Wow! I feel good, I knew that I would...

So good, so good, (all together now) I got you!!!

Yes, the entire family is finally, finally legit. We are now officially Residents in the United Arab Emirates.

2 years ago, who would've thunk?

Thomas thinks it's super.

It feels so good to have our passports back. To not wonder about exactly what do those Middle Eastern jails look like from the inside? (This is still one of our top goals defining a Successful Venture).

The best part of getting residency in the UAE is now we can leave the country. Actually, the best part is that we can come back after leaving the country.

We're already planning the weekend. Stay tuned.

So, here are Thomas and my passports. Note that Thomas is now officially a child, I'm officially a housewife (oy) and that they spelled my last name incorrectly.

It's spelled correctly on the American part of the passport, and pretty darned close there. This Residence form is basically a big sticker they pasted inside the pages of our passports. I expect that US Customs will be much more interested in us when we come back to the states for a visit. Should be good clean family fun all around. Really.

To round out the happiness quotient for the day, here are some photos from the Pacific NW sent to me by some lovely friends, just to remind me that the forecast for today is not 85 degrees everywhere.

Spiderwebs by Sherri Peterson

Looking Up by Megan Penny

Thanks to both of you for the autumn photos, your thoughtfulness, and your friendship.

From my neck of the, er, woods (gosh, that expression just doesn't work here. My corner of the sandbox? Sounds terrible.)

Peach Oleander

Popsicles

Bethy and Thomas exhibiting typical November behaviour: eating homemade popsicles on the lawn. Remember the fresh juices? This is an excellent way for the kids to enjoy them.

Life is good.

A postscript. As I was formatting this blog entry Thomas got ahold of a bag of brown sugar (how did THAT get left out...?) and quietly but thoroughly decorated the entire dining room with "OOH pretty sugar sparkles." I looked up from the laptop when he said that, alas too late to prevent the impromptu sticky creativity, but at least in time to save the other half of the kg bag. In other words, I just spent half an hour cleaning up more than a pound of brown sugar...

I really, really hope you enjoyed this blog entry! :)