School Prep for Beckett

Yes, you read that right--BECKETT!! He's off to 4K in the Fall, Daddy is ADAMENT about that, HA!! It's so hard to believe that it is here already =(
He got his teacher assignment a couple of weeks ago, along with his little supply list, so off he and I went to Dubuque to get it done. He picked out his backpack with a little guidance from Mom (NO characters!!), his lunchbox and ice pack, and folder. The rest were pretty specific items, so those just got tossed into the cart!
After finishing at Target, he chose Culver's for "wunch" (he was jonesing for Wendy's at first, but did the ol' switcharoo at the stoplights with Momma in the wrong lane for that!!) In the end, it totally wiped him out and he slept all the way back home.

Flashback Friday!

OK, today's FBF is more like flashes OF backs, LOL!! We did family pictures last night and while Grandpa shot REAL pictures, I (and Kurt, those coming later) did some shutter-clicking of our own.
Three of my favorite guys =)

More Goodwill Makeover Magic

I've been wanting a shelf to put in Parker's room to display some of his golf goodies, but knew I'd be painting it to match some other pieces in his room. That means I didn't want to buy NEW, but new to ME would be just perfect. Enter Goodwill!! I've been looking for awhile now, and the bulk of remote possibilities contained details like heart cut-outs straight from the 80's, but patience was rewarded when I picked up this floating shelf for a whopping $1.99.
Once home I sanded it (it had a nice cherry finish, but not what I wanted in this case), sweet-talked my husband into wrestling the lid off of the paint can and gave this bad boy 3 coats of paint. I hung it up, accesorized with (currently empty) golf ball photo frames and metal sculpture pieces from HL and called it done!!

Wordless Wednesday

Rant Resolved!

Remember my perpetually flooding planters? Because there was no way for the water to drain? Yeah, I have to admit that PART of the problem could be attributed to me--the green ones from Kmart had a plug over the drain hole (still wonder why) and once that was removed....
The other ones (which there were more of, of course!) were a different matter. On the day of Parker's B-day dinner, my Mom decided that a big nail and a growing 16 year old boy wielding a hammer could solve the problem. Um, not so much!! Enter Grandpa with a power drill!! He put a few holes in the bottom of each one and boy did the water flow!
Paxton supervised the operation, from a safe distance. PLEASE don't aske me about the need for a winter jacket on a July evening. I can tell you about Beckett wearing his--it's because his "brudder" is =)

Menu Planning Monday

Well, last week the children in this house talked Kurt into not one, but TWO trips to "spaghetti and ice cream" which loosely translates to China Buffet. Who am I to turn down a trip there since they have fountain pepsi? HA!! So as a result, I have a "leftover" meal from last week =)
Linking up as usual to Organizing Junkie!!

Monday: French Toast and Bacon
Tuesday: Bacon-wrapped Scallops, twice-baked potatoes, broccoli in cheese sauce
Wednesday: Roast beef, taters and carrots in the crock pot
Thursday: Barbeques, fries, cucumbers
Friday: Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
Saturday: "Papa Special" ie: beef tips and gravy (crock pot) over egg noodles, beans
Sunday: Tilapia, rice, veggie

And I have to 'fess up--there are several weeks that Tuesday's supper happens on Saturday or Sunday's on Wednesday, but as long as I have a meal PLANNED for each day, I'm considering my NY resolution kept--for the most part =)

PGA Tour

Ok, it was the JR tour, but a PGA tournament event nonetheless! Pretty hard to not participate in a PGA event in your own backyard, right?
Between Thursday night and Saturday morning we were the lucky recipients of 7+ inches of rain and not all of it has found a place to go yet. On #8, your tee shot needs to avoid the water fountain/hazard to the right. Parker steered clear of that like an expert. However, a Mother Nature made hazard was another story. Since he didn't clear the low area of the fairway, he had a ball sitting in an impressive puddle of water. I SHOULD have switched my camera to the "sports" setting, but liked what I did get. I asked Parker to come back to #8 with me when he was done so I could re-do it and he not-so-politely declined =)

Schoolhouse Rock!

As part of the Heartland Fesitival this year, one of the shows being done is Schoolhouse Rock Live Jr. We took the big kids several years ago and now its the little boys turn!! The pics I took we're before the show (none allowed during!). The boys did seem to enjoy it, although Beckett announced loudly about halfway through that he was ready to go home!!

A Happy Chappy!

Parker has a driver's license!!! He was pretty nervous leading up to and during the exam, but he was a smiling guy when he and the examiner got back inside. Kurt said in the time they waited between taking his picture and it being processed he sent a TON of texts--HA!!
Congrats to my favorite 16 year old =)

Wordless Wednesday

Blog Makeover!!!

Did you all notice?!! Sporting a new look here =)

My previous background was one I had snagged from one of 100 free background sites that exsist all over the WWW, but I wasn't savvy enough to stick in a picture in the header or figure out the cute siggy that appears at the bottom. Enter Katie!! She is the creative brain behind the new look. She came up with the subtitle of "postcards from the house of Tuescher" (I racked my brain for somethihg catchy like this!) She was SO wonderful to work with and oh. my. gosh was she fast!!

Her button appears at the bottom of the page--check out her work, you will not be dissapointed!!

Menu Planning Monday

Here we are again!!! My meal planning took a minor hit yesterday when I went to do grocery shopping and some of the items I was planning on were not available--GRRRRRRR! I came home and pulled some things out of the freezer, but then I ran over to another location at lunch today and got what it was I wanted.
Allyson is a doll of a blogger who almost always leaves a sweet comment on MPM, and last week she asked about veggies (a lot of times I leave that blank b/c Paxton will make a request AS I'm making dinner, so I leave a bit of flexibility there). With fresh veggies so available this time a year I do green beans, asparagus, carrots, corn on the cob, baked tomatoes (although Kurt isn't a big fan, sometimes he suffers in the name of love) My favorite was to do them is roasting--if it works out in the meal that I have planned. I just cut them into pieces, toss with some olive oil, kosher salt, cracked pepper and a little spoonful of minced garlic and slide the dish the oven next to the meat. My Mom likes roasted broccoli, but it didn't do anything for me, but hey---give it a whirl and see!!
For us this week:

Monday: Parker talked Kurt into China Buffet
Tuesday: Meatball subs, chips, fresh fruit
Wednesday: Steaks on the grill, baked taters, veggie
Thursday: Tatortot casserole, biscuits
Friday: Crispy-Creamy chicken, rice, beans
Saturday: Pork tenderloin medallions, stuffing, veggie
Sunday: Beef roast, mashed taters and gravy, carrots

Linking up with I'm an Organizing Junkie---as always!!

Our Summer home away from home

The pool, baby---the POOL!!! The boys and I are up here practically whenever possible =) We're fortunate enough to have a very nice "aquatic center" here where we live. There is a zero-entry all along one side, a big slide, lap lanes, a kiddy play area, diving area and tons of space to sit or play in any depth water that you like. When the boys were smaller they were content to splash by me in a few inches of water, now Momma still hangs out there while they venture out a little farther.
Arielle has gone with us the last few times and even does the slide with Paxton or splashes with Beckett. Parker has a summer job there so we see him plenty too--HA!
It has been hot enough that instead of one big break in the middle of the afternoon, they've been doing several shorter breaks which means lots of photo ops =)

Flashback Friday!

When I was finding a few pictures to use for Parker's FBF last week, I came across this one of my beloved hubby and my close girlfriend. It was taken at a mass casualty drill probably about 10 years ago. He hasn't seen this one in awhile, I don't believe. He will though. He reads here =)

Bathroom Before and After

We've been in our house for 9 years now. NINE! I LOVE 97% of the things about our house--things that can't be changed: it's only a one car garage, the basement is really not finishable--those are the biggies. Anything else COULD be changed given an endless budget and timeframe, HA!
Our home is a post-war Cape-Cod style home that is way bigger than you'd imagine from viewing it from the street (if I had a dime for everytime I heard that, there'd be no mortgage!) One of the "charms" from that era was/is our upstairs bathroom. It has, I believe, the orginal flooring in place--I can't even tell you WHAT it is, it's not standard linoleum or tile and its a grayish-black with specks of pink, white and gray. The tub is not original, nor is the "wood" vanity that currently resides in there. BUT, me thinks that the pink PLASTIC "marbled" tile that covered the lower half of the walls is vintage. And it's not my style. At all. I love me some pink, but not in the plastic bathroom tile way.
My mini-makeover started with me not being able to stand that vanity any longer. I knew I wanted to paint it black, or darn close to black. That meant a trip to Menards for the proper supplies. While waiting for a friendly clerk to help me, I pulled a couple of paint chip cards and formulated the plan to kiss the pink goodbye. After a lovely chat with Steve, I came away with what I needed to make it happen. Before and after pics appear above!!
Can I just say: I. Love. It. My husband doesn't miss the pink. The kids don't miss the pink. What pink? Yeah, that's right!!! I still need to paint the ceiling and accesorize, but I wanted to jump on the Transformation Thursday bandwagon over at =)