Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: The first half of last week was pretty normal. On Monday we went to the library and then out for frozen yogurt afterwards. We got a treat on Thursday and Friday in that Paul had the time off work. On Thursday we headed up to Austin to go to IKEA in order to get a storage unit for my music. It’s basically a long, skinny bookcase that we set on its side and then slid boxes into for storage. Paul has plans to buy some wood to attach to the top to make it more like a window seat. We’ll probably also put a removeable cushion on top (so that when Christmas time comes we can remove it and put the Christmas tree on top) to make it more comfy. We also stopped and ate at a restaurant called Green Mesquite (it was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives). It was pretty good BBQ. Friday, we mainly hung around the house because we knew Saturday would be a crazy day (with it being 4th of July). Saturday we went to Market Day in Old Town Helotes, went out for lunch, came home to relax a bit, and then headed to the ward Independence Day party. The Sunday School Presidency was partly in charge of organizing it, so Paul was pretty busy during the party making sure things were running smoothly. It was a really fun party. There were a ton of water games (we knew it would be like that, so we put Joseph in his swim clothes ahead of time), a yummy dinner and dessert, and to top it all off, all the kids got to bring home something (Joseph chose a long water “launcher”). On the way home from the party we stopped by a fireworks stand and picked up some firecrackers to light off once it got darker. It was quite the sight in our neighborhood last night. I’ll post a video that I got of the “show” (there’s seriously no reason to pay to go to a fireworks show when you live outside of city limits). We all got to bed pretty late which made for a sleepy morning at church this morning, but that’s nothing a good night’s sleep won’t cure (unless our neighbors decide to continue the celebration tonight). 😉

The Weekly Weather: It was rather unstable this past week. There were several times that Joseph and I were caught unaware by surprise thunderstorms (luckily the storms were warm ones). This next week looks to be a bit more stable (there is actually no rain in the immediate forecast), but we know that can always change. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: One fun thing that Paul got to do was go target shooting at one of the local ranges. He doesn’t get to go often, so it’s always a treat when he does get to go. Other than that, I think he enjoyed having a four-day weekend. We sure enjoyed having him home!

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary. I’m working on finalizing my visiting teaching report so that we can put it into the computer. Other than that, it’s just been the normal stuff.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He was rather excited to get some new clothes this past week (due to the holiday weekend, several stores were having really good sales, so I went to get some stuff that is the next size up so that I can gradually build up my supply). Other than that, he really enjoyed having four days of having Daddy home…tomorrow may be a bit rough.

This Week in Pictures (we neglected to get any pictures at the ward party; mainly because Joseph was never in the same place for long):

Bonus Video:

As you can see, it was pretty awesome…and that was only roughly two minutes worth. It went on for quite some time.

Weekly Happenings: This past week was yet another laid back week. While it doesn’t make for a very interesting blog post, it does make for a pretty relaxed momma. 🙂 One crazy thing happened last Sunday evening: I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner and noticed water all over the counter, close to the watermelon that was nonchalantly sitting there. Thinking that I may have cracked it while moving it, I picked it up to investigate. It was then that I heard a hissing sound and fermented watermelon juice started spraying everywhere out of a pin-sized hole. I’m guessing that it was a bit overripe when the guy at Paul’s work gave it to us and that as it sat on our counter, it built up too much pressure to be contained, lol. I set it in the sink (leak-side down) and cleaned up the mess. After it stopped spraying, Paul disposed of it. As for the other part of my title, Paul ordered some new hair clippers (a much quieter set, since the noise from his really old set seriously upset Joseph) and gave Joseph a haircut on our back porch. Other than wiggling because it tickled, Joseph did really great (no screeching or crying). As a reward, the next day he got to pick out a new action figure. Other fun things that happened were a trip to the zoo for me and Joseph and a fun birthday party that Joseph and I got to go to for one of his friends. More about that later…

The Weekly Weather: A mix of thunderstorms, warm weather, and humidity…so basically a typical South Texas summer. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: He has registered for his first semester at BYU-I which will start in September. He’s also keeping more than busy with yard work, regular work, and finishing up his last Pathway courses.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’m mainly working on finding music for my choir to sing, but I did spend some time this past week typing up information that Paul could put on my other website that he’s creating for my piano teaching. I had a new student who started this past week and may have another one starting soon (I just talked to her mother at church today).

What Joseph’s Been Up To: The highlights of Joseph’s week were definitely going to the zoo, getting his new action figure, and going to his friend’s birthday party. His friend had a “Ninjago” party (LEGO ninjas, essentially). Each of the boys got a headband and a foam sword, had to complete a ninja obstacle course out in the backyard, and had ninja-themed snacks. All yesterday evening Joseph cycled back and forth being a ninja and playing with his action figures while watching the original GI JOE series. He tried to convince us to let him sleep with his sword and we had convinced him not to…but then fireworks started going off (thanks to some neighbors who are starting to celebrate the 4th of July sort of early). I got him to go back to sleep but when Paul went to get him this morning to get ready for church, he discovered that he was sleeping with the sword after all. I guess it’s a good thing that it’s foam, lol.

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This past week followed the previous one’s example of being pretty low-key. The main thing that Joseph and I did was to go to one of the free movies that our local theatre offers during the summer. Joseph actually made it through the entire movie (having popcorn and a drink helped a bit with that) and the movie was pretty cute (Penguins of Madagascar). Paul took Friday off of work, in the hopes to go shooting and maybe get some stuff done, but the weather foiled his plans. We still managed to have some fun since we had friends over later that evening for a BBQ and board game playing. Then, since we had so much food left over, we had our next door neighbors over yesterday to help eat the leftovers. As we were coming home from church today, Joseph asked who we were having over tonight, hahaha…nobody tonight, buddy. Speaking of today, since today was Father’s Day, we celebrated having a great Daddy in our family. Joseph sang some songs with the Primary at church, Paul got some presents (some of which came earlier this week and one that we gave him today), and he’s getting one of his favorite meals (meatloaf) for dinner tonight.

The Weekly Weather: It has been all over the place. We’ve had more rain (which pretty much drowned our pumpkin plant) and several “big-boom” thunderstorms. Because of that, we’ve had really humid days and my allergies have been going a bit crazy. The other thing that has happened because of all of the rain is that we have had a kind of invasion of tiny toads and green tree frogs. They are all over the place! On Friday, as I was closing our back screen door, a tiny green tree frog jumped onto my shoulder and then onto the dining room floor. Luckily, Paul was able to shoo him back out. A few minutes later, as we were saying goodbye to our friends who were leaving, we had to get two more green tree frogs to hop off of our storm door. Crazy!

What Paul’s Been Up To: The main thing that has happened with Paul this past week is that we found out that he was formally accepted to BYU-I. He’s finishing up the Pathway program and will be transitioning to finish his degree online.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve had a bit of a break with choir since last week it was a bit too dangerous to drive in the rain and this week was Father’s Day. I taught Relief Society today (the lesson was on the Book of Mormon) and will be preparing for a new piano student who is starting this week. Oh, and I had a terrifying bug experience this past week. I was in the downstairs bathroom when I heard scratching above my head. I looked up in time to see legs sticking out of the exhaust vent. I sent Paul a “what am I supposed to do?!” text with the information that they were skinny legs (not thick enough to be a scorpion). He advised that I spray it with bug spray. I grabbed the ant spray (because it was closest) and did so. That made the bug mad because it started buzzing angrily. At that point, I figured it was probably a wasp, so I grabbed the wasp spray and sprayed it with that. I didn’t hear any further noises, so I ran the fan for a while to get rid of the smell and left it until Paul got home so that he could take the vent cover off. When he did, a dead black mud dauber wasp fell out. I’m desperately hoping that he just got really, really lost and that we don’t have a wasp nest in our attic!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been really good about independent play this past week. I was needing a bit of solo time to get things ready for my lesson (amongst other things) and Joseph has handled it really well. He wants to spend a lot of time watching videos and playing games on Paul’s Nook, but I try to limit his time simply so that he gets more imaginative play into his schedule. He’s developing quite the imagination and I want to encourage that as much as I can. 🙂 Oh, a funny story: I was unpacking my church bag and pulled out his Book of Mormon (it’s actually the one that Paul took on deployments, but Joseph has claimed it) which I had used as part of my lesson. Apparently this irritated him because he said, “You need to take my Book of Mormon back upstairs right now!” I guess he’s more possesive about it than I realized, hahaha!

This Week in Pictures: