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Thunderstorms and Flying Rocks

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:

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Dinner at Taco Cabana.
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He was saying “Cheese” for the camera. It looks like we might start needing to work on keeping mouth full of food closed. 😉
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His new shades.
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Since sunglasses were only $2/pair, we picked out one set for him (black wrap-around type ones) and he picked out these.
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It took a few days before we could convince him that he didn’t need to wear then all the time.
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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).
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Munching down on food at Paul’s work picnic.
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Keeping hydrated. 🙂
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We discovered these swinging benches at Paul’s work.
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My new all-purpose bag. 🙂
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Protecting the eyes while at the zoo.
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Hanging out on the bronze elephant.
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Feeding fish.
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Trying to get up onto the top of the lion statue.
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Deciding that the lower one might be better.
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Just his size.
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“Cheese!”
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Poor windshield (and the truck that is to blame). We got a picture of their license plate and reported it to our insurance company.
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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).
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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).