Thank Goodness for Rain!

Weekly Happenings: During the week, we didn’t do too much out of the ordinary. It was nice to kind of just hang around the house relaxing. Yesterday we drove up to Austin for a fun day trip. We ate lunch at a place called The Noble Pig, which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The food was pretty good! We also walked around the state capitol building. It was really neat to get to walk around and see all the different rooms, as well as walk all the way to the top floor so that we could look up into the dome. I loved all the ornate wood work, windows, and metal work. There were little details everywhere, from Texas Stars on all the door knobs to even intricate carvings on the part of the doors where they latch. Overall it was a great day.

The Weekly Weather: While it has still been hot, we’ve had a few breaks in that it rained several times this past week. Wednesday we had three different storms come through, it sprinkled a bit on Thursday, and then yesterday, when the precipitation percentage was relatively low (only a 9% chance), it poured for a good part of the morning. To quote Paul, “I think we were the 9%.” Thankfully the temperatures are supposed to be slightly cooler this week at least and I believe there’s another chance for rain (we could use it…we’re already back under water restrictions). I’m hoping for no more 100*+ weather, but we’ll see. :/

What Paul’s Been Up To: Work, for the most part. 🙂 He did find someone in Austin that has a mountain bike for sale that is very similar to the one that he had on his mission (and that had gotten stolen off the balcony of our apartment in Colton). It’s a year newer, but looks almost the same. We had hoped to meet up with the person yesterday while we were up in Austin, but weren’t able to, so we’ll try for another time in the near future.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been kind of just plugging along. I got to go to a Relief Society activity this past week where we brought in our favorite book to share, had ice cream sundaes, and mainly sat around and chatted. It was a really fun activity. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been reminding me that he can be a little parrot at times. The other day we were at Hobby Lobby and I picked up a large wooden letter in order to get a better look at it. It was heavier than I expected, so I said, “Holy cow, that’s heavy!” So of course, Joseph had to mimic me. He did so, all the way down to repeating what I had said, word for word. Good thing I make a point to keep my language clean. 🙂 One cute thing that he said earlier this past week happened when he discovered I had surprised him with grapes as part of his lunch (he LOVES grapes). He said, “You gave me…grapes?! That was so nice of you!” I guess that he’s heard me say that in conjunction with when he tells me that someone did something nice (“Oh, so-and-so gave you that? That was so nice of them!”). He also was telling us this afternoon at lunch that if you make good decisions, you can be happy. I wonder if that’s what they talked about in Primary today. 🙂 Finally, I think he’s been letting his imagination get the better of him sometimes. We’ve talked about monsters and he agrees that they are imaginary, but when we’re trying to get him to go to sleep, he will say that he’s scared of the imaginary monsters. :/ I try to be patient with him, though, because I can remember being scared when I was young, not necessarily of the dark, but what I couldn’t see because of the darkness (who knew what was lurking in the corners of my room?!). So, he’s taken to asking us to leave his door open (at least partially) and he usually flips his light back on as soon as we’re out of the room. He eventually falls asleep (sometimes it is evident that he’s played with his toys a bit first) and we turn out the light and close the door. This, too, shall pass, right? 😉

This Week in Pictures:

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What looks like a rock in front of a sculpture that Gary made is actually…
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…a toad! They love the wet weather and all the bugs. I love that they eat all the bugs! We have so many hanging around our front and back yards, though this is by far the biggest one. Most of them are a lot smaller. We also have green tree frogs that hang out on the sides of the house, directly under the porch lights (we have a light by the front door and then one on each side of the garage door). They’re no dummies! They know where to go to get the food. 😉
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There’s a dry spot in our yard (due to the fact that one of our trees is currently blocking the path of one of our sprinklers). Joseph got soaked while he was helping me water one of our friends’ lawns (they were out of town…their sod is relatively new and needed to be watered often), so I decided to let him play in the sprinkler when we got home.
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It’s sort of hard to see, but there are three toads in graduated sizes hanging out in the puddles that formed inside the sculpture on our front porch.
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This is what a 9% chance of rain looks like. 😉
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I took another picture because after I took the first one, it started to rain even harder.
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Lunch at The Noble Pig in Ausitin. Paul and I shared a pork belly BLT (think REALLY thick bacon) and Joseph had a grilled cheese sandwich.
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In the Senate room of the capitol.
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Hanging out in the dome area.
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My boys.
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Joseph loves it when he and Paul get to wear their shirts that happen to match. I think he’ll be pretty sad when he gets to big for his.
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Paul got this shot from the ground level. Of course there’s a Texas Star in the center of the dome. 🙂

We Just Might Melt

Weekly Happenings: We did not do very much this past week. We mainly stayed inside to avoid the heat. Monday evening we had friends over for a joint Family Home Evening. We talked about David and Goliath and then went outside and let the boys (our friends have a little boy that is just a bit younger than Joseph) throw water balloons at a chalk Goliath that Paul drew on our fence. I did take Joseph to the zoo to meet up with friends on Wednesday morning, but we left before it got too hot. We tried another zoo trip on Saturday, but after we were there for a bit, it became clear that with the humidity being so high, it was just too hot to be outside.

Weekly Weather: HOT! I think part of the problem is that I grew up in a place with dry heat. The humidity that we have here in South Texas makes it feel a lot warmer than it actually is. It was only in the mid 80s to low 90s when we were at the zoo in the middle of the week, but with the humidity, it felt a lot warmer. Yesterday, the meteorologist on the news said that the temperature was expected to reach 100-103 but the heat index value (what it feels like) would be closer to 105-107. Yuck. At least we’ve had a relatively mild summer up to this point. Unfortunately there has been a lack of rain, so we’re back under water restrictions. Hopefully when fall comes, we’ll have some more rain and get back out of restrictions.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Mainly keeping busy with work and his church calling…he is trying to relax and enjoy his brief break from school before it starts up again next month. One good thing about the heat wave (and lack of rain) is that the grass doesn’t seem to grow as quickly, so he doesn’t have to mow it as often. 😉

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly teaching piano, keeping Joseph happy, and doing the things required from my church callings as best to my abilities. I did go out with a couple of my friends for ice cream and attended a couple of baby showers (so many people in our ward are expecting or have just recently had a baby).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He has decided that he needs his light back on after bedtime. I’ll turn it out (and have his night light on) and leave the room and pretty soon, he gets out of bed, flips the light back on and either looks at books or plays with toys until he eventually falls asleep, after which either Paul or I will go in and turn off the light. He doesn’t really fight us to get ready for bed and is pretty quiet in his room, so I don’t really see too much harm in it. He still wakes up relatively early (around 7:00) on his own and is (usually) happy during the day. Last night, when trying to get him to leave the lights off, I sung him “Momma Buy Me a Rocking Chair” (at his request). When I got to the part about Daddy sleeping in the piggie pen, he said, “No, silly! Daddy sleeps in a bed!” He also didn’t agree with the idea of the piggies sleeping in the washing tub. 😉 Other than the zoo trips, two highlights of his week were getting to have friends over to play on Friday morning and then getting to attend a LEGO themed party for one of his friends. Seeing him at the party was kind of funny. There were a bunch of LEGOS set out for the kids to play with before the party got started, but Joseph wanted to keep playing even as the party was going. He pulled himself away long enough to sort of play some of the games and sing “Happy Birthday”, but I don’t think he did much else other than play with the LEGOS. 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

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Defeating Goliath with water balloons.
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Staying out of the way of the water balloons.
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Joseph loves sitting on the Komodo dragon statue.
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Hanging out with one of his best buds at the zoo.
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Sitting on the hippo statue. The highlight of this trip (besides getting to share some popcorn with his friend) was getting to see the hippos open their mouths really wide and watch all the little fish zip in to clean the hippos’ teeth. It was crazy!
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This was from our weekend trip to the zoo, There is a “Tiny Tot Nature Spot” part of the zoo where they have a place for the little kids to play with nature-type things (hollowed out logs, camping stuff, etc. They were having a “safari weekend” which meant a lot of different activities for the kids. This was a big open field where they had some things set up kind of like an obstacle course. The binoculars were from an activity that they were doing there where they made the binoculars and then went into a “jungle” (a rather large area of mature bamboo) where there were “wild (stuffed) animals”. It was a lot of fun.

It’s August Already?!

Weekly Happenings: It seems as if this year is just flying by. I can hardly believe that it’s already August. Pretty soon we’re going to be full on into party mode (end of August is our anniversary, September is EVERYBODY’S birthday, October is Halloween, and then the holidays during November and December). This past week was pretty chill. We had some park playdates, I took Joseph to the zoo on Friday, and then yesterday we went to the market day in Old Town Helotes (along with doing some regular Saturday house maintenance stuff).

The Weekly Weather: Most of the week was dry and sunny, with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees. Friday we had a random thunderstorm come through which brought with it some much needed rain (it has been dry enough that we’ve been put on water restrictions once again). Hopefully with fall coming, we’ll get some more rain. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s been enjoying his break from school and homework, but has been keeping busy with work and his church calling, not to mention maintaining the house. As I eluded to before, yesterday was house maintenance day, which meant mowing the lawns (well, he mowed one lawn on Thursday and then mowed the other on Saturday along with doing the edging) and he also changed out the filter on the AC (along with spraying down the outside unit) and draining our water heater (our water is so hard out here that it needs to be drained every six months in order to keep the sediments from building up too much).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much…other than teaching piano, housekeeping, choir and visiting teaching, and keeping Joseph healthy and happy. It seems like much more once I write it all out. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He enjoyed a couple of playdates (one at the park and the other riding bikes in the church parking lot) and going to the zoo with me. One thing that I feel needs to be noted is something he told Paul during Sacrament meeting. Joseph was telling Paul about the Good Samaritan, but was saying that the Good Samaritan should have gone to find the bad guys who beat up the man and he should have beat them up.  I find it interesting how black and white his world is right now. He also spent a lot of time pretending to be various video game characters and Army guys.

This Week in Pictures:

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He loves dressing up in Paul’s old uniforms. He was telling me that his cowboy gun was an Army guy’s gun.
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When we had the annual family picnic at Paul’s work (the Defense Language Institute at Lackland AFB), they had a lot of different people there who would write your name in their native languages, so Paul had them write Joseph’s name. It was so cool that we framed it and hung it in his room.
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One of my friends, Kate took this picture a while back and when I saw it, I really liked it (I mean, the hummingbird is scratching its ear!). I finally mustered up enough courage to ask her if she wouldn’t mind sending me a copy of it. 🙂
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He referred to his breakfast as an Army breakfast…because everything that day had to be an Army something.
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We had just gotten to the zoo when I noticed a group of women fiddling with a bunch of cameras, so I offered to take their picture. They were so grateful that they offered to take my picture with Joseph. They were so sweet!
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Part of the zoo is under construction so that they can get it ready for a giraffe enclosure and feeding experience. They decided to embrace the construction and put up some really clever signs.
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Joseph liked the comparisons between construction equipment and animals. They are two of his favorite things, after all.
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The hippos weren’t too hot to climb on, so he got up there pretty quickly and really enjoyed climbing all over them.
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It’s a good thing we went to the zoo Friday morning, because by Friday afternoon, it was pouring down rain.
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Joseph was watching for lightning. He said that he liked the flashes.
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Paul decided to put together a stick horse for Joseph. Joseph loves it and is very insistent that the horse’s name is Catherine (I have no idea where the name came from…I can’t think of any connection to any other horses named Catherine). He was riding around the house protecting me. 🙂