Posted in my VIP community after much thought and contemplation.
The end of an era!
Category Archives: News
Katie’s last day of 5th grade
And now she’ll be in middle school!
And just like that we have a high schooler.
Owen volunteered to play in the jazz band before his promotion ceremony!
I love that he was able to walk with his good friend Lucas…
And Anna (as school board president) was able to give him his diploma!
And then it was off to our celebratory dinner at The Chocolate Sanctuary because it’s closing soon! Of course I forgot to get a photo of our whole group but I did get a picture of my chocolate strawberry martini!
100,000 views!
It’s official — I’ve lost my damn mind!
I’ve agreed to get a second dog.
We’d been thinking about getting a cat to have a friend/playmate for Olive, but long story short that’s just not a workable option…so when Tom found Boston puppies locally it sparked the discussion. I still have reservations, but Tom loves to remind me I’ve always said I wanted a fleet of Bostons.
So we discussed it with the kids (Katie was REALLY excited—enough to offer to pay for part!) and discussed it ourselves…and decided to take Olive to meet her and at least see what happened.
The lady warned us that “Sasha” was really shy so everyone was surprised when they got along! (Maggie never got along with other Bostons so we didn’t expect much.) They even ran around and played a bit!
We don’t have a name yet but we get her Monday. ❤️ (We had to put all of Christmas away first.)
The boys’ 8th grade graduation!
Owen and Evan had a game afterward and Tom and Owen had to leave right from graduation.
As a school board member, Anna was able to hand her kids their diplomas.
Introducing…Olive!
I loved Maggie fiercely and was devastated when we had to put her to sleep earlier this year. I knew we’d get another Boston Terrier eventually, but I wasn’t ready quite so soon (just over two months).
Emotionally I was okay but I was really enjoying having NOTHING to take care of (kids don’t really count as they mostly take care of themselves). Tom wasn’t thinking about that—he just wanted a puppy. But guess who’s going to be home with her ALL DAY EVERY DAY?! (You know if I would have told Tom I was getting him a new daily job he would have said oh hell no, right?!)
That said, I did kind of miss having SOMETHING around the house. And she IS super cute…I’ll give her that. This is the first photo we got of her:
We stopped in Normal on the way back and had dinner with Marie and Gabi!
Meeting Anna.
The call you never want.
It is with great sadness that I tell you my dad passed away (somewhat unexpectedly) earlier this morning. He and Lin were in Florida for the winter so plans will likely be to have a celebration of life this summer in the U.P.
HERE I AM!
Technically I really don’t belong anywhere in SeneGence—I don’t have any official uplines anymore (the CEO is mine, which sounds cool but doesn’t really do anything for me)…so that Jenna Clark has taken me under her wing in her group fills my heart (logistically I fall under her, but it’s so far below it’s not official).
So I have to admit I love seeing this when I visit her group. I am in the TOP 5 SELLERS of her entire global dominion (you can see her group has 6.2K members). If you would have told me this (almost) five years ago when I started this little side hustle, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. AND LAUGHED. Yet here we are.
HERE I AM.
- It has given me a sense of pride and accomplishment.
- It has helped me get through some tough days.
- It has helped us survive some lean times.
- It has shown my kids that you can work for something and achieve it.
- It has shown my husband I really meant it when I said I didn’t want a “real” job again.
Please don’t ever knock your friends’ side gigs because you NEVER know just what it means to them, their families, their mental well-being, or their overall life. Maybe consider celebrating them instead.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
New job, new tub!
Why yes, that’s an inflatable hot tub! Tom accepted a job yesterday (YAYYYYY!) so when we walked into Costco and saw this, we knew it was meant to be! (It also wasn’t nearly as expensive as we thought it would be.)
We are planning to get a real hot tub in the future, but that requires a lot of work first since we want to redo the whole backyard and deck.
So it was inside to warm up so we could inflate it, and then Tom rolled it outside, and now it’s sitting on the deck waiting to be filled and heated so we can use it Christmas morning!
Maggie could care less about the hot tub LOL.
The world is a little darker today, friends.
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.
A benefit we didn’t know about!
Imagine our surprise when we received a notice in Tom’s student loan account that they had been notified of his 100% disability and they assumed we wanted to apply for full discharge! Yes! Yes please!
Within two weeks of applying, we got this!
This zeroes out about $18,000 in student loan debt!
We’re Illinois official!
It’s official! We are full-time 100% residents of Illinois! We own a house, transferred our plates and registrations yesterday, and got new (temp) licenses and voter registration cards today! (We haven’t had to do this the last 20 years in all the states we’ve lived in since being military lets you keep your home of record for those things.) We waited this long because Tom needed his VA disability confirmation and they have been a shitshow since the beginning.
The best news, though? We were in and out of the DMV in 30 minutes! And we didn’t have to take the written test!
The crazy shitshow Abbvie job saga…is over.
Soooooooo…
Tom just finally heard today about the Abbvie job that they had basically told him they were CREATING FOR HIM… that he’s been waiting for for 2+ months…
He didn’t get it. There was someone with more experience who was hired last week.
What a kick in the ass.
So now he’s like months behind because he worked for them for a few months (instead of looking while he was still in the Marines), then has been off for three months waiting for them to get their shit together. Not doing anything to look for a job because we thought this was pretty guaranteed. (Granted we should have been adults and prepping for this, but we honestly thought it was like 99% guaranteed.)
It has been a shitshow since the beginning though. And he just found out like a week ago that — get this — the HR person he had been dealing with? Was fired or left or something and no one picked up her duties, which included contacting Tom. So they finally scheduled a Zoom call with him…just to tell him he wasn’t hired.
So now we’ll have a mad rush trying to get his CV together and find local jobs to apply for. And hope he can find something quickly because our savings is way low with all the house stuff we’ve been stupidly doing assuming he’d have a good paying job by now.
Sigh. Life.
Twenty and done!
Oh, did I forget to mention Tom is a civilian again today? Twenty years in the USMC and today is the first day of civilian life! We aren’t quite sure yet what the future holds but we’re in it together! Cheers!
P.S. I realize this might seem really anticlimactic after 20 years—after all, there’s usually a big ceremony and celebration—but Covid really messed things up and honestly by this point Tom was just done and had no desire to go back for anything. That said, we are having a combo retirement/anniversary/housewarming in August…
RIP BELLA
We made the hard decision to put our second cat, Bella, down today. After almost 18 years, to have both of them go within a few months is excruciating. But it’s time. Even though she’s totally changed personality and has gone from a cat that hides and hates people to a cat that doesn’t mind being carried around by kids and jumps up for snuggles…she really isn’t herself. Plus she’s having bodily function issues that would likely require lots of testing and maybe not even have a solution. I can’t do that to her. Or us.
I will probably second guess myself for awhile but deep down I know it’s time. And maybe her sister, Charlie, will welcome her with a sniff and a nuzzle and they’ll tell great stores about the family that loved them for almost two decades.
It’s so sad to take pics of the final moments but since the kids couldn’t be there…I do.
Rest in peace, Charlie.
Seventeen years is a long time for a cat, but it was still too soon. I hated to make the call but she told us it was time.
We are all devastated of course, and the kids are really taking it hard—especially Katie since Charlie has been her best buddy since Day 1.
It’s hard to pick from all the thousands of pictures I have, so here’s just a few of the more recent ones.
Rest in peace, Charlie.
Today was Tom’s last day in the office!
With all of his banked vacation time (and planning to start the Abbvie Skillbridge training next week), today was Tom’s last day at the recruiting station! Retirement is that much closer!
This is the gift he received—-it will go on his ME WALL in the bar.
This blog is having some growing pains.
Just a quick FYI that this blog/website is going through some unexpected issues so things might be a little off for a bit longer. My host is doing some server migration and I happened to make some changes right in the middle of it and it’s been a nightmare trying to troubleshoot it.
We are officially homeowners again!!
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!!
We will be homeowners again!
It’s really happening, y’all. We will be homeowners again on July 8 barring any unforeseen circumstances! That’s two months from now!
From seeing the house listed Tuesday to getting pre-approved Wednesday morning to walking through the house Wednesday to making and signing an offer and getting the offer accepted was less than 48 hours!! We were only the second people to view the house!
This wasn’t something we were going to do until spring but we’ve been looking at houses for a few months and we know what’s out there and what we want…and this house had 95% of our wish list!!
And look at my side of the master bath!
As soon as this Covid debacle allows, we will be having a MEGA housewarming/retirement party. Oh, yeah – Tom turned in his retirement papers last week so that’s official now, too (his official date is July 1, 2021).
We are still stunned. And excited. And exhausted.
We’re officially sheltering in place!
So Illinois just announced a Shelter in Place until at least April 7 (though I’m predicting longer). So just like this past week, we’ll continue to be saving humanity by staying the F home (Tom is working from home now, too). Please do the same so we don’t have to keep doing this until Christmas.
A bunch of Covid-19 stuff.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
Please click to see MOVING visuals of what will happen with AND without social distancing.
Aaaaaand school was just called for next week.
So the kids get two weeks off. We’ve cancelled our spring break plans. This is gonna be…fun.
Edited to add: This was the start of everyone getting canceled.
I’m a Royal in Waiting!
So get this. Last year on my birthday I happened to make Maiden. This year on my birthday I ranked up to Royal in Waiting! Bizarre, isn’t it? (I’ve been a little occupied so forgot to post it when it happened.)
It doesn’t really mean much (I don’t get anything for it) but it is kinda cool. Actually the coolest part is that I had no idea it was going to happen—I knew what it took to qualify and I knew it was going to be close but I was going to just fall short. And then pretty much at the last minute one of my downlines placed a qualifying order that I hadn’t expected and voila!
I even got a shout-out on a SeneGence Facebook page!
I know I said last year I couldn’t imagine making the next rank yet here I am…but I REALLY don’t see me making the next rank. It takes FIVE of my downlines ordering $600 worth two months in a row. It was luck that I got the first five the first month (since it was a free signup month plus you get 50% off $600 orders your first 90 days) but to get five people to order that amount again—especially since most of them are just in it for the discount—is a super long shot. So, fingers are crossed!! 🙂
Sophia is apparently quite the face painter.
This is how Katie came home from playing next door.
Please excuse any weird things you see.
UPDATE!
The biggest issue with the new blog template has been fixed…but I’m still working on tweaks so small things may still be changing.
My first vendor event was a smashing success!
Thank you to my friend Heidi for all her table design guidance last week (and coming down to check on me and talk up LipSense to passersby), my amazing upline (and the rest of the team across the country!) for dealing with my total crazy as I prepped for this, and my awesome hubby for his unending support in every possible sense. I couldn’t have done this without all of you! 💕 It was tiring but fun… I won’t be doing these every weekend but I’ll definitely do more!
After being up at 5:30 and setting up from 7:30-9…Let’s do this! (Oh and did I mention that Tom had to work at his office today so he couldn’t help at all plus had to take the kids with him?!)
Some info and takeaways from my day:
💋I am a bit anal plus I’m a perfectionist so I spent probably 50-60 hours prepping the table (design elements, printing stuff myself, REprinting stuff 😂, shopping for inexpensive stuff that can do double duty in my home)… But I think it turned out pretty well! I was definitely the most professional-looking booth in my immediate area!
💋Everyone loved my lips (Blu Red and Blackberry). I think I went through more gloss than I normally do in a week—every demo I did I literally dragged my fingers across my lips and face. 😂
💋The Dum Dums with my business info stuck on them were a fail. The stickers didn’t stick to the waxy sticks and were all falling off and not one person took one. I couldn’t even give them away to kids!
💋The very first customer wanted to see a lipliner. It was my fault for handing it to her… So let’s just say I now have a tester. 😂 But she did end up buying two colors and gloss–and might have a party. (She also came back later in the day with a cracked gold glitter gloss so now I have my very first RMA!)
💋 I didn’t realize until about halfway through that I didn’t have a Honey Rose or Hazelnut tester out! [Two recent new colors.]
💋 I had ShadowSense stripes on my arm from my own personal stock which I didn’t bring. A handful of people wanted to see them but I only had one color out so people could see the cream to powder action.
💋I really could have used a LipSense Buddy. I know I lost a lot of people because it took so long to explain and demo with people that I couldn’t snag people as they walked by. A friend (Heidi) who was at a different booth would stop by when she could and whenever she was there taking up LipSense it went better (she’s a big fan). I was also bummed I didn’t get to check out the other vendors. They did have volunteers who would sit at your booth while you took a break but I didn’t feel like just anyone could handle my booth—if I wasn’t there to reel them in, they’d likely pass right by.
💋 I took my laptop thinking I’d have time to enter each sale. Ha. Haha. Hahaha.
💋I could have left the beauty stuff off the table entirely. Not one person asked about it. I definitely didn’t need my own out for testers. (But if I didn’t have them, someone would surely have wanted to test something, right?)
💋The QR code was a fail. I thought it would be easy to snap for business info but only one person all day did it. People still wanted business cards. (I had seen it recommended to use because people were more likely to “see” it again on their phone vs. a business card which would likely get tossed.) Next time I will just have a big contact info sheet that they can take action picture of.
💋I didn’t give away too many glossy samples because pretty much everyone who tried it on their lips bought their own color and gloss.
💋 The raffle for a free gloss went pretty well. I got 19 entries. Two wanted to host a party and four marked that they wanted to learn about/buy other products. Now we wait and see if they return my emails.
💋 My biggest sellers were Napa and Sheer Berry. I managed to sell more Ooops! today then I did since I starting selling. 😂 I think it’s a much easier sell when they demo it and see how easy it is to make a mistake.
💋 I was prepared with $150 in cash but only one person paid with cash!
💋 Being on my feet the whole day was rough on my back. I was busy most of the six hours so never really had time to sit down—and even when it was calm I wanted to be ready to easily interact with people and I couldn’t do that from a chair. If I did have a chair I’d want a director’s chair.
💋The collapsible wagon from Sam’s Club was amazing. It fit my big heavy duty totes perfectly. (If I begin to do more shows, I would like to organize my totes better so everything fits.)
💋I will eventually get a real banner but I was going inexpensive for my first show.) And I will have some small tweaks to do before my next event (like bigger lip pics with more true colors—everyone looked at those).
All in all it was a great day. I didn’t make a ton of money but I went into it expecting to sell nothing and just being there for the experience so anything above that was a bonus! 😂 After both raffle items (the one on my table and the one I donated to the fundraiser), I think I made $200 (better then nothing and my upline was proud!)!
Holy crap. Over 15k views!
And the really weird thing is seeing my face pop up (in a Sponsored post!) in other pages as I’m reading things on Facebook:
My Naturally Slim testimonial is live!
Remember when I flew to Texas for my birthday last September and spent the weekend with Marcia and recorded about 45 minutes of testimonial footage? They finally posted a small snippet today on Facebook!
As of Friday night, there are 7.5k views!!!