Lowest Point on Earth- swimming, baths, & the Disney Channel

The Dead Sea is less than an hour's drive away and is one of our favorite get away spots. We were off this week, but decided not to travel this vacation.  Although, we did get away for a couple days to the Dead Sea.

The girls love going to The Dead Sea.  Neither of them care much for the actual Dead Sea. What they love is the resort.

Hailee and Charlee's Top 3 Favorite Things to Do At The Dead Sea
1) Swim
2) take baths
3) watch the Disney channel
None of which they can do at home in Amman!

This is one of our new favorite resorts.  Partially because of the greenery, but mostly because their is a hot tub for parents at the kiddie pool!  What?! Kids play in the pool, parents can watch from the hot tub.  Genius.

Christmas Crazy?

Have you ever seen the Christmas Movie starring Kathy Ireland called "Once Upon a Christmas" or the sequel "Twice Upon a Christmas"?  Probably not. Well in this movie, she's referred to as Christmas Crazy.  The fact that I've not only seen these movies multiple times, but that I also own them both is probably my first sign.

Three more signs today that, I too, may be Christmas Crazy.

Feb. 17th and my 3-year-old is coloring a picture of Santa and Frosty the Snowman, and then tells me she wants to watch Santa Clause 3.  Yes, she knows them so well, she knows which of the 3 she wants to watch.  (I considered letting her watch it).

My weekly emails from Amazon suggesting items picked just for me. Yep.  Always Christmas movies. Itunes? More of the same. Christmas songs are ALWAYS my suggested music.  

My favorite of today.  Getting on the escalator, Charlee proceeds to stretch her legs out as far as she can (basically doing the splits) just like Buddy from "The Elf". 

Even better.  The entire family got it.  

Christmas crazy? 

It's okay to steal..

.. if you are cute and 3 years old!

Bill took the girls to Taj Mall and while he was getting money out of the ATM, Charlee ran into the toy store next door.  They were half way up the escalator before he realized Charlee had a Bart Simpson attached to a string and suction cup in her hand.

"Where'd you get that?"
"In the store."

Bill took her back to the store of course, and made her apologize and give it back.
The clerk then says to Charlee, "Okay. You a good girl. You can have it."

What?  No, she can't! Don't you see the lesson to be learned here?
He then adds, "When you come to my store, you want something, you tell me and you can have it."

Oh, boy.
Very nice gentleman, and we do appreciate the kindness. Just not when there's a lesson to learn.

Charlee is very loved in Amman.  So much, that she has had many such offers to have whatever she wants.  None of which are from her parents.

Oh, Charlee girl.

.. and yes. Bart Simpson stayed at the store.  

Raw Lamb and Fart Bombs

I ate raw lamb.  I can't believe it myself.  I. ate. raw. lamb. 
Appetizer size. 
Tasty?  Sadly, I must say yes. 
You will recall before moving here I wouldn't even eat cooked lamb.  This was in protest. Back when I was in middle school and participated in 4-H, my BFF, Smokey the lamb, was bought at the 4-H sale by Lucky's.  A grocery chain.  True story.  I vowed to never eat lamb.  Sorry, Smokey.  I have failed you. 

Story goes something like this- I went out with two friends to a very nice restaurant and asked them to just order for me.  Trying to be more adventurous with my eating.  Wow girls, raw meat?  Maybe I don't trust you to order for me afterall ;-) They convinced me that raw meats were 'normal'.  Not by American standards!  But by international standards, I suppose.  So after they assured me that a)  It was safe. and b) I wasn't going to die, I smothered it with a garlic sauce and put that mound of red meat in my mouth.  Weird.  Felt very weird to be eating it.  But it was good.  What the H???  I don't even like for my steak to be red, a little pink but that's it.  I've shocked even myself. 

Fast-forward to today and I find myself collecting fireworks and fart bombs from grade 12s.  It was their last day before Mock Exams and this was part of their senior prank.   Fart bombs.  Classy.  Senior pranks happen everywhere.  As always, it got out of hand but I chuckled when I looked at the pictures on the package when I confiscated these this morning.

Now, onward to February break!  Yay!  A week without students, raw lamb, or fart bombs.

The day I 'accidentally' went for a longer then planned run in Amman

Normally our weekend is Friday, Saturday but due to snow day make-ups Hailee had school today (Sat.). A week off of school for 2 days of snow fall ---> Awesome.

Snow day make-ups ---> Boo.   

For secondary school, our students used to get out at 1:30 on Tuesday, followed by staff meetings until 4. Now, students stay until 3:15, so the periods on Tuesdays are extended for the remainder of the school year.  Block periods on Tuesday are now 1 hour and 40 minutes! Extending Tuesdays wasn't enough make-up time for primary, so this why Hailee had school today.  

Luckily Bill got up with Hailee this morning, and although I couldn't go back to sleep, I enjoyed my nice warm bed for awhile longer.  I knew when I got up I would need to head out for my weekly long run, so I was taking my sweet time. 

As I set out I decided I wanted to try a different route.  So I took a few too many turns and although I knew where I was (without a clear plan of how I was going to get back), I had greatly extended my run! I was feeling really good so I decided to keep going but couldn't find the turn off I was looking for so had to turn around and head back the way I came. 

I should add that running outdoors is not common in Amman. Women running outdoors in Amman is even less common. I might see 2 other women running outside in a full month's time. You can imagine the 'slow down and stares' I got as I ran back up a busy street against traffic.  And eww.. the smell when I passed a guy draining a sewer and had to step over wet.. yuck I really hope it wasn't what I thought it was.  

Lots and lots of hills. In the picture I had started at an elevation around the height of the bridge in the picture.  Lots of climbing to get back!  

When I got near the house I realized I had almost hit 5 miles so decided to add my normal loop which took met to 5.3 miles!  Yay!!  It actually was a pretty good run and I'm not a huge fan of long runs in Amman.  Too many hills + very little green (if any) + traffic are not my cup of tea, but today was definitely a fun adventure!  AND I saw green. Bonus points! 

New adventures in 2014!

Worst blogger in the world.  Okay, maybe I'm not quite that bad, but what has it been.. 6 months since my last blog post?!  I'm going to try and do better, really I am.  My goal is to do short posts and then it won't seem like such a monumental task. Right now the day to day is keeping me quite busy.  In addition to working and being a wife and mom, I am also working on my master's degree!  It's tough but I am going to stick with it and get the job done.  Should Will be done by next summer.

Most readers probably know this by now, but the Nelson fam is off to Luxembourg in August! Still in shock that we are moving to Europe. Who would've thought?

Luxembourg borders France, Germany, and Belgium.  Last night Bill was looking at train tickets and travel options. It will take us 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Paris by train. Price per ticket- $18.  What?!?  I can't handle it.  Life is amazing.

Charlee and Hailee will both be at the school, yay!  Char loves attending the new daycare at our school but always say, "I want to go to the big school."  Soon, baby girl will be in preschool!  Hailee is super excited too.  One of her favorite things about the school- it's a non-uniform school.  Mom, not so excited.  In mom world, uniforms are awesome.  

Here's the link to our new school- http://www.islux.lu/

And, here's a link to some of our favorite things we've read about Luxembourg- http://www.visitluxembourg.com/en/what-to-do/nature-tours/hiking

With all the road biking options in our area extending into neighboring countries, I'm thinking I may never see my husband!

P.S. Who's coming to visit???

Amman year 2

We are back in Amman for our second year! We are still battling jetlag, despite our attempts to not nap, etc. Thought we had it figured out for year 2.  Ummm, wrong. Charlee and I seem to be doing the worst.  We both woke up around 2:30am (5:30 pm Colorado time)-yikes!  I go back to work day after tomorrow, so hopefully we figure it out before then.  Hailee and I got out for a short run early this morning, but that was about all my body could handle.  I fell asleep after breakfast, as did Charlee, which made perfect sense.  After all, it was 11pm in Colorado and our bodies said it was time to sleep!  I slept for an hour and woke Charlee up after two hours, but I for one and am still super exhausted.  Thank goodness we gave ourselves a few days to try and recover.
 

Other than the jetlag, year 2 is off to a good start. One of our new colleagues moved in across the hall, and we've really enjoyed their company thus far.  They have a daughter just about 1/2 a year younger than Charlee, and they've hit it off really well. Today is day 3 of playing together and Charlee is so thrilled to have a friend just across the hall.  One of Hailee's BFFs from England is back in Jordan as well, and coming over tomorrow, so she's pretty excited too.

It's going to be a busy year for the Nelsons!  Bill and I are both taking classes that will begin in the next couple weeks.  We are also excited to be welcoming our first visitor this year- our dear friend, Annette! She's going to have an amazing year traveling around the world, and we are excited  she's making a stop in Amman in December. If you like reading blogs, be sure to follow her amazing journey http://annettefulloffish.wordpress.com.  Others are throwing around the idea of visiting us, and we definitely welcome any friends and family to come and stay as long as you'd like :)

As far as traveling this year, with school and doing some saving, we won't be doing quite as much traveling this year, but will definitely get in a few trips.  After all, we can't seem to keep our feet planted for long ;-)