I’m not sure exactly what this is going to turn into, but I know it’s going to be delicious. How can you go wrong roasting red onions, garlic, and garden fresh tomatoes, banana peppers, and serrano peppers? (The serrano peppers were from our friend’s garden.)
After roasting I decided to just grind it all up into a paste. I think maybe bruschetta or on pizza? It has a little kick to it!
And then I just sliced and froze some jalapenos because we can’t use all these before they go bad!
Katie was invited to a birthday party for a friend from first grade. I dropped her off since it was at the same time as Owen’s baseball game…and because I didn’t know the mom at all and staying at a four-hour party where I don’t know a single person is one of my personal hells. That said, the mom seemed super cool and I did promise to come back after the game and hang out because it was also a party for the adults if you catch my drift. I can get behind that kind of party for sure.
Fast forward to post-game and I really didn’t want to go because, you know, personal hell. But I went. Walked up to a garage of strangers. Made funny small talk, they laughed, okay maybe this won’t be hell. First room of strangers… Second room of strangers. Ugh. Deck full of strangers. I wanted to grab Katie and run out. I head into the tent to get Katie and leave early and she’s having an absolute blast making an unholy mess with paint, glitter, glue, and assorted craft paraphernalia. (They had already done paintings and were on to photo frames.)
There was so. much. glitter. Another personal hell to be honest.
So I talked to Katie for a minute, she obviously wanted to stay, so I just kind of hung around until I ran into a mom that I’d met before and chatted with briefly…and we did the somewhat uncomfortable chit chat for a bit (she’s PERFECTLY lovely, it just felt a bit weird). Then I finally found the host and we started talking and…y’all?? I found a new friend. We really hit it off, literally chatted for almost two hours straight, and planned a morning hangout in a few days!
This is the kind of party it was and the people they are. Can you see why we might have hit it off? SIX FLAVORS OF MARGARITAS Y’ALL. SIX.
Kafie decided to combine her two projects into one. It’s pretty cute but there’s so much glitter…
We had birthday dinner with friends then went back to their house. We had brought a game in a bag and after we started playing we noticed this.
We went to our friends house after the pool…and this is what happened. We then made them put the devices away and go to the park.
When you show up at your friend’s house and realize that your wires got crossed so you have some time to waste so you make yourself comfortable in her house, take a selfie in the best natural lighting ever, and enjoy a view of the lake.
We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again!!
The kids were very intrigued when Tom started using the blow torch on the ribs.
It took awhile but by the end of the night, some dads (and one mom—not me!) went down the slide. Which led us to wonder how on Earth these kids could do this non-stop… The adults got tired after just a few times. 😄
And then it was over…the cleanup aftermath. And we can’t wait until next year!!
All we can say right now is HOLY SHIT and CHEERS to our AMAZING travel agent David Platt with Mouse Master Travel—he just found a new military and kids discount for our upcoming cruise that saved us…are you ready?!!
When he told me I couldn’t even breathe. That pays for all our flights…and now we don’t feel guilty about the Deluxe Beverage Package! 😂🍹🍺
I honestly feel guilty being this close to Chicago and not doing stuff…but I hate all the traffic, I hate the congestion, I hate all the pedestrians who think the world revolves around them, I hate paying through the nose to park, I hate paying for an Uber so we don’t have to park somewhere else…shall I go on? 🤦🏻♀️
Yet once in a blue moon we make plans to alleviate the guilt…so today was hanging out with out-of-town friends. But first we had to deal with this. The last mile took 20 minutes.
Waiting for our friends to arrive.
Now it’s getting worth it—peeps, drinks, and brunch at The Publican. I look frightened purely because it was difficult taking the photo. I have a margarita so I’m good.
Since Ballast Point was practically right next door, Tom had to stop (it’s one of his favorite breweries out of San Diego). So we’re all here. No margaritas, though, so I’m sitting this one out.
Then it was a quick Uber to the Wendella docks for a Lake & River Architecture Tour (with drinks!). Honestly I was hesitant about this because we’d already done the Architecture Tour when we went last year, but if you recall it was so hot that we stayed in the A/C and drank and only saw the bottom half of the buildings. The weather today was much better so we figured we’d get to see all the buildings…
We were at the very front of the line so scoped out what seats we wanted—and there were six right in front that were perfect. And we got them! And drinks, of course. 🙂
Doing a thing I’ve never done before—we’re in a lock!! (Plus something I do all the time–there’s a margarita just out of frame.)
Then we went out into Lake Michigan—something or last tour didn’t do so that was cool. We might also have gotten splashed just a bit—the water was rough and we were at the front of the boat.
Then it was dinner and drinks at Beacon Tavern (right off the docks). Sooooo much good food and amazing company…
So a day in Chicago is DEFINITELY not something we want to do all the time but sometimes it’s DEFINITELY worth it.
So this is what happens when your bestie FINALLY comes to her senses and realizes she needs Lipsense in her life and she comes over to find just the right color and she’s a little picky. 😜 (Totally not judging because it also took me forever to find my perfect color, and I didn’t have anyone with this big of a selection to help me out so it took way longer than an hour.)
After all these colors, she ended up loving a combo of Cappuccino and Giddy Up with either Orchid or Grape gloss. She might also have gotten sucked into the Smoked Topaz on your brows train… GORGEOUS!!
They got the kids a family day pass to another local water park so the kids are off on the slides and we’re about to get in the lazy river!!
Y’all. This visor is insane.
We all had a great time! But I’ve decided a lazy river needs adult beverages and no kids. 😜
Katie’s birthday is obviously today and Owen’s was back in February, but both kids love a pool party so we decided to celebrate both birthdays together! (Owen also begged for another pool party!) So we had a 7th birthday and 10.5 birthday!!
The party officially started at 3:30 but we got to the park when it opened at noon so the kids could get in as much playing as possible (and to stake out the best shade seats, as is my usual). I didn’t take many pics because, well, I rarely take pics at the pool… And once people started arriving and the party started it was crazy busy—we had 15 adults and 27 kids!!!
But first, lunch. Of course the kids hadn’t eaten lunch before we left, so they were hungry pretty much as soon as we got there. We asked if we could have some of our party food early and that wasn’t a problem, so the kids had hot dogs and popcorn! (Our party package came with 20 cafe meals but we were bringing in pizza so technically didn’t need all the meals, so we snagged them for lunch! Brilliant!)
The arrival of the pizza!
Once we got it set up it was like a feeding frenzy. You’d think these kids hadn’t eaten in days. For a moment I wasn’t sure we’d bought enough pizza as the boxes were emptying at an alarming rate, but in the end it was perfect and we ended up with about 1.5 pizzas to take home.
Cupcake time came shortly after…
Of course we had way too many. I figured with 42 total guests, 60 would be just right because some kids would have two. But apparently most adults don’t eat cupcakes… So we literally had an entire tray left! I walked around handing out cupcakes to random people then took the rest to the manager’s office (they were happy to get them)!
We left just a little bit of garbage…
Sooo happy to see these guys together again!!
Tom and I went back to the water to cool off (it was still like 85°) and relax and two of our friends snapped pics of us. 😄
Katie was actually done before Owen so she went home with Daddy a little early.
All in all a great day… The weather was hot (I think it got to 94°) but it was perfect around the pool. Everyone had a great time. No one got hurt. Well, I take that back…Tom tweaked his back a bit but he powered through. And I lost my sunglasses on the waterslide—I had them tucked in my suit but they still came out…but they totally disappeared. They weren’t in the pool with me and we couldn’t see them in the pool anywhere. It’s a mystery.
Thanks to Allison for the pics as I was off getting stuff ready for the pool party!
And with her partner in crime, Sheila. (I made then take a break from playing Hide the Crowns!)
And I didn’t get one good pic in her birthday sash. This is the look I kept getting!!
If ever there was a reason to drink my first margarita in three weeks, this is it: a visit from Allison (and kids)…a good friend from Virginia we haven’t seen in two years!! Cheers!
Today the kids and I hung out at the pool with some friends and then were invited over after. Tom already had some beef tenderloin smoking so we let that finish, grabbed some salads and a watermelon at Sam’s, and spent the night hanging out with friends. All the kids get along smashingly and hated to say goodbye.
Thanks to Amazon Vine, we have an amazing LED HD projector. Just add in a $30 projection screen, $40 worth of PVC pipe, and a Bluetooth speaker…and you get an awesome movie night with some neighbors.
We made popcorn, did sparklers and a few fireworks, then watched some music videos. All in all a good inaugural movie night!
Congrats, Cardinals! Nothing wrong with second place after your amazing season!
BACK: Assistant Coaches Mark, Eric, Adam, Tom, and Head Coach Jamie
FRONT: Mason, Eli, Owen, John, Aden (Old Man), Jackson, Reuben, Jaiden, John, and Wyatt
I could not be more proud of this team of boys. To be perfectly honest, they started out on shaky ground and we didn’t have much hope for the season. But then a miraculous thing happened…they practiced, they learned how to work together, and they exceeded all our expectations and ended up in second place in their division!!
Watching them play was a joy (and also completely nerve-wracking as the mom of a pitcher)!! And it warms my heart to see my boy with 10 new best friends, my girl with almost as many player sibling friends, and my husband and I with a handful of new friends as well.
Of course they were disappointed that they didn’t win (especially since they’d won the last few games by a wide margin) but they took it in stride and were great sports.
And then it was off to Culver’s to celebrate!! Yes, Katie loves being right in there with all the boys!! But she moved to the girls table one everyone arrived!!
And a friend sent me this… love these kids.
We wanted to have a party but inviting the whole team seemed overwhelming so we just invited the coaches and team mom. And it was awesome! Everyone was able to come (minus one kid who had a sleepover already planned) and we all had a great time! The party didn’t break up until midnight!!
It’s not a margarita and I’m surviving! Go me!!
Tom making the other guys want a smoker and a flame thrower. Mark was even Instagramming it!! 😂
And of course, fireworks.
This might have happened late in the evening.
The day was gorgeous, Katie was cute as a button, and I had my real camera, so we’ll start with a few pics of her.
Some of the coaches!
The best place to try and get pics (since I can’t be on the field) is beyond the first base in the outfield. Telephoto to the rescue! I love in the first pic you can seem him looking at Tom!
Pitching!
Getting a pep talk from Coach Dad!
Warming up for the next inning. I finally just went and stood in the dugout to get a few closeup pics.
This is what Katie does for most of the game!
Batter up! (He got walked.)
We won! Now we are off to the first round of championships!!
My friend Anna invited us to go to a kid museum in Milwaukee today so why not? It’s only an hour away. The kids got McDonald’s on the way in the car so they were excited about that.
Turns out it was mostly for really young kids, but all ours said they had fun…
Being a sportscaster—for all of 4 seconds.
Owen did like the baseball section—he got to time his run for stealing a base, play catcher for some little kids, practice pitching at a screen for accuracy, and batting at a screen to see if he could hit a home run.
There was a Scrabble exhibit with a huge board…but it made me twitchy because it wasn’t a real board with the correct number of squares or bonus color squares in the right spots.
Then some of the kids put on a puppet show.
And then made some cool things out of biodegradable packing peanuts.
Then they had some fun on the bridge waving to the cars driving below.
And A&W ice cream on the way home.
Had the kids stayed in school, today would have been their first full day of vacation. Against my better judgment, I decided to take them to the pool after we unpacked and ran a few errands. Ugh. WTF was I thinking on the first day of no school when it’s finally 80°? 🤦🏻♀️
Too many people. No seats in the shade but lots of shaded seats taken up with bags and towels. The kids didn’t pack a towel for me so I’m sitting on Katie‘s towel on the ground in the shade and ants keep crawling all over me. Am I having fun yet?
I guess this is my repayment for being a good mom?!
And it only took a matter of HOURS for me to be annoyed by the kids. 🙌🏻 What do I win?
They were complaining that we were leaving the pool early. REALLY? After I had told them we weren’t staying long? And after I just took you on a five day vacation to a house WITH AN INDOOR POOL where you got to do whatever you wanted and eat whatever you wanted and play with your cousins then we came home and I TOOK YOU TO THE POOL!! But that’s apparently not good enough. 🤦🏻♀️
So I went to Sam’s Club and bought them their summer workbooks. Ha. I’ll show them. 😂
How’s your summer going so far?
So this is what I’ll look like to meet the CEO. SeneBlue shirt and Purple Reign lips. It’ll work!
Breesy and me.
Just here to meet the CEO of my company and get a personal training with 35 other amazing women. 💙 Of course we had to stop at the sign and all take pics.
We had to drive under the highway to get there!! That was weird.
I guess this is us!
It’s harder than you’d think to get a pic like this without one or more of the 35 others behind you. You can see them reflected in my glasses, though.
After we signed in we were free to roam throughout the ranch. They don’t live there all the time but they do stay there. I loved the cement floors and the fact that it was all decluttered (life goals, right?).
The master bedroom…
And everyone was giddy over the closet. Including me.
Time for training! I may have gotten stuck in the back row.
Group pic before lunch! See, I wasn’t kidding about the blue and leopard!
The whole time we were watching the training, we were watching the workers set up for lunch. Of course it wasn’t just tables…so they literally spent three hours setting up!! And it was gorgeous!
I forgot—aren’t these earrings cute? They were a gift from our CP.
The next step in our journey—headquarters! I laughed at those taking pics in front of the sign but I’m kinda sad now that I didn’t.
Beauty bar!
On the tour, look who I saw on the wall?! My friend Morgan who you’ve seen before on my blog. I texted this to her and she didn’t even know it was up there!
Second round of training!
Back at the main house relaxing poolside. I could learn to love this. And yes, there’s a margarita just out of frame.
The Crown Princess I’ve been mentioning—the lovely Jenna. She’s so cute and tiny I just want to put her in my pocket.
Then we broke out into small training groups for an hour after dinner and then it was back to our house to get in the hot tub.
So about six months ago I was pulled into a Facebook messenger leaders group with a bunch of other women that are all part of a certain leader’s downline. I was curious about how I was included because I am technically not part of her OFFICIAL downline (so she can’t see any of my statistics) but I was too excited to ask too many questions. We are basically a sounding board for each other and we have the ears of an amazing crown princess (CP) leader. In order to stay in the group (get special trainings, stay in the chat group) we have to keep up our own leadership qualities and our sales. It’s been amazing.
Then we were offered the opportunity to travel to Oklahoma for a personal training by the CEO of our company at her ranch. I debated for a bit (since it was right around the time of my anniversary and that’s always when I have my deep thoughts about what I’m doing going forward)…but I signed up. So here we are. 😀
I’m getting ready to head out in my SeneBlue outfit and leopard bag (the unofficial company print). I can’t believe I have everything I need in this tiny bag—but I refuse to pay to check a damn bag!
This is the look of someone who popped a Xanax this morning because my travel anxiety was out of control. I could feel my heart beating faster and it felt like my insides were rising up into my chest. (Much like I feel when we drive into Chicago.) Not debilitating by any stretch, but not fun. So I decided to be an adult and try and fix it. I hope the pills are still good—they’re from 2014 (2015?) when Tom last deployed. And I’m not sure I even took one back then, so instead of being older and wiser, apparently my thing is older and more anxious.
A sushi lunch at O’Hare because you’re two hours early for your flight.
Feeling somewhat relaxed on the plane.
❌ Con? I forgot my big ass phone charger at my seat and I realized it within five minutes of getting off the plane and they went and checked and it’s gone so someone is now the proud owner of a stolen $50 phone charger. 😡
✅ Pro? My friend was close enough to the airport to stop and get me so I didn’t have to get an Uber.
A few quick pics of the awesome house half of us stayed at.
Stopping to get party supplies!
The last pic of my night. Because me. 😄 (Margarita sidenote: they weren’t the best but it was still a margarita.)
I will say it was a little overwhelming meeting 35 women throughout the night (contrary to what most people think, I am an introvert), but it was an amazing feeling knowing I was hand-picked to be in the Leader’s group and then kept up my sales in order to qualify for this trip! (I also did ask and found out that the Crown Princess asked about me and got my info and personally hand-picked me!!)
Tomorrow, though, is the big day when we have a personal training session with our CEO at her ranch!!! I can’t wait!
The ones where you are texting about nothing important at 4:30 on a Sunday and you think it’s such a nice day it would be great to have dinner outside and have a fire and why not invite your friends? And they say great, we’ll bring ribs, corn, and hot dogs—and I say perfect, we have beans and alcohol, see you at 6:30! We did a quick 20-minute pick up so they could get in the house, threw another rack of ribs in the sous vide to heat up, and that was it!
All the kids were super excited and we barely saw them all night! We had fun around the fire, ending the night with a few fireworks and s’mores.
Doug was in town from North Dakota and Scott lives just down the road, so… BBQ and alcohol by the fire!!
My friend Morgan was/is the Minnesota state leader so once she moved here she jumped right in with the Illinois state leaders and scheduled a state training. Since it was pretty much right in my backyard, there was no reason not to go.
Friday night was a meet and greet with the two ladies from corporate who would be doing the training, plus I got to meet the other state leaders (they were staying with Morgan).
I really spent some extra time on my makeup since I’d be with a whole room is SeneGence ladies… And I must say I looked pretty damn good. The best thing is that it really still only took like 15 minutes!! When I first started, the same face took me 30!
And in some amazing natural light at Morgan’s house!
And of course wearing my stripes!
With Pam (Midwest Regional Sales Manager) and Adrienne (the Vice President of Global Sales).
Trying on a Crown Princess crown… I won’t get one of my own until I amass a HUGE million dollar team (which honestly means it’s not going to happen). But it looks good, right?
The training was great (yet also completely overwhelming) and I was very glad to get home…and relax. 😀 And then prep for friends coming over for dinner!!
Or at least a lookalike dog. 🙂
Friends were dogsitting and as soon as Katie saw him she thought of Mudge. 🙂
