Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: Not too much out of the ordinary happened for the family this past week. We kind of just did our normal routine. We are going to be starting an exciting new adventure in that we just found out that we’re expecting our second child! Joseph is pretty excited that we’re going to have a baby come live with us “for all the time” (he loves babies). 🙂 It’s still rather early on, but if everything goes well, we should be expecting this baby to arrive in January sometime. I’ve already been dealing with some morning – actually all-day – sickness (luckily just nausea so far) and fatigue, but I try to eat small meals and snacks throughout the day and Joseph is pretty good about letting me rest during the day. Today is Mother’s Day. Paul had already given me the go-ahead to to get some more cute LuLaRoe clothes earlier this week (I got a tunic, a couple maxi skirts, a dress, and a knee-length skirt). This morning, Joseph helped Paul make me breakfast to have in bed (Eggo waffles and juice) and they got me this fun Mommy-and-me coloring book (more about that later). I’m feeling pretty spoiled…and I’m also reflecting on my wonderful mom (I can hardly wait to call her later this evening…I look forward to our weekly talks more than she’ll probably ever know, though I do try to express it each time we talk) as well as all the other women in my life who have been mother-figures. I feel like my successes as a mom come greatly from their examples.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been another mixed bag, but not nearly as much rain as the previous week (I actually had to water the garden, hahaha). We’re supposed to get some more storms this upcoming week…yay! It’s also been a bit cooler than normal for this time of year (no complaining coming from this quarter). Paul says that there are reports that say we’re supposed to have a milder summer…I sure hope so! A “mild” summer in San Antonio is still going to be plenty warm. 😉

What Paul’s Been Up To: Mostly work, school, Scouts, and working around the house/yards. He’s almost ready for his trip to DC, so expect some pictures from our nation’s capitol in a blog post coming relatively soon.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly surviving at this point. 😉 As mentioned previously, I went to a LuLaRoe party. It’s always fun to get to talk with my girlfriends (doing so while trying on cute clothes is an added perk). I’m also gearing up for my annual piano recital which will happen on the 21st.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: We’ve had a couple play dates (including one at the park) and we also registered him for Pre-K through the district. It will be five days a week (half-days, of course) at the elementary school that is down the street and around the corner from our house. I’m so excited that I’ll be able to walk him to school! Another kind of crazy thing that happened was that at church, they had to take the Junior Primary (Sunday School class for ages 3-7) and split it into two groups, meeting in two different rooms. Apparently there were about 60 kids in our Junior Primary alone. So now, we have two Junior Primaries and one Senior Primary (ages 8-11). Because of this, Joseph ended up going to Primary in a different room than he was used to, but he was okay with it because the chairs were soft (padded). Silly boy.

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This last week was pretty laid back. We mostly hung around the house, with the occasional play date and park visit mixed in. Monday night, we started out for the library to switch out books. As we got out to the highway, the weather did a 180. The wind was blowing like crazy, it started pouring, and then started hailing. Paul quickly told me to find a large tree to park under, to protect the car from the brunt of the storm (the hail wasn’t as large as a couple of weeks ago, but it was still large enough to potentially do damage). Once the storm passed, we continued on our way. Fun adventures in Texas!

The Weekly Weather: We had a few more storms move through in addition to the one on Monday. The news warned of the possibility of them being very severe, with the possibility of large hail. Luckily, that didn’t happen (at least in our area). It just poured buckets and buckets of rain. One storm did produce a funnel cloud just a few miles from our house, but thankfully it didn’t touch down and turn into an actual tornado. We don’t have tornado sirens in San Antonio, so we have to rely on the news stations to release tornado warnings and watches. This has definitely been the most volatile spring we’ve experienced since moving out here!

What Paul’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary. He’s plugging away with school, work, and Scouts. He’s also getting ready for his quickly-approaching trip to DC to accept his award for Library Technician of the Year.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: As I alluded to in the title, I did quite a bit of organizing. At Paul’s suggestion, I put some work into making Joseph’s snacks in the pantry and fridge a bit more accessible for him to get on his own, without needing my help. It’s been great! While he knows that he still needs permission to get a snack, he loves the independent feeling it gives him to get it himself. I also went out with some of my girlfriends for shaved ice one night and attended a baby shower another night.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary for him, either. Playing around the house and yard (when the weather permitted), hanging out with friends, etc. Tomorrow is the day I go to register him for pre-K at the elementary school. I believe the program starts with the new school year. It’s hard to believe that we’re already at this point!

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: I’m getting a head-start on the blog today. This is the first day of us meeting in our new church building and we’re switching from 11:00 to 1:00 services. I figured if I waited until after we got home from church and had dinner (since those two will happen almost back-to-back), I just might be too tired to do it, so I’m pounding it out now. 🙂 This past week was pretty fun (especially for Joseph). He had a few play dates, which were fun as usual, but the big fun thing was the last session for his story time at the library. Since they’ve been focusing on a different letter of the alphabet, it was inevitable that they would eventually reach “Z”. After they did so, they had a “graduation” party, which consisted of reading a couple of stories, parading around the library wearing “graduation”caps, receiving a completion certificate, eating snacks, and making a “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” (an alphabet-themed story that is popular with this age of children) hat. Joseph had a blast! Oh, and he also got to attend a birthday party for one of his friends at Chuck E. Cheese, which he enjoyed immensely. I was relieved that it wasn’t super-crowded and crazy, hahaha. The big thing for Paul and me this past week was deciding to replace one of our TVs that was on its way out (about a month ago, the picture started getting “wobbly” on one side and was slowly spreading to the rest of the TV). Since the Roku Box (streaming device) we had attached to that TV was also acting up (freezing and restarting itself), Paul decided it would be most cost efficient (and admittedly rather cool) to purchase a Roku TV (a TV with the Roku Box essentially integrated into it). It’s been working great!

The Weekly Weather: It’s been quite a bit less…eventful than the previous week, for which I am grateful. I think I’d be fine if we just had the one crazy hail storm this year and no additional ones. 😉 We did have a few good-sized thunderstorms (one of which came rolling in rather early in the morning, causing Joseph to wake up scared and wanting to snuggle in bed with us while it passed) that dumped quite a bit of rain on us, but no damage from it, thankfully.

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s started back with a new semester for school, so he’s added homework back into his daily regimen (along with work, Scouts, and taking care of the house and yards). He’s also working on finalizing the details of his trip to DC which will happen mid-May.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been just plugging away, teaching piano, keeping Joseph entertained, and making sure he gets his antibiotics (from his bout with strep) and probiotics (to combat the effects of the antibiotics). I did get to go to a book club meeting (which was fun, as always) and a movie night at a friend’s house (again, a lot of fun).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s pretty much returned to his happy-go-lucky normal self (I’m so grateful for antibiotics!). As mentioned before, he enjoyed the last session of story time, the birthday party, and the play dates. He was also practically beside himself when the new TV showed up (because of all of the protective packaging, it was a rather large box, ha.). It was delivered on Wednesday morning and he kept asking when Paul was going to get home in order to unpack it and get it all set up. He’s totally his Daddy’s boy when it comes to enjoying new electronics. 😉

This Week in Pictures: