Heissatopia

Thighs with windows in them: Sand bubblers

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 20:59:13 +0000

It rained yesterday....

And that left behind an interesting "crust" on the beach today.

The tide was low and the sand bubbler crabs were out in full force so we spent some time watching them work. They are small and timid, so they were hard to spot darting in and out of their holes.

They scoop sand into their mouth parts, filter it for edible particles, and then spit out a lovely sand sphere, leaving behind some pretty impressive works of art on the beach:

Here are some interesting videos of the crabs at work...

When the tide comes back in, the crabs retreat into their burrows, apparently bringing along a bubble of air to survive...though that seems suspicious to me because...don't crabs have gills?

Apparently not sand bubblers, which "at high tide...are found in burrows that contain a trapped pocket of air in which the crabs are able to breathe until low tide" (Maitland, 1986). Evidently the scientific name for their genus is "Scopimera," which means "thighs with windows in them" and Maitland (1986) argues that these "are primarily respiratory structures used in aerial gas exchange" rather than being used to receive sound, as previously thought. He suggests calling them "gas windows," though I don't know if that has really caught on.

Here is Maitland's 1986 article in Nature (which I could only access the abstract of).

And here's another (more recent) source if you still want to read more about the non-heary/yes-airy legs of the sand bubblers:

The sand bubbler crabs have developed a[n]... unorthodox solution for gas exchange: parts of their legs are slightly flattened out and covered with a thin membrane. Zoologists have falsely thought that these organs are used for hearing and hence named them ‘tympanum’, a reference to the eardrums (‘tympanic membrane’) of vertebrates, including us humans. The crabs use these membranes for aerial gas exchange, and they do not want to hear another word about the ears on their legs.

So, yes—no gills for these sand bubblers, just "thighs with windows in them" that they used to grab some air to breathe during high tide. And then when the tide goes back out they resurface and start their never-ending task of sifting through the sand for food (and making hundreds and hundreds of little round balls).

Here's a picture of one I managed to scoop up with a shovel—tiny little guy:

Anyway, here are the kids enjoying yesterday's rain:

And here they are burying Alexander in the sand today (good thing he doesn't breathe through his thighs):

Her very own metro card

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 08:11:23 +0000

Phoebe has been anxiously awaiting the day when she would need her own metro card, a day that is rapidly approaching—which is both happy and sad. She's so excited to be five but I am so sad to have her turn five because I think that's pretty clearly the end of babyhood and start of childhood and because I have never had a five-year-old youngest child before...there has always been a baby.

But now there's not.

I'm not even saying that I want another baby (or that a baby is even possible—because, TMI, between two vasectomies and birth control to mollify my, uh, impertinently volatile cycle, we're fairly confident we've told biology a firm "no thank you" to such a possibility (not that we don't appreciate the offspring we have—because we absolutely do). Plus, we're getting old (you can tell by the way I don't have a baby anymore)).

It's just a strange milestone, and a difficult one.

Knowing that...this is it...

That "young mother" phase of life is coming to a close.

Like, for now I'm her "beautiful, beautiful Mommy" and for now she still needs snuggle time and hand holding and lullabys (and like just now she came into my office because she really needed a hug—not because she was sad or anything but just because she can only go for so long without touching me).

But, like, for how long?!

Because I know she won't want those things forever. And it's kind of hard to put a "number" on that phase of motherhood. Older kids are great and cool and fun and capable and (in many ways) exceedingly less gross.

They bring me a lot of joy.

But, oh, to be loved like a toddler loves their mommy!!

Anyway, my baby is five (almost). And I'm fine.

We let her buy a metro card yesterday (because we were using the metro and we know we won't use the metro on her actual birthday, which is on Friday). Here she is getting to push all the buttons on the machine:

And here she is pulling it out of the slot:

And here she is showing it off and taking a good look at it:

She's so excited to use it, but for now we're still carrying her through the metro entries like the baby she still is (until Friday when, in the eyes of the metro system, she becomes a child).

Doughnut Day

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 07:42:11 +0000

"We'd like seven doughnuts," Andrew told the man at the window.

"It's your lucky day," the man said. "Today we have a buy-seven-doughnuts-get-five-free deal!"

And that's how we ended up with a dozen doughnuts for doughnut day.

I don't know whether that was a real deal for the day, or whether it was toward the end of the day and they were trying to get rid of their inventory, or whether the man was simply being kind...but any way you think of it, it was a lovely bit of added joy to our day!

We went to get doughnuts the day Grandma died and have had doughnuts (almost) every year on that day since.

I just found out that my friend's mother passed away yesterday, on November 9, around the time we were getting doughnuts. I was writing a little note of condolence to her and thinking about the tradition of getting doughnuts (which Grandpa so purposefully manufactured) and I admit I got teary (which isn't something I expected to do because I've mostly been able to not cry about Karen the past few years).

But I was thinking about how meaningful these doughnuts have become, that they were (honestly?) a little hard to choke down that first morning after her death (she died in the early hours of the morning, we came home to sleep, and then rather morosely went for doughnuts). With every passing year, though, the doughnuts (and memories) have become sweeter, something to look forward to...but even now, at a point where joy, I think, is outweighing the sadness, there's still a hole in the middle of everything (just like a doughnut).

Anyway, I don't think the tears are so much for myself/ourselves at this point than they are for my friend, as I remember how very raw fresh loss can be and how much pain she must be in right now.

But yesterday was really pretty much pure joy for us—with an extra dash of doughnut!

Phoebe requested a happy face doughnut and Andrew told her that we'd "see," so she was so excited to open the box and see that there really was a happy face doughnut inside and to learn that it was for her!

She ate about half of it and then gave the rest to Andrew, instead turning her attention—to my surprise—to the blue monster doughnut (which she split with Alex). They both ended up with rather blue mouths...

Who's that wonderful girl? Could she be any cuter? Uh-uh!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sun, 08 Nov 2026 22:15:20 +0000

Phoebe and I made it to the library for Arabic toddler time this morning, which was so great! It's a pity she's aging out of toddler time because it's right at ~~her~~ my level. The librarian leading it just welcomed us in, hardly translated anything for Phoebe, and made her repeat Arabic words, just like she did with all the (actual) Arabic speakers.

It was perfect.

When we left, it was so windy.

"Hold up," I said (carelessly), observing my shadow as the wind whipped my hair around. "I need to put my hair into a ponytail really quick so I don't look so awful."

"Mommy!" Phoebe gasped, having taken grave offense. "You don't look awful. You are so beautiful!"

Noted.

I was unduly critical. And I shouldn't be modeling such bad self talk.

But I still forced my hair into a ponytail because, uh....

IKEA chair and tomato wedgies

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sun, 08 Nov 2026 21:57:43 +0000

I have been under "makeshift desk" conditions for...several months...now and I finally found a chair that I thought I could stand to sit in for hours at a time (while writing and so forth), but I didn't want to commit to actually getting the chair before trying it out (in case I hated it) so we went to IKEA on Saturday to give it a test run. It's very comfy...but also on the short side of things...so then we went on the hunt for a desk that could also be shorter than usual and were happy to find adjustable legs that start at around 60 cm (a good 10 cm shorter than a standard desk). I'm still getting used to it (the desk might still be too high) but I think I like my new set up better than a typical desk and chair.

Andrew makes fun of my little "baby" chair (it's not a baby chair...it's just low to the ground), but it's so comfy!

And as I think of my "office" set ups over the last 20 years or so, I'm realizing that I've never favoured standard office chairs. For several years I used a rocking chair (like a swivel-glider-rocker like this), first a black one and then, when that one started literally falling apart underneath me, a brown one (which I got rid of when we moved away from Spanish Fork and which we didn't ever really replace, so really I've been suffering without a rocking chair for the last seven years or so...but before that I had a rocking chair pretty consistently, except when we lived in Egypt and I just had a stool).

Then Andrew got me a chair for Christmas a couple of years ago...but we didn't take that with us either (and it was a good chair, but this chair is cozier and still lets me sit with my legs up...I honestly think I've been hankering for a swivel-glider-rocker without realizing it).

Anyway, the long and short of it (and it's really quite short, according to Andrew) is that now I have a new chair. I'm sure it's terrible for my posture, but...I don't care...because I can sit criss-cross applesauce without bashing my knees into arm rests and I can pull my knees up in front of me and type with my arms on either side of my legs (like a normal person—none of this feet on the floor, sit up straight nonsense).

All this is to say that after wandering around IKEA all morning, we were pretty hungry! We only had Phoebe and Alexander with us (since the older kids had gone to a musical at the American School), so we stopped to get everyone a hot dog and some potato wedges.

Phoebe can't keep potatoes and tomatoes straight, but she really enjoyed the potato wedges. A lot. And sang them high praises at top volume: "These tomato wedgies are so yummy! Why didn't we have tomato wedgies before? We always get French fries and never wedgies! I love wedgies! Mom—do you have tomato wedgies, too? Oh, you do! Do you love your wedgies?"

And I just...was very happy to be in a place where few native English speakers were around because wedgies are a little different from wedges.

Evening strolls: Head, shoulders, hips, and nightmares

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 23:00:41 +0000

We went for a walk last night, and I'm not sure we'll never not be dazzled by our surroundings.

I mean, I suppose we weren't entirely dazzled by them when it was a million degrees outside, but now our evenings are tolerable and the daytime survivable and we're out and about a lot more. And it's quite beautiful.

Phoebe was particularly excited when I announced that we'd walked too far away from home to get home at a reasonable bedtime...so we could catch a golf cart shuttle home.

It was her first time riding on the shuttle and she was thrilled to pieces!

These are just some cute pictures of her before church. We were at church from 11:00 am to 6:30 pm today. And then Miriam and Benjamin went to a fireside and weren't home until 10:00 pm. It was a long church day. But that's okay. It was good and full of music.

Anyway: Phoebe...

After we had some dinner (did I say it was a "good" church day? It was good...but it was also a fasting church day and so we felt like we fasted for forever, even though the Filipino ward did bring in some Filipino Cheese Bread (a cheese-filled bread covered in sugar and powdered milk—and so very yummy) to have after our evening choir practice), I took the little kids on another bedtime stroll.

This time we took a route not covered by the golf cart shuttle, so we had to walk the whole way home, and Phoebe had some thoughts about this (because she really wanted to ride on the golf cart again).

I will point out (for Rachel's sake, as well as whoever might be interested) that Phoebe frequently calls them "Gulf Carts." She can't keep golf and gulf straight, just like all of our children (including Rachel—anyone up for a round of The Golf of Mexico?).

Also, I need to point out that I asked the children turn around and look at me here so I could take their picture, so they did, and then Phoebe said, "I want to pose! Mom—where are my hips?" and proceeded to put her hands on her shoulders. "Don't people put their hands on their hips?"

Apparently that's another thing my kids habitually can't keep straight!!

Here's Benjamin, trying to put his hands on his hips (as instructed by the professional photographer taking soccer portraits) about ten years ago:

"Hips are down here, baby," I said, modeling a hands-on-hips pose for her. She got it worked out (a heck of a lot faster than Benjamin and his soccer team, to her credit)...

Lastly, she is very into holding her breath through tunnels when we're driving. There are two tunnels on the way to church, so we went through four tunnels today. And, she likes to tell us, "bridges are technically tunnels if you go under them" (she's also obsessed with the word technically and uses it constantly, and often...strangely). So while we were walking she insisted on holding her breath under the bridge:

As you can see, the sidewalk follows along under the bridge for quite a distance.

But don't worry because technically if you puff your cheeks full of air and breathe through your nose you're still technically holding your breath because the air in your mouth isn't circulating so it's technically being held by you even if you're technically still taking in fresh air in and out of your lungs through your nose. Using this method you can technically hold your breath forever (barring a stuffy nose, which thankfully Phoebe no longer has (we've had a cold this week)).

Anyway, Phoebe was tremendously upset about having to walk all the way home instead of taking the golf (gulf?) cart. But I assured her that we would have other opportunities to take the gulf (golf?) cart in the future.

She went to bed and woke up around midnight with a nightmare, which Zoë tried to "fix" herself.

Zoë ended up bringing a sobbing mess of a Phoebe to me and explained the nightmare situation. I found this odd because Phoebe doesn't usually get so upset about nightmares. So I asked if perhaps in trying to "fix" it, Zoë had...elaborated upon the nightmare in a...less than helpful way.

The nightmare was that our family was walking along the bridge (see above) and then a golf cart came...and (Zoë said) ran over our family, killing us all, and...a whole bunch of dramatic and violent details.

"That...doesn't really sound like Phoebe's imagination to me," I challenged (I have heard plenty of Phoebe's nightmares and she is a gentle dreamer with huge emotional responses—she is far less macabre than Zoë). "A Phoebe nightmare sounds more like our family was walking along the bridge and then a golf cart came by and Mom said we weren't allowed to get on so we had to walk the whole way home."

"Yeah," Zoë agreed. "I may have made up that ending..."

I explained to Zoë that...the "making up the ending" bit was where our problem was because she probably scared Phoebe more by telling her that ending than Phoebe's dream initially upset her.

You can vanquish a nightmare by having the child tell you about it and then brainstorming how they can go back to sleep and alter their nightmare to come off conquerer (for example: go back to sleep, dream up another golf cart and then get on and take a ride—it's your dream!!) or we can help them ignore it (by finding our baby doll and favourite blanket, getting a little drink, singing a little song—tonight it was Happy Song—and tucking back in with a kiss on the forehead and a promise of future opportunity because all the shuttle drivers are home in bed so we couldn't even catch a ride right now if we wanted to...so we may as well sleep).

But imagining the worst, most tragic possible ending to their dream for them is...not a recommended technique, actually...

A Phoebe worrying about her family dying was a bit trickier to get to go back to sleep than a Phoebe concerned about the injustice of missing out on a shuttle ride...but we got everything ironed out.

On the way to QNL (A guest post by Alex)

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 20:36:35 +0000

Prologue (by Mom)

Zoë has been begging to ride the metro by herself. Alexander has been begging to go chess at the library. And I have a meeting scheduled every afternoon chess is scheduled for so it just hasn't worked out very often for us to go.

So today I suggested that Zoë and Alexander head to the library together for chess. Now that Alexander's had his birthday, he's allowed to ride the metro without an adult...so that should mean that I should relax enough to let him, right?

They had a blast navigating their way across the city together!

Here are some completely unrelated pictures of those two riding on the golf cart shuttle between our island and the main island (we caught it for the first time on Tuesday and then caught it again this evening on our way home from a too-long stroll; also, everything is lit up green for sustainability week):

And now to Alex...[Mom edits in square brackets]

Getting to the metro

A couple days ago [this very afternoon] me and Zoë went to the metro and the metro link bus and we made it! We went to the library by ourselves[. F]rom the red line to the green line is 6 stops from Legtifiya and once you are ON the green line you have to go 6 MORE stops, a total of 12 stops and the 1 stop on the bus makes it 13 stops.

On the bus

When we were arriving at the bus stop (after seeing route M152 and running to the stop) the bus doors were closed but it wasn't going, so seeing that we were here the bus driver kindly opened the bus doors again before driving the bus and probably making us wait about 10-15 minutes to get to the metro.

In the metro station

When we got to the metro station I checked the time for the tram (so we could know if we would have like 50 more people coming on to the metro) and it was 7 minutes away so we would be safe for about 3 trains so we went into the metro area and got on the train. [It can get very busy when the tram arrives.]

On the metro (red)

Once we were on the metro we stayed on for the 6 stops needed to get to al-Bidda[. L]ike 10 people got on and when we got to al-Bidda to switch to the green line and we got off people were saying “bye-bye” to us for some reason.

At al-bidda

Once we were at al-Bidda we went off the train and as we were going up the escalator we heard the speakers say, “The train approaching is for al-Riffa: Mall of Qatar,” so we rushed to the other area and we got on the train and we found 2 empty seats right next to each-other.

On the metro (green)

When we got on the 2 empty seats we waited for the 6 stops needed[. N]ot a lot of people got on so when we heard the on-train speaker say “This station is Qatar National Library” we stood up and when the doors opened we got off.

At QNL

At the QNL station we went up the escalators and walked on “the desire path” and didn't trip on the wire/hose thing like Phoebe the last [two] time[s] we went to the library for Arabic storytime [she refuses to take the desire path now so we go the long way around, which is probably a good idea]. Once we arrived, the chess thing was just starting so we went to the chess thing, played some games. I never checkmated anyone—same with Zoë—but it was fine because we had fun! (and Zoë got her friend's e-mail)

ON THE WAY BACK FROM QNL

Dad met us at the chess thing at like 4:40 PM [Mom didn't want the kids coming home during rush hour by themselves because the trains can get crowded and switching trains gets difficult, but the timing works out great because GU-Q is just next door to the library so it wasn't a problem for Andrew to accompany the kids home...or vise versa] and we left from QNL to the metro and got on the metro

On the metro (green)

On the way home from QNL we got on the metro in standard class and there were exactly 3 seats: one for dad, one for Zoë, one for me. The perfect amount of seating!

At al-Bidda

At al-Bidda it was rush hour and SO busy I almost went the wrong way! As we were making it to the “Lusail QNB” [platform] we heard the speaker say “the train approaching is for Lusail QNB. Please allow passengers off the train before boarding." We rushed and made it to the train successfully.

[There's actually a generous amount of time between the announcement and the train's arrival since after they announce in English they announce again in Arabic and then the train rolls in. All told, you probably have at least 30 seconds, if not more, to get to the platform once you hear the English announcement begin.]

On the metro (RED)

Once we got on the metro in the RED line we saw, as it were, 3 seats all empty and next to each other so we all sat down and waited for 6 stops

At Legtifya

As soon as we got to the Legtifya station we got off and saw that the tram was in 7 minutes—[precisely] how we left it, so I know that we stayed there for a number divisible by 10.

[I do not understand how he figures that they were gone for a number of minutes that was a multiple of 10, but I believe him because he has a very math-y brain. Like, I can see that it was the same amount of time between the trains...but I don't get how he landed on the "divisible by 10" part. I will have to ask him in the morning.]

Al Jazeera II

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 11:07:43 +0000

This morning's segment was a lot less rapid-fire than last night's. Andrew reports feeling that it went a lot better.

This little elephant was excited to see Daddy on the screen. She had missed seeing last night's news.

She kept waving at him.

I'm sure he's glad to have this second commitment off his plate. Now he can relax for the rest of the day, just doing ordinary work-work instead of stressful live-TV work.

If you missed it, you can rewatch it (at least for a while) online, if you scroll backwards toward 10:00 Mecca (مكة)/7:00 GMT (غرينتش).

What's gonna happen in the world today?

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 21:33:59 +0000

The (US) midterm elections are behind us and I feel hopeful that the situation here (in the Middle East) won't escalate.

Clearly war isn't what people want (and I, being one of said people, can hardly blame them...and am also so proud of voters for sending such a clear message of "no thanks to war"...I don't think being pro peace should be controversial, but sometimes it seems like it is...for whatever reason...anyway...).

Andrew was asked to do a segment on Al Jazeera tomorrow morning, which he agreed to do. And then they called and asked if he'd do a segment this evening as well. It felt a little last moment, being decided as we were all just coming home from various places.

It was pretty funny, actually. We had been at our friends' house doing art and history lessons:

Andrew stayed late on campus to help proctor a test for another professor who had done some earlier segments on Al Jazeera. And then he was like, "Okay, I'm heading out." And I was like, "We're heading out, too, but we're just going to take an Uber to the metro station" because it was rush hour and an Uber home was super expensive. And he was like, "I'm going to metro home, too."

And then he texted and was like, "Why don't we just meet at the food court at DECC? It's late. I'm starving...."

So I texted Miriam to say that was the plan and she was like, "Okay, I'll get ready to go" (because she was at home).

And then Andrew texted to say never mind. He'd just order pizza or something because they wanted him on the news tonight as well and were going to send a car by around 9:00 to pick him up, so he had to be ready to go. And we were approaching 7:00, so he just wanted to get home and pick out a tie and so forth.

So I texted Miriam to not leave the house because we had ordered pizza to come to us (instead of going to pizza).

It was a very text-heavy metro ride.

When we arrived at our station, I got off the metro with the little kids and we started rushing out of the station to try to catch our bus.

"Where are you at?" I texted Andrew.

"Just getting off at our station," he said.

"Huh. Us, too. Next bus is in 5 minutes!"

"We must have been on the same train," he mused...on the escalator behind us (Phoebe and I always lag behind the kids who were already waiting for us outside).

And, indeed, we must have been! But I was riding in the family car with the kids and Andrew...isn't allowed in there without us...so he was in one of the standard cars and didn't even know we were on the train. I suppose he could have come into the family car because we were in there, but he didn't know we were in there so he didn't try to enter.

(For the record, we got on the train at different metro stations, so it's pretty cool that we ended up on the same train).

We caught our bus without a problem and then walked home and as we turned the corner to head to our apartment door we ran into...the Talabat guy who had delivered our pizza!

Impeccable timing all around this evening!

Anyway, we ate, Andrew got ready to go, we had scriptures and prayer, and then Andrew left. Miriam had her organ lesson (over Zoom with her same teacher in Georgia), I read to the kids, got Phoebe tucked into bed, and then we turned on the news.

Andrew sent us this picture from while he was getting ready:

And I took approximately one billion screen shots:

It was difficult to get a good shot with his name on the screen. The very first question went to him and he was a little...flustered...at first. But...he...got better...

He was quite relieved to get home (and shower off the makeup they put on him). He said the translation was difficult because he had an interpreter in his ear, but they were only saying about 50% of what was going on, but he could understand about 90% of what was going on (because he basically majored in fusha—pronounced foose-ha—the formal Arabic of the news, etc) but it was difficult because of the simultaneous other translation going on in his ear and so he felt rather laggy. But I think he did well overall!

I wouldn't want to be in the hot seat, personally. But he did great!

My family all tuned in and my mom had people coming by her office to watch and sent the link out to a bunch of people in the HBLL, so I think we know at least 15 of the 70,000 or so people watching live on YouTube (not to mention however many were watching on television).

Andrew gets to do it all over again in the morning (only he's hoping it won't be a panel of eight experts with conflicting viewpoints because that was pretty intimidating)!

*****

In December 2006, The Daily Show did a segment where one of the comediennes (Samantha Bee) tried to revamp the English version of Al Jazeera (which had only recently launched...to mixed reviews) to better appeal to an American audience.

I cannot find a clip of it online anymore (one used to exist!), but it lives rent-free in my brain (here's a transcript of the skit, but it's really just so much better seeing it acted out). I don't think more than a day or two ever goes by before some line or other from that skit pops into my head:

"What's gonna to happen in the world today? Oh, no! Something terrible!"

"Al Jazeera! Al Jazeera! Al Jazeera! Al Jazeera!"

"Let's talk about segués. I need you to hold my hand...and take me with you."

"Anywhoooo...kittens!"

"Peppermint Gomez...?"

How fun is it that Andrew got to go on Al Jazeera (Arabic, not English)?!

When I first saw this skit 20 years ago, did I ever think Andrew would be sitting live on Al Jazeera? I did not. But there he was! Pretty awesome!

Beach thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 21:48:59 +0000

We went to the beach this afternoon and my question is...

What kind of bird is leaving these ginormous footprints?! They're almost as big as mine (which, by human standards, are relatively dainty but by bird standards are...pretty huge...ostriches excluding):

It's not a flamingo because flamingoes lack a back toe (though I would like to see some overwintering flamingoes). It's some sort of anisodactyl bird, which is only the most common arrangement of toes for our avian friends (which really doesn't help to narrow things down at all).

Probably some kind of elusive heron.

Wherever you are, I admire your foot size on the regular (just so you know).

Also, I caught a fish the other day! Rather...the fish...caught a fish...and the fish was itself.

"Seek" tells me this is a blacktip silver-biddy

Zoë had been stalking a school of fish (or multiple schools of fish) for the better part of an hour, trying to catch one of them in her bucket. She desperately wanted to catch a fish.

And there I was, walking along the shore, minding my own business (probably in awe over such big bird footprints) when a school of fish came right up to the shoreline and started leaping out of the water for no apparent reason.

This little guy was a little over-enthusiastic in his leapings and heaved himself onto shore where he gave a few pitiful flops before lying still, panting on the sand.

So I scooped him up and told Zoë to bring her bucket. She did and we deposited the fish inside where he perked up right away (this picture was taken later, after Zoë nabbed the fish a second time—like shooting fish in a barrel).

After observing the fish for a while we returned it back to the bay (we didn't want it to suffocate in the bucket).

I wonder if the fish are swimming along trying to lure us into the bay only to exclaim with glee: "We caught one!" when we jump in for a swim.

I wonder whether the birds come out to walk along the deserted beach and think to themselves, "What kind of human left these tracks?! These tracks are wild! Look at the size of them!"

Ja-ack and An-nie!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 21:26:31 +0000

Phoebe and I just finished reading Dinosaurs Before Dark, the first book in The Magic Treehouse series. She read a page and then I read a page and then she read a page and then I read a page and like that we made it through the book. I believe it only took us two days (because Phoebe kept wanting to read the next chapter).

I was delighted when Phoebe was the first one to encounter the name "Annie" because she said "Ay-nee," which is exactly how Rachel thought it was said (for who knows how long before I finally figured out she was really saying "Annie"). Because we were reading it aloud together, I had the opportunity to correct Phoebe right away (unfortunately).

But, you should know, Rachel, that I have a friend here, from Finland, whose name is Eini, pronounced (more or less) "Ay-nee."

So...it's not like it's not a name. It is!

Also, for the record, Phoebe 100% knew what to do with all the hyphens in the book (unlike Zoë). Ja-ack and An-nie gave her no trouble—she knew to holler them out and everything. It was almost depressing.

*****

Today—much to Phoebe's glee and Alexander's horror—the kids discovered that Phoebe's face can unlock Alexander's phone (which isn't really a phone, just a device). The facial recognition feature is 100% convinced that they are the same person.

So then Andrew brought home their QID cards this evening (finally—we are all official residents!) and when we compared them side by side we could see that they really are the spitting image of each other.

It's almost comical:

It isn't difficult for us to tell them apart, but I won't argue that they don't look alike.

When our friends got their children's QIDs (something I assume happened in one batch and not three—getting our IDs seemed to take forever), they found that the same picture had been used for two different children (that is, they used one child's photo for two children in the family). They tried to get it fixed, saying, like, "Yeah, so that's actually the same kid on both IDs and you really want this picture to go on this other ID card," and the office was pretty much like, "I...don't see the difference."

So...they just have to make sure to look at the names on the cards before they present them as ID.

The good news (?) is that these ID cards have to be renewed quite regularly, so it's not as if an issue like that lingers on for years on end. It'll just be fixed the next time around.

Rumour has it...

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 21:33:24 +0000

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

—Matthew 24:6–8

And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth. And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity shall abound.

—D&C 45:26–27

When I used to read scriptures like these I would sometimes internally scoff at the "rumours of war" part because...that...just...seemed...like such a laughable problem compared to other things mentioned.

Like, "Oh, no! Not more gossip about war! Send help!"

But, uh, now that we find ourselves in the midst of rumours of war? It, uh, it hits different.

And like, totally do send help!!

Thoughts and prayers are 100% welcome (our area had a special fast this past Friday).

I mean, we're fine, but it's also absolutely bizarre to have a date for potential violence hanging above our heads...pending people's moods after certain mid-term elections and other what-ifs and what-nots:

"U.S. Warns Gulf of Possible Short, Intense Renewal of Iran War After Midterms"
"Iran threatens US with prolonged, ‘devastating’ war"
"Gulf States Fear Fiercer Iran Retaliation If US Strikes"
"America’s Gulf Allies Prepare for New Round of Strikes on Iran—and the Blowback"
"Iran live updates: Tehran warns of 'powerful response' to any renewed attack"
"Iran says "ball is in the U.S. court" on deal to end war as Trump keeps his intentions veiled"
"Iran's delegation has left negotiations in Qatar after a tense weekend."
"Trump says US may launch ‘another little Epic Fury’ attack on Iran"
"Trump's Iran threat renews Gulf fears of a war it didn't choose"

It's not even a war—but I totally get why these rumours are lumped in there with wars now.

These rumours of war are...heavy...and exhausting.

I can't (and don't want to) imagine the war part.

So we keep on living.

We go to the beach in the morning (to enjoy it while we can...in case we go on lockdown later):

And we stop at the grocery store on the way home from the library to bring home a bag of sugar and more beans (one can never have enough beans, apparently...also, potential lockdowns) and a cake mix (we have another birthday coming up!):

And we say goodbye to our friends who are being mandatorily evacuated...while we stay behind and...keep on living like life is normal.

Because it is.

And it isn't.

After all...it's...just...a...rumour...

Halloween 2026

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 20:50:39 +0000

Our homeschooling friends have been away for the past couple of weeks but returned to Doha the day before Halloween. We were very happy they could join us for some trick-or-treating!

We had them over for dinner before heading to ARV, where car lines were long and security was ambitious—they had a list of names and were checking IDs (which is about normal to enter that compound, but security was even more ramped up because of the high volume of visitors).

Here are the kids up on the roof with friends prior to leaving:

Our friend K made their hyena mask out of cardboard by themself—and it was really cool!

Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander rode over with our friends, the rest of us took an Uber (driving through traffic reminded me of why I enjoy taking the metro so much).

There were so many trick-or-treaters out—hundreds of them!

Houses were decorated so alluringly spooky on either side of the street that we kept crossing back and forth to visit various places. Phoebe needed help getting all the way to the door sometimes (not because it was scary but just because sometimes she wants someone to come with her, is all (she was pretty scared of some houses...and costumes)).

We saw one costume where a boy had made fake torso that extended up above his head so it looked like he was carrying his head on a tray (like this). I pointed him out to Phoebe and said, "Wow—what happened to that kid?"

Costumes to delight and astonish while waiting for the rest of our trick-or-treating party to arrive

"Oh!" Phoebe gasped and then stammered. "Uhh...ummmm...whoa...uhhh...I'm...not...I'm not sure, but I think it must be a costume...because it's Halloween."

"Yeah," I said. "It's just a costume."

"I sure hope it's a costume," she muttered.

She had the best night! She loved getting candy and seeing all the creepy and spooky things. One house even had a haunted house and she went through just fine (in Daddy's arms). I don't know (a) how these people got all those decorations here—we're talking a full coffin with a skeleton inside that reaches up to rattle the coffin lid, a skeleton puking green slime, ghouls popping up from being tombstones—or (b) where they even store them while they're here—because I imagine they have more to keep inside their house than just Halloween decorations. It was a pretty amazing set up!

There were several little Rapunzels running around.

The first time we ran into another Rapunzel she and Phoebe just stood there and stared at each other, gaping, until they were prompted to say hello to each other.

As the evening wore on, however, the novelty of running into other Rapunzels wore off.

Even her little cousins Ireland and Oaklyn dressed up as Rapunzel! (They weren't here for Phoebe to run into, but they sure are cute with their little Pascal-Dean...and look at that wanted poster! Austin dressed up as Flynn, which also happens to be the name of their dog, and even changed his nose on the wanted poster so it was oddly shaped, just like the nose on the posters in the movie—so clever).

Anyway, there were just a lot of Rapunzels this year!

"Why are there so many Rapunzels?" Phoebe asked me.

"It must have been a popular costume choice this year," I said. "How do you feel about that? Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing?"

"Neither," she said, seemingly aghast that I would be considering such a dichotomy. "It's just a...confusing...thing!"

Fair enough.

Later we stopped by a house and the man opened the door and said, "And who are you?"

"I'm Phoebe," Phoebe said.

"Oh!" he said, surprised. "Well, you look like Rapunzel."

"I'm not," Phoebe said, disgusted. "I'm...Phoebe."

"But...are you dressed up as Rapunzel?"

"I..." she said looking down at her outfit. "Oh, yeah! I am!"

She was pretty worn out by the end of the night (even though Daddy carried her candy bag the whole time so she didn't have to lug that around).

Alexander has been working his way through The Chronicles of Narnia and decided to dress up as Edmund (a lovely companion to Miriam's Queen Lucy) after one of Andrew's coworkers' mothers dropped off a box of Turkish delight (from Turkey) when she came to visit:

We had a buy-nothing, make-nothing costume year (I am running on fumes by this point and hope to recover from this move one day, but in the meantime (and in all fairness) I am not even unpacked yet and we're dealing with wars and rumours of war so costumes were pretty low on my priority—sorry kids (not sorry)). Phoebe just pulled a dress straight out of the dress-up box. No one has worn it for Halloween before (though we have had a Rapunzel before).

Alex's costume used a shirt from Egypt, a top and cape my mom made and sent to us years ago (as part of a Snow White costume that has been worn several times over the years), and a knight surcoat (something-something Gondor something-something Lord of the Rings) that I made for Benjamin years ago, and a sword that Auntie K got for him at Medieval Times last year.

He was so hot by the end of the night!

Here's Zoë, doing a little "toss, toss":

She's Glinda (Galinda) from Wicked, featuring Phoebe's drain monster costume from last year, Miriam's Jane Austen dress from years ago, and a hoop skirt thing that we Absolutely Had To pack with us (and did), along with a pretty headband she borrowed from Miriam.

She was very glamorous, very Glinda.

And was very excited to collect her candy in a pillow case:

Benjamin was going to be Paul Revere, wearing his old George Washington hat and a cape (and—I'm not going to lie—I was rather excited to see him wear that hat again—he was such a cute George Washington) but the we got him a thobe at the souq and he decided to be a Jedi instead.

It's fine (*sniff*sniff*).

Miriam didn't dress up at all, not really. This was moste (with a superfluous e) surprising to me because she's always been very into dressing up (and is even taking a fashion history course this semester—her second one). But, in all fairness, she's been rather busy.

When Phoebe asked her what she was dressed up as she said, "Dad."

"What?!" Phoebe said. "You can't dress up as..."

She stopped and surveyed Miriam's outfit.

"Fine," she said. "You can be Dad."

"I'm kidding!" Miriam said. "I'm dressed up as a stressed out college applicant!"

Her costume was 100% authentic because she was a stressed out college applicant. Her application for BYU was due the next day and she was freaking out about her essays, but still managed to take the evening off to walk around with everyone, which was nice (not every managed to do that—we know at least one girl in our ward who was squirreled away with her father revising her essays for BYU while we were walking around...because we ran into her mom and her mom said that's what she was up to).

We even got to talk to Rachel while we were trick-or-treating! Her's everyone coming to greet her on the phone:

And here she is participating in our group picture:

Now zoom in—waaaaay in...and there's Rachel!

(And a clip from The Friendly Giant, in case anyone was thinking of that show just then):

Here's just another fun house:

It was fun to see so many creative costumes and to just be out revelling in the Halloween spirit. There was nary a trace of it outside of this compound (at least that we saw), so it was very interesting to be inside where it was so boisterously Halloween.

We rode home on the metro more or less in full costume. Benjamin put his sword away (it's collapsible) and just blended in (he's worn his thobe out a few times and is getting used to the feel of dressing in a robe instead of pants). No one batted an eye at Zoë or Phoebe (though Phoebe did get several adoring glances and—if you can believe it—more candy on the metro...not because it's Halloween, but just because she's, uh, darling?? And that's what happens on the metro sometimes when you're cute).

Alexander...well...no one seemed to pay him any mind, either, though I did help him out of a few layers because that kid was sweltering under there.

We stopped to take a few pictures by the metro wall:

See how sweaty he is? Good thing there were a few water stations around ARV! One house had brought their whole water dispenser outside and had disposable cups for kids to get drinks of water. A few other houses were handing out water bottles in addition to treats. Gotta stay hydrated in this heat!

The kids were just as excited about cold water as they were candy, if you can believe it!

Here's Phoebe's wild eyes telling you that it's definitely bedtime:

I couldn't get her to smile normally to save my soul:

And here we are waiting for the metro:

And here's Phoebe on November 1, all dressed up as Cinderella and wondering whether we can go out trick-or-treating again (because that was so much fun):

I told her that we couldn't because Halloween comes but once a year. Plus we still had quite a bit of candy leftover. Surprisingly (or perhaps not surprisingly) we ended up with a lot of chips (my brother David seemed to get a lot of chips up in Alberta as well) and less candy, but the candy we got came from all over—in this little handful we have Vietnam, Turkey, Poland, and...somewhere in the Middle East:

So that's pretty fun!

It's like getting those fancy monthly snack boxes from around the world—but all in one night!

(Disclaimer: we've never tried those snack boxes, so I don't really know that that's what it was like, but I imagine it's somewhat like that)

Last Full Day in Vienna (A guest post by Zoë: | October 11)

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:29:47 +0000

The last full day we were in Vienna, we met with Patrick’s advisor’s older daughter, L, and Patrick’s advisor at the Technical museum! Me and Mom did not go on our big museum day, because Mom didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on a possibly disappointing museum (this was because the Literature museum was pretty disappointing). But, on Sunday, we went with Patrick to the museum and… IT WAS SUPER COOL!

There was so much stuff to do, and right at the entrance…we saw an F-1 car (are you jealous yet, Ben and Miriam?):

There was a lot of stuff to do. I got to see the difference between so many types of steel that all looked the same, and let me tell you, steel is really pretty when you look really closely!

[We learned about simple machines with cool hands-on demonstrations you could try].

I lifted L (it was pretty hard) and then she lifted me (which she did easily). Then we worked together to lift Patrick and his advisor, which was super hard, and they lifted us together so easily.

I walked in a…what do I call it–a hamster wheel pulley thingy?...to lift a basket of apples–my arms and legs were so tired after.

There was a pedestrian light thingy, and I completely broke the laws of traffic, and crossed the (fake) street when the pedestrian light was red.

[She thought Benjamin would be jealous of this LEGO oil rig]:

[There was a rather large installation about sustainability. We were laughing about their anti-air conditioning exhibit because "all you need is some shade" felt laughable given Qatar's climate, though I suppose it's largely reasonable in Austria.]

[And I can't believe Zoë didn't talk about the scream room! L was very excited to show this exhibit to us. It's a little booth you can step into and then you're supposed to scream and it will measure your decibels. Both L and Zoë made it to right around 130 dB, which is pretty impressive.]

[We spent a long time taking turns screaming. I joked that I need a booth like this in my house—it's not quite sound proof but it does do a good job of muffling things!]

[After L left (she had to finish her homework), we spent some time in a room about...calculators and typesetting? They had stations where you could learn to use an abacus and other early counting machines, they had stations where you had to set text in Gothic letters...in mirror image of the script you're asked to transcribe so that it will print properly, and so forth. Zoë had a lot of fun here.]

Patrick gave me 10 Euros to spend in the gift shop*, so I got 3 Construction Block animals.

Zoë at the gift shop

Two [were] for me, and one [was] for Phoebe so she doesn’t hound me for gifts, because I seriously don’t want Phoebe to hound me because it is seriously annoying. [And because she was being generous and thought Phoebe would like the puppy, which is absolutely true].

[It was fun to get to spend the day with Uncle Patrick and get to know his advisor, who has been so kind to him the last few years—Patrick's been renting his flat from his advisor's father, and is often welcomed to family events, etc. Afterwards we met up with Hadis, who had to work earlier in the day.]

[And that about sums up our trip to Vienna—it was a whirlwind of a week! Here's Zoë home in the Doha airport]:

[Our flight home was pretty uneventful...except that when we landed in Abu Dhabi the boarding pass on our phone told us to go to one gate, which we did, but then when I checked the board in the airport it told us that we needed to be at an entirely other gate (on the other side of the airport) so we ended up having to run to the other side of the airport, but we made it and everything was fine. And I think I prefer to travel through the day, ending our travel around 10:00 PM rather than beginning our travelling at 10:00 PM...]

*A rare occurrence in my family–we’re too big that it gets expensive.

(un)Fairly mooted?

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 20:30:00 +0000

moot: early 12c., shortened from Old English gemot "meeting, formal assembly" (especially of freemen, to discuss community affairs or mete justice), "society, assembly, council," from Proto-Germanic *ga-motan (compare Old Low Frankish muot "encounter," Middle Dutch moet, Middle High German muoz), from collective prefix *ga- + *motan, from a root *mod- "to meet, assemble" (compare meet (v.)).

moot: deprived of practical significance : made abstract or purely academic

moot: open to question : debatable

moot: subjected to discussion : disputed

moot: to bring up for discussion : broach : debate

moot (archaic): to discuss from a legal standpoint : argue

moot: simulated legal proceeding: A moot court is a mock court where law students or participants practice arguing hypothetical or appellate legal cases.

moots: a deliberative assembly primarily for the administration of justice (especially one held by the freemen of an Anglo-Saxon community)

moots (informal): people that you follow and interact with on social media are your "moots" : contacts

moot: the traditional term for a hollowed-out, carved turnip lantern on the Isle of Man; used during the ancient Celtic festival of Hop-tu-Naa, which happens to coincide with the modern celebration of Halloween.

And it's a good thing, too, because pumpkins are outlandishly expensive here! So we went very, very traditional and carved turnips instead of pumpkins, purely for our own entertainment because it really wouldn't do to set Halloween decorations outside where we live (though we did go to one of the American compounds for some trick-or-treating).

The turnips we got were a little on the small side. There are larger varieties (like rutabaga) in the world but we worked with what we could find. I hallowed them all out for the children and then let them carve a little face in each.

We lit candles inside and took some pictures in the bathroom (which is the only room in the house that's dark during the day).

I think they ended up looking spookily adorable!

When we got home from trick-or-treating we lit them again...but not until after we put Phoebe to bed so she kind of missed out. But here's her little moot:

Here they are gathered on the stairs:

There's this board book called "Ten Little Dinosaurs" and one verse has a t-rex "munching on a mooth," a made up fruit that causes him to break his tooth. I've always found that verse to be rather infuriating because I just feel like the editors should have pushed for more—it's the only made up word in the entire book and it's just...dumb...to have it in there. If you're going to be nonsensical, be nonsensical (by all means). But if you're going to present a quasi-factual (albeit silly) poem about dinosaurs...you can't just throw a completely made up word in there.

What, though, if the t-rex had been munching on some moots and then hurt his tooth? I'm trying to decide if that would be better. I'm not sure.

Offering no citation for where they got this information, I found this story online: "Schnetzler invented that word to get a rhyme for “tooth,” intending “mooth” to mean “moose.” But Harris did not want to show dinosaurs eating a moose in a book intended to appeal to very young children, so he drew what looks like a gigantic strawberry. This makes absolutely no sense, especially since Tyrannosaurus Rex was a carnivore..."

I personally think it looks like an oddly-shaped apple more than a strawberry. But imagine if it had instead been some moots.

Or perhaps the author should have chosen something different altogether.

Eight little dinosaurs munching on some meat (hard because she already used "street"). Maybe steak?

Eight little dinosaurs munching on a steak
Tyrannosaurus bit and his tooth...did break...
The dentist said, "Well, that's a big mistake!"
No more sharp-tooths munching on a stake.

Eight little dinosaurs munching on some bones (hard because she also uses bones elsewhere, but we will carry on...)

Tyrannosaurus chomped down hard and groaned
He call the dentist who told him on the phone:
No more sharp-tooths munching on a bone!"

I dunno. I just feel there were some more rounds of revision that could have been done while still...catching her vision. And...it's fine. I will let it go eventually. It's just...

I read this one review online that said "it's been a staple of my dino-obsessed child for nearly 3 years now ... I HATE this book, and as I've read it hundreds of times I feel I have earned the right to slate it" and while I do not hate this book, it has been a staple in my house for nearly two decades so if anyone has "earned the right to slate it" (whatever that means—ah, I see...it's a Britishism for "bash")...it's me.

I have read this thing so many times it lives rent free in my brain.

(Truly, I'm almost sad that we weeded our board book collection to one little box of the children's very favourite titles—including "Ten Little Dinosaurs," so that's saying something—and left them in Utah for "The Future" because it means I can't read them to Phoebe now...even though she's nearly five and has mostly outgrown board books. It just feels unfair that she doesn't get to keep reading them...since there's no little sibling in line for her...when everyone else did get to keep reading them. She won't even remember them. Anyway...it's fine...we couldn't take everything with us).

Anyway, so this book lives rent free in my brain and we've owned a copy for a good 18 years and I always, always get upset about that mooth.

Carving out moots today made me think of mooths, that's all.

And I think mooths are dumb and revisions are important.

It's a moot(h) argument at this point.

And has absolutely nothing to do with carving moots themselves, which was actually easier than we thought it was going to be. Carving out the inside was surely the most difficult part. The faces took hardly any time at all.

*****

I will share that as I was carrying a turnip full of hot wax, I tilted it wrong and ended up spilling wax on myself, which was...hot. So hot that it apparently distracted me from the fact that I had also dripped wax onto my foot (the wax being much less hot by the time it reached my foot).

Then later when I went to scratch an itch on the top of my foot...my skin just started flaking off all over the place, which was rather off-putting...until I realized that what was actually flaking off my foot was wax, not skin.

It was a bit of a relief that I had only inadvertently pranked myself and wasn't, in fact, dying or something.

Speaking of which, Phoebe was ranking her favourite holidays and it turns out she's a little imp. She ranked Halloween as her favourite (recency bias, surely) and then said, "And what's that pranking day? Because I think that's my second favourite holiday!" and Alexander was like, "Not Christmas?" and she was like, "Nope—Pranking Day." April Fool's Day is apparently her second favourite holiday because she just likes tricking people so much (do recall that she has been pranking people since she was 6 months old, purposely calling Rachel and Miriam by the wrong names just to make them upset).

(Anyway, Miriam thought this wax story should be included because when I told her about it, she found the beginning line of "as I was carrying a turnip full of hot wax" to be such a unique set up for a story. I, for one, I haven't ever carried a turnip full of hot wax before today (clearly I'm not very good at it) and I'm not sure how many people carry turnips full of hot wax around these days at all (probably not many), let alone doing so routinely enough to be proficient at it).

Poop in the Souq!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 23:37:42 +0000

We went back to Souq Waqif last night, mainly because we were intrigued by the street food but have been too scared to try it. One large issue hampering our spontaneity regarding street food is that we never have cash on us and we figured that the street food vendors wouldn't have card readers.

But when Miriam and I went and bought our abayas, these tiny shops all had card readers. Or, like, one guy pulled out his phone because—duh—phones can be card readers. Anyway, all the street food vendors also have card readers. So, don't let a lack of cash hold you back!

We got regag for dinner. It's a traditional...thin...bread in the Gulf. It's almost like crepes, but...also different. Miriam and I got "jubn wa batata" (cheese and chips—literally a bag of crushed up potato chips) and everyone else got Nutella.

Here are the kids with their hot plates of regag:

It was delicious, inexpensive, and...not very filling. We probably should have gotten everyone (or at least the bigger people) two regag each to really feel full. Or one regag and something different (a few of us were intrigued by the corn on the cob, for example, but no one actually wanted to complain that they were still hungry so everyone just kept these thoughts to themselves until we got home and then...we ate second dinner. Aren't we a polite bunch?)

Anyway, the souq is beautiful but...strange. It's mostly a modern build based on traditional design. Most of the original souq burned down in the early 2000s and was subsequently rebuilt. So it has an...overly clean...uncanny valley...feel to it. Like it looks old but it feels new. I don't know.

What I do know is that there are pigeons, and lots of 'em!

Looking above the window where the kids were sitting on that bench, I can see five little pigeon rear ends poking out over the sill (and there are a lot more pigeon rears where that came from):

I thought we were taking quite the gamble sitting there, eating our food, and I admonished the kids to eat quickly before they ended up with guano garnish.

For some reason I was alone with most (?) of the little kids. Andrew and Miriam had gone off to find the bathrooms. But I had all the little kids with me. I can't remember why. But I do remember sitting under all those birds and telling the kids to eat up because...yeah...all the birds.

Andrew came back from the bathroom and sat down on the arm of the bench, right beside Phoebe.

He sat there for several minutes, chatting away while the kids finished their food.

And then Phoebe looks up him calmly and says, "Hey, Dad—you know you're sitting in something gross?"

Gross—pronounced gwose.

"I what?" he asked, standing up and putting his hands on his own rear end. "I...ew! Gross! Why didn't you say something?"

"I did say something!"

"Why didn't you say something before I sat down?!"

"I...don't know. I was eating..."

"Well, now I have bird poop all over my pants!"

I fished out a packet of kleenex so he could wipe himself off and then he headed back to the bathroom to wash his hands. He wasn't exactly a happy camper (and, I mean, I totally get that; bird poop can be a real mood killer—I can't find the post about The Great Bird Poop Incident of 2015, but I allude to it here...and I certainly remember it—suffice it to say I did not get pooped on by a mere pigeon but a ginormous pelican and it made me feel very...sad) but he endured the rest of our time in the souq well.

When it came time to go home, he didn't sit down in the metro even though there was plenty of room. And then when we realized we had missed our bus (and the next one wasn't scheduled to come for a good 15-minutes) I suggested we take an uber and he...shot down my idea? And instead proposed that we walk home...from the metro station?

"It's only 2 km," he said. "Let's do it!"

"Let's walk home...in the dark...at bedtime...along a busy road...with all the little kids...?" I asked, to make sure I was hearing correctly.

"Yeah! We can do it!"

And so we did it. I'm typically up for a good walk (he's usually the one telling me, "But...bedtime..." and (justifiably) accusing me of time blindness) and our evenings are down to like 30C (87°F), which feels positively...cool. So we walked home.

Here's Phoebe peeking over the big ol' bridge:

It was only after we got home that Andrew admitted that he didn't want to sit down on any seats in his poopy pants, which was very considerate of him.

And it really was a fun little walk! We determined that we got to Gewan Island about 15 minutes after leaving the metro station (so about the amount of time we would have had to wait for the bus). But then, of course, we still had to walk home...

I carried Phoebe for about a quarter of a mile along the corniche, but she walked the rest of the way on her own. Perhaps we'll do it again sometime, if we can get Andrew to sit in poop again (it shouldn't be hard—it's kind of a habit of his).

Again

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:59:23 +0000

We didn't give Miriam any presents for her birthday, per se, but today she and I went to Souq Waqif for dinner and a show. I had seen the musical Again advertised on various platforms and it sounded interesting, though it was different from what I was expecting.

I was expecting more of a fusion of storylines between Apartheid South Africa and Gaza, and I suppose it was that, but it was more, like, a performance troupe from South Africa (Isango Ensemble) telling the story of the current war in Gaza with their own little flair. Which, now that I read the description again...also makes sense...I simply expected more Mandela and more story of South Africa. Instead it was like they were...testifying...about the evils of apartheid and genocide, pleading with the audience to trust them because they've been there, to not place the blame on the victims, and to work together towards a peaceful world.

The irony—as we sit on the precipice of "intense renewal" of the war with Iran—is not lost on me and I cried multiple times during the show. Naturally, naturally, I cried when the children got stuck in a drone raid and ended up dying of blood loss through the night because they couldn't get medical help (that was rough; the show is based off the writings of Sondos Sabra, so I assume the general storyline is true). Another time was just...when the father of the family tells everyone to stop the olive harvest and gather supplies so they can be self sustaining. "We need groceries!" he said, and then, "Why are you all just standing there?!"

We have...no food storage...right now.

We had excellent food storage in Georgia.

And it's making me nervous to not really have any, with places like Japan and the UK (among other places) urging their civilians to stock up (including the US government preparing military bases to be self-sufficient for 90 days).

I recently put together our can organizer, so while Miriam and I were out, Andrew ordered a bunched of staples for our family (beans and tomatoes and things like that—several cans of tuna, which made Phoebe really happy). And I feel a lot better having our pantry stocked up a little.

Anyway, the show was good!

We bought B-class tickets, but then were invited to sit in the A-class area by the ushers (as in, everyone in the B-class ticket area was invited to come fill in seats in the A-class area—and they really were much better seats, so that was nice).

I really enjoyed a lot of the music—this is a number about tending an olive orchard:

The ending refrain was "I remember that I remember and I will not have my memory erased."

Some other lines that stuck out to me were, "We learned the alphabet of letters and we learned the alphabet of war... Oh, and then the children chorusing their dreams for "after the war...after the war...after the war..."

Today in our ScienceMom lesson we learned that "gravity warps both space AND time..."

...and that line really stuck with me during and after the show, as I considered the "gravity" of various situations warps both time and space, how time can seem to freeze and distances expand (or otherwise warp) when things are particularly dire (or, on the other hand, time can speed up and space decrease when things are particularly delightful).

Anyway, all that is to say that sitting around waiting for this scheduled "fury" is...uncomfy...and it really made me feel for those who experience these kinds of threats constantly.

Various families from our ward have evacuated—embassy families last weekend, several oil families this weekend. Miriam was upset yesterday because that's when she heard that so many of the oil families were leaving again—she had just gotten the courage up to invite a few kids over for a game night last week and everyone had a good time and they were talking about doing something again, but...now...

We wait.

So, anyway, after the show, Miriam and I went around the souq to find abayas. But first we got distracted by these pretty lanterns...

They're in the art center at the souq. So we wandered around inside for a bit and found this life-sized penguin:

Now, let me explain...

Many of us in this house (me, Andrew, Rachel, Miriam) completed a very memorable study unit on penguins in elementary school. First of all, what an interesting and random animal to choose for so many of us—why not any other animal in the world? Surely we all studied other animals as well (I know I did!) but how did we all end up studying penguins quite formally? Second of all, how did we all learn this one fun fact: "Adult emperor penguins are 110–120 cm (43–47 in) in length, averaging 115 cm (45 in)."

That perhaps has an easy answer—we learned it because it is true.

But why did all of our teachers take the time to point out that this height was very close to our own heights...at such an impressionable age?

Some of us (me) realized much earlier than others (Andrew) that, while in our heart of hearts emperor penguins were us-sized, we kept growing after we heard that fact and thus were now significantly taller than the average Emperor penguin.

Some of us (Andrew) only realized that they were no longer penguin-sized when others of us (me) pointed this fact out to others (Rachel and Miriam) who claimed to be penguin-sized years after having outgrown penguin-size status.

Indeed, Andrew was a fully-fledged PhD-holding adult when he realized that penguin-sized he was not.

But it was fun imagining ginormous penguins roaming the globe while it lasted (and, indeed, larger penguins did once roam the globe but such "mega" penguins have long been extinct).

Anyway, this has been another fun moment highlighting how little Andrew knows about zoology and we love to make fun of him for it...so we took a picture of Miriam with this average-sized penguin for him.

And then I also made her pose with this ice cream cone:

We found some abayas! Miriam wore hers to the library today and earned some compliments (I did not take a picture). Hers was about twice as expensive as mine; we didn't quite realize that you could (should?) barter in Souq Waqif. Her abaya had a price tag on, so we paid for it. Halas.

And then we went to a different store and I found an abaya with subtle bronze maple leaves on it...and I asked a worker how much it was.

"This one?" he said. "Sixty. Sixty-five."

"Sixty?" I asked, pointing to the tag that said «طغم عباية ٥٥ ريال|». "But doesn't this say 55?"

"Fine," he said. "For you 50 riyal! And a headscarf!"

So...I guess a little haggling is expected. And boy was it easier than haggling in Egypt ever was!

With Miriam's birthday gift secured—a beautiful black abaya with a grey floral print—we found our way to the metro and headed home. We were lucky enough to find ourselves on a rather empty train car, so we picked some seats, I pulled out my metro book and started reading. We were really settling in for the journey home!

We stopped at the very next station and were quite surprised there was such flurry of activity. Some people got off, many people got on. The train started moving again.

"Popular station," I remarked to Miriam.

"Yeah," she said.

I went back to reading my book...and a few minutes later she said, "Wait a minute! That was Msheireb!"

Translation: that "popular" stop was our interchange to get on the train we needed to be on to get home!

Whoops!

So we got off at the next station, crossed over to the other side of the tracks (it involved going all the way up and over the train—why?!) and got on the train again going the other direction so we could switch trains at Msheireb. We were pretty embarrassed about it.

I had just texted Andrew to tell him that we were on the way home. So I texted him again to say that after riding a little too far on the gold line we were turned around the right way and were in Mscheireb waiting for our actual train home.

And then we were walking home from the bus...and Miriam said, "What if...if went to Venice?"

So we walked right past the bridge to our own island and walked to Qanat Quartier instead (so I texted Andrew again to tell him that we were making yet another detour). It was well worth the walk!

We crossed many fun bridges and saw many fun shops! It was very quiet compared to our own luxurious Crystal Walk. We'll definitely have to go again with the whole family.

Catching the bus

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 22:44:40 +0000

We have gotten very good at timing our walk to the bus stop so that if we run the last little leg of our journey we just barely are able to hop on the bus.

I'm not sure if that's actually a good thing...but it's our thing.

I took the kids to a library event today (a crafting session) and then we popped by Andrew's office to show him the results after he finished teaching and then we headed home (while Daddy headed to mutual night).

When we arrived at our home metro stop, I pulled out my phone to check where the bus was along its route.

"And what bus do we take again?" I quizzed the kids.

They don't really know our address, but they could get themselves home from pretty much anywhere in the city if they needed to. Even Phoebe could direct someone to drop her off right outside our door, if need be. She knows all the landmarks.

They chorused the bus number.

"Okay, it looks like it should be coming soon...there might be one over at x-stop...but I don't really want to miss picking the bus up here if it's already looped around..."

We debated whether to cross the street or to stay on the metro side (we basically have two opportunities to catch the bus because it picks up at the metro, drives to x-stop, and then goes around the traffic circle and stops at the street across from the metro before continuing on its loop. But crossing the street can be tricky.

There was a woman near us (from Africa somewhere) and she's the one who saw our bus approaching on the opposite side of the street.

"Is that your bus?" she said.

"Yeah," I said. "But...we'll just catch the next one..."

"Go!" she said. "It will leave without you!"

"I just don't think I can cross the street in time with all my kids..."

"Come, come!" she said, stepping into—and stopping—traffic.

This...is The Way to cross the street here (or at least a way) but it scares me, especially when I'm dragging my kids out into the road...but since she'd already made half a dozen cars slam on their brakes, we ran out into the road with her, hopped up onto the median, and then the coast was virtually clear because the bus was stopping (and all traffic behind it was stopping as well).

"Go! Catch your bus!" she said dramatically.*

"Thank you!" I called out behind me as she disappeared into the darkness on the other side of the street.

"You are welcome," she called back.

We hopped on the bus and found that it wasn't very full, so we all got seats! Phoebe initially picked a seat on the "low" side of the bus, so that left me with a seat on the "high" side of the bus, but then Phoebe realized she couldn't see out of her window and asked to switch seats with me.

So we did.

I got her safely into her seat and then the bus lurched and I fell completely over in the aisle (but caught myself without any injury) and stumbled into my seat. Phoebe wiggled around to settle into her seat and sang out, "Ahhhh! Finally I got my own way—sitting in my own seat! Hehehe!"

She has been taking her little turtle on every outing to prove that she can be "uh-sponsible." She longs to take Baby Doll Anastasia out to see the wide "whaled!" (Or "world," if you know how to pronounce r-flavoured letters, which Phoebe struggles with—she is a "grill," we live on "The Preal," and so forth).

Alexander is watching the map at the front of the bus. He basically has the entire metro/tram/bus system memorized.

Also, the kids vie over who gets to push the stop request button (often they both push it).

* Did I ever tell you the time about when I was trying to get home during rush hour in Voronezh and kept being unable to catch my bus? Bus after bus after bus came and I just could not push through the crowds of people to get on the stinking bus before it closed its doors and took off. I was getting very close to tears. And then these two old men came up alongside me, linked their arms in mine, forcefully waddled with me over the icy ground, through the hordes of people, and stuffed me into the (correct) bus. They had watched and laughed, and noted which direction I seemed to want to be going, and then decided to finally do something about it. Bless them!

Pencil holders and roof dinners

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 21:14:51 +0000

Phoebe can be a very intense child. For example, she made this creative pencil holder this morning:

She was very excited about it.

Very. Excited.

And she was also just a smidge excited when, on the way home from the beach, I told her that Daddy planned to have dinner on the roof today (so we were going to head straight up to the pool and he'd bring us dinner):

She loves "roof dinner."

When the moon hits your eye

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 21:06:50 +0000

We went to the beach this afternoon. Miriam watched the little kids while Benjamin and I swam (like, she really did watch them—she wasn't on her phone the whole time) and then went home to work on her application essays for college.

The rest of the kids and I played out the afternoon.

Benjamin had fun digging a hole:

Zoë, Phoebe and I made mermaids out of sand. Here's Zoë's:

And here is the one Phoebe and I made together (it's Phoebe-sized):

Here she is splashing off into the bay for a rinse off:

Zoë and I played surfminton again. I'm not sure we're getting any better yet, but we have fun!

Alexander built a ball out of sand and then built a wall around said ball:

The moon was rising as we were walking home and it was big and beautiful!

Miriam is 17!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 22:25:26 +0000

I didn't see much of Miriam today. She and Benjamin spent most of their time in Education City at a homeschool teen meet up. They were going to make a whale shark out of water bottles for some eco-art display somewhere, but they pivoted and went with a jellyfish instead, which I think is wise. A whale shark is an ambitious project—it has to be executed correctly in order to be recognized as a whale shark. A jellyfish, on the other hand, is...blobby...and a little more general. There are so many different kinds of jellyfish that your project has to be a generally recognizable blob and you'd have succeeded. So, that's what they were working on.

They also went to one of Andrew's classes where they learned about sampling sizes and extrapolating survey answers to make them applicable to the general public (or something like that). They were looking at the colours of M&Ms to see what colour the factory in Poland (that produces all the M&Ms for the MENA region, apparently) favours. Using a small sample size of "everybody in class gets a package of M&Ms to count" they can determine the percentage of colours the factory in Poland produces (which differs from other places).

I think Benjamin and Miriam were mostly excited about the M&Ms (they didn't have much in the way of lunch), but the stats were good, too. And it was fun for them to see how their dad teaches (lots of pacing and arm waving, apparently).

Anyway, Miriam wanted shawarma (or something like such as) for her birthday dinner, so Andrew decided that since he had the big kids in Education City and they'd be on the metro anyway that I could just get the little kids ready and we could meet for dinner in Lusail.

We can see Lusail out our window, but we've never really been (Andrew went to sign some documents there once). So the kids and I got ready, walked halfway to the bus stop, ran the second half to the bus stop because we saw our bus drive past us, and got on a very crowded bus. Every time the bus is crowded the kids say, "Well, at least we're not in Cairo!"

(I was so smart to show those crowded pictures).

We had a quick little ride on the tram line to Lusail (Marina Central) and were blown away by the sight we saw when we stepped out of the station:

The moon was rising right in the middle of Katara Towers (which we can see from our kitchen window and the girls' bedroom windows). The towers were designed to look like two crossed scimitars. It's really quite a cool building!

Since we arrived first, we went to explore the promenade along the corniche. This is apparently the place for kids to go to ride their bikes and scooters! There is a lot of open sidewalk space, some green space, restaurants...very lively!

We walked the full length of the promenade (around this food court area Andrew wanted to try) and found ourselves in front of the Yacht Club tram station. Google definitely told us that getting off at Marina Central would put us quite close to the food court, which wasn't entirely wrong...but I think the Yacht Club is technically closer (and doesn't require crossing any busy roads).

That said, if we had gotten off at Yacht Club we would have missed the view of the moon rising over Katara Towers. Both are close (and we don't mind walking).

We went to the Yacht Club to use the restrooms, however. Phoebe was in desperate need by the time Andrew, Miriam, and Benjamin found us. Tram stations tend to have restrooms while metro stations do not. Our metro station is a combined metro station and tram station so...it has a restroom...not to brag.

Anyway, we used the bathroom and then went to find a restaurant.

Originally Miriam had said she wanted to go to Zaatar wa Zeit again, but we suggested that we try The Lebanese Bakery because (1) we walked by it and it looked really good and (2) it's really close to the Yacht Club tram station (where we were). So that's what we did.

Here's the birthday girl with the amusement park twinkling behind her across the bay:

Phoebe really wanted to go to the "museum park." She even tried to guilt me into it, reminding me that "we're here to try new things and we've never gone to that museum park, so it would be new!"

I tend to not tell young children "no" (at least in public) because...it can incite...a fair bit of fit throwing.

So I pulled out my, "Mmm, yeah. Probably not today because we're just getting dinner right now...but that sounds like so much fun!" line.

Then we can talk about what might be fun to do there (someday) rather than carry around a screaming child (today).

Here's my campus crew:

Phoebe was so excited to get Mirinda with her dinner.

I saw her drinking it and thought about this picture of Grandpa and Rachel sipping (what I thought was Mirinda but what was actually) Fanta together at a restaurant in Luxor (December 2009) when Miriam was a tiny baby:

We will have to have Phoebe and Grandpa recreate it when Grandpa and Darla come out for a visit! Here's Miriam as a tiny baby (she's grown a lot):

Anyway, the waitress was taking our order and was like, "And to drink...Mirinda, Pepsi..." and Phoebe immediately was like, "MIRINDA!"

And then the waitress was like, "And the dough? You want white flour, [incomprehensible] flour, brown flour?"

"MIRINDA!" Phoebe repeated.

"Okay, okay, sweetie. Mirinda for you," the waitress said, laughing, and stroking Phoebe's back.

(Phoebe, of course, also made friends with the girls sitting behind us. They called her over, "Pss, pss, pss, pss, pss..." like she was a cat or something and then chatted with her. We are trying to train her not to tell people she is from Georgia because this is Very Confusing, but it makes for good conversation. These girls were from Lebanon.)

They have a whole section of "not pizzas" and we got a few to share: pepperoni, margherita, and zaatar wa zaatar. Everything was good. The zaatar wa zaatar was amazing: tomato spread, zaatar, fresh thyme, sesame seeds (and I think also some vinegar, though that wasn't listed in the ingredients). It was so good.

Here's Miriam dealing with some melty cheese issues:

We also got some shawarma wraps to share around the table.

With dinner quite literally under our belts (okay, that's a lie—I think the only person wearing a belt was Andrew, so dinner wasn't quite literally under our belts, merely his...but it would have been under our belts if any of us had also been wearing belts), we went to explore the promenade a little more:

It was e.......njoyable.

A fun thing about Arabic is that there are certain letters that can be drawn on relatively infinitely. Like /s/ sin (pronounced seen). It can be as loooooooooooong as you want it to be. There are no rules.

(There are probably some rules).

This allows for some artistry within a text, for example, you can see the word استمتع is written on the frame, the alif and sin are in the top right corner and then the final line of the sin stretches around the corner to the meem, taa, and ain.

They did the same thing with English! The E is in the bottom left corner and then they just streeeeeeeetched the E up and over the top left corner to meet up with the -njoy.

Enjoy!

I especially love this because the E tilted on its side like that looks like a sin in Arabic, which (as I just told you) is one of the letters that is allowed to infinitely stretch.

So clever.

Here's everyone with a Luuuuuuuuuuuusail sign:

We decided to see how close we could get to Katara Towers (answer: very close).

Even this scooter was gawking at the towers:

The board walk goes all the way around Katara Towers—there are fountains and things on the water side (prepare yourself for too many pictures of that). It was really quite beautiful to walk around.

We were momentarily confused by this little art installation:

But I quickly recognized it as some freestanding agals (and, in fact, the name of the piece is Egal). Of course, I couldn't remember that word, so I just said, "Oh! They're the ropes to hold on a keffiyeh!" (they don't even call those that here—they're called ghutra).

Apparently here a gahfiya is the hat worn under the ghutra (but clearly that is borrowed from the word keffiyeh...and in other places would be called a taqiyah or kufi or skull cap or...something).

Anyway, those ropes are agals.

Here's everyone looking across the bay at our neighbourhood:

And the beautiful birthday girl again:

Are you ready for those fountain pictures I promised?

First we came to these little "dancing fountains," as Phoebe calls all such light+water features (thanks to the dancing fountains at Place Vendôme Mall). We were rather delighted already...

But then we walked a little farther and discovered and even bigger dancing fountain (which we will have to return to when we're better equipped for splashing in fountains)!

The kids actually showed remarkable restraint and did not get soaking wet!

Phoebe

Alex and Phoebe

Zoë

Ben

Phoebe again

Miriam

At home the kids were excited to show Miriam the cards they had made for her (Phoebe completely—though painstakingly—plagiarized her card from the one Zoë made...it says "Have a musical 17th birthday!").

"You even spelled my name correctly!" Miriam gushed.

(Yeah! Because she plagiarized!!)

"And what's this inside?" Miriam asked.

"An organ!" Phoebe said proudly.

"An organ!" Miriam gasped, "Awwwwww!"

"Yeah!" Phoebe said, revealing her dastardly plagiaristic deed.* "It's the same as Zoë's!"

She thrust Zoë's card into Miriam's hands.

"Whose do you like better? Mine or hers?" Phoebe challenged.

"Okay, wow..." Miriam said diplomatically, taking this new information in. "I like them both. They are both great. Just so, so, so special."

"Okay, good!" Phoebe said.

Thanks for having a birthday, Miriam, so we could have a fun evening out as a family!

We're glad you came to Qatar with us (for a brief moment she threatened to apply to college early and not come with us...but I think she's having a pretty good time here and I am so glad she came because I was Not Ready™to give up one more year with her)!

* Imitation is not only the sincerest form of flattery—it's also how children (and people of all ages) learn! So I am only joking about the plagiarism thing (though I do think that the fact Phoebe copied Zoë's design down to the letter, aside from her signature, shows that she admired Zoë's work).

Miriam's birthday cake

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 20:58:10 +0000

With Rachel out of the house, Zoë is determined to become the new baker of the family. It's extra challenging for her because we live in a new place with different ingredients and a tricky new oven and a kitchen that isn't entirely set up.

She baked the cakes yesterday (from a mix...because our kitchen isn't entirely set up...and we don't know where or how to source all the ingredients we need for American-style baking yet) and it was clear we still had a thing or two to learn about how our oven works.

Her cakes rose right into the top of the oven. Andrew thought he had scraped them both off sufficiently before trying to pry them out of the oven, but he only succeeded on one cake. The other cake clung to the top of the oven for all its worth, leaving a huge (and somewhat gooey) crater in one of the cakes (because we noticed the over-ambitious rising in the middle of baking).

It was a whole thing.

But Zoë rallied and made a beautiful double-layer cake!

We did not break out our piping tips for this one, but Zoë thinks that by Phoebe's birthday (in a little over two weeks) we'll be ready for that adventure. Instead she labouriously wrote "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" using sprinkles (quite an ambitious task, if you ask me).

Here's Miriam sitting with her beautiful birthday cake:

She is so old that she has outgrown a standard box of candles...or, at any rate, she has outgrown the standard box of candles that we were able to find here. We actually had to buy two boxes for Alexander because he also has outgrown a standard box of candles.

A standard box of candles contains 8 candles (again, of the candles that we could find).

Alexander turned 9 so we had to get two boxes of candles.

But Miriam has somehow managed to turn 17 this year (seems fake, but the math checks out) and so she has outgrown not one but two boxes of candles!

We forgot to order a third box.

But we're an industrious people—problem solvers, if you will. Andrew simply cut one candle in half and—presto!—we suddenly had 17 candles to work with.

Benjamin is drawn to fire...like moth to a flame. Is that metaphor too close? Perhaps, but he is easily transfixed by a good blaze.

Here's everyone smiling:

Those boys, watching those flames...

Smile, guys! (That's better)

Here's Miriam with all seventeen candles on her cake:

Did you notice she got her braces off? She did! About a month ago!

It was very exciting (she's thrilled about popcorn and other such things), but it's really a bit anticlimactic because she'll be getting braces back on the beginning of November. This time, though, we're going with Invisalign (so she can still have popcorn). The poor girl has been in braces for about a decade!

I will also be getting Even More Braces in November with her.

The thing is that our jawline is...tricky. I say "our" because evidently our mouths are very similar (although I was lucky enough to have all my teeth while she is missing a few). Our jaw bone is just very narrow. I've been having some issues with my bottom teeth (they were pulled too far forward, so they are starting to move out of my jaw bone, which is apparently a thing that can happen, and which does not happen without some pain), which I pointed out to the orthodontist and he was like, "Yeah, that's a problem and, yeah, I can fix that..."

For me, the extra treatment should only be a few more months.

For Miss Miriam he thinks another year (which she's a little bit devastated about—she will have to go to college in braces!) and that's why we went the Invisalign route with her. Vanity.

Just kidding. I mean, a little bit for self-esteem, sure, but also because (fun fact!) the US and the UK use different brackets for their braces and since here in Qatar our dentist gets supplies from the UK, he only has UK brackets, so he can't do much with US braces (and would have to replace the whole thing, anyway). And then if we went the traditional wire route and she needed to switch to an American orthodontist they wouldn't likely have the UK brackets that would then be on her teeth. Ugh.

So, Invisalign it is!

She started laughing before she blew out her candles (because she exhaled during the song and made the candles sputter, and then Alexander made a move like he was going to blow them out and she got flustered, and then she started laughing and couldn't stop, so she had to compose herself in order to blow them out):

We didn't get her much for her birthday. Her organ is all set up, which was a monumental effort, involving many shipments from Germany. So that kind of counts as a present.

And then I got us some tickets for a musical on Wednesday, which should be fun!

I love yêu!

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 19:10:10 +0000

"I'm sending you emojis to tell you how much I love you and I miss you!" Phoebe explained to Rachel while pressing the heart button a million times.

"You! You! You! You! You!" she said as she pressed it.

"FYI—she's saying 'you' because for us it says that under each heart she sends because it's coming from our account," I explained.

"That's really funny," Rachel said. "Because in Vietnamese love is yêu."

So I love yêu means I love love!

Here's Phoebe sending some clapping hands and...whatever the exploding cornucopia thing is (a "party popper, I'm told)...because she also wants Rachel to know she's doing a good job:

We do love and miss Rachel and think she's doing an amazing job! She posted a picture of herself with her district in front of the temple the other day and I almost started laughing because I was like, "Why...is she in this picture with all these elders?!" and then I remembered that her district is 12 young men (elders)...and her. So this was a district picture.

She said that she is learning more Thai than she ever thought she'd have to know because she's essentially a "double district" missionary. Because she is the only sister in her district, her two companions are in the Thai district. Usually they just drop Rachel off for class and then pick her up after (missionaries aren't allowed to go about without a companion), but sometimes it requires that her companions sit in while Rachel practices teaching discussions in Vietnamese...and involves Rachel sitting in while these sister missionaries teach discussions in Thai.

The missionaries in the Thai district recently learned the word for "repent" and enjoy calling it out to each other: klab chai!

Anyway, Rachel is doing well. She's very excited to not be quarantining anymore (I don't know if I mentioned that she had COVID, but she did, and now she's on the mend).

Ordinarily, missionaries are only allowed to call their families on their p-day (preparation day), but when Rachel was sick (and in isolation) she had permission to call us pretty much whenever, so we were getting one to two phone calls from her every day.

"Rachel must be doing well," Andrew mused on Friday. "We haven't heard from her all week!"

"Because her p-day is on Saturday," I reminded him. "And she's not in quarantine anymore..."

"Oh, yeah..." he said.

We're always happy when we get to talk to Rachel though!

Stake conference and no kittens

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 22:07:08 +0000

In the middle of stake conference, Phoebe handed me this picture and explained, from left to right, that this is our sun, and this is our sun as a red giant, and this is our sun as a white dorf (dwarf), and this was our sun as a black dorf (dwarf)—you can barely see the little speck of it on the page.

So I'm happy to announce that science class is going well (thanks, Science Mom)!

After stake conference I rounded up the kids and took them to the beach. I love the mountains, I love forests, I love the rolling fields of the prairie, and...I love the beach! We have about a ten minute walk to the bus stop from our house, but it's such a lovely walk—mostly right along the boardwalk the whole way! And there's just something about strolling down a boardwalk that feels like a treat, isn't there?

Anyway, we went to the beach, taking Miriam for the first time. Since she was there to watch the little kids, Benjamin and I went on a long swim—from the farther beach all the way to the bridge and back (about half a mile, all things told). It was wonderful! And the kids were still alive and happy when we got back.

Here's Alexander showing me a clam he found:

And here are all the kids in the water (is it just me, or does the hotel back there—which is still under construction—give off Great and Spacious vibes?):

In addition to swimming, we apparently covered ourselves and/or our sisters with mud:

Made some (sand) cupcakes and decorated them with (shell) sprinkles:

Crafted a magnificent sand ball:

Played "create a crater" by throwing a big rock into the sand (Benjamin's invention—and surely an extension of science lessons!), played catch with our "scoop ball" set, and played surfminton. We were happy to uncover our box of outdoor toys, can you tell?

While we were rinsing off our feet to head home, this little kitten came by and practically begged us to adopt it:

I said no.

No one was very impressed with that answer, but...the good news is that they can be friends with this cat! We just can't take it home...even though he was a very sweet kitten.

Rain storms and Ramly

noreply@blogger.com (Nancy) — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 20:53:04 +0000

It was cloudy this morning—a rare sight in Qatar! We saw reports that it was absolutely pouring in Education City, but we missed out because we were not in Education City...we were at home. Still, it was neat to see the clouds roiling in from the sea.

We had stake conference this week, so we didn't have church this morning. Instead we spent a good portion of the day doing various organizational projects. Our progress was interrupted when some of the kids heard thunder. We all rushed out onto the balcony to listen to the thunder in the distance, skeptical that the storm would truly reach us. Then, when I was taking a break in the kitchen, making some lunch, I looked out the window and noticed rain drops on the balcony:

"It's raining!" I hollered and we all quickly put shoes on and rushed up onto the roof to feel the few drops of rain coming our way.

We did not get a phenomenal downpour, but it was fun to feel the few drops of rain that we did.

The little kids and I did have to hurry inside to get ready to head to...Education City...where we found the rain had very nearly dried up. We were still getting some drizzles...

But things had been very wet while it was down-pouring. They placed these sandbags in front of the doors of the metro:

And we found a few lovely puddles to stomp in:

Even though it was on a Friday, I signed my kids up to see a puppet show performance at the library. Our favourite librarian was working today and she asked us if we knew about the puppet show and if we'd like to attend. We said that we would (we had already signed up)! Then she told us that Ramly was going to come in and invite the children to the puppet show.

"You know Ramly?" she asked.

"I don't," I said.

"You will!" she said.

This...is Ramly, the Qatar National Library mascot:

I'm not sure I've ever encountered a library mascot before, but apparently they are a thing. According to this article at the Gulf Times, "Studies by the American Library Association have shown that mascots are effective tools for engaging children. Libraries that use mascots report increased attendance and participation in programmes, particularly among children and families." I'm not sure I have been able to find any studies by ALA in particular, but it seems that library mascots are actually a thing.

Now, do mascots really increase attendance at events? Or do libraries that consider creating a mascot (or that follow through on this idea) simply do more overall to promote their programming and thus have better attendance?

Ramly (whose name means "sandy") even has his own theme song: "Ana, ana Ramly...ana, ana Ramly..."

That's the only line that I understood. But, the kids had a real boppin' dance party and everyone posed to take pictures with Ramly (except for Alexander and Zoë, who are too mature for such things). And then Ramly led everyone down to the big special events room and sat through the entire performance of Sarah's Adventures.

It was entirely in Arabic, so we were a little bit lost the whole time, but we understood a little bit and it was fun to watch regardless. There was one point where she encounters a talking tree and was like, "But trees can't talk!" and the tree was like, "But I'm a tree and I'm talking" and I was immediately reminded of Téléfrançais.

Phoebe was very glad that all the monsters were vanquished in the end and that Sarah and her friends were able to return home.

We picked out a few books to check out—now that we can because we (mostly) have our QIDs! Zoë wanted to find a book to read in French that was a translation of a book she's already read in English so that she can understand what's going on. She picked out the graphic novel Sœurs and a retelling of Mary Poppins. Alexander picked out a Minecraft novel. Phoebe has had her eye on a "How to Draw Fairies and Mermaids" book for several weeks (bordering on months now) and wanted to find that book to borrow. It took quite some time to comb through the drawing books to find it, but we eventually did. While we were looking for the very particular book on how to draw fairies and mermaids that she was seeking, we found a different book about how to draw fairies and she decided to check out both because they might both be useful.

Here she is being squirrelly on the metro:

She loves when the metro fairly empty so she can twirl on these poles (and ignores me whenever I tell her stop—but she's pretty good at settling down when things get crowded).

We came home to the second half of the adult session of stake conference (we put it in our calendar wrong and I thought it started at 7:00...we also had the morning session on our calendar wrong, but now we know it will start an hour earlier than we thought), and then Miriam (and Benjamin) had some friends from church over to play games.

They had worked to clean up the house so it was company-worthy (it has been such a jumble since our shipment arrived) and Miriam even baked brownies (which she forgot to serve). It sounded like the youth had a great time playing Saboteur.