snowpocolypesmas continuted...

so by thursday, it was apparent that our power would not be on anytime soon. the estimates are still tuesday at the latest. they have fixed a lot of little rock, but our area has not even been started on because they are still assessing the damage. so i have zero hopes of it being on before tuesday, and minimal hopes that even that will happen.

but, the good news is that we have family close by. two families, in fact, both of whom have power. chickfila was back to being open on thursday, so i decided to bail on jason and head up to siloam to my parents house (wait, i feel like i was just there....). as i was at the gas station filling up, jason's mom texted that their power was back on. so, we decided to stay there for one night, do laundry, take showers, get a little organized, and then the kids and i would head up to siloam on friday for at least the weekend. and this way, jason had a warm bed too.

and, the best part was that the kids finally got to play in the snow! they had wanted to since waking up on wednesday morning, but seeing as we had no place warm to recover and then were at a hotel with no real good place to play outside, it just didn't happen. but, once we were settled in a gramma and papa's, the kids had naps pretended to nap, aunt lizzie was the hero and took them outside.

 

hiba lasted about five minutes, matthias lasted about ten. but it was a glorious five and ten minutes and lived up to all of their expectations.

so friday morning, the kids and i headed up to siloam. rachel was off work for the weekend, and my nana was visiting, so it was a great weekend to come up. plus they have power, so that made it even more appealing.

and when we got here, it was snowing. i felt like this was some horrible dream that i couldn't wake myself up from. luckily, it didn't stick to the roads and it was just enough to be fun and pretty, but not enough to knock down trees or ice roads.

first nap since christmas

snow is following me!!!

not a great picture, but i did not want to go outside. i'm over this snow thing.

so now, we are up in siloam, jason's in little rock, and the end is not clearly in sight. but, i did get to sleep in today, went out for some sister time last night, and the kids are loving being the center of attention for a few more days. i'm thankful that we have options and somewhere to go, but i am looking forward to being back home - hopefully any day now!

vacation is awesome.

last week, we got to go see some really great friends from jbu. they live in fort worth, so we don't get to see them very often, but every time we do, it's good for our souls. the kids got a long great and we enjoyed talking, laughing, playing games, cooking, eating, and relaxing.

on our way!

jason reading to a captive audience

yo gabba gabba!

 

matthias is addicted to electronics

breakfast time!

that's a lot of young kids

he found another game....

jason beating up the kids

walk to the park

the kids did a lot of swinging

and a lot of egg collecting/terrorizing the chickens

what reunion would be complete without a game of catan?

sassy boy

train ride!

kitchen makeover!

so jason and i are both taking the week off, for our (i think) first real family vacation since we moved back to the US. we have had long weekends, jason and i went to china, but we haven't had a vacation week where we could just make our own plans.

so far, it's been great.

we spent monday and tuesday at home, working on some much needed projects. we sent the kids' to pre-school so we could get as much done as possible. and i think it was a success.

we did some little projects - caulking/spot painting our baseboards and quarter-round, changing out our back screen door, cleaning behind the fridge - little things like that.

and then, we painted our kitchen.

on sunday night, jason and i realized we have never done any home improvement projects together, so i wasn't sure how it would go. i mean, i love him and i think we are a great couple, but we also have some pretty strong opinions about everything, so it could be a disaster. but it wasn't. it was so fun to do a project with him and to actually get it all done.

before.

not my favorite look...

and....

first coat!

trying to figure out what i'm doing....

inspiration

after!

window sill with a splash of color

still figuring out the whole panoramic thing...but you get the point. 

i was a little super nervous about the color, but i love it. i will be looking for accent pieces, but i am very happy with it. and jason is excited that our backsplash is done. so win for both of us.

tomorrow we are off to ft. worth to visit some friends - yay!

little rock staycation

wow, so life has kind of taken over and i'm way behind on this thing. so...here's to the start of catch-up. :-)

first off - july 31, jason and i celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. it's hard to think back to 8 years ago. it seems forever ago and just yesterday all at the same time. around our anniversary, jason read this article about a couple who got married really young and wonder how they survived it. it's a great little piece, and even though our situation was quite different from theirs, i do look back and wonder how we stayed together. it is by the grace of God, that's for sure, and i am so thankful for that. i think it's pretty great that we met when i was 17 and we are still happily married today. yes, we have our ups and downs, our fights and differences, but he is still my best friend and i can't even imagine any other person that i would want to be doing life with.

anyway.

so, for our anniversary, we don't get each other presents (although jason did get me a dozen orange roses - my absolute favorite - because he is a super sweet over-achiever like that), but spend time away from life, which was just perfect this year. it was perfect timing and such a needed break. life and work and kids have gotten a little crazy, so to have a whole weekend to think of nothing but ourselves - well, that was perfect. we decided to just stay in little rock and see a couple of places we've never gotten around to and just relax. we wanted to explore little rock's local gems and see what this city has to offer. i had full intentions of being a full blown tourist and taking pictures all weekend, but i think i only got this one:

jason not looking at the camera while waiting for dinner

we started off friday evening with dinner from kBird, the best food truck in little rock. well, ok - i have heard of a lot of other yummy ones i want to try, but this was delish. he makes thai food and it was probably some of the best thai food i've ever had. (in fact, i'm pretty sure i've tried each weekend to get jason to go back. it hasn't worked yet, but i am determined to eat there saturday.) we got a hotel room for the night, just to get away, so we took our food and went to the hotel and enjoyed cable tv, the pool and hot tub, and not having to clean up after ourselves. total bliss.

saturday morning, we checked out B Side, a local favorite for breakfasts. we had heard great things about it and it did not disappoint. nothing will ever really replace cathy's corner, our all time favorite breakfast place, but it was a good substitute for little rock.

after breakfast, we decided to check out the arkansas arts center. it was pretty good. i am not a super huge fan of art museums, because i don't have the patience to appreciate all that they are, but jason loves them and so i tolerate them. as far as art museums go, i was impressed. we got there right as a tour was starting, which was nice, since i have zero knowledge about anything art related. and a tour did make it much more enjoyable because we got a lot of background knowledge we would not have gotten just looking around by ourselves.

next, we strolled on over to the central high museum. it was really neat. it is crazy to think of all of the historical significance and everything that happened right there. if we live in little rock long enough (who knows if we will...) that is where our kids will go to high school. i would definitely recommend a stop if you are in or around little rock.

after central, we were starting to get hungry, so we headed over to root cafe, a local place that lots of friends have raved about. and again, it did not disappoint. the atmosphere was fun and original and the food was delish. it is definitely on my list of new favorite places to eat. we stopped and got some coffee at boulevard bread, a local coffee place to kill some time before our next stop.

and our next stop was little rock's only "legal" distillery. we took a tour and learned how vodka, gin, rum, whiskey and bourbon are made. it smelled kind of bad, but it was fun to learn about the distillery process. did you know that gin is basically vodka infused with juniper? yep. did not know that.

so then we went home and took naps. well, i took a nap, jason watched olympics. that may have been a highlight of the weekend. an uninterpreted nap with no agenda that i needed to wake up for. after i woke up, we decided to go see a movie. we settled on the dark night and rushed over to the theater....and then realized that we went to the wrong theater and had 45 minutes before the movie started. oops. that may have been my fault. so, we watched about 30 minutes of ted before the dark night started. it was pretty funny and definitely a movie you don't have to know the whole story line to enjoy.

sunday we slept in, enjoyed a big breakfast, and went to get the kids. it was a great weekend. i enjoyed getting to see a little bit of little rock and intentionally enjoy some of the local gems we have heard about. i enjoyed not having the kiddos for three days and being so happy to see them when i picked them up. i enjoyed spending a whole weekend with jason with nothing to do and nowhere to be so we could just make it up as we go along. i'm so thankful for him and that we've got 8 years under our belt and hopefully many, many more to come.

piston family fun

this past weekend, we went up to the lake of the ozarks for a weekend with my family. it was fun to see everyone and catch-up on life. hiba and matthias loved seeing their aunts and uncles, grammy and oscar. we had a great time swimming and boating and enjoying the pretty great weather, especially for the end of july. and - jason taught hiba how to swim! i've been trying to teach her each time we go to the pool here and she's gotten pretty comfortable in the water and loves to go under, but she just wouldn't ever actually try to swim. well, five minutes in the water with daddy and she was swimming halfway across the pool!

apparently, zuzu and uncle dan have the same size head. 

the water was perfect!

all tuckered out!

dad being hilarious, as always

captain dan

uncle nate, trying desperately to get some sun

this little girl is a fish!!

hiba discovered the comfort of bringing a pillow to sleep with in the car

talking on the phone, not knowing i was taking a picture

houston!

jason and i got away this weekend. we went to houston to watch a USA v. italy rugby game. it was a fun time, good to get away, good to get a break, and - despite the fact that houston may be the worst place to go for a weekend in the middle of summer - not a bad time.

national anthem 

action shot!

celebrating the US try

setting up for the conversion kick

jason and pari, one of his teammates from Palestine who now lives in houston. so fun to see him!