Weekly Happenings: We had quite the fun-filled week. I got my visiting teaching done, which meant that Joseph got quite a few play-dates in. We also hosted the music playtime at our house, which Joseph loved. Paul had the day off on Friday, so we went to the zoo. It was a little more crowded than we were expecting (there were quite a few school groups there for field trips), but we still had a good time. Yesterday we mostly hung around the house to have a relaxing day. 🙂
The Weekly Weather: It’s been kind of ping-pongy. We had quite a few days of sunshine, but the last few were rainy (though still warm and humid). The next week or so is supposed to be similar. We welcome the rain!
What Paul’s Been Up To: On top of full-time work and scouts, Paul found time to finish up the tomato area of our garden. He planted the tomatoes all along the fence line with plans to get a trellis to tie them to as they got taller. Then I found out that one of my friends was getting rid of some metal trellis-type material. I brought it home and Paul said that it would work out just as well, so he stapled it to the fence. He also discovered that our resident toads are back, looking for water, as usual. We encourage their presence since they keep the scorpion population in check (though, for the record, we’ve only seen one scorpion so far this year, which is drastically less than last year).
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’m still trying my best to stay one step ahead of our very active two-year-old. I also had my first performance as choir director. It went pretty well, I have to say. It helps knowing that people (choir and congregation alike) know that people are put into callings to learn and grow, so they consequently don’t expect perfection. 🙂
What Joseph’s Been Up To: The “crash, bang, boom” title came from today’s happening. Joseph started going down the stairs and then somehow fell the rest of the way. All Paul and I heard was a big tumble and then crying. Luckily, no bones were broken and he came out of it with just a few bumps and scratches. Other than that, he’s been his regular silly, sweet self. One thing he likes to do is put a pair of socks on his hands and call them his mittens. He also has been more thoughtful when saying prayers. He’ll add in things like being thankful for Momma and Daddy, church, temples, his cars, and his blocks. 🙂
This Week in Pictures:
When I teach piano, if there are no younger kids for Joseph to play with, I put a gate up in the doorway to his room, swivel the loft TV in the direction of his room, and he watches TV/plays in his room until I’m done. Apparently he added a nap into his list of things to do, since this is what I found one afternoon.I was watching my friend’s little girl on Tuesday. Joseph decided that since she was wearing a Batman shirt, he needed to change into his Batman shirt. 🙂He was calling himself the “cone monster”.Peek-a-boo!Feeding the fish at the zoo.He loves sticking his hands through the bars in order to get the food where it needs to go.Checking out the tigers.He loved that two of the tigers were playing with a giant ball in a pool of water.This is one of Joseph’s favorite places. He did not want to get off this elephant for anything! Finally he conceded to getting off when we told him we were going to see the miniature mongooses.The tomatoes are doing really well. Here’s a picture that Paul took of the toad.A close-up of the toad. 🙂
Weekly Happenings: This week was pretty low key. We went grocery shopping, there were piano lessons, music play time, etc. We also got the windshield repaired from when a rock dropped out of the back of a trailer in front of us on the highway. Luckily they were able to repair it and didn’t need to replace it (it doesn’t cost us anything out-of-pocket for repairs, just replacement). Saturday was a big day because Paul finished off the garden plot and we went to our ward luau. The luau was a lot of fun. The food was great, the entertainment even better (a lip sync by the bishopric, hula dancing by the Relief Society and Young Women, and a stomping dance by the Young Men), and then we went outside for games, snow cones, and a dunk tank. Joseph was really upset when we had to leave. He would not be comforted for anything. Finally, Paul pulled out his phone and started playing “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” on his phone. It reads the book and shows the pictures from the book. That seemed to calm him down right away. Isn’t distraction great? 🙂
The Weekly Weather: We had a monstrous thunderstorm with quite a bit of rain (though no hail or tornadoes as was predicted…it is very rare for a tornado to actually happen here) on Monday night. The rest of the week was gorgeous…warmish, breezy, and beautiful. 🙂
What Paul’s Been Up To: Work is still great for Paul. Mostly I want to talk about all the hard work he did on Saturday. For a couple of weeks now, he’s been working to clear a space to plant our tomatoes. It’s been difficult since it seems like we have just a couple of inches of topsoil and then a bunch of clay. So once he got the grass up, he mixed in a lot of dirt, fertilizer, and compost (we have our own compost) with the clay to get a better quality soil to plant the tomatoes in. Then he made a border to keep the grass from creeping back in, laid down cardboard and newspaper as a weed barrier, planted the tomatoes, and then spread cedar chips down to cover it all. It looks so great!!
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve mostly been just plugging away at my piano teaching and keeping Joseph well entertained. Today was my first practice as choir director, and I think it went pretty well. We have a really awesome choir. 🙂
What Joseph’s Been Up To: Joseph has figured out how to lock our doors that have the doorknob lock (he uses his play keys to turn the slot) from the outside, so I find random rooms in the house locked with nobody inside. Now I triple check the house at night to make sure that doors that shouldn’t be locked, aren’t, and that doors that should be locked, are (since he’s figured out how to unlock some of our doors). He also plays a game that he calls, “Where’d it go?” He rolls a ball away, asks me where it went (“Where’d it go?!”), and then proceeds to find it for me. He also will hide his face and then ask me, “Where’s Joseph?”. Another fun thing was seeing him discover that corn on the cob is hidden until the husk is removed. He thought it was pretty cool to watch me shuck some the other day. He’s also been practicing giving me dark, mean looks and then big smiles when I laugh at the mean look on his face. Oh, and he has been taking his lovey monkey (the mini blanket with a monkey head) into his confidence: telling it secrets, tattling to it when I do something he doesn’t like. He has become rather possessive of his parents as of late. While at church today, the baby that was in the pew behind us tapped on Paul’s back and Joseph said, “No touch! No touch my daddy!” We assured him that it was okay, while trying not to laugh. Finally, he has discovered peel bugs…only he calls them “roller pollies”.
This Week in Pictures:
Playing with the little house that he got for Christmas.He seriously will still play with it for extended periods of times.Peek-a-boo!Caught in the act…locking the bathroom door.Beginnings of the garden plot.Getting all the soil smoothed out.Laying down the cardboard.Then the newspaper…The finished product.Playing in the sandbox.Pool time after sandbox time…for more than one reason. 🙂He loves the pool. 🙂
Chowing down at the luau.
He got bored after a little while…Things got much better once we went outside.He loved running around the field, throwing water balloons, and playing with the bubble machine.Pretending he is Superman.I seriously love this shirt.Trying to hula hoop.Trying to hit the target on the dunk tank…he couldn’t quite get it, much to Brother Katherman’s relief.Chilling out this morning, playing video games. 😉
Weekly Happenings: Monday was Cinco de Mayo, so we ended up going out to get some Mexican food. We went to a fast food place called Taco Cabana. It was SO yummy! We then went and voted (since we’re having a special election for school bonds and other stuff) and then stopped by The Children’s Place to get Joseph some new sunglasses (which he LOVES). Friday was Paul’s work picnic. Even though it was rather muggy out (typical May day in Texas), we still had a good time. Paul took us all around the grounds of his work so that we could see the different buildings that students are taught in, use as resources, etc. We also had a squirrel-seeking adventure (Joseph was really into all the squirrels that are at Paul’s work). Yesterday we had a really good time at the zoo, but on the way home, we were behind a guy that had a trailer without a tailgate on it. We didn’t realize until it was too late that there were several rocks in the back of his trailer…one of them flew off and hit our windshield pretty bad. We’re hoping the glass company can just repair the windshield and not have to replace the entire thing, but we’ll see. 🙁
The Weekly Weather: It’s been warm and muggy, and we had a CRAZY thunderstorm on Friday (right as Joseph and I were getting home from the picnic). Since they had been predicting them, I had a plan in place already on how I would cover my flowers in the front and where I would put the tomatoes since they aren’t planted yet. I was able to take care of all the plants before the storm got too bad (which was a miracle, because thunderstorms in Texas seem to just come literally crashing in).
What Paul’s Been Up To: Paul’s continuing to do good at work. His boss was telling me about how much they rely on him to help out with the technical aspects of the job and how he’s really good at that stuff. He received two awards for doing so well. One is a 24-hours off and the other is a bonus. We’re hoping to put the money from his bonus into getting a water softener for the house (unless we need a new windshield :/). He also spoiled me for Mother’s Day once again. My official present was a new bag that I can use for a myriad of things (such as church, but it works out well for carting along things to the zoo or any other place we might go), but he also made me breakfast and dinner today. It was really nice. 🙂
What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’ve had a sort of “out of the frying pan and into the fire” moment. When I was called to be the visiting teaching coordinator for our ward, I realized it was going to be a bit too much to keep my calling as Primary pianist (since both have things that need to be done at the same time at church), so after talking to the bishop, we agreed that when they found someone else who could play, they would release me. Well, they released me from Primary just to call me to be ward choir director! I’m a bit overwhelmed, but seeing as the two callings don’t have a time overlap and also taking into consideration that I have several good contacts in the ward that I can get music from, if I just take a breath and tackle it one day/task at a time, I should be good.
What Joseph’s Been Up To: He has been especially attached to Momma as of late. If I need to go somewhere without him, he is super sad, even if he’s got Daddy. I’m sure it’s just a phase that he’s going through, since he hasn’t always been like this, but man, it’s kind of tiring! Oh, and every time I say that we are going somewhere, he says that we’re going to the “sta-de-dah”. Paul and I have yet to figure out if that means a particular place or if it’s just his word for going out. One of these days we’ll figure it out, and then we’ll have a celebration! Finally, he’s been singing a lot more recently. He’ll make up songs, sing snatches of songs that he knows (like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider”), and sing along to the radio if it’s a song he’s heard a lot (he knows most of the words to the chorus of “Wagon Wheel” by Darius Rucker). 🙂
This Week in Pictures:
Dinner at Taco Cabana.He was saying “Cheese” for the camera. It looks like we might start needing to work on keeping mouth full of food closed. 😉His new shades.Since sunglasses were only $2/pair, we picked out one set for him (black wrap-around type ones) and he picked out these.It took a few days before we could convince him that he didn’t need to wear then all the time.At the park, showing off his stick collection (though we have a firm rule that what is found at the park stays at the park).Munching down on food at Paul’s work picnic.Keeping hydrated. 🙂We discovered these swinging benches at Paul’s work.My new all-purpose bag. 🙂Protecting the eyes while at the zoo.Hanging out on the bronze elephant.Feeding fish.Trying to get up onto the top of the lion statue.Deciding that the lower one might be better.Just his size.“Cheese!”Poor windshield (and the truck that is to blame). We got a picture of their license plate and reported it to our insurance company.An action shot of the boys playing video games. Paul still has his old NES and there is a game that has Mickey Mouse going on a safari hunt for letters. Joseph really liked trying to play it (with Daddy’s help, of course).Sporting the shades on the way to church.
Bonus Video: Recently, Joseph has been experimenting with the pedals that fold out of his scoot-along bike. He normally prefers them in since he can scoot faster than pedal, but lately he has requested having the pedals out. Here’s a video of his progress (before I started recording, he had made it all the way around the dining room table).
