The Sultans of Volleyball!

Last Wednesday Sam took off for Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, with his JV volleyball team, the American School of Doha Dragons. They were on their way to the end of season EMAC (Eastern Mediterranean Activities Conference) tournament. My friend Kristie and I were on the flight as well. No way we were going to miss our boys playing volleyball or miss the chance to visit Muscat! Play began on Thursday and the boys BAM! won their first two games handily. Keith arrived at the tourney on Friday morning, just in time to see the third game wrapped up by, again, our "boys on fire". The next game on Friday was not in our favor, but the boys were undaunted....and seeded second, I might add.

Championship Game Day....Saturday. The boys put a tick in the win column with their first game, which also happened to land them in the finals. And what a final it was. Neck and neck to the very end. The first score did not go in our favor. The next two did, however...26-24 and 16-14. Our team was #1!!! All the excitment was not so good for my blood pressure, or my watch crystal, which I broke by clapping too hard! Nonetheless, we came out the victors and pretty much have not come off of Cloud Nine yet! (BTW~kudos to the best cheer squad ever...Kristie, Keith, Lynne, Omran, Jerrell, Brenda and Rick!)

As an aside, the city of Muscat is beautiful. We did manage to do a little sightseeing one afternoon (thanks to Omran). The volleyball teams (boys and girls JV) got to do some sightseeing of their own before leaving for Doha on Sunday.

What a blast we had! Memories to last a lifetime. And....GO DRAGONS!

Sultan's Palace...any room for a few DRAGONS in there???

Our Sweet Rocky

Many of you know our sweet Rocky dog. He has been a part of our family for 10 years.....straight from the Humane Society to Rosebay Court. We were so sad that we were not able to bring him along when we moved to Doha. Boxers are on the banned dog list here! We kept saying, "If they only knew him, they would love him!" My dear sister and family adopted Rocky...he moved to San Antonio for a few months. Then, when Will graduated and moved back into our Sugar Land house, Rocky moved back home. Of course, we have been with him every homeleave. Best situation possible, given the circumstances.

Recently, very recently, Rocky fell quite ill. He began losing weight and was having trouble breathing. Since Will was out of town this past weekend, Mom and Don took Rocky to the vet and the news was not good. Our sweet dog would not recover from his illness and he was suffering. A tearful decision was made over the phone to let Rocky go in peace. We will return to Sugar Land for the Christmas holidays to a house without our Rocky dog.

I am smiling as I write this. Rocky was such a good boy and so much fun. The unresolved dental issues, the front door and back gate greetings, chasing the flashlight, walks around the lake that always involved duck chasing, family Christmas photos, sitting and laying down for treats, not to mention catching them in the air...just a few of the good memories.

We will miss Rocky more than we can say. We are so grateful for the fun and love he brought into our lives. Thanks for listening...or guess I should I say reading.


Love,
Kim, Keith, Will, Jake and Sam

Hook 'Em Horns!

There are just certain things that you miss when you don't live in Texas. Like Bluebell Birthday Cake ice cream. (I actually found it one time here, at Megamart, in the little individual containers, but I wasn't sure how many times it had been melted and refrozen, so I passed!) Fresh flour tortillas. (I have had fresh tortillas here a few times...homemade by friends in the know!) Seasons. (Okay, so we do have to break out the sweaters and portable heaters for a month or so in January/February!) A gas station on every corner. (Even if it just costs about 15 bucks to fill up my Accord!) Michael's and Garden Ridge. (The money saved by not having those places may be a blessing!) Maybe what I really miss is the convenience of all these things. We learn to make due here...I now always make my own Spanish rice from scratch and have learned that Australian torilla chips aren't that bad! You can get mums at the plant souqs and we even have a pumpkin patch at the school this week. The pumpkins are mostly small green ones, but they did import some large orange ones from Jordan, I think, and priced them out at only about $40 to $50 a piece! (Makes up for the gas prices....)

So what does all of this have to do with the Longhorns, you ask???? We do miss our football! We were even able to remedy that, in part, by bringing a Sling Box back with us from the US this summer. ( see http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/slingbox.htm ) What a treat when, last Saturday night, we watched the Texas - OU game LIVE! It was on at 11 am central, so that meant we could catch it at 7 pm here. In great excitement and anticipation, we gathered our plates of spaghetti and huddled around the computer screen in the study. (Yes, Will and Jake, we were eating in front of the tv....spaghetti, no less!) We were in Football Heaven! It only got better, though....45-35, game over! Sam dressed for the occasion the next day at school.

Now listen...some of my dearest friends are OU grads and fans, even if they do call me minutes before the game and blare Boomer Sooner in my ear. I love Aggies, too, and even have a few in the family. But, there is something about orange that sends chills up my spine, to this day. Maybe that's why I may spend that $5o for a pumpkin yet. (Not really, Keith!) Oh, the simple pleasures!

(Pic snapped by my friend Kristie and shows view of legs of Sam Shrull and Will and Jake Van Hoozer after volleyball practice one Saturday. Can you guess which shorts belong to who? Clue: Kristie was the caller that graced my ears with the OU fight song! )

Moses Walked Here!

View of Promised Land from Mt. Nebo

'Go up unto....Mt. Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession.' Duet. 32:49

We had a wonderful journey to Jordan last week during our Eid holiday. What an amazing place! We flew into Amman on Wednesday, were picked up by our smiling driver Ra'ed and enjoyed an Arabic meal at the balcony restaurant of his friend. We were treated to a lovely meal and a view of the city.

Early Thursday morning we started out for Mt. Nebo. Wow! We were able to stand and see the Promised Land much the way that Moses would have seen it for the first time. The site also contained an old church that is being excavated and some floor mosaics that we were able to view. After taking in the landscape in that part of the world, I have a new compassion for the woes of the Israelites who wandered in the desert!

serpant cross - Mt. Nebo

After Mt. Nebo, we took a quick trip to Madaba and entered the Church of St. George to see the oldest existing mosaic map of the Bible Lands. It was beautiful, but Greek to me!

Our final stop of the day was the Crusader Castle at Karak. We explored every nook and cranny of that huge place...my guys love that crusader history stuff.

We finished off our day on the balcony of our hotel in Petra and enjoyed the wonderful sunset over the mountains. I had to keep pinching myself. Was I really there???