I wanted to try a bit different eye look so I decided to try and copy this look my friend Joyanne did.
I mean I did the same color scheme but I don’t think it looks anything like the original. But I can admit that it turned out okay!
My totally changed look!
We are removing some of the dead shrubs and trees so tonight Tom had help with the stumps. David was happy to oblige. Now Tom wants a truck even more.
(The stool is upside down until we fix the foot.)
Unfortunately they turned out more Christmas than fall. I love the place I go but I’m never fully happy with anything I try to do from a picture.
Caramel Apple and Strawberries and Cream jello shots.
I might have also scooted around the neighborhood tonight delivering testers. Katie and Owen came with me—I needed Katie to carry the shots in her bike basket. And she liked announcing “jello delivery” at each house.
And then a friend wrote a poem about me. LOL
So we’ve been noticing some questionable behavior from Owen lately—blowing up more than usual, getting agitated more easily, etc. We thought maybe his meds needed adjusting or maybe just something else was going on. He takes his pills on his own and we’ve been asking him if he’s still taking them and he always says yes. We knew he needed to get a new counselor so after some of the major blowups I finally worked through that and got an appointment set up…
And then. After like a week of seemingly daily issues (that result in us talking to him for an hour at a time and us going out of our minds with his attitude) we discovered he has not been taking his pills for a long time. We found all the pill bottles and they were FULL. (We get auto delivery so he should have had one almost empty bottle. We have two full 90-day bottles.) Ugh.
Needless to say that explained everything.
So we talked about that. And he said he just thought he might not need them anymore because things had been going well. So we could then tell him that things had been going well (better) because of the pills. So now we are taking them together at the same time every morning.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you… I’ve started taking an anti-anxiety med, too. I’ve just been overly stressed with the new house, remote learning, work, Covid, etc… Plus moreso I was just sooooo tired of yelling at the kids all. the. time. for everything that I thought maybe I needed something to take me down a notch. It’s been two weeks and I think it’s helping—so we’ll see. I don’t anticipate it being long-term but for right now I think it’s a good thing. Plus I think it helps Owen to see that even if you think someone has it all together you never know what’s going on behind the scenes. And if Mom does it, he can, too.
His orthodontist recommended getting two teeth pulled so after a few delays here we are. He was nervous but handled it like a champ. This was about 15 minutes in while he was numb before they actually started—he just wanted to come out and say hi.
Unfortunately, one of the teeth gave her some problems and she couldn’t remove it so she referred us to an oral surgeon. She seems to think maybe the roots of the baby tooth are wrapped around the adult tooth. Yikes.
Owen was not thrilled with that prospect so we’re trying to talk up how cool it is to be knocked out and we think he’s okay now. Thankfully we are getting in next week so he doesn’t have much time to think about it.
I know I’m not supposed to care what their rooms look like but I CANNOT handle this. I am ready to clean it all out myself. As in empty it.
There were basically two schools of thought on Facebook:
It’s just so frustrating. We’ve tried random and various rewards and prizes and money and everything is glorious for 2-3 days and then it stops. We’ve tried chore charts and boards and tokens and iPhone apps. Nothing works. Part of it is we just don’t have the energy to police everything. We also do it strong for a few days and then we miss a day and then it all goes to hell.
We do make them pick up their rooms every so often—they are supposed to do at least 5 minutes a day but they don’t even do that. Her room was decently picked up less than a week ago. 🙁
I have also bought a nice kid book that tells HOW to clean it. I have walked her through it (and done it with her) multiple times. She knows. And every time I try to help her or guide her, I get “I KNOOOOOOW MOM” but she doesn’t do it.
She did recently have a totally clean slate as we just moved in two month ago. But it’s pretty much looked like this since Day 3. I have told her she will not get a nice pretty new girly room (we are prepped to totally Pinterest her room) unless it gets and stays clean. And again, it works for 2-3 days and then…this. We moved at least five garbage bags of stuff we removed from her room already that she literally SOBBED over but hasn’t given a second thought to since.
Owen HAS lost everything in his room one time already (at the last house) and his isn’t quite this bad but it’s bad enough. But they know I’m serious when I say I WILL do it.
Today we explored another new nature reserve with Anna and David and the kids. I generally don’t take many pics but I did think this tree was super cool.
My friend Angela told me she had something for me. Her husband found it while he was mowing the lawn…
My missing margarita earring!!! I mean really, what are the odds?! (Of course I’d already bought two replacement pair, but still.)
She thought it was so lucky that she bought me a scratch off, too…but unfortunately that wasn’t a winner.
So recently Sam’s Club had my favorite egg chair on clearance so I bought another one and Anna also got one. We often video chat from our chairs but we are never in them at the same time and one or the other is doing something where we can’t get there. I said one of these days it will happen or I’ll make it happen.
Today was that day.
She called from her chair and I was just in the kitchen so I ran out to my chair!
We commemorated it with a screenshot.
1. Drinking outside in 50° weather with our neighbors so we can stay socially distanced.
2. Washing my face even though I had way too much to drink. But…I realized the next morning that I had forgotten to take out my contacts!
I did this look live for my group to show them that eye shadow colors that look scary in the tube look normal when applied!
She assured me she was listening to her teacher even though she was playing with her doll during class. GRRR. It’s so hard because you want them to be comfy but it’s also school. And you wouldn’t do that at school. But this is also unprecedented. You pick your battles…
Gahhhhhhhh! I wanted to get some work done in the office but when old lady Maggie wants to sit on your lap, you let her.
The required sixth grade physicals were still required even though they aren’t technically at school…so off we went. It was really almost eerie walking through an empty hospital. Especially since the parking garage was as full as usual—where was everyone?!
Owen also had to get three shots which he wasn’t thrilled about but at least he just sucks it up and does it without issue.
Your friend’s business is not an MLM or a pyramid scheme. It’s network marketing.
N E T W O R K M A R K E T I N G is a distribution model. A company has to move its product into the market and it can either be done through massive retail stores like Walmart, Amazon, Target, Ulta, or Sephora—OR you can do it through an independent network of entrepreneurs who actually get paid to sell the product to their networks. Whether that be friends and family or people that they go out and meet.
What’s awesome about that is it’s a way for people like ME to make money by moving the products into the market rather than the big box stores that make all the money traditionally. It’s an opportunity for the “little guy” (me!) to make money by moving those products into the market.
It’s really that simple, and I love this model because I am in charge of my own success! And I love spoiling my clients! And I love supporting my friends when I can!!
I took this picture so on an upcoming day when she’s being a little brat, I can point out to Tom that there was a point at which she was being cute and sweet.
We did have Anna take a family photo later on the walk to prove we actually got out of the house.
Going off trail to explore the lake. They were so excited you’d think they’d never seen water before.
I kinda hate to take it off but it’s bedtime!
Plot twist! #lifehacks #winning
It looks much more artsy in black and white.
POST-DEMO LOOK! Phew. I love it. But that’s a lot of products I had to get on there.
▪️ Light Concealer
▪️ Green Concealer
▪️ Champagne Shimmer
▪️ Lava Shimmer
▪️ Copper Rose Shimmer
▪️ Garnet
▪️ Sandstone Pearl Shimmer (highlight)
▪️ Moca Java (contouring)
▪️ Onyx (liner)
▪️ UnderSense Primer
▪️ Mascara
▪️ Smoked Topaz (brows)
▪️ Rustic Brown (brows)
▪️ Velvet LipSense
▪️ Broadway Bronze LipSense
▪️ Java Gloss
Too bright! Too bright!
Today’s menu? Butternut squash soup!
It ended up turning into a curry soup (which tasted a lot like Massaman Curry) and it was delicious. Neither kid liked it.
I swore up and down this was Normal to Dry. I mean, I looked at it multiple times over a good few minutes. But the light was pretty low and I cannot see up close (with my contacts in) and if I held it far enough away where I should be able to see it, it was too small. And be honest, it does kinda look like Dry from a distance. I was actually on hold with customer service to tell them they sent me the wrong thing…when I finally realized it. 🤦🏻♀️ I need to schedule that eye appointment tomorrow. 😂
Tom was home for the long weekend so I told him he got ALL tech questions and school issues today. He kind of said WHATEVS and planted himself on the couch playing video games.
School starts at 9.
8:55—Owen discovers he has no power on his entire workstation. No lights, no Chromebook charging, nothing. Katie (across the room) is fine. Whaaaaat?! Tom looked at me like AYFKM? I just smiled, chuckled, and said welcome to my Life.
While he was troubleshooting, I was getting Owen set up on my laptop (I kinda wanted to make Tom do that as well so he could truly experience what my days are like, but I didn’t want to be that cruel). Then, because he was messing around with the breaker box, he cut power to Katie’s station (and Chromebook!) so the WiFi went out and she was dropped from her class. And of course could not reconnect. SO PANIC AND DRAMA ENSUED.
Time? 9:03am
Me: Yep. That’s about right.
Hubby: ——
Turns out one half of the wall outlet Owen was plugged into just up and died. Completely random. You can’t make this shit up.
Then there was drama with Katie’s headphones (every damn day) and Owen was caught watching YouTube. 臘♀️
Needless to say Tom has newfound respect for me and promises not to complain about my daily texts I send him when he’s not here.
Anna and David came over to attempt flying kites at the park. The kids were kinda excited until they realized it was harder than they thought. We all gave it a good college try for about an hour then called it quits.
There are lots of parks and nature preserve around so we’ve started checking out some of them with our friends. I need to take more pics—this was one Anna managed to get.
We discovered this destroyed Xbox controller this morning—little orange pieces of Nerf foam that had been picked off the controller the previous night when they were all playing. So it was Owen, Katie, Aiden, or Evan…yet every single one of them flat out denied it. Because of course.
She was all sorts of sassy in her new garage-sale-find princess ball cap with attached long hair.
