HOLY SCHNEIKES!

(Is that how you spell that?!) Look at what I found while I was searching for something else! Talk about a #glowup eh?!

▪️2017 was when I first started wearing LipSense (and no other SeneGence makeup or skincare)!
▪️2021 is after day-in/day-out SeneGence makeup AND skincare!

Yes, please!

I always thought the SeneGence glow-up photos were retouched but now that it’s me, I promise you there’s no filter or touch-up happening!

I also never thought I’d see this big of a change in my skin but here we are! I’m proof!!

Golden Girls holds up!

And it’s still funny as hell!! (But the clothes and hair are… YIKES!) They were all great but Betty White was such a treasure.

Mom and I were watching Golden Girls while putting a puzzle together. Tom and I were telling Owen we were about his age when we watched it.

Owen, incredulous: Daaaad? You watched a — GIRLS SHOW?!

Then we caught him laughing at it.

Back to Chinese for 20 years!

We ate Chinese for our first married meal so for a bunch of years after, we would eat Chinese on our anniversary—we even managed when he was deployed. Then we got out of the routine. We decided today was a good day to jump back in as we had to make an unexpected trip to Milwaukee so we had a lot of good options.

This was a definite winner as every single thing was DELICIOUS but our fave was the Sliced Pork Belly in Garlic Sauce.

Happy 9th and 12-1/2th birthdays!

The show must go on! We had paid for the double birthday party and the weather was gorgeous and we were not cancelling—even though lots of people told me they wouldn’t have been surprised. Really, though, most everything was taken care of by the staff—we basically just had to haul in the drinks and snacks and then had the pizza delivered. I pretty much stayed on the picnic table the whole time.

A great time was had by all!

Maggie puppy in watercolor!

A Facebook ad strikes again! I kept seeing the PAWS ad on my feed for awhile now where they take a pet photo and make a watercolor out of it. Yes I know apps can do the same thing but it was only $5 so I thought I’d try it. It is cute and I’d say worth the $5 but it’s nothing super special. But damn Maggie was a cute puppy.

The original, 2005

Dear Diary—2020 Edition

This is an amazing read, totally spot on, and absolutely hilarious. I didn’t write it, but I feel as though it sums it all up pretty well through around June 25th. What will the second half of 2020 bring…??

Dear Diary, (2020 Edition)

In January, Australia caught on fire. I don’t even know if that fire was totally put out, because we straight up almost went to war with Iran. We might actually still be almost at war with them. I don’t know, because Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt spoke to one another at an awards show and everyone flipped the f— out, but then Netflix released Cheer and everyone fell in love with Jerry, but then there was a thing happening in China, then Prince Harry and Megan peaced out of the Royal family, and there was the whole impeachment trial, and then corona virus showed up in the US “officially,” but then Kobe died and UK peaced out of the European Union.

In February, Iowa crapped itself with the caucus results and the president was acquitted and the Speaker of the House took ten years to rip up a speech, but then WHO decided to give this virus a name COVID-19, which confused some really important people in charge of, like, our lives, into thinking there were 18 other versions before it, but then Harvey Weinstein was found guilty, and Americans started asking if Corona beer was safe to drink, and everyone on Facebook became a doctor who just knew the flu like killed way more people than COVID 1 through 18.

In March, shit hit the fan. Warren dropped out of the presidential race and Sanders was like Bernie or bust, but then Italy shut its whole ass down, and then COVID Not 1 through 18 officially become what everyone already realized, a pandemic and then a nationwide state of emergency was declared in US, but it didn’t really change anything, so everyone was confused or thought it was still just a flu, but then COVID Not 18 was like ya’ll not taking me seriously? I’m gonna infect the one celebrity everyone loves and totally infected Tom Hanks, but then the DOW took a shit on itself, and most of us still don’t understand why the stock market is so important or even a thing (I still don’t), but then we were all introduced to Tiger King. (Carol totally killed her husband), and Netflix was like you’re welcome, and we all realized there was no way we were washing our hands enough in the first place because all of our hands are now dry and gross.

In April, parents all earned their teaching degrees and drank in the job. Bernie finally busted himself out of the presidential race, but then NYC became the set of The Walking Dead and we learn that no one has face masks, ventilators, or toilet paper, or THE FREAKING SWIFFER WET JET LIQUID, but then Kim Jong-Un died, but then he came back to life… or did he? Who knows, because then the Pentagon released videos of UFOs and nobody cared, and we were like man, it’s only April….

In May, the biblical end times kicked off historical locust swarms and then we learned of murder hornets and realized that 2020 was the start of the Hunger Games but people forgot to let us know, but then people legit protested lockdown measures with AR-15s, and then sports events were cancelled everywhere, But then people all over America finally reached a breaking point with race issues and violence. There were protests in every city, but then people forgot about the pandemic called COVID Not One Through 18. Media struggled with how to focus on two important things at once, but then people in general struggle to focus on more than one important thing, and a dead whale was found in the middle of the Amazon rain forest after monkeys stole COVID 1 Through 19 from a lab and ran off with them, and either in May or April (no one is keeping track of time now) that a giant asteroid narrowly missed earth.

In June, science and common sense just got thrown straight out the window and somehow wearing masks became a political thing, but then a whole lot of people realized the south was actually the most unpatriotic thing ever and actually lost the civil war, and there is a large amount of people who feel that statues they don’t even know the name of are needed for … history reasons….., but then everyone sort of remembered there was a pandemic, but then decided that not wearing a mask was somehow a god given right (still haven’t found that part in the bible or even in the constitution), but then scientists announced they found a mysterious undiscovered mass at the center of the earth, and everyone was like DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH IT, but then everyone took a pause to realize that people actually believed Gone With The Wind was like non-fiction, but then it was also announced that there is a strange radio signal coming from somewhere in the universe that repeats itself every so many days, and everyone was like DON’T YOU DARE ATTEMPT TO COMMUNICATE WITH. IT, but then America reopened from the shut down that actually wasn’t even a shut down, and so far, things have gone spectacularly not that great, but everyone is on Facebook arguing that masks kill because no one knows how breathing works, but then Florida was like hold my beer and let me show you how we’re number one in all things, including new Not Corona Beer Corona Virus, Trump decides now is a good time to ask the Supreme Court to shut down Obama Care because what better time to do so than in the middle of a pandemic, but then we learned there was a massive dust cloud coming straight at us from the Sahara Desert, which is totally normal, but this is 2020, so the ghost mummy thing is most likely in that dust cloud, but then I learned of meth-gators, and I’m like that is so not on my f-ing 2020 Bingo card, but then we learned that the Congo’s worse ever Ebola outbreak is over, and we were all like, there was an ebola outbreak that was the worse ever?

What diner memories do you have?

A friend recently talked about her love of classic diners and if you’re like me, as soon as you hear those words you instantly think of one from your childhood or young adulthood. Mine was

Mine was Dawson’s.

This is the only pic I could find in a quick Google.

It was on the main drag of our tiny town. I could walk there from my mom’s office or the middle school. It had the long counter with spinning stools that ran almost the entire length of the building plus it had about 8 booths. One side was the eating and the other side was the shopping. I think it was a five and dime or maybe a drugstore? That part is hazy but I for sure remember looking at comic books and candy and getting Push Ups in the summer.

I also remember having a real fountain Cherry Coke there before Cherry Coke was a real thing (then vanilla at a later date). They had things like a grilled cheese or egg salad sandwich for $2.30 and even back then I knew that was cheap. And if you ordered a shake you’d get the whole silver cup with the extra in it—as a kid that was THE SHIZ.

That was a loooong time ago and they’ve since changed names slightly and removed the five and dime part of it (and added more seating and a museum) and I’m realizing it’s been too long since I’ve been there and our kids have never been so this summer–hopefully this summer if we can travel–that’s where we’re going. I can already taste it.

Tubing with the fam!

We all went tubing today at Hanson Hills!! I had never done it before but I am all about NOT having to walk up the hill!! I hadn’t been inside the building in probably 25 years…plus they’ve totally updated it…so how can it still smell exactly the same?!

Tubing was so much fun…but everyone else in Grayling had the same idea and there were too many people (IMO) so we only got three runs in! It only took about 10 minutes max to ride up and go down but they’re were so many people we were waiting 15 minutes in line. (The tow rope also broke for about 15 minutes—THANKS, MARIE!—so that didn’t help.)

Katie only went down twice—she got too freaked out that she was going to come out of the tube. I could actually understand—you really got going fast and I was initially a bit freaked out. I went down once with Owen, once with Tom, and then the last trip with Tom, Owen, Doug, and Robert!

Thanks to Gramma Jean for taking pics with my phone!!