Scary story

Today, Big E and I were "camping" under the blanket on my bed. I asked him to tell me a scary story. Big E: "One day, a monster went out hunting... for DINOSAURS! He found one, but it was dead. So he tried to pick it up, but it was too heavy. Because it was dead. So he prayed to Heavenly Father to help him, but Heavenly Father couldn't hear him because he was talking in monster language! The end."
Me: "What language does Heavenly Father speak?"
Big E: "English. And all the other languages."
Me: "But not monster?"
Big E: "No, not monster. Dad, do dinosaurs make meat in their stomachs?"
Me: "No, but they make it in their muscles. That's where all meat comes from: muscles."
Big E: "Mmmm... I love meat."

Settled in

Rachel and the kids came back safely a week ago in the evening, so yesterday was our first time back to church together as a family. One of the members of the Stake Presidency called and asked me and Rachel to meet him in the morning before church started. And as a result, now I'm the Elders Quorum President. For those of you who don't know what that is, I'm the head of the men's organization (well, men between 18 and, say, 45) in the ward, responsible for arranging monthly visits to every member's home to check on their welfare, and supporting the spiritual and economic well-being of all their families. You've got to watch out for those pre-meeting meetings!

Big E starts school tomorrow. He seems a little nervous, but he doesn't really express emotion about upcoming events in general, so it's hard to tell. It's weird to think of him going off to school already. I hope he likes it and makes some more friends who are boys. Seriously, until the new family moved in next door with 4-year-old twin boys, girls were practically all he ever played with.

Miss A has had some trouble adjusting to the jet lag. She fell asleep in nursery yesterday, for example, around 11:30, not her regular nap time. Right now, Big E and Miss A are having a playful shouting match at the table, seeing who can shout "Noooooo!" the loudest while they eat their lunches.

We had a student expelled from school at the very end of school last year because he brought a knife and stabbed another kid "accidentally" in the arm with it. I believe his story, and he's a nice kid, so I called him up to see how he's doing, and we ended up going to dinner with one of his cousins and one of the new teachers. He took us to a restaurant called Afghan Brothers, where we all sat barefooted on cushions on the floor and ate mutton and chicken and rice with our hands from a common platter. That was a fun cultural experience! I plan on taking Rachel and the kids there some time soon. Then we had our high school staff retreat to build camaraderie and plan for the year at our assistant principal's house. He's Qatari and quite well off, so his house was beautiful. We asked a student to bring his pet falcons for our new staff to pose with. The student is the son of the prime minister. But the student didn't come, so the assistant principal called his dad. His dad said, "That's not okay, he should have come. I'll just send his older brother." So we got the falcons after all, with the help of the prime minister!

From the time Rachel got home last week until Thursday evening, she hadn't gone any further from our house than Big E's school, which is right by where I work, and not really very far away at all. So I took her out Thursday to an Indian food place at the Pearl, which is a man-made series of bays along a manmade peninsula, lined with yachts in the water, shops that people with yachts shop at all along the piers, and big towers of empty apartments where the rich people were supposed to live, but apparently decided not to. Two other couples and a single teacher from school came along, and we had a really good, rather expensive time. Next date will probably be for fast food or something.

I've been recording myself reading the Book of Mormon aloud as Elder Scott or maybe Elder Nelson said he did in the last General Conference, as a gift to my kids and grandkids. I'm up to Alma Chapter 8 now. It takes a lot longer to read aloud than in my head!

One of the Nigerian investigators who has been attending our church since about April has gotten permission to be baptized, which is a wonderful thing to be a part of, especially here in the Middle East.

We saw these guys trucking along at about 30 mph in this vehicle as we approached a busy intersection at 7:45 PM last night. I don't even feel safe driving in our car, let alone a suped up Power Wheels Jeep!

The second half of summer

This is another post in place of a journal entry / photo dump about our time in the US. Only read on if you're into that sort of thing.

Miss A really became attached to her new hat and a little purse she found in the house. She'd put a ball inside the purse and walk around in her hat with the purse dangling awkwardly until she found the right spot, then she'd throw the ball and get it and put it back in her purse. She's a funny little girl.

 One of the summer's exciting developments was the installation of a tornado shelter in Nana and Papa's garage floor. We all decided to go inside once it was finished.

 We fit, but it wasn't what I'd call comfortable.

Still, uncomfortable is better than dead in a tornado.

We also went back to the Children's Museum to see more of the exhibits. Big E and Miss A both wanted a turn on the rising and falling bed of nails.

 Even Rachel took a turn!

 Though we didn't have any tornados while we were there, we did have quite a windstorm one night that took down a 15 foot maple next to the driveway, and an even bigger branch from the bradford pear in front of the house. So I spent two mornings cutting up those fallen branches and limbs, and bundling them for collection.

We visited Carthage for one weekend to see a bunch of our old friends. We had kind hosts who let us stay at their home and avoid a hotel charge, and lots of people came to a potluck we had at Oak St. park. It was nice and nostalgic being back. Rachel said she really loved it there and wouldn't mind moving back if this Qatar thing doesn't work out. My old assistant principal even offered to let me buy her lake house if I'd agree to come back and work for her now that she's principal!

This was back in Broken Arrow again: 

We went to the Tulsa zoo.

Big E got sick the next day and threw up a few times, so he just had a nice, long, restful day on the couch watching Shaun the Sheep on Netflix the whole time. I think Rachel went somewhere out that day, so I had the kids.

Even after he felt better, Big E was still a little more worn out than usual. He told me he was going to go upstairs to read one evening, and never made it past the first step!

Rachel took the kids to pick some Porter peaches, and we enjoyed a nice half bushel for a week or two.

Miss A really loved to go swimming. All I had to do was hold up her swimsuit, and she'd shout "SIMMING!" and run to put it on.

She was also very pleased with her new socks and shoes, and she wore her very first barrette with pride. She checked to make sure it was there all day long.

We spent a rather chilly morning at a splash pad. Both kids were hesitant to play in any of the really powerful jets or water dumps, but they had fun anyway.

Rachel made (is still making, actually) a felt advent calendar, with figures and scenery for a nativity in each pouch. She also made herself a dress and a skirt. I love her work ethic and creativity.

We all worked together to make homemade ice cream, and though it was good, we pretty unanimously agreed that you can get pretty good ice cream for a lot less work these days!

 Soon after that, we flew to Utah where we stayed with my oldest brother's family (thanks, Mike and Miriam!) and spent a fun week doing all sorts of activities with him and my two sisters' families. We also got to see the zoo and have lunch there courtesy of our great aunt Shirley. Thank you, Shirley!

The kids played for hours and hours in my brother's back yard, which has a trampoline, a tree house, a dog, a big swing, a littler swing set, and a bunch of chickens. They were in heaven! One evening, the sprinklers came on, so they all just stripped naked and kept on playing.

All the fun made for some very tired kids. Here they are on our drive up to Kamas to stay at Rachel's family's cabin for the night.

We rented this car, which turned out to be a really nice one to drive, a Hyundi Sonata hybrid. Very quiet and smooth with plenty of power, and it saved us loads on gas.

The next day, we visited Rachel's grandparents, and after some time spent warming up to them, the kids finally became good friends with them.

One of our most memorable mornings was spent with cousins chasing butterflies at Big Spring park in the Provo South Fork canyon. Thanks for planning that day, Karen and Peter!

We went to church with Heather's family.

We also had a family gathering for our relatives on Mom's side. We really appreciated everyone bringing the party to us at Mike's house.

We had a lovely time every day we spent in Utah, and we enjoyed the cool evening breezes and beautiful wildfire sunsets.

We had a nice short hike up a small canyon in Pleasant Grove. The kids enjoyed throwing rocks in the stream.

And we found some nice bargains at the American Fork DI, including some free helium balloons!

My sister, Karen, had all of us over for dinner at her pretty house, and all the kids love playing in the backyard and toy-filled basement. Thanks, Karen!

We spent our last night in Utah at aunt Shirley's house, then I flew back to Doha, and Rachel and the kids returned to Oklahoma for another two weeks. Again, Miss A loved the fresh fruit.

She also loves looking at family photos and videos on the computer and calling out the names of anyone she recognizes.

Bedtime is a lot more fun when Grandma and Grandpa are in charge, i.e., let's go get ice cream and fall asleep on the way home!

Now I'm back in Doha and frankly quite lonely while I wait for Rachel and the kids to return in a week. All's well here.

Summer fun (if you're just reading to see about our life in Doha, skip this one--we're in America!)

Well, last you heard from me we had just finished our visit with my parents in Germany. On the day of our flight to Tulsa, Elliott managed to stay awake for nearly 24 hours straight, which really helped with getting over jet lag, since he was ready to sleep until morning the very first day. Amelia took a little longer to adjust, but it was pretty smooth overall.

 It also helped to have so many people around who could put the kids in a good mood when they were feeling tired! Here's Nana with three of her grandkids.

 I was in Tulsa for just two days before I rented a car and drove 14 hours to Amherst, Ohio for a friend's wedding and to visit friends from my home ward and high school. This is Jill, a really good family friend who hosted me. Despite promising my mom I'd get pictures with all the family friends I visited, this seems to be the only one I managed to get!

But thanks to everyone else who entertained and fed me, too! To make up for being gone for a few days, I took Big E to get ice cream and play at a McDonald's after one day of his swimming lessons. We had fun playing together.

But he and Miss A probably didn't miss me too much while I was gone. By the looks of things, they had plenty of fun. Here Miss A has fallen asleep during a routine diaper change.

And Big E was found here asleep in the closet after a tantrum.

In the absence of me and Nate, Grandpa became surrogate dad to Manu and Miss A. He has enjoyed that a lot! Although if he had to watch the Piano Guys one more time, his head probably would have exploded.

And I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the year so far:

Bliss! Here we have all four Hall grandchildren in the bath:

Miss A and Manu had a bit of a love/hate relationship. Sometimes they'd enjoy playing together, and other times they'd hit and bite each other. They each had a lot of timeouts. But now that Manu's gone Miss A wanders around the house calling to him, and it just breaks your heart to hear it.

Happy (and tired) grandparents!

All the grandkids dressed up for church:

I was gone from Oklahoma for another week to attend a conference in Portland, where I stayed at the Downtown Waterfront Marriott. I walked on the riverfront a lot.

And up to Washington Park to see the International Rose Test Gardens.

And their Japanese garden, which was very peaceful. I sure miss parks when I'm in Doha!

I found a game of Pacman in chalk on a sidewalk one day.

Visited Powell's, the world's largest bookstore.

Attended a session at the temple.

My in-laws have a pool, diligently maintained for the sake of the grandchildren who are happy to use it this summer. Though when you tell them it's time to get out, they look like this:

 Big E took swimming lessons for two weeks and finally got over his fear of putting his head under water. Today he set a new record of staying under for 15 seconds! He also really loves jumping off the side in his floaty ring and letting the water swallow him then spit him back out. Miss A just likes getting in and out... and in and out and in and out and in and out ad nauseum.

When grandpa had a scaredy hole installed in the garage floor for tornados, we ended up with some extra dirt that he wanted distributed into garden area where the soil had been depleted over 20 years of gardening, so we all pitched in to spread it out.

Getting ready for the joint birthday party we had for every family member with a summer birthday:

Deb made these hooded towels for each kid in the family. Miss A is a ladybug, and Big E is a monkey. Thanks, Deb!

The fam... minus a missionary and a dad who couldn't make it because of work.

Miss A looks winning in her pretty new dress. Thanks, Nana!

Speaking of Miss A, she's speaking. She talks mostly about the most important things: "Dada!" "Mama" "Shoes!" After her cousins left, she wandered the house piteously calling their names. She says please, and has just started folding her arms and saying "Amen" for prayers. She says "Nana" and "bubbles" and for some reason calls her sippy cup "Lulu." She also lets us know very clearly when she wants to go "ou-side" or "simming" in the pool. She also says "meow" and "hat" and "teeth" and "cheese" and "joos". Probably some other words, too, but you get the idea. Basically ADORABLE.

Well, that's enough gushing about our kids and summer for now. More in the next post, I'm sure!