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Author Archives: Jen

Great Wolf Lodge Surprises

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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!

Visiting our wedding brick!

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We were in Traverse City for lunch and a movie with the grandparents and kids—and I was charged with picking a lunch place. I chose The Filling Station which is what the dinner train (where we had our reception) has been turned into!

So of course we had to cross the tracks to the Traverse Area District Library to go find our wedding brick (egads, it was 20 years ago!). This was the first time we had to dig for it!

Just for reference, here’s where it is.

Golden Girls holds up!

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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.

First selfie of the New Year and no makeup…

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This actually makes me soooo happy because I love that I love my skin and no longer feel the need to wear makeup before taking any pics! (If you want this freeing feeling, too, I’ll hook you up!)

Today has been a day of catching up and finishing the Emerald Extravaganza prizes, lazing around my mom’s house (I didn’t shower until 3p), working on a puzzle, enjoying the silence when my step brother and wife took all the kids to Hartwick Pines, and then enjoying homemade pizza in our Ooni pizza oven that we brought with us!

Thank you never seems like enough.

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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!

Merry Christmas 2021

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The kids got us up at 7am on the dot—it would be earlier but we let them have their devices precisely so they let us sleep in until 7! I didn’t take any pics because I wanted to stay in the moment. The kids were both happy.

Then Tom and I enjoyed a morning dip in the hot tub!

Maggie enjoyed her spot on the couch.

Then we went to Anna and David’s for dinner and a movie.

The best part about Christmas Eve?

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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!

Butter and garlic crust, Tilapia, and cheese… Cooked then topped with lime crema slaw and Pico. Yuuuuum.

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!

Past year’s pics!

New job, new tub!

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Why yes, that’s an inflatable hot tub! Tom accepted a job yesterday (YAYYYYY!) so when we walked into Costco and saw this, we knew it was meant to be! (It also wasn’t nearly as expensive as we thought it would be.)

We are planning to get a real hot tub in the future, but that requires a lot of work first since we want to redo the whole backyard and deck.

So it was inside to warm up so we could inflate it, and then Tom rolled it outside, and now it’s sitting on the deck waiting to be filled and heated so we can use it Christmas morning!

Maggie could care less about the hot tub LOL.

The world is a little darker today, friends.

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Hug those you love. Tell them you love them. Take photos. Take videos so you have their voice.

Our dear friend Nancy passed away unexpectedly today. She was an absolutely amazing person and we are SHOOK and our hearts are breaking—but even more so for her fiancé David (they just got engaged this fall).

She was legit THE nicest person you could ever meet. Every minute with her was enjoyable. Tom loved her so much after meeting her that he declared she would be wife #2 if anything ever happened to me and it was the running joke for many years (until she met David)!

She will be missed by many, far and wide. Our world will never be the same without her.

Late night doggo cuddles

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I didn’t want to go to bed at 10 because Maggie had just laid down on me—so I just thought I would stay there for 15–20 minutes until she moved.

She didn’t move for hours. I finally jiggled her around 1AM and she still didn’t move. So I moved her up on my chest like this.

She finally moved about 1:30am! I enjoyed every minute of it!

One of the best advertisements I’ve seen for a moving company.

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Needless to say we reached this age a loooong time ago.

The last time we officially had friends help move us was back in 2003 (from our first house to our second house—a mile away and we didn’t have much stuff yet.)Tom actually moved most of it on a borrowed trailer and then our realtor helped unload a bunch of stuff.

I’m very thankful that through all our years in the military they paid for all of our moves. I can’t imagine doing it on our own.

Anna found this related graphic.