Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: This past week was another low-key one at home. I kind of welcome them because I know that with the holidays approaching, the days will get busier. The main things we did were on the weekend. Paul and I went out to dinner on Friday (a friend of mine was able to watch Joseph) because we wanted to celebrate our anniversary a bit early (since our anniversary is today). It’s hard to believe that it’s been twelve years! We’ve survived a combination of five job changes, two degrees, one teaching credential, two deployments, four moves (one of them cross-country), two apartments, one rental house, our “forever home”, one pregnancy (and currently surviving the toddler stage), countless church callings, and even more countless opportunities to learn, grow, and love each other more than the day we were sealed! Saturday was a great day, too. We took Joseph to the zoo and then had friends over in the evening to play games. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: I’m not sure why I keep putting this in, since it hasn’t really changed. We did get a smattering of rain, but for the most part, it has been the warm, humid weather that is expected in South Texas in August. 😉

What Paul’s Been Up To: He’s gotten some more information about the Pathways program that he’ll be starting soon. He also has been continually working hard to keep our yards looking great (which is no easy feat with all of the heat and water restrictions) as well as working hard at his day job.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Mostly the same as last week. I’m gearing up for school starting because that will mean that all my piano students will be starting up again (about half of them took the summer off). I’m also going to be getting busy since my church choir will be starting up again. It’s time to finalize music choices for fall and the holidays!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He’s been testing his boundaries at times, but for the most part has remained our super-sweet, mellow, happy little guy. He has also been spending a lot of time pretending to be different things. There was one day where he had been pretending to be a dinosaur. When Paul picked him up and set him in front of his dinner, he said, “This is not food for dinosaurs, this is green beans!” Luckily he decided that dinosaurs like green beans after all. Finally, we’re getting ready for his third birthday, which is swiftly approaching. We ordered his big present (a balance bike) a bit early in case it took a while to get here. It came sooner than expected, so he got it early. He calls it his birthday bike. 😀 He keeps asking me where its pedals are (balance bikes are small bikes without pedals that help the kids learn to balance before having to worry about pedaling), but really likes it. He also liked going to pick out his first helmet (even though he was bummed that we didn’t go with the one that was green camouflage with a green rubber-spiked mow-hawk down the center…???).

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: This past week has reminded me what the weather is really like during the summer in San Antonio. I am now realizing how mild the rest of the summer has been compared to what we’ve been experiencing. Due to that, we spent most of the week at home or in other air conditioned places. Hopefully with fall approaching it will at least cool down a bit! It doesn’t really cool down a whole lot until closer to Halloween, but I’d take even a ten degree drop right now. One super-fun thing we got to do was have lunch with my cousin Kelli and her family. They live up in Houston, but came down to take the kids to Six Flags. They met up with us yesterday and we had a good time chatting and visiting.

The Weekly Weather: hot, hot, HOT and rather humid. I think I’m going to leave it at that. 🙂

What Paul’s Been Up To: Most of the past week the poor guy has been fighting either a major allergy attack or a summer head-cold. He’s on the mend now, but it really wore him out.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Just the regular stuff, mainly. I was able to have “girl time” a couple of times this past week, once at a Relief Society activity and once at lunch at Chick-fil-a with friends (Joseph played in the play place the entire time). One bummer thing that happened was that someone somehow got a hold of my debit card number and made a couple of large purchases (almost $1,000.00 worth of stuff). Luckily the bank caught it, called us, and we were able to start the process of getting the money back. I’m still waiting for my replacement debit card, but that will come soon. Until then, I can use cash or we can use Paul’s card or the credit cards (luckily we just finished paying them off). *sigh* Why do people have to be so dishonest?!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He had the “play-date of his life” this past week. When I went out to lunch with my friends (to celebrate one of their birthdays), he got to play in the play place the entire time (I learned a while back that he won’t eat at Chick-fil-a because the draw of the play place is too strong, so I usually try to feed him ahead of time). I decided to stay as long as Joseph was happy, which ended up being almost three hours. He was happy the entire time (except for needing to be comforted after bonking heads with another kid)! We also had to switch out his clothes from his 3Ts to his 4Ts. This kid seriously needs to stop growing so fast!

This Week in Pictures:

Weekly Happenings: Not much, I’m afraid to say. We mostly stayed inside at home because of the weather (it seems like Joseph gets pretty warm pretty fast), but Paul put in a lot of work yesterday to make the backyard a bit more habitable to play in (more about that later), so I hope to be able to take Joseph out more. Joseph did get one play date this week since I had to go an enter my visiting teaching report at church (the RS president has a boy about his age that he likes to play with).

The Weekly Weather: The heat has continued (which is only to be expected…it is August, after all). Not much rain in sight (also another regular for August), and we’re hoping not to fall into Stage 3 water restrictions, because that would mean we could only water our lawn every other week, which would not be good for it or the trees. We’re praying for rain to come!

What Paul’s Been Up To: The major thing that Paul did this week was a makeover on Joseph’s sandbox area. Before, there was so much sand that Joseph would end up just rolling in it and getting WAY dirtier than we (um, really just me) preferred (not to mention dragging a bunch of sand in with him). Plus, it was hard keeping the sand at a good volume (due to wind, being thrown out, etc.), and even harder keeping weeds and grass creepers out of the area. What Paul did to fix that situation was build a smaller box for the sand (and put a plywood bottom on it, as well as make a plywood cover for it) and then line the rest of the area with cardboard before putting down cedar wood chips (still enough cushion for his slide, but not NEARLY as messy as the sand). Paul had originally wanted to put in wood chips when we first put in the play area, but I wasn’t sold on it. I am now! He just needs to put down a few more bags of chips before it’s done. Oh, and he was able to use some of the old fabric cover to make a more permanent shade cover for the area in general. I’ll post a picture when it’s all finished. 🙂

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary during the week. This weekend (including Friday) was a tax-free one in Texas, meaning that certain items (mostly clothes and school supplies) were tax-free. So, yesterday and the day before, Joseph and I did a lot of clothes shopping in order to get the next size clothes up for him (especially since his current clothes are starting to get snug). I was able to get almost all of his wardrobe for less than $200. I’m also continuing my efforts in working out and eating less so that I can lose the weight that I need to before I get pregnant with baby #2. Paul had me put an app on my phone that helps a lot. I can enter the food I eat and it will tell me the amount of calories (as well as help me check to see if I want to eat something because I can check ahead of time how many calories are in it, if it’s not prepackaged). I can also log how much I exercise so that it tells me how many calories I’m burning throughout the day. I’ve lost 2 pounds in the past week and a half or so, which (to me, at least) is a big deal!

What Joseph’s Been Up To: His imagination (as well as independent play) is getting more and more expansive. He also still says and does things that make me smile and laugh every day. One cute thing that he did (that I remembered to make note of) was the evening after he smacked his ear pretty badly on the back of the couch (luckily it looks like it’s just going to be bruised up for a while…we; and especially Paul, since he’s experienced it before, were worried about fluid retention and it possibly causing cauliflower ear, which would mean surgery…but it doesn’t look like that’s happening). As I was putting him to bed, he grabbed his lovey monkey (his little soft square of fabric that has a monkey head as part of it) and put the monkey up to his ear, making a kissing noise. He then said that his lovey monkey had kissed his owie ear. 🙂 Oh, and last night, when I went to put him to bed (a bit early, since we were having friends over), he told me it was too bright and to get the box (a large piece of cardboard) from the closet and put it in the window (we did that on occasion to make it darker when he napped, but haven’t done it for months, since he hasn’t napped for months…I was surprised that he still remembered it).

This Week in Pictures: