Drew's first major milestone

Drew finally learned to crawl on Sunday, August 26. It only took him just shy of 11 months. Why crawl when you can be carried? I guess the Wiseman lazy genes are stronger than the example of Rosy's neurotic need for constant motion. The nature vs. nurture argument can now be laid to rest.

Yes Mom

Here is physical evidence that we went to church today. That's all I've got to say about that.

Brand Recognition

Here's a little game called brand recognition. We saw a similar post on a blog we came across when we first began learning about Dubai.

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1) Ikea - we've spent way too much time and money here. No worries Zach, they have your wok here too.

2) Tide with Bleach

3) Aquafina - just for my water snob parents

4) Chili's - still our favorite eats...same menu, same taste, same price. Yes Shayla, they have "salt-za"

5) Crest

6) Capri Sun, Coke and Sprite

7) Florida Natural Orange Juice

Rosy's first week observations

So we’ve been in Dubai for a week now and so far, so good. Here are a few observations about this crazy place that we thought you might like to know:

1) Did we arrive in Mumbai or Dubai? There are so many Indians in this place. When we drive around all we see is busload after busload (and sometimes 10 of them crammed into a little sedan, seriously!) returning home to their labor camps after a full days work of building this city.

Which leads #2). This whole area is under construction. We’ve never seen anything like it.

3)The malls here are out of control. There are sooooo many. And the scariest part is that Nick knows his way around all of them. It was a long six weeks.

4) What is more sad, the fact that Bret left his “gigi” on the airplane and will probably never get it back, or the fact that he doesn’t miss it :-(

5) There are these switches in every bathroom where you can turn the water heater off or on. This is because some people use the cold for hot and the hot for cold water in the summer. The water heaters are indoors and can cool the water when off better than the pipes for the cold water which run underground out in the hot desert summer. In fact, when I bathe the kids, I only use the “cold” water. This is a good thing, also, because my washer only uses the “cold” water. Crazy, huh.

6) My house is great, except for the fact that it has six toilets and nine sinks that I have to clean. Not to mention the WHITE tile that runs throughout the house. Nick will just have to get me a maid ;-)

7)Milk, which by the way I can’t stand, has only about a 3 day period from when you buy it until it expires. So we have gone to boxed milk, which many people buy as opposed to “fresh” milk.

The kids love it, especially with spoonfuls of the great chocolate milk mix that is made in Europe, so you know it’s good.

8) No matter how hot it is, the kids love to go swimming. No matter how hot it is, I still find some way to get cold.

9) Driving here scares me. I hope I get used to 4 lane roundabouts. Also, many drivers ( I won’t mention which nationality) view lane markers as mere suggestions. I can’t drive here in Dubai until I have a UAE driver license. This is because if you get in an accident and it’s your fault, you have to pay for the whole thing. If you kill someone in the accident, you have to pay 2,000,000 dirhams (about $550,000) in blood money. Once you have your license, you can get insured. There have been cases of poor laborers throwing themselves in front of cars so their families can collect the blood money. Whoa!

10) I am so lucky just because of where I was born.

Welcome Home

After months of planning and several days of travel we finally made it to our new home in Dubai. The boys were outstanding. Drew was only cranky at take off, Cole slept 90% of the time and Bret was a big help pushing all of our crap through the airport. Yes, I said crap. The only fight Rosy and I have had throughout this experience is over the amount of crap we have accumulated...particularly the amount of crap accumulated in a 6 week period in Utah. Rosy wants everyone to know that she did not accumulate crap and that the crap to which I refer was already in our posession and was merely spread throughout our car/temporary living space at my parents house. This argument will continue in all likelihood for the duration our marriage.

Jet Blue really does suck

Leno wasn't kidding...Jet Blue really does suck. We boarded our plane at 11:45 PM in SLC en route to JFK. Shortly AFTER boarding the plane the pilot announced a slight mechanical issue that would take about 15 minutes to resolve. One hour later we in the air and we all had no trouble drifting off to sleep. Roughly four hours later I awoke to the sound of the captain announcing thunderstorms in NYC that would delay our arrival about 15 minutes. One hour later the pilot informed us that we were running short on fuel and we would need to land at a small airport not far from Albany, NY. He estimated that the refueling would take 15 minutes and we would be back in the air in 30 minutes for a short flight into JFK. One hour later we had fuel and took off…again. After a short flight down to NYC we finally landed, only to hear from the captain that there would be a short delay until our gate opened up. In an apparent lack of creativity he estimated that the delay would take approximately 15 minutes. Again, one hour later we were at the gate. By this time our planned 6 hour layover had been diminished to a mere 45 minutes. I knew the chances of us catching our Emirates Air flight to Dubai were slim and none but I figured the thunderstorms had delayed all flights so I was cautiously optimistic. We gathered up all three kids, the car seats, and all of our crap (a recurring theme, I know) and ran off to baggage claim/customs. My optimism faded, however, when I reached the carousel only to see on the monitor that our bags would arrive in “15 minutes.” You guessed it, one hour later I had all but one of my bags (incidentally, that bag was later found at the oversized bag counter in spite of it being regulation size). As you most likely have already predicted, we ended up missing our original flight to Dubai and had to catch the next one 12 hours later. Praise be to Allah that Emirates Air has a sweet business class lounge and a true understanding of the term “customer service.” Isn’t it ironic that we opted not to fly Delta because of a 9-hour layover in Atlanta? It’s like rain…