Friday, April 27, 2007

Warning: Finals Week Ahead!

Well, this is it! Ruston has finals this coming week and then he's officially in his last year of school! We are so excited for the future. Ruston has been doing very well in his clinical duties. His patients respect him and he has been fortunate enough to receive some challenging cases that will give him an extra boost of experience for his senior year. So far, his course exams are going smoothly and I think he is ready to have a little break from school for awhile. Don't worry, I'll keep him busy around the house!

Elli has learned "thank you" this week. She first used it without any prompting when her little friend, Logan, handed her a sippy cup. We were shocked. She says "tink oou" and it's so cute! I think she's coming into her terrible two's a little early though. This past week she has been prone to melt down when she doesn't get something her way. I'm not really sure what to do about it except to change the topic somehow and distract her. She's discovered the laundry shoot that goes from the upstairs hall all the way to the basement. She loves throwing dirty clothes down (which there is never a shortage of around here!), but she gets a little upset when we run out of clothes and she screams to do it some more. I guess it could be worse, at least she likes to help clean up! Maybe I can get her to help put the clean clothes away? Hmmm...

I'm really excited because we just booked our first two family vacations for the summer. In May we are going to attend a wedding for one of Ruston's classmates in North Carolina. We'll stay with friends for a couple nights. It should be a great big party and we can't wait! Then, in July we are going to fly to Oregon to be with family for two weeks. The plan (for now) is that we'll fly into Portland (July 24th) and spend some time with my parents and extended family; then after awhile we will all drive together (yes, mom & dad too!) to stay with Ruston's parents in Vale for awhile longer. We'll have to drive back to Portland by August 7th to fly home again, but two weeks with family is what my homesick heart needs! I can not wait!!

Oh, by the way Eric (my big-little bro) just moved and in case you don't have his new address it is: Eric Lougheed 322 Wild Wing Blvd. #E Conway, SC 29526. Just FYI. When we talked he said he was taking finals this coming week in school too and that he was looking forward to a fun summer (with no classes), a possible basketball tournament and maybe a trip to the Northwest sometime?! Sounds like a plan. Have fun Eric! We love you!

Have a great week everyone. Thanks for reading our blog!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Here Comes The Sun!

At last! We have sunshine! What a nice treat. It's about 68 degrees today and I can't wait to get outside. The summer is coming and we are looking forward to making a couple trips to see family. No exact plans have been made yet, but we're getting closer.

Aaron is graduating from BYU next week (April 27th) and I wish that we could be there to support him. Good job Aaron! I love you and am so proud of all the hard work you have done to support your family and also our country. You are a wonderful brother and words can't express how much I look up to you for the choices you have made in your life. I hope that you are happy and can't wait for you to move East so that we can spend more time together. Congratulations!

Ruston is starting his last week of classes and clinic for the semester. After finals (the 1st week of May) he's looking forward to a lot of golf and getting some things done around the house. Then when school starts up again later in May, he will officially be a Senior. One more year! Wow, I can't believe how fast time has gone. It's really exciting for us.

Elli has been sick this week. She had a really high fever (like 102-103) for a few days and when I took her to the doctor, they said she had a virus that was causing really painful sores in her mouth. Since you can't do anything about viruses, we just have to wait it out and keep giving her baby-motrin to keep the fever down. She seems to be feeling much better yesterday and today, but you can tell the sores still hurt her sometimes. Also, the sores are contagious so she can't play with any of her friends in case anyone shares/chews on toys. I won't take her to church this Sunday, but after that she should be fine. Thanks for your prayers!

My life has been pretty typical this week. I am babysitting two boys in the afternoons (sons of one of Ruston's teachers) and that has kept me busy. The boys are older (9 and 12) so I don't have to do much. But they have a good mom and she wants someone to be home with them when they are done with school. It's fun and gets us out of the house for a few hours each day. Plus, they have a black lab who loves Elli. It's so cute to see them play together.

So, that's our life this week. Thanks for reading. We love you all!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

All this fancy technology!

It's no secret that we aren't very good at keeping in touch even with our closest friends or family. So, I thought a blog might give us a way to talk to everyone at once - thereby allowing us to be lazy and everyone else to be happy! Blogging is new to me so please hang in there as I try to post as often as possible, but will very likely take longer than I plan.

Life has been pretty slow around here lately. Ruston's coming to the end of his 3rd year in school and is still waiting for the snow to melt so that he can go golfing. Yes, we still have snow! It snowed almost two feet over Easter weekend. Most of it has been rained away, but there are still patches around. And the ground is really wet. That's Cleveland for you!

Elli is getting smarter and cuter every day. She has just learned what a bee looks like (in picture books - not real life!) and loves to say "bee". She also is facinated by parts of her face, especially eyes. If given the chance she will point to our eyes too, so we always have to be on the lookout for incoming finger pokes. She will be 17 months tomorrow!

I am working on Service Saturday's for the upcoming months in Relief Society. We have 16 families moving out/graduating from our ward in May and it would be nice to help as many as possible during this busy and stressful time. People in our ward have a hard time accepting service and it's frustrating to try and help people who won't take it. But I have high hopes for this project and I think that a lot of good will come of it.

So that's what's happening in our lives. We love you all and hope to talk to you soon. (p.s. no baby yet - we'll keep you posted!)