We think I got robbed. Now, I know you’re probably saying, “How do you think you’ve been robbed- either you know or you don’t.” Good point, but seriously, I think I was robbed.

Now, I have to fess up- I am a very scatterbrained person (I worry about things I can’t change, but forget things I can, go figure). I am constantly forgetting to do things or where I put things. I even forgot to pick up my pay check a few months ago. So, Will was convinced I just misplaced what I claimed was stolen, but after some sleuth work I convinced him I had been robbed.

For about $110 a month, you can hire a maid to clean your house 3 times a week- not bad (I think if it was that way in the states, I would have had to get one). So, my parents decided that because of their schedule they would get one to clean up the house. All of the reports they had heard about maids have been excellent- afterall, you can literally lose a hand for stealing in this country.

So, my parents didn’t hire their own private maid, they hired the maid service in our apartment complex. That means you never know who is coming to clean your house. Well, each time a lady comes, I am always there- so you wouldn’t think anything would happen. Apparently not. I just kick myself at how nice I was to her!

Okay- so heres some background information. Will gave me 10 KD- which is about $35 US dollars (our currency is worthless here) and I put it safely in my wallet and hid my wallet away. Okay- I didn’t really hide it all that great, but it wasn’t like it was super visible! Well, the other day P and I went to one of the bakeries they have at the bottom of our apartment and bought a couple of things. I spent 1 KD. I didn’t have pockets so I kept the money in my hand and as soon as I got upstairs I put the bag on the counter and put my money back in my wallet (at this point I was retracing my steps for Will and he inturrupts me and is like, “So, are you SURE you put the money back in your wallet? Could you have set it down somewhere and forgotten about it?” That does sound exactly like something I would do, but I KNOW that I didn’t this time)

Anyway, so I didn’t think anything about my money until Will asked me if he could have some of it last night. I went into my wallet and nothing was there. I started freaking out, trying to think of where it could be… but I KNEW I had put it in there.

My mom had said someone had went through our medicine cabinet too because everything was rearranged differently. I started looking around and I am not a detective, but I really think I solved this mystery.

Will and I are still living out of our suitcases, so the other day she moved them out of the way so she could clean. I didn’t move them an inch that next day and left them where they were. Well yesterday, after she had done the laundry she spent a long time in our roon cleaning. She would iron some and then go away. I thought maybe she was putting away clothes. Well, I found this wet cloth almost hidden in a basket on our dresser- which is right next to the bag that had my wallet in it. Its almost like she was cleaning the dresser, saw my wallet, took the money out and I don’t know maybe she got flustered or something and walked out and forgot her rag.

I don’t know, I am totally speculating, but I was pretty mad to lose 35 bucks. With the move and leaving our job back home, we haven’t gotten a paycheck since the beginning of May, so we needed what we had.

So, my dad cancelled the service and got our key back fron downstairs.

Pretty crappy…

Theres something about that “first house” when you just get married. For most of us, theres nothing really overly special or extravagant about it on the outside, but there is something so unique about coming home that night from your honeymoon to the first house you two will live in together.

I remember coming home from our honeymoon late at night, thinking of all of the unpacking I would have to do the next day, but when we walked in, our parents had surprised us and set up a lot of our house already. That was really special, and a big relief since I had school that Monday.

I never realized how much I really loved our little condo until the night we were about to move.

Will and I were sleeping on the floor because or mattress was already in storage and the air compressor his mom gave us for the inflatable one didn’t have a nozzle to air it up. We were exhausted from our very long day of packing, trashing, or storing our belongings. I am almost positive Will was just about to head off to sleep when I started to tear up, realizing this was the last time we would ever sleep in this house. I started crying thinking about all of the great times we had had there. So, I inturrupted Will from his sleep so he could listen to me cry and be all sentimental about our little house (lucky him).

I thought about our pre-health insurance meals- when we were able to eat really well because we hadn’t gotten my out of this world expensive health insurance yet (where all of our grocery money seemed to go).

I thought about lazy evenings in our living room, when I would sit in Will’s lap on the recliner and we would talk about our days and watch TV.

I thought about our air conditioner breaking down and how we had to use the last of our wedding gift money to pay for it.

I remember how that summer we got the “sacred” letter in the mail telling us we got OU season tickets. Will was so happy that day.

I remember my first Easter there with my sweet basket surprise, and my first Christmas there with my Christmas tree surprise. 

I remembered last summer and how Will decided to start landscaping our yard (his dad is a landscape contractor, so its in his blood- or so I thought). He and his friend Billy made this gorgeous rock bed on the right side of our condo. Will had “good intentions” of rocking the other side that next month, but It somehow didn’t get done until I don’t even remember- sometime that late fall maybe. So then we had this beautiful rock bed full of nothing but weeds. About a month and a half ago, Will decided to finally finish the beds. He and his dad put cedar wood chips in it and filled it with pretty green plants. I loved coming home to it. The sad thing was that it wasn’t even 100% done until literally the week we were moving, so I never even was able to fully enjoy the entire front of our little condo.

Anyway, I cried about a lot of things. I mean, it was the first house we had ever lived in. We filled it with a lot of memories. <3

Well, today we found out our little house will be getting new owners on July 6. I am happy that we no longer have the financial burden of paying for a house we aren’t living in, but (this is probably crazy) I am a little sad because someone else will be living there now. I mean, I always knew we weren’t going to live there very long, and its not like we were the first people to live there… I guess its because it was the first house we had together as a team- our own place where we could have our own rules and could do what we wanted (a luxury I am desperatley missing since we have been living with my parents).

Anyway, that is what is on my mind this afternoon. I am sooo glad that “Friday” has arrived. I’m not sure what we have planned for the weekend, but I know it will be nice to finally get some time with Will. For everyone else, have a good hump day.

Spring is still here, but you would have thought Summer took over the Middle East and made it’s permanent “command center“ outside my apartment. Its dry here. Dry that I don’t think a person can understand until they live here. I mean, you could lay a side of beef outside in the morning and by evening it will be jerky. Even the Kuwait newspaper calls its country “the oven.” Its only May- could it get any worse? Yes.

Well, I’m sure there will be many more times I will whine about the heat here, but I’m not complaining so much about the heat today but how DRY everything is because of it. The Persian Gulf is literally right ourside my balcony, so I was hoping I would find SOME relief from the dryness (can you believe it- a girl who is WELCOMING humidity??), but theres none. 

I truly think I am in the early process of evolving into a rasin. Really. I can see it. I am eventually just going to shrivel up and be this one big round shrively talking rasin (what a visual).

I think when you get off the plane in Kuwait someone should greet you with a survival basket- not with a map or money or anything like that. Instead it should be filled with the best ever body lotion, face moisturizer, chapstick, conditioner, and sunscreen. I think I should write a letter.

I sit inside almost all day and I am already seeing the affects. I don’t even want to know what it will be like this summer, and especially when I get a job and am more exposed to the atmosphere. I have dry skin as it is, so I am going crazy here. I have to apply half a bottle of lotion on myself just to get rid of that itchy tight feeling (yuck). Maybe I need a new lotion- any recommendations?

Then, of course I know the whole “drink plenty of water“ tip.  I drink 8 a day, but obviously that is not going to be enough- even if I am just sitting inside. Its like a rule where my family works that employees drink a bottle of water every hour they are at work. They have hundreds of cases brought in each week. Hmmm, strapping a toliet to my back doesn’t sound very fun but maybe I will have to resort to this.

Then my hair. Not only will I be a shrively rasin, but I will be one with bad hair. I have limits, and thats pushing it. Like my skin, my hair is also dry- everything about me seems to be dry- my skin, my hair, my sense of humor…

I wash it every other day since its so dry, and it is still dry. I think I am going to have to sleep in my conditioner (KPax- it is the best for dry hair!) and rinse it out in the morning. I am running out of ideas to shield myself from this “oven.“

So that is what is new (but hopefully not permanent) here. I better go for now because I have some things to do: drink a keg of water, slather on the moisturizer, and check on the beef jerky I laid out on the balcony. Ha Ha

Our first “real” weekend in Kuwait made a realize that we will truly live a very “normal” life while we were here. It felt a lot like the states… but sweltering.

Where to start? I am going to look forward to Wednesdays. The work week in Kuwait is 48 hours, so everyone works 4 10 hour days and one 8 hour days. Will got home at 3:30 on Wednesday, so it was like we had the whole afternoon to hang out and get an early start on the weekend. (it still seems like it should be call Friday everytime Wednesday hits… TGIW just doesn’t have the same ring). Everyone got home and we hung out a while and then my dad made reservations for us to eat at the Crown Plaza hotel for my graduation!

Since I have been kept inside all week, it felt so good to get out. This counrty is nocturnal to the extreme, so everything is so busy at night- we were out what they would say is “early” at 7:00. There are several restaurants in the hotel, but we chose to eat at this western steakhouse. It was really good. It was kind of humourous to see their take on “the old west.” I wonder if they still think there are outlaws and cowboys and horses there just like everyone thinks there are nothing but camels and people that don’t wear “normal” clothes over here.

Dinner was good, but we had to stop off at baskin robbins for desert- not the healthiest thing! Guys- I’m not joking. Evertime I get into a car here I am terrified. I have never experienced panic before, but I seem to each time I am in a car. They way the Kuwaitis drive is out of this world. First of all, very few streets are marked, so you have literally no idea where you are going. My dad has lived here for a year now and had to call a dentist’s office for directions on how to get there, and will tell you by things it is near because the buildings have no numbers. I wonder how they get their mail. Then people will get impatient and drive up on the median and curbs to pass those on the road and then cut in somehow! You can be in a turning lane and someone 3 lanes over will decide to turn and cut everyone off and almost hit you to turn too. Its craziness. I do not look forward to driving here. Today my dad wasn’t going fast enough (he was going the speed limit) so this car got right on out tail and started honking and flashing its lights and then it pulled right beside us and was halfway in out land and almost sideswiped us and was yelling and everything. I seriously almost hypervenhilated. It was terrifying because even though it wouldn’t have been our fault, the police almost always believe Kuwaitis over anyone else because of “wasta,“ which means power and is what this country seems to run by, It’s kind of an unspoken good ole boy system.

Anyway, since everyone comes out at night the traffic can get pretty bad. We sat in it for a while. We just counted all the porches and BMW 700s and landrovers we saw like it was a game.

Yesterday was nice. I felt like I was in America again. We got up around 8 and got ready. We went to this place that is similar to a best buy and my parents needed to buy a printer and a freezer because of the lack of space they have in the apartment. Then we went to the Sultan Center, which can be equivilated with Walmart to go shopping. We came back and unloaded everything and then we went to Marina Mall. It was soooo awesome. It is on Gulf Road, which is like the main road in the city where everything is located. We parked and then I was able to get an Aston Martin… or at least we got a picture by one. Will wanted me to take a picture of this gorgeous lamborgini but I didn’t want to look too suspicious. The mall was beautiful, like a really nice normal mall you would have in the states. Will was dying to see Star Wars on opening day, so we went ahead and did that. Their theatres are really nice with fancy seats. The movie was great- except they cut out the kissing scenes which I thought was weird. My mom slept through the whole thing. Pretty expensive nap.

After the movie we went to ChiChis, this mexican restaurant. It was like 6:30. Anytime Will and I would be home and go to dinner at that time we would have to wait for 30 minutes. Like I have said a thousand times, people don’t get out until late and don’t eat until after 8:30 or so. We were the only people in the entire restaurant! It was the first time I have ever had a restaurant to myself at 6:30 on the weekend.

After that, Will and I had a decision to make. I will try and quickly explain this as best as I can… Because I am not employed with my family’s company yet, I am unable to live with Will in our own apartment unless he pays $1,000 a month (which we can’t do). So, that has made things kind of hairy. We decided to move the few things we had in our apartment out until I got a job. Will is hoping that in the next few days we will be able to get him a room in my parent’s complex, so at least he will be closer and we will be able to see eachother. So we moved out of our cute little place and into my family’s for a while… this situation deserves a post of its own- 5 people in an apartment.

On our way out the “movie guys“ were there. They sell copies of new movies for like $3. We got Sahara, which is still in theatres, Ray, hotel Rwanda, and something else, I don’t remember.

I know this blog is getting long, and I am even leaving out things, but I am just glad about this weekend. Being by myself last week really made me wonder if being here was going to be okay, and this weekend was kind of a little reassurance that everything is going to be okay. Life is not that different from home- minus my friends and a few other things like Walmarts, wearing sleeveless shirts, and tap water.

Today was nice. My family usually goes to a Bible study led by some friends, but he and his wife were out of town this weekend, so we didn’t have it. We just kind of took it easy. We rested, went the nicer Sultan Center more downtown and got some things we had forgotten, and just drove around. We drove past some ferarri dealerships, and looked at some more car places. Will was drooling. Sorry Will, in your dreams. It still blows my mind how rich this country is. It’s crazy.

We also stopped by the beach real quick on our way to the dealerships. It was beautiful. We stopped along Gulf Road and took pictures. We only stayed a few minutes because I had no sunscreen, but it was really pretty.

Tonight we watched Hotel Rwanda. The main guy used to be on Saturday Night Live. He did a great job. It was funny to think of the sketches he was in, and then see him so serious now.

Thanks for reading this looong blog. I wish I could write more, about Geezys and our new living situation… but I will save those for another day! Hope you all have as good a weekend as I was able to! Off to bed now! Good Afternoon America! Goodnight Kuwait!

Yesterday the Kuwaiti government (finally) passed legislation allowing women to vote and run for government posts! Pretty exciting news here…

Welcome to our Fairy Tale Blog Episode of Rapunzel!

Today the role of Rapunzel, the fair-haired maiden trapped on the 10th floor of a Kuwaiti apartment complex, will be played by Mrs. Brittny. The story line will take place here until Saturday, when the maiden moves to her new apartment which lacks the internet and all other communication with the outside world!

Director’s comments: “Okay Brittny, the look you are going for is bored out of your mind, restless, cabin feverish… kind of like Jack Torrence in The Shining.“

Now, lets set the scene. Rapunzel will remain confined to the apartment until: her knight and shining armor arrives to rescue her. The knight will be played by the valiant Will… or Orlando Bloom (whichever is available for casting) The only other way the maiden may be rescued is if she receives word that she the employment she seeks is gained.

Now, the typical movie lasts about an hour and a half these days… so why don’t we really give the public a show and make it last… I don’t know… 3 weeks!? That’s a great idea! Let’s see just how miserable you can get when you are unable to go anywhere at all for 3 weeks (minus weekends). This is going to be great!

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Welcome to my current existence. Things have been pretty boring here. I have been unable to go anywhere and have literally been confined to the apartment the last 3 days. It’s likely that it could be like this for at least 3 more weeks. If I were to get hired tomorrow, it would take at least 2 1/2 weeks to get the paperwork in, so it’s been hard to stay positive. The worst will be Thursday when we move to our own place because I won’t have the internet or TV. Okay, I lied we have TV, if you want to call it that, but we have no network provider. Our TV consists of almost 250 channels of nothingness… I seriously felt stupider after flipping through them all. Plus, the majority of them are arabic news networks which I can’t understand anyway… so I’m trying to take one day at a time and at least enjoy the few days I have with the internet before we move. I thought my confinement days were over after my surgery this spring… boy was I wrong!

I guess I better go! Thanks for listening! Have a good day.

Well my second full day here has been very uneventful. It was strange because I am used to having my weekend today, but today is their first working day. I think that will be something I will have to get used to because I kept thinking today was Monday! My parents and Will had to get up at 4 in the morning to go to work. That is soooo early. Since we are still living with my parents until we are able to go shopping and stuff, they had to drop him off at our apartment so Will’s boss could pick him up and take him to work (he thinks we are living there already). So I got up that early too, despite the poor nights sleep I had.

The day was very uneventful, but I am realizing that I really need to enjoy these lazy and “boring” days since before I know it I will have a real job with real hours and no summer vacations. :( My sister stayed home with me today so we just hung around the house since we can’t really go anywhere. We watched their HORRIBLE TV channels and talked and took a nap and made dinner. Talk about a very stressful and eventful day. I don’t know how I was able to handle all of the demands.

Will came home a little after 6 with my parents. He said he thinks he will like his new job. I hope so. I was really nervous about today for him. When he got home it was like the Spanish Inquisition because I had a million questions to ask him about his day and every single detail. I think its because I am here at home with nothing to do. Plus, when I finally do have to go live at our apartment in the next few days there is nothing at all to do. We have no computer and no cable. We have about 200 arabic channels, but their TV is really bad and mind numbingly boring.

I found out today that if I get hired for a job in the next couple of weeks it will still be a few more weeks on top of that because it takes a while to get a visa and all this other stuff, so that means I probably have at least another 3 weeks of boredom, especially when my sister goes back to school the day after tomorrow. I just have to keep telling myself to stay positive because as I said earlier I will miss these “puppy dog days,” as Will calls them.

Will is a Senior Recreation Specialist. Right now he works at Camp Doha, the main camp. However, it is preparing to close down and the military is going to give the land back to the Kuwaitis so most of the employees are going to Camp Araf Jahn, but I think Will is going to be working at Bureen- one of the SCORTCHING desert camps. He has about 15 TCNs that work for him and he is the youngest, so today his workers said they were going to call him Baby Boy. How funny. I think they will like Will and respect him because he is fair, and some others treat the TCNs really bad.

Today he had to do this gas mask drill that all new employees have to do for safety precautions. They put a gas mask on you and you have to wear it for 6 minutes and do all of these “exercises“ like turning your head from side to side and stuff to make sure it fits properly. I think I will freak out when I have to do that. Pretty crazy.

Anyway, so much has been going on these last few days, but at the same time, it’s been kind of slow. I have multitudes more to say, but I don’t want to dump all of this information and random thoughts in a single blog. Besides, what will I do when my sister goes to school and I am still at my parents’??

We made it! We had a CRAZY week leading up to getting here, but we made it with few problems.

Where do I start? I’ve been here 1 day and I have volumes I could write already about my new life. I have heard so much from my family before I came I felt like I had already lived there, but actually getting here and seeing everything for myself was a different experience!

Hmmm, so much to say so little time (it’s almost 1 in the morning here and being up this late isn’t going to help my jet lag)!

I’m experiencing a little bit of culture shock… Okay a LOT of culture shock. I’ve lived and visited overseas before, but no place I’ve been is like here. It’s totally different but at the same time similar to America. We got into Kuwait around 11 last night. It was so awesome to see the city at night. Everything is alive then. The Kuwaitis don’t get out much in the day because of the heat, so atlike 9:00 the city awakes and would be similar to our early evening in America. That is when people grocery shop and do their errands and stuff.

After we got our visas and had some help with our bags we went into the main airport area and it was like everyone stopped what they were doing and just started as my American family came up and hugged and greeted us. There are a lot of western employees that live here, but I still think blondes are a rarity, so it was awkward and I’ll have to get used to that (tonight we went to Applebees and this cute little girl and her brother followed us in and just looked at me and smiled and waved and then went back out. Not used to that…

We got our things last night and headed to my parent’s apartment. Guys, the driving is horrific. I’m not even joking. I thought California and Mexico was bad… this is like no other. You will be on a single lane ramp getting ready to merge onto the highway and three cars will be beside you in a SINGLE LANE merging ramp, and they cut you off and get antsy if you aren’t going fast enough and flash their lights and honk. It is very scary! I have issues driving in Oklahoma City, so driving here really terrifies me. Anyway, so that was an eye opener! My parent’s apartment is AWESOME! It has a beach view from their balcony. It is so pretty. We talked a little and found out more about what would happen in the next few days as Will gets ready to start work. Thursday and Friday is the weekend over here, so I keep thinking it’s Saturday night since my parent’s are off, but its not. Will’s first day is Saturday. I’m nervous for him, but also excited because I thinkw e will get to meet some nice people.

Today was an overwhelming day (I have a feeling I will feel like this for a while). We went down Gulf Road, which is like the “main“ and most popular strip in the city. We got to see all the beautiful houses and architecture, so that was nice. We ate breakfast at Ruby Tuesdays, which was really good. The “day Kuwait“ is much different from the “night Kuwait“ I quickly am learning from what my parents are telling me. The “caste“ system seems very prevalent here. There are divisions of people here and each get treated differently.

Kuwait Nationals: These people are rich. Really rich. A national has no reason to be poor if they are smart. They make a large monthly stipend just for being Kuwaiti. Even the kids do! My sister goes to school with kids who drive Bentley Continentals and Land Rovers like its no big deal. A lot of them don’t work because of the stipend, and if they do they own a business or work in government. You wouldn’t believe all of the Mercedes and Land Rovers and Porches I have seen on Gulf Road. They are like Neons or Cavaliers in America.

Western Employees (WEs): This is what my family (hopefully I will be soon too!). We are probably considered 2nd on the “food chain“ here. Most Kuwaitis are favorable towards us, especially those about 25 and older who remember the war. Some of the younger generation isn’t as friendly. There are a lot of WEs that live in Kuwait and do business like embassy stuff and military stuff. We (or at least the company my family works for) live in apartments spread throughout the entire city for free. They are already furnished which is nice too. Workers share a car with a few people they work with and don’t have to pay gas or maintenance or anything. We receive money each day on top of our wage as a living allowance, so a lot of people just try to live off of that and bank the rest. I really look forward to getting a job so we can save money. They only down part to working here is that they are 48 hour work weeks and a lot of the car pooling begins at 5 in the morning to get the long day started and to beat traffic.

Third Country Nationals (TCNs): This group breaks my heart. I have heard story after story from my parents about this group and I have teared up a few times for these people. There are several “sub-levels“ of this group, but I won’t get into all that. These people are mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh., and a few more places I can’t remember. They literally work as indentured servants. They work the “working class“ type jobs that Kuwaitis won’t work themselves. So, almost everywhere you do, it is not the nationals who help you, but the TCNs. A lot of these people have degrees but can’t get a good job in their own country so they will work here at McDonalds or some other restaurant and send money home to their families. One guy that works for my mom has a masters degree in computer science and is living this poor lifestyle just to have a job. They are bused in each morning and work 6 days a week. They get paid daily and in exchange for their wages they have to give the companies their passports and will get it back in the morning- so as you can see it’s like an indentured servant kind of system. They have little to eat and are housed in tiny apartments they share with lots of people.  They are really treated bad by a lot of people. My mom made brownies for her TCNs and they were so grateful. I am really going to strive to show them Jesus when I start working.

Kuwait is strange. I think they need a city planner. Its a pretty dirty country. The Kuwaitis throw large sums of trash everywhere because they know that eventually a TCN will pick it up. There are houses that take your breath away, and others you wince at.

Also, everything is under construction here, but you don’t know if it really is or not because they will start a project and just stop in the middle of it with a lot more to go and it will just sit there forever. There are still messes from the Gulf War. Crazy huh?!

So as for my first impression, it is very mixed. Theres some bad, but theres also some good. I guess that is everywhere you move. It is really strange being the minority here. You get a lot of strange looks, so that isn’t the greatest, but I am just going to have to learn to live with it.

Will and I got to see our aparment today. The outside of the building is really pretty and the foyer was really pretty too. Our place is REALLY small, but cute. We have all tile floors that get dirty again 5 seconds after you clean them. Our kitchen is really small. I MAYBE have 5 cabinets. And lucky me, I’M the dishwasher! A lot of WEs hire maids because they are really really cheap, but I don’t know what Will thinks about that. I guess we’ll see how busy we are when we are both working. Also, there are no outlets in our bathrooms! How strange. Who wants to have all of their appliances strung out all over their bedroom!? On the other hand, our decorations are pretty and I really like our drapes and living room set.

Did I tell you the “best part?“ Our apt. is right across the street from a mosque so every morning around 3:30 their prayer call begins for the day and they do it over a loud speaker so everyone can hear it. It is really loud and kind of scary sounding. It will take me time to get use to that, talk about a wake up call! We are staying with my parents until Saturday because we have no groceries or car or any concept of where we are going. I sure am ready to know my way around!

So many more things I want to tell you all but it is almost 2 here andI need to get on some sort of schedule for the 4:00 mornings when Will starts work. By the way, I took a shower last night and the water was turned to cold and it was still hot! That is the kind of weather I’m living in- not so great for staying dry.

I guess I need to get off for now. Will and I don’t have a computer yet, but hopefully I will be able to use my parents a couple times a week to share my culture shocking experiences with you!

Thanks for listening, have a nice evening

It is nice just to take a minute to blog. I have millions of things running through my head and I have been going a thousand miles a minute, so it feels good just to stop and regroup. There are so many things I want to just lay out on the table about the many emotions I am feeling as I get ready to move, but who has time for all that!?

Last night I went to bed at midnight because Will “made” me. I really needed to stay up another 3hours and had the adrenaline to do so, but Will thought that I needed to rest- that and the fact that my high strung disposition may drive him crazy. So I lay in bed for like an hour just thinking of so many things…

I was thinking about this Seinfeld I watched the other day and at the beginning he was talking about moving and how when a person moves, all they see or think about are boxes. Such true “wisdom” from Seinfeld. I remember when I was little how much fun a simple cardboard box was. I remember my dad telling stories about him and his brother and older sister ganging up on their youngest sister and throwing her in a box and shaking it all around and stuff. So of course, as little kid I had to try it. It was actually fun in some crazy way. Then, who could forget the makeshift house almost every kid has made in a box!? Hours of built-in fun from a simple box. Boxes are great fun for kids, someone should market them! ha ha. Well, now that I am preparing to move, boxes are all but fun. I have come a long way from the “please join me in my ‘house’ for a tea party” days. My life is revolving around getting things in them and putting them somewhere.

Today is my last day at work. I am sad. I actually liked going to work. I work in the transcript office of my university. We have had so much fun up there. All of the girls I work with are taking finals this week, so I haven’t gotten to see them. Carly came by yesterday and dropped my off a present, which was really thoughtful. Sheri, the lady I work for, got me stationary and a really cute journal. I have a feeling that will come in handy- the internet is not up at my parent’s house yet so there will be no bloging for a while and I will be by myself until I get a job, so I will have lots of time to write about my new venture. I brought up my plants and candles that I can’t take along, so I will have a “love fern” growing in the office for the girls to remember me.

I don’t even really know what else to blog, everything is moving, moving, moving, and hearing about that stress is stressful in itself, and since that is all that I know right now, I guess that is all I can write.

Hopefully when we get over there we will get the internet and I will be able to write about the crazy new days of adjusting to a whole new world and lifestyle. All I can hope is that Will and I get our own apartment soon and we won’t have to life with my parents for long- which is a LONG story and too confusing to explain. To put it short, until I get a job, Will and I can’t have our own apartment (the comapny pays for it and since I don’t have a job they wouldn’t pay for me to live there) so I will have to live with my parents and hopefully Will will get to live with me too. I love my family, but they are already driving me crazy. (this may be a whole long blog for some other day) My parents have created a monster with my sister. I guess now that she has been the “only“ child for a while their relationship with her has taken a 180. She has this manipulative “power“ to get whatever she wants anytime. I just don’t think I can live with them and watch them constantly give in to her when they have the power to say, “no.“ Like I said, this is a whole other blog.

I’m hoping that maybe tomorrow night or Friday afternoonWill and I will be able to take a short break and enjoy eachother. We had all of these plans to go eat at the places we won’t be able to when we move there, and go shopping for the many things we needed to take with us, but everyone wants to see us before we leave- which in itself is stressful- so I think I am just going to surprise him and buy movie tickets on Friday, no matter how much we still need to do.

Well, this may be my last blog for the next couple of weeks! Thanks for listening and I will be sure to blog about all the new experiences in Kuwait as soon as I can!!

Where did my weekend go? I told someone the other day that I was unofficially a graduate as of this past Friday and they asked me how it felt and I had to stop and think about it. My life has been on fast forward these last few weeks and I haven’t really had time to stop and think about things, or take anything in. I’m not even to the point of realizing, “Okay, I am going to be leaving ‘my world’ in 8 days.” I’m not there yet. So as I “graduate” I haven’t really had the chance to reflect on how I feel. If I was honest I am a little apprehensive- I’m in the “real world” now. No more summer vacations and getting done at 3 in the afternoon! anyway…

This weekend was a blur. I spent my first night alone on Thursday. I think it was the first time in my entire life that I have actually spent all alone, because in the past I would have Cleo with me, which in a sense counts. I had to study all night for my finals the next day, so it wasn’t that bad. Jenny (MIL) and I went to dinner, because she was alone too (Will went to visit his grandparents in Tulsa with his dad before we left). Will got home Friday night late, so we didn’t do anything. I sat around and watched Animal Cops until he got home. Such a thrilling graudation party. You have to watch out for me. I tend to get a little wild. ha ha. Saturday morning I went with Jenny and her mom to this mother-daughter luncheon they had at her church. It was nice. It is kind of funny to look back at last year’s banquet. I had only been married to Will for a month then. There were several girls who had major crushes on Will and weren’t big fans of me since I had married him (how silly and junior highish ) and so I had to have the “perfect” outfit and hair and everything else to go. Why are their times when we dress for other girls? I know I can’t be the only one to ever do this. I know it was petty, I guess it is just a girl thing. How silly that I even “stooped” to their level. Oh well. So this year was nice, a few of the girls weren’t friendly, but a couple were and it was nice just to talk about moving on and growing up (she had just gotten married this year). It was also funny to talk to a few ladies and hear the gossip about our move. One lady heard we were going to do accounting in Belgium. How funny. That would be nice, but that is way far off from the truth. Who knows what other stories are going around. I had a good time this year, plus I won a door prize.

That afternoon was not as much fun, but necessary. We moved out a ton of furniture. Our house was looking sad. We got a lot done. I didn’t realize how much stuff we had… and still have. Sunday afternoon we finished up moving our furniture. We just have a couple more things like our mattresses and stuff and then we are done. I have a couple of more boxes to pack to put in storage, and the rest is figuring our what to mail over there and pack. We only get to take 2 suitcases and a carry on with us each. The company will also pay for us to mail 100 pounds, which is not much, so it’s been a challenge trying to figure what I really want to take with me. We can ship as much as we want, we will just have to pay for it, but I don’t think I want to take a ton of stuff with us because once I get a job we will have to move again into another aparment, so its no use getting settled and having to move all over again. Everything is furnished there, so that is good too. So it’s mostly bringing a few picture frames and clothes and who knows what else. Its amazing how much stuff we’ve shipped. I also shipped about 4 boxes of winter clothes already. How dumb. It’s cold maybe 3 months there. Oh well. too late. My head is spinning right now. My mom is a veteran packer. As a military wife for 20 years, my mom was use to all of the little details, I however, am not. My “aunt” -as Josie put it in her blog the other day- came to visit 5 days early which is not normal at all. I don’t know if it is because of stress or what. I hope that is what it is and once this is all over I’ll go back to normal. Who knows. I am just ready to finish all of this, but it doesn’t even feel like I have started. I get one thing done and there are a million things to begin. Serenity now!

Well, my sister wussed out and started school. Looks like I’ll be going it alone for a while until I get a job. That’s a whole other thing though. I just have to look at today and not worry about tomorrow!

I think that is enough for now! more to come as get ready to begin a whole new adventure!