Dinner in Jeddah

Mark headed off to the city of Jeddah with some of his coworkers last night. Here are some of his comments...

We ended up having dinner, shopping and one of the guys really was hoping to be able to find a new tire of a specific brand. We ended up not getting home until about 1am. Sounds really late, but because of Ramadan it was strange. Going into the city arriving around 7pm there was hardly any traffic, but as the evening got later there was more and more traffic. The city lived up to its reputation for driving. The opportunistic driving I feel is a direct result of the challenging road conditions: lack of traffic lights, narrow streets, etc. The evening was enjoyable and profitable. I enjoyed dinner, but wasn't impressed when my dinner came with french fries. Was hoping for a more authentic middle eastern dish according to my preconceived notions.

He also snapped a few pictures....

You've got to love being able to buy gas at $0.46/gallon. For those that would like to check the math: $1 = 3.75 Riyals, 1 gallon = 3.78 liters. So 10.9 gallons was bought for $5.07. Full service too, noone had to even get out of the car.

Applebee's in Arabic

Red Sea Mall

Mark's First Day

I spoke with Mark a little more yesterday and we shared some emails and he sent a few pictures so I will share what he has told me so far.

When he arrived, he was put into a 3 BR townhouse. We were a little disappointed, because we really would like/need a 4 BR house but it sounds like not all of the homes are complete yet. The good thing is that in the townhouse, there is no outside entrance to the maid's room so even though it is small, one of the kids could use that room. One of the guys that he works with is in a 2 BR house and would like a 3 BR so we'll see how that all works out and if we'll be able to move eventually. He told me that we're right across from the elementary school and just down the street from the grocery store and secondary school also. I think that will be convenient.

We've heard from others that the houses sometimes have issues when you move in. They all are fixed by maintenance eventually so that is good but not always convenient. I guess I'm glad that Mark is there finding these things out before we get there. I think the worst one was that the stove and microwave didn't work so Mark really couldn't prepare food very easily. He also has no bike or car so has to walk everywhere and it is very hot right now!

Mark made a couple trips to the supermarket. Some things are pretty cheap. He spent 2.95SR or about .80 cents for 6 eggs. A box of cereal was expensive! He paid 30SR which is about $8, ouch. Looks like my kids better get used to eating eggs for breakfast!

So now some pictures of the house...

This is looking from the dining room into the living room.


Looking into the kitchen.


Looking into the living room.


The outside of the house - the open garage is ours and the front door is to the right.


At the KAUST marina.

Mark at KAUST

Yesterday afternoon, we left the kids at my mom's house and headed to the airport for Mark's flight to Jeddah to start his new job at KAUST. We had to drop the van off for brake work (in terrible shape after 4500 miles across the country through mountains and acting as a moving van for 3 weeks) so we couldn't take all the kids with us. We didn't think it was fair to take a couple and leave the rest so Mark said his good-byes at home and I took him to the airport.

The whole way there, I kept telling him he was flying United to Chicago so that's where I dropped him off. Well, I got home, looked at his itinerary and oops, he was flying American. I was all worried so I gave him a quick call and he had figured it all out after he stood in the United line to drop off his luggage. Well...that will teach him to listen to me!

He had to pick up his luggage in Chicago and head to his next flight from Chicago to Amman, Jordan on Royal Jordanian airlines. That was the long 12 hour flight and then a short 2 hour flight to Jeddah on the same airline. He called me about 5:00 pm local time (about midnight in KSA) and told me he had arrived safely in Jeddah and had been met by his KAUST representative. He could only talk a minute because he was using someone else's phone so I'm looking forward to hearing many more details about his trip. I am sure glad that he arrived safely though!

Happy 17th Anniversary!

Today is Mark and my 17th anniversary. We've spent the majority of today recovering from yesterday. After a quick trip to the house to drop of keys and pick up a few final things, we came home and took the kids to breakfast and then back to the house for a two hour nap. I messed around trying to get a new modem hooked up and after being on the phone for about an hour with Comcast, they told me that they had not taken the account off seasonal hold as my dad requested on the 11th. They told me it would be done tomorrow so I'm borrowing someone else's internet today. I sure hope they don't mind :-) If they did, they would have secured their wireless signal....right?

So, we're off to dinner and a movie after we drop the kids off at the ward picnic. Friends have offered to take them home afterwards and we'll pick them up a little later tonight. Our last day at church as a family for a while will be tomorrow as Mark will be leaving for Saudi on the 19th. Then the girls and I leave for Chicago tomorrow afternoon to visit the American Girl store. This trip is for their birthday and they are very excited! Looking forward to everything but the drive!

So Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband! I'm looking forward to this adventure and many more years together!

Moving/Closing Days

I totally intended to take pictures but the day just didn't quite go as well as we had anticipated. On Thursday, we hired a company to move our big furniture to storage and we also had the packers at the house in the afternoon to pack our air and sea shipment to Saudi Arabia. The one thing that they didn't tell us was that besides the weight limit for our shipments (which we were well under) there is a volume limit also. So we were lucky that we got 5 bikes in the shipment. I don't currently have one and one of the little girl's bikes got left behind. I'm not sure whether it was Rachel or Lizzie's bike, but someone is either going to be really sad that their bike didn't make it or really happy that they will get a new one!

I spent the evening with some good friends finishing up the packing - thanks Michelle, Paige, Julie and Emily! By 9:30 pm, I was beat and fell into bed and right to sleep. I was up at 11:30 and could not sleep - my mind was racing with all that we had to get done the next day. I started early with a trip to my mom's house to drop off some things and Mark hit the dumpster with a ton of trash. Julie and Christina came to help me clean the bathrooms and the kitchen and did an awesome job! Darryl and Dennis came and helped mark pack up a truck we rented and take stuff over to the storage place. We have so much stuff that we ended up having to rent a third unit and we're still overflowing. We'll be trying to sort through that over the next few days. We'll give away some things and toss some in the dumpster.

The buyers came buy at about 11:00 for a walkthrough which is required by the mortgage company now. We chatted with them for a little while and then did a little more before we had to head off to closing. Our friends finished up the cleaning and unloaded the truck for us. I'm so grateful for knowing such wonderful people willing to give up their time to help us! Closing took a little bit and Mark and I stopped for a quick bite to eat since we hadn't had anything since breakfast. When we got back to the house we had no power - I had cancelled our account, but the buyer hadn't turned his on yet - so I couldn't finish vacuuming (oh I was so sad). One more trip to the storage unit for Mark and Megan and I tried to gather everything left in the house.

We decided to have a break and took the kids to dinner at Culvers and then dropped them off at my parent's house to go finish getting everything out of the house. By this time, we were pretty much beyond exhausted. We couldn't fit the kayak and a ladder into the unit so we left them for our neighbors hoping they would want them (they did).

All in all, I think it was one of the longest days of my (and probably Mark's) life. We really don't want to do this again for a very long time...well at least a couple of years when we move back.

So we are no longer homeowner's - we are going to miss our home, we brought our triplets home there and have spent the longest part of our married life there. It is a beautiful home and neighborhood and we hope the new owner's enjoy it as much as we did!

The Adventure will soon begin.....

As long as it had taken us to make the decision to move to KAUST in Saudi Arabia, it now feels like it is approaching so quickly. We have movers coming to itemize and pack our things for shipping to KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) next week, we close on the sale of our home next Friday and Mark will leave on the 19th. We are still not sure when the kids and I will travel but it is fast approaching.

I hope to soon share lots of our adventures and experiences while we are living abroad!