Crazy weather and a new weekend

We love living in the Middle East. Life is just unpredictable and though that does get tiresome at times, it certainly keeps things interesting.

Lately the weather has been the crazy thing. We live in a desert which means that weather is pretty extreme and consequently it really really affects things when it changes or whatnot.  Lately, we've had rain almost every day for the last TWO WEEKS. It is affecting everything and has caused all sorts of flooding because there are no building codes (really, at all I don't think!) to address flooding. So all sorts of crazy pictures are getting sent from phone to phone of wild things all over the country as a result of the water.

The weather has been in the 80s instead of around 110 so we are LOVING IT. However, we have our own share of flooding, two burst pipes and really really dirty cars. It has taken Tom so much time to try and fix stuff himself, then find a guy to fix it the, get him to come back to finish the job etc etc etc. Any other house projects just get put on hold!

The other newsworthy item is that the government is changing the weekend! I think this is the craziest thing in the world. Living in Hong Kong and the US before, I never realized the Arab world has a different weekend. You should google all the various weekends around here. Anyway, our country has been talking about it for a very long time, but in typical fashion, they did nothing for years and now it is happening in three weeks (=

So we are having a three-day weekend! Normally our week is Saturday through Wednesday and now it will be Sunday through Thursday. As a person who sort of likes symmetry and order, it DRIVES ME CRAZY to never have a calendar that shows a full week. (yes I still use a paper calender!) Now at least, I can breathe a big sigh of satisfaction and see one week all on one page, finally.

Here are some random photos, by the way (=

The kids room now - the two pictures on the left are from Tom's grandma on his dad's side. Thanks Cary!  Sorry I didn't make the beds (=

This is a page from a book that she had and Cary has given a page to each great grandchild.

This one is for layla. I found a man who frames photos here in town and have had SO MANY things framed. This cost $15 for double matting and non-reflective glass (= 

Here is Ryan's "Jesus picture" from Frances Hook. My sister and I both had one growing up and mom got this for Ryan as a gift. Living in the middle east I am completely irritated by how Jesus does NOT LOOK ARAB, but sentimentality wins out on this one (=

Layla's Jesus Picture is the big one and is actually the one I had as a child.

This is a tea towel from Tom's mom.....I love the colors and the theme; Noah's Ark. Ryan just sits and looks at it sometimes (=  This is also in their bedroom and is where they sit to read. The bookselves are on the right and the bed is on the left.

I have thought about having it framed but didn't know if I was going overboard with framing everything (= I'm finally getting a wall of family pictures up in the next few months!