Wednesday 10-22

Okay, well I'm only about a week behind. I've been very preoccupied with a month long scrapbooking contest over at www.Allyscraps.com but that has ended now and hopefully I can finish up these Week in the Life blog posts.

So onto Wednesday. Wednesdays are my busiest days. They start off again with getting up at 5:00 AM to teach a combo strength/step class. I come home, usually crawl back in bed for about an hour and then start the process of getting the kids ready for school all over again. Hannah and Justin did their usual sit and watch Spongebob while I continuously hounded them to get dressed, ask what they want for breakfast and what Hannah wants for lunch. I might have to go back to the no tv until you're dressed and eating your breakfast rule. Somehow they get ready (usually with me trying to brush Hannah's hair as she's going out the door) and we make it to school.

As you can see by the oh so attractive photo of our garbage cans on the street, Wed. is garbage day. Why is that important? Well, there is just something about garbage day and the fact that we just get rid of all the old garbage. It is very cleansing and refreshing. Out with the old and in with the new.

Speaking of the new, after dropping H & J off at school, I got Owen ready and loaded into the car for a trip to Walmart. I really had a lot of shopping to do for the Halloween party. After this trip, I decided that long trips to the grocery store with Owen just are not possible anymore. He does not want to stay in the cart and is always trying to stand up and if I do let him out, he is running up and down the aisles and grabbing things he wants off the shelf. We ended up spending quite a bit of time there and barely made it back to the school in time to pick up Justin. Then we came home, and I got the boys lunch while they watched some cartoons. While they are eating and watching a little (or maybe a little too much) tv, I catch up on the computer. As you can see by the look of the toy room, the boys have also spent quite a bit of time in there. It started out clean at the beginning of the week.

After putting Owen down for a nap, Justin wanted to play with moonsand, which is usually something I don't get out because it is just so messy--not your typical playdough messy--just ridiculously messy. I guess I have something against sand--I'm not really that fond of it at the beach either. It just gets everywhere. When he was done, I swept it up and vowed that the whole thing was going in the garbage.

Soon after Hannah came home from school, it was time to go to soccer practice. Hannah's practice starts at 4:30. Justin and Owen play at the park and Dale meets us there for Justin's practice at 5:00. Owen absolutely loves running around on the huge play structure and swinging--always yelling "Higher, higher!" It was another gorgeous day to play at the park--almost 70 deg. We have had such gorgeous weather here all week. From practice, I have to leave to go teach my second fitness class of the day--a strength class at the YMCA. When Justin's practice is over, Dale takes the kids out to get dinner after practice. Usually they pick up a pizza, but tonight they went to Sonic.

On my way home, I had yet a few more errands to run to get stuff for the Halloween party. I went to Party City, the Dollar store and Trader Joe's--all of them are right next to each other. When I did make it home, I found that we got BOO'd, which is where a secret "phantom" drops off a small gift on your doorstep and you are supposed to reciprocate by dropping gifts off to two other houses in the neighborhood. This is the first time we've ever been BOO'd, and it's very fun, but unfortunately even after all my trips to the store, I didn't really have anything for the gifts and would need to make yet ANOTHER trip to the store on Thursday.

We got the kids to bed and then Dale and I collapsed in exhaustion on the couch--actually we both spent time on the computer, but it's nice to be able to do it knowing you won't be interruted. Yet another day done in a week in the Lough household. Here are some photos from today.

Tuesday 10-21

Tuesdays start a little later for me, although Dale had a meeting down in Eugene, OR at 8:00 am and had to be at the office by 6:00, so he left home at 5:20 AM. I woke up just before 8:00 AM and got Hannah and Justin up and ready for school. They always watch Spongebob while eating breakfast and getting dressed. Breakfast usually consists of cereal (lately honeynut cheerios) or frozen waffles (cooked of course) with syrup for Hannah or jam for Justin. I also throw together Hannah's lunch, which is usually a PB&J or turkey sandwich (although today it was a turkey/cream cheese rollup in a tortilla), applesauce or fruit cup, some type of chips or crackers and fruities or a fruit roll. Today we drove to school since we were a bit rushed and I did not want to take Owen out in the cold with the cold that he has. After dropping them off, we drove though Starbucks, and I used a free coupon to get my favorite Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Once Owen and I are back home, things slow down a bit. Owen usually watches Dora and Diego while running around and gathering his trucks to play with on the couch. I check on email and message boards on the computer and get some stuff done around the house. There is always the aforementioned laundry. Also, today, I actually managed to make our bed, which usually does not get done. I have also been going through a pile of clothes that the kids no longer wear and they've been passed on to cousins and friends and come back home. I am sorting through them to see what is worth consigning and what should just be donated. Everytime I see the clothes, I remember the kids wearing them and get very sentimental, and I have a hard time getting rid of them. I let myself get way to attached to inanimate things--but really it is just the memory I'm attached to.

Owen also made sure that I had an extra household task today. First of all, before explaining this, I need to back up. Yesterday, while I was in the garage pantry getting something, Owen got ahold of a whole section of Otter Pops (in the unfrozen liquid form). He was playing with them on the kitchen floor, and while I was doing something else, he managed to tear one open and spill it all over the floor. That is impossible to get clean and unsticky without getting out the mop. So back to today. He managed to get yet another section of Otter Pops out and was playing with them on the table with his trucks. Whatever possessed me to even think this was a good idea at all, I have no idea. I guess I figured I was there, and he was being gentle. I had meant to put them away but just didn't do it before heading upstairs to make the bed and do other things. When I came back down, I saw a big wet spot on the couch, and closer investigation showed me that yet again, an Otter Pop had been torn open and was all over the couch. So out came the little wet vac, which then turned into a larger job of cleaning all the little spots around the family room that have been bugging me. Okay, enough about the Otter Pop incidents. Hopefully I've learned my lesson by now.

At 11:30, Owen and I walked up to get Justin and when we got home, they instantly started playing like the had the day before even though we had power today. They played with the kitchen some more and made me another feast. I made them mini ravioli for lunch, which is one of the few non-snack items that Owen will actually eat really well right now. I'm so looking forward to when he's willing to eat more types of foods. He used to eat pretty much anything, but especially once he turned 2, he has become a very picky eater. After lunch, the boys watched a little tv and then Owen went down for his nap around 1:30. Hannah got home at 3:00, dropped her backpack off and instantly ran back down to Braiden's to play outside. She rode Justin's bike around since we sold hers a month ago because she really needs a bigger one and because she is "so DONE with Princesses." as she says rolling her eyes at you. The weather this week has been so great. It starts out overcast and very cold in the morning but has been clearing off and getting really warm. Because it was so nice, I told Justin he needed to go out and play too. He would much rather stay inside and watch tv, so I often have to really work hard to get him to go out. I think it would be different if he felt comfortable riding his bike, but even though he had ridden it great, he is not confident in his ability to stop without falling over. We definitely need to work with him more on that and get his confidence up.

Dale came home a little early since he had left so early and he actually made quesadillas for dinner while I ran to Fred Meyer to get some food items we needed but also stuff for a Halloween party that Hannah convinced me to have on Saturday. The other thing Hannah convinced us was to let them carve their pumpkins that night. It was against my better judgement because if they're done too early, they'll rot before Halloween, but she wore me down. She has been bugging us non-stop ever since we got the pumpkins over a week ago. Hannah and Justin did awesome with their pumpkins. They drew their own faces and did a lot of the carving. We even carved Owen's little pumpkin. Owen wasn't as into it as he was last year. He was interested in what was going on, but thought the insides were "Ewwww, yucky."

Once done with pumpkin carving, it was time for the nightly bedtime ritual of pj's, brush teeth and reading in the hall at the top of the stairs. Often times on Tuesdays, Dale is not around for bedtime because he plays indoor soccer every Tuesday. This Tuesday, his game was not until 10:00, so after getting the kids down and getting himself ready, he was off to soccer, so he had a very long day. I went to bed around 11:00 and hoped to get some good rest for the next morning when I get up early again.

I had too many photos from today to try to line them all up, so I made a slide show.

A Week in the Life

Well I have meant to blog since Monday now, but here I am finally getting to it on Wednesday. I have taken on a project this week called "A Week in the Life," which Ali Edwards did on her blog. You can see all her posts about the project here. Basically, starting on Monday, I have been taking pictures everyday to document a typical week in our life here in the Lough household. I've taken the most mundane of photos like piles of laundry and our garbage cans at the curb to the not so mundane like the kids at soccer practice and carving pumpkins (not quite a typical weekly activity). After a week of taking photos and keeping notes on what happened, I will put together an entire album to document "A Week in the Life." I'll actually have a completed album, which rarely ever happens. I'm just not sure how I'm going to weed out the photos that I want to use. I've taken so many. I had meant to keep up on blogging about this everyday, as I mentioned, but since today is the first day, I've managed to, I'm just going to start with Monday and post some thoughts about each day and some of my fav. pics.

Monday 10/20--I really don't like Mondays. After a nice relaxing (usually) weekend, I have to get up at 5:00 am to teach a step aerobics class at 5:30. Why I teach early am classes, I'm not sure because I am soooo not a morning person (ask Dale), but once I'm up and there, I'm good, and it does work out well with Dale and the kids still in bed and not having to worry about childcare and all that. After teaching class, I came home and went back to bec until 7:45 when I got up to get Hannah and Justin going for school. Walked them up to school at 8:30--Owen was still asleep in bed. Got him up when I got home and we hung out and watched cartoons. He is obsessed with Dora right now. At 11:20, just before leaving to pick up Justin from school, the power went out. Thankfully, it stayed out for only about an hour. I was starting to worry about the freezers. Since Justin could not turn on the tv when he got home, he and Owen played so well together making me a feast in the play kitchen and playing with the hot wheel car tracks. They play so well together sometimes. As Owen gets older, they will become much closer friends. It's neat to see them together like this.

I took photos around the house to show the level of disarray that it was in. Hannah and Justin had just cleaned their rooms over the weekend. We'll see how the rooms look at the end of the week. I had cleaned up the toy room, but Owen and Justin already made quite a dent in messing that up again. Other than general stuff that needed to be picked up--mainly toys in every room of the house, the other major housekeeping task that is just neverending is the laundry. At pretty much all times, both laundry baskets are filled with either folded or unfolded laundry that may have been sitting in the basket for anwhere from 1-3 days. I just really really really dislike folding laundry and putting it away. By the time a load is folded, there are 2-3 more loads that need to be washed, dried, folded and put away. I did have Hannah put her clothes aways, so I need to do more delegating like that.

Hannah got out of school at 3:00 and walked down the hill with a boy from her class, Braiden, who also lives 2 doors down. I then had to take her to her Brownie meeting. The regular troop leader was out of town, so it was at the home of one of the other girls in the troop. They made apple crisp, and when I went to pick her up, the girls were chasing chickens around the backyard and trying to get them back in the hen house.

Dale usually gets home from work fairly early on Mondays because he always has meetings for a project in Vancouver making his commute home much shorter. It is always a very happy occasion when he gets home for the kids and myself. For dinner, I made a chicken teriyaki stir-fry, which Hannah and Justin ate pretty well. Owen does not eat much of anything, especially right now since he's been under the weather for about a week.

After dinner, it was time to watch Monday night football (Dale has a vested interest with his fantasy football team), to do homework (Hannah has a short amount to do every night) and then getting ready for bed. Dale usually handles most of the bedtime activities during the week (and often on the weekend). He makes sure they get the pj's on, their teeth brushed and then reads and prays. He tucks them all in, and then I go say goodnight. After the kids are down, it is time to rest. Our sectional couch gets a lot of love from Dale and I in the evening. Dale had an early morning on Tuesday, so he went to bed earlier than normal. I stayed up for awhile and went to bed at 11:30, which is actually fairly early for me on a Monday night since I don't have to get up very early on Tuesday, but I wasn't feeling very well so I thought I should get some rest.

Fall is in Full Swing

Well, fall is officially in full swing. The weather has definitely changed with the much cooler days and nights. We've had some rain, but lately have been having some of those beautiful sunny fall days, although I think rain is back in the forecast. We took advantage of the nice weather earlier this week with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch on Monday. We had a gorgous weekend, but didn't even think about going to the pumpkin patch until it was too late Sunday night. Next weekend, we'll be too busy, and you never know what the weather will do, so we took an impromptu trip while we had the chance. The kids had a great time running around to find the perfect pumpkin, especially Owen who just thought it was the coolest thing. Hannah and Justin of course picked some really big ones. Now the constant nagging about when we're going to carve them begins.


Amazingly, school has been in session for about a month and a half. Justin has adjusted quite well to Kindergarten. He likes being one of the big kids walking up to school with his sister. I wish I could say they were walking on their own, but Hannah has actually had a little bit of a harder time adjusting to 2nd grade and is not comfortable walking up on her own. We're not really sure what is going on, but she puts a lot of pressure on herself and for some reason has a lot of anxiety. She has been doing better, but is never very excited to go to school in the morning. Her teacher says she always gets settled in quickly though and participates great in class and has a great day. She always comes home happy, so that's something. Overall she is doing very well. I just want her to be happy and excited to go to school each day. One thing she is excited about is that she gets to pet-sit the class guinea pig, Shadow, over Christmas break. She's been wanting a guinea pig, so this will be a good trial run to see what it entails. she already has spot cleared off on her window seat for the cage.


Other than school, Hannah and Justin have both been playing soccer, another annual fall activity for the third year now. Hannah is on an all-girl team again this year (in a coed league) with the same coach from last year and some of the same girls, including her good friend, Maya. They have moved up an age group and playing with 8 and 9 year olds, and pretty much get trounced every week, but they're having fun. I'm proud of her for even being out there. Justin is on a team coached by our good friend Denton and assistant coach, Daddy (Hannah is not happy that Dale is helping out with Justin's team and not hers). He scored his first goal this year during the 2nd game. He's come close other times, but no more goals so far. I know there will be more to come. He's a little go-getter out there. Owen keeps me occupied by running onto the field during games and all over the place. I think he'll be a great soccer player when he gets the chance in a couple years.


Hannah has also started Brownies and loves that. They've only had one real meeting so far, but they do crafts and other fun activities, and there will be all kinds of camps and things that I know she will love.


As for Owen, he is growing up so quickly. For a long time, he has been speaking really well, pretty much able to repeat anything you said, but he constantly surprises us with new phrases he comes up with. Just about 3 days ago, he started saying "No thank you" when he doesn't want something you've offered him--hopefully that will become a habit. He also has finally started saying "please." I guess he's going through a polite phase. My favorite though is that for months, I have been trying to get him to say, "I love you," be he just would not. I guess he just wasn't ready to commit. Finally 2 days ago, when I said I loved him, he responded, "I wuv you, Mom." (He's also taken to calling Dale and I mom and dad instead of mommy and daddy). Anyway, he just melted my heart. Sometimes I so wish I could just freeze time and hold onto this phase of childhood for many months. Ask me in a few months, though, and I might change my mind. Along with all his sweet attributes, he has also developed quite a little temper, but for the most part, he is just a sweet little boy. It's just sad when I think that we will never go through this phase again. He just loves to play with his trucks and race cars and whatever else "brudder" is playing with. Give them a year, and those two are going to be crazy together. Owen has also become obsessed with Dora the Explorer. He would watch it non-stop if I let him. His favorite thing to do after we take sister and brother to school is sit with his juice on the couch and watch Dora. He also still really loves books, especially any with animals in them. He's my little zoologist.


I will leave you with some photos that I took at the pumpkin patch.





And one photo of Owen with the popcorn bowl on his head.

Oct. Kit Reveal Day

It is Oct. 1st--can you believe it?! Only 3 months of 2008 left. Being the 1st means it is kit reveal day over at Scrapdango for the new fabulous Oct. kit. This kit was packed with great paper by Scrap Within Reach (Elliot line) and lots of cool bingo and journaling cards, chipboards, brads and more. I did 4 layouts with it and a couple cards and still have enough stuff left to make at least 2 more layouts and many cards. I loved working with this kit.

In addition to working with the Scrapdango kit, I also scrapped a layout with paper I've had for quite awhile that could be one of my favorite layouts ever. It is using one of the photos from the family pics we had taken 3 weeks ago. I'm going to be hanging this one up in my house because it just can't be hidden away in a scrapbook or, worse, my pile of layouts that never actually make it into books.

Thanks for looking. Hope you have a great Wednesday as we get over the hump of this week. Happy October! TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

So You Think You Can Dance

Or as we say it in our house--So You Think You Can Dance Dance Dance! Last night was a night of SYTYCD. Dale's brother, Duane and wife, Kari were so incredibly kind to surprise us with tickets to the tour in Portland last night. Now I think they meant for Dale and I to go, but sorry guys, there was no way Dale was going to be able to go over Hannah. He did find great joy in seeing her excitement before and after going though. And wow, the seats were AWESOME! I had no idea where they were and took binoculars as usual to be able to at least make out faces since we're usually a little ways back at such things, but we were only 3 rows back from the floor and to the side somewhat very close to the stage--we had an awesome view. Unfortunately, we were also right under giant speakers, so it was LOUD! VERY LOUD! Next year (oh yes, I will go next year), I will bring ear plugs. At first I thought Hannah was not going to like the show because it was too loud, but she got over it and loved it. It was also LONG, which is good because we saw a lot, but bad because it was a school night. Hannah is at school, although in the same clothes she had on last night since she went straight to bed in them. The show started at 7:30 and they danced until 9:00, which I thought was maybe it because they'd done quite a bit, but that was intermission, and then they danced until 10:30. We pretty much saw all our favorites, and all the dancers took turns coming out to talk and introduce the next dancers, which often included little comedy routines that were funny. It was a great show. Thanks so much Kari and Duane. Hannah said she is going to give you a BIG BIG hug next time she sees you. I have been on SYTYCD overload since then. I have been watching all the routines on YouTube and even found some from the tour in Tacoma (our seats were way better than most of theirs). I could watch the dances over and over. I couldn't even pick a favorite, but here are links to some of my favorite routines that we saw last night.

The one with Twitch and Katee with the door (Hannah's favorite)
No Air by Joshua and Katee
Mark and Chelsie with the briefcase
A nice slow contemporary by Joshua and Katee
Okay, one more. A crazy wild jazz routine by Mark and Courtney. I just love Mark's quirkiness. As Hannah mentioned, we could feel the music to this one in our hearts.

Photos, photos, photos

This post is all about photos--ones I've taken that I've entered in an online competition and ones that we had taken last week by a photographer friend.

Yes, I've entered some photos in a competition. My online friend, Deb, from Scrapdango turned me on to this site where you can enter photos in different categories and possibly win money. I really didn't need to know about it because I may get hooked. lol! I have entered this photo in the Eyes Have It All comp., and it is currently in 3rd!!!


If I stay in the top 3, I will win a share of the prize money. If you haven't already received an email from me asking for your vote, I would really appreciate you going to this link http://www.competico.com/photo/bright-eyes-and-long-lashes and voting for me. I have also entered 2 photos in the Sweetest Baby competition. I probably shouldn't compete against myself, but oh well. Those 2 aren't doing as well at 13th and 15th. You can vote for both of the photos, and again I would appreciate your support. The links for the photos are: http://www.competico.com/photo/10-days-old-3 and http://www.competico.com/photo/tubby-time-8.

We had family photos taken last Saturday for the first time in over 1-1/2 years when Owen was 6 months old. With Owen now being 2, he didn't want to cooperate, especially since he doesn't really like having his picture taken at all. We did get some good shots, though. Here is the link to some of the photos: http://web.mac.com/threeislanders/iWeb/Site/Lough%20Family.html. I do like how they turned out but am glad it is over. After numerous days of 80/90 deg. weather, that morning was actually fairly chilly and the grass was cold and wet, and I was trying to keep everyone's shoes off. Hannah complained the most about that--thus why you get a glimpse of her Pepto Bismol pink shoes in some of the pics--thank goodness for black and white.

TTFN - Ta Ta For Now