We are Moving

I just got a job as the Baptist Student Ministry Director at Tarleton State University, so we are busy BUSY trying to pack, close up with my clients here and move our family so I can start on August 1.

So staying true to Bullion form we are moving.  We have been married for 6 years and are moving into our 7th house, into our 5th city, in the third country we've lived in  We have moved every summer since we've been married.  It definately keeps the junk level down though.

The good news is that this time the company is paying a professional moving company to move us.  WHICH IS AWESOME!!!

so stay tuned for pics of our new house and etc, etc.

Hey Babe!

"Hey Babe!"
I heard B say from the kitchen.

BABE! BABE! BABE!
And that was Noah's name for me the rest of the morning.....

Where are they?

WHERE ARE THEY???
Most of you probably won't even check the post till later next week, since there has been absolutely nothing on here in forever. You've probably taken us off your daily/weekly rotation. I'm sorry that we've been lame. What have we been doing? With having a new baby in the family, pink eye, packing up a house, kidney stones, moving countries, visiting family, getting acclimated to American culture again, and getting off of jet lag; we've been having problems doing anything besides sleeping in our free time. (see pic below)

However I was able to get some photos up on facebook of our trip to Brownwood for the boys to meet their cousins and visit Nana and Papa.

Click here to see pictures

This is a Drill... The Embassy is Under Attack

Yesterday we were at the US Embassy applying for Nathanael's citizenship and passport when the alarms go off and the guards start rolling down the steal doors. After several minutes of this a voice comes on and repeats over and over, "This is a drill. Duck and Cover! The Embassy is under attack! Get away from the windows!"

So we sat down and waited for the hypothetic people to stop hypothetically attacking the embassy, the guards to stop guarding all the steal doors, and all the workers to get out of their safe room.

I think that was a first for me. I've never been locked in my own embassy. Interesting.

Once all the fun subsided we got all of Nathanael's paperwork in. They assured us that it would be between 1 and 2 weeks to have everything thing done. That's nice. 2 weeks is the day before we leave. It would be nice if it came in by then so Nathanael could go with us you know.

This Week.....

This week....wow...

I think that how the sisters talked about their brother Lazarus would be appropriate: "But Lord, he stinketh"

This week stunketh. That's right. Big stunketh.

Lets kick off the past weeks with a play by play.

Nathanael.
He got circumcised. Yeah. A funny story to go with that though: I walk up to the reception desk and tell the nurse I need to schedule a circumcision for my son (as I am pointing to B holding the small baby). The nurse gets up, gets a paper, shuffles some stuff around, and then hands the file another nurse who comes back to the counter where I am standing reading over the file. "You are here for the circumcision," she says looking up at me. "No, I'm good," I reply, "its for my son." I don't know if red would be the right color, but that was the color of her face as she quickly turned around and walked off very embarrassed.

Noah.
Got pink eye. He has been chased around all week with wet wipes and disinfectant hand wash and is still trying to figure out why we wash our hands everytime we touch him. But he is better now and all is right in the world.

We celebrated Noah's health and Nathanael's 2 weeks with getting Nathanael pictures for his passport (see above) and some Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream. Noah recommends the Green Gummy Bear Apple Sherbet with extra Gummy Bears by the way and Nathanael's only advice for the day is don't get your picture taken where they expect you to wake up from a nap and immediately keep your eyes open. But, with the exception of Nathanael's passport picture, everything ended up pretty good.

Noah-isms from the week

Sorry about the lack of posting. No excuses really, just laziness, I guess.

Here is, off the top of my head, things Noah has done this week that has made us laugh or cry depending on how long that day was.

Pantry Dryer
We walked into the kitchen the other day. All of the canned goods were stacked neatly in the dryer.

Pop Tarts
It was 9pm and all was quiet. I was in the office working, B was washing dishes, Noah was...wait a minute, where is Noah? We found Noah in the living room with blueberry filling smeared all over his very, very happy, smiley face. He had ganked a box of unopened Pop Tarts from the cabinet and had managed to rip the box open and then rip open the package and had polished off one of the pop tarts and was half way through the other one before we caught him.

Mommom! Mommom!
That is B's name. not Momma, but Mommom. We here it from the kitchen this time and go running in. Noah has climbed up the dryer and all we see is two little kicking legs sticking out of the washing machine.

Baby Bible
After lunch we read a Bible story together and pray. Noah loves his Read-to-Me Bible for Kids. He really loves the picture of baby Jesus, so we spend half the time reading and the other half flipping back to the picture of baby Jesus, so Noah will be quiet and let us finish. This is a sample,
Me: Peter and John were..
Noah: BABY?
Me: yes, in a minute..."going to the temp...
BABY!?!
yes, hold on.
BABY! BABY! BABY!!
Okay.....you win.
*Peter and John never got into the temple that day. They had to wait till we saw baby Jesus first.

Jesus Loves Me
Every night we pray together as a family and sing "Jesus loves me." One night this week, it went like this.
B: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells...."
Noah: BIBLE??
B: "Yes, the Bible tells us that Jesus loves us...., Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible te..."
BIBLE??
B: Yes, the Bible tells...
BIBLE!!
(the rest of the song was finished with Noah screaming Bible! Bible!)

Baby Nathanael
"Noah, where is baby Nathanael?" Noah will then run and pat or kiss B's tummy. Yeah, "awwww, how sweet," right? But today right after doing that, he found Baby Nathanael's stash of stuff animals hidden in a drawer. They are no longer Baby Nathanael's stuffed animals. They are Noah's stuffed animals.

And there's our week in recap. Hope it made you smile.

But We Don't Buy Dryer Sheets

For the past several weeks every time I fold our clothes after they come out of the dryer I keep finding all these dryer sheets. Not just one, but like 5 or 6. I think, "Why does B use so many dryer sheets? Wait a minute! I don't think we buy dryer sheets. Where is she getting them from?" Then as soon as I finish I forget to ask her.

Tonight the truth came out! B and I are folding clothes and she says, "I don't know how all of these [dryer sheets] keep getting in the clothes." And of course I say, "Babe, I thought we didn't use dryer sheets?" She then just shakes her head sympathetically and informs me, "We don't use dryer sheets, these are wet wipes."

Yea. Wet Wipes......I'm retarded.

Apparently Noah has a little habit of pulling out wet wipes and putting them in his dirty clothes hamper.

and YES they do look like dryer sheets after being dried in the dryer!! Quit making fun of me!

I Guess Life is Better Without Pants

The doorbell rang and I went to the door to get it. It was the delivery man. I opened the door and he looked at me and then looked down at my feet where Noah came to stand. He then handed me the food and while I was fishing out the money from my pocket I hear a little voice say, "oh" and both the random delivery guy and I looked down to see Noah. Noah was standing there with his pants down around his ankles. smiling back up at us.

Dinner and a show. I'm sure the delivery guy will not forget our house any time soon.

Noah the Climber

Noah
Noah is a little boy. While I don't remember me being a little boy and what that was like. I now understand why my parents took to drinking so heavily. (that was a joke. my parents don't drink...alcohol. However my mom has been known to knock back a keg of sweet tea now and again).
Noah is into everything. Not only into everything, but onto everything as well....
He has learned how to climb up into to his changing table. It will be quiet in his room and then we will hear him yelling. We go in and lo and behold Noah is on the changing table and wants us to get him down. 5 minutes later....same thing again and again and again.

He's learned how to climb up on the toilet so he can flush it, not because he can actually use the toilet, but just so he can feel and hear the sound of rushing water under his feet.

He's learned how to climb up the back of the loveseat, hop up on the back of it, and ride it like bull....until it throws him off onto his head.

And he is learning how to get his hands on the counter top in the kitchen and walk up the cabinet doors, which means soon he will have figured out some way, some how to get himself up on the counter top.

On a different note, Noah has stopped using most of his vocab. Everything is now MAMA!!!! at the top of his lungs. Me. B. the plate of food he is wanting. the guy half way down the street. It doesn't matter. I guess he thinks that if he just yells MAMA long and loud enough we will eventually figure out what he is saying. I think we should all follow Noah's lead and just choose our favorite word and only use it and yell it when we want or need something....

Cross Countries Tour, KSA

The past two weeks we as a family took a trip to Muscat, Oman......by car. 1,700 miles over 3 countries. It was incredible! Noah did a great job. Our first country to enter was Saudi Arabia.

We were a little nervous to go into the this place that we've heard so much about and is so closed off. We stopped at a mall in Al Khobar to grab some lunch and it was the first time that we actually had to "engage" life in KSA. Every resturaunt there has two seperate sections, one for families and one for men only. They have two separate entrances and are divided by walls. It was a new experience for us.

We were able to spend the night in Al Hofuf on our way through and on our way back. B and I both went into some culture shock there. Nothing in English, crazy traffic, mixed in with everything being closed down for the call to prayer and B having to cover her head caused some stress! Oh, and we got lost in Hofuf going to the hotel, going to eat, on the way back to the hotel, and on the way out of town! We now know 800 different ways to not get where you need to be!

The driving there on the highway is AWESOME!!! No speed limits and nothing to slow you down!!! However, no matter how fast you drive (100 mph) Saudis still drive faster and they don't have any problems with double or even triple passing people...or passing you on the shoulder. It is like a game of "anything goes" at 100+ mph!! It was truly fun for me and stressful for everyone else in the car!!
Here are the pictures as we went through Saudi Arabia. I will try to post each country separately.

The first thing we saw in Saudi!! This place must not be that bad, right?

This is my hot wife!!!



Al Hofuf at sunrise

Camels roam along the highways in herds. It was just like driving through Texas and seeing the herds of cattle....well sort of.

The last thing we saw as we passed into the United Arab Emirates (it says the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)
I will try to get pics of the UAE up soon.

Merry Late Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas! Christmas here is unlike anything I've really experienced before. Because Eid and Christmas came close together this year we had a semi-holiday experience.

sidenote: Islam celebrates two Eids or Festivals every year (based on the lunar calendar) they put out lights and decorate everything really pretty like we tend to do for Christmas

So we had lights out and all of downtown was light up, it looked like downtown Dallas during Christmas. The only problem was nobody celebrated Christmas. It looked like Christmas, but it wasn't Christmas. On Christmas day everyone went to work. The traffic was normal, not a soul said Merry Christmas. We passed houses under construction and all the construction crew was out there working like it was any other day. I ran to the grocery store to get some drinks for the dinner and it was full of people and not one of them said Merry Christmas. Finally when I checked out there was a little Philipino lady working the register, so I said, "Merry Christmas, how are you?" She light up and replied back. Apparently she hadn't had anyone wish her a Merry Christmas yet. Sad day for them.

But despite the sadness for them we had a great Christmas.

Merry Christmas from the Bullions!

Noah got his first candy cane, which went over really well, it was just hard to convince him he couldn't have anymore!

And Noah really enjoyed the bucket his Mega Blocks came in.

Ummm...MiniVan?

We were driving yesterday and saw this...... Three big dogs in a little convertible. What can I say?

Quote That I Found Interesting

I just read this so I felt a need to share it. Being is that this is a family blog and is usually filled with pictures of Noah and how we are trying to live in another culture I will refrain from blasting you with my commentary on this, so just read it and imagine..... :)

"Today Islam claims more than 1/5 of the world's population and by 2025, some statisticians predict one out of every three people in the world will be Muslim."

Pneukuntree Baybiotitus

B and I went to the doctor yesterday and apparently we have picked up from the Courtneys a disease called Pneukuntree Baybiotitus (Nu Kun Tree Bay Beo Titus) It is a rare disease found in young couples who move around from country to country alot.

Basically, you can tell if you have this disease if you find yourself pregnant shortly after you move to a new country.........

For those of you with mouths open, I will say it again so it will sink in quicker.

B and I (mainly B) are pregnant again!

In our quest to over populate the world and expand the Bullion Nation, we are pregnant. I' m not sure why it always happens within two months of moving to a new country though. Hopefully this cycle doesn't continue the rest of our lives. That could prove to be overwhelming!

But yes, Noah is having a little brother or sister. And we are very happy, so celebrate with us. Go out to eat and go ahead and order that dessert or that extra something. Don't worry! It's for the baby!! Go out and buy that shirt/book/CD/DVD/whatever that you've been wanting, its a celebration!

For those of you that need answers here are some basic things you may be asking:

How far along?
8 weeks

How is B feeling?
It's the first trimester, so morning sickness is here to stay for another month or so.

When is the baby due?
First of June, Noah will be almost two

Was it planned?
No, are you kidding me? TWO in diapers????? We aren't cr.....well, ..No, it wasn't planned.

Do you want a boy or a girl?
B wants a girl. I am a bit nervous about a girl, but I mean, I am happy with whatever.

Will the baby be born there or in the States?
We are having the baby here. The health care here is great and we love our doctor. She is wonderful.

Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. ^Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Psalms 127

Spudoodle Palooza!!

That's right, spudoodle palooza!

Since B and I have been dating we have played a game while we are driving on who can see the most spudoodles (cars with one headlight out).

I realize that everybody has different names for these rare and fascinating creatures, but I would like to point out that in the Latin Animal Categorizing Thinga-ma-Jigger it is called a spudoodeles doodelas. So spudoodle is closest to the scientific name.

Anyways, the thing is that here we see about 5 every night. We usually would slap our hand to the roof and call out, "There's one!" But now they are so normal it would be like driving through Brownwood and calling out everytime you saw a truck, so they've lost there value here I guess.

We were telling a friend here about our little game and they thought we were rather stupid and that spudoodle was not a good name for these one-headlighted creatures.

So the question is: What do you call a one-headlighted car?

Internet Finally

So, life is coming together slowly here.

Today I went and picked up my Residence Card. Whoo Hooo for Residency!!
Now I can do all the things I needed to do but couldn't. Like...
internet, a phone plan, and a bank account (it's hard to remember where we are burying all our Mason jars full of cash out here in the desert! No landmarks!)

The internet is being worked on as we speak, but until it does, I was able to get a plan with the local mobile phone company.

Here I can buy a little USB thumb drive that I put a SIM card (the little thingy that you put in mobile phones to get reception) in it and hook it up to the computer and I get internet in the entire country. It's high speed and I pay for it like I would a monthly subscription.

With that said, I am internet capable! So call our US number or call us on Skype. We are here.

A Conglomerant or something like that...

Don't be fooled, the pic is just a decoy so you will read this post with a smile and think about Noah while I am griping!!!!!!

Good things this week: B and Noah returned from the States. I ate some Deer Sausage. I ate an entire box of Oatmeal Cream Pies and lost weight because it was the only thing I ate for three days (sick I know), we have a new camera to overload you with pics of Noah again.

The only bad thing: They decided that they needed to redo something (I think water lines) on the road next to us AT NIGHT!!!!! It is 12:30am and it sounds like a jack hammer is outside our window....oh wait!!! IT IS OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW!!!!

WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY THINKING!!!!!

alas, the Arab world at its finest......

While Traveling in the Arab World....

I’ve been traveling without Noah and B this week trying to work out all the paperwork details of our move in August. Got some of them done, some of them are still up in the air.
I don’t like traveling without my family. I loved it in college, but now that I’ve got B and Noah, I’m a homing pigeon. Home is where I want to be….
Anyways, this week in traveling I’ve noticed several things that are normal in traveling inside the Arab World by plane.

1. The flight attendant will get on and talk for 20 minutes in Arabic and then after a long pause will say in broken English, “we are now serving dinner….” and that’s it….

2. During the flight you will hear people’s mobiles go off and, better yet, people will actually answer them.

3. As soon as the plane has stopped shaking from the bouncing of landing, they are up out of their seats, way before the seat belt light is turned off and way before even the flight attendants are even up, getting their luggage from overhead.

Too Much Pizza

I was driving down the road today singing at the top of my lungs with the windows rolled down (don't you hate it when you do that, not realizing that the whole world can see you, not to mention, hear you) when I heard a honk from the car beside me.
I turn to look, and lo and behold, it's our Pizza Hut delivery guy.
"hello, Mr. Clinton...." So we talked for a minute while driving down the road and then he went on ahead.

Then it hit me.

I think we order too much Pizza Hut if my delivery guy can pick me out of a car and can remember my name.....
oh well. I'll see him again tomorrow.

Cuz it's pizza night..... :)

2 Iraqis...

Tonight I saw

2 Iraqis* walk into a gun store......

I will leave you to think what you want to about that....

*EDIT: Iraqi Arabs. They were Iraqi Arabs. There is a big difference between the Kurds in the north and the Arabs. For those of you that know the difference.....