What's buggin' you?

This is what is bugging me!

Normally I would be disgusted that I found him/her crawling on the back of my neck. This little thing was quite impressive. Once you get past the uncontrollable desire to dial up an exterminator, you can really appreciate how cool he/she is. I call it a thing because I have no idea what it is. If you know what it is, please keep it to yourself. I am sure I don't want to know. I think the gender neutrality is there for obvious reasons. You can see it move and crawl in the attached video. (sorry it is blurry)

P.S. That paper towel that he/she is on bacame his/her final resting place.

Two toilet household

It may seem strange to you that a person would celebrate the arrival of a second toilet, but you have not experienced our water-closet woes. Many months ago we remodeled our kids bathroom to include a somewhat kid sized toilet. This toilet is somewhat shorter so that the distance from stand to sit is much more appropriate for a 40 inch tall person. However, it is a lomg drop for a person that is 73 inches tall. Trust me, it gets to be annoying real quick.

For those that do not know, we have been in the middle of remodeling our house for the past 4 years. (don't laugh. You do all the work yourself and see how long it takes you.) I will stick to our bathroom for now though. The day we moved in, a portion of our bathroom looked like this.

One day a couple of months ago, I got the motivation to absolutely destroy this bathroom. Everyone loves demolition, so my buddy Ben came over and swung a hammer with me. We made pretty good progress.

So we worked and worked and got the new shower framed in and had the stone all in place. Then came the cabinets and we were so thrilled. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could match the excitement that was felt today when the toilet was finally set in place and the first test flush was a success! There was much rejoicing in the O'Loughlin Household. Please view, for its' first online appearance, the second O'Loughlin toilet! (I have named him Timmy, sorry if your name is Timmy)

Tell me what you are...

You Are An ENFJ

The Giver You strive to maintain harmony in relationships, and usually succeed. Articulate and enthusiastic, you are good at making personal connections. Sometimes you idealize relationships too much - and end up being let down. You find the most energy and comfort in social situations ... where you shine. In love, you are very protective and supporting. However, you do need to "feel special" - and it's quite easy for you to get jealous. At work, you are a natural leader. You can help people discover their greatest potential. You would make a good writer, human resources director, or psychologist. How you see yourself: Trusting, idealistic, and expressive When other people don't get you, they see you as: Bossy, inappropriate, and loud

What's Your Personality Type?

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope that all of our family and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving spending time with those they love and taking a chance to remember all the things that bless our lives.

2nd time around

Okay - so I know we received many messages to let us know that her first picture wasn't that bad, but now that you see the retake isn't it so beautiful! I was able to be there when they took the picture (by luck-I swear) and I had to turn down four shots the photographer took before this one came through.

On a different note - I am so excited to have our blog totally "Christmas-afide". I love Christmas. Really, it is all about the season for me. I love that there is kindness in the air. I also love to have my tree up before Thanksgiving. If you haven't tried it before and you think that it is blasphamous - you need to give it a try! It makes Thanksgiving so much more feastive. I would have a picture up of my tree for all to see on our blog, but it is not up yet. I made a promise with myself this year. I am not allowed to put the tree up until I finish a paper that I have due on Wednesday. I'm hoping that it will be incentive to get to work on my paper. We'll see if my sensible self wins out or the little girl inside that loves decorating Christmas trees. I'm very particular about how the tree needs to look. I know that it takes the fun out of it for the rest of the family because I know how all the decorations need to be spaced and such, but I cant help it! When I was growing up that was how it was. Our Christmas trees (yes, we had two) were very "professionally" decorated, and to be honest, I wouldn't have it any other way. Quit laughing at me Sarah!

Anyone need a free light?

Okay, so I was in my room watching Oprah. (Which I haven't done in a while and I was so glad to catch it because it was the Osmonds. If any of you missed it I am so sorry. It was really cute) Then, I heard a big crash. I thought, "That can't be good". As I was walking down the hallway I heard Nathan saying "Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no". I turned the corner to see this...

Nathan didn't do anything. He was reacting to what he could clearly see was a problem. I don't know what happened. It just severed. I'll find out today if my handyman husband can save our light or if I get to go shopping for a new one.

BUT... I was really lucky that it didnt do anything to the table. I also usually have a cute tray sitting there that Sarah made me for Christmas last year, and due to my lazy self it had not been moved back from dinner the night before. It has a glass cover which probably would have sustained damage. Fewwww! I guess the moral of this story (other than buy less cheap lighting fixtures) is that laziness sometimes pays off.

By the way - the state of the ceiling has nothing to do with the light falling. Although it may look like it lended a hand... it is just in a mid-construction phase.

Letting go a little

On Monday afternoon Caitlyn came into the office and said to me "Mom, I have to tell the truth about something". I knew this was not going to be good... "I kind of cut my hair a little bit". Okay - I scanned her hair to notice that she had given herself some long bangs towards the front of her hair. This is vastly different from her longer-than-shoulder-lenght hair. I asked her why she thought that was a good idea. She replied "I just thought it was too long right there."On our way to the family room I explained that she wouldn't be allowed to use the scissors for a while. I asked her where the scissors were. Her reply was a shameful gesture pointing underneath the couch. Then I asked where the hair was that she cut; I got the same gesture.

On the bright side: She didnt do too much damage. Good thing I have a great friend who is a beautician. My friend also has a little girl who has gone through this same thing, so empathy was given in spades, and Caitlyn has a great new do. Cut to her shoulders with new layers - she looks great.
Hopefully she learned her lesson....

Okay - if Heather is reading this... remember when....

So - I let go yesterday. If you know me very well, you know that I would usually have a problem with letting Caitlyn out of the house like this, but yesterday I thought - "What the heck" when she came to the garage door ready to go - dressed like a princess. She had a great time at Sprouts in her duds, and every elderly women in the store gave her a smile. These are the times that you have to document and enjoy - hence the camera I thought would be a good idea to bring.