Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty great. On Monday, Joseph got to have a friend over to play, which was tons of fun. Tuesday we went to Story Time at the library, Wednesday we went grocery shopping, Thursday (which was Paul’s birthday) we had a relaxing day at home and then went out for dinner (Paul’s choice was Bobby J’s, a hole-in-the-wall burger place that has really good burgers), Friday Joseph had another play date (lucky kid, lol), and yesterday we had a lazy day at home followed by going out for frozen yogurt. More about the reason for frozen yogurt later. 😉
The Weekly Weather: While it hasn’t been quite as mild as it was earlier this month, it still is cooler than it was the last bit of August. I’m REALLY hoping that the cooler weather shows up soon(ish). I’m kind of over summer. 😛
What Paul’s Been Up To: His first quarter as an online student for BYU-I has started. He’s also keeping busy at work. He’s getting ready to switch from being in the library to being in the IT department and he’s also training the person who will be taking his place. Plus, the poor guy has been fighting either a really severe allergy attack, or cold…or SOMETHING. I think he’s finally starting to feel a bit better, but there were quite a few days last week that he was just feeling miserable.
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I haven’t been doing too much out of the ordinary. I received both good news and bad news this past week. The bad news is that Kevin and Rita’s house in Northern California was unfortunately destroyed by the wildfires that have been raging in the area. They were both at work, but luckily a friend was able to get their dogs out for them. They haven’t been allowed back to see what’s left yet. They are staying at a house that was an empty rental home owned by one of their friends right now. Kevin hasn’t been able to go back to work because some of the buildings at the power plant were also destroyed by fires. We’re continually praying that they will be comforted at this time and that they will have their needs met. The good news that I received this past week has to do with some genetic testing that I took part in. It was discovered that many members of my family have a gene mutation that has been linked to chronic heart problems. There is a study that is being done by Yale University to see if more can be found out about the mutation. I submitted a saliva sample several months ago and received the results in the mail yesterday: I do not have the gene mutation, which means that Joseph and any other children we have will also not have the mutation. That is a seriously huge relief.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He has been a ROCK STAR about potty training. He hasn’t had an accident in any way, shape, or form since Monday (and even then, I think it was because he got too distracted playing) and he’s even been waking up with a dry Pull-Up every morning. That is the reason we went out for frozen yogurt yesterday. 🙂 He completed the chart we made and got (at his request) an Army action figure that came with a helicopter that he had seen at HEB. Since it was only about $7.00, I okayed the purchase. After that, he stopped asking for a sticker every time he went to the bathroom, so I haven’t made a new chart…and he’s still doing really well. He will come up and tell me or Paul that he needs to go, even. It’s glorious! Also, he got a “prayer rock” along with a poem about what the rock is supposed to do (put it on your pillow to remind you every night to say your prayers, it will fall on the ground and then in the morning you’ll see it on the ground and remember to say your morning prayers) from his Primary teacher today. He’s been carrying it around with him everywhere today. He has told me several times that his teacher (who he calls “MacKenzie’s mom” because she is, in fact, the mom to a little girl named MacKenzie) gave him a prayer rock and a love card. 🙂
This Week in Pictures:
Joseph has a journal for Story Time (which he calls his homework). We were supposed to work on the letter “C”, so the library gave us a sentence page to work on (cut out the words, mix them up, read the sentence, and put the words back in the correct order). Joseph’s car is the blue one (he also drew the road with a tree by it). He added “exhausted pipes” (exhaust pipes) to both our cars since they were missing. 🙂 Finally, he drew a couple of cookies (a chocolate one and a chocolate chip one) and a cat. 🙂Sunglasses off?Nah, let’s leave them on!Joseph is more than a little interested in Halloween…any time of the year. Paul has been finding him Halloween library books now since he knew it would be harder to find them once October actually hit. This one seriously made me laugh out loud. I kind of felt like I ought to be watching out for a creepy black bird lurking outside of one of our windows. 😉Joseph holding his completed chart as well as his reward. 🙂I have to admit, it’s pretty cool (especially for $7.00). It’s a helicopter that came with an action figure that sits in it. The action figure also came with some binoculars, a pack, and a weapon.Cheesin’ it up while waiting for Daddy’s birthday meal to arrive.
Weekly Happenings: We made this past week a little more low-key to kind of recover from the craziness that was the week before (due to birthday celebrations). Tuesday I took Joseph to Story Time at the library. They do a story and then have crafts for the kids that have to do with a specific letter of the alphabet. He really liked getting to do the crafts and loved getting to start a journal for his letters. He told me that he liked going to school at the library. We’ll probably make this a weekly thing. Wednesday I had my annual physical, Thursday I had to go back to get bloodwork done (they had neglected to tell me that I was supposed to be fasting for the physical, so I had to go back), and Friday was Joseph’s physical. I knew he would need immunizations, so I asked Paul to come along (he’s better at keeping Joseph still for those types of things). Joseph did really well and only really started to freak out after they started giving him his shots. On the way home, we stopped and got him a happy meal as a reward for surviving. 🙂 Friday night, on sort of a whim, we went out and picked up a twin-sized mattress for Joseph and Paul disassembled his toddler bed. Paul reassembled it in our room, along with the other side, so that it will be all ready for when baby #2 eventually comes along (no, that is not an announcement…we just didn’t really have any other place to put it, lol). Yesterday, we took part in the monthly clean-up of the park and then we went to Lowe’s so that Paul could pick up supplies to build a bed frame for Joseph. He managed to get the frame built and it is already in Joseph’s room (in fact, he slept in it last night). He will eventually add a headboard and then stain the entire thing. Today was stake conference, so we got to sleep in an extra hour (yea!) and we camped out in the Primary room so that Joseph had a lot of room to roam (and we could still listen to what was going on through the speaker from the chapel). Oh! We got news today that Saira (Jason’s wife) safely delivered a baby girl today. She came sort of early (due to Saira having really high blood pressure), but she was still a substantial size for a preemie (just over 6 lbs). Joseph was uber excited to find out that he has a new cousin. 🙂
The Weekly Weather: The weather during the first part of last week was pretty warm, but then on Thursday we had quite the storm come through. It seemed to bring with it weather that is a bit cooler. Friday evening it also rained a bit, and then yesterday and today have been gorgeous. It’s only been in the mid-70s in the mornings, mid-80s in the afternoons, and low-90s in the late afternoons. It’s almost as if Mother Nature was apologizing for what happened in the month of August. 😉 I’m not sure if it will stick around, but I sure hope it will (and even a bit cooler wouldn’t disappoint).
What Paul’s Been Up To: Paul’s been keeping busy with work and projects around the house. School will also be starting for him shortly. They’ve been able to hire a contractor to take his position at the library, meaning that after he shows the new guy the ropes, he’ll be able to move over to the IT department and start his new job. I think he’s pretty excited about that (though he does emphasize that his job at the library was a good one) in a couple of weeks. We’re also looking forward to celebrating his birthday this week. 🙂
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve mainly been getting back into the swing of things with my students as well as getting choir stuff ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas (yes, you read that correctly). I love this time of year that we are coming into.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: Here’s the stats from his appointment this past week: he’s 40 inches tall and now weighs 37 pounds. That puts him right about average for his age. We’ve also started potty training hard-core. He only wears a Pull-up at night. We made a chart to reward successes where he can earn prizes and it hasn’t been nearly as messy as I thought it would be (that was really why I was holding off on it). He’s had a couple of accidents, but it hasn’t been bad at all. He’s also showing us that his decoding skills are rather impressive. He tries really hard to read words that he sees. A lot of the time he gets it right and the rest of the time he’s really close.
This Week in Pictures:
One of our friends gave Joseph a plush Link for his birthday. Joseph was over the moon about it!Joseph has a rather interesting way of playing Uno Attack. 🙂 He really, really likes to push the button and isn’t much interested in any other aspects of the game.The decorations are up! Bring on the sweater-wearing, soup-and-stew-eating weather! Oh, and boots. I’m excited that (hopefully) soon it will be cool enough to wear my boots every day because, well, I love my boots.He was using his construction vehicles to move around fruit snacks.Only the fruit snacks were “rocks”.Dressing up as Link from Legend of Zelda. He was protecting me from the bad guys.And I quote (and said while he was climbing up into my lap and then snuggling down next to me in the bit of extra space), “Look, Momma! This chair is made for two!” Bye-bye personal space, lol. Good thing I love cuddling with my little man!He was playing “Army doctor” with Paul. Apparently his action figures and dinosaurs were the patients.The bed frame.The bed itself. Paul designed it so that it would be relatively easy to add a top bunk if we ever need to. He will eventually build a headboard which will be anchored to the wall and then he’ll stain it all.Joseph was really excited, and I was about bursting with pride. We’re so lucky to have such a talented man to call husband and Daddy.Joseph’s fort (I talked him down from a huge cardboard castle to a blanket fort). He dubbed it “Joseph’s Alamo”, complete with an entrance sign that reminded guests that there was no roaring allowed, as well as an exit sign thanking them for visiting Joseph’s Alamo. Apparently his “Alamo” comes stocked with cushy places to sit, a library (where he works), and a pot full of broccoli soup (I have no idea where that came from…he’s never even had broccoli soup). When it came time to dismantle it, he wasn’t very happy until I told him that we could build it again the next day.It’s really dark, since I didn’t want to wake the sleeping little dude, but you can sort of see the bed that Joseph made on the floor for Burple (the monster from his current favorite book, “A Monster Moved In”). You can also kind of see Joseph sleeping soundly in his new big boy bed. As he was going to sleep, he was telling me about Burple coming to visit, and how Burple would have to go past the “destroyed Alamo” (I guess he was still upset about me taking his fort down) before coming up the stairs to spend the night in his room.
Life’s all kinds of interesting when there’s a four-year-old in it. 🙂
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:
I forgot to mention that Joseph tripped and broke his fall right on the edge of my music storage bench, resulting in quite the bonked noggin. Luckily he let me ice it right away and willingly took some Ibuprofen (especially since I told him it would make it hurt less). Some chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven also seemed to help. 😉This is a funny picture that Paul found on the Internet. He posted it on my Facebook page (or was it Google+?) on my birthday. I still laugh out loud every time I see it.Obligatory photo of kid on lion sculptures at zoo. Actually, Joseph ran over to them and said, “I will climb up and you take my picture!”He also wanted his picture taken in front of the jaguar, so that’s what happened: he’s literally standing in front of right where the jaguar is laying on a rock ledge. I think you MIGHT be able to see a bit of its tail.My visiting teacher gave me this great frame as a birthday present, so I printed up a copy of our Christmas card photo from last year to put in it. I figure I’ll update it every year with the photo that we take for Christmas cards.Another friend gave me this awesome wristlet key chain. These things are so handy when I want to just grab my wallet, phone, and keys. I can just wear them around my wrist. 🙂New pantry shelf #1: low enough to put snacks in Joseph’s reach. 🙂New pantry shelf #2: perfect place for all my canned goods!His reaction when I told him that it was his birthday and that friends were coming over to watch a movie.His friend Luke got him a superheroes book and a Big Hero 6 activity book.His friend Emmalynn made him this great picture with coins that he got to put in his bear bank.His friends Bransen and Laura got him some cars and a cool car puzzle.He chose Freddy’s as the restaurant to go eat at for his birthday dinner.Jason and Saira got him a master sword (from the video game Legend of Zelda). It only came in one size (huge), but he loves it (as you can tell). He can do some serious damage with it if he swings it around (even though it’s foam), so we’re probably going to mount it up high in his room, lol.He wanted a Mario and Link cake. Luckily I was able oblige, making his cake look like a scene out of Super Smash Brothers (thanks to some toys Paul found on Amazon that we could use as cake toppers) and cupcakes that had the Triforce and Mario mushrooms on them.Daddy lit the candle…He blew it out a couple times while we were getting ready to sing to him, so this is him looking at me to see if it was okay to blow it out yet.And out it goes! I wonder what he wished for?Some modeling clay and molds from his friend Hayden.A tablet from Momma and Daddy.In reality, this is kind of a present for all of us. Paul’s Nook, which is what we have been using as a tablet, is getting kind of old and consequently isn’t able to do as much as Joseph wants it to (making road trips kind of difficult when it stops working), so a new one that will be a bit more reliable will be a good thing. Plus, now Paul can have his Nook back for a bit before we need to replace it.Mario Kinex toy (Kinex are sort of like erector sets for younger kids) from his friend Riley. Not pictured are a Cooties game from his friend Rogan (who was sick and couldn’t make it to the party) and some Ninja Turtle toys from his friend Andrew (who couldn’t make it to the movie morning due to a scheduling conflict).Watch out, bad guys!These good guys are super tough!Joseph’s shield and scabbard.Playing with new toys.
