We got a bit of snow today so David offered to take the kids sledding. Yay!
Waiting for their ride!
Better them than me!
Author Archives: Jen
It’s an unspoken rule.
I really need to sit at my desk and do some work but how can I deny this? I can’t.
I didn’t intend to take this picture.
I had to go turn off an alarm on Owen’s phone that he set for PM instead of AM so since I was there anyway…
Yes, he picked that color bedding.
Owen gets a new bed!
Long story short, a neighbor friend and I decided to switch beds. She had a Queen that due to previous circumstances had been cut into but was still good (but you couldn’t really sell it) and we had been talking about getting Owen a new bed…so we agreed to trade and she took his bed and headboard for her youngest!
We borrowed another neighbor’s truck and moved everything Clampett-style around the corner (they’re on a different street but only like 12 houses away).
I missed the pic of taking Owen’s old twin bed to their house but it was similarly precarious.
Owen had to help a little.
And both kids enjoying hanging out on it that night.
My first Halo!
I saw this while out today—I’d never seen anything like it and had to Google when I got home.
What do you think Michigan smells like?
I’m homesick for sure, but I’m not sure these are the scents of Michigan…but I’m not sure lilacs, horse crap, cherries, and fudge would be a good combo. (This doesn’t smell bad but it doesn’t really make me think of Michigan.)
I’m sure it won’t be the last time.
When you don’t pay attention to who you’re texting and you text your son where the ginger beer is at Binny’s.
Just 14 months and 7 days after we ordered it…
So way back in November 2019 we backed this awesome table on Kickstarter. It is the size of a bench (18″)…but expands up to 118″. Cool, right? We certainly thought so, so after much debate (since it was expensive), we did it. We also figured since this was their second Kickstarter they knew what they were doing. The estimated delivery was supposed to be the following month.
Without going into too much detail, it got pushed back a little at a time for a variety of reasons. And then they stopped communicating. And then they’d come out with more delays. Now, we know stuff happens. You have materials procurement issues, warehouse delays, a factory closure, or any other assortment of shit. But they were ridiculous—plus they weren’t communicating. And then…Covid. Which REALLY messed with things. Everyone was furious. Some managed to get their money back (it was a long and arduous process since by that time we were far beyond a credit card’s chargeback time limit). Some received communication but most didn’t. There was lots of drama.
And then fast forward months and months and people started receiving them…and it wasn’t good. Broken pieces, missing pieces, super soft/unusable table tops…and we got worried. We wondered if we shouldn’t try to get our money back. But we held out because we really wanted it…aaaand I knew how much work and effort it would take to attempt to get our money back.
And then we got the call! I almost didn’t answer it because it looked like a spam call—but I recognized the Canadian call and took it. And scheduled our delivery!! Three days later we had it!
So without further ado, here it is!
So now we have to get rid of the two tables we have—our original butterfly leaf table that we’ve had for probably 8-9 years plus the smaller temporary one we bought for this kitchen after we moved in. Normally that wouldn’t be hard but we need to keep the chairs… So Tom may end up cannibalizing the tables to make other things!
I can’t wait to have our first big dinner at this table!!
My house isn’t that cold, Bernie!
I absolutely loved all the Bernie memes after the inauguration…so I made one myself!
Charlie is loving life!
I’m Benjamin Button-ing!
You guys.
YOU. GUYS.
I know I’ve talked about the difference in my skin…but I happened to be looking at some old pics today and the difference was GLARING!
First check out my eyes. Yes I still have some wrinkles but there are fewer now and they’re less defined!
And then look at my forehead?! The pores have shrunk and the age spots have allllllllmost disappeared!!!
So don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here Benjamin-Buttoning. Yes, I just made that a verb. #47looksgood
Sometimes she is just too cute.
Happy Inauguration Day!
I felt today was momentous enough I needed to do a patriotic eye look! But hmmm… What red lippy to wear for this momentous day?
It was a tough call between Fly Girl and Hurricane Red…but I went with Fly Girl! Let’s get this inauguration going! (If you want any of the awesome products I used for this look, check out https://www.senegence.com/livinglippy!)
I’m not a political person at all, but after the last four years, I felt like I needed to watch in solidarity. And it was honestly more emotional than I thought it would be. At one point during the ceremony I was crying—and Owen noticed and came and held my hand (which made me cry a little more because the last time he did that was when he was little and came to hold my hand during one specific scene in Tangled).
Of course Owen being Owen he had a million questions but I was trying to listen to everything so I had to keep telling him I’d answer everything later!
Katie’s room cleanout saga
So I forgot to mention…Katie’s room got fully cleaned out about a week ago.
We had given her chance after chance (after chance) to get it picked up even a little. No it didn’t have to be perfect…but I couldn’t even make it to her bed without stepping on who knows what so I was just D.O.N.E. done. We finally gave her the final ultimatum on a Friday night. We reminded her multiple times throughout the weekend. Reminded her she was going to lose everything if she didn’t make a dent.
She kept putting it off and putting it off. So Sunday afternoon I gave her one last chance. And when she decided that continuing to lay on the basement couch and do nothing was her best choice…it was time. I grabbed the roll of garbage bags and off I went.
There wasn’t much sorting—everything from the tops of her dressers got swept into a bag. Clothes from the floor? In a bag. Toys? Bag. She made it upstairs about three minutes behind me and I already had about two bags full.
She proceeded to sit on her bed and bawl. Not even making any move to, you know, pick anything up or put anything away.
“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!” You know why. We’ve asked you to pick up your room for a month now. I reminded you all weekend and you didn’t do anything. We warned you what would happen—and you saw us do this to Owen’s room so you knew we were serious. This is happening because you made bad decisions.
Tom had been napping but all the drama woke him up, so then he started helping. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get it cleaned out. We did sort some stuff like Legos and took out a full bag of garbage. We found a pile of dishes. Innumerable candy wrappers. Clean clothes mixed with dirty clothes. And under everything? Horrible stains on the carpet that she had NO CLUE what it was from.
So this is about what it looked like when we were done. Bed, dressers, desk, chair, mirror, bookshelf with books, and some toys.
I wanted to take out more but I was mentally and physically exhausted. She was not happy that she lost her nightlight and Alexa. I told her if she had been that worried about it, she should have picked it up.
And then, for as upset as she was, after we were done, she was downstairs laughing and having fun with Owen. Like nothing ever happened.
Fast forward to the next day and I don’t remember exactly what triggered it, but I’m sure it was a combination of her sassy I-can’t-believe-she’s-not-a-teenager mouth and more bad behavior… after I spent the entire day trying to get those unknown stains up and failing…but I went up again and removed even more stuff. She lost the makeup mirror, most of her books, more toys, and anything that was on the floor (you thought she’d have learned that lesson, but no).
In the end, I had taken out about the equivalent of 10 garbage bags. Here it all is stacked in the guest room.
And you know what? She really doesn’t give two craps about any of it. She hasn’t asked for any of it back…except for her Alexa.
She knows why she lost it. She knows she has to earn it back.
I have made her do all the laundry we pulled out—but it all goes back in the guest room (she was allowed to pick two pieces per load to keep).
We’ve told her she can earn some other things back but she hasn’t even cared enough to attempt that. This includes Christmas presents she just got!
Of course her job is to keep her room picked up now—which shouldn’t be hard because it’s literally empty, right? Ha. She still manages to have her floor almost covered every day.
So we have no idea what’s going to happen. Do we just really get rid of everything? Make her sort through it? Make her earn stuff back?
Sigh.
So THERE’S the other half of our basement…
We opened up the panel on the basement wall and HOLY CRAP! There’s the rest of our basement! Why oh why wouldn’t the builder have just made this all actual usable space instead of a crawl space?! It would literally double the size of the basement! I mean, we knew it was a small basement for the footprint of the house but seeing it really just blows your mind. If only it was cheap to excavate. HAHAHAHAHA!!
Tom will eventually put some flooring down so we can put some shelves in there. I’m not quite sure what we’ll be storing in there (since it has to fit through the opening plus we have to climb in) but I’m sure we’ll find something.
My virtual training shout out!
There were too many names to read off individually, but I did get my name on a slide during the virtual training!
The real MVPs are our children.
Today just felt like a blue eye look day.
Tired old lady enjoying the warmth of my laptop.
Could Maggie be any more comfortable?
I mean look at her face!
I have a helper tonight for my live prize wheel giveaway!
She always wants to help me and it’s often not workable but tonight it is! So she gets to spin the prize wheel for everyone who earned it during my huge sale earlier this month!
I’ll make an exception.
My new glasses aren’t technically wine glasses but I’ll make an exception.
And here’s an artistic shot of Tom’s chai martini.
My very first official certificate of recognition!!
Just got this via email! The virtual award ceremony is tomorrow night! ❤️
And I’ve been in this recognition publication before…just not at this level!!
One guess whose desk this is.
It’s a never-ending battle to have her keep her desk area picked up. It’s horrible. And frustrating beyond belief. You ask her to pick it up and 30 seconds in she’s off doing something else because she thinks she’s done. GRRR.
TJ Maxx strikes again!
I’m super excited about my new $2 Mexican glass glasses to match our Ikea plates but OMG I hate the stickers—they make me murderous. (Yes I know all the tricks to remove them. I just hate that they’re there in the first place.)
It took just 13 months!
Look what I turned over tonight on a run to Sam’s Club?! That’s what a pandemic will do.
Maggie puppy in watercolor!
A Facebook ad strikes again! I kept seeing the PAWS ad on my feed for awhile now where they take a pet photo and make a watercolor out of it. Yes I know apps can do the same thing but it was only $5 so I thought I’d try it. It is cute and I’d say worth the $5 but it’s nothing super special. But damn Maggie was a cute puppy.
New tutorial graphics!
I’m not the best at close up photos to be sure, but you’ll still get an idea of where colors go. It’s a start!
Here’s where I got my inspiration… She’s amazing.
What shall I choose?
These are the gifts I can choose from for reaching my goal and achieving Ruby SeneSales! I absolutely don’t need knives or a drone…so I narrowed it down to a purse and eventually decided on….
The Hobo Velvet Tote. It was close with the Ralph Lauren tote (because when in my life am I ever going to get a Ralph Lauren anything?) but went with the other because of the long handles since that’s how I most use a purse.
When will they learn?
So this is happening.
Why, you ask? Let me tell you.
We have been seeing Anna and David quite a bit but didn’t have plans to see them today. BUT! We told the kids (like we always do) to get their stuff done early, just in case because you never know what might come up.
And imagine that—Anna invited us over for a last minute dinner. But I said we couldn’t go because Katie hadn’t gotten anything done that day that she was supposed to.
Cue tantrum tears.
Katie, pissed: YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD US.
Me: I didn’t know. I warned you to get your stuff done in case.
Katie, pleading: CAN I JUST DO SOME STUFF QUICK?
Me: No. You haven’t showered, haven’t done one minute in your room, and haven’t done your missing homework. There is no doing something quick at this point.
Katie, channeling Owen: I’M A JERK. MY LIFE SUCKS.
Me: No, you just didn’t listen or didn’t want to do the work. We warned you. I’m taking a picture so I can show you the next time and you might remember.
Good times. Good times.