Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: The big thing that happened this past week was that the baby birds have taken flight. I stepped out onto the back patio (on my way out to water the plants in our garden) and they all took off at once (including Momma-bird). It scared me since they took off all around me. They have not been back to the nest yet (unless they were there over night and gone before we got up this morning), but they did leave a parting gift of poop on my shirt yesterday, lol. Other than that, our week was rather uneventful. We did have a fun Saturday. We went to see the parade that the town close to us (Helotes) had as part of their Cornyval celebration. Here’s a link to the Cornyval website that gives a bit of history about the events. We didn’t go to the carnival or rodeo that’s part of it, though. We went to the zoo instead. 🙂 We then went out for a late lunch (so late that we ended up having dinner right before Joseph went to bed) before heading home.

The Weekly Weather: Unsettled as usual. It was warm and humid on Monday, Tuesday started out cool and breezy (I figured it would warm up later) and then got cold and windy really fast. That was our grocery shopping day. Joseph and I were wearing shorts and T-shirts. When we went into HEB, it was sunny, cool, and breezy. When we came out (about an hour later), it was really cold, overcast, and the wind was really strong. Wednesday, everything was back to normal and it has stayed that way since. This week, we’re supposed to have some more thunderstorms move in.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Paul’s big news is that he will be getting a raise! He will be moving from the library to the IT department and working as a computer technician. While he will miss working with his wonderful boss (who, even though she hated the idea of losing him to another department, was really rooting for him to get it and helped as much as she could) and awesome coworker, he’s excited about this new opportunity. It will raise him from a G6 position to a G7 (which means a raise) and then roughly in a year, he will move up to a G9 position (which will be another raise). We don’t have an official start date for him yet, but we know it will be soon! He also went to see the latest Avengers movie which he said was really good. 🙂

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mainly musical stuff. I’m getting my piano students ready for our annual recital in June, getting my ward choir ready to sing, etc. I’m also keeping busy with Joseph and trying to remember to water our garden, especially since it’s getting warm.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: His latest thing (when he knows what my answer will be and he knows he won’t like my answer) is to tell me ahead of time to stop talking. An example of this happened yesterday. He knew bedtime was swiftly approaching, but he wanted to watch YouTube videos of Mario Brothers. He told me he was going to ask his Daddy a question and that I couldn’t talk (I guess he was hoping I wouldn’t bring up the fact that it was bedtime and that Daddy wouldn’t notice). Stinker. He also learned a painful lesson this past week: we don’t stomp on fire ant hills that are in our friend’s back yards. Luckily he only got 3 bites on his foot (he was wearing his crocs).

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This past week was another rather laid back one (mainly due to the weather). We’ve been watching the baby birds grow (it’s kind of fun to look out the sliding glass door and seeing all the fuzzy heads popping out of the nest). I haven’t gone out to take any pictures because I don’t want to make Momma-bird nervous. There was one day that Joseph and I attempted to go to the zoo, but it was packed down there (thanks to a a dozen or so field trips), so we went to the mall instead. Luckily, Joseph really likes the mall. We were able to make up for missing the zoo by going later in the week (yesterday, as a matter of fact, which was more fun because Daddy was able to go with us). Friday was a holiday (a local one is San Antonio) as part of Fiesta and the Battle of the Flowers commemoration. You can read more about the history of it all here. It’s kind of interesting.

The Weekly Weather: It has been unsettled to say the least. I think there was only one day last week that was truly clear. The rest of the time it was raining (or acting like it was going to rain but didn’t). Thursday night and Friday night we had some massive thunderstorms come through which had crazy lightning and some pretty loud thunder (amazingly, Joseph slept through it all…I wish I could have). The temperature has been warm and humid, so that’s why I jokingly said that spring was over and summer is here.

What Paul’s Been Up To: His next semester of school is in full swing, which keeps him busy along with work. He did spend some time yesterday sanding down and staining our little beat up side table that we got at a thrift store for $5 many moons ago.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve been helping all my piano students pick out recital pieces, and picking out new music for my ward choir to sing. That, along with keeping Joseph and the house all in one piece, keeps me pretty busy. Next week, I’ll be piecing together my visiting teaching report since May is swiftly approaching. This year seems to be just flying by!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been keeping my on my toes, as usual. We had a great time at the mall together, and had fun at home, too. He’s a really good independent player (especially when his cars are involved). It’s so fun to hear his imagination come out while he’s playing. Another entertaining development is hearing him sing to himself when he’s in the restroom. My favorite so far is the ABCs. Finally, he’s doing well with the transition from nursery into Primary. He really likes his teachers and is learning a lot. It’s entertaining to hear what comes out of his mouth, though. Today he was telling us that he learned about “Adam and Evening” as opposed to “Adam and Eve”. 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: We are full on into spring, with summer approaching quickly. After the bustle that comes with vacation, I was kind of ready to have a low-key week. Luckily, so was Joseph. 🙂 We didn’t do too much this past week besides hang out at home and relax. One exciting development is that there are baby birds in the nest that is on our back patio. Momma-bird is always bustling back and forth bringing food for the hungry little mouths that are waiting. Paul mentioned that we need to keep our eyes open for grackles (a scavenger-type bird that is similar to a crow) since they are the type that would go after baby birds. I’m not too worried about cats because of where the nest is. It will be fun watching them grow up!

The Weekly Weather: It has mostly been cooler and raining off and on. It’s the typical Texas weather. One day will be warmer and sunny and the next will be cooler and rainy. I can’t really complain, though. I’m grateful for each drop of rain that falls!

What Paul’s Been Up To: The main thing that happened this past weekend was that Paul headed up our second neighborhood park clean-up. We had another good turnout (and the weather cooperated), and some of the neighbors even brought snow cones that were left over from a school festival that they had worked at that morning. It’s nice to band together as a neighborhood for something that is for the good of the community. Other than that, he enjoyed his brief “spring break” from school (he starts back up this week) and has been Joseph’s best buddy (if he’s not around, I will do, but Daddy is definitely Joseph’s favorite right now…I love it!).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much. I need to get some more music for my choir picked out since we sung the last two pieces that I had pulled today as part of our ward conference (oh yeah, a new bishop was called today…our current bishop, Bishop Doty, is moving out of state, so Bishop Jenks was called to replace him…I’m guessing we’re going to be getting a new Primary president next week, since the current one is married to the bishop and that is usually something they try to avoid to keep too much stress from coming onto one family). I am also going to be collaborating with my friend who teaches voice lessons to see if we can have a joint recital (with my piano students and her voice students) at the end of May. So I am currently helping my students pick out pieces that they can have ready in a month. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Cuteness as usual. He has decided sometime during the past few days that he needs to go potty standing up, which has made things (surprisingly) a bit easier…especially since he has better aim than what I anticipated. 😉 He’s also been showing us just how much he picks up from watching some of his favorite shows, one being Doc McStuffins (an animated show about a little girl who is a “doctor” to stuffed animals and toys). In the show, Doc often will make up words to go with diagnoses since stuffed animals and toys obviously have different ailments than humans. Well, one afternoon, I was laying on the couch, resting. I heard Joseph come up to me. He put his hand on my forehead and then whispered, “Hmmmm…must be a case of ‘Momatosis’.” He then patted my arm and ran off to play. Hysterical, kid…just hysterical. I wonder if I can claim I have “Momatosis” every time I want a nap? 😉 He also made sure to thank Heavenly Father during the lunch prayer today that “Daddy was better from his ‘Daditis’.” I think that came from an experience yesterday when Paul was sitting with Joseph on the couch. Paul was trying to rest, while Joseph was peeling his eyes open, telling him to wake up. Paul said that he had “Daditis”…Joseph didn’t buy it, lol.

This Week in Pictures: After last weeks huge picture haul, I didn’t take too many this week…