SNOMG2016

I've left the house once since thursday (5 days, 1 time).  Surprisingly, not really feeling all that much cabin fever, its kind of been a nice relaxing break but I have to think back what the heck have we been doing for the past 5 days.  

Thursday with the rest of Charlotte we went out to dinner, grab a few necessities from the grocery store and hunkered down in the house waiting for the snow and friday morning when we woke up it DID NOT disappoint.

This was our driveway...a sheet of ice.


The rest was totally instagram worthy

It's amazing how much changes in a year.  Last year when Hunter was 3 he had no interest in playing in the snow.  Everytime we went out to see it he said he it was too cold and he wanted to go inside.  This year was complete opposite.  The excitement on his face when he saw all the snow Monday morning was one of those mom moments i'll keep in my head and heart forever. 

And even though I've seen snow a million times (growing up in NY), his excitement was contagious, I was like a kid in a candy store right there with him.  

So Friday was just snow day bliss.  We dressed in our long johns and slippers...

made blueberry pancakes

which led to apple muffins thanks to the recipe on the pancake mix

read books with friends

cleaned up the house

played nice as brothers

and didn't play nice as brothers

But while James was down for his long winter nap Hunter and I went out and played.  Snowballs, sledding he would have stayed out there all day if I let him! 

And guess what...Saturday we woke up and did it again.  Except instead of pancakes we had oatmeal - which led to me seeing the oatmeal cooking recipe on the tub - i see a trend here. hmmm

By Saturday at 10am we were all 4 out playing in the snow again. As expected James lasted about two minutes and whined to go inside.  Snow playing, lunch, naps, and little of this for Mom and Dad was really blissful.  It's not often we get to look out our back porch and stare at snow.  There's just something so beautiful about snow. (2 inches of snow that is).

Saturday night our friends (who are neighbors) came over with their kiddos.  We turned the fireplace on in the basement, the glow off the snow came in through the windows down there. It sort of felt like we were away in the mountains minus the hot tub in the snow that we were really wishing we had.

6 adults, 5 kids, pizza, cocktails, popcorn, movies, and dance parties...It was the most fun evening and I'm really mad at myself for not saving off any of my videos or pics from snapchat.  Maybe you caught it live on my snapchat ID -  lunsfordkm?  

Sunday we paid the price of keeping the kids up past their bedtime with a sick 4  year old.  Hunter V woke up with a 104 fever and here we are today on Tuesday with the same fever.

It seems to be going down a little bit so hoping this is the end. If not, off to the Dr. we go tomorrow.  

Hope ya'll out there are surviving your snow and school outages.  My parents up in Virginia got 40 inches!! Insane! xoxo

Family and Football: A fun three day weekend!

Whew – Does it feel like Monday to anyone else besides me?  Us "bankers" in the Lunsford house had a three day weekend thanks to Martin Luther King Jr.    We jam packed our weekend with a lot of fun and a little bit of rest. 

We started our Saturday with playdates and The Little gym.  Then home for naps while I worked on the laundry and prepped some appetizers to enjoy during the Panthers game on Sunday.   I’ve been taking his greek dip EVERYWHERE we go lately.  It’s literally the easiest thing ever, all you have to do is chop and layer.  

  Tub of traditional humus

    Tub of Tatziki

   Cucumber, Tomato, and Green Onions

Mediterranean Feta, and Black olives (I only put black olives on half since I feel like a lot of people don't like olives)

 I also put together some anti-pasta skewers.  I got the idea from snoopnattynat when she posted this on her instagram.   They also ended being delicious and a hit.  I’m going to have to remember these for our xmas party next year.   It’s not shown in the picture but right before I served them I drizzled deli oil over them. 

 Saturday night Grami came to babysit and Hunter and I snuck away for a date night with my brother and sister-in-law.   Some noshing, followed by a nice dinner, made complete with a bucket of "juice" from Howl at the Moon (which i hadn't been to in like 10 years). 

 Sunday we were up and at em again and headed to Big Daddy’s (my father in laws) house BUT...Not before watching our first snow fall.  Hunter V has been DYING to see snow so he was super excited.  And well..monkey see, monkey do so James Penn was equally excited as his big brother.  They sat here at my bathroom window and watched it for a good 15 minutes while I got ready.  So sweet! 

 Big Daddy lives on Lake Norman so we enjoyed a cozy day, with family, friends, football and a great view! 

 The cousins on Hunter's side.  Aren't they cute! 

 We stayed the night and headed home first thing Monday and after two big nights for us old folks Monday we spent relaxing and getting ready for the week! 

Only three more work days and its another weekend!!!  Woohoo! 

Kids Activities

I've had so many things in the back of my head that I want to do with the kids but felt like I've been just holding them off until we got through the crazies of fall, football, thanksgiving, christmas, and new years.

Well..we're here...Hallelujah!!! 

So here's my FIVE on FRIDAY!!

A list of five activities the kids are enrolled in and we are excited to watch their little skills develop.  

1.  "My Spotlight" class at the Children's Theatre:

Hunter V has always been our drama king!! (In more sense than one) From dress up, to singing, to acting out movies and memorizing his books...  that boy LOVES to perform! 

So he's starts a creative drama class next week at the Children's theatre in Charlotte. It's call "My spotlight" and helps kids brings stories to life.  Anyone that knows my sweet Hunter knows he's going to LOVE this class. Mom and Dad are looking forward to the last class where they share with us all that they've learned in theatre concepts! 

2.  Spring Baseball with I9 Sports:

After theatre ends in March, baseball starts! Hunter turned 4 in November and we have been holding out until this spring to enroll him in any sports.  This will be his first team sport enrollment so we're excited to see how he likes it.  For those local we are going through I9 sports. I've heard great things!

3. The Little Gym:

As for Sweet Ole James - he started his Beasts and Super Beasts class at The Little Gym last week.  We had Hunter V enrolled in the little gym from around 1 years old until he was almost three and we all loved it. Look how proud he was of his first trophy from there!

Mom guilt over here that James is already getting the shaft - not that it really matters he's had his big brother to wrestle with at home, where as Hunter V didn't.  Any who - Hunter and I will rotate saturdays taking James and its REALLY nice to have that one on one time with him.   With each kid for that matter.  I plan to take Hunter V to the library on saturday mornings while James is at little gym.  Hunter's really gotten the hang of checking out library books. He loves to go in pick  new books, read them at home, return them...the whole concept just really turns his crank ;)

4.  Swim lessons:

Around March/April time frame I'd like to get a head start on summer by enrolling both boys in swim lessons.  If we could get these besties to do more than just look cool on the side of the pool this year that'd be stellar!

I'm not sure we're we are going to enroll them yet.  We've done Nomad before and thought it was ok.  Google searches also pull up recommendation for Huntersville Family & Aquatics and also Little Otter Swim School.  Any charlotte moms out there know the best swim school on the north side feel free to opine :)

5. Family Fun:

Some other activities I have my heart set on in the next two months are taking the boys to Beech Mountain and Great Wolf Lodge.

Hunter V is DYING to see snow and Beech Mountain is only 2.5 hours away so we'd just make it a day trip.  I'm sure 12 hours of fun in the snow is all a 4 year old and 2 year old can handle.  We'd leave early in the morning get there by 10am and hit the sledding hill.  Grab some lunch then maybe do a little afternoon snow tubing or ice skating.  Grab some dinner and throw kids in jammies before heading home and you KNOW they will sleep the whole way home.  Now - the key is finding a weekend where its not 30 degrees.  A nice 50 degrees would be perfect for the younin's. This was probably the last time Hunter saw snow...look how little he was!

Great Wolf Lodge is literally 2 minutes away from our house.  It seems sort of silly spending the night there when we live so close but its all about the experience right.  My kids are water slide freaks so I KNOW this will be an activity they LOVE.  I've heard great things but have never been before so again any tricks to the trade or tips are welcome!

Hope ya'lls new years are starting off well! I'm pretty excited to see memories we make with our kiddos in 2016!! xoxo

my new corporate ladder

The image below showed up in my inbox a few days ago. It was really just meant to be used as marketing material but it got me to thinking. THIS is what Rodan + Fields, the company I work for, WANTS my corporate ladder to look like! 

How special and amazing is that? They are changing lives across North America – and soon the world by offering us consultants the valuable opportunity to run our own skincare business from the comfort of our own home, ALLOWING US to spend more precious time with our families! #pinchme

If you remember, my R+F journey began last September a little over a year ago.  Kelly Treble (a RFx R+F leader) and I both worked in finance and on the same floor at one of the biggest banks here in Charlotte.  Through the grapevine, I caught word of Kelly’s successful R+F business and really didn’t think much of it nor was I looking for anything.  BUT… given Kelly was a extremely successful senior vice president at the Bank, I respected her business decisions so that night I enrolled. 

I had ZERO clue what I was getting myself into.  I had never tried the products (I washed my face with a bar of soap) AND worse yet… when I heard Kelly was going to soon retire from corporate america to run her R+F business full time - I remember thinking and SAYING “even if I replace my corporate salary with this one day I would NEVER quit.  I thought Kelly was being irresponsible.  I thought she was giving up an extremely successful, steady job for something that could be a fluke.  In hindsight…. I was CLUELESS!!!  About these products and this business model.  It took me only a couple months to really see and understand how social e-commerce is the wave of the future and that WE were ahead of it.  It took me one use of the products, and one corporate event to realize THESE products were NOT going anywhere, we’re going to be a household name, and we’re only going to continue to get better given how dedicated corporate is to product innovation and staying ahead of the curve.   I quickly realized how bright my family’s future was with this amazing company. 

I listened to training calls religiously, most of the time on speaker phone while putting laundry away in my bedroom, took the advice from those calls as well as from leaders in our company and put it into action. I had never been in sales before but its true.  We aren’t sales people.  We share.  I don’t want to pressure anyone into doing something they don’t want to do.  This truly isn’t for everyone.  It’s my job to share and let others decide it they want to be part of this.  But guess what??  In the past year, through consistent daily activity – that I fit in while still working my demanding corporate job in finance, I managed to grow a customer base as well as a team of consultants.

I hit Executive Consultant the month I enrolled thanks to my Big Business Launch event  and then I didn’t promote again until 5 months later when I hit Level 1 and 2 in February 2015. From there I promoted to Level III in May, and hit Level IV and V in the month of July 10 months into my business. If you’d like to see what these titles mean financially please refer to our income disclosure statement here.

This year I’m continuing to grow my personal business but now I also have the pleasure of helping those on my team build meaningful businesses of their own.  And that’s different for everyone.  Not everyone wants to quit their 9 to 5 job.  Some people just want a pool in their backyard or to pay for their kids college.  Whatever their goals are they are supported and I get to help them get there :) It’s an amazing feeling! 

When I graduated college I thought I wanted to climb the banking world’s corporate ladder.  Then I had kids, and that all changed.  Now I thank my lucky stars everyday that Rodan + Fields is the new corporate ladder I’m climbing.  I’m right on schedule to be spending less time in an office and more time at home with my family (without sacrificing a PENNY) a year from now.   I told myself 3 years when I joined. That I would work this my darndest for 3 years and no less to see what plays out. I'm so glad I did! I’ve worked hard, and it’s paying off, and next year my days are going to look VERY different.  And I couldn’t feel more blessed to have fallen into this opportunity and for some crazy reason ran with it.  

If you don’t like the corporate ladder your climbing.  Let’s talk, no sales pitch, you do the taking, I just answer your questions.  

2016 is going to be a record year for R+F.  I’m talking new product innovation, new international growth in Australia, and continued growth in the US and Canada.  We are serious about becoming the #1 premium skincare line in the US and YOU can be part of all that exciting success.   The company, the people, the products, it’s all so so fun, I love sharing it!! Lunsfordkm@gmail.com