Poor Maggie. We’re not sure if it’s because she’s getting blind, forgetful, senile, something else, or a combination of all the things, but…she’ll stand here and bark to be let in. Even though the door is open.
Poor sweet Maggers
Category Archives: Photos
Who brings a wet towel to a pool?
At one of my happy places with the kids—the community pool—so my daily annoyance level stays low.
But y’all. One of my kids BROUGHT A WET TOWEL. Like seriously. But I’m a good mom and draped it over a deck chair so it will hopefully dry.
(I’m also getting in a little bit of work so I can feel like I accomplished something today!! I love not sitting in an office to work!)
SHOW OF HANDS: Whose kids would also bring a wet towel to the pool?!
Maggie is my spirit animal.
Neighborhood fireworks!
We spent the evening at Dave and Anna‘s and their neighbors were having a street party and doing tons of real fireworks. It was both exciting and frightening at the same time…and it went on for hours!
Katie’s lips matched the corn chip.
Mine didn’t.
HAPPY 4TH, Y’ALL!
I decided to do a full blue eye with red lips to have a more normal-looking eye instead of a red/white/blue look!
- Face: CCTM and Light Powder with Clove ShadowSense contouring
- Eyes: Sapphire Shimmer and Lapis Glitter with Warm Gold Shimmer highlights.
- Cheeks: Red ShadowSense
- Lips: Hurricane Red with Prism Gloss
Also? I officially suck at doing other people’s makeup. Especially crazy holiday looks. I didn’t quite mean it to end up like this but oh well. She doesn’t care so it’s all good.
Anna also came over to do a holiday look with my colors since she doesn’t own them (she thought blue was too scary). She looked gorgeous!
And my glitzy earrings that I love!
This is what we have so far!
Narrowing down the fireplace tile!
Sent our six potential choices to the designer…and we are down to three.
Now she’ll get samples of those to bring us so we can decide…
Celebratory dinner!
David got a promotion so we all—kids included!—went to Primo to celebrate! Don’t ask me why Katie looks so awful in this photo—she was having a fun time.
Finding furniture we want is a bitch.
So the hardest part of this living room redesign is finding the last piece of furniture. We have specific designer-mandated rules to follow on what can fit in the space…plus we know what we want…and it’s impossible.
Oh! The other problem is…due to Covid, the wait times on ordering furniture can be up to eight months. So we were also looking for something that was in stock.
I really really loved our sectional because it gave me a super comfy corner piece where I always sat. With the new furniture, I don’t have that anymore. The room looks big enough to get what we want, but in reality, we do not have that much space.
We found the exact thing that I wanted—called a Cuddler Couch—but it was waaaaaay too big for the remaining space.
So we kept looking, hoping to find that same thing but in a smaller form factor. It didn’t exist.
We ended up looking at chair and a halfs (they had more of the cushy feel I wanted but only gave us one more seat) or loveseats (which gave us seating for potentially 2-3, but didn’t have the same cushy feel I wanted) and were excited to find this:
It had the cushy feel, could easily fit three, was in stock, fit all the design parameters…but we measured it and it was too long. I just couldn’t believe it so we actually taped out the floor at home.
And I just about cried because it didn’t fit. We even tried switching places with the other couch and that was actually worse.
So the hunt continues…
I’m glad the animals are comfy.
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…
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!
Tom’s youth baseball coaching career is off to a great start—the Phillies are the Gurnee Youth Baseball Mustang Champions! It took two days and 9 innings but they did it!
What made the win even more exciting is that they beat the undefeated Cubs to win! (And the Cubs had actually slaughtered us in a previous game—something like 17-2.)
It was a nail biter for sure—they caught up and we were tied 12-12 which then pushed us into an extra inning! And after no scoring, another inning! And then in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, we scored—which meant the game was immediately over!
A special sidenote: Anna and family showed up again to cheer the team on!
You won’t believe this championship game…
Our boys were killing it! They were on fire! We were ahead 12-9!
But it was getting dark and championship games are mandatory 7 innings (regular games are 5 innings or 2 hours) so they called it at 8pm and said we have to finish tomorrow night! WHAAAAAT?! Apparently they’ve never done that! If the commissioner would have just called it we would have been champions! (There’s more to this story but that’s the gist.) So we have to come back tomorrow night for two innings…
Special best friend sidenote: Anna and family showed up to surprise us! So she was able to actually take a picture of me at baseball!
I’m gonna take this as a sign.
Look what happened during Owen’s championship baseball game tonight?!
I’m gonna take it as a sign that both cats found each other over the rainbow bridge, are now looking for their old buddy Fuzzy, and are patiently awaiting our arrival.
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.
You really don’t see this too often.
Post-pool party sleep!
Playing in a friend’s pool at a mom group family get together makes for an exhausted kid. This was at 11:30!
Tile shopping!
We are also going to be replacing the marble fireplace surround with tile…so we took a quick spin around the flooring store today and picked some to show our designer!
Brunch!
Peach Bellini, peach crepe with homemade whipped cream, and candied bacon.
The basement bedroom is almost done!
David and Anna are taking the shelves tonight…
And look—most of the living area is cleaned out as well!
UGHHHHH—all the junk in the couch…
Bella is now Miss Cuddly
Who replaced my standoffish loner loves-to-hide cat with this this cat that loves to come up for shreeps and cuddles and purrs?
Seriously, I really wonder what the dynamics were between her and her sister that created such a distinct difference in personality.
Finally attacking the junk room!
Since we now have new furniture coming soon, we HAVE TO clean out the basement bedroom. (This is where our entire 12′ x 20’ storage room in our previous rental house got put because we don’t have a big storage room in the new house…but we need the space as a regular room so this shit has got to be cleaned out and we hope to do it by our end of summer party.)
I’m going in. If no one hears from me by dinner send a search party.
After three hours, I called it quits for the day. And while that room looks better…now I have a bunch of piles in the other room!! But they are all going to be disbursed to other areas of the house, friends, Repeat Street, and Goodwill so it should be better soon.
And just because I like a good Before and After comparison…
The kids’ first ferret!
A friend of mine was in town to drop off her ferret for another friend to watch…but she stopped at my house first to pick up an order. So I thought the kids would like to check out a ferret for the first time…
And this is why I want to scream at my children.
Katie came down to get new cereal this morning and while she was digging for what she wanted on the shelf, five boxes ended up on the floor and that’s where they stayed. Plus the completely empty box to the left.
Breathe. Breathe.
We hired an Interior Designer!
I’ve always wanted to hire a designer so I can end up with a put together room/house…and it finally happened! A friend is an interior designer and came over to give us some guidance! We figured since this is our forever house, we’re ready!
We talked about what we wanted, what we liked, what we didn’t want —and decided on a color scheme, the curtains and rods, the mantle (Tom will build it), and carpet size.
So she sent us to look at furniture and we found a bunch of things we liked right away at the first store—a couch, leather glider chair (to replace Tom’s recliner that will no longer match), a new chair for the front room, a lamp, and an end table!
That night I searched online for the perfect rug and found it! So we have a good start!
The ceiling is getting there.
This is where the master bath leaked. The drywall is finally getting fixed!
Gurnee Moms Hot Mom Summer Kickoff
One of our local Facebook forums (Gurnee Moms) had an event at our favorite restaurant —so most of our group went!
They had a professional photographer and of course I was ahead of the group heading inside to grab a table for dinner (they had appetizers but not nearly enough for the number of people) so I missed being in the group pic.
Internet ax murderers found each other!
A TiVo member was going to be passing through on a road trip so we all gathered for dinner! It was so great seeing them after almost a year and a half!
Dinner at The Turf Room was amazing, too!
PASTRAMI SALMON BRUSCHETTA
SMOKED FAROE ISLANDS SALMON, GRILLED SCALLION GOAT CHEESE MOUSSE,
PICKLED MUSTARD “CAVIAR”, GRILLED PRETZEL BAGUETTE, MICRO GREEN
MONTE CRISTO CROQUETTES
FOREST HAM, BACON, PEPPER, ONION, PEPPER JACK, SWISS, CHEDDAR, SAMBAL SOUR CREAM
SEA SCALLOP CARBONARA
PAN SEARED SEA SCALLOP, SWEET PEA, BACON, SHALLOT, PORTABELLA MUSHROOM, LINGUINI, SMOKED WHITE WINE PARMESAN EGG YOLK CREAM
IMPERIAL AMERICAN WAGYU FILET
8OZ IMPERIAL NEBRASKA AMERICAN WAGYU FILET, GRILLED ASPARAGUS, ROMESCO SAUCE, LEMON OIL
SOUS VIDE FRENCH TOAST
NUTMEG, CINNAMON, VANILLA BEAN, BACON SYRUP, VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM
Shitshow to Glam!
After today’s shitshow (peeshow?) of a day, I really didn’t feel like getting dressed and putting on a face…but we were meeting friends for dinner so it had to happen!
And just look what happened?! Super quick and easy look:
- CCTM and a touch of Buff
- Smoked Topaz brows
- Buttercream Shimmer & Copper Rose Shimmer eyes (with some CRS below)
- Black pencil liner
- UnderSense and black mascara
- Ember Pearlizer cheeks
- Translucent powder
- 1 Bella/2 Precious Topaz lips with a center highlight of Chocolate Copper
And look at those amazing earrings from a boutique that I love? I normally don’t do big earrings but… I’m in love.