Dubai: Big changes, God willing

So, as most of you have heard, my family will be moving to Dubai within the next 3-6 months. My husband accepted a job there as an office manager for a Site Development company. We had a very rough year last year financially, when the economy got bad, so did Matt's business of doing safety inspections. Well, God has always pushed us in different directions, and about the time things got really bad, Matt had a friend who needed help with his concrete business. Matt began working with him, and since then an opportunity to go overseas has come up and is definately something only God could make happen. We have been praying about this situation since June and it is finally coming together. I just wanted to fill everyone in and let you know as many details as I do, until I get more. Matt left on October 28 to start his work, while the kids and I are staying behind until he gets settled in and is ready to move us over there. He is enjoying it over there so far, although he is very, very busy. Here are some of the pictures he has sent us so far:

Just a recap of Dubai in case you are one of those who has never heard of it before. It is located in the middle east(across the ocean from Iran) but to the east of Saudi Arabia in the UAE(United Arab Emirates). It is one of 7 emirates and the most populous emirate on the Persian Gulf. Arabic and English are both spoken, although the primary language is Arabic. It is widely known for its innovative real estate projects, sports events, monumental buildings, and out of this world parks(i.e. indoor ski arena).

Here is a forward that I got at one point which was very interesting:

How many of us could find Dubai on the map in 5 minutes??

What a difference in 17 years. Just shows what a little oil money can do.

Dubai in 1990

The same street in 2003

Last year

Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world's cranes.

The Dubai Waterfront. When completed it will become the
largest waterfront development in the world.


All of this was built in the last 5 years, including that island that looks like a palm tree.

The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all.

Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

The World Islands. 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world.

Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. The worlds tallest hotel.

Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world.

It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel.

Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai,

it is scheduled to be completed by 2009 after many delays.

The Burj Dubai. Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Yaipei 101.


This is what downtown Dubai will look like around 2008-2009. More than 140 stories of the Burj Dubai have already been completed. It is already the worlds tallest man made structure and it is still not scheduled to be completed for at least another year.

The Al Burj. This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront.

Once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai.

Recently it was announced that the final height of this tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.

This is a city on crack.

The Burj al Alam, or The World Tower.

Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel.

It is expected to be finished by 2009.

At 480 meters it will only be 28 meters shorter than theTaipei 101.

The Trump International Hotel & Tower, which will be the
centerpiece of one of the palm islands, The Palm Jumeirah.

Dubailand. Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in theUnited states with 58,000 employees. Dubailand will be twice the size.

Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles^2) at an estimated $20 billion price tag.

The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects.

DubaiSports City A huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

The Dubai Marina is an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 highrise buildings when finished. It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world. The completed first phase of the project is shown. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2009-2010.

The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over

9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores.It will be completed in 2008.

Ski Dubai, which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world.

This is a rendered image of another future indoor skiing facility that is being planned.

Some of the tallest buildings in the world, such as Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower, which will be the largest residential building in the world at over a 100 stories, will line the DubaiMarina.

The UAE Spaceport would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way.

I'm not joking...

Some other crazy .. The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world. The Dubai World Central InternationalAirport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume. There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.

---

A BIG Texas sized weekend

We went to Texas this past weekend for my cousin Zachary's wedding to Chelsea. What a great time was had by all. I got to go to a Garland Owl football game, which brought back a lot of memories. The kids had a blast at the game! My parents had bought them Garland Owl t-shirts to wear to the game. They loved when Ollie the Owl(mascot) came around in the stands. They were yelling for him to come and shake their hands. It was too cute! Not only that, but my sister Morgan is on the same drill team that I was on in high school 10 years ago, with the same director! It was so neat to be able to watch her perform. She even got Performer of the Week, the one time we were at her game(you only get this from being nominated as having a great week of practice). Here are some cute pictures of the kids enjoying themselves at the game.

A day in the life of a 2 year old....little girl that is!

So, trying to understand a 2 year old is hard. Trying to understand a 2 year old GIRL is hard hard hard!!!!!! Not only does she want my undivided attention all the time, but when she is not getting exactly what she wants, a raising of the voice starts to happen. Her and I can butt heads real bad sometimes. So today Elle decided that she wanted to watch Barbie Fairytopia that we had rented from the local library. So as I am putting it in the dvd player, my phone rings and I pick it up. As I am talking I realize that for some reason or another, my dvd player cannot read the dvd. Don't you hate when that happens????? So, as I am chatting with my girlfriend, I just grab the "Ariel" dvd or "A-O" as Elle refers to it. She becomes so livid that I am not putting in the Barbie dvd that she starts to throw the 2 year old typical tantrum. So, as I am trying to hear my friend, I do what any mom at this point has learned to do, run in my room and shut the door and lock it! If I did not do that then I would not be able to even hear my friend. So I apologize for the ruckus and try to finish up quickly with my phone conversation. After about 5 minutes of her standing at my door trying to cry her way in, there is a little silence and I realize that she may have just moved on. I finally end the conversation to come out and find this.....

Oh, yea! Baby powder all over my coffee table with Elle rubbing her body all into it. Not only there, but over here with it all over the floor of my living area! She is laughing like it is funny! So, now I have a newly scented living room. Here is Elle after it all played out. Enjoy!

Rekindling the flame

So, we all know how God does his work on a daily basis right? Well, let's just say that Matt and I have some really great friends who care a lot about us and think of us often. We got a phone call on Wednesday night from a good friend whom we have known since we moved to Clermont in 2003. He had signed up for a Marriage Retreat for he and his wife over the weekend. They have a restaurant in town and were going to have to work this weekend. So....guess who they asked to go in their place? You guessed it right! US!!! This included 3 FULL days at the Gaylord Palms in Orlando. Who would say no to that? We definately started making phone calls to find sitters for the kids, chauffers to the soccer game, someone to sit in my place as a room mom for a "nature walk" at preschool, etc. God provided Matt's parents to be available for the entire weekend! I must say, as easy as it was to say yes to this opportunity, it was also hard at the same time because we have never left our kids for more than one night, My dear husband is the one whom I planned a surprise weekend away for our 5 year anniversary and he chickened out the 2nd day and went and picked up the kids. He could not stand for another 24 hours to be without them! It was okay I guess....it kind of turned into a family weekend. The kids had fun and so did we...but back to the subject at hand. The Gaylord Palms.

Well, it was a much needed retreat if I must say myself! The things we learned about each other have been invaluable. Through some personality life tests and a few s*x talks later, we were on a better road. Now, I must say, we did not come here with any baggage as they would call it. But every marriage can always use some new ideas, whether biblical or from wisdom. We learned a lot about each other and how our personalities explain a lot about us! I realized how much I love him, appreciate him and am so glad God chose him for me. I realized this weekend how much my God loves my husband and why!!! He is so amazing inside and out and I love him for that. He is my hero and I am his queen!

So, this weekend was one of the busiest we have had in a long time! We had a surprise 30th birthday party for one of my best friends Emily and her husband Luke. We called this, "Kiss your 20's goodbye!" They were totally shocked and could not believe we got away with planning this. They thought they were coming to eat dinner at a restaurant with our small group bible study, but little did they know.....

The start of a new thing.....

As my children are getting older, I am realizing the importance of not just documenting in their baby books, but by blogging or journaling so that they may have some record of my thoughts as a mother. Not only will my children benefit from this, but we have so much family spread out over the US I thought this would be a great way to keep everyone connected with our family. So, until I learn how to add pictures and details to this, here goes.....