Adventures in Babysitting

 John and I headed up to Oshkosh on Saturday to do our grandparent babysitting duty which we always do without any arm twisting or complaint.

In fact, this time I asked if Courtney and Paul wouldn't like to go out after her craft fair on Saturday.

Tizita is opening her big Valentine card.  I  found them at Walmart for only three dollars.

Both girls were excited with such a big card.

 Tiz was equally excited with her new diapers for her Baby Alive.

 After lunch we went over to Beckets for the craft show.

We easily spent two hours there visiting with Courtney at her booth, getting our photos taken with cute props, making valentines, and listening to and dancing to live music.

Here is Soli enjoying a sucker from the photo booth.  She is also sporting a headband that Courtney made..

 After the craft show and some playtime at home, we went to Cranky Pat's for pizza.  We all love Cranky Pat's, it's fun for kids and the pizza is very good.

Tiz ate seven pieces, a new record for her.

 Soli enjoyed four pieces.

A large pizza was just enough for the four of us.

 Tizita Turner decided she wanted to take up drumming, so she set up her own little drum set and used two knitting needles as her drumsticks.

 The green wig added to the whole rock scene.

That girl sure has rythmn and she can sing.

 After church, we had lunch and then snuggle time with both girls.

 Then is was time for a spin on Tiz'ita's little car.

It was Soli's first time as a passenger and she loved it.

 The best part was that Tiz loved making Soli laugh as much as Soli loved the ride.

 Then it was my turn.

I used to ride with Tiz when she was smaller and less capable of steering and working the car which runs by you turning and using your body weight.

Well, this time, we were really moving.

One minor mishap with a wall was the only casualty.

What a very fun weekend.

I love those girls and love being their gramdma.

The makeover has begun

 Awhile ago we had an estimate to completely remodel our kitchen.

The remodel plans included knocking out a wall to open up the kitchen and dining room area, getting rid of our hall, and gutting the kitchen.

We had hoped to get the money from the sale of John's folks condo, but Uncle Sam took all that money for the nursing home, so without any finances we could  not proceed with plan 1.

In all honesty, our Kia house does not need a cadillac kitchen anyway, it would be out of place.

I guess all the pressure from House Hunters for stainless steel and granite temporarily got to me.

We have been making some very small changes though and so far, we are very happy with the results.

 This is our old carpeting in the living/dining room area.

 We had to move all the furniture out of the kitchen, living, and dining room in prep for our new flooring.

Kev had his friend, Ben do the work for us at a fraction of the cost of  a larger company doing it.

 We chose a light laminate that looks like hardwood.

Here is the finished kitchen.

We took all the wallpaper down a few weeks ago and John painted it a very pretty light tan.

 Here is the living room before we moved the furniture back in.

 Last night e purchased an area carpet that looks very nice with the new colors.

 We kept the hallway and put new floor in there, too.

We also had a ceiling light put into the new dining room.

Small changes so far, but we have a few more ideas that will be coming soon.

We plan on buying a few new pieces of furniture in colors to better match the new living room.

We also are planning on redoing our kitchen counters with a do it yourself paint system that will make them look like granite, hopefully.

I like how a few inexpensive changes make everything look fresh and new.

It's not a cadillac, but maybe it is a Buick!

Celebrating my 60th birthday in the best way possible

 The house is quiet and rather empty again after having everyone home to celebrate my 60th birthday.

The girls planned the entire weekend so didn't have to worry about anything.  It was relaxing and enjoyable for me.

 On Friday night we had Little Ceasar's Pizzas for dinner.

I also had two cakes made by mom, an ice cream cake and an eau claire torte.

As you can see, there were 60 flaming candles on the cakes, too.

It was throwing off a lot of heat and light.

 After dinner, we moved the party downstairs, started a fire, and opened gifts.

Spending time with these two little sweethearts was the best part of the weekend.

They just make me smile and feel so good.

 I got a weekend in Galena as a gift from the girls as well as a beautiful book entitled 60 filled with pictures documenting my life through the years.

It was so much fun to look through and I know I will look at it often..

I got a gift card to Domani for my hair from Kev, Vikki, Mal, and Nic.

I also got the video in the last post from Mallory.

It was indeed a very special birthday.

 We ended Friday night with some dancing.

 On Saturday the ladies, Lis, Mal, Courtney, Tiz,, and I headed out for a Ladies day out.

We started our day with lunch at Noodles.

 After that we moved to a Touch of Glaze in Waukesha to paint pottery.

Now that was a fun thing for all of us.

 We were all a bit nervous to get started, but once we started we could not get enough of it.

 Here are our finished products.

Mal and I will go back and pick them up on Friday after they are fired.

We stopped for some coffees on the way home.

Perfect Ladies day out.

 We all went out to El Mariachi for dinner.

Nathan ordered the large margarita. 

Whoa!

After a delicious dinner, we retired to the basement for another fire and some test tube shots as well as a few beers.

It was a great weekend and it made turning 60 something so special.

Thanks family!

My niece, Mallory, who I consider my third daughter, made this video for my 60th birthday.

I love it.

Thank you  Mallory.

I hope if  you take the 14 minutes it takes to watch it,  you like it, too.

I know it is all about me, so it may be a bit boring for you.

The 4 musical selections are some of my favorite, too,.

So, today I turn 60.

I like to think that maybe 60 is the new 40.

I do not feel as old as 60 sounds.

This weekend Courtney and her little family, Alissa, Nathan, Mallory, my mom, my brother and Vikki will help  me celebrate.
I am excited to spend time with all of them.

So, Happy Birthday to me!

Overhauling the kitchen and other tidbits from the weekend

I am winding down from a very nice productive weekend.

On Friday night we met Karen and Rick Olsher at Elias.

Karen and Rick were the managers at our first apartment on Dewey Ave .

I had their daughter in my first kindergarten class.

It was fun to reconnect and share stories of our lives over the years.

I am so glad that Karen and I reconnected over FB.

I woke up on Saturday ready to challenge the wallpaper in our kitchen.

My ex sister in law put this paper up and as far I can tell, it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.  She had that stuff glued up there good!

I googled how to remove wallpaper and came up with some helpful hits.

We used lots of hot water and finally resorted to a product called Dif which really did the trick.

 This is just one wall partially stripped

 These two walls still needed to be done.

I am not very good at this putsy type of work, I prefer immediate results, but I kept plugging along.  John was purchasing our new laminate flooring from Menard's, so I could not ask for his help.

 Luckily Mallory came over  for a visit and went right to work on the walls.

She, unlike me, enjoys the challenge of such a task and she says her mom can put it up and she can take it down.

In record time she had her wall done.

 John did the clean up and then returned to Menard's to buy some paint because now these white empty walls were begging for some color.

 He painted on Sunday while I hosted an open house at St. John's.

The color is a nice tan and I am liking it.

After our wallpaper removal success on Saturday night, Mallory made a u tube video for my birthday.  I love it and will share it here when I turn 60 on Wed.

Today my kids and the K, 1st, and 2nd grades sang in church.

They did a great job as usual.

They sang Servants of God.

It was a very nice weekend, now on to my birthday week.

Leaving the 50's behind.

 We justt had a great weekend in Bloomington celebrating John and Alissa's birthdays.

Courtney, Paul, and girls came to our house on Friday night.

We laughed a lot, just look at little Soli and you will get a taste of what the night was like for all of us.

We left for Bloomington on Saturday morning about nine.

Tiz rode in our car with us, the maiden voyage for our new Buick Rendezvous while Courtney, Paul, and Soli followed behind.

We had a nice lunch at Wendy's' in Rochelle and then arrived at our motel, the Baymont around one.

Alissa met us at the motel and took Courtney and Paul with her to do some shopping and sightseeing.

John and I took Soli and Tiz to the Children's Museum in Bloomington.

We all had a great time.

 There is a great climbing structure for the older kids.  Tiz loved this area and was able to climb way to the top which is three stories high.

 The girls enjoyed some down time reading a few books in these cool chairs.

 Tiz loved all the hands on exhibits like the computers.

 Tiz also got to try out a child sized pair of crutches in the medical area.

 Here she is being Dr. Tizita checking out her patient.

 John and I really had to tag team in order to keep both girls happy and in our sight.

I was usually with Soli while John spent his time with Tiz.

Here Soli is driving me around in the pizza delivery truck.

 There was also a small climbing area for the little kids.  Soli enjoyed her time in there.

 After the museum, we all headed back to the motel and enjoyed birthday cake and cupcakes before going to dinner.

 Birthday boy, John 

1.  and birthday girl, Alissa both enjoyed their dinners as did all of us.

 The maid came in and did our mirrors for us.

 Nathan brought over some legos that he had when he was little and he and Tiz had so much fun creating with them.

 Movie Star Soli kept us all laughing.  

We had our lunch at Steak and Shake, perfect way to end the weekend.

We took a scenic route home which ended up with a tour of Elkhorn.

Courtney, Paul, and the girls stayed overnight until Monday because we all had Monday off, so our weekend was even longer.

It was another memorable, fun weekend.