The Simple Life at Home

No, seriously! One of the many steps of progress I've made in the last few days is that I finally figured out the stove. In fact, just tonight for dinner I used it to make Pepperidge Farm 5 Cheese Garlic Bread.

"5 Cheese Garlic Bread" in Qatar, Lori?" you may ask. That's right. Another step is that I visited Megamart, a local grocery store. Now, I've been to probably 10 different grocery stores since arriving here in Doha, but this? This was heaven. I found so many things that I haven't seen elsewhere. Things like Cool Whip, hot chocolate mix, cake frosting (don't forget that our entire family's birthdays fall in April!), mild flavor olive oil, pepper jack cheese and - most exciting of all - TALL. DRAWSTRING. GARBAGE BAGS. I know, I know. Tr to contain your excitement.

Then I drove the kiddos and I all the way out to the Villagio mall and then found the nearby Doha Zoo. Just for fun, I took a different way home and found my way just fine, thank you very much.

Tomorrow we will have our satellite service connected so we will have access to several American channels. Most exciting, of course, about this is that I will be able to watch "Lost" again. Oh, how I have missed you, Sawyer. Season 4 doesn't start here until May, so I'll be reminiscing about the good ol' days of Season 3 this month. Charlie was still alive, there wasn't any boat and the biggest worry was to trust Juliet or not.

Oh, and most importantly, I have learned that there is a fine line between your water being just a little on the cool side and "oh, my stinkin' heck, I just burned off a layer of skin!" That line would be just about the thickness of a layer of skin tissue. So that was a good lesson to learn. Those of you who were concerned about our safety here in Doha? The biggest threat to our safety is, apparently, me. What with slicing my thumb open and scalding myself every time I turn on the water or stove I may not have much feeling left in my hands by the time we are ready to move back to the U.S.

All this is to say is that we are settling into life quite nicely here in Doha. Tonight we went to get our photos taken for our residency permits. Hubby took us to an area that, well, let's just say it's probably not on any tour bus route. I was kind of skeptical, but actually we had a great time browsing the shops while waiting for the photos to be ready. We went into a bakery and picked out some yummy Arabic desserts and breads. We stopped by a paint shop to get a quote and look at colors for painting the interior of our new home. We visited a fruit and vegetable market and picked up some things at a great price. It was really nice.