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Category Archives: Friends & Family

My typical day.

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Hear Tom get up early to make sure the kids get off to school. Roll over and wake up a bit later and work my SeneGence biz from bed until Tom gives me crap about being a lazy butt. Get out of bed making old person grunting sounds. Text BFF off and on all day. Take a shower. Do my skincare and makeup and take photos for future posts. Take kid to appointment. Do random house things—pick up, let Maggie out/let Maggie in, water plants, let Maggie out/let Maggie in, feed Maggie, organize office, do laundry, let Maggie out/let Maggie in/let Maggie out/let Maggie in, give Maggie her meds, clean kitchen, wonder aloud who left six glasses on the kitchen table/who left candy wrappers on the couch/why there are dirty socks everywhere, walk by the kids’ bathroom and lament how disgusting kids are, let Maggie out/let Maggie in, pop into the office to work for a bit. Spend some cuddle time with Maggie on the couch while working my biz. Run errands. Get nails done. Jump in the hot tub with hubby. Watch a TV show with hubby. Try to make the kids do chores when they come home from school. Make dinner for/with friends. Watch a TV show with friends/Tom/kids. Remove my makeup, wash my face, apply nighttime skincare. Take more photos. Go to bed and work my biz from bed.

I kinda love it all and wouldn’t change a thing (minus the old person grunting sounds, the messy kids, and the geriatric dog that goes in and out 28x a day).

Celebratory date night—Dinner & Dueling Pianos

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We celebrated Tom’s new job with dinner at our favorite restaurant with our best friends…with an after-dinner dueling piano show downstairs in the VIP room, courtesy of the owner giving away free tickets on a local Facebook group!

Things started off innocently enough—and we ran into other friends there—

Amy & Janelle

…but the bartender was making strong drinks and then the owner gave our group a few free drinks…

So then this happened at the end of the night after way too many drinks had been consumed…

I was the designated driver so we all got home safely—and Anna and David ended up staying the night. It was…interesting.

But we all had fun and I was happiest that Anna enjoyed it because she started the night assuming she was going to hate it.

Great Wolf Lodge Surprises

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Did you know that all Great Wolf Lodge waterparks are not the same?! I didn’t until this week.

Anna got a steal of a deal on a weekday suite so we took the kids for an overnight surprise before school starts again.

As broken-bodied adults, we were excited about the hot tub (and, to a lesser extent, the lazy river).

Until.

We learned that this particular GWL does not have a hot tub!! WHAAAAAT?! I know, right? Fail. Big BIG fail. Ughhhh.

And then we learned that the lazy river (among other things) wasn’t open because they were short-staffed.

GAHHHHHHHH!!!!! 0 for 2 does not make for a happy mom.

But the kids didn’t care. And they ended up opening the lazy river later in the day so Anna and I got to be floating blobs for two hours.

But the water wasn’t warm enough for me and the air temp felt too cold, too. I think maybe I’m too old for this.

After checkout, Anna and I managed to find a somewhat secluded couch to relax while the kids are back in the waterpark. We can actually stay until close (!) but I’m thinking we’ll just stay until lunch!

Visiting our wedding brick!

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We were in Traverse City for lunch and a movie with the grandparents and kids—and I was charged with picking a lunch place. I chose The Filling Station which is what the dinner train (where we had our reception) has been turned into!

So of course we had to cross the tracks to the Traverse Area District Library to go find our wedding brick (egads, it was 20 years ago!). This was the first time we had to dig for it!

Just for reference, here’s where it is.

Merry Christmas 2021

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The kids got us up at 7am on the dot—it would be earlier but we let them have their devices precisely so they let us sleep in until 7! I didn’t take any pics because I wanted to stay in the moment. The kids were both happy.

Then Tom and I enjoyed a morning dip in the hot tub!

Maggie enjoyed her spot on the couch.

Then we went to Anna and David’s for dinner and a movie.

The best part about Christmas Eve?

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Friends, an amazing pizza (from leftover fish tacos that that boys gave me grief about but IT was freaking delicious!), and our first dip in the hot tub! Merry Christmas!

Butter and garlic crust, Tilapia, and cheese… Cooked then topped with lime crema slaw and Pico. Yuuuuum.

This pic makes the hot tub look soooo much bigger than it really is. It would be a stretch to have three adults in it at the same time—four would have everyone’s knees touching for sure!

And then we did the Saran wrap ball for the kids! We had about $60 worth of stuff in it!

And it was great fun…

Until two kids weren’t getting anything.

Don’t worry, they all ended up with stuff—and some trading was done. But it definitely wasn’t perfect.

And then I tried to get a Santa hat picture but Katie wasn’t really being cooperative. Oh well—it just makes memories!

Past year’s pics!

The world is a little darker today, friends.

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Hug those you love. Tell them you love them. Take photos. Take videos so you have their voice.

Our dear friend Nancy passed away unexpectedly today. She was an absolutely amazing person and we are SHOOK and our hearts are breaking—but even more so for her fiancé David (they just got engaged this fall).

She was legit THE nicest person you could ever meet. Every minute with her was enjoyable. Tom loved her so much after meeting her that he declared she would be wife #2 if anything ever happened to me and it was the running joke for many years (until she met David)!

She will be missed by many, far and wide. Our world will never be the same without her.

An early Christmas present!

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So we got an early Christmas present for us…an Ooni pizza oven (we’d casually talked about it before but then after talking with Jim and Beth over Thanksgiving, our interest was renewed).

Tonight was the inaugural dinner with David and Anna (and kids) as guinea pigs. Initial setup was on the deck but torrential rain moved it to the garage.

Unpacking and setting up immediately upon delivery!
Tom made all the dough 24 hours in advance so they were ready for dinner!
About 90 seconds and it’s done!
First pizza a success!
My pizza with prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, Italian sausage, and basil.

And it was absolutely amazing! I foresee a lot of pizza in our future…

Halloween 2021

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Katie was supposed to be an inflatable T-rex but she had a meltdown at the last minute (somehow the costume “felt different” from when she last tried it on that morning) so after a MUCH drama, she’s wearing dino PJs.

Owen is some videogame character I know nothing about (Edgar from Brawl Stars)! Good times.

The best thing? They’re old enough to go out on their own so we sent them off while we sat at a fire in the driveway! (They went out first by themselves while we were waiting for Anna and David to arrive and then went out with the boys later!)

Our costumes were “glampers” — courtesy of Anna and David’s RV (it was in our driveway from the weekend—the kids had a sleepover in it)!!

It was a gorgeous day but it was windy and chilly—but at least it wasn’t raining or snowing! The fire was nice but could have been even warmer!

Maggie sat cuddled in a blanket on my lap for a good two hours).

That’s me and David. Anna was inside grabbing a snack. With a Katie photobomb.

We also had two adult drinks (Apple bourbon smash and rum punch) to hand out to friends but I didn’t get a pic of that!

Anna’s kids were tired after an hour or so of trick or treating but our kids went out again! Unfortunately I didn’t get the annual pic of their candy haul!