Marie and I returned to Houston for the second time in so many months late last week. Houston is the home of Aramco Services Company. This is a subsidiery of Saudi Aramco. They handle all of the hiring in the states. The first time we went was for the interview. This time they literally flew the two of down for a 25 minute meeting to take blood and a chest x-ray for our Visa clearances. That ended up giving us two days of R & R in Houston. We stayed in an area called the Galleria district - named for the massive mall and shopping area that reside there. It is a really upitty and clean part of town. We stayed at a Doubletree Suites and basically ate, drank, shopped and slept for two full days. The shopping was great and the food was better. I found this awesome Indian restaurant online before we went and we ate dinner there. The name of the place was Kiran's . Not that anyone gets to Houston but if you ever do and you like Indian food give it a try. Of course the chance of finding someone from the Philly area that is: a.) going to Houston and b.) likes indian food is the equivalent of finding a needle in hay stack.

In the end the big news out of Houston is we are not leaving on August 5th as we had orignially thought. There is a hold up in Anna's medical clearance and we are now looking at mid August. This is a have your cake and eat it too situation. Months ago we had rented a house in the Outerbanks with our closest friends Matt and Paula R. for the first week in August. Once we found out we were going to Saudi we had to cancel. Well now we can go again. Yes! We have been going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina since way back when we got married. We love it down there.

The other upside is we had purchased tickets to see Micheal Buble' at the Mann Music Center. As many of you know I am a huge Frank Sinatra fan and Buble' is the closest thing you can get in this day and age. We are going with our good friends Joe and Sandra M. in a limo and it should be a blast. So there you have it. Mid to late August (In šaʾ Allāh) and a lot of fun between now and then.

Well things are becoming much more official.  We have been assigned a "relocation advisor" to help us along from this point.  More importantly, I have been given a badge number.  This doesn't sound like much but in the world of Aramco it is a big deal.  This means I am officially a somebody in the company.  WE ARE GOING!  Sort of.  There are still two more hurdles to jump but basically this is looking like a done deal.  This number came in a FedEx package that arrrived today with all sorts of boring stuff - W4, Do you understand Saudi Arab Laws, Payroll deduction/Direct Deposit, etc.  The last item in this packet is something that refers back to an earlier blog entry.  We have been given an inch thick packet of sheets we must use to inventory the entire house.  I don't know about you but that sounds like women's work to me!

We put the house up for sale on Sunday and have had a walk through everyday this week - with one scheduled tomorrow.   Today is an off day thank God.  I am so sick of cleaning this house for showings it is not even funny.  Anyone out there with little ones that have sold a house can feel my pain.  No sooner do you think you have the house ready to go then Anna holds down the water dispenser on the refrigerator for 5 MINUTES.  That is a lot of water on the floor.  Then Jack comes back into the house tracking mud all over the place or Sarah decides to do a craft that involves glitter.  Ugh.  I love this house but I can't wait until it sells.   

This process has been all talk from the beginning.  Now things are becoming much more real.  For example - I pulled up in front of my house yesterday to see a "ForSale" sign on the lawn.  It's easy to talk about selling your house but when that sign acutally goes up it kind of punches you in the gut.  I can defintely say that I am really going to miss this house.  Of course talk to me in December when I am still wearing shorts.  I thought about it the other day - it will be awhile until I have to shovel snow again.  The winter lows at Ras Tanura are about 60 on a cold day.  Nope.  No snow there.  I guess there are no snow days for the school either.  Hmmm.  They do have sand storms.  Sand days??