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.
Trying to fly a kite.
Category Archives: Friends
Social distancing walk with friends!
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.
This is getting old.
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.
So I have an electric scooter.
I’ve forgotten to mention that I now have an electric scooter. It came about quite suddenly around our anniversary. We were at a friend’s house a ways away in the neighborhood and were joking about how it was a little too far to walk to easily and Tom mentioned I should get this scooter that he saw on a deal group. Everyone joked about how awesome that would be so I bought it as an anniversary present!
I will say the first time on it was super scary as I’ve never really even tried one of the kids’ manual scooters, but turns out it’s pretty fun.
Anyhoo, it makes it very convenient to bop down to a neighbor’s house for a quick drink.
I might have taken margaritas and empty cups to the park to meet some mom friends.
Day one remote learning done. Day one margaritas happened. I thought I’d share the wealth.
Moms back to school splurge!
Anna and I have been dying to get back to the salon to get our nails done. For some reason my cuticles turn to crap when I don’t have fake nails no matter what I do… Plus my real nails keep breaking at the base and are painful.
The salon felt safer than most stores I’ve been in. Masks required. Wait outside until you’re called. Temps taken upon entry. Everyone was wearing a mask—CORRECTLY. And they had plastic barriers between each worker and client.
I lost a margarita!!!
Tonight I called on the power of posting on Facebook to help me find my lost margarita earring. I had it at 8pm before I went to visit a neighbor for a driveway drink… (I checked my photos and I had happened to take a pic before I knew I was headed over.) I’ll look in the street tomorrow but I don’t have high hopes.
After three hours of visiting and walking the neighborhood with her…
I joke about margaritas but they really are my thing. Check out my workshop bio.
Pool time with new friends!
One of the new mom friends I have has a pool and invited our small group over for a play date! I was sitting in the water for most of the time (it was HOT) so I only got one pic to show Tom (who opted to stay at home and work on the garage).
The kids had a blast on the diving board and the slide. We had fun watching them of course. The parents basically stayed in the shallow end and visited.
We always have too much charcuterie.
I think this is half what we had the first time we did this. Maybe next time if we halve it again…
My first batch of easy margaritas!
So with my love of margaritas, can you believe I’ve never really made any? (Well, I have made a special “beergarita” for parties, but that really isn’t a margarita as most people would think of one.) I even bought the Margaritaville drink machine to make them but never really did anything except use it with premade margaritas.
Enter our new friends Lindsay and Mike, who regularly (and quickly!) make frozen margaritas. Of course I had to ask how they do it… And turns out it’s super simple.
The funny thing is they make completely different ones. He gives her crap about using limeade vs real limes and she gives him crap about taking longer to make his. Both are good but I’m usually lazy so I’ll do the limeade ones!
I did my very first batch—actually in my Vitamix—today. And they were super easy and super delicious.
I actually got out the margarita machine for the kids to make lemonade slushies! They came and sat at the bar and said “This is like being on the cruise—you just hand them your glass and they refill it!”
Shopping then destroying!
Anna had the idea to take all the kids to Goodwill and let them pick out something to take apart (okay, destroy). So we all masked up and wandered the aisles until the kids found fun stuff. Then we just gave them screwdrivers and let them go.
Life fatigue struck today.
Friends, do you ever have one of those days where you just. can’t. get. moving?! Or don’t want to? I’m feeling very overwhelmed today…. House, business, kids, animals, finances, Covid, eLearning…in short—life. Nothing specific or worrisome is going on…just…overall blurgh. I’m sure this is a thing, right? Life fatigue?
I posted on Facebook and pretty much everyone was like YEP UH HUH SAME. So at least it’s not just me.
So eventually I did what I tell others to do…and did a little self care.
Then got some kitty cuddles.
Took a long hot shower and washed my hair.
Caught up on a few episodes of a favorite show.
Got surprised with yummy treats from a friend.
And had a margarita.
A quick trip to Costco while the kids were at a friend’s house.
The margarita motherlode! It’s not my favorite flavor but it will do!
And then it was the start of an unexpected round robin to buy some new bedroom furniture…
The movers ruined some of our bedroom dressers so we knew we’d have to replace them eventually. (We also realized they were like almost 20 years old—and they’ve been moved a bunch of times—so it was time. We’d also been looking at new headboards.)
So we were at Costco and saw a set we both liked (!!) and one piece was on sale…but we weren’t ready. Well…the more we thought about it, the more we decided it was a good idea since it was a good price and if you see something at Costco you need to grab it otherwise you’ll never see it again.
I wanted to do some due diligence though so we went to a local furniture store just to see what they had…and it was slim pickings. So we went to our local Costco to see what they had (we had been at the Wisconsin Costco earlier). Well, they were almost out of everything (!!) but they had two pieces of floor samples that they sold us at a discount (!!) but that meant the rest of our day was trying to get that stuff home AND going back to Wisconsin to grab the other pieces while they were still in stock! And borrowing a friend’s truck to do it. Gah! That was NOT what was on our schedule for the day!!!
We managed to get everything but the king headboard (we ran out of time before they closed)…and shoved everything in our already-full garage!
Margaritas at the park…
Gotta love walking one minute down the street to meet some moms and kids at the park…and taking a margarita. I wasn’t the only one, either.
You know it’s a good night with the neighbors when…
this is the amount of limes in the sink.
The night started innocent enough. Lindsay said she was out relaxing in her back yard while the kids played and whoever wanted to come down was welcome. Tom was napping and the kids were out and about so I left a note and drove down. Shortly after u arrived, Angela and Ryan showed up (with their two littles) as they were out on a walk.
The margaritas were flowing and I texted Tom that he needed to come with the kids. It took some convincing because he was tired. But I assured him he really did need to show up because the dads were there and this was going to be a good opportunity to meet them all and just hang out and get to know them. So he came. Other neighbors and kids showed up and we ended up ordering pizza!
We even sent Owen home on his Segway to get some fruit from our fridge. He got to feel responsible and we got the fruit so it was win-win.
The littles even did sparklers before we left!
Yeah. We’re gonna have fun in this neighborhood.
When you’re making dinner with hubby…
…and a new friend texts they’re making margaritas and says “be ready…” and then your doorbell rings 10 minutes later!
I then sent Lindsay home with some of Tom’s Hopsy beer.
Play date #2 today.
Amazingly, all the kids played really well together for like two hours.
Today ended up to be a busy day.
First, home demo. (Masks off for a pic!)
I finished my look after Angel left… I forget how good Mirage is. And Cinnamon Shimmer.
Second, a visit with a friend/playdate for the kids.
Third, an unexpected driveway visit with the people who are living in our old rental house (I was dropping off some stuff were accidentally moved that belonged to the owners).
Fourth, an unexpected trip to our park to visit with Hannah, a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. (The kids went down there randomly and were surprised to see their friends who don’t live in this neighborhood!)
Fifth. Bag collection, sorting, and folding by the kids. They didn’t love it. Didn’t care. It was something they could do.
Tom’s turn with some neighbors!
So one of the neighbor guys (completely unrelated to any of the women I met) came over and invited Tom to a beer night!
While he was gone he texted me this:
And then didn’t answer…for like five minutes! So I was all freaking out. Then he finally continued…
It turns out all the guys (couples) had been friends of the past owners!
That was all I heard from him until he walked in around 11:30. He didn’t say much—which made me a little crazy because I wanted to know all about them. I found out in the morning that he was a little more drunk than he thought so he just went straight to bed. Haha.
Moms night down the street!
So I’ve been chatting with the ladies I met from my “ad” for friends and tonight we had a meet and greet at a house down the street—so I walked there with my bag of margaritas! We all sat around the fire socially-distanced style and visited for hours! Everyone was great and I am totally excited about being friends with them! It went so well that I was there until almost 2am! (Yes I was the last one there but not by much!)
My body told me to stop.
Apparently working multiple long days unpacking boxes and squatting to load cabinets and going up and down our stairs 18 times a day took its toll on me…and both my knees finally screamed STOP. As in I pretty much couldn’t walk. I powered through yesterday because it was just mostly annoying—and I tried to take it easy—but today I was totally out of commission. Thankfully Heidi came to my rescue with a great ice wrap (all of our stuff is packed somewhere) so I spent my whole day on the couch. Fun times!
Note: After two days of rest, ice, and elevation the pain is gone but towards the end of the day I can feel it starting to hurt so now I have a brace!
Owen was excited for a friend’s birthday party!
Brandon has been a friend since we moved here in third grade and he always misses the party because he’s in Michigan at grandparent camp. So, it’s a bummer he’s missing that…but at least he gets a friend’s party!
The attack of the Tupperware!
Anna didn’t believe me when I said I had A LOT of kitchen stuff. Today we tackled the plastic storage. She also couldn’t believe we use all of this and I assured her we use the majority of it. (We were matching lids so these will condense but it’s still a lot.)
So I admit it’s a bit frightening to see ALLLLL your plastic storage out at one time…. But that’s what happens when you move and have to find a new home for everything!!
- Rubbermaid
- Lock & Lock (looooove these)
- Tupperware (can you spot the vintage pieces?!)
- deli containers (good for stackable freezing and food prep)
- take out containers (great for sending home food after a party)
- OXO pop containers
Yes it seems like a lot, but we really do honestly use most of these. I freeze a lot of food and we’ve been eating out of the freezer to prep for the move so most of these will go back in the freezer once I start cooking again!
Are you a storage fiend like me? Or am I insane?
Waiting for friends to show up.
They were running late so this is where Owen was perched, desperately waiting.
Picking up our plants from the sitter!
Anna and David watched our buckets o’ plants while we were moving so we wouldn’t have to remember to water them! So tonight was the night we finally went and picked them up!!
My first new neighborhood friend!
Brianna was the first one to come over and we chatted social-distance style at the bar!
Invitation to the pool!
The kids got invited to a friend’s pool (technically the neighbor’s parent’s pool) so they had a grand time while we were unpacking the house and all that fun stuff.
I might have gotten a little bit emotional because the same neighbors who invited the kids over today (so we could work on the house in peace) were the same neighbors who took the kids the first day we moved in three years so (so we could unpack in peace). Kind of bookending our time at that house. (In fact I’m even getting choked up a bit writing it now.)
Yes, I placed an ad for friends!!!
So I might have just posted a “We just moved in! Who wants to be our new neighborhood friends?!” get-to-know-us post on Nextdoor and Facebook (in a local Mom’s group). YIKES! A TOTALLY Jen thing to do though, right?! I had no idea what to expect… but (fast forward) it has been amazing!
Well it went over smashingly! By the time I was able to check back in I had four Facebook messages waiting for me and a bunch of comments saying what a great idea it was and they wished they’d thought of it, etc.
I think I added at least 10 new Facebook friends today. We have a socially distant park game planned for Sunday night with two families and someone is coming over for a driveway drink tomorrow.
A FEW DAYS LATER…
I was TOTALLY blown away by the responses. They just kept coming and coming. I think I’ve friended about 20 people now and have met probably 10 people in person thus far!! This might have been one of the best things I’ve ever done! We’ve felt so welcomed in this neighborhood it’s been amazing!!
Because why not add an emergency eye appointment for Owen to the mix?
He’s fine but has a scratched cornea. Always wear safety goggles, kids.
After Anna dropped the kids off from their overnight stay, Owen started complaining that his eye was bothering him. I figured he had an eyelash or something in his eye so told him to let it water and flush itself out. Nope, still there. I looked, nothing. I then tried to rinse it out—a challenge considering everything was obviously packed and I couldn’t find my saline, squirt bottles, or eye drops. (I might not have been in the best frame of mind, either. After another long day with the movers, now I’m having to deal with this at 3pm.)
So then it became the challenge of him letting me actually get his eye rinsed out. First he wouldn’t even let me get near his eye. Then he kept shutting his eye. Then he couldn’t tip his head back. Good times. I finally got some water in and he said it really hurt. Hmmm, that’s not good. So then I had to decide whether to see if we could get in to his doctor, go to urgent care, the ER, or try his eye doctor. I picked eye doctor and of course they had no appointments locally (they are five minutes from us) but a sister office 30 minutes away had an opening…so off we went. One quick look with some eye drops and yep, two small scratches. We were in and out within about 15 minutes.
And you can believe we had a big conversation about preventing things like this because the simple act of not wearing goggles meant we had to pay $70 for the appointment, $15 for the meds, and then another $70 for the follow up appointment. I told him we’d obviously always take care of these things, but that money could have gone to…a whole year of Netflix. Or about six trips to Culver’s. Or half of an Xbox. You should have seen the look on his face when he learned that. So hopefully that sunk in.
So how did this happen? The boys were (apparently) sanding wood blocks with a block and sandpaper—no power tools involved because David had wisely put the kibosh on that. I asked why he didn’t wear goggles and he said there was only one pair and one of the boys was smashing something into pieces so he wore them. Owen said he would sand and tried to keep blowing the dust away from him…?!
I’m exhausted and I haven’t even really done that much today.
I can’t imagine how tired our movers are because they’ve been busting their asses since 8am. (Normally they load in one day and then unload the next day but the boss wanted it all done today!)
A huge thank you to Anna—my saving grace—taking the dog AND kids out of my hair ALL DAY. We’re also sleeping there tonight since the plans have changed about right times today and it will just be easier to stay there.
There is a tiny bit left for tomorrow so I’ll be back at it at 8am…and Tom will be back at work after his half day today (which was soooo nice).