I’m into the home straight now. Only 3 more weeks until I get to see my family again! Good thing, because I’m seriously stretched when it comes to finding compelling blog news around here. (yes, I realize in saying this I’m implying that former content found here has been compelling…just play along) However, my never ending quest to post news from Yanbu, the hinterland of Saudi Arabia, has uncovered that there are 2(!) new restaurants in the food court of our only mall.My Filipino students could hardly contain their excitement when they shared that Jollibee, a famous Filipino fastfood joint, was one of them. Well, today I sampled it and can agree with them that the fried chicken is good, but the Fiesta Noodles are not so good. There. Bet you couldn’t have survived another day without that breaking news.

Oh yeah, I’ve also got a short video of Leah lying on her back and playing with a mobile. Not exactly exciting, unless your me. It’s surprisingly satisfying footage for a father who has only seen a handful of pictures that never seem to show her from the front.

It is with great joy that we announce the arrival of Leah Katelynn into our family. She was born on October 28th, around 10pm. Mommy and baby are doing well after having spent an extra day in the hospital on account of Leah’s jaundice. Here are the pictures many of you have been waiting for.

I’m a little biased, but I think she’s absolutely georgeous! A little cherub!!!

Getting a Bath

So, the requisite speculation will no doubt begin…Who does she look like??? What do you think?

Jakob has been a super big brother. He likes to kiss his baby sister and even offered to share his biscuit with her!

This past summer, during our visit to my brother in Minnesota, Jakob had a great time playing with his cousins. For some reason Evan told him about Sasquatch, and after that Jakob ran around pretending to hunt for it. Except, he totally butchered the word Sasquatch and I thought it was pretty cute. Once back in Saudi, I took some footage of him saying it and it took another few months for me to finally put it into a video. I think it’s kind of a funny video, and I hope you agree and get a chuckle out of it. (disregard the writing in the middle of the screen in the first part of the vid. I had to convert some footage using a demo version of some conversion software, and the result is the message you see)

Looking South on the Rastanura Aramco Beach on the Persian Gulf

This past weekend I got a chance to see what it’s like to live as Saudi royalty. All right, not exactly royalty, but pretty near to it. I went along as a chaperone with the JV Boys Volleyball team to their season ending tournament at the ARAMCO compound on the Persian Gulf side of the kingdom.  For those of you who don’t know, ARAMCO, is the biggest oil company in the world and they have serious money to throw at their facilities and employees. Teachers working at Aramco schools earn 100-150% higher wages than our district, and the compounds they live in are like countries within a country. For example, the compound we were housed on had an actual movie theatre! Yes, outside the Aramco fiefdom, movie theatres are HARAM! (sinful/unlawful for muslims) Not only did they have a theatre, but there was a beautiful, 5km stretch of white sand beach where women could dress as they would at any North American beach. All in all, we had a great time. Our boys thought they had entered utopia! They primarily come from upper middle class Indian or Pakistani families and so the wide streets, suburban yards and homes, green sportsfields and baseball diamonds, not to mention the peaceful security of the compound was something most of them had never seen before. The Rec centre was also a big highlight with it’s pingpong, fussball, video games, and billiards. It was heaven for boys who live a pretty boring life of seclusion and have hardly any social outlets in Yanbu. But in all honesty, I think the part these 14 year old guys liked the most was that some of the female teens watching the volleyball action at the Aramco school were wearing short-shorts. That’s something they NEVER see in Yanbu!!!

In Other News…

• Elisha is still expecting! The due date is the 25th, so everytime my cell rings I hurriedly answer it hoping it’s news from her.
• umm…that’s about it.