This past weekend was the Australian Super V8 races at the Bahrain International Circuit. Cody, and Graeme, signed up to scrutineer the races and so he received 3 complimentary tickets for yesterday's big race. Taylor and I went and gave the extra ticket to Ola. I dropped Cody off at 8:30 at Graeme's house, and Tay and I headed to the track at 10:45, making a pit stop to pick Ola up. We had great seats and were right across from the pit garages where Cody was scrutineering. He was overseeing the Ford performance group, who won the day before. He was having a blast. It was raining a little in the morning but cleared up for the races, and then continued all night.


It was a good day and the races were loud and fun. We stopped for lunch and saw the 'aborigini' man with his dijeridoo entertaining the children, and 2 men in kangaroo costumes bouncing around or laying down. They had springs on their feet and literally bounced 3 or 4 feet off the ground. Very funny.


Ola, Taylor and Alla, who met up with us later, had a good time being girls. It started sprinkling, barely, and Ola freaked out about her hair getting wet so we gave her an umbrella to use. It was rather hilarious and she saw the humor in it on the way to the restroom when I pointed out that it wasn't raining anymore and that she was the only one with an umbrella up. Taylor opened hers so she wouldn't feel so bad and I snapped a cute picture of the three of them on a bench. There was a beautiful rainbow in the clouds and the sunset was like ones in Arizona when it has been raining. Really nice!


Cody was really easy to spot since he was the only one with a red clipboard, so look for him in the pictures. The cars he was scrutineering are the black and yellow Number 6 car and the blue and white Number 5 car, so of course those are the ones we rooted for. The Number 6 car came in second at the end of the race and won overall since the day before they won, so it was exciting for everyone there in the pits!

Well, today was America's Thanksgiving Day. It commemorates the first feast after the Pilgrims came over on the Mayflower. They suffered a long and arduous trip across the ocean, only to arrive and have to deal with sickness and deaths. They worked hard for their food and during the harvest time, had a lot to be thankful for and threw a feast. The native Americans joined in and brought food to share as well. In our generation, we eat as well, and remember all the wonderful things we have to be thankful for, and spend time with family and friends -some of what we are thankful for. Hopefully. :)

We invited our Canadian friends, Dave and Kate Webb, as well as our pastor Graeme and his wife Allison, and their kids Aisha and Peter, from Australia. The Reimers joined in to add to the Americans that were present, and Reza, an Iranian, came for dinner as well. My Scottish friend, Eilidh, came by for tea earlier in the day since she had dinner plans already. So it was a nice international mix.

I started preparations early in the day by making rolls and pies from scratch, setting out the appetizers and preparing the turkey for cooking. Taylor made the hummus the night before. This isn't a traditional Thanksgiving dish, but we adapt to our culture here. After dinner we chatted and played cards, and then had warm peach and cherry pie with a scoop of ice-cream or whipped cream on top. Yummy.

Cody and Graeme were on the computer, looking at interesting satelite images of the world, big unknown fossils found in Iran, remote control planes, and other 'guy' stuff, and enjoyed the time spent using their minds to wonder and plan and invent. I love that about my husband and it is neat that he can do that with a like-minded person, Graeme.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving time, you Americans that celebrate it that is, and remember all the wonderful gifts and blessings God has given you - and be thankful!

Hello. It has been a long time since I've blogged, but not much has been happening. On Saturday Debra threw a baby shower for me (and Noah) so I can blog about that! It was a lot of fun and she made it special for me. Almost all of the attendees were from Awali church here in Bahrain except for my friend Farzana, Taylor's friend Ola, her sister Mariam and mother Iman. I have never met Iman before so it was nice to meet her. She is so short and when I wanted to take her picture she insisted on putting on her shoes first. Very cute. She is really sweet and now I know where Ola gets it. We played pictionary too, and all the items were related to what you do to babies. It was funny to see what some people drew. See if you can guess what this picture is of. Sally was especially good at guessing. Good thing she was on my team. Speaking of Sally, she is British but lived in South Africa for several years, met and married her husband and had children there. When she was 8 months pregnant with her last, her friends threw her a shower. She arrived in a dress and they made her take it off and wrapped her in a large towel that looked like a giant diaper (nappy for you non-Americans). She was so embarrassed to be sitting there in only that in front of her mother-in-law, mentor, people from church, etc. She said to be glad that I don't live in South Africa! I am rather thankful actually.

Debra also passed around a blessing box, which I have never heard of. Everyone wrote a prayer or note of encouragement on a card and put it in the blessing box for me and Noah. Very sweet idea. I haven't read those yet, I think I will do that right after this blog...