The Franksyness Wall of Art

Put together the following post over a month ago but forgot to hit the publish button.

It's starting to get hot here which means if the fam doesn't get out early in the morning, they don't get out, unless it's to the air conditioned refuge of one of the many malls here. So, our kids have been making extra use of their time indoors to explore their artistic sides. It's been great fun to see their talents develop in this area and we thought we should share.

Just try to imagine these meticulously arranged upon a refrigerator door. I've been to the Louvre, and I've got to tell you, nothing beats the kitchen as an art gallery.

Miranda's works of art:

Liam's contribution to the show:

James' impressionistic streak on full display:

Lucy's likenesses:

Mother's day

Beautiful

Versatile

And very popular.

What our kids love about their mom (notice the frequency of the word awesome) :

James: Everything makes her great. She gives me markers, I guess. She just helps me swim at the deep end, I guess.

Miranda: Mom is awesome because she works hard and is patient with everyone and is a good cook and is very kind and loving.

Lucy: Mom is awesome because she is a great cook and is very patient and is really nice and loving. She gives awesome hugs and is great at reading to us. She is great at snuggling and has a great sense of humor.

Liam: Some of the great things about Mom are that she works very hard for our whole family, cooking and cleaning for us, and she does it happily too. In fact, she always tries to have a positive attitude. She tries to help us with anything we need help with, and tries to help us to be happy ourselves. She is fun, encouraging(not to mention a great cook), and just plain awesome.


And me: I knew what I was getting when I asked Julie to marry me nearly seventeen years ago, mostly.

I knew that I was marrying one of the kindest, most generous, talented and prettiest girls on the planet, but I didn't fully understand what it would mean to be married to someone so kind, generous, talented and pretty. I didn't understand the responsibilities that come with marrying awesomeness. The simple truth about awesomeness is that, after long periods of close proximity, it can begin to appear common. So, even though I intellectually understand the awesomeness of my wife and the mother of my children, I don't always show this awareness through my words or actions. I take her for granted.

I knew what I was getting, but I didn't understand what it would mean for our family. I didn't see how her willingness and support would really make everything good in our lives possible. Her selflessness has been integral in offsetting my own selfish tendencies.

So, in the permanence of cyber-space, for all to see, let me acknowledge some truths, and in those less ideal moments where I become more concerned with being right than with being kind, I want to give her the ammunition she needs to end disagreements and come out on top in any argument. I could have bought her earings, but the following concessions I think will have more sentimental value.

Dear Julie,

If the Internet does go down and you need to hear this from my three dimensional self, at any point in any discussion for the rest of our marriage, I promise to read any or all of the following statements to you without the least bit of irony or sarcasm. It's the least you deserve. Happy mother's day.

I'm listening.

Sure, I'd love to do that.

I love it. It looks great.

How can I help?

Spend what you need to.

You are not ruining our children's lives.

You are smart, beatiful, funny and talents, and I'm sorry I don't tell you more often.

You're right, as always. I don't know what I was thinking. Oh, wait, I do know what I was thinking. I was thinking about myself. I wasn't thinking about you. I was thinking about what was easiest for me. I did not think about how this would affect you which was also selfish, and I know that if I had taken that advice you offered we wouldn't be in this situation. I will try to do better at listening to you and trusting you. I love you.

I've got nothing, but I'm going to post anyway

So, I'm jumping back on the bandwagon. I'm committed to posting weekly, but I've got nothing other than slo-mo jello.


And there's this really cool time lapse video of Abu Dhabi.


Overall we're well. As we're getting to the end of the semester, it's getting hard not to count down the days until our summer adventures in London and Nova Scotia. It's not that we're itching to leave Abu Dhabi. We're feeling quite at home here. But we do miss friends and family and we're also a little nostalgic for the rain.

A little bit of enthusiasm to get you through the day

We're back!

An Abu Dhabi Sunset. It's the clouds that make it novel.

The Burj Al Arab

If you don't blog about it did it actually happen. Is a love untwittered a love worth having? Is it really possible to have many friends...on Facebook.

So many of our recent experiences have been filtered through the lens of, 'Is the blog worthy?' that I've felt like I've actually lost a bit of the experience in the questioning. It's Like the parent who can't enjoy their child's first steps because the battery on the video camera is dead. Obviously, I want to document our experiences here, but so often I find myself anticipating how I will right about an event while thing's still happening. Which, of course, takes me out of the event. I wonder if historians experience present catastrophes or revolutions in the same way.

Yup, that's me with some famous guy.
The things I do for this blog.

This would have looked so much better on the Nikon.

As a writer, I've always done this to a certain extant, filing away experiences and people to be used in stories at some future time, but it's worse with the blog. Maybe it's the pressure of not only having interesting anecdotes, but also having the photos to accompany them.


A couple of weeks ago we all went to a water park in Dubai with some good friends of ours. Obviously, I wasn't going to take my DSLR with me, but our little waterproof Fuji camera takes pretty lousy pictures especially when the light is delicate. So, even though we had a blast on the slides and in the wave pool, I didn't really feel like we got our money's worth because the pictures we came away with were less than ideal.

We had a few experiences where no camera was present, and the fact that we wouldn't be able to blog with photographic evidence of our joy and excited rendered the experience somewhat muted.

Miranda and Grace.

Julie on The Tantrum Alley at Wild Wadi.

On the other hand, A few weeks ago I met the French Spider-Man who's climbed some of the tallest buildings in the world. He was in Dubai to climb the Burj Khalifa and speak at a conference hosted by the college I work for. I really wasn't all that interested in him as a person, but I knew that if I got my picture with him, I have something to put up on the blog to prove that my life is indeed interesting and exciting over here in the Middle East.




Then there's the whole problem of instant information. In the Internet age where stories develop by the hour, I feel that if I don't digitally document as it happens, then I've missed the window of relevance. Who wants to read about something that happened a whole week ago. Even yesterday can feel like the distant past.

In the interest of record keeping I will list the events of significance that happened to us over the past month and a half since my last posting. In no particular order, the following has happened to us:

-Liam advanced from a white belt to orange in Kobudo.

-Miranda earned her yellow belt in Karate.

-Elder Holland visited our stake a few weeks ago and all the kids got to shake his hand and Liam was able to play the piano in a fireside.

-Our stake was split, and then, the next week our ward was split.

-Our house in Canada finally sold and we're grateful it went to a family who will appreciate its proximity to the temple.

-We've all read lots of books and watched our share of movies.

-They've installed parking meters in our block of the city and have been pretty strict about enforcing the no parking in the middle of the street rule (you might think this wouldn't have much of an impact on our lives, but it's made our nights so much quieter).

-The kids visited a great exhibition on Mesopotamia.

-There have a number a awesome beach visits where the kids saw some cool sculptures and Lucy saw dolphins on of her outings.

-Lest you think it's all fun, the kids have been working overtime to finish their schoolwork so we can make the most of our summer.

-Also, Liam wanted to make sure I blogged about Thor before everyone else got a chance to see it. It was great comic book fun, but our only option was to spend the extra coin and watch the thing in 3D. The 3D added absolutely nothing to the experience other than a dimmer picture and a headache. I never thought I could be discouraged from watching superhero movies on opening weekend, but I feel like Hollywood is pressuring me to delay gratification until the movies show up in 2D or on home video. I suppose I should be grateful for this. I'm saving money and learning an important lesson about happiness.

There you go. I'm going to try and get back into the rhythm of things regardless of whether or not anything interesting happens to us. If all else fails I can always spout my opinions on society and popular media because if anyone misses anything about me, it's my opinions.

Miranda and her friend Grace at
Grace's Baptim

James braving the twists and turns at Wild Wadi

James and his friend Hazel..

Lucy and Dad

DSC_0035 a photo by franksyness on Flickr.

I love it when stuff happens!

Before reading any further, check this out. This is from the www.orientalkarate.com Hall of Fame Page!

Congrats..! Congrats...! Congrats....! We are proud to congratulate our student who acheived A GRADE during the grading test held on 25/02/2011 under the supervision of ALI MUHAMMED (KYOSHI)
		Name :   Liam Isaac Frank Roll No :   14013 DOJO :   Khalidiya Nationality :   Canadian Promoted From :   9-KYU To 7-KYU Instructor :   Sensei Shakir, Sensei Fayad

Liam received his green belt in karate (a double promotion) and Lucy her yellow (a colour she much prefers over green she'll have you know).It's not that I'm boasting about my children. It's not that I take pride in the fact that my kid could could probably kick your kid's butt. It that something different happened this past week which gives me fodder for blog, and how I love fodder. My life has been consumed with work and with a couple of books I'm reading which ain't too exciting and Julie's been managing the routines of the household, which, as you might imagine, ain't too exciting. So that leaves us to live vicariously through our children, something I swore I'd never do. I mean, really, I had always planned on having a life sufficiently interesting to not have to depend on the accomplishments of my children. Alas, I must admit that my life has turned out to be considerably less interesting than planned. I think that's a mark of growing up, admitting how much you bore yourself.