Unfortunately today was really just a travel day. Since I had to change my flight at the last minute, I had a crappy boarding time on the first flight so I got a middle seat so no cool pics.
Even though I still had crappy boarding times for the second flight, I managed to score a window seat!
Overall it was an amazing weekend… Even if I didn’t get home until 9:30 instead of 4:30. And Olive greeted me like a crazed banshee when I got in the car… And then rode home like this.
We thought she was a Turtle 2 for the last while… But turns out she was a Shark 1, so today she graduated to Shark 2! So now we have two Shark 2 swimmers!
For as much as I take pictures of everything we do, I seemingly always let it slip on pool party day. At least I got one of both kids.
This one was from a friend.
And this was as we were packing up—Anna found a little grasshopper and put it on Katie.
The party was a big success again! All the kids love it! And it’s easy since we don’t have to clean the house.
Proud to support a local business that supports the local schools by promoting a YES vote on the upcoming referendum!
Great weather (after the horrible heat and humidity wave we had), a nice breeze, SEATS IN THE SHADE, friends (Anna and Kelly!), good music, peanut M&Ms, a cold beverage, and a library book!
And makeup that would stay on if I dared to go swimming — I did go in up to my neck as a starter!
In and out super quick—we were the only people there! Two YES votes for #yeswths!
Candy, Anna, and I were working on some Vote YesWTHS reminder postcards today and we even roped the kids into helping (and they have better handwriting than we do)!
It was very weird having the kids sign theirs “class of 2027” and “class of 2030”!!!!
There was no way in hell I was missing this on the big screen…
My thoughts?
Basically an empty park (there might be 30 guests here and that’s being generous—I’ve counted who I can see and it’s less than 30), perfect weather for me not going in the pool (it’s a measly 70°!), good music, a new book, and kids leaving me alone… I just wish they served margaritas!
1:22pm — started a book!
3:17 — about halfway finished!
I ended up finishing it in bed that night! I remember the good ol’ days when I’d read a book a day. I love getting to do it again!
OMGGGGGGG!!! I casually mentioned to a client that anytime she wanted to bring me a bouquet of lilacs…
And look what appeared on my porch today?!
My kitchen smells sooooo good!
For the moment, life is perfect. I’m in my egg chair. The weather is 75° with low humidity and it’s shady. Olive has stopped biting my toes and is cuddly. Any bets on how long this will last?
Exploring the deck!
Playing with Honey’s ball!
Playing in the grass! Well, chewing on something in the grass.
Now she’ll suddenly appear behind you!
Mom, I know you get super frustrated with me when I constantly bite your feet (and no one else’s) so I’m gonna fall asleep on you so you still love me.
And another nap…
We taught her to use the stairs today. But she liked chewing on them too much so they got put away!
I started using the Dry line on October 27, which puts me at just over five months so far for the evening moisturizer…and I just moved the last of it into the pump bottle which means I have at least another month or two! And honestly there’s probably 2-3 days worth left in the original jar!
If I may toot my own horn just a little bit…these are the THREE awards I received during Seminar!
The first was at the dominion awards night (Friday). Technically I don’t belong to this group but the crown princess has adopted me. This is a separate event for just the ladies in the group. Since I’m adopted, my actual numbers don’t show up in her info, but she has a lot of adoptees in her group so she did a Top 10 of everyone…
I was #6 in total sales out of the 6,000+ distributors across the whole group.
The big awards were the next night in front of the entire seminar crowd! Certain awards have you walk across the stage…so had I been there, I’d have gotten to go up twice:
Significant SeneSeller means I sold a minimum of $1500 a month, each month, for the entire year.
Inner Circle Personal Volume is what I’ve sold during the year — and I was #67 out of all distributors in the United States!
And these are the ladies I’d have been standing with:
Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past five years—whether you made a purchase, liked a post, left a review, talked about LipSense to a friend, helped me brainstorm, posted a selfie, watched a demo, or anything else! I couldn’t have done ANY of this without you!
And if you want to celebrate with me and get some freebies, I can hook you up this month!
We used what we had on hand: butter, brown sugar, and caramelized pancetta with a maple syrup drizzle.
Oh. My. Gawd.
(This was actually on March 10.)
I made an ostrich egg for my son-in-law. He retired from the United States Marine Corps last year. I had so many issues with this project and want to thank one of my egg peeps, Mark Malachowski, for all his help! We were able to travel this weekend so I could gift him with it. It was, by far, the most challenging Pysanky I’ve ever done.
Congratulations Tom!
And some photos of the whole process!
Typically this would be in person but Zoom is still the way of life for a lot of events. So we were all on the stage in the Cafe watching while the kids played in front of the judges on a huge screen!
Grandma and grandpa and the Chang-Yens were able to be there so Owen was excited about that!
Technically I really don’t belong anywhere in SeneGence—I don’t have any official uplines anymore (the CEO is mine, which sounds cool but doesn’t really do anything for me)…so that Jenna Clark has taken me under her wing in her group fills my heart (logistically I fall under her, but it’s so far below it’s not official).
So I have to admit I love seeing this when I visit her group. I am in the TOP 5 SELLERS of her entire global dominion (you can see her group has 6.2K members). If you would have told me this (almost) five years ago when I started this little side hustle, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. AND LAUGHED. Yet here we are.
HERE I AM.
Please don’t ever knock your friends’ side gigs because you NEVER know just what it means to them, their families, their mental well-being, or their overall life. Maybe consider celebrating them instead.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
The turnaround time from Lap of Love was astounding. Maggie’s ashes were hand delivered to us this morning. Katie put her with the other pets (and the sign she made).
Cue tears. (And more random tears when I’m writing and posting this on 3/6.)
Nothing like being woken at 3:30am by a sick kid (“Mom…Mom…I threw up in my bed”) and having to change the sheets twice in 20 minutes. (Which was especially difficult because a teen boy does not take care of his laundry or keep sheet sets together. So he might or might not have one sheet and a dog blanket on his bed.) And try not to get sick myself because that smell was the most vile thing I’ve smelled in my life. (It was half a day before the smell finally left my nose.)
The first load of laundry went in at 4am with more loads to come (sheets, comforter, mattress pad—oh yeah, we learned that his mattress pad wasn’t really waterproof so his mattress got a quick spot cleaning).
I’ve forgotten how awful this is — no one has been sick like this in years.
Thankfully he slept most of the day. Even took a shower and went back to bed.
I had been worried about having to get him tested for Covid — even though we knew it was a stomach bug, everything is a symptom of Covid so it’s mandatory — but the nurse said she knew the stomach bug was going around, so as long as he followed the normal return-to-school-after-sickness protocol (minimum 24 hours with no vomit or diarrhea) then he could come in to the nurse’s office before school and get tested. Excellent!
He was doing pretty well by that night (he was able to eat a little bit) but still tired. And I started to feel a little off so we all went to bed early (plus I was exhausted since I had been up since 3:30am and only had a short nap).
And is it wrong that all I want to do is like 14 loads of laundry but I have to wait two hours until they warm up (per delivery people)?
(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!!
Did you know that all Great Wolf Lodge waterparks are not the same?! I didn’t until this week.
Anna got a steal of a deal on a weekday suite so we took the kids for an overnight surprise before school starts again.
As broken-bodied adults, we were excited about the hot tub (and, to a lesser extent, the lazy river).
Until.
We learned that this particular GWL does not have a hot tub!! WHAAAAAT?! I know, right? Fail. Big BIG fail. Ughhhh.
And then we learned that the lazy river (among other things) wasn’t open because they were short-staffed.
GAHHHHHHHH!!!!! 0 for 2 does not make for a happy mom.
But the kids didn’t care. And they ended up opening the lazy river later in the day so Anna and I got to be floating blobs for two hours.
But the water wasn’t warm enough for me and the air temp felt too cold, too. I think maybe I’m too old for this.
After checkout, Anna and I managed to find a somewhat secluded couch to relax while the kids are back in the waterpark. We can actually stay until close (!) but I’m thinking we’ll just stay until lunch!
It’s hard to believe I’ve been working and sharing my makeup and skincare biz for almost 5 years now (!!) and it’s beyond humbling that so many of my friends and acquaintances have chosen me as their makeup and skincare girl.
But…
I hope y’all know it’s more than that to me.
It’s gained confidence.
It’s growth.
It’s showing my kids that you can set HUUUUUGE goals (over and over) and achieve them with hard work!
Friends…it’s a journey I NEVER expected to be on (like seriously, my mom even commented yesterday that l certainly never expected ALL THIS to happen and I wholeheartedly agreed!), yet one of the BEST parts about this journey is…
The new friendships with all of YOU…
And knowing that I’m surrounded by some of the most incredible women out there.
And knowing that I’m making some small part of your lives better.
Thank you just never seems like enough, yet there are no better words.
So… Really and truly from the bottom of my heart…
THANK YOU!
Thank you for the best year ever!
And if you’d like to be a part of my little world where I love on you and help try to make your life a little better…the door at Living Lippy with Jen is always open!
Friends, an amazing pizza (from leftover fish tacos that that boys gave me grief about but IT was freaking delicious!), and our first dip in the hot tub! Merry Christmas!
This pic makes the hot tub look soooo much bigger than it really is. It would be a stretch to have three adults in it at the same time—four would have everyone’s knees touching for sure!
And then we did the Saran wrap ball for the kids! We had about $60 worth of stuff in it!
And it was great fun…
Until two kids weren’t getting anything.
Don’t worry, they all ended up with stuff—and some trading was done. But it definitely wasn’t perfect.
And then I tried to get a Santa hat picture but Katie wasn’t really being cooperative. Oh well—it just makes memories!
So we got an early Christmas present for us…an Ooni pizza oven (we’d casually talked about it before but then after talking with Jim and Beth over Thanksgiving, our interest was renewed).
Tonight was the inaugural dinner with David and Anna (and kids) as guinea pigs. Initial setup was on the deck but torrential rain moved it to the garage.
And it was absolutely amazing! I foresee a lot of pizza in our future…