Soooo on our anniversary we stopped at an Asian grocery store and I splurged on like 10 different bags of awesome sounding potato chip flavors. Except… Some don’t have names on them—just photos.
We tried this nameless flavor tonight that we decided was some type of soup with broth and mushrooms and peppers…? They were definitely yummy but I really wanted to know the flavor. I reverse image searched and googled to no avail so finally went to friends on Facebook and learned that the translation must not be exact because it was listed as both Chinese Sauerkraut and Pickle Fish. But others translated the actual language on the bag and got salted fish and Laotian pickled cabbage fish flavor.
Then there was this exchange:
THOSE AREN’T MUSHROOMS!!!
Lordy, taking a closer look—no, those definitely aren’t mushrooms!
But I liked them so all was well, whether they were salted fish or Chinese Sauerkraut!! I can’t wait to taste the other flavors!
I just received a whole handful of letters from Northwestern all saying the same thing—their records indicate I don’t have insurance to cover my recent services. Except everything (or almost everything) was already approved. Sigh. This shit exhausts me.
Tom just finally heard today about the Abbvie job that they had basically told him they were CREATING FOR HIM… that he’s been waiting for for 2+ months…
He didn’t get it. There was someone with more experience who was hired last week.
What a kick in the ass.
So now he’s like months behind because he worked for them for a few months (instead of looking while he was still in the Marines), then has been off for three months waiting for them to get their shit together. Not doing anything to look for a job because we thought this was pretty guaranteed. (Granted we should have been adults and prepping for this, but we honestly thought it was like 99% guaranteed.)
It has been a shitshow since the beginning though. And he just found out like a week ago that — get this — the HR person he had been dealing with? Was fired or left or something and no one picked up her duties, which included contacting Tom. So they finally scheduled a Zoom call with him…just to tell him he wasn’t hired.
So now we’ll have a mad rush trying to get his CV together and find local jobs to apply for. And hope he can find something quickly because our savings is way low with all the house stuff we’ve been stupidly doing assuming he’d have a good paying job by now.
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)!
new fixtures to replace contractor-grade boob lights
a new dining room fixture
a new foyer table coming this weekend
new bar footrails
and a new fireplace tile surround and flooring…
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!!
Katie’s getting a back to school cut…and I get to sit with her purse because she doesn’t need me standing next to her anymore. Cue motherly crying.
Her hair is FINALLY getting longer! It seriously didn’t grow forever—it was so strange! This is only her fourth cut in her life and every time was just a tiny trim. Needless to say she’s excited!
Anna wanted to take a guided kayak tour at Starved Rock campground and invited us. I know my limits and Katie’s limits (after her kayak meltdown at Grannie and Papa’s earlier this summer) so I passed…but Tom and Owen went. They had a great time! (And I had a good time taking Katie shopping!)
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.
I could barely move by the time I went to bed last night (but I did remove my makeup!) and I literally fell into bed and didn’t move most of the night. So this day of relaxation is 100% necessary because we are DEAD exhausted. So I’m relaxing with my feet up (and wearing gel socks and Heel & Elbow cream because my heels are super cracked after wearing flip flops for multiple days all day long). We did a lot of cleanup last night and a little this morning but the rest of it can wait.
Maggie must even be exhausted—she hasn’t slept up here since the last house!
We’ve all been cooped up with Covid and missed ALLLLLLLLLL the excuses to party…and you know we like to throw a house party…so we’re doing them all at once!
Post-Covid Celebration
Cascade Housewarming (7/2020)
Tom’s USMC retirement (6/2021)
BFF Anna-versary (8/2021)
Our 20th Anniversary (8/2021)
End-of-Summer/Back-to-School
Saturday morning and the Jello shots are here and ready thanks to Angela (she took the assignment when I ran out of time). But look at how well they fit in our garage fridge? It’s like it was meant to be.
About an hour before the party and I wasn’t even dressed yet. You think “Oh there’s only a little bit to do” but all the little things add up! Angela came over to help with a bunch of it and I’m eternally grateful. (Anna was picking up my kids from a class and getting the cupcakes.) It takes a village to throw a big party!!
Getting closer—getting the mixed drink dispensers ready! Peach Bellini, Rum Punch (empty), Vodka and lemonade, Beergarita, Bahama Mama.
David making his famous Trinidad rum punch! Yes that’s two full bottles of rum going in.
I forgot to take a pic of the food table but the dessert table was insane so I did takes a pic of that! We wouldn’t have needed to buy cupcakes at all! We had a few different kinds of cookies, two smoked cheesecakes, a German chocolate cake, a white cake, mini cupcakes, and Sam’s Club cupcakes!
Local-ish TiVo peeps!
We had to do at least one LipSense selfie!
The ribs were a hit. The pulled pork was amazing. And we have a ton of leftovers!
The only pics I snapped outside during the party!
The slide was a huge hit as expected. A few adults did go down towards the end of the night—butb it was actually cold by then so it didn’t last long.
David ended up making drinks for people at the bar…
And as we were saying goodbye to people, I discovered someone left a fern in our empty pot! (I had wanted to get succulents planted in it but never got to it with all the house stuff.) Turns out it was Ava, one of my gardener friends!
We just have great friends—from everyone who offered to help to the ones who loaned us things to the ones that jumped in to help before, during (putting away leftovers and doing the first round of kitchen clean up, and after (cleaning up the yard and house)… Thank you. We had a great time and I think everyone else did, too! Now to clean up some more and relax…
Tom already had multiple racks of ribs smoked and in the sous vide for a day, but the butts are more last minute! This means we’re getting close to party day!
We had a generic white ceiling fan in the living room but wanted something with a bit more pizzazz since we were redoing everything else…and with the high ceilings we also needed help! This is our electrician Jorge (he’s been doing jobs for us since we moved to Gurnee four years ago)!
Out with the old!And here’s the new one! It’s bigger!
We also got a new chandelier for the foyer…which also required Jorge.
The Original — nice, just not my style
So now I’ll take a minute and tell you some backstory: I found this chandelier on Facebook Marketplace back in May. It was expensive but was being offered at less than half price (I googled). But it was exactly what I wanted. Something I would have only dreamed of getting but never would because of the price.
So we discussed and decided yes. We offered $750 but she declined saying they paid full price. We still wanted it. But we had to borrow a truck and then we just couldn’t connect and then she was on vacation for six weeks… But we lucked out in that we were able to pick it up the day before Jorge was scheduled to come.
We went to pick it up and the lady was super nice. We chatted and told her we were military, this was my dream chandelier, etc. and she offered to buy the bulbs too thank us for our service! Wait, what? Seriously? We knew the bulbs were going to be a couple hundred dollars (we needed 36 and they are specialty bulbs) so we asked again to make sure. Yes, she was sure!
We chatted more and I ended up inviting her to our upcoming party, and she said she would order the bulbs ASAP and drop them off at the house!
It’s huge.
We then shared a few texts picking out the bulbs we wanted (we had the same ones in both our carts) and then she even dropped off four bottles of Prosecco for our party! So the whole thing just went off perfectly.
Anyway. Back to the install.
Since it was so big and heavy, Tom and I even had to help!
Using straps because it’s almost 100#. This is where I helped — I pulled on one of the straps to pull the chandelier out of the way of the ladder as they raised it.
Getting it to this point took two days and about four hours! It took a bunch of trips into the attic to reinforce the bracket and do the wiring and who knows what else.
And then it was time to install the lightbulbs!
And holy crap. It was just a little bright.
The light was obviously meant to be in just a bit bigger room. Or maybe a bigger non-enclosed space? Or less-bright lights? We all got a good laugh out of it regardless. And long story short, the bulbs are dimmable so we will eventually change one of the three switches to a dimmer.
We had it rolled up while the fireplace was being worked on and the ceiling fan was installed. As soon as we put it back (adding the padded mat), she was all over it.
You guys. YOU GUYS. Here’s a look at the brand new Enchanted Forest Lip Duo! It’s AMAZEBALLS. Like seriously. And coming from a person who doesn’t love the lighter pink lip… that’s saying something.
