.spa days.

I wish I could say for sure how long it's been. Mark and I think maybe around 2 years. It was at this time that I had to stop sleeping in our bedroom because I would be up coughing most of the night. That's when we realized that our master bath, that seemed haphazardly put together by the previous home owners had not properly installed the janky shower that now existed. Therefore water had been leaking into the sub floor for a long time and eventually began to mold. And mold being my top allergen was what was keeping me up at night. So out came the shower, and well everything in hopes of rebuilding something much better!

Well friends that day has f.i.n.a.l.l.y arrived!!

Take a look:

{i just love the light shining through on this last pic}

Our inspiration came from the condo we stayed at for our 10 year anniversary trip. And I'll tell you, I feel like I have my own personal little spa when I enter our bathroom. Mark is pretty stinkin' amazing!! I'm glad he didn't listen to me when I asked if maybe we should just go the easy route. I'll take 2 years for this!

.dear light.

The thick, heavy shroud of deep gray cloudiness has lifted from the Moo and we are experiencing sunshine in what feels like the first time in months {i said feels}. I told a friend today that it was a good thing, because I was about to go bury myself in my bed and not resurface until spring ... or summer ... or at least until there was sun!! Thank God, and I truly mean that!!

And along with the sun came snow. Louie was pretty excited about that and wanted to go outside right away. I told him he could go by himself, but I was staying inside since I was still in my jammies. Yes, I am on the verge of entering a new season of life!

It was short-lived however because he dropped his mitten and then it was "dirty." We'll see how he survives playing in deeper snow and getting "dirty" this winter.

I love that our massive piles of leaves are mixed with the snow. It's just nice to have a mixture of both seasons in our yard ... let's say all seasons since we still haven't cut our grass ;o)

Okay, and while Louie was outside for a whole 5 minutes I took pictures of the light coming through the storm door. Did you ever used to make these footprints on the bus as a kid?

dear light, please stay ...

.mrs. rohlfing.

Yesterday at church ... you know our 90% college student church. that because of this church i've often said, "hanging with college students keeps you looking young." ... yesterday at this very church as I was walking away in search of my kids I hear:

"Mrs. Rohlfing?"

I almost didn't stop to turn around. Who's Mrs. Rohlfing?

I said to this young, college-aged boy, "Did you just call me Mrs. Rohlfing?"

He explained that he didn't know if it would be rude to call me by my first name since he didn't know me that well.

Oh my! I did tell him to call me jayne, but as you can see it's stuck with me.

It's begun ...

Too bad I can't walk around as a black and white photoshopped photo to hide the lines :o)

.red light. green light.

Tommy and Louie started soccer "training" at the Y on Sunday. They spend an hour doing fun drills and then scrimmage at the end. I wasn't sure how Louie would do, but I knew his friend Owen was going to be there, so I hoped that work!

Tommy had a lot of fun. There are no pictures of him, but picture him having mad skillz and confidence :o)

Being a young three-year-old in the 3-4 class, Lou was was timid and wouldn't sit in the circle without me. Where was Owen?? Thankfully he showed up just a little late. All seemed to be going well after that, until they got separated into different training groups. Lou did fine for a few minutes and then I think he realized what happened. Thankfully, it's pretty laid back and they let Lou join up with Owen's group.

Mental note next time, Louie and Owen are one.

So, once again I thought all was going to be well for Louie in the world of soccer. That is until midway through their scrimmage he and another boy collided and bonked heads. That was it for Lou as he kept saying in his tears that he wanted to take swimming lessons instead. Next time Lou. I think we have him convinced to go back next week because they get a shirt next week. We'll see :o)

He actually did a great job at following directions. I was real impressed ... and why doesn't he do that at home? Maybe I need to do everything as red light/green light and with a soccer ball. Anyhow, here's a video clip of Louie dribbling the ball. You can see his buddy Owen in yellow pants. Watch how Louie catches up with him :o)

baby it's cold outside

.pumpkin patch.

Be ready for the onslaught of photos. I'll let you in on one of my conundrums. So eventually, like hopefully at the end of this year, I'd like to slurp my blog into a blurb book (because supposedly that can easily slurp it). But if I just have a link to a photo album then my photos won't show up in the book. sigh. Or, I can put together collages, which take a little more time. Or I can just post a zillion and one photos in one post. So if you ever thought, why doesn't jayne just link me to an album, this is why :o)

And this is why it has taken me forever to post about this, because though I did a slight bit of editing, I was more concerned about posting all the pictues. And really, honestly, why should I care what *you* really think because it is my scrapbook, my life, my photos ... well you get it and I know *you're* not thinking anything anyway. (Are you getting an idea of what it's like to live inside my head every.single.day)

Mal and the kids and I had an okay time at our new pumpkin patch location. The funny thing is it actually has a lot more to do, but whether we are just in the blahs or I hate change (or a little bit of both) it just didn't seem quite the same. Maybe the tiny apple orchard we use to go to was more goodrich-esque to me. I need my cinnamon donuts and apple cider to make it feel like a true fall outing. And ultimately I think the kids had a ton of fun running all around the tree farm, feeding the goats and sheep and just being kids. That's what it's all about right? :o)

Oh, and I think I heard a donkey "hee-haw" for the very first time. I mean it really sounded like "hee-haw". I think that was my most exciting part :o)

Louie really liked hugging the little trees. And incedently, this is the tree farm we go to with the b.fam every year. I went to go link to a story about that on my blog, but apparently I've never documented it. oh, the horror! Well, just know it's been done before :o)

.speechless.

I'm not really sure what to say about these pictures of Lou. Maybe they just speak for themselves.

.more brave adventures.

Look behind Tommy. That's the wall he conquered last year at the fall retreat. This year, he didn't want to waste time waiting in the line of something he'd already conquered so instead he headed over to the gigantic swinging zip line. (I don't really know what it's called, obviously). Here's a few photos from Tommy's brave adventures:

From what I've heard, he and his little buddy were the first to actually go all the way to the top and after that all the other chillin's decided they could be brave and do that too :o)

.forgotten treasures.

Since I'm back to sharing videos, I thought I'd post this one as well.

I think Louie gets a lot more photos taken of him than Tommy, but what he lacks is the framing and recognition of his stellar artwork. Tommy's is framed around the house from this age (and younger) plus I have photos of his first Lego creations with the duplo blocks and lincoln log creations, etc. Lou, well, I guess I do capture his art of making lines, but often neglect his beautifully drawn artwork or his block and lego creations. So here's to you Louie. A video of the playground you drew that you were so proud of. I'm proud of you too :o)



and if it's not playing go to this link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2624175528640967696&hl=en

.forgotten adventures.

I forgot that before Halloween we had a pre-celebration at the Y. We hung out with our neighbor who was a giraffe this time around and Louie's buddy Owen.

They had some games, but the biggest hit was the blow up obstacle course. I was so impressed that Louie could climb this wall all by himself. He had a blast! And Tommy raced other kids and was definitely the fastest :o)

(and seriously what is with the expensive yet janky point and shoot of mine? these pictures look horrible! i think my point and shoot is too complex for me to use)

It does take great video though (besides the fact that I always forget video can't do vertical):



We waited in line for probably 30 minutes (could have been 10, but it felt like for.ev.er!) because Tommy really, really, really wanted to do this!

During the week Tommy and Lou colored pictures that got hung up at the Y. Louie was so excited to see his hanging on the window each day. The night of the party Lou had a 2nd place ribbon on his picture. You can imagine he was pretty excited about that. His buddy Owen got second place too!

.hallo-stinkin'-ween.

Today marks a momentous event. It's the first time since Indiana adopted daylight savings time that I have actually been grateful for it. It may seem odd that I've had a hard time with the change since I grew up in MI where we always had a spring forward and fall back time of year. There's just something about little kids and it messing up their schedules that throws me for a loop. But today, this morning, when Tommy got on the bus and it was light out I felt awake and happy that Tommy wasn't going to trip over something while running out to the bus. Plus, I truly have felt like I've gained an hour. Maybe my fall back party really helped me adjust. Maybe I'm out of the years where it messes with my kids schedules. Whatever it is, I'm thankful to be thankful.

Halloween came and went this year. I had a nasty cold and felt pretty crummy, so that will be my excuse for many out of focus photos :o) Anyhow, I felt like I scarred my child at one house. One man was dressed up a like a skeleton. Lou was scared to go up to him and so the man came over to give him candy. Then he got down to Lou's level and said look right here (pointing at his freaky skeletal mask) and then he made "blood" drip down the face. Lou's eyes were huge and I said, "Look at the kool aid ..." I felt horrible and he kept saying he wanted to go home after that and, "I didn't like that." On our walk home we focused on the beautiful stars in the sky and I pondered why the heck I was celebrating such a stupid, scary holiday. Mark reminded me that we had fun with our friends and neighbors. Okay.

Meghan, Louie and Gavin were stinkin' cute. Gavin wins for most put together costume. And his Pirate Ship Wagon was a hit. Mainly that after each candy stop he had to get back to his "boat." Meghan said a good "meow, meow" and Louie just liked telling people he was a hockey player. He may be the only hoosier kid who knows the name of a hockey team :o) Please note the Stanley Cup. Our neighbor actually suggested that. See, there are knowledgeable hockey people here in Indiana :o)

.expressions.

i'm so glad to have captured the sass lou gave me about taking his photos {see frame 3}. Thankfully I caught some other great Lou expressions too!

We had an impromptu "fall back" (meaning don't forget to set your clocks back and gain that extra hour of sleep!) gathering tonight and burned a lot of leaves, ate lots of hot dogs and s'mores and apple crisp. And still plenty of leaves left (not apple crisp)! What an awesome way to start November!

.joy.

the joy of fall is back ...

beautiful weather, bright colors ... and best of all photos!

These aren't from today, but isn't he so handsome?!

more to come!

.waist deep.

Fall is officially here! It had a wonderfully warm start, but the chill has set in. I don’t mind though. And normally don’t mind the leaves and look forward to my annual fall leaf photos, but maybe we’re just a little in over our heads here in the ro.fam.house for me to fully appreciate it all. Luckily there’s still time. As usual, there are a kazillion leaves covering the lawn and only 1/3 of the leaves off the trees. It was good for me to look back to last year and read what I wrote about loving the enchanted forest look.

Here's a funny story about our lawn. A friend of ours gave us a lawn mower that he pulled from his mom's trash. It had a pretty nasty oil leak and didn't seem salvagable. Dan, however rescued it and gave it to us because our previous one had gotten stolen. This was probably 7 years ago. We have used the mower ever since. I always think this will be the year it breaks down and it never has. This spring we passed our little mower onto other friends because we were graciously given an almost brand new one. But here's the thing, we can't get the "new" mower to work. Crazy funny! And even crazy funnier ... we had a neighbor mow while we were away in NC for 4 weeks and honestly, get this, have not mowed since. Now this will also tell you the state of our grass, because it honestly didn't look too bad. Sure, it looked bad right after the neighbors across the stree mowed theirs. But the next day they had those long weeds poking out again just like we did. So here I am now waist deep in leaves without a mower. You think we can make it until next spring? probably! Like I said, we're a bit in over our heads at the moment!

And thank goodness for this blog! I swear you’d think I’d lost a year of my life somewhere or it’s been the longest year ever. I can’t tell which. I could have sworn I’d been in official photog business for 2 years, but really I’m just a little past a year. That strangely makes me feel a lot better. Then, when I was looking back I couldn’t believe many of those events only happened a year ago. I think (and I emphasize think) I’m thankful time feels slow at this point.

Moving on ... here’s a photo I meant to post before fall was actually officially here:

{the first fall leaf}

In other beginning of fall news, Tommy has a thing with ropes and tying and connecting them all over the place throughout the backyard. This one we finally unknotted for the ultimate tug-o-war!

Before the tug o war, Tommy and Louie (by Tommy’s direction) planted a garden in the sandbox

More to come. We’ve had the annual pumpkin patch outing with the g.fam and also some fall leaf pics today.

Tommy is on fall break and won’t be back in school until Tuesday. He’s lovin’ it! I enjoyed his parent/teacher conference today. He is doing very well and besides some talking at inappropriate times, learning to use a small amount of glue and correctly writing his 6,7 and 9s ... he’s pretty awesome!

.warming up.

{p.s. louie without direction stood at the end of this and wanted the picture}

What has my ocd child been up to lately?

There’s his newest set of lines. Lou is actually an awesome helper in the never ending struggle for me to stay on top of laundry. He loves to sort (no surprise) and then pick which pile goes in first. He then gets a prime seat on the dryer to dump the clothes into the washer and watch it fill up with water. Afterwards he hands me the dried clothes for me to fold and then he sorts out the socks and finds matches. This time however, he went for the line effect. A bonus, I just taught him how to fold wash cloths so my job is getting a little easier ... but it still piles up high, high, high!

What else has my ocd child been up to? Well, it’s no secret that he’s not a big fan of change. For example, he must have his checkered pillow case (luckily there’s two) or it’s not his pillow. I had forgotten how severe the jacket obsession was from last year. Which is funny because the anti-change started with not wanting to wear pants and long sleeves or a jacket once the weather turned cold. I took this photo because I felt like it was a momentous occasion that he had warm clothes on.

But now that it's on, it's hard to get it off again. However, let’s give him props for not being glued to his pajamas this fall. He has not thrown fits about getting dressed in the morning. Well let me rephrase that, he has not thrown fits because he’s emotionally attached to his jammies. And we are making progress because as long as he gets to pick out the pants we’re fine (though I did have to hide the shorts for awhile). And yesterday and today I got him to wear a long sleeve t-shirt by showing him he could wear his short-sleeved t-shirt over it. I was extremely pleased of course as it is my main stay fashion symbol.

He is doing better at the Y. It took about 2 weeks without having Tommy there for him not to wail as I left for my hour workout class. Now I feel like he actually leaves the table every once in awhile and plays. He has a little buddy Owen who is there everyday too, so when they're together all is good. Unless Owen is absent and then Lou usually sits at the snack table and sucks on his sippy and holds his blankee. The other day, Owen wasn’t there and when I came in from my workout Louie was up and listening to one of the helpers read a book. I made the comment that it looked promising that he was actually up and interacting, and she said that actually they had went to the gym that day for 15 minutes and he spent the first 5 minutes crying about not wanting to be in the gym, the next 5 minutes just sitting there quietly and the last 5 minutes up and running around. That’s my Louie, it just takes some time for him to warm up. It was a good reminder for me to give him time. He’s not (always) trying to give attitude!

Good job Louie! Just one step at a time!