Kindergarten Meet and Greet

A couple of years ago, the elementary schools in our district started having a before school open house--a chance to come to school a couple of days early and bring in supplies, find your classroom, locate your cubby, etc without the rushiness (made that word up) that the first real day usually entails.
Tonight was Beckett's school's planned meet and greet and Beckett got to do all of the above as well as practice putting his apple into the right bin (to tell the teacher if he brought a home lunch or if he's having a hot lunch), putting all of his supplies into the community tubs (while I got to write his name on every. single. twistable. crayon.
He says he's excited for Thursday to come. There WILL be an update--HA!

Summer's Last Blast

The saddest time of the year is here =( Yesterday was the last opportunity to go to the public pool and enjoy ourselves. Our pool closes SO stinking early (you KNOW we'll have a run of 90 degree days here soon!), it is always closed before Labor Day weekend. The arguement is that "all" of the lifeguards have gone back to college, which is completely false because plenty of them are HS students!
In the last couple of days, both sets of Grandparents made it up to see Paxton doing his thing off of the diving board and Beckett being his usual goofy self on the big slide. The boys tell me not to be sad and remind me that they'll fill it again in May and we can swim again, but it's awfully depressing to see that big blue empty space as we drive by in the meantime =(

Parker the plumber, minus the butt...

Papa's right hand man was put to work again today in the continuing (but approaching finished!) bathroom remodel. The tub drain had a bit of a leak and a smaller hand (why don't you do this, Mom?!), but a strong one was needed to fit into the tight space to seal and tighten the connection. He learned a lot about righty-tighty/lefty-loosey and the difference between clockwise and counter-clockwise! He also wasn't thrilled with camera flashes, but since he was sitting in the closet with his arm in a tight spot, its not like he could get away =)

Crossing Fingers

Today I received a phone call regarding a nursing postion I applied for and they went ahead with the phone interview right then and there! (Totally caught me off-guard!). But with any luck, I made a good enough impression that the nurse manager of that unit will want to visit with me face-to-face. She said I should hear something within the next week.
Soooooo, crossing fingers!!! (but I like this image of the flower!)

Final Floatie Night of 2011

On Sunday nights, our local pool has "family night", which basically means you can bring inflatable toys and such into the pool during the night swim session. A few weeks ago I picked up surf boards for the boys and we got our money's worth the very first night they used them.
Tonight was the last night for floaties for this year (next Sunday's night swim is a "doggie dip", don't get me started on my opinion on THAT). Although when we got up there, the UW football team was there on its annual pool outing, so when you fill a pool with 100 football players, it becomes hard to navigate a raft around!

Happy Golden Birthday, Arielle!

My first-born is 20 today! So 20 ON the 20th means she's having her golden b-day (although she's more looking forward to 21, eyeroll).
Just posting a few pictures from previous birthday parties (back when new Barbies and American Girl clothes made her one happy little camper!!)

More picnic pictures

Just a few shots of the boys playing the games they offer at the PFD picnic. They both popped balloons and did the ring toss for 2 liter bottles of soda. Beckett won "wegwawer" pepsi! (Regular pepsi) for his Momma =)
Excuse the "funny" tones on the dart picture---the setting on my camera got changed somehow, but I like the picture!!

What stared out as the PFD picnic post

Today was the annual picnic for the families of our local fire department, of which Kurt is a proud 10+ year member. There's a yummy lunch, rides on an old fire truck, games for all ages, etc. The big draw for the boys at this point is getting to climb in, on, around, under, well--you get the idea--all of the big red trucks (we're a classic type of community!).
They'd had their momentary fill of the row of trucks in one area of the parking lot and were heading towards the big tower truck, when who do we see but Kurt's Uncle David, cousin Greg and his family! Including cousins Carson and Piper and their Momma =) Carson is Beckett's age and had been wishing he could see the trucks up closer and voila, there was Kurt to fulfill his wish =)
Miss Piper wasn't as enthralled with the apparatus as all of those boys and she wasn't willing to sit for a picture on those big red beasts without Cyndy, but we did get one!
We don't get to see these guys nearly often enough!

Bathroom day 2! (the one where Parker learns a trade)

I wasn't expecting Papa to return for more bathroom work until after the weekend, so I was VERY surprised to see his truck in the driveway when I got home from work today! Even MORE surprising was what he had Parker doing =)
Parker spread the goop, I laid the tile and Papa did the cutting where needed. It went pretty fast less one trip out to Menards for more tile (yes, we had measured!) and one brief discussion about whose blood was dripping onto the white tile (for the record, it was mine--cut finger).
You can also see that I got the last of the pink tile painted over!!! (and perhaps a small portion of the 5 year old boy that lives here) Next I'll get the floor ready for grouting and sealing! Making progress...

Bathroom remodel: day one....

The day has finally come! The upstair bathroom is getting its makeover =) When we bought this house, the bathrooms were NOT the selling features--HA! But we lived just fine with them the way they were. Both of them had/have plastic tiles on the walls (halfway up) and glass shower doors, which I HATE. A couple of years ago, my Dad put a new pedestal sink and tile floor in the downstairs bath, which was much more period to our house (the flooring was a nasty linoleum and the sink was a crappy "wooden" vanity).
Upstairs I painted the tile (and then did the downstairs!) and crappy wooden vanity and both shower doors were covered with a crisp white curtain.
But a leak somewhere under the potty (hate the word toilet, sorry) meant it was time to undertake another revamp. Tuesday night I got everything purchased and brought home and today Kurt and my Dad started. They got it gutted (goodbye vanity and tub and SHOWER DOORS!), the tub and drain are in place and all of the cement backer board is laid for the new tile that's to come!! Notice the pink tile that was behind the potty and sink!! I will be painting that to match before Papa comes back to tile!

SCORE!

Not that I'M headed back to school this Fall (yay!), but when the BTS coupon from Maurices arrived in the mail, I thought I'd at least take a look in our local store. I found jeans that I liked, kind of pricey, but I thought if I tried them on and liked them, I could talk myself into them at 20% off.
WELL, tried them on, liked them, went to purchase them. The tag said they were $77.98 (no WAY would I pay that!), BUT they rang up at $9.95!! Then take off the 20% and all of a sudden they were down to $7.98!!! And yes, we (the clerk and I) looked around to see any more were going to ring up that way. No dice, but I was DANGED happy with my bargain =)