Friday Fave: fresh lobster

I’m in Maine so that means FRESH LOBSTER!

There’s a dock just a few miles from where we’re staying that we visit every other day. If you saw my reel yesterday, that’s the place.

Honestly if I had my choice I’d probably choose a lobster roll, but there’s something about cracking open your own personal lobster!

Michigan State game day!

Owen has mentioned more than once he’d like to attend MSU and today he said he really liked it (but to be fair, it’s the first real campus he’s been on and he didn’t see much of it). I then asked if he wanted a pic on the campus of his future alma mater…and he obliged. Unbelievably it’s just 3.5 years away.

We got free tickets from Vettix and Grannie went with us!

We got some souvenirs—and Tom got a Sparty Party beer!

We had a cool view.

Right in front of the scoreboard!

This cute little one was in front of us!

Unfortunately they didn’t play too well and lost so that was a bummer. But we still had a good time!

And on the way back to the hotel, we took a mini detour and drove by the capitol.

Spring Break Day 5: Manatees!

Linda surprised us and told us she wanted to take us swimming with the manatees! So, being in a wetsuit was a first for me and the kids!

Unfortunately, this time of year is the end of the season — most manatees have already begun the trek to warmer waters — so we actually had to hunt for them a bit. We eventually found this mom and baby and followed them, hoping they’d go into calmer waters…which they did, but they didn’t really go to a place we could easily get to them.

We did eventually get into the water but it was hard to see much since the water was so cloudy. That said, at one point, a manatee swam directly under me! Like inches below me!

The guide was taking photos for us so that was nice not to have to worry about…but the manatees weren’t very calm today so we didn’t get pics of us with them underwater. This is about the best we got of us in the same photo:

The kids loved the guide’s description of them as “2000 pound sea potatoes!”

We definitely wanted a selfie with our guides!
I wrote them a review on the car ride home!

Back home, we completed the beach glass puzzle with one day to spare!

Owen was serenading us with his snoring.

Pysanky on the River 2022

We were up early this morning to hit the Ukrainian Museum Archives in Cleveland. Surprisingly the bathroom lighting was pretty good—I love Hampton Inn!

I bought a new necklace there (because I broke my necklace on the way here).

With my mom at the museum.

Then it was off to State Meats and eating lunch at Mama Maria’s Ukrainian Kitchen!

Pierogi, potato pancake, and a slaw.

Then we visited a Ukrainian cathedral (to see the gold spires in the sun), grabbed a donut across the street, and then some ice cream at the Honey Hut!

Then it was back to the hotel to grab our stuff to setup for the event!

OMG all the “naked eggs” for sale… Typically you’d have to blow them all out yourself and it’s not complicated but it is a lot of work. These were already blown out and cleaned! And on sale! For less than it would cost to even buy them in the store! Turns out the vendor was getting out of the egg business and just wanted them gone. Stay tuned to see just how many I ended up buying!!!

And then I bought my Christmas present! A goose egg from Pysanky Master Lorrie Popow! It’s absolutely stunning. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it!

I asked her how she could even see to do that and she said “When my eyes were younger!” I eventually looked through her Facebook page to see if I could find it to see when she did it…and it was 2012!!

Lorrie Popow: LorriePopow.com and on Facebook

Tom’s new ride!

He’s waited 20+ years to have a truck and he certainly went all out! (I’ll just be over here choking on the monthly payments.) He put a deposit down in February just to get on a waiting list and it finally came in! Happy 50th birthday—you get no more presents for a few years!!

Goodbye!
Hello!

P.S. I guess I should tell you what it is (if you’re not a car person and have no idea)—a Toyota Tundra TRD Pro.

Too Many Zooz

We took the kids to their first concert! Anna and David and the kids also went—and we took one of Owen’s friends (Lucas).

The planning and prepping was exhausting (trying to figure out what we need to pack and take to eat since we’d never been there) because apparently the thing to do at Ravinia is arrive early and picnic and hang out)! Plus we had an early access pass (but only for four people!) from a neighbor…so Tom and David went first with Owen and Lucas to get everything set up and our spots staked out!

The boys started with their fancy drinks. (Yes, David brought glass glasses!)

As Anna and I were on our way with the other three kids, we got this pic via text:

Owen was in heaven!! He got to meet Leo P of TOO MANY ZOOZ before the concert! He’s been listening to their music for years and playing their songs on his bari sax for months! Tom had seen him walking around and told Owen to go meet him! We were all so excited for him!

The kids went up to sit right in front of the stage. We ate our charcuterie and drank our drinks. The boys made more drinks.

I thought I took one more with everyone looking…but apparently I didn’t.

Our view from our seats. The kids were right in the front row!

Overall everyone had a great time and Anna and I decided we would maybe do it again.

Here’s a video of the band:

I’m getting lip filler! 

Yeah yeah, I know we have a Volumizer and I’ve recommended it so you don’t need needles…and I’ve used it myself! But while it did plump them up a bit and make them SUPER healthy, it didn’t give me the volume I’ve always craved… So I figured I’d try it once and see what I think. They said it would take about 4-5 days before it calmed down (but could take up to two weeks). Fingers crossed…but I like it so far!

Before and immediately after lip filler

Bon Jovi concert!

As soon as I saw free tickets for Bon Jovi, I had to get them. I mean Bon Jovi WAS high school. And I know there’s been some stuff since then that I’ve liked. And I’m still trying to do more things outside my box.

But let me say right up front that even though this was a bucket list concert, I was not impressed. /cry

From now on, I’m checking the setlist FIRST. I only knew like 1/3 of the songs! And his voice wasn’t great—plus the sound system seemed off and it was like he was screaming to be heard over the music. And holy hell the people that want to stand for the whole damn thing (I know this argument can go on forever). Ughhhh. But then, maybe I’m just old and cranky. But to be honest it wasn’t just me. We all agreed.

Amazingly, the Eagles last week blew this concert out of the park. I guess they can’t all be winners.

Ugh. Sit. The F. Down.

So I knew I wanted to wear a red, so what better red than my fave no-longer-available Mojave?! Which then called for a slightly more subdued eye, so I went with more earth tones. And my shirt had to be #runsonlipstickandsarcasm!

Slowly but surely!

Tom started the install of my pull out drawers for the Tupperware cabinet on March 20. Unfortunately he wasn’t happy with how one drawer was sliding so said he’d fix it—so I left all the contents on the island. Fast forward a week and he tells me it’s fine and I can put everything away. Men!

And somehow we’re missing the bottoms to ALL of these since the kids last fixed the cabinet. Imagine that. Noone has any idea. So either they’re lying about what they did the last time or they’ve managed to lose 11 bottoms in two weeks.

New job, new tub!

Why yes, that’s an inflatable hot tub! Tom accepted a job yesterday (YAYYYYY!) so when we walked into Costco and saw this, we knew it was meant to be! (It also wasn’t nearly as expensive as we thought it would be.)

We are planning to get a real hot tub in the future, but that requires a lot of work first since we want to redo the whole backyard and deck.

So it was inside to warm up so we could inflate it, and then Tom rolled it outside, and now it’s sitting on the deck waiting to be filled and heated so we can use it Christmas morning!

Maggie could care less about the hot tub LOL.

Gummi and candy galore!

We’ve wanted to stop at the Albanese outlet many times but we always had Maggie with us and it was too hot or cold to leave her in the car. So we stopped today! They have our favorite gummi bears!

IT was quite crowded so I didn’t take pics — but here’s one I found online that gives you an idea! This is about half of it! And so much more than gummi bears!!

Our faves might be the Goof Ups Gummi Worms!

So I finally took pictures of most of the newly redesigned house.

FYI We have had a few changes since these pics—that teal ottoman and gray loveseat are gone (long and sordid story that ends with us telling you to avoid Roomplace like the plague) and we have a leather loveseat on order. Missing rooms are the dining room and front room because we’ll need to rearrange that furniture again. I finally got around to taking the pics specifically because the ottoman was going away.

My friend Jodi Van Leer (J Van Leer Designs) was amazing in helping us figure out what we wanted, shopping for things, and pulling everything together. We trusted her implicitly and we couldn’t be happier!

Tom got to play woodworker and built:

  • the walnut mantle surrounds
  • the cabinet doors
  • the birch forest (using trees we brought home from my parent’s house in the upper peninsula!)
  • the stacked wood wall in the bar (my Pinterest idea)
  • and new built-in shelves for the liquor in the bar (so now he finally has his “me room” (and not just a me wall!)—which we’ve named Ground Control)!

Other changes include:

We absolutely love everything and when it’s picked up and free of kid shit it’s freaking amazeballs. It was a shit ton of work and expense and we pretty much got it all done in two months to be ready for the big party! But we finally have our forever home that looks put together and adult!!

P.S. Here’s a Before and After!

Watching the designer work!

Don’t get excited thinking I’m showing too much… this is not the final look. This is just one picture of many different options she tried.

To be honest as she was doing it I was liking it, but /skipping a lot of design and redesign/ it ended up waaaaaay too flowery and poofy so I asked her to redo it. Those pics will come later!

We hired an Interior Designer!

I’ve always wanted to hire a designer so I can end up with a put together room/house…and it finally happened! A friend is an interior designer and came over to give us some guidance! We figured since this is our forever house, we’re ready!

We talked about what we wanted, what we liked, what we didn’t want —and decided on a color scheme, the curtains and rods, the mantle (Tom will build it), and carpet size.

So she sent us to look at furniture and we found a bunch of things we liked right away at the first store—a couch, leather glider chair (to replace Tom’s recliner that will no longer match), a new chair for the front room, a lamp, and an end table!

That night I searched online for the perfect rug and found it! So we have a good start!

OMG my hair is to die for.

I have wanted a Brazilian Blowout for awhile now—it’s been a lot a lot a lot (!) of years since I had one and it just makes drying and straightening my hair so much easier (and it shouldn’t be as frizzy). It’s a lengthy (and therefore expensive) process so it’s not a regular thing…

The process? First a clarifying wash, then putting the solution on, then drying on low heat (not high) so you don’t burn the chemicals off too early (this took close to an hour I think), then a rinse, then a regular high heat blow dry, then going over every tiny bit with a flat iron. Yikes. I was there for just over three hours.

Mid-process.

It’s so unbelievably soft and smooth and silky it’s just dreamy. (Of course when I wash it and style it myself it won’t look quite as good but in the meantime I am enjoying every second of it.)

Before and After

KitchenAid in the house!

So we’ve hated the Bosch dishwasher ever since we moved in. I mean it’s a decent dishwasher but the layout just didn’t work for us. Tom jokingly told me HELL NO WE’RE NOT SPENDING MONEY ON SOMETHING THAT ISN’T BROKEN. But it was bad. And I hated it. Every single day.

We knew the brand we wanted (ever since we bought a KitchenAid for our Jacksonville house) but Tom still gave me shit. But it eventually wore him down and he finally got on board and said we could get one when it went on sale—but in the middle of Covid no one had it! It was advertised but they weren’t in stock and you couldn’t order it. So I just kept checking. And then a few months later, Costco had a really good sale so I bought it immediately. It took two weeks but it was so worth it. It’s amazing. And Tom tells me every day how much he loves it.

I love it when I’m right.

With a third track!

There is a little learning curve to loading it but it’s already sooooo much better than the other one!

We got my bucket list tree!

I have always wanted a huge Christmas tree! My dad used to get a 2-story tree and I loved it. My cousin gets a 2-story tree and I love it. But we’ve just never had the room for one—and even if we did at one point…the next house we moved to might not fit it. So when we found our forever house and it has super tall ceilings, I knew what was going to happen. But of course I didn’t want to spend the $900 Costco was asking for their 14′ tree, so I figured I would wait until the clearance sales after the holidays and see what deals I could get.

Well…Costco was out of trees by mid-November so there would be no discount Costco tree. Sam’s Club was even out of them! So I resigned myself to probably paying full price next year.

And then Tom and I ran into Sam’s this morning and while we were browsing…I saw my 12′ slim tree on clearance for $259! WHAAAAAT?!?! Yes, please!

And the best part? Dad and Linda had wanted to get us a housewarming present and we hadn’t really been able to think of anything perfect…so the tree was our gift! It’s soooo perfect!!!

I don’t have any decorations for it but those will come with further clearance sales!!

ADDENDUM: Two days later Anna was at Sam’s Club and told me it was reduced even more so I went back and got $100 credited!

Before and after, two trees.

We have plenty of room for TWO trees this year…so you can bet your butt I’m doing it!! A friend knew we didn’t have an artificial tree anymore so found one for me and then I snagged one from Amazon Vine!

This tree definitely needs zhuzhing.

I had my doubts but love how this tree turned out! My friend Britt helped me design it using a bunch of random fake berries, branches, pinecones, etc. that I had originally intended for topiary-type decorations—along with a specific selection of color-matching ornaments from our collection.

Buuuuuuut it’s just a bit small for the room (YOU THINK?!) so we are hoping to find at least a 9′ tree, if not maybe a 12′ tree on clearance after Christmas. I finally have the space for a huge tree (my bucket list!) so I’m gonna do it.

Tree number two was planned to be the more kid-friendly tree with all of our fun ornaments and crazy lights. It’s definitely not the best fake tree but once you get it zhuzhed with lights and ornaments it’s fine.

It’s hard to get a decent daylight pic since it’s in front of the bright window.

The lights are actually insane LED lights with like 12 colors that chase and flash and race and it can be quite anxiety-inducing. The kids love it (and it is cool) but when I get to pick it’s a calm purple.

We are officially homeowners again!!

After some last-minute drama (with getting the funds wired the morning of)…it’s a done deal. We are now the proud owners of a 30-year mortgage! But it’s seriously our dream house and we couldn’t be happier. Tom and I just keep saying What did we do?! Oh yeah, we bought a house THAT WE LOVE.

I mean, we have purchased two houses in the past and they were both great for us at the time but we never loved them. We. LOVE this. house. (Is it perfect? Of course not. But does it check all of our boxes? Minus a lazy river and a four car garage… Yes.)

And then Anna brought the kids over…and was our family photographer!!

Our agent got us this cool sign!

We will be homeowners again!

It’s really happening, y’all. We will be homeowners again on July 8 barring any unforeseen circumstances! That’s two months from now!

I didn’t want this style of house again but that’s what 99% of the market here is.

From seeing the house listed Tuesday to getting pre-approved Wednesday morning to walking through the house Wednesday to making and signing an offer and getting the offer accepted was less than 48 hours!! We were only the second people to view the house!

This wasn’t something we were going to do until spring but we’ve been looking at houses for a few months and we know what’s out there and what we want…and this house had 95% of our wish list!!

This is pretty close to a dream kitchen. The only thing missing is an actual pantry…but there are tons of cabinets.
And something we didn’t know we wanted – a huge wet bar!

And look at my side of the master bath!

As soon as this Covid debacle allows, we will be having a MEGA housewarming/retirement party. Oh, yeah – Tom turned in his retirement papers last week so that’s official now, too (his official date is July 1, 2021).

We are still stunned. And excited. And exhausted.