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It’s August Already?!

Weekly Happenings: It seems as if this year is just flying by. I can hardly believe that it’s already August. Pretty soon we’re going to be full on into party mode (end of August is our anniversary, September is EVERYBODY’S birthday, October is Halloween, and then the holidays during November and December). This past week was pretty chill. We had some park playdates, I took Joseph to the zoo on Friday, and then yesterday we went to the market day in Old Town Helotes (along with doing some regular Saturday house maintenance stuff).

The Weekly Weather: Most of the week was dry and sunny, with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees. Friday we had a random thunderstorm come through which brought with it some much needed rain (it has been dry enough that we’ve been put on water restrictions once again). Hopefully with fall coming, we’ll get some more rain. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying his break from school and homework, but has been keeping busy with work and his church calling, not to mention maintaining the house. As I eluded to before, yesterday was house maintenance day, which meant mowing the lawns (well, he mowed one lawn on Thursday and then mowed the other on Saturday along with doing the edging) and he also changed out the filter on the AC (along with spraying down the outside unit) and draining our water heater (our water is so hard out here that it needs to be drained every six months in order to keep the sediments from building up too much).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much…other than teaching piano, housekeeping, choir and visiting teaching, and keeping Joseph healthy and happy. It seems like much more once I write it all out. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He enjoyed a couple of playdates (one at the park and the other riding bikes in the church parking lot) and going to the zoo with me. One thing that I feel needs to be noted is something he told Paul during Sacrament meeting. Joseph was telling Paul about the Good Samaritan, but was saying that the Good Samaritan should have gone to find the bad guys who beat up the man and he should have beat them up.  I find it interesting how black and white his world is right now. He also spent a lot of time pretending to be various video game characters and Army guys.

This Week in Pictures:

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He loves dressing up in Paul’s old uniforms. He was telling me that his cowboy gun was an Army guy’s gun.
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When we had the annual family picnic at Paul’s work (the Defense Language Institute at Lackland AFB), they had a lot of different people there who would write your name in their native languages, so Paul had them write Joseph’s name. It was so cool that we framed it and hung it in his room.
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One of my friends, Kate took this picture a while back and when I saw it, I really liked it (I mean, the hummingbird is scratching its ear!). I finally mustered up enough courage to ask her if she wouldn’t mind sending me a copy of it. 🙂
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He referred to his breakfast as an Army breakfast…because everything that day had to be an Army something.
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We had just gotten to the zoo when I noticed a group of women fiddling with a bunch of cameras, so I offered to take their picture. They were so grateful that they offered to take my picture with Joseph. They were so sweet!
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Part of the zoo is under construction so that they can get it ready for a giraffe enclosure and feeding experience. They decided to embrace the construction and put up some really clever signs.
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Joseph liked the comparisons between construction equipment and animals. They are two of his favorite things, after all.
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The hippos weren’t too hot to climb on, so he got up there pretty quickly and really enjoyed climbing all over them.
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It’s a good thing we went to the zoo Friday morning, because by Friday afternoon, it was pouring down rain.
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Joseph was watching for lightning. He said that he liked the flashes.
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Paul decided to put together a stick horse for Joseph. Joseph loves it and is very insistent that the horse’s name is Catherine (I have no idea where the name came from…I can’t think of any connection to any other horses named Catherine). He was riding around the house protecting me. 🙂