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!
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!!
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?
They were running late so this is where Owen was perched, desperately waiting.
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!!
Brianna was the first one to come over and we chatted social-distance style at the bar!
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.)
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!!
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 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).
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.
