Weekly Happenings: This week was pretty laid back. On Monday, since it was a holiday, we decided to do something pretty fun. At one of our local malls, there was a special traveling exhibit called the LEGO Americana Roadshow. It was an exhibit of a bunch of really large LEGO creations that were different famous American buildings and landmarks, along with some smaller fun creations. For our little LEGO lover (and for us, too, in reality), it was pretty fantastic. It’s good that we got to go do that because the rest of the week, both Paul and Joseph were sick. Joseph came down with croup and then Paul got a variation of it. Thankfully, I was spared, so it seems. Maybe I had all the right antibodies already in my system to avoid it, maybe it was divine intervention (considering the fact that I can pretty much just take Tylenol right now and not much else), who knows. They both seem to be on the mend, and Joseph will get to go back to school on Monday (which he’s excited about…he told me he missed it).
The Weekly Weather: I don’t think it rained at all this past week…or if it did, I don’t remember it, haha. For the most part, it’s been warm and sunny. I guess it’s not quite time for fall weather to arrive, boo.
What Paul’s Been Up To: Work, Scouts, and mainly trying to rest and get rid of his icky cold.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I was going to start back up with piano, but with Joseph being sick, I decided to cancel so that I could take care of him (and not inadvertently share germs with my students on top of that). I’ll start back up with them this upcoming week now that Joseph is all better. I was also able to host another LuLaRoe party and go to a Relief Society activity. Both were tons of fun.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had one day this past week where he did get to go to school. While there, I was able to drop off a belated treat for his class to enjoy for his birthday. They make birthdays pretty fun in pre-k. He got to wear a birthday crown and got a bag full of little fun trinkets from his teacher.
This Week in Pictures:
In front of the Washington Monument.The Lincoln Memorial.There was even a Lincoln statue inside, made of LEGOS.Joseph really got into posing in front of stuff.The Old North Church.This was one of the “just for fun” ones. Paul remarked that they were sort of like “I Spy” or “Where’s Waldo” because there was so much to see in each of the display cases.Here’s Independence Hall.A LEGO Mount Rushmore wouldn’t be complete without “Lord Business” and exploding rainbows (both of those things are in reference to the LEGO movie).The Statue of Liberty was one of my favorites.Joseph was concerned about the crack in the bell until I told him that the real one had a crack in it, too.The size of some of the creations was pretty amazing.Another “fun” one: a LEGO mall.The one of the capitol was immense!The attention to detail was insane.In front of the White House.Joseph had fun keeping his eye out for more creations.One more “fun one”: a city-scape with a lot of fun stuff all over.He’s really been enjoying the LEGOS that we got him for his birthday.Paul came home with “just because” flowers. I love that man of mine!A fun dress that I got at my friend’s LuLaRoe party (I forgot to post a picture last week).I won a raffle at my friend’s LuLaRoe party and the prize was a pair of leggings and a shirt. I couldn’t help but pick these out. They’re just so fun! Since I don’t wear leggings out of the house, it doesn’t matter too much that they don’t match anything I own. 🙂Here’s my free shirt. I love the bright colors!For hosting a party, I got to pick out a free piece of clothing. I picked out another dress that’s the same type as the red one I got at my friend’s party. They are so roomy and comfortable for pregnancy and they’ll be good for post-pregnancy as well.A Minecaft guy that Joseph and I made with Mega Bloks.I framed Joseph’s family portrait and Paul hung it up on our “artwork” wall (which seemed only fitting).
Weekly Happenings: The first part of September is always fun. My birthday and Joseph’s birthday are only two days apart, so there’s always a flurry of activity. Most of last week was spent finalizing the details of Joseph’s birthday party, which was yesterday. We squeezed in some other activities (grocery shopping, park play dates, etc.) as well as school and work, of course. Oh, and birthday dinner(s), too. 🙂
The Weekly Weather: It seems like there is always a state of unrest when the seasons are transitioning. We’ve had warm and sunny days, warm and rainy days, and a few good-sized thunderstorms (really early in the morning, usually). It hasn’t been incredibly hot, but it’s been humid, so it almost always feels warmer than it actually is. The mornings have been rather pleasant (a nice reminder that fall really is on its way). I’m hoping that since we had a relatively mild spring and summer that fall and winter will be cooler than usual, too. I’m not really holding my breath, though…it is South Texas, after all. 😉
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy with work and keeping our yards looking amazing (they really are). He’s also been researching sheds that he can turn into an office, since little miss will eventually be booting him out of his current office. I appreciate the fact that he spends time thinking about this stuff. Since he does so, things always turn out really well, instead of being poorly put together because not enough time was spent on the planning stage.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary. I spent some time getting ready for choir, which starts back up today. I’m also trying to get organized with my piano teaching paperwork, since I’ll be starting back up with lessons this week as well (except for tomorrow, being a holiday). I did get to hang out with my girlfriends one night, which is always fun.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He finished up his second week of school and still loves it (yay!). He also had a blast at his birthday party, playing with his friends outside, playing with cars, Mega Bloks, and LEGOS inside, eating pizza, chips, cake, and ice cream, and watching more Pokemon than is probably healthy. 😉 But, hey…birthdays only come once a year, right?
This Week in Pictures:
Putting on a puppet show for Daddy at the library.The dog and snake took turns chasing each other.Crazy reaction to a bug bite.All loaded up with tools to “fix stuff around the house”.The same bug bite in the evening. It took all day for the swelling to go down.My birthday present! Lest anyone be concerned, yes, I asked for it and am actually really excited to get to use it. Adulthood at its finest. 😉He was excited to get to use the “special” plate for breakfast. One of our wedding presents was one place setting of this design (a big plate, a small, plate, a bowl, and a place mat and napkin). The purpose of the single set was to provide a “blue plate special” for one person in our family on their special day (birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc.).Posing on the wagon in Old Town Helotes during their market day (craft and food booths).One of my friends is awesome with a crochet hook. The reason we went to the market day yesterday was to visit her booth and get this Pikachu hat for Joseph. It’s still (obviously) too hot for it, but we figured it would be an excellent birthday present.We keep birthdays pretty low-key around here: while we don’t decorate or have organized party games, there are still friends to play with and a yummy cake (that Momma makes). This is this year’s cake: A Pokemon battle field.Here’s the finished product! I doctored up a boxed cake mix (using milk instead of water, adding an extra egg, and doubling the oil) and then decorated it. It turned out really good!Playing with friends in the back yard at his party.Some friends playing in the fort.Building with Mega Bloks.Watching Pokemon.It’s seriously one of Joseph’s favorite shows right now.These three…Joseph is sandwiched right between these two brothers in age and they are thick as thieves at times.He was excited to get more dinosaurs (you can never have enough dinosaurs).A sticker book and some treats.An angry birds game and some more treats.Unwrapping the present from Momma and Daddy……LEGOS!An art projector.Lighting the candle.Singing “Happy Birthday”.Getting ready to……BLOW!We were just surprised by a package delivery (right as I was almost finished working on this post, actually). Joseph with his present (some pretty awesome Pokemon figurines) from Uncle Jason, Aunt Saira, and cousin Luna.
Weekly Happenings: The big thing that happened this past week was Joseph starting pre-k. He’s in an afternoon class, so our daily routine goes something like this: get up, eat breakfast, pack a lunch, play for a bit, and then head out the door. The school is close enough for us to walk, so we do so. I did go and buy a huge golf umbrella to block some of the sun (since I realized that it was too much sun exposure for me…Joseph has quite a bit of Paul’s pigment, so he doesn’t seem to burn like me, but he was still complaining of the heat) and it was quite a bit more pleasant after that. Joseph goes to school for about three hours, so while he’s gone, I usually run errands or do something around the house…and occasionally toss in a power-nap. 😉 This past week was also Parent Orientation (read: Back to School Night), so I went to the meeting while Paul hung out with Joseph. Oh, yeah…and also our fourteenth wedding anniversary! Parent Orientation was scheduled for the evening of our anniversary, so Paul took Friday off so that we could celebrate then. Joseph still had school, so Paul and I went out for lunch while he was in school. We also went out to the mall to check out the grand opening of a store called Think Geek. It was originally just a website where you could find some “geek” themed stuff, but they are beginning to branch out into having brick-and-mortar stores. It was rather crazy (there was actually a line to get in), so when we got in, we circled around the store rather quickly (we’ll probably go back after it’s settled down a bit). We did find a treat for Joseph: a master sword (from Legend of Zelda) that is his size. He has a larger one that his Uncle Jason got him for his birthday, which he loves, but it’s a bit hard for him to swing around because of its size (never mind that every time he does, I worry he’s going to take something out, haha). We gave him the smaller version after we picked him up from school and he was pretty excited, to say the least. After that, we went to the zoo. Going late in the afternoon of a week-day during the school year seems to be the prefect time to go. We were able to park close and it wasn’t crowded, so we were able to really take our time to look closely at the animals. Yesterday was a typical Saturday. I picked up some clothes for Joseph (slowly working on getting his wardrobe for the next size up), Paul did some work around the back yard (read: packed up the pool, since we aren’t really using it at this point, spread some new mulch in the back play area, and stabilized Joseph’s fort a bit). Joseph and I also spent some quality momma-son time making some cookies (we took some to our new neighbors who are renting the house next door…we have plans to drop some more off with our other neighbors who moved in a while back, we just didn’t take them cookies at the time).
The Weekly Weather: It’s still warm, but it’s been cooler than it was at the beginning of August. We had at least one storm move through. It has been rather humid, so it almost always feels warmer than it says on the thermometer (by around five degrees or so). We do have thunderstorms in the forecast for this next week, but the percentages aren’t very high…we’ll see if we get some more rain.
What Paul’s Been Up To: Mainly work…Scouts has been a bit light during the summer (due to boys being gone on vacations and whatnot). He still has a couple weeks left before starting his next semester for school, so he’s also been soaking up some extra time with me and Joseph. He’s been working so hard at school (and doing a really great job), that he really deserves this break! Yard work has also been on his to-do list this past week. It finally dried out enough for him to mow the yards, and he got to use his new leaf blower to get rid of the errant pieces of grass.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I went out to lunch with some of my girlfriends on the first day of school, and went grocery shopping. By myself. It was sort of nice! Going grocery shopping with Joseph isn’t neccesarily a bad experience, but it does go more quickly when it’s just me. I’m going to soak it in for the next few months before Abigail makes her appearance. I also broke in my new Dutch oven by making stew last Sunday. We had friends over for dinner and it turned out so yummy!
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He really loves school. I mean, LOVES it. When we get to school, we usually end up waiting a few minutes for his teacher to come out and get the kids, but as soon as she makes her appearance, he rushes over to get into line. There were no tears or fears the first day, and he was still excited to go on Friday. 🙂 One funny story: last night, Paul and I were in our room, listening to an audio book before bed, and we heard Joseph “sneaking” around in the loft (he isn’t exactly quiet). Paul swung our door open rather quickly…just in time to see Joseph high-tail it back into his room, vault into his bed, and pull his body pillow up over himself. We may need to get that kid into an Olympic training class someday. I wonder if there’s a category for “epic escape from Mom and Dad at bedtime”?
This Week in Pictures:
Working on his three-pointer shot. 😉 He did actually make this shot, though. It was pretty awesome.All ready to walk to school (he wanted to go on his own, but I vetoed that idea).Excited to get to go into the school.Waiting in line with the teacher’s aide.He was pretending to be a ghost…and asked to have his picture taken. 😂Whenever I question if we really need as many floor pillows as we have, this happens…Fourteen years has yielded four moves (one cross-country), two deployments, multiple jobs, tons of schooling, countless church callings, and one sweet little boy (and adding our sweet little girl in a few months).Paul surprised me on our anniversary by bringing flowers home. He’s a keeper. 😘At the Parent Orientation, I noticed this little gem on the wall. I asked his teacher if he had needed help writing his name and she said he had done it on his own. Go, Joseph!Showing off his new master sword.This is his “tough guy” face.Checking out some of the small wild cats at the zoo.
