Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: This past week was one of celebration. Both Joseph and I had our birthdays. As it always seems to happen, we made a bit of a bigger deal out of Joseph’s than mine (which I’m totally fine with, by the way). Monday was pretty much a normal day. We did go out and get the supplies needed for my present, new shelves for the pantry (which I asked for). Paul put up the smaller shelf Monday night. Tuesday (my birthday), Joseph and I met up with friends at the zoo (it happened to also be one of his friend’s birthday also, so that’s why we went), we ate out for lunch, and then after Paul got home, we went out for dinner. Oh, and one of my visiting teachers took me out to meet up with friends for shakes after the kids were all in bed. 🙂 While I was out, Paul put up the other pantry shelf. Like Monday, Wednesday was a pretty average day. Thursday (Joseph’s birthday), we had friends come over to watch a movie and have snacks. I didn’t mention presents (just that it was his birthday), but his friends all showed up with them regardless, so he was extra excited. After his friends went home, an AC guy had to come out because we could tell that our AC was not working right. It turns out that it was low on refrigerant again, which means that there is probably a slow leak somewhere. The guy added more refrigerant and we’re going to follow up with Airtron to see if they can fix it since it wasn’t fixed when they first looked at it back in April of 2014. We’re hoping that since the original problem occurred while it was under warranty that they will either fix it or replace it with little-to-no cost, but we’ll see. After Paul got home Thursday evening, we went out for dinner again. 🙂 Friday, Paul had the day off, so he finished working on the shields for Joseph’s actual party (you can read more about the process here) as well as a scabbard for Joseph’s foam sword. I mainly worked on visiting teaching stuff since we’ve had so many people move into the ward and a lot of people need routes and what not. Yesterday was the day that we actually had Joseph’s party. He had a few friends come over and they just played with swords and shields, played video games, had some lunch (his birthday was a Legend of Zelda/Mario theme, so I made Triforce PB&J sandwiches that were cut in triangles, there were “rare rupees” that were really grapes, and “colossal” chips) and then did cake and presents. After that the boys played a bit more before heading home. Joseph was pretty sad last night and I asked him why. He said that he just wanted his birthday to stay. I explained to him that it was a special thing that happened once a year and if it happened all of the time, it would stop feeling special. I don’t know if he understood that concept, but it looked like he was trying. I did promise him that I would be better about setting up play dates so that he could hang out with his friends more often. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: It’s been relatively mild for the end of August/beginning of September. Temperatures have still been in the 90s, but it hasn’t been triple digits. I’m hoping it stays that way and that we get an actual “fall”, but we’ll see. 😉

What Paul’s Been Up To: Paul’s been pretty busy with work as well as the projects that he was doing for Joseph’s party. He’ll be getting slightly busier in a week or so when his first semester as a BYU-I online student starts. He’s taking two courses: Intro to Programming and Networking.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Since we keep Joseph’s parties pretty low-key, I didn’t have much out of the ordinary to do (which is good, since the ordinary stuff keeps me pretty busy). It was really fun to go out to dinner with Paul and Joseph and then out again with my friends on the evening of my birthday. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Other than the fact that this past week was extremely fun for him (getting to meet up with friends, getting to have friends over, his party, etc.), he’s had a pretty average week. There was one thing that he told me yesterday that touched my heart. We were talking about the video game that Paul was playing and I said, “Oops! Daddy died!” meaning that Paul’s character in the game died. Joseph then said to me, “When I die, it’s okay because Jesus will make me not die!” I. was. floored. I took the moment to talk about how yes, he would die someday, but because Jesus came to Earth and died on the cross, we could all be resurrected, and since Momma and Daddy got married in the temple, we could all live together after we were resurrected. I need to remember to tell his Primary teachers that he really is listening in Primary. 🙂 I then made sure he understood that Daddy’s game was just that: a game. 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

 

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty fun (which kind of leads into the title of my post…it’s what I call the “party month” because all of our birthdays are in September). On Monday, Paul took the day off and we celebrated our anniversary by going to see the Alamo, eating lunch at a place called Taco Taco Cafe (a really good Mexican food place that was featured on “Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives”) and going to the zoo. We also went to the library because Joseph had completed his summer reading log (he had to have at least 16 books read to him this summer…we far exceeded that, but that’s okay) and we went to get his free book. We had one day where I watched a friend’s daughter while she had a doctor’s appointment, so Joseph got to have a play date, which he loved. We also had another day where we went to the park in the morning. Yesterday, we decided to make it an extra special Saturday (since Joseph’s birthday is this next week). We went to the zoo (which in and of itself is not out of the ordinary) and bought a fun pass (that was the extra special part) that got us into the butterfly house, a ride on the carousel, and a ticket to ride the train (as well as a free bag of popcorn…we didn’t get that yesterday, but we can get it whenever we want, so we’ll just get some another time that we’re there). Joseph loved going on the carousel. He chose an okapi to sit on (it also happens to be one of his favorite zoo animals) and was thrilled with the fact that it went up and down. He kept saying, “Get me up! Get me up!” It took me a minute to figure out that he was meaning to say “Giddy-up”. 🙂 He liked the concept of the butterfly house, and looking at the butterflies from a distance, but he did NOT like it when they fluttered right by his face (which happened a lot since there were quite a few butterflies in there). He’s been on the train quite a few times, so that wasn’t too much of a novelty, but he did still mention that getting to yell while going though the train tunnel (to make sure any critters that are in the tunnel vacate it before the train comes) was his favorite part of the ride. We also let him pick out a small toy (he ended up with a toy truck that came with a zookeeper and tiger) from the gift shop. After the zoo we went to In-N-Out for lunch (since Joseph loves cheeseburgers and he likes the grilled onions that you can get on burgers there). We headed home after that since Paul needed to work on a wood project. Joseph’s having a Legend of Zelda themed party on Saturday, so Paul decided that he’d make wooden shields for Joseph and the three little boys that will be there.

The Weekly Weather: It was SLIGHTLY cooler this past week than it has been in previous weeks. It’s still rather warm, though. I am looking forward to fall and hoping that it will get here soon! I know that in reality we still have a couple more months of warmer weather, but a girl can dream, eh?

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been keeping busy with work. Classes will start again for him soon (I need to remember to ask him when they are starting and which classes he’s taking). Since he’s done with the Pathway program, he will now be an official BYU-I student, just taking all of his classes online. He has also spent quite a bit of time making the shields for Joseph’s party. He did a write-up about his progress so far on his blog, which you can find here. He also has future plans to make Joseph a wooden sword because Joseph wants to be Link from Legend of Zelda for Halloween.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I had most of my students who were taking the summer off come back this last week. I also had two new students start this past Friday. Between teaching piano, my church calling, and other just every-day normal stuff, I keep pretty busy.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: This is the first year that he’s really shown an interest in the approach of his birthday. He asks every morning if it is his birthday yet. I think that we may need to create a countdown chain or something. He was really excited that they called him up in Primary to sing to him. My friend who is a Primary teacher told me that he got a really excited look on his face and said, “It’s my birf-day!” I love looking at life through his eyes. 🙂 Oh, and we also switched out all of his clothes to the next size up. I can hardly believe that he’s going to be 4 on Thursday! 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This past week was another low-key week. We did not do too much out of the ordinary during the week. We did get to do some fun stuff over the weekend, though. On Friday, Paul came home with a bouquet of flowers for me (our anniversary is tomorrow) and then we dropped Joseph off at a friend’s house to play so that we could go out to dinner. It was a nice break. 🙂 As we went to pick him up after dinner, he was sad because they were about to play Go Fish…but her perked up when I said that we could teach him how to play Go Fish when we got home. 🙂 Yesterday we went back up to Austin to pick up a bike for Paul from someone who was advertising it on Craigslist. It’s almost identical to the one that he had on his mission and the first part of our marriage (it’s a year newer) before it got stolen off of the balcony of one of our apartments. We also stopped by Lowe’s to get some hooks to hang the bike from the garage ceiling (it hangs over the hood of the Honda) and the sports store to get Paul a new helmet. Oh, and Joseph got to go to a birthday party where all they did was play out in the water. He had so much fun!

The Weekly Weather: It’s been hot, but not nearly as hot as it was the week before. There was one random day where it only got into the mid-80s (and even then, that wasn’t until much later in the day). It also rained on and off through that same day. It was a nice reminder that fall will eventually get here. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been busy with work and upkeep of the house/yards. He was really excited (and justifiably so) to find his new-to-him bike. He plans on taking it out to Government Canyon (the state park/”natural area” that’s about a mile or two from our house) to ride it on some of the trails that they have out there.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’m gearing up for my students all coming back from summer vacation (about half of them took the summer off) since school starts tomorrow. I’ll also have two new students that will be starting this week. As for what’s going on with choir, I met up with my music chair to start planning music for the next few months as well as for Christmas. It’s getting closer and closer to being my favorite time the year. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s taken to insisting that we leave his door open so that more light will come into his room when he’s trying to go to sleep each night. Since our bedrooms are all off of the loft, we still end up walking by his room (and he can see Paul sitting at his desk), which makes it tricky for him if he’s trying to sneak out of bed to get a toy or something. 😉 If he does notice us watching him try to sneak, he’ll get this big smile on his face and then he waves to us. It’s almost as if he is hoping that we’ll be too mesmerized by his cuteness for him to get in trouble. 😉 He’s also really excited about his swiftly-approaching birthday party. He’s having a video game-themed party (with a heave dose of Legend of Zelda since that’s his favorite) and three of his closest friends will be there.

This Week in Pictures: