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Category Archives: Katie

Christmas lights on my car!

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I saw these on Amazon and had to try them. They are reflective — which is cool but obviously I can never see them because I’m in the car. And there was only enough to do this on both sides (unless I wanted to add more “string” between each bulb). Also, can’t wait to see if they stay on as the magnets aren’t that strong. But it’s cute, right?

Our first hosted Thanksgiving dinner!

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I was so busy with a houseful of guests and dinner prep that I barely had time to look at my phone (so most of these are from everyone else)! But it was so worth it to have everyone together — from Georgia (Filipek), Michigan (Schwalm & Coe), and Illinois (Schwalm & Hudson). And our best friends joined us, too…and fit right in!

Puzzle #2
Still can’t believe Izzy’s a college sophomore!
Izzy wanted to steal Olive.

Then we did some reenactment shots!

I can’t believe it was 22 years between these photos. But we all still look the same, right?! Also: no kids in 2000, six kids in 2022!

The whole gang!
Yes, two turkeys. Smoked and fried!
We easily had enough food for 4x as many people.
Kids table
Photobomber!

Let the family festivities begin!

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We excitedly volunteered to host the Schwalm side family thanksgiving this year—Filipeks usually host in Atlanta but they’ve recently downsized and didn’t have room. We had plenty of room for everyone (most even stayed with us—kicking the kids out of their rooms of course)!

Everyone had varied arrival times, but by Wednesday afternoon everyone was here! It makes my heart so happy to see my kids having fun with their cousins.

Puzzle #1
A little rest in some downtime.

Dinner for 21 is served! Charcuterie that takes up our entire kitchen island!

Cousins
Even family ends up gathering at the bar…I think we need stadium seating!

Earning her keep.

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Katie helped me take apart some beauty advent calendars to save some space. She owed me some work after she took some of my makeup (from my office) without asking.

Olive was being a pain in the butt so Katie put her in one of the boxes we just emptied. Olive didn’t seem to mind too much.

Making calendar angels. Or trying to.

Olive wanted attention.

And I’m a sucker.

The video edit:

This got Katie grounded.

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I had asked her to make sure the bathroom was picked up for the housekeepers. She said it was done. So imagine my surprise when I walked by this morning and saw this disaster.

And I was even more shocked when I looked under the sink (I was shoving stuff in there to quickly get it out of the way).

And these disgusting glasses filled with who knows what.

And this is where she thought it was appropriate to put dishes.

There was more like this but you get the idea.

UGHHH.

I was innocently checking her phone.

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Guess who just lost her phone for a good long time?

Yes, that’s her on TikTok.

I had to use her phone to figure out something with her watch and she was out of space so I was going to delete some photos/videos…and found this. And then a whole slew of videos.

UMMMMM WHAAAAAAAAT?!

I had TikTok locked down. I had no idea how she did this. Originally I didn’t even think to look at the time stamps on her phone…but they were last night between 10-11:15. After bedtime.

Ugh.

To start with, she knows TikTok isn’t allowed, let alone her having her own account. Even legally, you have to be 13. But there she was, with a bunch of videos uploaded!

UGH.

And a few of them were completely inappropriate.

UGHHH.

And I couldn’t even figure out how to delete her account—I had to prove I was her by verifying her email (which I had access to) but it wasn’t working.

UGHHHHH.

Then I noticed another new account she shouldn’t have had. And a bunch of new apps I don’t remember her asking for.

It was a long and frustrating day. But she’s lucky I had all day to calm down while she was at school…because I was LIVID.

So Tom was home and we presented a united force. During our conversation, she finally told us how she was able to do it. Are you ready? When I was gone to Ohio, Owen snagged Tom’s phone (because he hadn’t changed his password after the last incident) to log into the app we use to control their phones and give himself more time allowance—and Katie said she wanted stuff, too, so they changed all sorts of permissions. She lost her devices for a month. And I deleted almost every app off her phone.

So then we called Owen down. And after a bit, he admitted that he did that. We were really surprised and upset because he got in trouble for this exact thing previously. So, since it was his second offense, he lost devices for two months. Katie wasn’t smart enough to keep her mouth shut and said well she did it before, too…so fine, we increased her one month to two. So both have lost their devices for two months (phones, ipads, Xbox).

Technology and social media is a nightmare. We were doing the right things with programs meant to help us and protect them but they got around it. Good times.

To Owen’s credit, he REALLY handled it all well. Tom and I had anticipated Owen losing his crap because this was the biggest punishment he’s received… but he was actually amazing! You could obviously tell he was disappointed, but he didn’t lose his cool at all, stayed calm, didn’t try to hurt himself, didn’t storm off or cry… We were both surprised and thrilled.

Katie, on the other hand, ended up fighting and arguing and yelling and crying and slamming her door. After about an hour she was okay.

I don’t like this part of parenting.