Weekly Happenings: This past week held some pretty fun events. On Tuesday, we had our National Night Out neighborhood party at the park. It was pretty crowded, so we ended up not staying very long. We did stay long enough for Joseph to get to sit in a fire truck and get a balloon animal, though. He was pretty sad when we left, but Paul and I don’t really like big crowds in small places, so we made our exit a bit early. Wednesday we went to the park (because they weather was amazing), Friday we had some of Joseph’s friends over to watch The Great Pumpkin and have lunch, and yesterday we went out to the pumpkin patch at Love Creek Orchards (in Medina, which is out in the Hill Country). Last night also provided an opportunity for me to see a friend from high school that I hadn’t seen for probably 5 years or more. She was in town for a photography conference and we were able to meet up at the Riverwalk for dinner.
The Weekly Weather: The start of last week was cooler (almost fall-like), but it’s starting to heat up again. *sigh* I’m really looking forward to when it starts to cool down again! We did get a couple of storms, though, so that was nice.
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been kept really busy with work, school, and his callings (as well as pulling awesome Daddy-duty when Joseph just NEEDS Daddy and when I’ve gone out with friends).
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been keeping busy as well. The beginning of each month is always hectic because I have to work on visiting teaching stuff. I’m also working with the ward choir getting music ready for the next few months. Finally, I’ve started attending another book club. I love to read, but found that I’ve been not reading very much because I’ve been allowing myself to be sucked too much into the vortex that is social media. I’m hoping that if I am attending two book clubs, I will devote more time to the reading of good books. 🙂
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He loved going to story time this past week (especially since they are starting to focus on Halloween). He was also really excited about the fact that his Halloween costume arrived (he’s going to be Link). We had him try it on to make sure everything fit and it was really hard getting him to take it off, hahaha.
This Week in Pictures:
Hanging out with his Android (this was a Christmas present from Jason almost 3 years ago).Apparently he wasn’t very happy that I was taking his picture.He recently acquired a Super Mario Brothers shirt and hat…that he wants to wear all of the time.At National Night Out. This is as close as he would get to HEBuddy…mascots of any kind sort of freak him out.He really liked the fire truck, though.Especially since they let him ride in the front seat.Dressing a scarecrow at the pumpkin patch.Winding his way through the hay bale maze.He’s almost free!He made it!He loves cut outs.I had to hold him up for this one. It was a bit hard because he didn’t want to stick his head through.My “Texas” outfit.Me and my sweet boy. 🙂He liked this one, a lot.Paul and I were ecstatic that Joseph was big enough to ride the barrel train by himself this year (it’s a rather bumpy ride).We took a tour of the orchard (with dwarf apple trees that begin producing fruit in 18 months as opposed to 10 years), learned how apple trees are grafted, and learned about the orchard’s environmentally safe pest plan. They use bugs, bats, and birds (apparently kites will eat smaller birds who eat the apples) to get rid of the pests that eat the apples. We also learned how they make cider, and all the kids got to help put apples up to be cleaned.Joseph felt pretty important getting to “help the farmer”.They had the hay bale tractor again this year.Joseph loved it every bit as much as last year.Doing a bean bag toss.First time in a tire swing.Going on the hay ride. Joseph just about lost his mind until Paul made room for him to actually sit ON THE HAY (it was rather crowded) because in his mind, it was NOT a hay ride unless you were sitting ON THE HAY. It was rather bumpy, though, so I was kind of glad when it was over, hahaha.My friend Crystal and me after dinner last night. It was so great to catch up with her after so many years!
Weekly Happenings: We had a relatively fun week, last week. We had friends over for dinner (and playing afterwards), we went to Story Time, we had an adventure at the grocery store (more about that later), we played at the park, we decorated for Halloween, we introduced Joseph even further to the wonderful world that is LEGOS, and we have enjoyed (and are still enjoying) General Conference.
The Weekly Weather: It’s been relatively nice. The weather (especially the last few days) is slowly becoming milder. I think we’re only supposed to be getting into the very low 90s over the next little bit. I’m hoping that it will cool down even more before Halloween because it will just feel more…Halloween-y. 🙂
What Paul’s Been Up To: His first week with the IT department at work has gone well. We’re grateful that the government did not shut down, because that means that he’ll still be working and also still be getting paid. He also is doing well with his college classes. We did go and find him a used computer monitor so that he could have the benefit of two monitors (making it possible for him to have multiple programs open and visible at the same time). We think that it will be a good thing that will make things much easier for him.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Now more about my grocery store adventure. I had been noticing that the Mazda had been acting a little rough when starting, but I had not had the chance to think about possibilities of why it was doing so. Well, on Wednesday morning, Joseph and I loaded up, got to the store, got our groceries, paid for them, loaded them into the car…and then the car wouldn’t start. To its credit, it gave a few valiant efforts, which led me to believe it was the battery, and not the starter (especially since we just surpassed the three year mark with it and batteries usually last between two and five years). I called Paul at work to, more than anything, see if he could come rescue the groceries (and us, since I always feel better when he’s with me in those situations). I then called the roadside assistance for our insurance (since I was pretty sure that jumps were covered and would not be an additional cost). The guy got there pretty quick (which was good since Joseph and I were already kind of sweltering in the Texas sun) and was able to start it right away, so I had Paul meet me at home. We unloaded the groceries and headed over to Walmart to get a new battery installed. Luckily, they were able to do so quickly (about thirty minutes), so Paul didn’t have to lose too much of his work time (he mainly followed me to Walmart to ensure that the car made it there). After that adventure, the rest of the week was pretty tame.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He enjoyed playing with friends and going to Story Time, but he really enjoyed putting up Halloween decorations. While we were hanging up lights, he was out with us, wearing a witch’s hat, swinging around a plastic jack o’lantern bucket, hollering at the top of his lungs that Halloween was here. 🙂 He also really enjoyed getting some more LEGOS to play with. The LEGO store was having a deal where you could fill up a cup with an assortment of random LEGOS for a certain amount of money. We’ve been wanting to get him random LEGOS that weren’t part of a certain kit so that he could use his imagination to build stuff (instead of an instruction booklet…especially since those are still a bit out of his comprehension). He has been playing with them for the majority of the weekend. It’s been great! He also enjoyed watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during conference today. He noted that “the guys are singing the low notes and the girls are singing the high notes.” Smart cookie. 😉
This Week in Pictures:
Playing dress-up in old uniforms.When on the construction site, one must always be wearing the correct head gear.Jason and Saira got me an Amazon gift card for my birthday, so I used it to get a hand held grater/zester (not pictured, obviously) and this cool contraption, a salt cellar. It makes it easier for me to use kosher salt and besides, it’s just plain fun. 🙂Joseph dancing to the “days of the week” song at Story Time.The spinning part is his favorite.Doing the “months of the year” song. It has hand movements that are similar to the Macarena, lol.A sign I made for our downstairs powder room (making it easier for guests to find it without needing to ask). I really like how it turned out. 🙂Wearing his witch’s hat and some “scary” teeth that Paul got out of a coin machine years ago.Momma and Daddy splurged and let him ride one of the coin-operated rides at the mall.The fact that this one was interactive kind of made it worth the $1.00 that we spent.Playing with his LEGOS.Showing off some of his creations.Momma and Daddy helped a bit with design, but Joseph showed quite a bit of his imagination…especially with the robot that he made (the one that is mainly blue, in the center of the picture) all on his own.Pretty soon, walls were erected, guns were mounted to cars, and a massive battle ensued (if you look closely, Joseph’s Kinex Mario figure joined the fight…Joseph was pretty happy to see that it fit on his LEGOS, which makes sense, since Kinex is part of the LEGO family).I tried a new recipe: chocolate chip blondie bars. I basically wanted chocolate chip cookies without having to scoop them out individually, so I decided to Google it and this was the first recipe that was suggested. As for how they turned out…well, let me quote Joseph: “I like it…it’s delicious! Can I have some milk to dip it in?” I doubled the amount of chocolate chips since we like chocolate in our house…but I’m not sure if I added too much. Milk was definitely a necessity, hahaha.He made a Play Doh cake and was in the process of pretending to eat it. I’m glad that I had Paul give me one of his old shirts to put on Joseph, since we don’t really have any “messy” clothes for him to wear when playing with stuff like this (mental note to hit up the thrift stores for some junky shirts). It was nice that the shirt was able to go all the way past Joseph’s waist, though.
Weekly Happenings: It seriously feels like an entirely new way of life now that Joseph seems to be fully potty-trained. I don’t lug diapers and wipes everywhere and we’re going to probably be saving at least $50 a month at the store. He has gotten so independent in the last few months. He dresses himself, takes his dishes to the sink, helps get his teeth-brushing stuff ready, and more. This was really good because I was knocked on my behind with a cold/allergies for most of the past week. Paul even took a few days off so that Joseph had someone to take care of him while I pretty much slept. I’m starting to feel better, but from Tuesday (I made it through story time at the library, but that was about it) to Friday, I was feeling pretty blah. Consequently, not much out of the ordinary was accomplished since we were basically in survival mode. 🙂
The Weekly Weather: a bit milder but still rather warm in the late afternoons and evenings. C’mon sweater-weather! I’m tired of sweating!
What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s back to the grind of doing homework. It was a bit frustrating for him this past weekend because he had time to work on some stuff but then the BYU servers were down. One of the consequences of being an online student, I suppose. I’m grateful that he was able to take the time off work to watch Joseph while I was sick. He also took some time to stain the bench on our front porch. He made it a while back, but has had to put staining it on the back burner as larger and more important projects have taken precedence. Finally, he will start working with the IT department for the Defense Language Institute (the same place that has the library he’s been working at) tomorrow.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: Basically I just tried to survive this week. I didn’t get too much else done. This next week should be a bit better.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: I was making bread this past Monday and Joseph really wanted to help. At first I was a bit frustrated, but I can remember Mom letting me play with a bit of bread dough when she made bread, so I gave him a bit to play with. He went to town rolling it, smashing it, and balling it up. We baked it with the rest. It turned out rather tough (over-kneading will do that, haha), but he insisted on eating the softer bits of it (the inside, mainly). He was pretending to be an Army guy/MP that day and came up to me, handed me a “ticket” (a paper he’d scribbled on), told me I was a bad guy, and said I was going to jail. I told him that if I was in jail, I couldn’t make him yummy bread. He promptly grabbed the ticket back, crumpled it up, and told me I was NOT a bad guy anymore. Baked goods for the win. 😉 A huge step that happened with Joseph this past week is that he decided he did not need to wear a Pull-up at night anymore. He’s stayed dry and hasn’t had any accidents. What a big boy!
This Week in Pictures:
Reading with Daddy.Pretty bread and rolls. I’m grateful that my mom taught me such a useful (and yummy) skill. Joseph’s roll is by itself there.He wanted to eat his roll, but discovered that the best part was the inside of it (it was softer than the rest of it).Paul’s bench. 🙂Playing Army doctor with Daddy.Practicing tracing letters.He decided that he was a dog (because of his puppy backpack) and wanted to eat his fruit snacks off of the floor.I’m glad that he agreed that it was okay to have a plate on the floor, hahaha.He told me that he was a paleontologist and that he was searching for bones from a Styracosaurus, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a Pteranodon. Thanks, Dinosaur Train. 🙂A praying mantis that was just chilling on the roof of our front patio. He was pretty big, for a praying mantis…probably about three inches long.Going for a ride on Mater.
