...at the end of the tunnel? After a whole night of A throwing up he seems to be better already! He has kept all he drank this morning and also a piece of bread that he ate. Dont want to get my hopes up but I can always keep my fingers crossed ;)

As seems to be custom when one year comes to an end (or just started), here is my eventful 2011. The year that was like a loooong uphill. To start out with R went to Chile with me and the kids in Sweden and at the same time all the worries about AirMalta. It was a very tough time where I dont think we could have spent too long and Im very happy its over. When we finally took our decision to look for other opportunities and R got his joboffer from Emirtates we could move on in one way however instead next tough period started, to pack up a home and with that the mental part of leaving the home we had dreamed about and not even completed yet. While R did his groundschool we spent 2 lovely months in Sweden but it was of course it wasn´t easy to be without him and to be honest the kids dont seem to have accepted him back completely yet. Many times Im the only one they want. To get to Dubai was both nice and stressful. Trying to set up our home, settling in kids at school, paperwork to arrange here and there and at the same time speding quality time with the family was exhausting! When we started to feel more comfortable the hassles contiuned with the housemaid that we brought over but it seems the winds have finally changed. R got some unexpected leave for xmas so we could go to Malta. To travel back got us both to feel good about our move, we made the right choice. Life is not any worse in Dubai. Sure, there are things we miss but then there are also things we do NOT miss. I conclude this year saying it was a very tough one but towards the end things turned and I hope we bring the positive feelings into 2012.

Today I finally got my netbook back from repair. Ohhh how I have missed you!

Today we are celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately on totally different parts of the globe but we will make it a brilliant one next year instead :)

Yesterday I had more than one breakdown. Sunday evening we realised that the flight from Malta to Munich is full on thursday. Even overbooked :O How should we solve this? Travel Wed or Friday? After some thinking we decided to try for Wed so that if we dont make that flight at least we have another 2 days to try before R leaves. IF we were to miss the friday flight we would have to stay here alone while waiting for the next flight.

This of course meant we hade even less time to clean and empty the last things in the house.  I couldnt leave R with too much to do so yesterday I cleaned out the whole house, including dusting, windows etc apart from cleaning the floors. Started at 7 am and finished at 16 (there is your reason for my breakdowns). My body was aching all over but I kept pushing on so that we could take today off and spend it together, the whole family. I cant really get to grips with the fact that we wont be seeing him for 2 months now. And it had go to be even worse for him, at least I have the kids!

Today we should be off to Splash and Fun for a whole day and then dinner out somewhere (im hoping Hanks) and tomorrow hopefully to Sweden via Munich. Next post will wait until we are in Sweden, dont want to miss a second of our last day together!

In the middle of the moving stress I have to take a break and wonder what kind of world I brought children to...My thoughts and heart goes out to the norwegians, all the victims, families, survivers and rescue staff!

...and profile photo!

Hope you like it, design is from a swedish webiste Design Bloggar and the photo was taken by my friend Anne at Cloudberry Images.

Seriously, how much cr@p should you take from the in-laws? Its like terror. Right now they are in Canada on holiday and the other day they called us at 7am to ask us to switch on skype. We had just woken up some 5 minutes before that! And now this afternoon, sister in law calls me to tell me to switch on skype so that we can talk to her parents. Since when do you have to be available all the time? This afternoon R wasnt even home, he had taken the kids to swim.

One thing Im not looking forward to about Dubai is this. Is it going to be like this? That they call or text us and "force" us to the compuer and skype. They have to realise that there is no need for daily contact and I get a bit annoyed with R cause it seems like he thinks that just cause I dont work and am available more I should add them to my new personal skype and talk to them. But I dont want to talk to them more than possibly saying a hi when he and the kids talk to them. Even if he will be working more now and have layovers he wont be way for weeks on end! The easiest would be if each keep contact with their own familt? I would never expect of him to give daily updates to my mum. And fine, I do have lots of contact with my mum, some sort almost daily. Sometimes a call on skype and sometimes a few words on the chat if we happen to be by the computers at the same time but I only talk to my dad at the most once a week, most of the time not even that. If he or she is not online I will wait until they are online and its a good time, I only call and ask them to come online if its something very important that needs to be discussed there and then. If there was only a way to tell the in-laws (without offending them) that I would add them on my skype but I dont want them to call, only leave a line if they havent gotten through to R in a while or just to check if we are ok. When we live so far away from them they have to accept that they cant be part of everything in our lives anymore!

...this summer yesterday. We went to Paradise Bay, water was lovely 27 degrees and we played and swum and even stayed for lunch. My salad was surprisingly fresh and the kids enjoyed their pizza but we were charged "wrong" for the kids meal. According to the menu they were supposed to be 4.50 € but we paid 11 € in total. When R went back to tell them they gave him his money back and explained that something was wrong with inputting in the POS. We didnt think about it further but later on I was wondering if it really was a mistake or if they inputted the wrong amount to overcharge a bit and get some extra cash from any ppl who wouldnt check the bill and realise? It would be a rather typical Maltese thing..... 

Anyway, after lunch we rented a kayak for ½ hour and we paddled around a bit in the bay. It was a double kayak where there was (just about) enough space for small children and it was very nice (but slightly tiring). At 3pm we gave up and went home, totally exhausted!

R is already at work, on his way to Amsterdam with his brother and now wife on board, starting their honeymoon. My project for today is to sort out all the outgrown clothes and see what to give to whom. Then its actually time to start packing up the boxes for the cargo to Dubai! Our plan is to move up to parents in law summer flat on sunday to have a couple of days to clean out our house when its completely empty. R got his ticket and some other info and paperwork to fill in from Emirates. The move is just around the corner now!

Yesterday we had a lovely day on the beach. We went to our favourite beach Ghadira where two friends and their son joined us. Time literally flew by and before we knew it it was time to go home for lunch. With the sun burning the way it does we try to go swimming in the morning (or afternoon) and avoid being out between noon and 3pm. Our friends also wanted to take this opportunity to tell us the secret that they are pregnant, what good news! Congrats to them!

In the afternoon we relaxed at home, we all got exhausted with all the sun I guess :)

On Thursday mum is going back home. Right now I feel its about time...she wants something to happen ALL the time and complaining and chasing me the moment I sit down. I fed up packing, Im fed up deciding what is coming and what is for throwing away and I dont feel like taking any more decisions!

Today we went swimming at Ghadira. Got there at 8.30 and left at 14, still the kids were not satisfied. Both of them wanted to stay!Thanks to the wind I could stand it, but it was tricky. My mum is really red and Im a bit red on my hip. Realise now that its easy to miss the spot on the hip by the bikini line when I put sunblock but now I´ve learnt my lesson. Very clumsy from my part, I shouldnt get burnt at all :(

Both the kids and R are sleeping. R will be picked up at 5.20 tomorrow, 5.30 the following day and 5.20 again on monday. Tough mornings for him, Im hoping for a bit of a sleep in tomorrow :D My mum and me are on the sofa with a laptop each, like idiots...finished the cherries (apart from 8 that I kept for the kids) Going to take an early evening as J woke me up at 5.45 this morning and then a full day in the sun, Im feeling exhausted!

OMG, sometimes I can feel that I overreact and stress myself out for nothing but when it comes to your kids you only want the best for them, right? Just spend the evening surfing around looking for sunglasses for kids. Got there as a friend commented on the fact that the new sunglasses I got for the kids "only" had protection index 3. I remember that I read somewhere that index 3 should be good even in very sunny environments but of course I couldnt find the website again. What I DID find though was that they came up with something new since I did my research last time.  EPF, EyeProtectionFactor (like SFP but for the eyes). Basically they found that its not only UVA, UVB and UVC that is dangerous but also HEV (blue light). When I check the Julbo website (all the kids sunglasses have been that brand since I became a Julbo junkie since A´s first Looping glasses) there is nothing about HEV or EPF. Start worrying immediately, emailing Julbo, thinking I ruined the childrens eyes and think up scenarios. Then I find an australian brand that has got EPF 10 glasses and seem to ship overseas and email them to get a quote.  Then I took a deep breath and realised that I got myself worked up for nothing. What´s done is done, I have done the best I could with the information that was available at that point in time and I did get the kids to like to wear sunglasses at a pretty young age and Im sure that even if they dont have HEV protection they have been better than nothing. Now Im going to chill and if it turns out that the Julbo glasses dont protect against HEV all I can do is to look for others.

I have, for a very long time, felt really tired. Even though I basically get to sleep through the nights I am absolutely knackered in the afternoons. Couldnt connect what was wrong but after having read on some forums etc on AIH it seems Im not alone. Some ppl appear not able to leave their bed some days. What could be the reason? Right now my liver tests are normal so it shouldnt be the dicease as such, could it be the medicines?

Anyhow, what I wanted to get to is that I feel like a lousy mum when I have no energy left when kids come home from school. Right now Im putting my hopes on having a maid in Dubai so I dont have to bother with cleaning and so that I can possibly rest a bit in the morning while kids are at school and like that have some energy left to be a good mum in the afternoon. Fingers crossed everyone!

No good news from the support, they claim nothing is wrong but come on...I cant upload photos!

This week has passed really quickly so far. On Monday we went to the dentis to get some papers signed to be included on the dental part for the healthinsurance in Dubai and it took way longer than we expected. He took his time checking us all out and did full x-rays on me and R. No problems though and it shouldnt be a problem being covered for dental too.

Yesterday R left for Catania. He did a flight from there and spent the night. Off this morning and now on his way to Geneva and then back to Malta via Catania again. It will be nice to have him back. Yesterday I didnt get lots of things done but today me and J met up with a friend and her son. It was fun and quite nice since we had some clouds.

Tomorrow school for both kids while me and R have to try to pack a bit more, it feels like we are behind already!

I have so many pictures to show you but today is the third day that I cant upload stuff. Will contact the support and I will be back as soon as I know more.