Forgotten Posts

During the day sometimes I think about things I want to post and then in the routine of dinner, laundry etc I forget to sit down and write it. Well, today is the catch up day.
First I want to write about the fact that our palm trees are disappearing around the Meadows. When Ed picked this area to live in it was because of all the green grass, trees and flowers. It is a very pretty area with lakes to walk around and very well maintained. Somebody decided to put in six lane highways right outside of our beautiful areas and they are ripping up all the nice green islands, taking out the trees and digging up the flowers, getting ready to put down roads. Ed commented that the trees are just "rentals". It is very sad to see. Thankfully, we won't be here to see the end result as we will probably have moved home by then. But the construction is a hard thing to live with, all the dust, huge equipment etc. When the big vehicles move around, you can actually feel the house shake. I am glad I do not own this home as I don't think it will be worth very much in the end. They are literally destroying the Meadows.
The weather is also a major discussion almost everywhere I go right now. WE have had wicked dust storms for two weeks now and the worst thunder and ligthtening I have ever seen with 7-8 strikes at once. It is amazing. Then when it rains, it literally pours buckets. Theses houses are not built to withstand constant rain and many of them leak during a rainstorm. We have been very lucky. Only a few areas of "wet" ceiling but no dripping. I hope I am not jinxing us because they are expecting more thunder storms today until tomorrow afternoon.
We had a really great visit with Ali and Alex. Ed and I were talking and said we both feel like we have seen and done just about everything we wanted to do here in Dubai. I think the kids feel like they have "seen it all" as well. I did post pictures from the past few months. I will be working on captions a little every day so keep checking back.
The only other thing on my mind is moving back home and leaving my job here in Dubai. It will be REALLY SAD for me to leave all my friends here but I am getting anxious to move back and reclaim the house and get re-settled. We are taking one last vacation on Hilton Head with JJ and family on our way back. We are spending a week there and I really am looking forward to that. I think it will be fun to just hang around with the kids and have a good time. It will probably be my last vacation for awhile. I am hoping all the kids will be able to join us for a mini Wollyung family reunion. We don't get to see JJ and his family enough.
My sister donated my father's American Flag from his casket to the Fort Indiantown Gap Cemetary to fly in the Avenue of Flags. I had mixed emotions about this but in the end, the flag is better "serving the country" then in a box gathering dust I guess. I think the idea of the flag and thinking about my dad made me sad for a time but in the end all his memories are with me and the flag is just a thing. One of the things I have to learn when I get home is that some "things" are better thrown out or donated as our house is getting too small to keep everything that has sentimental value. I will have lots of time in the late summer and fall to go through a lot of saved boxes etc. before our belongings arrive from Dubai. I don't know how long it will take to get to NY, but I will try to use that time to make room for all the new things we have accumulated while we were here. I guess that is all for now, unless I think of something else during the day, I will add. I see to have time on my hands today...........