Clear thoughts (a snippet of a longer post) from my friend Tanya.
Hopefully this will end up a blip on their radar. A “remember those crazy two years” kind of thing during their long life span.
Yes I might want to throat punch my kids during eLearning but I’d much rather they be around and annoying than dead.
I was being so good planning what to keep out, which food was here and there, and packing some pans and plates and stuff for the new house…
Totally forgot about here.
I kept plates but nothing else. I was thinking the dishwasher had clean dishes in it…but I forgot we unloaded it. So it’s been a scramble…and we went to Anna’s for dinner.
We have two spoons and bowls for the kids’ breakfast, we’ll order food for lunch (we always do for workers), and then Chinese take out for dinner.
Just a neighborhood friend (and her cousin) over for some slip and slide fun. Plus ice cream.
And then a Bundt cake with our friends later.
After some last-minute drama (with getting the funds wired the morning of)…it’s a done deal. We are now the proud owners of a 30-year mortgage! But it’s seriously our dream house and we couldn’t be happier. Tom and I just keep saying What did we do?! Oh yeah, we bought a house THAT WE LOVE.
I mean, we have purchased two houses in the past and they were both great for us at the time but we never loved them. We. LOVE this. house. (Is it perfect? Of course not. But does it check all of our boxes? Minus a lazy river and a four car garage… Yes.)
And then Anna brought the kids over…and was our family photographer!!
The kids started by catching fireflies. They were actually pretty good at it. Katie set these on the table and they stayed there long enough for me to get a photo—half on and half off!
Soon the fireworks came out. We started small.
The kids were at a respectable distance.
But the second one we did—a Panda—got a little crazy. It started small but then the second phase got insane and sparks were reaching the kids. Needless to say everyone immediately moved back!
Then they did some individual ones—each kid got to hold one and I managed to snap this awesome pic of Owen.
The dads got involved, too.
We get a veggie and fruit box every other week and for the most part we like everything or will try it if it’s something new. This week had artichokes. I steamed two and Tom and I tried one for lunch…
and it wasn’t exciting for either of us…so I texted my neighbor to see if she’d want it—and she did! As we were chatting she mentioned she had lots of dill and asked if I wanted some. Yes, please!!
I hope our new neighbors like to trade!!
So if you recall, the seller of our new house invited us over for drinks and a casual walk through. That was today. And it was epic.
Long story short, she’s amazing, the house is amazing, and we love it even more now!! We got along really well, we have a lot in common (to start, a love of margaritas and makeup!), and we are definitely going to be friends! How cool is that? The kids even wanted to stay the night!
Just 13 days until closing!!
A neighbor took the kids on a bike ride to the river the other day and that’s ALL they can talk about. They went back a time or two by themselves and really wanted to show us (mostly so we’d let them go by themselves once we saw how they could get there without traveling on the main road)…so we finally agreed.
First you ride through the church parking lot. At the far back corner there’s a strip of grass that you ride across which connects to a dead end neighborhood cul-de-sac. Then you ride up to the front and hop a curb and ride on some grass untill you reach the sidewalk then take that until you reach the next street and then you ride all the way to the end in another cul-de-sac where there’s a…creek. River is exaggerating a bit.
It is pretty back there… Can you see the kids? They are on their favorite rocks. Owen calls one of them his thinking rock.
Underneath is more fun… traipsing through the water in their rain boots.
This is exactly the kind of place I’d have loved to explore and play at as a kid so I get the fascination. I just wish they’d found it before we were ready to move. They’ll just have to explore the new neighborhood…
Back when we lived in Troy (2008-2011), we met a super nice couple that we really enjoyed hanging out with. He eventually quit his job to become a standup comedian and he’s actually done quite well. We’ve been wanting to see him live for many years now but it just has never worked out. Well, he was participating in a zoom comedy show with some other comedians tonight so we got tickets and went!
Soooo I kinda felt like a rock star today—I actually pulled off a Neon Green Shimmer look with fake lashes!!
I never in a million years would have paired neon green and smoked topaz so I’m glad my friend Joyanne was leading me because holy shitballs it turned out good.
But if I’m being honest…I’m torn between thinking it looks awesome…and then catching a glimpse in the mirror and doing a double-take and thinking I look like a clown. (I have been branching out but am mostly still into earth-tones!)
But bottom line… I’m thrilled with the look and I couldn’t be happier! And because I looked so dang good, here are the rest of the photos!!
We invited friends over for a physical distancing movie night.
We introduced the kids to Back to the Future. It had a lot more language in it than I remembered… Katie whined that she didn’t want to watch it but of course she ended up liking it.
Friends bought the same slip and slide so we decided to have an outdoor playdate and hook them together. The kids stayed far enough apart for me to not worry too much.
Of course after a while it devolved into this game:
I decided this past Sunday afternoon to run a huge new party for my business.
It’s a specific party that someone came up with and has tested the format many times over—to help get new business—so I’ve had to bust my butt to get new people in to my group and then try to get them active and keep them.
Honestly I was in a bad spot mentally since this is the first month in maybe EVER that I literally have zero sales as of the 15th. Zero. Not one. Nothing. Even after my $6000 sale month last year I made sales the next month. And my seneversary month was good…. so who knows what’s going on. And I hoped this party would pull it out for me. So I was following every. single. step. And today’s work was creating a collage of suggested products for each person that joined or posted a selfie. Here are some of the ones I did!
This is what happens when you combine your stock with your neighbors. You get a mini firework show!
She won’t even get to see her at school next year because Sophia is in dual language which is moved to Intermediate for space reasons.
This was left this on my porch today. I love my friends.
One of my local clients came over to pick up her order today! I might also have sold her a jug of margaritas so she didn’t have to go to the grocery store. Also? We did eventually stand outside about 8′ apart and chat for 15 minutes. It was nice, y’all. #doingbusinessthecovidway
Okay so I’ve told you all I never got into this side hustle planning on having a team—and I still don’t really worry about it that much—but it’s still exciting to get that email telling you you ranked up to Maiden!
For those playing along, I have been a maiden before and was actually a higher rank, but unless your team keeps up their sales, you lose your rank. And since I don’t really have any serious sellers on my team, ranking up just happens randomly. This month, I had two people sign up and place qualifying orders plus one who signed up last month and place an order…
Oh, and guess what? Free sign-ups have been extended through this month!! So if you were thinking about it and thought you missed out… You didn’t!! PM me with any questions! Or just click here to join!
A year later and I’m still trying to get the Breesy Brie pucker. I’ve actually given up and just do it crazy now. 😂
Today I had a Lippy Visit with Ann—our old neighbor from North Carolina! We decided to go outside her comfort zone with more powerful colors instead of her typical Moca Java/Candied Cocoa Shimmer… She wasn’t too sure but I think it looks great (and her daughter agreed)!
We both used the same colors on our eyes…
▪️ Sandstone Pearl Shimmer
▪️ Cinnamon Shimmer
▪️ Bandana Shimmer
▪️ Onyx
but my lips are layered and hers are straight Mirage.
Tonight was my pseudo-upline’s Dominion Virtual Awards. I didn’t get to attend (because I didn’t pay)…but look at what I qualified for?! COMEBACK QUEEN RETREAT! Just 21 people out of maybe thousands?! WHAAAAAT?! I was floored when my friend Breesy sent this screenshot to me!
And remember the awards I mentioned I technically achieved but didn’t get my own certificate because I didn’t pay to attend? Well, they made a one-time exemption with virtual certificates—and my name wasn’t on it (I did it myself!) but here they are!
Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way! I never imagined this little side gig would turn into this…
Masks, made with love, from a dear friend. We love them!
Another pastel-inspired eye look for y’all today! I did this live with my friend Joyanne.
Isn’t she just too damn cute for words? I’m old enough to be her mom but I want to be her when I grow up.
▪️ Sandstone Pearl (base)
▪️ Mulberry
▪️ Mauve Shimmer
▪️ Pink Frost
▪️ Onyx
My neighbor texted to say that her kids wanted to hide some eggs for Owen and Katie. They had a blast hunting for them and discovering their spoils!
We got a Facebook Portal and are LOVING IT. I can easily conference call with friends for work. And our good friends got one, too, so we call to chat all the time and it’s awesome. And it’s tech so of course the kids love it, too.
Owen decided to play his sax on the front porch. There was no one out to listen to him but he didn’t care.
The next thing I know I hear an electric guitar…and look out to see this. I was at once happy (that they figured out how to play together safety) and sad (that they had to).
They played for probably two hours. Katie was sitting with a sign asking for donations to buy sanitizer for people who don’t have any. (So later we had a talk about that being a wonderful idea but how could we make it better. We landed on donating to the school’s food drive.)
But I did get the kids with this today! (I also got their friends, since they were on a video call with them. But the friends called me out within a minute or so.
Cleaning out my work armoire on this dumpster fire of a still-sheltering-at-home/first-official-day-of-distance-learning Monday, I found this lovely gift from a friend that got hidden away. I figure now is the best time to open it and get to work remembering everything I have and am grateful for.
To that end, as I was standing thinking about the journal, a really great song came on Alexa so I started crazy dancing which got Katie dancing which eventually even got Owen dancing!! We must have sounded like a herd of elephants to Tom working downstairs in the office, because he came up you see what the hell was going on.
So this is how we hang Covid-19 style with friends… playing Evil Apples and having drinks.
Our kids were in the basement video chatting as well!
I innocently started a Facebook group to continue the drunk face thing…and we had a mini explosion. Over 100 people joined and a fair amount of them have posted!
Most are my friends (from all times and areas of my life—going back to high school classmates and my first internet friends from 1997 to family members and of course Tivo peeps) but others are inviting people, too!
It really isn’t a drunken fest—it’s more a show me what you’re drinking but I just thought the original sounded funnier.