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A Fly Away Month

Weekly Happenings: It seems like January just flew by. I could hardly believe it when I saw Valentines’ Day stuff starting to pop up (but here we are and it’s February 4th). We didn’t do too much out of the ordinary other than enjoy the nice weather by going outside (either to the park or to go ride bikes with friends). It was nice to get out of the house and into the sunshine!

The Weekly Weather: It’s been gorgeous! There have been one or two cold days thrown into the mix, but other than that, it’s been warmer, sunny, and breezy. I can hardly believe it!

I came across this on Facebook and couldn’t help but laugh. It rings true!

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy with work, school, church, etc. I forgot to mention it last week, but he installed a new thermostat in our house that will automatically switch from heat to AC depending on what temperature it gets to. It’s so nice not having to worry about switching it back and forth, like we’ve had to do on occasion in the past.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much on my part…mainly just keeping the kids happy and healthy and making sure the house doesn’t look a total wreck. I did weed both the front and the back yards…and made sure to take plenty of Aleve afterward, haha.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying school and has especially been enjoying their class pets: two hissing cockroaches and a guinea pig. It’s funny how one of the cockroaches got its name (the other one hasn’t been named yet since they just got it on Friday; the first one they’ve had for a bit over a week). Apparently Joseph’s teacher forgot both her glasses and her contacts at home, so she called her husband to see if he could bring them to her. The kids really loved meeting Mr. Adams. Fast-forward to the end of the day when it was time to name the cockroach: they were listing off name suggestions and were going to vote to find the best name. One of the kids suggested Mr. Adams…guess which name won? Mrs. Adams said that he (the real Mr. Adams) wasn’t quite sure how to take it, haha. The guinea pig’s name is much more conventional: Cocoa. 🙂

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She had a pretty good start to the week, but then had a bit of a rough ending to it. She picked up something that gave her a fever and then added goopy eyes to the mix. I’m still not sure if it’s allergies or an illness. If it is an illness, it seems to be viral, since she is slowly getting better without needing antibiotics…but it could also have been triggered by allergies. I really don’t know. Hopefully she’ll continue to get better, because she really, really doesn’t like getting her eyes cleaned out.

This Week in Pictures:

She loves hats…and I love the one she chose. 😉 She was trying to take it off when I told her I wanted to take her picture. She then stopped and gave me that grin…Is it possible that she understands? haha

Alas, my phone’s camera doesn’t do it justice, but the sky was super pretty one morning. That white dot is a huge full moon and the clouds were such a pretty shade of pinky-purpley-orange.

Valentines’ Day door decor. I’ve forgotten just how many years ago I made this with stuff from my craft bins.

I added some paper hearts (another thing I made a few years back) to my “rest of the year” decorations.

I found some inexpensive signs to add to the Valentines’ decor a bit. I found these two…

I started with a baby in a hat, and I’ll finish with one. 😉 A good friend gave me a bag of clothes her daughter has outgrown and this hat was in there. Abigail automatically tried to get it onto her head and was rather tickled when I put it on for her. 🙂

A Bunch of Sickies

Weekly Happenings: The beginning of this past week was mainly spent trying to get over whatever gunk we all had. Paul had bronchitis and the rest of us had a bad cold. We stayed home from church to make sure we didn’t share our germs and Joseph ended up staying home from school on Monday. I took Abigail in to be checked out mainly because her appetite had been decreased for quite a few days. She checked out okay (no ear infection or anything else), so it was just her cold making her not want to eat. She also gained almost two pounds in a month, so I don’t think I need to be worried about her appetite (especially since she seems to be back to eating normally), haha. Yesterday we decided to go to the zoo after Abigail got up from her afternoon nap. It was so nice! I love having passes. Since we’re not paying for entrance for just one day, we can show up about an hour before closing (when it’s not crowded because most people are heading out at that point), wander around, and not worry about not getting to see everything.

The Weekly Weather: It’s really been a mix. Cold, dry, rainy, warmer…we pretty much experienced it all, haha.

What Paul’s Been Up To: I think he might finally be feeling a bit better, which is good. Other than that, work and school have kept him pretty busy.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Laundry, disinfecting stuff, etc., haha. Toss that in with my normal weekly stuff and I found plenty of things to keep me occupied. 🙂 I also went to book club, which was really nice. I haven’t been for quite some time. It was nice to see friends I hadn’t seen in a while and to have an intellectual discussion about a good book.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Once he got over his cold, he went back to school and had a grand ol’ time. 🙂 Other things that keep him busy: making his own LEGO creations, reading, playing on his DS and tablet, and watching Abigail for me.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She’s been getting steadier on her feet (standing), loves getting into things she ought not to, and enjoys making a myriad of sounds accompanied by slobber, haha. It’s a good thing she’s so cute! 😉

This Week in Pictures:

She kept trying to take them off…until I told her I was going to take her picture…then she stopped, looked right at me, and smiled, haha.

THIS is the Texas January I’m used to! He’s blowing bubbles to entertain her. 🙂

She was NOT happy with me when I had to wake her up to go get Joseph from school, but she stopped mid-cry when I showed her the boots. She then reached for them with a little smile on her face. A girl after my own heart! 😉

Posing with the bear at the zoo (darn sun in his eyes).

Checking out the small cats (this was the caracal, I believe).

The zoo is getting ready for a dinosaur exhibit in the summer. This animatronic dino was pretty awesome.

Up and At’Em

Weekly Happenings: This past week was rather interesting. Monday was a holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Then Tuesday, a cold front came swooping in, taking the form of an ice storm. The entire city pretty much shut down. Joseph didn’t have to go to school and Paul didn’t have to go to work. The ice pretty much stuck around all day, so we just stayed home to stay out of it all. The rest of the week after that seemed to get back to normal rather quickly, but it was quite the way to start the week!

The Weekly Weather: Sunday and Monday were really nice (60s-70s), Tuesday was, well, kind of gross (it didn’t get out of the 20s for the entire day), and then the rest of the week was pretty normal (50s). This is why we can never pack away a certain type of clothing. We end up using short sleeves and long sleeves all in the same week, haha.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been pluggin’ away at work and at school. Not much else to report on that front.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly just keeping the small fry happy and entertained (especially during the coldest days).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He enjoyed having two days off of school (the holiday and the “ice” day), but also enjoyed going back to school to see his friends.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: Here’s where the title to this blog post comes from: she’s figured out how to pull herself up into a standing position! At first, she was trying to stand tippie-toe, but I’ve been working with her to stand flat-footed and now she’s doing it more and more on her own.

This Week in Pictures: