Gramma is funny.

So I’d say my mom is somewhat computer literate but she hasn’t jumped into iOS at all (to give you an idea, they have a TracFone).

But this year she got her first iPad for Christmas from us kids…and I’ve been giving her small lessons. It’s a totally new experience for her but she’s doing well–I’ve been using iOS since 2009 so sometimes I forget how overwhelming it can all be.

So tonight a bunch of us were talking and she was standing by me when she took a photo and she asked if I wanted it so I told her to Airdrop it to me (something I taught her last night) and without hesitation she dropped the iPad into my lap.

The room never laughed so hard. #scoreoneformom #micdrop

In one week our family will be on this ship…

I honestly still can’t believe it’s real. This will be our first cruise with the kids and they are beyond excited.

And I am extremely thankful for SeneGence for providing me the opportunity to treat my family to this experience. Yes, you heard that correctly…this entire cruise from flights to excursions to souvenirs is MY TREAT—paid for totally by my little side gig. That was my main goal when I started doing this 2-1/2 years ago—totally a pipe dream and little did I know that the business would take off and I would be having so much fun and earning enough to spoil my family like this.

SeneGence has also totally changed my self confidence, changed my look, given me a whole new set of friends, and showed my kids that when you set goals anything can happen!

#senethankful

Len Christmas in July, Year 6

I’m not sure we have enough crap for one day.

See? It really is Christmas!

When you learn awesome party tricks from your elders: Tequila-infused watermelon with salted limes. Aunt Rose, you rock!

The annual cousin lineup, by age: 7, 10½, 11, 12 (almost 13), 14 (almost 15).

And Nick is pulling away, which is okay since he is almost five years older!!

Adding older cousin Alex (17) to the mix (Jess was working).

I introduced Lisa to a few new products.

Unfortunately, it was a stormy day so we had to dodge rain and lightning for most of the afternoon…but, on the plus side, it wasn’t 100° with 95% humidity! My hair kinda grew throughout the day.

There was a fishing contest… Aubrey is a Master Fisher so she helped my kids. I was surprised at how long they kept at it! (Of course Tom was out there, too.)

Darrell caught the biggest one:

And then this happened…

Someone started the cooties!! (I think that will be a blog post in itself!) So for the last two hours we all had to keep our fingers crossed! We reminisced about the old days and learned Greg still has what it takes!

The big bummer? Lisa and Alex left pretty early and with the rain throwing things off, we totally forgot to take our group photo!

The story behind the biggest and best birthday present ever.

So let me preface this announcement by asking if you remember what one of my business goals was? Anyone? Bueller?

Yes, it was a family cruise. (I think I specifically said Disney, but realistically any cruise would suffice.) And we hoped the grandparents would tag along—I mean, what a great experience for the kids, right? And we’d all get an amazing vacation where no one has to cook or clean, we all get to relax and have fun with the kids, and hopefully escape some yucky Midwest weather.

So we forewarned the grandparents (they weren’t quite as excited as we were but they promised to think about it) and let our travel agent know we were looking for a good deal on a cruise. But then life takes over and you don’t think about it and time passes and you know that if you don’t actively engage, nothing will ever happen. And then something happens out of the blue and before you know it, you have put down a deposit on a cruise and it’s convenient to wait a few days to tell the kids after their party!

So what happened in an instant? New friends of ours (from baseball) that we’ve been hanging around with (and the kids love) were talking about a cruise they’re going on this fall. And not having any idea that a family cruise was actually in the back of our minds, she (possibly mostly in jest) said “You guys should come with us!” So I took a breath and said “You know, that might just work!”

It was the cruise line we just went on last year (almost the same ship, too) so that was a plus. A quick check of the calendar and with Tom (who pretty much gave an immediate and unequivocal YES!), and a few quick messages with our travel agent…and the cruise was booked! (Our TA even said he’s never booked a cruise that fast before!)

Long multiple-day story short, my dad and stepmom decided to go, too, so that’s awesome and we’re super excited. (We really tried to convince my mom and stepdad to go but weren’t successful.)

In the meantime, Tom started watching YouTube videos about the ship, pretending we were just showing the kids examples of cruises. We reaffirmed that we would be going on a cruise before we moved again, but that still left us two years.

We honestly didn’t think too much about how we were going to tell them, so after the party I rushed to the basement and cobbled together a card with the cruise info on it so they’d read it and hopefully we’d get a great video reaction.

Well, as usual, things didn’t go quite as we’d thought…

Merry Christmas from the little beasts!

Yes, these masks might have freaked them out just a bit hiding in their big Santa bags. 😂

Tom and I were up before 7…but the kids weren’t—their phones were still outside their bedroom doors!! Well, if I was up they were going to be up [dammit!] so just as I was about to get Owen up he walked out, and then we had him wake Katie up!

Santa screwed up a little by using the same paper for our gifts, too, and not making sure ours all had name tags… The kids were too excited to see their paper on other gifts that weren’t in their Santa bags so ended up opening a few of ours. Oh well. Maybe next year Santa won’t start wrapping quite so late.

Both kids were excited to see a programmable robot that they’d previously asked for and forgot about… Plus Santa did bring some things they specifically asked for (ballet shoes and Pokémon cards) so they were happy. All gifts were open by 8am. 🙂

WHAT U TALKIN BOUT

The cousins were all having a ball playing together and I thought they’d have a blast playing “WHAT U TALKIN BOUT?” (the game where you try to say phrases while wearing dental mouthpieces—there are many versions of this game). Katie had bought it for Owen for Christmas and we weren’t set to open it for days but I am glad we did…we haven’t laughed so hard in a long time! It was definitely worth the $2.50 sale price at the dollar store.

Amazon makes Katie happy!

Katie has been bugging me for a doll stroller for awhile now. I wasn’t going to get her one because she doesn’t need anything else…but then I remembered she had Christmas money from Grauntie Rose and Gruntie Jim. So she and I looked at them on Amazon and two days later, we had a happy little girl.

She walks it all over. Takes it down to Sofia’s. Takes it down to the park (almost a half mile walk!)…

Behind the scenes of Living Lippy!

Have you ever wanted to see behind the scenes? Well here you go! Today I was trying a new lipstick color (Samon) and decided to try and take some selfies with my beloved margaritas. 🍹(Side question: how on earth is there not a real margarita emoji?!)

So here are just 12 of the probably 75 I took trying to get some cool shots. As you can see, I started with freshly washed/wavy hair. Then I decided to straighten it and pull out the margarita glasses (I had to go in the very depths of the basement to get them because they are too big to store in my regular cabinets!).

Then I was chatting with a friend who lovingly chastised me for not having a full glass for realism so at 10:30 in the morning I was opening a bottle of Kirkland margaritas. See what I do for this business?! 😂 And let me tell y’all—my margarita glasses are glass and heavy and huge! As you can see from the scale—3 pounds once it’s full (I still can’t believe I didn’t spill any on myself while taking these selfies!).

And of course this morning it was windy as all hell so it was a big challenge to get a picture without any hair in my face. So now I am about to add some ice and dig into that margarita that has been tempting me since 10:30 this morning…and go out on the patio and read my book!

Cheers!

A weekend with Uncle Rob and Miss Dee!

They came to visit us for the first time and to take the kids out for their Christmas presents—they had given them certificates for dinner and a movie!!

They also decided to take them bowling on base! The kids had a blast (they also got to play some video games and air hockey plus have lunch at McDonald’s).

On Saturday Katie monopolized Miss Dee doing puzzles and playing kitchen. That afternoon they went to a movie then to Unos for pizza!

Sunday we went out for breakfast and then it was time to say goodbye.

Welcome to today’s hell.

A gift to Katie from a well-meaning aunt. While Katie does love puzzles, of course she doesn’t have the attention span for this (hell, I barely do) but she really wants to color it. If it was up to me I’d just throw it in the trash (well I’m not an idiot, I’d give it away). But guess who will end up doing it all?? Her face just about sums it up for me too. 😂

#whowantstohelp
#idonthavetimeforthis
#puzzleparty
#ihavewineandmargaritas
#whendotheygobacktoschool
#thisauntisonmyshitlist

A friend is going to come help Friday.

Someone just spent some birthday money at Toys R Us.

We had promised the kids we’d take them shopping after Christmas to spend some of their birthday money/gift cards. (We’d postponed shopping due to the move and then we just forgot about it but when I took them Christmas shopping for each other they both obviously wanted to shop for themselves.)

I went with Katie and Tom went with Owen. They each had $35 to spend. Katie kept trading items out of the cart as she found stuff she liked better. It took her a bit to understand that she couldn’t just get everything she wanted. I had to guide her a little bit but she did well.

She loves being a mermaid. (This was a last-minute purchase that was her entire budget but she also had an expensive doll she really wanted. So to make my life easier, I let her get both and now she has used up all of her Target gift cards as well!)

I wasn’t thrilled about this huge animal but I was thrilled it wasn’t a 200-piece Shopkins set. She also got a huge 24″ Barbie-type doll so all of her gift cards are now gone (she had Target ones as well but since she went over budget, they’re now mine!).

Owen bought a bunch of random smaller stuff that I’m sure will be played with for a week and then lost. 😂 But he was happy today!

Santa found us in Grayling!

As is tradition, we set the kids’ phones outside their rooms so when they get up in the morning they have something to do until we get up and are ready (which is always by 7). This morning Katie was still sleeping at 7 and Owen had already had enough of his phone and was laying by the door just waiting… So Tom woke Katie up!

Katie got a note from Santa telling her he left a big present at home since he knew she was at Gramma’s—a Barbie power wheels!!

Then the kids opened their gifts from each other… Owen loved his sword, yoyo, and Lego Ninjago stuff and Katie was happy he was happy. Awwwww.

And then it was her turn to open and she LOVED what Owen got her (a Belle doll and matching Belle dress)!

And Gramma’s picture of the same scene from a different angle! So cute and so thrilled! 🙂

And then they put together their Lego figures they got each other.

Tom said Katie saw this wine key when they were out and about and she had to get it for me. So now whenever I want wine, I show her the key and she will bring me some. 🙂

And she also picked out this painted stone at a favorite store of mine in Grayling—Tip’n the Mitten!

The one thing she repeatedly asked for—a Sparty cheerleader outfit. She used to have a hand-me-down from the Besons but it is too small. This one should fit for a few years (Gramma had to take in the skirt because she’s so tiny).

Gramma Marsha had all these Barbies packed away so we held on to them until this Christmas. She loved them.