual Saudi food like Lamb and camel. We are going to try and go this weekend to a place that cooks camel, i'll be sure to blog about that!! Stay tuned for more blogs..... until next time............

My move to Saudi Arabia and first impressions!!

So yes, its been over a year since I've last posted a blog.

I'll catch you up on life so far.

In Oct. 2013, I moved back home to El Paso. My husband was being medically discharged and we weren't sure what we wanted to do after he got out. There was talk about moving to Saudi Arabia if he got a job with a good company.

Since 2 of his Army buddies had been hired, it made the decision a lot more tolerable for us knowing we would have people we know in a different country. The money was the main reason I said "Let's go for it", besides what did we have to lose? We always have a plan in place for our family (my son, myself and my husband), and after praying for some months, I felt it was the right decision for our family to take the steps necessary to get to Saudi Arabia. So my husband was out of the Army in May 2014. He took some time off (which is what I wanted him to do) and was hired in July. A month later he moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It took 3 months, and a lot of prayer for my son and I to get over here as well (Saudi). 

I was praying fervently, along with my family, that my 21 month old son would make it through 3 flights, totaling 18 hours! God did answer our prayers!!! (Thanks Lord!) Zalen would sleep during take off and did so wonderfully, especially during the longest, 12 hour flight from the States to Saudi. 

My first impression:
So we flew Saudi Airlines. During the months I was waiting and going through the process to get here, I had prayed that the culture wouldn't be much of a shock. Once we were on the plane, the pilot only spoke in Arabic. I thought it was awesome, and weird at the same time. Of course since I was dressed differently than everyone else on the plane, I did get odd looks, but honestly, it didn't bother me. The plane had screens on the seats, with pre-loaded movies/games/live maps on it. It was a night flight, so we left the States at 6pm. I couldn't see the ocean which was good because I was a bit nervous flying over it. I had never had a meal on a plane before, and this one had 2 meals. Dinner and breakfast; they also had a mini buffet of snacks available which was nice. The stewardesses were super friendly.

Once we landed in Saudi, we had to take a bus to the terminal. There are no gates for the planes to pull up to the airport. You walk out of your gate to a bus and take that to your plane. Once we got to the terminal, we were directed to a different area than the other people. I'm not sure if its because we were foreigners or what, but there wasn't any waiting to get our passports stamped to enter the country. They took my picture, fingerprints, and we waited about 5 min before getting our passports stamped. I haven't yet researched why they take fingerprints, but I figured maybe a background check?

We then went to the baggage claim. Once we got our luggage (with the help of a person we had to pay, thanks to my niceness, I didn't know we had to pay for the help, sorry husband) we had to put our luggage through customs. That didn't take too long; they did have to open 2 suitcases (out of 6) but thats because I had my oils in them! Then we met with our driver. I had been baby-wearing the whole time, and I think Zalen had had enough already. He was tired and hot and just wanted to stretch. Traffic at the airport was crazy! We had to wait for the baggage guy for about 10 min to get through the parking lot to our car. People here park crazy, there is regular parking then people will just pull up behind your car and just park there, all crazy like.

I had the carseat on a small luggage dolley, so that it was easy to roll around the airports. Our driver was nice enough to help carry that to the car. He had put it in the back trunk with all our other luggage, so I had to put Zalen in the back seat without the carseat. O....M....G.......

My husband had told me they drove really crazy but I didn't believe him. I had also heard from some friends too that people are nuts when they drive. I still didn't believe it. Watching our driver drive through the parking lot to get out of the airport was alright. But once we got on the road to our new apartment, that's when I thought I had seen it all. Saudi drivers were not using the street lanes, and love to cut each other off and use their horns. You will always hear a car horn no matter where you go!!! Drivers here also love to get really close to each other, like I can roll down my window, not have to stretch my arm out fully, and give the next car a high 5!!! There were a couple of times when I thought there would be a car crash, but I'm so glad God watches over us because wow.......

Looking at the buildings while driving to our new place was nice. I was just in awe and felt like wow, this is really happening. When the plane was descending, I noticed everyone and their dog had a car here. There were cars everywhere! And the city looked run down. Once we were driving through the town though, yeah, it looks run down, trash in streets and the buildings look old. (Remember this is just my first impression).

Arriving on the compound, I felt so much better. We arrived on the compound to our new apartment, around 230pm. Zalen was happy that he could run around now. Honestly, after that I don't really remember much, the rest of the week was a bit hazy, trying to get myself and my son adjusted to the time was a bit of a challenge. But as always, God answered my prayers.

My birthday was 2 days after we got into the country. That's when my husband (since women aren't allowed to drive here) took us to go grocery shopping. The grocery store we went to was called "Panda". Its about a mile or less away from the compound. Women here have to dress a certain way, and the dress they wear is called Abaya. It a long sleeved dress that goes down to the floor. You must cover your ankles here, as well as your hair/neck. Since Jeddah is more lenient on foreigners I do not have to wear the head scarf, aka: hijab (or tarha). But I do have to wear my abaya when going off the compound. On the compound I can wear whatever I want. So going to the grocery store: I was so nervous going off the compound for the first time, that inside the store I wore my hijab. It made me feel more accepted in a way, and people didn't look at me weird. 

Finding foods you are used to in a different country is trial and error. You don't like the brand, try another one. We are still finding what we like and what to buy. While we were shopping the store kind of "closed" because it was prayer time. This country has prayer time, 5 times a day. Some stores will lock the doors and people will disappear to go pray. You can hear the prayer sometimes, because they announce it on a loud speaker, all over the city. It doesn't take too long before places open up again, and everyone goes about what they were doing before prayer. Some women (I'm pretty sure married women) cover their whole face except their eyes. My husband says they look like ninjas. A nice lady checked us out and the bagger took our groceries to the car.

I'm starting to learn Arabic, slowly, because even though most places/people do speak english, I would still like to learn!! I'll try to blog once a week, since it seems like thats when I'll be going out and having adventures. I'll be writing again this week to talk about my first experience out in the town for dinner with our friends.

Thanks for reading and I'll write again soon! Until next time....

My blog of thanks!

As cheesy as this sounds, I'm going to write this blog about things I'm thankful for!

First of all I'm thankful for God! He has given me many many chances, mercy, grace, and most of all love! He is the reason I'm alive, healthy, a wife, and a mom.

I'm super thankful for my husband. He works so hard to provide for me and my son. He is such a great husband and father.

My son! He is such an amazing little boy! He is so smart and sweet!

My few friends I do have. I'm thankful for God "weeding" out my friends and leaving the true flowers!!!

I know there are many other things that I'm thankful for but I can't really think about it, my son is ready for a nap! Toodles for now..........

Long time not.being here

As I type this please know Im on my phone so forgive any typos! I moved back to my hometown, and thats where I have been these last 2 months, of no blogging, packing, moving, and being mom! It feels so great to be back, but since my hubby is still working back in Hood, both mt son and I can his presense gone and miss him terrobly!

Today, Zal started crawling on all 4's!!! These last 17 days he had been Army crawling and doing a "worm" type of crawl. But today was no worm! Im so proud! It actually is fun chasing after him, and making sure he doesnt chew on the wires!

He has also started sleeping at least 6-7 hours in a stretch and some nights its amazing. I dont sleep much wothout hubby, yes Im spoiled that way, but its nice to know thar I really didnt have to sleep train him like I tgought I would! Ive been stressed lately but have been praying fervently to have no anxiety, and God is always faithful that way! I do feel like a huge weight is lifted after I pray.and give Him all the stuff I cant handle. Some nights Im able to sleep that stretch of 6 hours abd for that Im super blessed!

Im getting more excited because Im going back to.school next semester!!!!!!!!!! I hope to.make my husband and son proud! Ill be attempting to get my B.A. in BioChem! So we will see how that goes!

Today is my Grandpa's 88th bday, and I cant wait to see him this weekend to celebrate!! Im not really lookign forward to being 28 next week, but life must continue, haha! Well my fingers are tired so ill have to write again soon, on a bigger devise!

toodles