Home Sweet Home

Since we are leaving Saudi soon, I'm trying to go ahead and document as much as I can about our lives here.  I know that the girls will be curious about what life was like for them in KSA, and I want them to be able to look back and see.  We have lived in Murjan Village for four and a half years and it has truly become our home.  Here is a look at our villa!

When you walk in the front door you are standing in the entry way.  Off to the left is the kitchen, and off to the right are the staircase, the diaper changing area, and the half bath.  Behind me is the living/dining/toy area.

There is a little nook right off the entry way that we turned into the diaper changing station, and it has worked beautifully!

Right after the nook you enter the sink/half bath area.

 The kitchen and laundry closet are directly opposite of the bathroom area.  I have have spent countless hours in this room and it has become one of my favorite places in the house.  :)

Directly behind the entry way, kitchen, and bath is the living dining area.  This space is one huge rectangle that is completely open.  We've divided it by the way we've placed the furniture.  Here are a few shots from one corner of the room so you can see the whole thing.

The picture above was taken in the corner of the play area that is directly behind the kitchen.  Here's another perspective looking out from the kitchen.

Next to the play area is the dining area.  The table directly behind the entry way.  This picture was taken from the entry way looking in.

The living area is on the other side of the table.

All of the bedrooms and another living area are upstairs.  I've always thought our tiled stairs were really beautiful!

When you walk up the stairs the master bedroom/bathroom is directly to the left. Unfortunately, I somehow didn't manage to get pictures of our bedroom before the movers took our stuff.  So, the after pack up pictures below contain some disturbing color schemes (the compound provided bedding), but it will at least give an idea of what our bedroom looked like.  :)

Closets are not common in Europe or the Middle East.  Things are instead stored in wardrobes that are fitted against the walls. Each of our bedrooms in the villa have an entire wall that consists of wardrobes.    Unfortunately, the storage is not functional as a walk in closet would be, but you learn to adapt.  The hardest thing for us to adjust to was the extremely limited hanging clothes space.

Here was Brent's hanging space.  It was about two feet wide!

 I got the larger hanging space, which was about double the space of Brent's.

Master bathroom.... Another odd thing about differences in houses here.  Instead of having a shower curtain for the shower, they all have this little door that you can open and close.  What is odd about it is that it doesn't cover the entire bathtub, so water always gets out!

On the right are the living area and then the girls' rooms.  We don't use the upstairs living area too much, but have utilized it for an office area and storage.

After the living area, there is a small hallway that leads to the second full bathroom and then the girl's rooms.

Oddly enough we don't use the second bathroom at all!  It only has a shower, so we always use the bathtub in our room to bathe the girls.

Here is a look at Olivia's first bedroom.

Here is Savannah's first bedroom too!

Those are the highlights of the inside of the house.  We have a fabulous backyard and back patio, so a tour wouldn't be complete without a shot of it.

When we first moved here in 2009, our villa didn't feel like home.  It was just a temporary place to stay until we were finished with our assignment in Saudi.  My how things change! Four and a half years later, it truly does feel like home!  We have so many memories here, and we lived so much life within these walls.  This was the place where we brought Savannah home from the hospital after she was born.  This was Olivia's first home.  In eight years of marriage, this is the place we've lived the longest.  As I type this, our villa no longer looks like the pictures I've posted.  All of our stuff is gone and is on it's way to Houston.  Even though our things aren't here, it still feels like home.  We have had four and a half years of fantastic memories in C-12, and I think we will leave a little bit of our hearts behind when we say goodbye to it.  

Lanie

 When I came back to Saudi in October after Olivia's birth in the US, I was BLESSED with a wonderful helper named Lanie!  Each Wednesday, Lanie would come to the house at 5:30 am and would do her magic until about 10:00.  When she left, our home was immaculately clean, picked up, and freshened!  I cannot tell you how much I looked forward to Wednesday mornings each week!

As someone who prides herself in keeping a tidy home, it was hard for me to turn over the deep cleaning to another person; however, Lanie became more than just our weekly helper, she became a great friend!  Lanie is such a sweet lady!  Both of the girls LOVE having her around.  During the week Savannah would ask where Lanie was and comment how she missed her.  On the days when Lanie came, Savannah was always so excited and wanted Lanie to stay downstairs with her!  :)

Going back to the US means saying goodbye to our wonderful Lanie, and we will truly miss her!  We love you Lanie!  Thank you for making life in Saudi so much easier!  We will miss you!

Saudi Sand Storm

Part of life in the Middle East is the occasional sand storm, which is particularly prevalent when the seasons are changing.  We've been really lucky the past six months or so and haven't had any storms until last week.  Last Wednesday morning the sky looked kind of funny but then cleared up and was sunny and beautiful.  Two hours later the wind started blowing really hard and the sand rolled in.  Now, when I say "sand storm" it's not exactly what you are thinking of.  It's really more like a dust storm.  The sand here is really more like orange talcum powder.  When we get a sand/dust storm it almost resembles orange fog; however it's not fog, it's sand.  The wind is usually always blowing when we get one so you want to stay inside.  Sometimes the storms last for just one day, other times it can last for several.  My longest sandstorm was four days.  Once they finally subside, EVERYTHING is covered in a thick orange layer of talcum powder sand.  Just part of the life!  

Here are some pictures of last week's storm when it was starting to roll in.  The sky was changing colors and you can tell the wind is blowing.  

Now the sand storm is in full force. Check out the orange color!

A few pictures from later that night.  You can see the haze around the lights.

And finally.... the aftermath on the front porch.....

Olivia is seven months old.... and on the move!

Our sweet Livy Lou is SEVEN months old and the past month has brought about drastic changes for her!  When she turned six months old, Olivia was just beginning to pivot and move in a circle, since then she has become full on mobile!  She can army crawl anywhere she wants to go, and she is fast!  She is working on sitting up and is so close, but won't stay up long enough to get really stable.  She just wants to MOVE!  Did I mention she is already trying to pull up on the stairs??

Olivia also had her first purees this month.  So far she is a fan of butternut squash, broccoli, and green beans.  More to come soon! Life is changing quickly and we find so much joy in it!