Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: We ended up spending most of the week at home because Joseph was not feeling well. It started the day we went out to the gulf (though we didn’t realize it then) and kind of lingered throughout the week. His symptoms were so varied that we had a hard time figuring out just what was wrong, so finally on Friday I took him in to the doctor’s. Turns out the poor little guy has strep throat. 🙁 We got started with the antibiotics and he’s now on the mend.

The Weekly Weather: The weather has been interesting as of late. We’ve had a few thunderstorms and even were put on a tornado watch (tornadoes are very rare down here, so when they actually go through the trouble of warning us, it’s taken very seriously). Luckily, nothing actually happened in our area. Later we heard that a small tornado had touched down in the county that’s just southeast of us, but all it did was damage a barn; no people or livestock were injured. Since then, the weather has settled into the normal warm, humid summer weather that we’ve grown accustomed to.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Paul has been a really big help while Joseph’s been sick. He’s picked up the stuff I’ve had to leave at the wayside (like going to clean the church on our assigned Saturday solo since I needed to stay home with Joseph). He also has been continuing to work hard keeping our yards looking really nice (which is pretty hard during a San Antonio summer) and even had time to put up a second ceiling fan (this time in our living room).

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I ended up cancelling most of my piano lessons this past week due to the holiday and Joseph being sick. I love the versatility of being able to do that. Not having a boss to answer to is really nice. Other than that, I’ve been hanging out with Joseph because when he’s not feeling well, he seems to only want Momma.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Joseph’s been sleeping a lot, trying to get over his illness. There was one day that he fell asleep late in the afternoon and seemed content to stay asleep, so I let him. I just woke him up long enough to give him his medicine, get him into his pajamas, and put him in his bed. He woke up about midnight (so at that point he’d had about eight hours of sleep) and didn’t want to go back to sleep. After a couple hours (including times that he’d call out, “Momma, wake up!” because he knew I could hear him via the baby monitor) he finally gave in and fell back to sleep, but was back awake at 7:00. Paul and I were a bit zombie-ish the next day. After Paul got back from cleaning the church, Joseph asked him if he’d had fun. Paul had to explain to him that it wasn’t like when he (Joseph) went to church (which is mostly monopolized by nursery, so playing with toys, singing songs, and getting a snack), so no, he didn’t have fun (but we did explain that it was important to keep the church clean, so it was good that he cleaned it). Finally, throughout the week, Joseph has been asking at different points if we were going to see Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Jason. I think that he thought that since we had gone to the beach, it meant that we were going to get to see them (considering the fact that the only time he’s been to the beach before was in California). I’ve said that we’re going to see them at Christmas, but he can’t quite wrap his brain around that concept.

This Week in Pictures:

 

I thought I’d do a bonus blog post this week and write about our trip that we took out to the beach today. We drove a little past Corpus Christi to a place called Rockport Beach. It’s a great beach! The waves were practically non-existent, and it’s really shallow for a LONG way out. Plus, there was playground equipment and swings scattered all along the beach area for kids to play on when not in the water. We left our house about 8:30 this morning and got to the beach a little after 11:30. On the way out, we saw a lot of pretty scenery (in between crazy rain). As we got closer to Corpus, we saw a lot of oil refineries (Paul said it reminded him a lot of the Middle East) and even got to see where the U.S.S. Lexington was docked. We also went over a huge bridge and a long lower bridge that crossed over a long stretch of water…it was a bit freaky for me to be driving when there was nothing but water on both sides. Once we got to the beach and Paul got our chairs properly anchored down (the wind was crazy), we headed out for the water. I was surprised with how warm the water was! It’s totally different than the California beaches that I’m used to. After we played in the water for a bit, I took Joseph over to one of the playground areas. Then we headed back to the water to watch some kids dragging a large net through the water. They were catching small fish to use as bait. They were really friendly and even let Joseph put one of the fish into the bucket they were using to transport them. After that, we packed up to grab some lunch and then head home. Joseph fell asleep before we were able to stop for food, so we just kept his cheeseburger wrapped up until he woke up a bit later. He was really content sitting in his car seat, munching his cheeseburger (this is a new thing for him…getting to eat the cheeseburger whole, instead of cut into smaller pieces) and watching cartoons on Paul’s nook (we have a holder for it that clips to the back of the seat in front of him). When we got home, we unloaded everything, got dinner going, and just relaxed for the rest of the time. It was an awesome day!

Picture Explosion:

 

Bonus Videos: You’ll have to forgive the audio in these…the wind was a bit out of control…but at least the rain stayed away!

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: