So Long 2018...

What a year! It's been a while since I updated the blog, so I thought I'd update it and this can serve as our Christmas card/letter.  It's been a very busy year and I'm sorry to see it end, but I can't wait to see what 2019 has in store for us!

The year started with Alison and Luke's wedding...it was amazing.  We are so thankful that so many of our friends and family made it to Houston to celebrate Big Al and Luke.  We could not have asked for anything more.  From the rehearsal dinner to their honeymoon in Mexico, it all exceeded our expectations.  Alison continues to teach at Crosby High School where she is team leader of 9th grade English and UIL coordinator.  Her job is super stressful, but I think she is very good at it.  Luke works for the same company as John only at the Kingwood Tech Center.  We just love him.  We are so proud of them. They recently added another puppy, Bo, to their little family.  He is a mini Aussie with lots of energy.  Tucker wasn't thrilled, but he is warming up to him.

Madeline graduated from college in April and turned 21 in July, so we (the Watkins clan plus Kirk, Sarah and her boyfriend, Ian) all met in Las Vegas for a long weekend to celebrate. It was nice having everyone together, but logistically challenging.  We saw shows, relaxed poolside in the lazy river, and saw the Grand Canyon.  Several bucket list items checked.

August was a bit stressful as John had to get back to Saudi, so I was the lucky parent that got to fly to Pittsburgh and pack Madeline up and drive her and her belongings to NYC.  What a fun and slightly exhausting trip. Fortunately, I am good at the game Tetris, and got all her worldly possessions in the back of our rented Subaru SUV.  After a very very stressful week of driving in NYC (I made the mistake of getting the hotel in Times Square) we finally moved her into her first sublet in Washington Heights.  She has since moved to her long term rental in Harlem and loves it.  She works at a great restaurant on the Upper West Side, is auditioning a lot, and just living the life!  She was in a musical in October, an O'Douls commercial in November, and did a shoot to be a super hero in an upcoming comic book.  I spent an amazingly fun week with her in November as a stop over on my way to Texas from Saudi. Alison and Luke spent a long weekend with her in NYC the second weekend of December, and Jane and Kirk have a trip planned to visit her the second week of January.  We all love NYC especially during Christmas, so she gets to see us all often. Lol.

December brought us another (and final) graduation.  Janie finished up her Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at Texas A&M University.   She may have taken the scenic route, but she is finished. We could not be prouder of her!  She worked so hard and finished with a 3.0 GPA overall.  We had her graduation party the weekend before Christmas where her boyfriend, Kirk, proposed to her.  It was so sweet as both kirk and Janie's family and friends were there. It was an eventful weekend.  We are excited for them. Kirk got a new job in August and is just doing so well.  We are so so proud of them both.  Janie got a job at an elementary school in Bryan, so she will start teaching 2nd grade in January!

Soooo it looks as though we will be having another wedding at the end of 2019...this time in New Orleans.  She picked out the venue when we were in New Orleans for the Braud family Christmas.  They wanted a small destination wedding and this was a great choice for them.

John and I are still in Saudi Arabia and will be for the foreseeable future.  We are grateful for the job, for the travel opportunities it affords us, and the amazing extended family we have there.  I started tutoring two young Saudi girls 5 days a week this fall and that brought with it a new challenge along with a wonderful experience.  I love them and I love the family.  It comes with some cultural and language challenges, but I have decided that the reward far outweighs the challenge.  As the CPChem project winds down it is getting harder and harder to see friends move on, but again, we are so thankful for the job.

As the year comes to a close and we reflect back on what amazing blessings, opportunities, and challenges 2018 brought and we are just completely humbled and grateful.  John and I are headed back to Saudi mid-January after a short vacation in Europe to celebrate my upcoming 50th Birthday.  My girls planned a lovely surprise 50th right before Christmas and I was truly surprised. I am thankful for those that took time out of what is already a very busy time of year to come and help me celebrate. Luke's parents were awesome for cooking and helping secure a location.  As much as I enjoyed spending time with my friends, I am so looking forward to ten days of trains and castles and food and drink and churches and whatever we can find walking the streets of Budapest, Vienna, and Prague.

We will hopefully see more of you when we come back for a friend's wedding and Mardi Gras at the end of February/beginning of March!

GIRLS TRIP TO PRAGUE!

March 2017, Madeline and I met in Prague, Czech Republic for her spring break.  John was supposed to go with us, but he had to cancel because of work.  Fortunately, Madeline and I did NOT have to cancel.  It was the most amazing trip.  The weather was better than I could have asked for because I LOVE cold weather.  It was chilly, but not miserable.  Many days we actually saw the sun.  Because John wasn't with us, we got to Uber around the country instead of walking and taking public transportation.  Don't get me wrong, we did PLENTY of walking, but when it was difficult to find we called Uber.  John really enjoys meandering and mastering the public transportation system in every country we visit, but I do NOT.

Our hotel couldn't have been in a better location.  It was within walking distance to the Old Town Square, the malls, and many other attractions. 

We explored Prague Castle (after not being able to find it the first try, we uber'd the next day and found it quite easily...I mean, it's a huge castle and YET we couldn't find it), Charles Bridge, John Lennon Wall, the Astronomical Clock, Cesky Krumlov, Kutna Hora (the Bone Church), Terezin Concentration Camp, the Ruckl Crystal Factory, and the Pilsner Urquell Factory.  We also

saw the AMAZING Salvador Dali exhibit and loved it.  Our favorite tour was the Prague Foodie Tour.  It was amazing.  While Madeline didn't like the food because it wasn't bar food, she LOVED the tour.  She DID eat steak tartare and loved it, but almost vomited eating beetroot puree....go figure.  Anyway, the foodie tour was given by a native that had been an exchange student in Houston around the time of the fall of Communism in Prague.  He had the most interesting stories and history lessons.  It was an amazing tour that I recommend to EVERYONE that visits Prague.  We also had an amazing driver the ENTIRE week that took us to all the far away places.  He was amazing.  We got his name from a friend who had used him previously and we were not disappointed.  You can find him on Trip Advisor under Mike Chauffer.  So very reasonable and worth every penny.

A week wasn't long enough with my girl, but I'll take it any day.  She is the perfect travel companion and we enjoyed eating, drinking, and exploring all that Prague had to offer.

2018...Big Year for the Watkins Family

Wow...it has been three years since I last updated the blog.  It has been a big year for the Watkins Fam.  So far, we have had a wedding, a college graduation, and we have another college graduation in December.  I guess you can say we sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Alison got married March 10th.  It was a very fun, happy, drama-free wedding.  Many of my friends  from Saudi Arabia came to help celebrate and I couldn't have been more excited.  I was so thankful for my Saudi Sistas that showed up early in the week to help me get ready.  They were invaluable as were my two sisters!  It was an amazing week of reunions!

Alison and Luke said it was exactly what they wanted for their wedding and that makes me happy.  It seemed to have gone off without a hitch (or at least any fatal ones anyhow). I loved catching up as much as I could with everyone.  It was such a whirlwind that I can barely remember it all.  Now I know why some cultures make their wedding last DAYS.  My advice to anyone getting ready to have a wedding....take it all in.  Stop and enjoy.  Hire someone else to put out fires so that you can enjoy yourself.  We had an AMAZING "day of" coordinator provided by the venue, but there were still some issues that she couldn't solve. 

I was missing two of my siblings and my dad.  If they been there that would have made it all the more perfect.  So many friends and family drove so far to help us celebrate and for that, we are so grateful!

After the wedding, Luke and Alison spent a week in Cancun while John and I spent our last week in the United States babysitting their dog, Tucker.  Poor Tucker missed his parents.  The night before we left we spent the night at Alison and Luke's house with Janie and her dog.  In the middle of the night Janie woke up to find Tucker lying on the bathroom floor crying.  It was so sad.

In April, Madeline graduated from college, so John and I flew from Saudi to Pittsburgh to be there to see her walk across the stage.  It was freezing in Pittsburgh and we were totally unprepared for that weather.  We flew in and got spend 5 glorious days with Madeline...and her besties.  It was amazing and she is so much fun to be around.  We could not be prouder of her.  She finished school in three years without having one hour of college credit when she started.  She worked so hard, trained so hard, and played so hard in her three years.  In keeping with Madeline's personality, she had no idea that she graduated with honors.  I asked her several times and she said that she was not graduating with honors...

Notice the closed captioning in the picture....yeahhhh.  She graduated cum laude.  No chords.  No fanfare.  She just gave us a shoulder shrug.  God love that girl.

Madeline will be working in Pittsburgh this summer and is planning to move to New York City in September to continue her acting career.

So next up is Janie.  She totally rocked Texas A&M this semester!  She got a 3.6 this semester!!  We are so proud of her.  She has student teaching this fall semester and then she graduates in December! Like I said before...Big year for the Watkins Family!

 I seriously am so in love with these three girls.  They are so amazing and I miss being with them every day. I will be leaving for Texas at the end of May and will be in the States until August.  I am going to try and visit with as many people as I possibly can this summer.

John and I will be living in Saudi Arabia for the foreseeable future.  Our tentative repatriation date is June 2022, but one never knows...

Happy New Year

As 2015 comes to a close, I realize that I haven’t updated our blog in forever.  There were a lot of changes this year to our family.  We started the year in NYC mostly together.  Janie was in Bahrain, but the rest of us went to NYC.  

Alison began her teaching career in January.  She moved to Sugarland and started teaching eighth grade English at Wharton Junior High.  It was a tough semester.   Wharton was a challenging school with an interesting demographic.  It was definitely a trial by fire situation.  Thankfully she was offered a job in April teaching English at Sweeny Junior High for the 2015-2016 school year.

Spring break brought me to NYC where Madeline and I started a trip to visit all of her prospective colleges.  We started by driving from New York to Pittsburgh to visit a small school in the city called Point Park University.  It was Madeline’s first choice school.  It was a lovely little school right in the heart of Pittsburgh.  She lit up just being there.  It was clearly the school for her.  We then continued our road trip to Ohio Northern in Nowheresville, Ohio.  It was a great program in a really small rural town in the middle of Ohio.  We drove back to New York and then flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, rented a car, and drove to Catawba College.  Madeline and I loved the school.  It was such a neat little school about forty five minutes outside of Charlotte.  It was a great program and a great school that offered more of a normal college experience of sports, greek life, and activities.  They also offered her a huge academic scholarship so it was definitely high on my list.  All that travel and visiting, but I knew Point Park had her heart.  In the end, she was accepted to several BFA programs, including Syracuse, but after agonizing over the decision she chose Point Park. 

Madeline graduated from the Masters School in June.  We all met in NY for her graduation and then had one last hurrah in NYC together.  We visited our old haunts, saw several Broadway plays, and shopped.  I am so going to miss NYC now that Madeline is no longer living there.

The summer was pretty normal.  Madeline got a job, Alison moved from Sugarland to Pearland, Janie continued to take classes, and I unsuccessfully attempted to teach Madeline how to drive.

Alison began teaching at Sweeny in the fall, Janie got a roommate for the semester (Jemma) and continued taking classes, and I moved Madeline to Pittsburgh before going back to Saudi.  This is the first time in three years that I wouldn’t be coming back to the US for parent’s weekend in October.  It was a long fall season in Saudi. 

We spent Thanksgiving in Louisiana with the Jane, John, Alison, Luke (Alison’s boyfriend), and my family.   We attended the LSU vs. A&M football game with my brother and his law partner.  My dad was in the hospital for the month, but all in all it was still a nice weekend celebrating with family.

We did an early Christmas with the Watkinses and Alison and Luke before heading to Louisiana to do Christmas with the Brauds.  We did our annual Christmas eve at my Aunt Maycel's without Alison (she was with Luke's family) or John (he was in Saudi) and Christmas day with my nieces and nephew before heading out to Mississippi for my cousin's fireworks show.  Ali came the day after Christmas when Luke went hunting. 

So as we start the new year Alison is back at work, Janie is gearing up for a full course load this semester and Madeline flies back to Pittsburgh on Sunday for her second semester of college. I will be going back to Saudi in the next three weeks.  Leaving our kids is always the hardest part of expat life. 

It's weird having three grown children, but we are getting used to our new normal.

GRADUATION!

It has been a while...I guess it is time that I updated our blog. 

Well...it's done.  It's over.  Madeline has graduated high school.  What a ride these last three years have been.   While I am happy that she is done and the next chapter has started, I sure am going to miss our times that we spent together in NYC.  I have spent the three years getting to go visit her and explore NYC and all it has to offer.  She has spent the last three years surrounded by good friends, awesome teachers, amazing dorm parents, and just an amazing little community.  She has had all the comforts of small little town in Westchester with the big city just a quick train ride away.

We all flew to New York for graduation and then one final Watkins Family NYC blow out for a while.  Janie, John and I went up a few days early as I knew it was going to take more than a few hours to pack up her dorm room and send it home.  I was hoping that she might have it finished, but I was also aware of how stressful the last month of school was for her so I wasn't surprised with what we saw when we got there.  Alison and Susan came up a few days later.  After banquets and packing and finally graduation, we moved to into the city.  We saw several shows (Wicked, Fish in the Dark, Drunk Shakespeare, The Book of Mormon), ate at our favorite place (5 Napkin Burger), shopped, ate some more, explored the last few places we hadn't been yet (Chelsea Markets, Brooklyn, Highline), and just enjoying our last family vacation in New York before everyone is grown and living their own lives.

Graduation and NYC Pictures

Now that we are back in College Station I was assuming that since we have spent the last few summers doing workshops and camps and traveling we would have this quiet slow summer....I was wrong.  Apparently all the things that a teenager does that Madeline has not gotten to do is what we are doing this summer.  She is doing dance classes, taking piano lessons, learning to drive, and she got her first job.  So that is what we are doing this summer.  John went home last weekend and we miss him so much already.

Janie is still in College Station.  For the first time since she started college she is not taking summer classes.  She is helping me with my chauffeur duties, working out, and getting a job.  She has also been cleaning out our house and getting it less cluttered...thank God for her!

Alison moved to Sugarland in January to teach at Wharton Junior High.  While she liked Sugarland, it was a really tough job.  Wharton is one of the worst school districts to work in and she had little help.  She is teaching summer school in Wharton and getting ready to move to Pearland.  She starts her job at Sweeny Junior High where she will be teaching English and coaching volleyball and basketball.  We are so excited that she has a career in something she is good at and seems to enjoy.  I miss her being here every day like the last few summers, but she does come visit most weekends.

I will be in the U.S. until Madeline goes to college.  She starts Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA, in the fall.  It is a small school of about 4,000 students in the heart of the city.  Their saying is "the city is your campus."  While it's not New York, it is still a decent sized city compared to College Station.  She will be living on campus for the first year and she will be going through their Conservatory program for performing arts/musical theatre/writing.  LOL.  She wants to do it all so she is having a hard time trying to narrow it down.  She will choose her second major after this semester.

John and I will be in Saudi for the foreseeable future. We enjoy our little life there even though it is just the two of us...we miss the girls desperately, but we have a routine that works for us.  John likes his job and we have a great group of friends.

Belated Spring Break Post...

It has been so long since I posted!  I have jet lag so I decided to spend my time wisely and update the blog...lol

Because none of the girls spring breaks are ever at the same time, we have spring break with Madeline solo every year.  This year she had a trip to Ireland with an acting/writing group from school planned in the middle of her spring break so it was difficult to plan a trip.  We decided that she would fly to Bahrain and we would stay there for a week before she was off to Ireland.  She had not gotten to see her Bestie, Iman in almost two years so she was excited.

We had planned to be in Bahrain the Friday before Maddie got there on Saturday until the entire plant shut down on Thursday.  John informed me that he wasn't going to be able to come with me and maybe not even at all.  I was a bit upset...needless to say.  But I decided to make the best of my night alone and schedule a massage.  Around 5:30 p.m., John called me to tell me I needed to pick him up ON the causeway.  It was surreal.  I have been across the causeway a hundred times, but I have never driven across it.  You should have seen the tollbooth guy when I paid the toll...he did a complete double take.  It was funny.  Because women can't drive in Saudi, obviously I could only drive up to the Saudi side.  I picked up my hubs and the weekend started.  The only problem was that every single day started with the same understanding that he had to leave that night to get back to the plant.  Every day he made plans to go back and every evening he got to cancel it because they weren't ready to start up.

Madeline flew in late Saturday night.  No matter how many times they fly solo overseas I always have a major panic attack.  It never gets easier.

I know that is a horrible picture, but it is all I have.

We had the best week.  She spent a few days at the school and hanging with Iman.  We went prom dress shopping, she got her hair done, and basically hit all of our old haunts.

The week went by way too fast.  She hopped a plane late Thursday night for Ireland to meet up with her group.  I get to pick her up from boarding school in NY in three short weeks and I am so excited!  I have not seen her since March 20th!  

After she left, we got to spend a day together before we had to go back to Saudi.  We visited the Tree of Life and the Grand Mosque...two things we never did when we lived there.

It was a nice vacation just a few hours from home in our favorite country.  

Maddie had a great week in Ireland writing and collaborating with the group in Ireland.  If you're interested in knowing more about their project here is the link to their site:  http://tower.mastersny.org/category/blogs/the-ireland-project/

Because there were three days left of spring break when the Ireland trip ended, Maddie flew to Washington D.C. to stay with some friends we met in Bahrain, The Buntings!  We love the Buntings and we are so thankful that they allowed Madeline to come and stay with them.  Sometimes boarding school logisitics are really difficult and it is great to have people in our lives that will help us out.  Maddie texted me several times while in D.C. saying that she didn't want to leave.  I suspected that would happen.  They an amazing family.  We love them and are so thankful for them.