Just going through some old photos and I’m gobsmacked at the difference in my eyes and my lashes!
I like less wrinkles and longer lashes!!
Author Archives: Jen
He has their attention.
Who knew I actually liked Honey Rose?!
Honestly this lip color isn’t one of my go-tos and I think it’s a bit more of a spring or summer color but I grabbed it this morning anyway and frankly I’m kinda loving it. You just never know. Tastes change. Lip colors look different with different clothes and different color makeup. So today I’m totally rocking it!! The blue sweater doesn’t hurt either!!
I’m gonna need a bigger skirt.
So the problem with my dream 12′ tree is that you need oversize accessories. More ornaments. BIGGER ornaments. A bigger star. A bigger tree skirt. (And this stuff is kinda stupid expensive.) Amazon didn’t have much in the way of 72″ tree skirts (typical ones are 48″) so I called on my friends to help me. And they came through. After we parsed out the $200 skirts, this is what I ended up ordering for $59! Yay!
More Christmas up in here!
This isn’t the best pic, but you can see my new Hobby Lobby clearance trees and reindeer above the TV. And the stockings hanging below the TV on hooks Anna gave us since they can’t use them.
I still need to figure out what to do on the topmost shelf…it looks odd to have the regular glass jars, candles, and rooster up there with Christmas all around…so stay tuned.
The tree that friends built.
I wasn’t sure what color scheme I wanted to do with my tree. My friend Britt has a gorgeous red/gold/silver tree that I thought about trying to duplicate…
…but when I went to Hobby Lobby with Anna (to get some clearance Christmas decorations and (hopefully) ornaments) they had nothing with color that I liked. I did get a few generic items like silver deer heads and neutral burlap balls—as a start.
And then.
Anna said she had a whole bucket of unbreakable purple ornaments I could have. I had thought about purple but didn’t really want a PURRRPLE tree. But as soon as she showed them to me I knew they were perfect. They are in the dusty lilac plum family.
So now I need to find some bigger ornaments in those colors. And get some ribbon (right now we’re just testing it out with a few lengths Anna had on hand). And maybe add some snowflakes or icicles…
Anyone else do this with lip balm?
I typically use a mini binder clip but it’s gone missing in the move. You might think I’m being cheap but really I just don’t want to waste a single bit of this “liquid gold”—it’s legit the best balm I’ve ever used. I will even cut it open once I can’t squeeze any more out! No shame in my game, y’all! (Grab yourself some here from my site, or just hit me up! You won’t be sorry!)
So this is what happens when I try to go to bed early like a normal person.
10:30 Lights out, phone off.
10:40 Maggie leaves room obnoxiously loud.
10:45 Maggie continues to be loud in the hallway so I get up to check on her in case she’s stuck in her sweater. Can’t see her.
10:50 Back in bed, I notice Tom’s CPAP is making horrible sounds and debate waking him up.
10:55 Maggie is scratching obnoxiously somewhere and…banging against a door?! I get up and find her and take her sweater off just in case.
11:00 Back in bed once again, I hear strange thumps downstairs.
11:05 I hear more strange noises. I try to ignore them.
11:10 I hear more strange noises so get up. Maggie wants to go outside.
11:15 Bella starts meowing for food because I’m standing in the kitchen.
11:20 I feed Bella and Maggie.
11:25 I finally get back into bed
11:30 I’m wide awake but tired because I took melatonin an hour ago…
Busted!
Parenting is always an adventure!
Tonight Tom and I were going to bed about 10:30 and I heard voices upstairs. What? Tom snuck up and caught Katie FaceTiming with Gramma Jean! GRRR! She knows devices aren’t allowed at night. She knows her bedtime. (That said, it was cute but she’s such a stinker to think she can get away with it. On a school night no less. When she knows she’s not really even supposed to have her device.)
I called Gramma immediately and she just told me yes they were talking and Katie was helping her with something on the iPad. I wasn’t mad at my mom for sure but just frustrated with Katie. Neither kid makes good decisions when it comes to technology and Tom and I are at our limits. (I don’t think I mentioned this, but about two weeks ago Katie lost her devices for an indeterminate amount of time because she downloaded TikTok and Instagram on her phone!)
Gramma said: Busted! Katie has been calling me on Face Time pretty late in the evening, certainly past her bedtime. Last night she was trying to teach me how to record a video instead of typing. Jen and Tom were downstairs watching TV and then started turning off everything to head to bed. Tom heard some noise and they discovered Katie on her iPad. OOPS. Jen called me immediately and Tom said “gramma is grounded!”
My small win for the day!
I love it when a random clothing purchase (the gorgeous tank top I got in my favorite online boutique) just happens to match one of my favorite Lularoe cardigans. ❤️ I’m also legit stuffed into a pair of jeans today for the first time in two or so weeks just to see if I could. They’re not super comfy but I can still button and zip them so I’m calling it a win.
Cheers! It’s a strawberry margarita kind of night.
Christmas decorating injury!
Bent over to pick up a snowman head off the floor and smacked my own head right into the corner of the mantle.
We got my bucket list tree!
I have always wanted a huge Christmas tree! My dad used to get a 2-story tree and I loved it. My cousin gets a 2-story tree and I love it. But we’ve just never had the room for one—and even if we did at one point…the next house we moved to might not fit it. So when we found our forever house and it has super tall ceilings, I knew what was going to happen. But of course I didn’t want to spend the $900 Costco was asking for their 14′ tree, so I figured I would wait until the clearance sales after the holidays and see what deals I could get.
Well…Costco was out of trees by mid-November so there would be no discount Costco tree. Sam’s Club was even out of them! So I resigned myself to probably paying full price next year.
And then Tom and I ran into Sam’s this morning and while we were browsing…I saw my 12′ slim tree on clearance for $259! WHAAAAAT?!?! Yes, please!
And the best part? Dad and Linda had wanted to get us a housewarming present and we hadn’t really been able to think of anything perfect…so the tree was our gift! It’s soooo perfect!!!
I don’t have any decorations for it but those will come with further clearance sales!!
ADDENDUM: Two days later Anna was at Sam’s Club and told me it was reduced even more so I went back and got $100 credited!
He’s my lobster.
This was going around Facebook so I finally did it. The sad thing is I really had to think about the engagement year!
Met ♥️ 1997
Dating ♥️ 1997
Engaged ♥️ 1999
Married ♥️ 2001
Still Together ♥️ 2020
Bonus points if you know the reference.
Bingo! A super easy, super fast look.
I swear. Most mornings I say “I’m just going to put some CCTM on!” And then, well, I have to do my brows. And really, shadow just takes like a minute or two. And since I have the darker shadow out I’ll just use that for a quick blush. And now that pretty much my whole face is done, I have to do my lashes and I HAVE to use Primer. But I drew the line today at LipSense and just did gloss!
Katie’s Christmas Wishlist
This showed up on my pillow tonight. I’ve only been asking for their lists for a month now…so the chances of her actually getting any of this is pretty low since I’m done shopping and I refuse to pay last-minute prices or go out shopping in throngs of people.
But just look at that list. It starts off all normal and then WHAM! Bunk bed and pool? And her own YouTube channel? And a hamster and kitten? I just can’t even.
I made Ruby SeneSales!
This means I’ve sold $12,000+ in the current quarter (October-December)! I still can’t believe it! Of course I don’t anticipate this being a regular thing, but it is a great accomplishment and I’m super proud!
So we did a thing today. Can you see them?
Tom really wanted to go solar once we got our forever home so did ALLLL the research this summer and today was finally install day! Now we just have to wait for the inspection and the switch to be flipped! Eventually we will get another row (at least) but since this is a new house to us and we don’t have enough usage history, they would only let us get this many.
We will own the panels outright so we will take out a loan for them, but with all the rebates and incentives, our total bill (for a few years) will be the same as if we didn’t have solar. So after a few years we’ll see the benefits!
Santa’s Rock’N Lights 2020
A drive-thru animated light show at the local fairgrounds! It’s really a neat experience!
After the wine, this seemed appropriate for dinner.
Fun with Snapchat filters.
I never use Snapchat except to have fun with the filters. A friend told me about the one that makes you look like a Disney princess which started today’s addiction (I roped Tom and Katie in to that one as well).
It’s time y’all. A FULL glass.
This took entirely too long.
THIS IS SO PAINFUL. This literally took her HOURS AND HOURS to do. And she still didn’t even get the few things done that I asked.
Pick up ALL the clothes. ALL. From everywhere. On the floor, behind the door, between the dressers, in the closet. Everything. Every single thing. Put them all in a pile in the hallway.
I couldn’t have been more clear. But all I hear is OKAAAAAY MOM. I KNOOOOOW MOM. But she picks up some of the things and thinks she’s done?! I demonstrate how to do it. I explain again I mean every. single. thing. And still not done. I mean she says she did it…but when I check it’s obviously not done. And it took an hour or more—not minutes. Because she starts playing. Or needs to take a break. Or plays with the cat.
Pick up all the garbage off the floor. Same as the clothes, just all the little bits of crap—tissues, broken crayons, wads of hair, pieces of ripped blanket, scraps of paper, clothes tags she cut and just left on the floor. ALL OF IT.
Again, she says she did it…but there’s still just so much.
Pick up all the Legos, dolls, makeup, and put them in their designated bins.
I even got out her bins for her. And she did some. Over hours.
I had a serious heart to heart talk with her about it all. She knows we are serious about emptying her room because she saw us do it to Owen. She has no reason other than she just doesn’t want to do it (like the homework). But she doesn’t want to lose her stuff. She says she feels like we want them to have less stuff like we did as kids. I tell her that’s not true—we want them to have more than we did (and they do!)—but they need to take care of it.
This. Is. Exhausting.
Avoiding cleaning her room.
Mom, take a picture of me in this hat from Grannie.
Look what I found in some empty drawers.
Not only is Katie’s room a disgusting mess, she has started filling other drawers in the house. OH HELL NO.
(These are in the hallways upstairs. I’m not quite sure what’s going in them yet—I’m thinking craft supplies—but I sure as hell know it’s not more of her crap!)
She got her final ultimatum.
I can’t even. I’m fine with some mess because I know what I was like growing up but I feel like this is insane.
So she got her final ultimatum. This gets cleaned up this weekend or her dad and I will go in with garbage bags and she will lose it all and will be left with furniture.
Shreepy Maggie cuddles
I’ll take chocolate over Legos!
The kids get a Lego advent calendar. We get good chocolate. (And cheese!)
Woodland Book with an Educator
Tonight was a fundraiser for the food bank—Woodland teachers and administrators read their favorite books on Google meets! Every 15 minutes you’d switch to someone new! We listened to Katie’s current teacher and her second grade teacher, Owen’s third grade teacher, the Elementary Principal, and a friend who is a teacher! We loved it, and the past teachers remembered them and loved seeing them, too!
A shout-out from my leader!
