Where is Spring?

Spring Break starts this weekend, but lately there haven't been many signs of Spring. We've had crazy winterlike weather here with it changing almost minute by minute between snow, hail, rain, and the occasional sun break (although still cold). There have been some signs of Spring in the trees and flowers starting to bloom like this beautiful tree we have in our backyard...



Today isn't as bad. It's raining lightly right now. I am glad that it didn't rain this morning because I was up bright and early (for me anyway on a Sunday) to meet my friend, Heather, to start training for the Portland Marathon. We are joining a group that meets along the Columbia River that runs every Sunday morning for 6 months to train for the marathon. We ran 3 miles this morning, and man, do I have some work to do. She did the training 2 years ago and completed the marathon and is actually training now for a marathon in May, so she is way beyond me, but she is wonderful enough to run at my pace during these Sunday runs to help motivate and encourage me. I consider myself fit since I teach aerobics classes all the time, but whenever I run, it makes me feel completely unfit. Today was the first time I've run since probably the summer of 2005. They assure me that a beginner can do this, so we'll see how it goes.

This past week, we had Grandma and Grandpa Lough visit from Indiana. It is always so nice to have them here and sad when they go. The kids absolutely love having their undivided attention. Mom and Dad love having a little (or a lot) of help occupying the kids. It was neat that they were able to be here for Easter. Usually the kids bug me nonstop about 2 weeks prior to Easter to dye eggs, but this year they wanted to wait until the day before Easter, so they could do it with Grandma. I also tried to take some "nice" Easter portraits of the kids. Why does this never work out like I hope. Hannah was all ready to go, and I got a few good shots but then she decided she was not going to cooperate. Owen does not like to have his picture taken at all and usually gets very upset, so I had to just get some while he wasn't paying much attention. Justin, who usually doesn't want to cooperate at all, was the only one who really let me take lots of pictures of him.

For Easter, we had the entire clan to our house for dinner and an egg hunt for all the cousins. Here are some photos along with my portrait attempts--sorry they're a week late.

I also got some cute pics of the kids outside with G'ma and G'pa during a brief dryspell blowing bubbles. Owen went crazy for them. He and Justin were holding tubes of bubbles that they were using as lightsabers to pop the bubbles. It is so funny how Owen copies his big brother and knows to make the actions and sound effects of a lightsaber.




And saving the best for last. This is one of my all-time favorite photos--just priceless.

Happy Good Friday

Can't believe it's Easter in a couple days--way too soon--but despite that we celebrate our Savior, Jesus, and the sacrifice he made for us on the cross. Can you even imagine going through what he was just starting to go through a couple centuries ago. Hope you all have a very blessed Easter. We haven't even dyed eggs yet--I don't even have any eggs. Hannah wants to do those with Grandma Sharon when they come tomorrow. Yes, Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Harold are flying out tomorrow for their Spring Break. The kids are beyond excited. It will be neat to have them here for Easter. Too bad our Spring Break doesn't coincide with their. This will be the first year that Hannah is gone a full day for school, and she is NOT going to be happy to go. May need to let her stay home a day or two.

It's been so long once again since I've posted. We have been really hit hard here in the Lough household with illness this winter. I feel like we've been continuously sick since Christmas. Justin just finished up his second round of antibiotics for strep throat and a bonus ear infection the second time around. Owen is on the same antibiotic (which he doesn't like much) for a double ear infection that we discovered when I took him to the dr. last week. He had been soooo cranky, but I just thought it was from being stuffed up and not able to breathe well. The dr. said his ears were so bad, he wouldn't be surprised if they ruptured. Thankfully, that did not happen, although I guess they feel better when it does. He's doing much better now, though. I have been the other one hit the hardest. I think I am on the downhill side of my 2nd bad cold in about 3 weeks. Dale has had colds off an on too. Thankfully, Hannah stays pretty healthy. I'm am just so thankful that it is now officially Spring and hope that things start looking up.

Well, there is not much else to report even though it's been a month since I posted last. I did do some scrapping this weekend during an online crop at Personal Scrapper, and I did 5 layouts. Here are the 5 plus some others I've done recently. Hey, speaking of scrapbooking, I never even posted that I was published online in the Scrapstreet Ezine again in their Feb. issue. I had two layouts using arrows on them in some manner. Here is the link to that article. http://www.scrapstreet.com/mag08/y308feb/features/arrow.htm
I've got the last layout on the page that the link takes you too plus another layout on the next page, which is one of my all-time favorite layouts.

Okay here are the layouts I've done recently.

Snow, sledding, shoveling & STITCHES?

Over Presidents' Day weekend, we made our annual trek north to our good friends, the Downs' cabin over Snoqualmie Pass. There was record breaking (at least it seemed record breaking--I don't know the exact records) snow, which made it necessary for us to hike the approx. 2 miles in with all the kids before Dale and Craig could dig the snowmobile out of the garage and go out and get the rest of the supplies. The snowmobile came in quite handy too when Sat. night we had to ride out to the car and drive Hannah to the nearby Snoqualmie Valley hospital for stitches--the first ever for anyone in our family. She needed stitches after an unfortunate snow shovel incident. She and Justin and Jayden (our friends' son) were shoveling a snow fort and Hannah took the corner of a shovel from behind right above her eyebrow. The wound wasn't very long, but it was deep, so we thought it needed to be looked at. Now those of you who know Hannah, know that she is extremely senstive to anyone getting hurt and does not handle it too well. The idea of taking someone to the ER for stitches is not usually pleasant, but the thought of having to deal with her doing that is especially unpleasant. She was scared and shed many tears, but the nurse and dr. were great and when she got the actual stitches (2 of them), she said she couldn't even feel it. When we left, she was laughing and smiling and a regular chatterbox about all the excitement. I think it has helped show her that people do get hurt, but that they are okay.

After getting through that, we had a good day on Sunday sledding and playing out in the snow--well the kids did most of the sledding and playing. The adults attempted to relax and take naps. There was tons of snow but it was very hard and icy, so it was very good for sledding but not good for much else, although the kids did enjoy digging out their snow fort and making a stockpile of snow (ice) balls. Unfortunately, on Monday, just before leaving, Dale threw one of those balls because the kids insisted on a snowball fight and it ricocheted and hit Hannah right on the nose giving her a bloody nose and good ice scrape. It was a rough weekend for her, but overall, I think she would still say she had fun.

Owen wasn't real thrilled with the snow. He cried most of the time we were outside, but he enjoyed running around in the cabin, especially climbing on a bear that it usually the underside of a coffee table, but we removed the glass.

Justin came away without injury except for a minor scrape on the nose from sledding. He mostly enjoyed playing video games and legos in the sink inside with Jayden. He is already asking when we can go back.

Here are some pics from the weekend.









Hannah got to feed the birds that will come right up to you. One even took bread off her hat.



Mom, Owen and Justin are watching the bird feeding from the window. Owen loves watching birds and even says birdie.



Here are those stitches and the scrape on her nose.

Hi, my name is Owen, and I'm a...

PACIEAHOLIC!

I just thought this photo was so funny. Owen almost always has 3 pacifiers for bed or many other times--one in his mouth and one in each hand. He will swap them out, but this is the first time he actually put two in his mouth at once. He thought it was so funny, and so did Dale and I. Pretty soon, we'll have to do an intervention and get him off the pacie, which I'm not looking forward to doing that again.



Here's another photo that Dale actually took last month. I call them the 3 Musketeers. They are all lying on the large heating vent in the floor. Hannah, especially will sit there all the time when the heat is on. Like mother, like daughter (trait originally passed down from Grandma Judi). Notice the 3 pacies that Owen has.



Well those are just a few things I wanted to post. Other than that, not much is going on.

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

Battling Bugs, Birthdays and Balloons

Well once again, it's been a LOOOOONNNNGGGG time since I've blogged. I posted on the first of Jan. so it's fitting that I at least post on the 31st of Jan. After all the Christmas craziness and getting cleaned up from that (I love the Christmas decorations but what a pain it is to take them down and put them away), we ended up getting sick and battling bugs--the tummy kind. It started out with Justin and Owen. I thought Dale, Hannah and I were going to luck out, but we ended up with it too. Everyone recovered fairly quickly except for poor Owen who just couldn't get rid of it. He was sick in varying stages for 3+ weeks. He's finally over that, although now has a nasty cold. Tis the season...

Hannah and Justin both had birthdays this month, which is another thing that kept us incredibly busy. I can't believe they are 7 and 5. Justin's birthday was first, and he had a Spiderman party at a gymnastics place where the kids all got to do fun things in the gym like do a trapeze and zip line into a big pit of foam blocks and trampoline in a harness with very strong bungees that would send them HIGH in the air. Hannah and Justin and all Justin's friends had a great time. It was very quick and easy for me too because there was no set up and clean up and I didn't have to entertain the kids. Hannah's party was just last weekend and was a High School Musical party at home with 4 friends from school, her cousin, and 2 long-time family friends. I had them make little scrapbooks, they danced to High School Musical music of course, played games like musical chairs and danced on the dance mat that she got from her friend, Maya.

Here are some pics from their birthdays:










As for the balloons, we were at the mall last weekend and saw a guy doing balloon animals. He gave Hannah and Justin each one and then Hannah requested just a blown up balloon, so she could try to twist her own animal. She did manage to make a hat before popping the balloon. We ended up having a snow day on Monday (not that we really had snow) and went to Target and they found some of the balloons and a pump for them, so I let them get it. Blowing up balloons and trying to make things kept them busy for a good portion of the day. I even went online and learned to make a few things. The dog was easiest. The kids made some crazy things and Owen just loved running around with the balloons.







It's been a long January, and I am glad that it is just about over, although I can't believe it's going to be Feb. already. I am tired of the wet cold weather and am definitely ready for Spring, but it will probably be a long wait.

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008 to you all. Hope that 2007 ended joyously for all of you and that your first day of 2008 was great. Oh I can see what the motto for graduates of 2008 will be--"Doing Great in 2008!"--or some variation on that theme. Anyway, I digress. We had a pretty lazy day on this Jan. 1, 2008. Hannah and Justin have actually been off and on sick with fevers and such. Justin and I were actually in the emergency room on Saturday night because we thought he might have appendicitis, but luckily that was not the case. The poor guy had to endure many tests though. He had his arm stuck twice for blood plus had to have an IV put in. They did chest x-rays and an ultrasound. He is always such a trouper at the dr. but obviously did not like the needles and didn't do too well with them. We're just thankful that our year did not end with the first ever surgery on one of us. Hopefully everyone can be healthy to start school next week. I did start to take all the ornaments off the tree, which is always a little sad. I love all the Christmas decorations and hate taking them down, but it will be good to get back to normal. That's pretty much what my week will entail.

Wishing you all many blessings in the New Year.

I'm Finally Published!

I'm not published in actual printed paper yet. The two layouts I had selected over a year ago for an idea book have been delayed. It was supposed to be published this fall, but now it is who knows when--hopefully soon. But...I did get chosen for an online magazine, an Ezine, call ScrapStreet Magazine. Here's the link to my article: Discovery Drive. There are four of my layouts with a little write up of each from me and a bio on me. Hopefully there will be more to come.