A Bit of Divine Intervention and the {official} End of a Drought

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty chill. Since summer has pretty much set in, we try to do things early in the day or later in the evening since it is rather warm out during the middle of the day (truth be told, it’s warm in the evening as well, but that’s because it doesn’t cool down at night out here like I’m used to, growing up in California). One morning I stepped out the front door, barefoot, to hang our flag up. As I turned to go back in, I saw a pretty substantially-sized scorpion just chilling on the stoop…which means that I had literally stepped over it as I had walked out, BAREFOOT. I hadn’t seen it because it was on the part of the doorstep that isn’t flat. I didn’t dare walk back over it to get into the garage for the shovel. Luckily, we have some large rocks sitting on the front porch. I was able to use one of those to…dispose of the scorpion. I’m so grateful that Joseph hadn’t followed me out like he normally does and that I did not get stung. I KNOW that my Heavenly Father protected me in that instance! As for the rest of the week, several of my students are taking the summer off from piano, so I have a bit more time to do one-on-one stuff with Joseph. We got to go to the zoo twice this week, which was really fun. 🙂 The other bit of exciting news is that we are officially done with water restrictions. The water in the Edwards Aquifer has been above 660 feet for more than 10 days. That means that while we are still being encouraged to conserve water, there are no restrictions as to how often we can water (we were previously only allowed to water during a certain day and time). They are still asking us to water either before 11 AM or after 7 PM, but that is common sense to us. This is a big deal because San Antonio has been under some form of water restrictions since 2011. We’re so grateful for all the rain we have received (and continue to receive). Here’s a news article about the end of the restrictions.

The Weekly Weather: During the past week, it was warm and sunny. Yesterday was a bit more overcast (with a smattering of rain) and today has been quite the change weather-wise. While we were at church it started pouring and continued to pour. People’s phones started going off in Relief Society, notifying them of flash flood warnings (even if their phones are on silent, some people have settings that will still make them go off if there is a severe-weather warning). We made it home (which was kind of nerve-wracking because I don’t think I could see more than 10 feet in front of me because the rain was coming down so hard. It’s let up a bit, but we’re supposed to have thunderstorms all this week.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He continues to plug away at school, work hard at work, and work hard to keep our yards looking great. He was mowing the lawn the other evening and I kept hearing the mower shut off. As I went out to take some trash to the curb, I noticed him chasing down a huge frog who had jumped into our garage. As he caught it and was in the process of relocating it, he told me that he kept having to stop the lawnmower because the thing kept jumping right in front of the mower, freaking him out each time because he was trying desperately not to hit it (he has unfortunately gotten a few smaller frogs with the weedeater because he wasn’t able to stop in time).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Same-old, same-old for me. I’m continuing to teach my students, I have almost all my visiting teaching assignments handed out (I think I’m going to mail the rest), and choir is singing some really things. I cancelled choir practice today because of the crazy weather. My major plans for this week are to gear up for Father’s Day and prepare a lesson for Relief Society next week (the regular teacher is out of town).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been rather…strong-willed at times this week (luckily his easy-going moments still outnumber the strong-willed ones). He really loved going to the zoo (I’m really grateful for zoo passes). He also enjoyed snuggling with me on the couch while we caught one of his shows. Paul has put some fun stuff for him to do (like preschool games) and watch (the kids’ YouTube channel) on the Nook, so as a treat (or, truthfully, if I need to keep him busy while I’m doing something), he gets to have some “tablet time”. He has some special earphones that only let the volume go up to a certain level so that he can’t hurt his ears, which is great!

This Week in Pictures:

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He has expressed wanting to stay downstairs while I have students over. Since he can be a bit too social with them (to the point of distraction), we have come to the agreement that he can have some “tablet-time” while I have students. That way, he is still downstairs, but he’s quiet. 🙂
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Some of the fruits of our gardening labors.
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I love this picture that I managed to get of him on the lion sculpture at the zoo. He said, “Hey! I’m gonna climb the lion and you take my picture! The zoo has several sculptures that are meant for the kids to climb all over.
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For example, the elephant sculpture is another one that he likes to get on.
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There is a train by the zoo that takes you around Brackenridge Park (named after the guy who donated the land for the park and the zoo) and makes stops at the Witte Museum (science/history), the Kiddie Park (a 1920s-era theme park meant for toddlers), and the Japanese Tea Gardens (formed from an old stone quarry in 1917 or so). They’ve recently added two more trains so that people don’t have to wait so long for the train during peak times. Joseph wanted to get his picture taken up by the engine because it was blue and had the number one (like Thomas the Tank Engine).
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Funny face time!
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I love this little boy so much!!
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We’ve seen water collect in the yard before…
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…but never this much. The grass is completely submerged. *update* since this picture was taken (2.5 hours previous to this post): the yard has since absorbed all of the water, but it’s still pretty squishy out.
 

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