Balcony!

When Jimmy came home from work this afternoon we went to Ace Hardware and bought a new table and chairs for the balcony. It is a gorgeous set made of teak wood with four chairs. We only have room for the table and two chairs on the balcony and it is cosy but it is the perfect set. I orginally wanted bar height but the standard height is actually much better. We even got a plant for the table. We came home and I got my pedicure (happy toes!) while he had to bring everything up by himself. He had it all set up by the time I got back. We enjoyed a lovely dinner of hamburgers and a wonderful pasta salad I bought at the nearby grocery store this morning. The beef was from Ireland and is strictly grass fed and completely natural. The meat is so lean with almost zero fat- best burger ever! We even had candlelight! It was divine to sit outside and enjoy our meal while watching the activity on the beach and along The Walk. Life is good (except for missing my family and my precious babies).

New table and chairs on the balcony. The grill is in the background. Yes, that is the beach we look over every day!

I am standing in the doorway leading to the balcony. There is plenty of room to walk between the table and the sliding doors leading to the spare bedroom but not enough space for the two other chairs. Love the plant!

Our first balcony dinner. Yummy hamburgers with all the trimmings, wonderful pasta salad and even candle light!

Another pic of our dinner table.

Staying Busy

So cool to see my mom is now a follower! Thanks girls for hooking her up. Today Jimmy is at the office and I am home alone. Shout out to Christie for the music she burned for me- thanks so much sistah! Laundry is very different here. We bought a top of the line washer dryer - it is one unit that does both. The washing part is ok- must be VERY careful because the water is so hot it will run your colors in a nano second. The drying part takes quite a while. I can't complain though- it is better than what we had when we first moved in and it does a good job- just a little slower; like everything else in Dubai! I'm going to get a pedicure later- there is a full service salon in my building downstairs. The price for a pedi is 80 AED = $21.78. Not too bad. The pool for my building is very nice- water is temperate but no real deep end. Need to do some laps and keep exercising! We actually found an Ace Hardware store and bought a grill yesterday so Jimmy will grill for us when he gets home. There are a couple of grocery stores very near my building so picking up a few things for the day is easy and we always have fresh meats, fruits, veggies and bread. They also sell cigarettes for appr. $21.00 carton! They have Jimmys brand but not mine however I found a brand very close and for that price I am happy! We bought a little cart with wheels so we can bring our shopping items home; it's so cool. Well- off to get somethings for dinner, swim some laps and get my pedi. Hope all is well in Bamaland- I love you and miss you! M

Making a House Feel Like a Home



We have cleaned the apartment like it has never been cleaned before. We were finally able to get some of our family pics and a few other personal items out and displayed. It's those things that make it seem more homey and ours. We have more to set out but every day we do a little more. After a hard days work we cleaned ourselves up and had another fabulous meal on The Walk. People watching is uber cool because it is a high end resort area and is vey international and mutli cultural. There is an evening street fair a couple of days a week on The Walk- vendors set up very nice booths (no card tables here!) and sell everything from candles to clothes to art to childrens items. The cars cruising The Walk are pretty nice, too! I was too slow with the camera to get pics of the 2 Lamborghinis that passed as we were having dinner, damnit! Lots of high end UTV's and other luxury cars along with other "normal" cars but every car is very well maintained. You don't see banged up or even dirty cars very ofter  at all. I still can't believe we actually live here!

Today the cable/Internet gets installed and then off to shop! We have a list- patio furniture, grill, etc. Ya'll check in and let me know how things are at home. We love you and miss you- J&M

Entertainment Center with family pics

Coffe table- one of the glass panes comes up and we put random pics inside

Kitchen counter with my trivet Dara had made of the girls in San Fran last summer

Ever thoughtful Jimmy surprised me- he took the notes off of the RisonShine fridge and put them on
the apt. fridge. Love that guy!

Street fair on The Walk

More vendor booths at the street fair on The Walk

One more shot of the vendors on The Walk

Corvette cruising The Walk

Porche on The Walk

Some kind of high performance specialty car on The Walk

Another Porche (?) cruising The Walk

We spent the entire day yesterday cleaning. It took almost 6 hours to do the kitchen alone. We washed and scrubbed every surface inside and out and washed every piece of silverware, dishes, pot, pans, etc. It was worth it to know everything is spic and span and where we want it to be. The washer dryer is a single unit and doesn't work properly at all. We are going to buy a new one tomorrow- hopefully it will get delivered before I run out of clean drawers! Today we unloaded more boxes and cleaned the master bedroom and living room. Just making a pine sol solution and wiping every surface took several hours but again- the place is getting clean! Having soup and sandwiches for lunch and going to try to get the patio cleaned- major dirty out there but it will be lovely when we get it done. We also need to buy a small patio set but it needs to be bar table height so we can see past the balcony rail. That may take some shopping around but I'm sure we will find the perfect set. We also need to get a grill out there so we can enjoy Jimmy's cooking. Slowly but surely it's coming together. It's really hard to stay focused on cleaning and chores when every window is a view of the beautiful beach and people enjoying the sand and surf and strolling along The Walk. Because we are on the 21st floor it is surprisingly quiet considering all the activity outside. The walls are a concrete material and the windows are all tinted so that adds to the quietness and privacy. We don't ever have to close any of the curtains because no one can see in. We wake up to the view of the amazing beach every morning and have that view all day from every room in the apartment. I know we will be out there in just a couple more days so I keep trudging along with chores. I'll take some more pics and post soon. 

Congrats to Tara for being selected to study abroad! She will be going to Panama this summer and doing research. We are so very proud of her! Amy is also overseas with Jeremy visiting Greg so we are becoming quite the globe trottong family! Mom, Dara & Ash shoud get thier passports soon so we can bring them over for a visit. The problem is that it will be getting VERY HOT soon, 125 degrees in July, so we have to see what works best. We miss everyone and are looking forward to some major Skype sessions soon! I haven't seen my Angels face or my mom for way too long! Time to get back to work :(. Miss ya'll, love you bunches and bunches! J&M

Best Day!!

As I said earlier we have really had to overcome some pretty difficult challenges to get moved into our apartment. Today was a major success! When we got to the apartment the utilites and water were still not on and the access cards didn't work tolet us into our building. Not a good start however through much diliengence and patience we were able to get banking established, get utilities and water turned on, get our access cards to work, get an appointment for our cable, phone and Internet connections, have our FedEx boxes delivered tomorrow at noon and even set up an account to have laundry delivered and picked up to our door. We celebrated by having the best chinese food sitting outside on The Walk. The weather was perfect, the food was great and the atmosphere is unbelievable. After dinner we walked a short way and found a supermarket that has everything we need- even PORK and CIGARETTES (not our brands but hey, we can adjust)! We will have bacon and eggs and coffee for our first breakfast and have our leftover chinese for lunch. I will spend the day CLEANING- the apartment has been empty for awhile and desperately needs a major cleaning. Jimmy can unpack the boxes and get everything put away and organized. Things are finally going our way! Oh, we are using someone elses Internet connection so I am very happy to feel "connected"! Jimmy and I feel so blessed and fortunate. It has been a struggle but we hung in there and it has been so worth it. I hope everyone in Bamaland is doing well. Shout out to Diane and John-great to hear from ya'll and we hope you come to visit us! Jacob- you would love the beach here- I think of you often; thanks for your sweet comments. Off to bed- I'm exhausted and have a big day ahead of me tomorrow. Much love to my precious babies and my family- I hope we can Skype more soon. Miss you much. We love you- J&M

One Step Forward- Three Steps Back!

It is Tuesday morning and we are finally moving into our apartment. It has been a very frustrating process. The leasing agency requires so much documentation which is sometimes very difficult to acquire. We have been delayed for two days getting power because a letter from Jimmys company had to be provided and we gave it to them they wanted a specific sentence added.  So we are moving in with no water or electricity- just a wing and a prayer that the new letter will be accepted and sometime later today the power will come on. There was less paperwork, took less time and less signing of documents than when I bought RisonShine. Also, we could not get cable and Internet scheduled until we had a signed contract (lease) so today we hope to get that going. It takes 4-5 buisinessd days and Friday is Sunday here so if we get there this afternoon we may get hooked up Sunday. No Internet, no blooging :(! I'll get back on line if I get a chance but for now it doesn't look very promising. So take care all- I love and miss you very much. J&M

Home Sweet Away From Home

We did the walk through on the apt.today.Unfortunately we can't move in until Tuesday morning but at least we are moving in the righ direction! It is on the 21st floor. It needs major cleaning but I can handle that. We are still very happy with our selection and were pleasantly surprised that comes equipped with dishes and various other kitchen ware. One less expense! It is appr. 1300 square feet, 2 Br 2.5 bath with a smallbalcony just big enough for a grill and two chairs and a small table.


View of living area. The couch is 10 feet long plus, the view is the Arabian Gulf. The front door is to my right and the kitchen is behind me. The walls are painted a soft butter yellow and the sofa is green.

View of the dining area and the entertainment center taken from next to the window in the living area. Jimmy is checking out the equipment and Fabio is at the table going over the walk through papers. The dining area walls are LIME GREEN. The kitchen is in the left rear corner, the sofa is in the bottom left side.

View looking into the kitchen from the living area. The fridge on on the left, the cooker (stove/oven) is the white box facing front. The other white box to the right is the washer/dryer-yep I said washer/dryer. The sink is to the right of the washer dryer and the microwave is in the far corner facing front.

Dining table and door leading to the balcony. Kitchen is behind to the left and living area is behind.

Balcony-appr. 5' x 10'. The thing hangingon the wall is an outdoor dryer - won't get alot of use I assure you! The sliding door to the left leads into the spare (girls) room. The view is almost completely unobstructed of the beach. Truly beautiful.

View looking down the hallway. The kitchen, living & dining area are behind me. First door on the left is the guest halfbath, second door on the left is the guest full bath. Door on the far right is the guest (girls) bedroom; straight ahead open door is the master bedroom.

Guest half bath. Potty, sink- just the basics but still very nice.

Guest bath.

Guest (girls) bedroom. The doors on the right is a built in "wadrobe" (closet). The sliding door to the balcony is on the left hence the sun pouring in across the bed. The walls are painted a lilac color.

Another view of the guest (girls) bedroom showing the sliding door leading to the balcony. Again. the view of the beach is incredible.

Master bedroom. The window in front of the bed is the amazing beach. What a sight to wake up to every morning! Jimmy is going to put a "salon center" to apply cosmetics and do my hair in the empty corner on the left (table,chair and mirror). The door to the hallway is to the right and the master bath is behind me.  

View 1 of the masterbath. Sink and shower and lots of sunshine streaming in. Jimmy is going to put shower curtain for me.

View 2 of the master bath. Potty and bidet. I love the bidet!! The shower is behind me.

So this conlcudes the tour of our apartment. We look forward to hosting guests so if you find yourself needing a break from the 9-5 ho-hum you have a place to stay in fabulous Dubai! Much love- J&M