The past 48 hours have been very exciting for the Genest family. Yesterday we went to a new Bahraini breakfast place, and it is my new favorite breakfast joint. The name if the place was Emmawash, and it had the best ambiance. First, the second floor (where we ate) didn’t have chairs nor tables. Everyone sat on floor cushions, all of which were laid over Persian rugs. We went during the week, and late enough that the room we were in was practically empty (meaning my wonderful, energetic children got to run around). Second, they gave us markers to write on the walls. I was surprised to see the lack of the artistic interpretation of penes (I thought the plural form was peni, but google told me I was wrong. Thanks Google). I was also surprised to see the Star of David proudly drawn on the wall. Whoever drew that was one ballsy Jew! The food at Emmawash was better than Saffron (I didn’t know...

Caution: The following message comes from a place of frustration, and anger. Viewer discretion is advised!

Great news! We got our first shipment of goods (for non-military folks, that means we got some of the stuff the army shipped to us). When we packed out our house, they made us break all of our stuff into three categories. First, what we needed as soon as possible (Unaccompanied Baggage). Second, what we want, but can live without for a couple months (Household Goods). Third, stuff we don’t mind being kept in storage until we get back. We got our Unaccompanied Baggage, which isn’t supposed to be more than 1,000 lbs, this weekend. We decided that we needed our kitchen, and the boy’s clothes/toys ASAP, so that was what was in the boxes. Now that all of that is explained, let us fast forward to this weekend.

The movers got here and unloaded all the boxes. We were so excited… until we...

There is so much to say I don’t even know where to start. We had such a great weekend! In this region, the work week is Sunday-Thursday, so our weekend starts on Thursday night (kind if like my college days except a lot less alcohol, and a lot more responsibilities). The time change and the weekend difference really gets me sometimes. My parents received a phone call from me at 6:30 AM on Sunday morning… oops. Luckily, they enjoy talking to my kids so much, that they didn’t seem too bothered by being woken up.

Last weekend, we had our first real Souq experience. I took Bookie back to Saffron to try the Bahraini Breakfast, and it was just as delicious as the first time. I took pictures this time because I don’t think my description did the experience justice. Hunter, Mason, and Austin enjoyed the food too (although, Hunter did need some convincing to try a few of the dishes).

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Welp, I did it again. Some how I managed to obliterate 10GB of data in 6 hours. I blame George Lukas for my misfortune, but most other rational humans would say it was my fault. I tried to download Star Wars to the iPad for the boys, but there wasn’t enough storage. So, I downloaded it again, being ignorant to the fact 1) The Star Wars movies take up a lot of room 2) iTunes doesn’t resume downloading from the place it stopped. It starts ALL over again. So, now I have no Internet, no movie (damn you iPad!!) and concrete walls make it impossible to steal my neighbor’s wifi.

Yesterday, the family went to pick up our CPR cards, which just means we picked up or residency cards. The cards mainly allow us to set up utilities. Picking up the cards was pretty much the definition of purgatory. We had to go to the embassy to meet our driver, switch cars, go to a mall, wait for two hours in a...

Austin has his first tooth! YAY Austy! We ran out of data for our home internet (which is why you haven’t heard from me in a few days), so we had to recharge our sim card. In Bahrain, you pay for the internet based on usage, so every time we use all of our data we will need to refill the sim card given to us (at least until we can get a more permanent solution). We need a few more documents to be processed before we can set up our own official wifi. Until then, I walk around with a portable wifi device. We just went to refill the card at one of the local malls and it was 1BD/GB. That is $1.66 USD/GB. I’ve never paid per GB before, so I’m not sure what the average going rate is. Please enlighten me if you know!

While at the mall refilling our sim card we went to the supermarket (two birds, one stone). Most of the shopping seems to be done at the mall. There are small grocery stores...

The one thing I have learned about myself from this move, is I am a far better mom when I have caffeine in my system. Waking up at 4:30-5:00 AM every morning means my caffeine intake has quadrupled. Believe it or not, I actually really enjoy being up that early now (my parents cannot believe what they are reading). I get to hangout with the husband for a little bit, and we now have a morning routine (man, I feel old typing that). We have been enjoying a cup of liquid energy together, and he has been able to help with the little poop faces (since they too are up at the butt crack of dawn. This morning, while making my 3rd cup of tea (and no, i’m not exaggerating), I saw my first spider. The little sucker was JUMPING! He was a little black spider about the size of a grain of rice, but that little demon was hopping about an inch off the floor. He was seriously the Michael Jordan of insects...

We are going to start off with a quick geography lesson. Bahrain is chain of islands off the coast of Saudi Arabia. If you look on a map, you can barely see it (just look for a tiny speck). Manama, the capital, is on the north-east side of the island. We live in Janabiya, which is a little west of Saar. If you look at the map below you will see the King Fahad Causeway in a darker yellow-orange color. This is a glorified freeway that connects Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Apparently, when driving on the Causeway, our exit is the last exit before taking a direct trip to Saudi. If there were a reason to pay attention to road signs this would be that reason. If driving home I miss the exit I will be taking a direct flight to a place I am not quite ready to go yet, and chances are (I am willing to bet money on this) I will miss that exit… crap! What I have been told (and I don’t want to test it...

I’ve realized I haven’t told you about my house yet. It is really awesome. Actually, you should all be insanely jealous you don’t live in this house! It is a four bedroom, five bathroom stand alone house with two living rooms, and a detached maid’s quarters. The entire house has white tile, and it is fully furnished. Getting here was nice because we walked in, dropped our two million bags off at the door, and went straight to bed. They even set up a crib for Austin, and put two twin beds in one room for Hunter and Mason. We have three rooms, a laundry storage area (yes, we have a room just for our dirty laundry… I’m just THAT classy), and a living room upstairs. Down stairs we have the kitchen, living room, dining room, guest bedroom, and bathroom. Each bedroom looks like it could be a master bedroom, and they all have attached bathrooms with HUGE bathtubs!

The bathrooms are interesting...

Jan 9th, 2016

I don’t know if you know this, but the definition of hell is JET LAG. Actually I take that back, the true definition is, “jet lag with one or more children under the age of five”. In my case I have three children under the age of five, so this shit is TERRIBLE. For the past three nights we have kept all three boys up till 9:00 PM in hopes of a full night of sleep. Each night Austin has woken up at 11:30 ready to play. Then after an hour of playing he has gone back to sleep till 3:00 AM, and that is when all three boys have decided to start their day. We have been forcing them to stay up till nap time, then we have woken them up mid-nap (when they think they are down for the night) and we have dealt with angry, hostile men for the rest of the night. Luckily, alcohol is legal in Bahrain. Unfortunately, the amount of alcohol I want to drink would classify me as an alcoholic...

January 8th (or 9th)- Who the hell knows?

I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to figure our what day it is. I am too tired (or lazy) to check my computer, and I am about to start using my baby as target practice for being to awake right now. Did I mention it is midnight after being awake since 4:00 AM yesterday? I’m going to run to the bathroom and repeat, “I love my baby” in the mirror.

Okay, better! We had a better trip than expected. The boys were pretty good short of a couple post-nap meltdowns. I think my favorite meltdown was over a window and resulted in Mason facedown on the floor of the plane looking like he had been shot while we were trying to disembark the plane. It was so bad that Bookie and I just laughed it off, and (like in true motherly fashion) I pulled out my cell phone and took pictures of it. Mom of the year over here!

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On our long flight (13...