Distracted

Rhyan's been busy with home school assignments. The end of the semester is Wednesday, so he crammed his final tests and essays this last week and is now enjoying the XBox Kinect Santa dropped off last month.

Rhyan found concentrating on school work for such long periods of time to be very difficult. He even wrote an essay about it...

The Distraction of My Puppy

            Have you ever been distracted by something more interesting than what you were already doing that was really important? If you haven't, you’re lucky, or just not normal! I have to live with this challenge everyday! The distraction is my super cute, ball-of-fur puppy. It's like she has mind-control over me. I get distracted by her cuteness and follow her to the living room where we roll around on the floor. Then mom comes in and sees that I'm not doing my homework. She get angry, tells me to go back to my room, I sit down at the computer and the next thing I know, Chloe is in my face and has mind-control over me again. The cycle restarts. It’s not that I don’t want to my school work, it’s that I want to play with my puppy because she's so freakin' cute!

The Cute One - Chloe

            Every morning after I eat breakfast, I take The Cute One for a walk. We come home, I take the leash off of her, and Chloe runs to my mom and takes a leap of faith into her arms, hoping she'll catch her, just to say hi. I go to my room, turn on the computer and I start my homework. Fifteen minutes of doing homework and the distractions start. Chloe comes into my room and jumps on my bed, licks my face, does a little puppy-Pilates stretching. I’m sucked in by her charms and I follow her to the living room to play with her. Other times, she comes into my room and starts rolling on the floor, offering her belly to be scratched, and of course I have to scratch it. Sometimes she sits on my bed, lifts one of her paws like it’s hurt, shifts paws, cocks her head to one side and looks straight into my eyes with her big black shiny eyes. It's like puppy mind-control! I can’t resist that! The next thing I know I'm in the living room, on the floor playing with her. Then my mom comes in from the kitchen and finds me playing on the floor, gets mad, yells at me to go back to my room and then I get frustrated because I don't like when my mom gets mad at me. Plus, I'd rather be playing with my puppy than writing another essay.

            Getting distracted by the puppy causes a lot of problems. When I don't do my homework, my mom gets angry. This happens several times a day and we both end up being mad all day. Those days are days that bring me close to getting the Xbox taken away from me. To me, this is a very bad consequence.  If I don't complete essays, I don't get to go to bass practice and Taekwondo and I have to work late at night getting it done. This makes me tired and makes me want to snuggle my puppy.

            I have to live with this challenge every day. As I’m writing this right now, Chloe is trying to get on top of me, nudging my computer out of the way with her nose. She’s now rolling onto her back, trying to get me to scratch her belly. From my lap, she sees a dog outside through the living room window. She jumps off me, and is now doing laps around the house, running from window to window, looking like a white blur every time she passes me. Who can resist that? I know I can’t! If you think you wouldn't have a problem with the distraction that I have, you would have to be weird.

2010 update - the road has led back to California, for the long term

It's been almost two years since last we posted...big changes!

Dusty is now a permanent resident of Kazakhstan. We hear he's having a lovely, purposeful life herding cattle on the steppes, building great muscles, and learning Russian. Good dog! We miss you terribly!


Quinn and Rhyan are now full-time residents of California. Quinn is about to graduate from the local public high school that both his grandfather and mother attended. He took the opportunity to go to the prom and had a great time with his date Erin and his friends. Everyone came to the house after prom and ate waffles! In the fall, Quinn is going on to community college. Hopefully that's where he'll collect the grades that'll get him into USC's Interactive Media program in a couple of years. His current mission is to find a summer job that'll help him save up for a car, school and a life more independent of his mother.

Rhyan is currently being home-schooled. After the lush life of private international schools which offered a student-teacher ratio of 6:1, Rhyan couldn't find the help he needed in a California public school whose classrooms were loaded 32:1. He's flourishing nicely now, about to finish 6th grade with much higher grades. He'll be staying with home-school for another year, at least. We'll see how it goes, and if his mother can last that long.

Rhyan is also busy with two activities he's finding to be really enjoyable, bass guitar and taekwando. He started both on his 12th birthday, having received a bass guitar and amp as a present from his mom, and having been forced to try out a single lesson of taekwando at McKellar's Taekwando. He's already up to a yellow belt and will be testing for his yellow-green belt at the end of May. He's also included in the leadership program, where he learns how to assist his teacher with training the students with lower-level skills. Through this program, Rhyan earns credit towards new belts and equipment.

Rhyan's bass repertoire now includes Seven Nation Army, Another One Bites The Dust, Louie Louie, Iron Man, plus a few Rush and Aerosmith hits. Mom is impressed. Neighbors, not so much. He's had the opportunity to play his bass accompanied by his teacher on drums. A very fun activity! He's ready to start a small band!

There's a new girl in town...Chloe! She's a Jack-a-Bee, a Jack Russell Terrier/Beagle mix. Chloe barks with a decidedly Tennessee accent, having been shipped out just last week from Nashville. To describe her as "spirited" is an understatement! She'll have her very own blog entry soon.

Christmas shopping in Paris

What fun!! And dang cold!! Next time, we're doing Paris in the spring...when the US dollar is up a bit more.

The boys really enjoyed their time together in Paris. Who knew that absence really does make the heart grow fonder, even between brothers. After only three nights of going at it hammer and tongs over sofa bed real estate, they started having fun. They had a great time up in the Eiffel Tower, Rhyan found seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre to be an anti-climactic experience, and Quinn discovered his sense of fashion/style was decidedly European.

After exhausting the culinary delights of Paris, we headed back to Kazakhstan for the remainder of Quinn's winter break. The boys spent their time playing the Wii and Game Cube, walking Dusty in the snow and ice along the Ural River (and Dusty was thrilled to see Quinn again), and generally charming their mother out of having to do chores around the house.

The visit was far to short, and now Quinn's back at school at SVA (where he's managing to stay on the honor roll) and Rhyan is back dazzling the fourth grade at DAIS.

Dusty is getting in touch with his Labrador Retriever roots upon discovering the joys of playing in the snow. Everytime it snows, he whimpers at the door until we let him out. He loves digging in the stuff, and that undercoat of his really comes in handy during his long walks around the neighborhood. So far, he's loving winter in Kazakhstan!

Spring break is coming up soon. At the end of February, Quinn gets to dig up rocks in Grandpa's field, out in Mountain Home, Arkansas. And Rhyan may be heading for Houston, Texas on a business trip with his dad. No doubt Dusty will be spending some time at the Atyrau Kennel Club.

Summer plans

It's time to head to the lake. This time next week, we'll be parking our lawn chairs on the dock, sipping iced tea and munching on chilled watermelon as we watch the clouds drift across a Northern California sky.

Rhyan says he wants to go bowling a lot this summer. He also looks forward to taking Dusty on long walks along the lake, and to the park to get snow cones.

Quinn is fixated on buying a new notebook computer so he can play his games on it. But that's not happening until late July, so he's thinking a trip to Six Flags in Santa Clara might distract him for a day or two.

Dusty will be in the U.S. for the first time in his life. We think he'll be enjoying the new smells, but won't know what to do without so much sand. We're pretty sure the neighbors' cats will have to figure out a new nightly routine, because the new Guard Dog is on duty!

Then we've got the visit to Dr. Gums, our dentist - a good teeth cleaning is long overdue. And of course, we're looking forward to a few trips to Yiayia and Papou's house, Eve and George's house, and some quality time with the cousins at Aunt Goldie and Uncle Skip's house, and Uncle Shannon and Aunt Caroline's house.

See ya'll soon!

Transition time

Over the last week-and-a-half, we were visited by some gorgeous migratory birds. We saw a few Eurasian Golden Orioles in our tree in the back yard. Their bright yellow markings of the male birds were a nice visual contrast.

The boys have been in a state of flux this week. Quinn turned 15, and has received final confirmation that he's been accepted to Squaw Valley Academy. Rhyan is relishing the idea of being king-of-the-castle when we move to Kazakhstan. And Dusty is making peace with his new palatial dog kennel (he's self-medicating with Bacon Strips).

It has been very dusty in Kuwait for the last week, a very odd sort of dust, reminiscent of the air quality in Washingston and Oregon after Mt. St. Helens errupted. A fine, silt-like fog enveloped all of coastal Kuwait for nearly a week, leaving a murky layer of fine sand on everything. But this morning, we awoke to clear blue skies and the sparkling waters of the Persian Gulf.

Next week, the movers invade to pack our goods for transfer to Kazakhstan and California. Quinn won't be bringing much along with him. He's getting a whole new wardrobe for school...new uniforms as well as winter gear (for the first time in his life). Rhyan is thrilled to leave school uniforms behind, but is disappointed to not be able to wear his biker T-shirts to school. He can, however, dress rebel-like on the weekends.

The summer in California will be full. Far too much shopping will occur. Hopefully some fun can be scheduled. A day at Marine World in Vallejo, a ride on the Skunk Train out to Ft. Bragg, and an Independance Day picnic at Clearlake. Rhyan's advance birthday party is scheduled in August just before he leaves for Kazakhstan. He gets another one in Kazakhstan, to cement ties with his new classmates.

Don't forget Dusty!

Dusty joined the team just over three years ago. He's not your typical breed of dog, he's a mix between Kuwait desert dog and golden Labrador retriever. This was discovered this through some research Rhyan did for a class project in 2nd grade. He learned that the Kuwait desert dog is one of the oldest indigenous canines, and typically found accompanying Bedouin tribes in the Middle East region.

Dusty's unique lineage gives him some interesting characteristics. He's very pack-loyal, so if you're a part of his pack, he loves you. But if you're not a part of the pack, watch out! He's apt to show his fangs first and ask questions later.

Dusty's list of talents include. but are not limited to: barking at imaginary objects; security; linguistics - he understands English (only when it suits him), Malayalam (a dialect from Kerala, India) and dog-speak (which sounds more like incessant barking or howling - especially when he wants a treat).

Dusty is mentally preparing for his first flight on a plane. He's trying to get used to the confinement of a pet carrier, but so far, there's no luck with that. He's going to have an ID chip subcutaneously implanted soon. There aren't enough Milk Bonz on the planet to get over that!

All about Rhyan

Rhyan began his world travels at 9-months-old when his family moved to Indonesia. Since then he's been a reluctant traveler, prefering to stay home and play with friends. But Rhyan has had some fun along the way.

His most memorable trip was to Langkawi, Malaysia, where he played with monitor lizards and manta rays. Rhyan also loved to see the London/Oxford/Edinburgh highlights atop red double-decker tour buses.

A trip to see the grandparents in Arkansas was made more special with a fresh layer of snow. Rhyan looks forward to moving to Kazakhstan because of the promise of more snow. He's planning for the mother of all snowball fights. He's also looking forward to ice skating, and learning to play hockey and tennis. And making new friends.

What Rhyan's loved best about living in Kuwait is all the friends he's made, playing baseball on a team, football on the beach. He's loved entertaining American troops Thanksgiving Day. And he's enjoyed the opportunity to drive a Jetski in the Persian Gulf and his motorcycle all around the community.