My 100th Entry! And it's all about swimming elephants!

Today was the day we went to the zoo! And what a great day it was! We arrived about 10:30 am and decided to see what we could see before the heat and/or tired kidlets made us stop. Well, we stayed until an impressive 2:15pm and then we went home, ate a belated lunch and swam until 6. Then we ate AGAIN (did I mention my grandsons like to eat?!?) and then Asher hit the hay by 7:15 and Gabe lasted till 8:30.

The boys did great! We saw.... penguins, puffins, bears, elephants, hyenas, anteaters, hippos, rhinos, cheetahs, leopards, prairie dogs, big turtles, snakes, fish, seal lions, and monkeys. We ate ice cream, frozen cherry fanta, water, chips, apple juice, and golden grahams. We got t-shirts with elephants on them and rode on the zoo train! It was a total zoo experience! What follows are just a few of our exciting photos!

Boys = Fish!

While everyone over 25 in the family is off to the Gathering in Orlando, Ed and I got to babysit our grandsons! So far, we've been having a LOT of fun. Took Papa to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time in 23 yrs. last night... and it was "insane Birthday night" there... so Papa had a real test of his abilities to survive in a chaotic environment! The pizza was good and the quiet when we reached the parking lot was even more appreciated than ever before! :-)

The boys LOVE the pool. Gabe has swum just about every chance he can... sometimes 3 times a day. Asher has discovered that leaping from the steps to Grandma is a good time and that pool water is NOT for drinking! Since he took swimming lessons, Gabe is gaining more confidence. He now will leap into the deep end and swim out to the shallow end and he's getting better at it each time he does it! (all under Papa or Grandma's watchful eyes, of course!)

We Made It!

Well, we may never lay another ceramic tile in our lives - but with sore knees we grouted and scrubbed the last of the family room tiles today... then we went swimming. Tomorrow we de-clutter the rooms and put them back together, but it's done! We love it and the whole house seems larger! Can't decide which room seems the most changed... but we're glad we did it!

Here's the dining room!



Here's the kitchen


Here's three different shots of the family room.

Stage Three - Week 2 - Flooring Saga Continues

Okay! So it's crunch time on this big project. We have our grandkids arriving in just 2 days for a week long visit... leaving us just today and tomorrow to finish our project. We got behind a bit over the weekend due to some mechanical snafus with some equipment at the vineyard and also due to the fact that old knees overestimated how long they could hold up under the strain of crawling on them for about 5 continuous days. However... the last tile will be on the floor by 2:30 today and the grouting will begin in the kitchen tonight. (with time out in between for Ed to go spray the vineyard.) That being done, we'll have tomorrow to grout and seal the sunroom and start to put the house back together. (It presently looks like a bomb went off in just about every room of the place because we keep moving things to work on flooring!) We shall succeed... we think... provided the boys don't arrive too much before noon on Wednesday.... hey, but if they do, we'll teach 'em how to scrub floors!!! My assessment: Ty what's-his-name on Extreme Home Makeover has NOTHING on the Staude's... we need a TV Show!


This is our kitchen floor with NO flooring.. pretty scary! I say it looks like an Jackson Pollack "dark mood" painting.


Kitchen with new tiles down extended into the garage entryway. Are you in awe of our skills yet?


Ed doing his best impression of a floor "elf" from Harry Potter.... behold the man with bionic knees!


Sunroom tile VERY near completion at approx 2pm this afternoon.

Ceramic Tile is Fun! (or Stage 3 )

Well, we tackled the fearsome foe.... ceramic tile! Last night with the dining room parquet wood flooring GONE for good... we tackled the TILE! And actually it was pretty fun! The difference was dramatic! Still have to grout it, but you can see what it will look like. Tonight, the tile will creep onward into the kitchen and then beyond that into the sunroom! Can't wait... no more ugly grey indoor/outdoor carpet in the ol' sunroom! YAHOO!
Oh yes... we also put a new lighting fixture in the dining room.

Two views of the dining room.



Closeup of the ceramic sans grouting.

The "project" Continues!

What is it about summertime and projects? Maybe I just watched too much HG tv while on vacation, but we suddenly found ourselves all fired up to tackle phase 2 and 3 of the big kitchen/dining room/sunroom remodel. First a stop at Lowes... I love Lowes; everything you've ever wanted to do to your home all under one roof! Came home with paint (phase 2) and ceramic tile (phase 3) and a whole lot of other things too... like new lighting and outlet/switch covers and valances for the dining room. Fun!
So here at last is phase 2 - the paint. The color is called Apricot....but it's really a spicey warm color that hearkens to Tuscany... which is the look we're going for. The dining room got the deeper color and the kitchen is a lighter tone of the same hue. Today we start the tile.... so it'll be a bit before the stage 3 photos are posted because we have to lay it down, wait 24 hrs., then grout it and wait 24 hours, and then seal it, and then wait 24 hrs. - 3 days per room.... across three rooms so we're figuring on 5 days total to complete all the rooms on a "rotation" of steps basis. We'll see! After this we'll be ready to be ON HG tv!


These are the "before" and the stage one (cabinet refinishing) shots. We did this last April.


After the painting... stage 2 shot! Note the new lighting fixture too!


The view from the dining room through to the kitchen. Lots of "work tool clutter" in here for now... but it will vanish soon!

Special Friends and Old Times

Had a chance on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to reconnect with some friends we don't get to see very often. The Mahnkens of Iowa were passing through St. Chuck on their way home from a family trip. Chris and I were roomies way back in the early 70's at Seward. Her youngest daughter is our godchild and we usually only see one another once a year. So it was fun to relax, talk into the wee hours of the evening and just plain catch up on all that's been going on for us. It's not often you have someone in your life who knew you back in high school... yes, Chris and I really go all the way back to Lutheran High West in Detroit... class of '73.... yikes! That's only 34 years ago now!!!! Okay... I am stopping while I still feel young enough to write this.
Mahnken family: (l-r) Chris & Merle, Sarah & Hannah


Chris and I - I don't think we've changed TOO much!!!


The girls... Sarah on the left (going to be a Junior this year) and Hannah, headed for the 8th grade!

Hot weather in the Heartland!

Had another very hot day here in St. Chuck... temps well into the 90's again for about the 4th or 5th straight day. So of course, we worked out at the vineyard, building a loft in our little barn. Must say it makes the barn MUCH more organized and tidy, but Ed must've lost about 10 lbs. just working in that heat!

So we leaped into the pool on our arrival home...and are going to have an in home "movie night" and sit in the A/C to our hearts' content!




More Door County pics to share.... enjoy...

Happy Birthday America

The 4th of July! What is it about this day that makes us all kick back, relax, and be hugely proud of our country? I can honestly say I've never had a "stressful" July 4th; not something one can say about a lot of other holidays on the calendar! Maybe it's the fact that this day doesn't demand that we shop, mail cards, go to church, or ANYTHING except maybe put out a great barbecue, swim, see a local fireworks display, and enjoy time with friends! In any case... here's to you, America! Happy Birthday!

To the Door and Back Again

We just arrived home last night from a week in one of the most gorgeous places in America.... Door County. For about 13 summers now we've spent at least one week in the Door Peninsula. It's a place where we all sort of "rediscover" ourselves, and we always return home refreshed and ready to tackle another year of work and life. This summer we were there from the 23rd through the 30th... so for the next few posts I'll have to share some photos and some "Door Time" with all of you!