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Jen (00:00:04) - Welcome to Myrtle Moms with Margaritas. The show where we sip cool drinks, talk about hot topics and certainly don't take ourselves too seriously. I'm Jen, Colton and Nolan's mom.
Shannon (00:00:15) - I'm Shannon, Gabriel and Grayson's mom. And let's jump into this week's episode.
Jen (00:00:18) - Yeah, let's do it.
Shannon (00:00:19) - So have you really listened to the “Barbie song”? Like as a joke? Like, not actually… by the Aqua… ‘Aqua people’ that sing that song? “I’m a Barbie girl...” Have you ever, like, really listened to it?
Jen (00:00:32) - Oh, yeah. It's weird. It's inappropriate.
Shannon (00:00:35) - Right!? (Yeah.) So it keeps on coming on right now because the Barbie movie or whatever. And I'm like, oh… the kids….
Jen (00:00:42) - You know, Barbie and Ken are brother and sister, right? (What?!) Yeah. The woman who created Barbie, her kids' names were Barbie and Ken.
Shannon (00:00:50) - Oh, this is mind blowing. What — a — I can’t even… holy… What?!
Jen (00:00:57) - Yep. Yeah. (Ew.) So all those times that you had Barbie and Ken kissing…
Shannon (00:01:01) - …Wow.
Jen (00:01:02) - Bother and sister.
Shannon (00:01:04) - That's why the world is so corrupt today.
Jen (00:01:06) - Maybe. Are you going to go see the Barbie movie?
Shannon (00:01:08) - I am. I'm going to wait a couple of weeks, though. I just want everything to die down.
Jen (00:01:13) - I'm excited to see it, but I'm not buying into the Barbie hype right now. I can't.
Shannon (00:01:18) - So I have always loved Barbie.
Jen (00:01:23) - Me too. I bet you that I had 300 Barbie dolls.
Shannon (00:01:27) - Right? (300.) My whole room, everything was covered in Barbie. It even was to the point, like I had Barbie.. just random jewelry, makeup, all that kind of stuff. And then in high school, my nickname, actually, for basketball? They put “Barbie” on my jersey.
Jen (00:01:43) - Love it.
Shannon (00:01:44) - Because they were like, “You're a little —”
Jen (00:01:46) - Shannon is ‘Basketball Barbie’!
Shannon (00:01:48) - ‘Basketball Barbie’. That's what they would make — all of my teammates were just like, “You don't really fit a basketball player.” I'm like, “What is a basketball player supposed to look like?” They're like, “You look like a Barbie doll.”
Shannon (00:02:00) - I'm like, “Oh, well, thanks. I'll take it.” Okay. But I mean, I can't do a split or any of that stuff. No.
Jen (00:02:08) - No. Trying to think what Barbie I would be.
Shannon (00:02:10) - What —
Jen (00:02:10) - Like, ‘Over-tired Barbie’? Is that a thing?
Shannon (00:02:13) - ‘Overworked’, ‘Over-tired’, Over Everything’. Yeehaw!
Jen (00:02:18) - Oh, bless.
Shannon (00:02:20) - Oh, that's funny. No, I was looking to see… Oh, what was the last thing you googled? (Oh…) Mine was Brittany Mahomes after watching The Quarterback.
Jen (00:02:31) - So have you watched The Quarterback?
Shannon (00:02:33) - I’ve only watched two episodes right now. Very interesting. Three total-opposite quarterbacks. (Yes.) I got to say, so I did not realize Kirk Cousins was so… (Nerdy?) Yes, I was trying to be nice. Oh, look, even my phone’s saying it…
Jen (00:02:53) - Siri’s talking to you?
Shannon (00:02:53) - Yes. But he's like the kid that just seems to be so sweet and loving. But did you see where they had him singing in, like, a little group?
Jen (00:03:05) - Yes.
Shannon (00:03:05) - I was like, “Aww, a little boy band.”
Jen (00:03:07) - Yeah. Well, he did that thing on stage at the ESPYs and they showed it. Do you remember that? Last year he sang on the ESPYs with Kelly Clarkson?
Shannon (00:03:14) - Last year? Oh, man, I need to watch that.
Jen (00:03:17) - Are you going to let your boys watch the show?
Shannon (00:03:19) - We're in episode two. Like, so, we've seen those two. Patrick Mahomes is very… he's his “age.” He's showing his age, just with the swearing and everything. Not saying that's a bad thing. I mean, kids hear that all the time, unfortunately. So, Grayson is so obsessed with football that I would love for him to see just what it truly takes to be a quarterback or even just a football player in general. It's one of those things that I think we might let him see but want to finish out the season and just see kind of what all….
Jen (00:03:48) - Yeah, so you and Barret are watching it (We’re watching it together) together, too?
Shannon (00:03:51) - We're not normally people that watch stuff together.
Jen (00:03:54) - Well hey, The Quarterback’s bringing you guys together.
Shannon (00:03:57) - Yeah, I have ‘my side’ of the couch and he has ‘his side’ of the couch and typically we have a bowl of ice cream while watching The Quarterback while they're doing all their running and sweating.
Jen (00:04:08) - So you're not watching it in bed together? (Oh, no.) Do you guys have a TV in your bedroom?
Shannon (00:04:11) - Yes, that's ‘my TV.’
Jen (00:04:12) - Can I tell you that — when you're folding laundry?
Shannon (00:04:16) - When I'm folding laundry and before I go to bed like he will… it's not his TV, that's mine.
Jen (00:04:20) - When we were building our house, we were walking around with the builder. And the way our master bedroom was set up, there's not — the door is like, right in the middle of the wall opposite of where the bed would go. (Okay.) So in my head, I literally was trying to think of like, “Okay, where is the TV going to go that it's going to work out?” (Yeah.) Because in our old master bedroom, the door was on a side wall. So the wall in front of the bed was open and you just hung it right in the middle of the wall. So I went up to our builder when we were doing our walk around and I asked the question, I was like, “In other houses of this model where are people putting the TV? Like, what side are they putting the TV on? Or do you have a recommendation on how the TV should lay out here?” Do you know what he told me? “A TV is not meant for a master bedroom. (What?!) There are only certain things that happen in a master bedroom. That should be ‘not TV time.’” Whatever. This man was lecturing me. I'm paying more money than I know what to do with for my house. And he's telling me that I shouldn't have the TV in my master bedroom.
Shannon (00:05:30) - Well, some things make people happier than others. (Yeah.) Well, if I didn't have a TV in my room, I would never get to watch TV.
Jen (00:05:39) - I agree with you on that.
Shannon (00:05:40) - Yeah, like that's where I — yes, I'll fold laundry. I even have a chair and in our room that me and Max — my little Yorkie — we just go and sit in there and we'll watch TV. (Yeah.) I couldn't watch one Hallmark movie if I didn't have a TV because the kids have their TV upstairs in the loft. (Yep, so do we.) So, you know, they can watch the TV up there. But a lot of times they seem to take over the living room. But then when sports season, especially Clemson, I never get the TV in our living room. The only time I get our TV in the living room is when I'm cooking dinner and having the news on in the background, so…
Jen (00:06:12) - Yes. Exactly. And that's not really what I want to be watching. (No.) But if I put on something else while I'm cooking dinner, I'm not going to pay attention to what it is.
Shannon (00:06:19) - So, it's like, at least I can see what the weather is going to be.
Jen (00:06:21) - Exactly.
Shannon (00:06:22) - Yeah. Oh, that's hilarious, though.
Jen (00:06:24) - I was shamed. I don't know if it was mom-shamed or couple-shamed or whatever, but…
Shannon (00:06:32) - Was he, like, the age of like a father, or was he?
Jen (00:06:34) - I thought he was going to be like this cool dude! Like he was a younger-ish…
Shannon (00:06:38) - Oh, wow.
Jen (00:06:39) - Older than us. But yeah, (But still!) not, you know...
Shannon (00:06:42) - No, no. (Yeah.) I guess the TV for us is birth control —
Jen (00:06:45) - I thought Lewis was going to die laughing. And of course. Yeah, Yeah.
Shannon (00:06:49) - Lewis, Did Lewis like, crack a dad joke or something?
Jen (00:06:53) - No, but I think he was downstairs when it happened. But he, like, heard it, and he gave me so much hell after that.
Shannon (00:07:00) - It's so funny.
Jen (00:07:01) - Like when he was hanging the TV in our bedroom and he was like, “Are you sure we need to be putting this in here, now? No, no. No, no, no!”
Shannon (00:07:06) - Look, I made sure, because I decided that the TV we had in our bedroom a few years ago, I was like, “This is kind of small.” I mean, since I'm the one watching TV in here and the only time I can watch TV, I'm like, “You know, I'm going to get Barret a new TV for the living room, say it's for him and then take the TV that's in the living room and put in the bedroom.” It worked out great in my favor. So now in the bedroom, there's a 65-inch TV that's ‘mine.’
Jen (00:07:36) - I was going to say, I think ours is like 65-somewhere. It's quite large.
Shannon (00:07:40) - I mean, I need to be able to see it and I want to enjoy the TV. (Yeah.) It's a big deal. (Yeah.) Well, and you're saying to your master’s upstairs, it seems like these days that most of the houses have the masters downstairs. Did you guys particularly…
Jen (00:07:54) - Yeah. So our plan layout, there's no bedrooms at all downstairs in our house. So it was just the way the layout of the house is. So everything's all the — I guess non-living quarter. I don't know. The bedrooms are all upstairs.
Shannon (00:08:07) - Well is the laundry room upstairs? Oh that's good at least, because, man, that would be hauling everything upstairs constantly.
Jen (00:08:14) - No, that's nice. Except for laundry just ends up in our hallway upstairs.
Shannon (00:08:19) - Yeah, no, that's true.
Jen (00:08:21) - Folding laundry is absolutely the worst, isn't it?
Shannon (00:08:23) - It is. Actually, for me, folding laundry isn't as bad as putting the laundry away.
Jen (00:08:27) - Yeah, I'll give you that. Because mine sits in piles, too.
Shannon (00:08:29) - Yeah, It's like, “Uuhg.” (Yeah.) So, man, so talking about housing, I don't know about you, but like, any time that I will drive around and see a house, it's like, “Oh, I wish I could do that to my house” or, “Oh, I wish I could do that.” This is why I could never do real estate again, (Because you just keep adding things?) — adding things, and then things you can't even do. Because, me? I'll start a project, completely screw it up. And then Barrett gets frustrated and then has to try to fix it. Yeah. So it wouldn't be a good thing in our marriage.
Jen (00:08:58) - I often drive down the road and I look at houses and I just wonder what at the inside of houses look like. (Yes!) Like in my head, it's like a game I play with myself and I'm always like, “Oh, do you think that one has the grandma-feel with the cozy (Yeah.) knit pieces or is it just completely like, hoarded out and there's stuff everywhere? Or is this like an older house that the people inside really take good, good care of it?” I always just run stories through my head when I look at houses — or old abandoned buildings. I always think about what the inside of them look like right now.
Shannon (00:09:37) - Well, I always am that person that, you know, you'll be watching TV and here they are, these houses that people are looking for. They have $600,000 to work with. And these houses are so teeny tiny. It's like, what do these people do and how do they afford such a small home at such a high price? And I guess in the state of South Carolina, we're fortunate, even though the housing market is pretty high, but it's not, like, crazy-high like that.
Jen (00:10:05) - We were just talking the other day and — I don't remember who it was — but it was a family that lives in New York City and they just moved in. They have two kids and they just moved into a two-bedroom apartment. They were living in a one-bedroom (What?) place in New York City. (I would go crazy.) Can you imagine being on top of your kids? Oh, I don't care how bad I want to live in New York City.
Shannon (00:10:28) - I don't know if — and this isn't sounding spoiled at all — but, I don't know if my kids could actually even share a room.
Jen (00:10:36) - Yeah, that's true.
Shannon (00:10:37) - They both need their space and I understand because I need my space at times.
Jen (00:10:44) - Your boys share a bathroom, though, right?
Shannon (00:10:45) - They share a bathroom. And you know, that's already hard enough. You know, one might be taking a long shower and the other one's like, “Ugh. Can I just take a shower in your bathroom, Mom?” “Yes…” Just wait. Just wait.
Jen (00:11:00) - I walked in the bathroom the other day and Colton had toothpaste everywhere. Everywhere.
Shannon (00:11:07) - And even in his hair?
Jen (00:11:09) - No, no, just all over the bathroom. (Okay.) Do you know what my thought in my head was? “Well, toothpaste cleans teeth. I wonder if this isn't in any way cleaning anything that's in this bathroom right now.”
Shannon (00:11:20) - Sure, why not?
Jen (00:11:21) - Like, when I wipe this up, is there any type of antibacterial killing matter that's happening?
Shannon (00:11:26) - It's killing those germs. Yeah. Yeah. (Okay. Thank you.) Yes, it is. (Thank you.) Making them nice and pretty white. Oh, yeah. And then that. And then the soap. Does he ever — my kids have gotten and they've gotten a little bit better with this — but they would dump out the soap just to fill it up with water to…
Jen (00:11:49) - Yes! In the bathtubs? Yes.
Shannon (00:11:50) - Yes. I'm like, “You just wasted that soap.”
Jen (00:11:54) - Lewis walks out of the bathtub last night and goes, “We need to buy more soap.” And I was like, “I just bought some!” And he was like, “Well, it is currently all floating in the bottom of the bathtub.”
Shannon (00:12:04) - It's like, “Well, I guess that bath was very clean.” Yeah. (Yeah.) Yeah…. They don't do baths that often now…
Jen (00:12:10) - Okay, I have a question for you. (Yeah.) Soap for kids. I don't know what kind of shampoo and soap your kids are using right now, but think of like, when they were the younger side of things. Lewis told me that it — we had Johnson & Johnson (Yeah.) baby soap. (Baby soap.) And I was using it for the hair as well. (Yeah.) And he was like, “What do you mean, we don't have different shampoo?”
Shannon (00:12:35) - I did that forever. (Okay, good, good!) And now they have —
Jen (00:12:36) - I didn’t know if that was a thing. I was like, isn't that — it's all the same?
Shannon (00:12:39) - No, it's all the same. The boys, though, they wanted Barrett's, like, spicy… The Old Spice?
Jen (00:12:43) - That totally makes sense. I get it.
Shannon (00:12:43) - So they have that. But then Gabriel got a little bit of it in his eyes not too long ago. So he likes the Dial soap. I think it's the blue kind. I don't know. It's the kind that I had in my shower and it doesn't smell like girls. So he's like, “I want that.” And then I think I use, like, Suave or, I don't know, some type of… but I think the shampoo that I have is shampoo/body wash combined. But they just like to have different smells.
Jen (00:13:10) - Yeah. No, totally understand. But.
Shannon (00:13:12) - But yes. No, I always did Johnson & Johnson.
Jen (00:13:15) - I had to stop and question myself for a moment.
Shannon (00:13:18) - No, ‘From head to toe.’ That's their quote. Right?
Jen (00:13:20) - Right, right, Exactly. Exactly. I was like, “Just because it doesn't say shampoo (Yeah.) on the bottle,” it's….
Shannon (00:13:26) - You should go back to him, (It's just so...) “So do you use the same?” Because Barrett's, the Old Spice? It's the shampoo plus body wash.
Jen (00:13:35) - Oh, nope.
Shannon (00:13:36) - No? Okay.
Jen (00:13:37) - I think Lewis is a little bougie when it comes to that. He likes the fancy stuff. He goes down that fancy aisle in Target, you know? Where they have the special stuff for men.
Shannon (00:13:46) - All right, so I'm assuming Christmas time or birthdays, you just make sure that that's what you get.
Jen (00:13:52) - Yes! It's a great gift option.
Shannon (00:13:53) - Yeah, exactly. That's funny. Has Nolan got — not Nolan, but Colton — has he gotten into any of Lewis's soap or anything?
Jen (00:14:03) - No… He does, every once in a while, he’ll take a shower in our shower. And he always asks to use daddy’s soap. So I guess in a way, that's… Yeah.
Shannon (00:14:13) - Just wait until he starts trying to take his deodorant. (Bless.) So Barrett has noticed. He's like, “Why does my deodorant, the stick, it's, like, sometimes deformed.” I'm like, “Guess one of your kids used it again.” There was one time it looked like there was a bite mark on it. I'm like, “That doesn't taste good.”
Jen (00:14:35) - Oh, my gosh! When Colton was like two years old, I think? Walking not as independent as… I don't know. It was probably a year and a half, two years. He took a bite out of one of the toilet things that you keep in your toilet to keep them fresh? (Like the Clorox Life?) Yes. I had to call the Poison (poison?) Control Center.
Shannon (00:14:58) - Sorry, it's not funny, but…
Jen (00:15:01) - No, it was, it was one of those times I'm like, “Oh, my God. I cannot believe this just happened.”
Shannon (00:15:04) - “I’m just a bad parent.” (Yes.) “I’m so sorry.”
Jen (00:15:01) - Yes. Luckily, he didn't swallow anything. And honestly, the Poison Control Center said that most of those are majority soap, so it's not a big deal, but obviously watch for vomiting or anything like that. And he was fine. But that was one of those, like, “Great.”
Shannon (00:15:26) - Aha moments (Yeah.), like, “What am I doing? Not paying attention?” (Correct.) Oh, that's funny. The things that they do...
Jen (00:15:31) - Yeah. Nolan is getting to that age now, where the baby gates are going up. (Oh…) We're on the move. I don't think I've updated you guys on this.
Shannon (00:15:39) - No, you have it. How old is he now?
Jen (00:15:40) - He'll be ten months, the beginning of August.
Shannon (00:15:46) Oh, he's going to be walking probably soon.
Jen (00:15:48) - We are on the move on. On the move, big time.
Shannon (00:15:49) - Uh-oh. What is he getting into? What's his favorite things to get into?
Jen (00:15:52) - His brother's toys.
Shannon (00:15:53) - Of course. (Yeah.) Does he get into the Tupperware? Like, do you have a, um —
Jen (00:15:56) - So our Tupperware is on a shelf in our pantry.
Shannon (00:15:59) - That's smart. (Yeah.) Okay. Do you have the things, though, that you put on the knobs on the cabinets?
Jen (00:16:05) - We have them. We haven't put them up yet. I don't know if we will. Well, I'm sure we will. I say that. Yeah, but second child, I guess maybe we won't. Who knows?
Shannon (00:16:14) - I know I did it under the kitchen sink because of just all the cleaning supplies. And then I realized, like a little bit further in, when Grayson was really starting to move around. And Gabriel, of course — they're so close — but it was just Gabriel wasn't as active as Grayson. I'm like, “Oh, I need to put those outlet things in.”
Jen (00:16:33) - Yeah. I saw Nolan reaching for an outlet the other day. I got to do that, remind myself.
Shannon (00:16:39) - Hey, so how many words is he saying now?
Jen (00:16:40) - He's got “Momma” and “Dadda” down pretty well. He can high-five. He can clap really well. He's in major copycat mode. Like, anything that we do he does it right afterwards. If you stick out your tongue. If you... Yeah, it's really adorable.
Shannon (00:16:56) - Make sure you don't do something wrong for him to follow. (Yeah.) Awww, well, does he learn the sign language then at school?
Jen (00:17:04) - I would assume so.
Shannon (00:17:07) - Like “more”? Does he do ‘this’ a lot like it's and then ‘this’ so it's like, that's “more” and then this is “food”? Is that right or something? Putting my hands together for all of you to see, I'm sorry...
Shannon (00:17:20) - Well, now, how's Colton taken to being a big brother?
Jen (00:17:26) - Oh, he's good. Yeah, I'm just shocked at him every day of how well he takes on the ‘Big Brother’ role.
Shannon (00:17:31) - Does he try changing his diaper?
Jen (00:17:33) - No, he hasn't tried that. (No?) No, no.
Shannon (00:17:36) - Oh, now Nolan's actually eating food.
Jen (00:17:39) - Yes. The beginning of this week, we had to start bringing in — what do they call them? “Pick-up food.”
Shannon (00:17:46) - Oh, they have a word for it?
Jen (00:17:47) - Yeah. (Oh, okay.) Yeah. So in my head — this is also a funny story, Shannon. So this was Wednesday that they were like, “We're going to take you — like, if you can start bringing in “pick-up food.” So, food that they can pick up off their tray and eat.
Shannon (00:18:03) - Oh, okay. That makes sense now.
Jen (00:18:05) - Yes, exactly. So, not like the spoon-fed food. So I was like, all right. Well, Wednesday night I got home and realized that we didn't have any type of fruit that I could cut up, anything like that. So I sent in scrambled eggs in the morning. (Okay.) And I thought that I sent in enough scrambled eggs for two meals, but apparently that memo didn't get across or I didn't explain it. I get it. Maybe our boy was really hungry. I'm not sure. And I sent in half a granola bar. Okay.
Shannon (00:18:35) - And a granola bar! That's a big deal.
Jen (00:18:38) - Okay, well, the Nutri-Grain kind. Like, the soft kind with the fruit in the middle. (Oh, okay.) Yeah. So then I go pick them up at school on Wednesday, and they were like, “Um…so you didn't pack any lunch for him.” They were like, “Next time, tomorrow can we pack lunch?” And I was like, “Oh, okay. Yes.” (“Yes, ma'am.”) Yeah. And then I didn't really want to tell them that I didn't pack lunch because I didn't really have anything else in my cabinet that he could eat. Like I just didn't have time to get to the grocery store.
Shannon (00:19:08) - It's all good. “Don't you have lunch there that you can feed him?”
Jen (00:19:12) - Well, he had his spoon-fed stuff still, like he had plenty. There was enough baby food there for the rest of the week. So he didn't not eat, folks. But yeah.
Shannon (00:19:23) - Macaroni and cheese. Your best friend. Has he had that yet?
Jen (00:19:28) - He has had some pasta. I don't think he's had macaroni and cheese yet, but.
Shannon (00:19:33) - I always got the — I still do — but the microwavable one? But when they were younger, I only would put, maybe, a third of like that cheese, the powdered cheese in there and then start it up. So it wasn't as much of a mess because I look back at the pictures — and I guess I was just ‘mean mom’ — but I used to make the boys actually take their shirts off when they would eat any…
Jen (00:19:52) - Yes.
Shannon (00:19:53) - Okay. So all of these pictures from like the first few years of both of the boys eating, I'm like, “I guess we just always ate with our shirts off,” and the boys, they're like, “Momma, why did you never let us wear our shirts? And we were always just in our diapers, it looks like.” I'm like, “Yeah, because y'all make a mess.” (Yep.) And that's how we were able to save some of our clothing for them to go from Gabriel to Grayson.
Jen (00:20:16) - And most of the time at dinner, you're going in the bath right afterwards, anyway.
Shannon (00:20:19) - Exactly. I just laugh about it. My mom used to make fun of me about it because she's like, “Why do you make those kids never have clothes on?” And now afterwards, she's like, “Well, that did make sense.” (“Thanks, Mom.”) Thanks. Appreciate that.
Jen (00:20:32) - Get things right every once in a while, right?
Shannon (00:20:34) - Once in a blue moon. I mean, it's different having girls to boys, I'm assuming.
Jen (00:20:39) - I would assume.
Shannon (00:20:40) - I don't have girls. But since we are girls…Us girls are a little bit more particular. I have to tell you. So, Gabriel —
Jen (00:20:51) - We haven't caught up in a while. This is fun.
Shannon (00:20:53) - We haven’t! No. Gabriel broke his glasses last week, (Aww.) But he stopped wearing his bifocals about 7 or 8 months ago. He was just like, “Mama the bifocals, I just can't see as well.” I'm like, “Alright.” Because he had to wear the bifocals to help with the correction of his eyes when he had the surgery when he was two. It was the lazy eye and everything. So I'm like, “Alright, well then let's wear your sports glasses and see how that does.” Well, he stopped having his headaches. He was not walking funny anymore. Like, he just seemed to be so much better, smoother and everything. But his sports glasses, they are regular glasses. But they're Oakley frames because they were kind of looking sporty, but not really. But they were more durable, even though his regular glasses — they were Nike because like, you know, I mean, the little checkmark, that's cool. So we got those glasses, those Oakleys, which were the sports glasses, back in August of 2021. (Yeah.) The insurance covered only for a year. So when he broke them last week, nothing was covered. And we don't go back to the eye doctor until August 1st. So got the new frames, same frames as what he had, but still the old lenses. Yeah. So I'm kind of hoping that like, alright, can we just get another pair of lenses for these frames when we go back to the doctor for —
Jen (00:22:19) - I'm sure they'll be able to do that.
Shannon (00:22:20) - Right? I sure hope so.
Jen (00:22:21) - Yeah.
Shannon (00:22:22) - So, well, it just depends on, I guess, what his prescription will be. (True.) But I'm like, “Really?” And he just left them on his towel during water day and stepped on them. And that's just how his thinking process of like, he can't — everything has to be in a certain [place]; like everything we is timed out. I know that we've talked about that before, but you know, he has to put his glasses down. He has to then do his shoes. He has to grab his towel — like so many different steps that are involved. And he just missed one step, and there it goes. So, yeah, happy birthday to me, that was the birthday gift to myself. But, you know, it's all good. Life keeps trucking along.
Jen (00:23:06) - I won't ask about how the rest of the birthday went.
Shannon (00:23:09) - Yeah, kids were sick. Air conditioning unit…
Jen (00:23:12) - Because you were supposed to take a trip, right?
Shannon (00:23:14) - We were. We were supposed to go to the lake house, but we decided we just had — it was just one thing after another. The kids got sick, air conditioning unit stopped working right. And I mean, in this heat, 100 and, like, 10 degrees…
Jen (00:23:26) - You cannot not get that....
Shannon (00:23:27) - No. So we had to get that fixed. Max, my little Yorkie wasn't feeling well. It was just one thing after another. But I got to say, like, I came back, I took off my birthday was on a Saturday. I took off that Friday and then that Monday. I came back to work on that Tuesday. And I think that my department that I'm in just knew that I just had not the greatest of a birthday. They decorated my whole office.
Jen (00:23:51) - Sometimes it's a little things, right?
Shannon (00:23:53) - It was the sweetest thing ever. And honestly, at times I'm like, you know, when you work with your ‘work family,’ in a sense, it's like, “Do they like me? Do they not like me?” You know, you always kind of question that, just because we are around each other so often and some of us, we don't really hang out after work. Just, I mean, we have lives and everything else. But it really meant a lot. Especially some of the people, I'm like, “Oh, they do like me, they do like me! It's so cool!” So, it was really sweet. And then my ambassadors that I oversee on the ambassador program here, they did a special little birthday party for me or celebration. They gave me some flowers and a nice new cup. What is it? ‘The Stanley?’
Jen (00:24:35) - Oh, you got a Stanley!?
Shannon (00:24:36) - I got a Stanley. I heard that's a big deal.
Jen (00:24:38) - It is! Especially in the mom world! Excuse me?
Shannon (00:24:42) - I was like, “I fancy.”
Jen (00:24:44) - Is that it, right there?
Shannon (00:24:45) - This is not. This is my Coastal Carolina Cup. It's very similar to that. (It does, yes.) But the person who got it for me, Bobby, who is a South Carolina and Duke fan, which, you know, those people…
Jen (00:24:56) - Bobby's been on the show before, right?
Shannon (00:24:57) - Bobby's been on the show before. She got me a Carolina blue one. She was like, “It really took a lot for me to get this for you.” So I was like, “Oh, that's so sweet.” But yeah. (Look at you!) I know! It was like, “Look at me, I'm fancy. This is special.”
Jen (00:25:08) - Like that’s in the Instagram Moms.
Shannon (00:25:11) - I'm like, “Oh, this is stuff.” And then got me some bath bombs-smelling stuff and they smell so good that — this probably sounds hilarious — but I'm going to put them in different rooms. They have like such a… like the smell?
Jen (00:25:25) - So strong?
Shannon (00:25:26) - So strong that like my front room where I put the gift or whatever? My front room, within 30 minutes, smelled amazing. I'm like, “Huh, alright.” Because I don't really get to take bath that often because the bathtub is in the boys’ bathroom. And sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with...
Jen (00:25:45) - I don’t find baths that relaxing.
Shannon (00:25:47) - I used to love baths, but honestly, if I have 30 minutes to myself, typically that 30 minutes is spent, whether it's folding laundry, straightening up or just going to bed early.
Jen (00:26:00) - Yeah, I just…
Shannon (00:26:02) - I thought this summer, though, I was going to be gung-ho about — and I know it's so hot out — but I was like, “I'm going to start exercising again,” or just…I don't have to get up. I get to sleep an extra 15 minutes with the way that school is to summer camp. (Yeah.) And 15 minutes is a lot of time.
Jen (00:26:18) - There's a lot of time.
Shannon (00:26:19) - And I'm like, “I'm going to get up. I'm going to do the elliptical every morning.” (How many mornings have you done it?) I don't think the elliptical has been plugged in in like a year (Fair.) So that hasn't really turned out to be in my favor. Um, yeah.
Jen (00:26:33) - Well, I tried to lay out a plan in my head last night. (Okay.) Okay. So my birthday is August 19th, and I was like, “You know what? August 1st I'm going to start 19 days of straight working out.” (Okay.) So we'll see how that goes.
Shannon (00:26:50) -All right. Maybe we can cheer each other on doing something. (Yeah!) I think we should take us on the road and go to different places and check out some of the places that you can work out here. I mean, you could go to Topgolf. That's still a workout. You're getting your arm, right? (You’re moving.) You're moving your arms. You're doing that. We've talked about yoga. We've talked about just sports in general. Maybe they let us be in the batting cages. I don't think I've ever truly, like, hit a baseball that well.
Jen (00:27:16) - Hitting baseballs is fun. It takes out a lot of aggression.
Shannon (00:27:19) - That sounds fun. You know, another thing I would love to do is the ax throwing.
Jen (00:27:23) - I've done that, too. (Yeah?) Yeah.
Shannon (00:27:24) - I was at the police —
Jen (00:27:26) - The ninja stars they have there are way more fun than the ax.
Shannon (00:27:30) - Those are — What are they called?
Jen (00:27:32) - Ninja stars.
Jen (00:27:33) - Are they ninja stars? Okay.
Shannon (00:27:34) - I was at the police station last week for an event and actually a couple of the officers were encouraging me to go as — being a mom, a female, you know, and just the way society is — they were actually encouraging me to go and take classes — shooting classes, to go to the shooting range or the driving range or whatever it's called, I don't know, (Shooting.) shooting range. I was like, “I've never even held a gun before besides a Nerf gun.” (Me either.) So they were like, “You really need to do that. You need to consider it. We're not trying to teach you violence. We're trying to teach you (Safety.) safety and not to be scared of something if you're in need of that.” So that might be something interesting for us to do. (That’d be interesting.) Yeah.
Jen (00:28:13) - If you got me to do that, Lewis would be so jealous. (Oh, really?) Yeah.
Shannon (00:28:18) - Well, maybe it's a date night.
Jen (00:28:19) - Maybe… I just can't.
Shannon (00:28:21) - I just don't — I know. Like I said, I've never touched a gun. (Me either. ) I've — nerf guns. Well, we were trying to use the Nerf gun in a work event yesterday, (Yeah we did!) and I think those Nerf guns just weren't real Nerf guns.
Jen (00:28:33) - I don't think that they were… the highest quality… (No.) of Nerf guns.
Shannon (00:28:37) - We've had plenty of Nerf gun fights in our household and I hit in the target pretty well.
Jen (00:28:43) - Yeah. I saw this awesome thing on Instagram where this mom made a, like, ‘Nerf gun wall’ in her house. (Yes! With the corkboard!) Did you see that? With the corkboard!
Shannon (00:28:53) - One of my girlfriends made one for her son, and I'm like, “Can you please do this for me?” I've been asking.
Jen (00:28:58) - My house would be insane all the time because I swear Lewis and I would just pick them up all the time and just blast each other. Lewis and I play games in our house. Every. Everything is a game in our house.
Shannon (00:29:09) - I can believe that. Y’all are both competitive.
Jen (00:29:10) - Everything is a game.
Shannon (00:29:11) - See, I get frustrated and get angry sometimes because sometimes Barret’s just more of a joke. And then he's, like, pushing me along.
Jen (00:29:19) - No, like, we're picking up toys. (Who can get the most toys?) No, who can — We'll stand at ranges and throw them into the toy bucket. And who can make the most in — like, that is a regular game in our house.
Shannon (00:29:31) - That's fun. So do you guys have a lot of Nerf guns?
Jen (00:29:35) - We don't currently.
Shannon (00:29:36) - So when we found out we were pregnant with Gabriel, one of the first toys that Barrett got was like this huge Nerf gun with — I think it has like 40 or something bullets that you can put in it. He's like, “We're going to have Nerf gun fights one day.” I’m like, “The kid’s not even born.” (All right. Sure.) Sure enough, though, they now have the Nerf gun fights because we have Nerf guns all over the house. (Yeah.) I know what I'm getting you for your birthday.
Jen (00:30:02) - Do it!
Shannon (00:30:04) - Or should I give it to Lewis? Here, Lewis.
Jen (00:30:07) - No.
Shannon (00:30:11) - See, these are the little things that Colton and Nolan are going to take away from y‘all, though.
Jen (00:30:15) - Absolutely.
Shannon (00:30:16) - Actually, I don't know. It might be all four of y'all tacklin’ each other.
Jen (00:30:20) - So, if we're picking up — sometimes we'll just do it if there's, like, a ball laying around and we'll just pick it up and we'll pick a bucket or a basket that's laid on the floor or whatever and we'll see who can make it in. Well, when we play like if you're — I mean, the distance is pretty far if you're in.
Shannon (00:30:38) - If you’re in the way, you're screwed.
Jen (00:30:38) - And Colton is the one who will go get the ball for us because we can't move from our spot because that's our spot, man. Like that —that's it. So he's running around picking up the ball and Mom and Dad are over here shooting basketball.
Shannon (00:30:50) - It's like throwing the ball to the dog.
Jen (00:30:53) - Yes, exactly.
Shannon (00:30:54) - “Go fetch! (Yeah) Go get it!”
Jen (00:30:56) - I mean, we kind of give Colton his chance to throw every once in a while.
Shannon (00:30:58) - Oh yeah, once in awhile. (Yeah.) You probably let him stay in a different spot, though.
Jen (00:31:02) - Or we'll play the game where we'll start throwing a ball back and forth to each other and the first one to drop it — We do this a lot in the pool. You know, you can't drop it, but — or if you catch it with your left hand, you can only throw it with your left hand.
Shannon (00:31:14) - You truly don't chill.
Jen (00:31:16) - No.
Shannon (00:31:18) - Like you don't.
Jen (00:31:20) - Until I sleep.
Shannon (00:31:22) - Yeah. Like, I'm constantly moving. But, like, if we're at the pool, I'm going to sit.
Jen (00:31:26) - Yeah. No. You seen us at the beach? (Oh, yeah.) We don't stop.
Shannon (00:31:29) - You don't stop. Me, on the other hand, I'm like, “I'm just going to sit here and drink my cocktail and just chill.” That's about the only time, though, that I do. But you guys, yeah. Did Lewis play sports? Okay, that makes sense. Y'all are constantly…
Jen (00:31:44) - Yeah. And there's a lot of times where I miss competition, so, Lewis and I'll just come up with something to do that's great. Like we've talked about, “Should we get a dart board? Should we get a pool table?” Like anything, just…
Shannon (00:31:56) - Y’all gotta come to over because we have that — now, it's the kids size — but it's the… what is it like the ‘5-in-1’? Like the pool table, the hockey table, the pin — not the pinball, but the... What is it called?
Jen (00:32:09) - Foosball?
Shannon (00:32:10) - Foosball. Yeah. All of that, all in one. Have y’all — do y’all have that ring? You know that you have to, like, throw it?
Jen (00:32:17) - We play that at the bars. But we don't have it at our house.
Shannon (00:32:21) - I got one. But I didn't realize how kind of intense you have to put it together.
Jen (00:32:25) - Yeah, you gotta —yeah. You gotta have a good space for it, too. You can't just, like...
Shannon (00:32:29) - It’s just sitting the garage right now. With a lot of other sporting gear.
Jen (00:32:32) - Lewis and I are very competitive.
Shannon (00:32:34) - This is funny. I would love to see the two of y'all in action and see what y'all are going to do.
Jen (00:32:39) - Have I ever told you about the time that we played trivia together? It almost ended our relationship. We were dating at the time and I thought Lewis was going to… (What?) Yeah.
Shannon (00:32:48) - Y'all playing against each other or on the same team?
Jen (00:32:50) - We were on the same team.
Shannon (00:32:52) - But you thought you were right and he thought he was right?
Jen (00:32:53) - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. (Oh, okay.) So, Lewis… when it comes to trivia, is not that into it. Like, that's just not his thing. And I really enjoy trivia, although I will admit I'm not very good at it, (Okay.) because I don't know a lot about music.
Jen (00:33:07) - So anytime they ask a music question, it's over my head. I don't… I can't.
Shannon (00:33:11) - So, Barret would be, like, the best partner for you.
Jen (00:33:13) - Yeah.
Shannon (00:33:14) - I suck at trivia. Me and Lewis can cheer y’all on.
Jen (00:33:16) - Culture stuff, I'm all over. (Okay. History?) History, sports, all that kind of stuff. The other area I'm not good at is any time they ask to put something in order, like, ‘year order’ or when things came out. I don't know anything about years. I’m terrible at all that.
Shannon (00:33:30) - What year are we in?
Jen (00:33:31) - Yeah, exactly. So we were playing and he wasn't really paying attention. We also had two other people on our team that were super good at trivia, like, played all the time. (Okay.) So I think that he just was like, “I don't need to be part of this team, really. I'm just going to zone out for a few minutes.” And it was a question that came up and I knew that he would know the answer. Like as soon as I heard it, I was like, “Oh, Lewis is going to know the answer to this question.”
Jen (00:33:56) - And he couldn't remember. He wasn't paying attention enough to understand what the question was asking. So I was, like, yelling at him. And I was like, “You know this answer! You know it!” And he was like, “Jen, you're really embarrassing me. Like, can you please stop?” And I was like, “But you know this answer! You know, it.” He was like, “I don't know it. I'm so sorry.” (Awwww.) And yes, he always brings that up all the time. He's like, “Yeah, we can't play trivia together. Not ever again.”
Shannon (00:34:27) - We are so going for a trivia night, the four of us. We have a lot of date nights planned. (We do!) I mean, because I think that would be hilarious. I suck at trivia, but there are the questions that no one knows. Those are the ones that I have to answer for. (Yeah.) I don't know why. Like retaining stuff for me? It's only if it's interesting to me. If it's not interesting to me? Barret? He's a walking encyclopedia, okay? Barret knows the most random knowledge you can ever imagine.
Jen (00:34:55) - Is he good at trivia? Like Yes, he's good at it?
Shannon (00:34:57) - He wins all the time. (Okay.) Yeah.
Jen (00:34:59) - See, I love trivia. Love. Love, love. But we don't go because obviously we've had a bad conflict over it, so....
Shannon (00:35:06) - As I'm choking up over here. That is funny. What are other things that y'all are — competition wise?
Jen (00:35:14) - What else do we do? Everything is a competition for us. Have you ever played Buffalo?
Shannon (00:35:19) - No. What's a buffalo? All I know is Buffalo Trace, the bourbon.
Jen (00:35:22) - So, it's somewhat drinking. But this started from Lewis’s friends. And basically, if you get caught with your drink in your right hand, you can call “Buffalo” on that person. (Okay?) And they have to finish their drink. So it's you thinking of always keeping your drink in your left hand. (I would be…) Right? It's not a good thing. We play more jokingly. Like, we don't play on a regular basis, but every once in a while it'd be funny to like, “Hey, Buffalo.”
Shannon (00:35:54) - But what do you get if you lose?
Jen (00:35:56) - You have to drink your whole drink. (Oh, chug it.) Yeah.
Shannon (00:35:59) - I guess it depends on what type of mood I'm in.
Jen (00:36:01) - Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it was super popular when we were getting married and I had to ban Buffalo from our wedding. (Oh, wow.) Yes. (That's funny.) I was like, “There will be —” I had a sit down with the groomsmen and I was like, “There will be no Buffalo on the wedding day. Do we hear this? No Buffalo on the wedding day.”
Shannon (00:36:20) - That is too funny. I just looked at my phone. It's already 4:15.
Jen (00:36:25) - Holy moly.
Shannon (00:36:26) - I know.
Jen (00:36:27) - What are we doing?
Shannon (00:36:28) - We're just randomly talking.
Jen (00:36:30) - Well, Shannon, this was fun. A good catch up.
Shannon (00:36:31) - This was fun.
Jen (00:36:33) - I enjoyed myself.
Shannon (00:36:33) - Me too. It was definitely a good way to end a Friday.
Jen (00:36:37) - Yeah, I agree.
Shannon (00:36:39) - Yeah. I think more of these will…
Jen (00:36:41) - Agreed. Agreed. All right. (All right.) Ready to wrap it up? (Yeah, I guess.) All right. Cheers. (Cheers.) Happy Friday, y’all! (Yay!)
Woman (Myrtle Beach) (00:47:14) - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is The Beach. Here, you're free to be your best self because Myrtle Beach is 60 miles made for you. You belong at The Beach.
Woman (Beach Easy) (00:47:28) - Beach. Easy.