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Author Archives: Jen

Owen’s first concert performance!

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The entire third grade class presented a concert tonight. (This is actually only half the students—the other half went an hour earlier!) They sang a few songs together and then each class sang their own song while playing instruments. It was much of what you’d expect a third grade concert to be but they all looked like they were having fun and were proud of themselves. 🙂

After the concert we wanted to find Owen’s self-portrait (all the third-graders had done them and they were lining the gym). Owen had to point it out—I don’t think I ever wood have found it on my own. 🙂

Dinner tonight…as threatened!

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I’ve threatened to buy one the next time I saw an orange sticker…and today was the day! A glorious 2.28# of ribeye. Getting the sous vide ready now!

Someone is also interested…

Just sea salt, garlic powder, pepper, topped with an onion slice then cooked sous vide for five hours. Then Tom will take a torch to it to sear it!

It turned out absolutely delicious. We momentarily thought it was too rare and we going to toss it in a pan quick but we took a taste test and immediately decided it was perfect.

#NationalMargaritaDay

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Me: Owen, put your Lego robot away.

Owen does nothing and wastes time.

Me: Owen, put all your Legos on a tray and put it on the other room.

Owen: Why do I have to?

Me: Because it can’t stay in the middle of the floor right where everyone needs to walk. Put everything away on a tray.

Again he does nothing.

Me: Owen. Legos. Tray.

I see him moving stuff around.

Me: Owen, did you seriously just push everything in a pile against the wall? GET. A. TRAY.

I never thought I’d try fake lashes but here we are.

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Since I’ve been doing my makeup more these days, I’ve come to realize I need to bring my eyes out more—and I found a decent mascara but it still didn’t give me the ooomph I was looking for. So for awhile now I’ve been thinking about trying fake lashes. I never would have even thought about it except a bunch of my friends (and online makeup friends) wear them and they just look gorgeous. (Prior to getting in the makeup biz, I honestly thought fake lashes were strictly for professionals—models, movie stars, TV personalities—I never realized real people wore them every day!)

Well, I decided to order some very inexpensive ones to try—just to see if I could even put them on halfway successfully/deal with sticking something to my eyelid without looking like a clown. So I invited my friend Heidi over to assist—she wears them regularly and was going to be my support system. 🙂

And you know what? I LOOOOVE THEM. Holy cow. I’ll start with the After pic.

Amazing, right? Yet they still look natural enough, right?

I wasn’t completely successful with my first application—I overtrimmed one (and then consequently placed it too far inward) but overall it was easier than I thought it would be and I loved the look. It did take some getting used to to have a plastic strip attached to my eyelid but after a few hours it was almost unnoticeable. And of course I’ll get better with time. That said, I definitely won’t be wearing them all the time. But I do like them.

Before / Half done / After

In different lighting:

With my lash muse, Heidi:

My family had no idea I was trying them (I did them during the day) and I bet Heidi that Katie would notice and Tom wouldn’t. Within minutes of Katie getting off the bus—before we even made it home from the bus stop—she said I did something to my face, looked at me closer, then said it was my eyes. Ding! Ding! Ding! It took Tom a bit longer and he didn’t technically say anything (I had to ask but he said he did) but I’d say Katie won. 🙂

Kidisms 45

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I leaned over to kiss Tom.
Owen: KISS ALERT! KISS ALERT! KISS ALERT!

Grannie and Papa sent a package with stuff to store for them and included a few small packages for me, Katie, and Owen. Katie handed them out and saw that there wasn’t one for Tom.
Katie: Why isn’t there one for daddy?
Me: They must not have found anything for him.
Katie: They should have done one with beer.

Tom told Owen he loved him.
Owen: Yeah, I know. From the beginning.

I was watching Ellen and Justin Timberlake was on and though Katie knows who he is, she sometimes gets him confused with another blonde singer:
Oh wow! Is that Justin BEAVERTON?! [Going for Justin Bieber]

Katie was showing Tom her valentines and was putting them back in the white bag she decorated:
Here’s my owl bag. As you will recognize.

Katie’s little love notes take a strange turn.

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So Katie is still getting little love notes from Thomas on the bus. This one came yesterday with her saying he wanted a playdate. Fine, right? Look at the text. Do you see what I see?

❤️ Hey baby how do you make Katie get back together with me

😂 but also 😳, right?

Even though it’s coming from a Kindergartener it seems somewhat concerning. I emailed both teachers (he’s not in her class) just to sort of give them an FYI/heads up and to see if they’ve noticed anything weird. Katie’s teacher responded that they’d talk to them (I haven’t heard back yet if it’s happened).

Oh the teen years are going to be a joy…

Here. Enjoy the story of my evening.

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Katie couldn’t find her infinity scarf this morning and we all [thought we] remembered Owen was playing with it this weekend (he dresses up like a ninja) so we assumed he lost it somewhere (because that’s typical Owen—drop it anywhere in the house except where it goes) so I decided it was up to him to find it.

Fast forward to me turning the house upside down looking for it because he’s claiming it’s nowhere but we all know he can’t find jack shit unless it bites him on the face. But it’s nowhere.

Talking to Owen again, asking him to run through exactly what happened to trace his steps, he tells us he played with it two weeks ago. Wait what?! Ugh. So the whole time he completely misunderstood the whole thing and I wasted an hour of my life looking for something that—yes—turned out was left BY KATIE at the neighbors house.

Aren’t kids fun?!

Welcome to Illinois Axe Murderer Dinner

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Our Tivo friends Jami and David prepared a dinner in our honor to welcome us to Illinois. It was originally going to be our first dinner there…until we ended up going last-minute to one of their previous dinners. As usual, everything was DIVINE…and we came home with leftovers once again. 🙂

I wanted to try my infamous selfie shot but we went the easy route since the kids were with us—Owen was our group photographer.

The Menu

Searing the sous vide prime rib.

Checking on the kids who were being amazing in the living room. They had their iPad, Netflix, and pizza…the kid trifecta.

Part of the aftermath.

I hate when they get off their sleep schedule but I have good memories of sleeping in the car on the way home from family events (and being carried into the house by my dad) that I feel it’s only fair they get to experience it, too. 💗 Katie was out within five minutes; Owen took about 10.

I forced her to rest.

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We had a snow day today but I would have kept Katie home as she wasn’t feeling well and had a slight fever. She had been fairly active all day with Owen and was starting to get cranky so I made her lay down and close her eyes. After a few minutes of fighting me and being restless she totally zonked out.