We took the kids to Europe...and somehow survived

This week on Double Booked Official, we're spilling all the tea-or should we say tea and biscuits- from our family trip to Ireland and Scotland.

But wait...because what's a family vacation without a little reality check? We're also talking chores and allowance.  

We'll share secrets on how to travel in a foreign country with kiddos

We're also talking about giving the kids chores and whether or not to pay them an allowance.

How do we get our kids to appreciate a dollar when we traipse them around overseas. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Double Booked Official Podcast. I'm Nicole with Michael Ann today, and we are so excited to be together and have so much to catch up on. I will tell you, it has been a little bit of time since her and I have spoken, and we have so much to catch up on, including, and we'll just kick it, go right into it, this big trip you and your family just took to Ireland. And I'm jealous just by virtue of the pictures. I mean, Instagram, I want to live your Instagram life. And I can't wait. I have so many questions around all of it, starting with the planning, all the way through the trip. But first off, how was it?

SPEAKER_01 0:48

It was amazing. It was amazing. And I should say, so I am Irish on both sides of very Irish. We have a long history of being Irish American. We have family historians. We have, you know, tracing our roots all the way back to being the very first Irish American settlement in Western New York because it looked a lot like the Rolling Hills of Ireland. So we're very invested in being Irish American. And so I just, it really just felt this sounds weird and cliche, but when I was there, it felt like this country was made for me or I was made for this country. Like I would just pitch it all in and move to the Ring of Carrie tomorrow. Like it was just absolutely so what about it?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Was it the people, the view? Like, give me a little, give us paint the picture for us.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Yeah, it was all of that. Okay, food, I gotta say, they're not as big on like fresh vegetables as we are because we're spoiled. We live in Florida where we get all this great produce all the time. They're much more like root vegetables. Like, I can't do any more starches or root vegetables for a few days or roasted meats, but the landscape is just life-changing. The peace, the view, the power of everything you're seeing is literally, it changes you at a cellular level. So it's just absolutely amazing. We were gone for 12 days. We literally pulled our kids out of school on their last day early, and that is and we booked it. And I don't know that I would recommend that so much, but that's just the way it worked out. And then we got back late last night. So if you were watching this video and I look very tired, it's only because I am very tired.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

So you are not. So you you threw an additional responsibility on in May Summer, where we were already growing going crazy with in school activities, all the things that are happening and ending at May. You decided a uh a trip abroad was a great idea. Awesome.

unknown 2:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So I didn't have to how did you how did you how did you guys decide when to go to Ireland as far as like with the kids and their age, like why why now? And how did how did that come up in conversation?

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Okay, so I will say that so this trip was my in-laws booked the trip, and my mother-in-law planned the trip.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

And oh, this is a whole nother level then.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Yeah, yeah. Although it was great. So it was they had retired, they owned their own company for you know decades and decades and decades, and they finally sold it and real and finished out their contract term and really, really retired nine, 10 months ago. And this was what they wanted to do as their big retirement. They wanted to take the entire family over to Ireland. We did Ireland and we did Scotland. And it was great. And of course, I was like, absolutely, am I invited? Am I allowed to come? So it was great, but it was very much, you know, they'd been there before. There were some places they wanted to go back to, there were some experiences that they wanted to have. And this was a trip that they wanted to plan and put together. So I, you know, I am type A in all of my life, but I also don't have a, you know, a medical condition that prevents me from giving up control. So I gave up control. I didn't even know where we were going. I didn't really know kind of what the plan was. I was just learning as we went. And it was just, it was magical. It was magical. And I kept saying, like at each stage of the well, you know, on the episode, we're all still talking to each other. My father-in-law was like, it's early. Yeah. So we're still we still have 11 more days to go. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that was the time that worked out. So, you know, for them, I think the flight times were good. I think that, you know, that's why we left that day. But it was, it was, it was rough for a lot of. It was in May, Sember. And then we also have our biggest conference of our day jobs career for three days. We cut that trip short. That's Vegas. So that's three hours behind where I live. Get home at like one o'clock in the morning that night and on the wrong time zone, and then have to wake up and literally catch a flight at 11 o'clock the next day to go fly, you know, eight hours to a place that's five hours ahead of where we live. So, you know, a lot of issues, a lot of things. So I do want to say a quick plug as it relates to this type of trip or any type of trip where you're dealing with time zones. A couple of years ago, I uncovered this program that I think was in beta testing the first time that I was able to get my hands on it, but it's called the Fly Kit. And it's a system that's been used, I believe, by the US military and it's now available for consumer use. But it is a it's a collection of supplements paired with an app, and you put in where you live and what time you usually go to bed and wake up in the place that you live, and then you put your flight times and where you're going and what time you kind of want to be able to go to sleep and wake up at your destination. And it works out this uh entire program for you. Like, hey, all right, you want to eat at this time, you want to take this supplement this time. It works on inflammatory pressures, on immune support, on adding in some melatonin and sleep supplements when you're supposed to be sleeping and kind of slowly readjusting your circadian rhythm both on the way out and the way in to avoid jet lag. And it has been such a game changer in every trip. We've traveled overseas quite a bit last year as well. And then even just going from East Coast to West Coast in America, they have a domestic kit. I have tagged it in our uh link tree in our bio for our Amazon travel hacks list. So it's there if you need it, but it's called Fly Kit, and I can't say enough great things about it. So that really saved my life in this particular endeavor.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Never have I heard of this until today. I'm today years old when I found this out. And I I mean, I don't even know what that's game changing for sure. I don't, I don't even, I didn't even know there was such a thing. I always just do it based off of I stay up later when I get there and don't fall right back to sleep until the and I just go to sleep on their time and try to adjust that way. But yeah, holy smokes, that's big.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Yeah, yeah. Okay, for those that travel, push through day one. But it's also, you know, you there's omegas, um, heavy doses of omegas in there that help with inflammation. There's some other things that help with inflammation. There's, hey, you got to have coffee with sugar. It also works on like a feeding schedule, like, hey, you want to have a snack, have a snack, eat a real meal, like that sort of thing. So the app is incredibly helpful. But that is linked to they do sell it on Amazon. I usually order it directly from the supplier because you've got more flexibility in which kit, whether it's domestic, international, long haul, that sort of thing. But they do sell it on Amazon and it is linked in our bio. Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I'm definitely have to look into that. So going back, let's talk about the kids in traveling abroad. Are they seasoned travelers?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

I I yes, they are. I we're very lucky. First, our my kids are a little bit older. My youngest is eight. So we don't, we're not trying to fly to Ireland with them as toddlers or you know, that awful, awful like 13 to 18 month age. We did that with our oldest. We went to Italy when he was 15 months on the way out. He was an angel on the way back. Every I wanted to apologize personally to every other person on the entire flight. So we've done that. Now our kids are better, they're self-sufficient, they can occupy themselves on electronics. Or I threw a couple of boxes of Uno and Mike Carry on, and we had Taco Cat goat cheese pizza, which you've, if you've not played, love that game.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

It's I'll put that in the links because that's that is a hands down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

We pop that up all the time. Also, the other thing that we play all the time, like if we're waiting in line at for a ride at Disney World or in a flight or travel or whatever the case may be, we play heads up on my phone app all the time.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

It's so fun. Yeah, even stuff I like not that I know some of the kids won't know. Like, we still do it because we crack up at them trying to guess what it is.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Yeah. They also really surprised me on what they do know. Like true. Yesterday, we were playing in the airport yesterday, actually, and my eight-year-old, her word was Kevin Hart. And I was like, Past, she'll never know that. And her brothers were like, No, you know, friends with the Rock in Jumanji. And she literally guessed Kevin Hart. I'd like where what kind of parenting am I doing? Then my eight-year-old is guessing Kevin Hart. He would say good parenting. Yeah, yeah. He's so funny. Have you watched the roast of him yet? Oh my gosh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

And I was crying, I was laughing so hard. It was very crude. Like, so if you do not have thick skin, it might be hard to watch, but oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Mine is bad as the Tom Brady roast, but totally agree.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

That that one was next level.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yeah, next level for sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Okay, so I want to keep that one.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Go ahead. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

I was gonna say the just finishing up on sort of going through more of the travel piece. I know like people always ask me, like, what's it like to travel with the kids? Especially, have you done it abroad? I haven't done it to Europe. So I think you know, for some of our listeners, like, what are some things that they should do? So outside of packing, you know, games and all of that for entertainment on the plane, like, is there anything once you get into the country that you found challenging with the kids? Are there any activities that you would say are like a must-do for the kids? Like anything from that standpoint?

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah, I will say things that I've learned so far. Again, we we this is our this sounds pretentious, but yeah, we've gone overseas with the kids a few times. One thing that I will say is advice is don't fight your kids on their shoe choices. This is a thing. Okay, so uh to me, I'm like, we are gonna be walking a lot, cobblestone roads, old ruins. You gotta wear sneakers, you gotta wear a comfortable, supportive sneaker, right? And I've fought so many times with the kids. Put your tennis shoes on, put your tennis shoes on. Every time my boys have worn their tennis shoes on these long walking trips, they get blisters, they stub their toe, something happens. So this year I just said, forget it. I don't care. Wear your slides with your socks, wear your Birken stocks, wear your five dollar, five below plastic shoes. With this is your feet and your decision. And they walked so much more, had no foot. Like it was work, it worked out great, and we didn't have to fight about it. So let your kids wear whatever shoes they want to. Now, again, if they're younger, if you need stability issues, then make them fight. But from about seven and up, let them wear whatever shoes they want to. It's their problem. That's where we're at in parenting. If your feet hurt, if you screwed up, if you made the wrong choice, that's a you problem. Oh, yeah. We also, my kids are great, they're great eaters for the most part. So we don't necessarily have to worry about that, which I think is the philosophy. We're I'm a huge foodie. My husband's a huge, a huge foodie. So we eat weird things and we introduce weird things and we keep introducing weird things. And we've always had the rule with our kids: you don't have to like it, you do have to try it. I am not a short-order cook. I'm not making, you know, two, two to three different dinners every night. I'm not making a kid's version and an adult version. So this is dinner. And if you don't like it, this is dinner, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

So this is where I'm challenged in in travel where I get nervous sometimes. So with Chloe having so many allergies, egg and not being two of the biggest, and egg really being the really one of the bigger ones to worry about. It's I just wonder because I again I have not I've, you know, we've gone to the Bahamas and things like that, but I have not taken her to Europe. So we have a trip planned next summer. And I just am anxious about that piece of it. Now, I do recognize like on their menus, they have much more description. And then well, in Italy in particular, they have much more description and a little bit more wholesome of goods that they're putting into some of their product, but it still just makes me on edge about potentially her and worrying about her. So I will have a bag of snacks for sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

I and I have an autoimmune disease for anybody who doesn't know that I can't have gluten. So, of course, always a concern everywhere I go, especially where language is an issue. You know, so Ireland, Scotland, they speak English so I can communicate the issue. Yep. But uh, we've also been to Italy, we've been to Germany and Austria where the language is an issue. And their menus are just very, very descriptive. And they do say all of the allergens in Ireland and Scotland, they have a numbering system for every single allergy. So every single menu will have, you know, everything that that dish has. Everybody was very knowledgeable. Hey, which one's gluten-free? They usually have a dedicated separate menu, or all they were just really, really accommodating to that. So I would say maybe your first go-round start with an English-speaking country. Yeah. Just to help kind of work through that. But that was great. We also ran out of socks and we ran out of underwear collectively.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Which you were worried about.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah. And we did, and we sent it out, and then we ran out again. So bring more socks and bring more underwear.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

I'm not even gonna go down that because you know, we'll just leave that one right there. So, on our one of our last episodes, we had the question of Hilton versus Marriott. So now I'm gonna ask you, what is your preferred airline and what did you guys fly to Ireland?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

So I am a Delta girl myself, but we flew American there because my in-laws are American people. And it was great. It was, yeah, everything was great with American, everything was on time. Well, I take that back on the way out to Dublin. So we flew from Tampa to Philly, Philly to Dublin. And on the Philly to Dublin leg out, we did get delayed about three hours due to weather. They kept shutting, oh, this is a funny story. They kept shutting the jet bridge down for lightning. And so when this happens, if you don't know, we're on the plane. The people are on the plane, but they haven't loaded the bags. So it's like they're in the middle of loading the bags. Somebody spots a lightning bolt, I don't know, a mile away. Everybody has to like run and clear the jet bridge, including leaving suitcases out there. Guess whose suitcase was sitting out in the rain? This chick. So we finally gets a dumb one. And everything that was at like the top half of my suitcase.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Oh my gosh. And you probably already were packing tight as it was. So oh my gosh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

It all worked out. Everything was great. We did also, so we rented a van. There's seven of us on the trip. We rented a van because we wanted to drive, you know, the the Ring of Carrie and the Dingle Peninsula and just kind of have this freedom. So they drive the wrong side of the car, the wrong side of the road. And I think there are no no rules in Ireland as far as the width of the road. Like in America, we have very specific widths everywhere. In Ireland, there's no none. Doesn't matter. One car size, two car size, doesn't matter. Go figure it out, people. So, and my husband just he naturally drives like the cops are chasing him. That's his normal speed. So he's driving a stick shift sprinter van the wrong side of the road, the wrong side of the car.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Stop it.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yes, these very narrow streets, and it's just going like a bat out of hell. And ends up, we're like in the middle of nowhere, and just hits this boulder on the side of the road with such speed that it does not like we don't get a flat tire, like he explodes this tire. Like you would have thought it. He ran over a grenade, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Oh my god. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Are you like like, are you screaming? Are you like what I for sure screamed? And then we had to pull into like a random driveway. Like, we don't know who lives here, what lives here, is this public? We don't know. And then we unload all of the bags, so seven people's worth of 12 days of luggage out of the trunk of the sprinter van to get to the spare tire. That by the way, is not in the trunk, it's not even where it is, it's what under the bottom of the bag.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Oh, you had to crawl under. Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

So we get that changed. We're an hour detour, we're back on the road, everything is fine. And then my father-in-law, he's gonna take over driving for a little bit to give my husband a break. And he like, and we're trying to pull up to this pub for lunch. There's all these, like, there's some Gaelic football game on TV. All of these young gentlemen are drinking, watching the game, sitting outside this pub, and he like completely sideswipes this like stone wall to like a long, long period of and this entire pub is just they're cheering for us, they're erupting with laughter. It was really funny.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Just gotta connect all of that. I can't even wow, how are you gonna leave that entire story out of this Ireland trip? That was amazing. Day one, hour one, and you're right, you know, you you lose a tire and you scrape the entire paint off the side of the van. Yeah, yeah, you can only go up from there.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, we howled into the Result car place, like, yeah, here's your car back. It's it's sorry about that.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

Oh, so I'm traveling today for work, and I had I don't a lot of times when I come to Atlanta, I'll just take an Uber to the office, and then I have a team here that'll help me get around. Well, today I'm going to look for houses, so I had to rent a car. And I normally drive a bigger SUV. And today I got a little like smaller vehicle. Oh my gosh, I do feel like I'm driving a race car, and it is so, so fun. I'm like, speed around.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

I can envision that day when like all the kids are gone, they're out of the house, and I can get rid of my you know, enormous tank and go to like a zippy little, like a mini or I don't even know.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I don't even know. I well, I was looking at these parking spots at my office here, and I'm like, oh man, these are really tiny. And then I'm like, but hold on a second, you have a tiny car. So I just I whipped right into this little one. Thing I almost took off the side of you know, the we are and the side of the car, I almost had a similar story, but did not because my car happened to be very small and fit right like a right in the little bucket there.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Nice. So, what is the latest and greatest on the home sitch? Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

So we are under contract, our inspection came back. I have a few things that I need to work on this week, and we're estimated to close towards the end of the month. And so now I'm in I'm in the sitch of finding a house here today. Oh my god. And then hiring movers tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

And your host, aren't you still hosting a graduation party at your house?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yeah, this weekend. So in the middle of that, but I gotta be honest, I think my husband is encouraging me, and I've never done this, I've always packed myself and every box I've packed myself because I also purge and all that. But I have a lot of work travel coming up this month, and he's like, we may not make it through this as a married couple if you don't hire someone to pack this. He goes, I don't want to do it, and you're gone, and so I may hire somebody. I'm like debating in my head. I'm gonna see how much I can get done in the next like week and a half, two weeks, and then if I need them to finish off by packing, and then I'll add it on. You won't regret it, just do it. I know everybody's telling me that I'm just I'm trying, but I know, but we've started going through all the last, right? So, you know, we had the last dance recital last night. We've had, you know, just the last day of school. All those things have started to come up. So my littlest wrote one of our neighbors, and hopefully she's listening, wrote her this amazing note. And it just it was it was the first time that I actually like sat back and was like, oh man, like this is gonna be really, really hard. And I cried while I read it, and then I gave it to I put it in her mailbox, and she's like, I thought you were bringing me a cinnamon roll. You had no idea I was gonna be like have to have a Box of tissues, but it just went into the emotion. Chloe went into the emotion in the letter of like, you know, how they're great friends, but never forget us and we won't forget you. And it was just really interesting to see, like, yeah, her perspective of it. And I'm trying to be more present in the moment versus compartmentalizing, which I do best, and really trying to understand her emotions and my husband's emotions because I can easily like turn it off and I'll I will handle it in other ways. And they I don't know what her other ways are, so I'm trying to soak it all in.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Okay. I I will tell you that. So we, you know, we lived in Ohio very briefly with the kids just a few years ago, and so but we didn't know what the ultimate plan was, and leaving to go there was very hard. And then within a year, they had built these new lives and made all these friends and really felt committed. So then when we moved back, it was really hard again. And now, you know, my kids are really, really malleable in the sense that, you know, my kids have people friends in Ohio that are still their friends. We've been back for three years, and every summer we go there for six weeks. And, you know, that's that's Morgan and that's Steven, and yeah, and so they have friends at all these different places, and it's just all who they are, and they just kind of expand this network. It's definitely harder, I think, for us.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Yeah, and I think it's a short-term pain for the long-term gain, is sort of what I've put in my own head. And I'm like, yes, this is gonna suck. We're all gonna be upset about it. But I know I've moved and I've found new friends, and these are friends that I still have. And I think that is so cool to have friends all over the place, like my college friends that you know live all over, and people that I lived in when I lived in Nebraska, I still have friends there. And I think it's cool when someone does move away to a different city and you have that other touch point when you go there. And or or to learn about what you know, what they have going on in their city that we could, you know, do in our city. And it's just, I think it's such a cool thing to have. And I think it exposes them. I'm hopeful that it's exposing her to something at an earlier age that'll help her long term. And that's sort of how I've looked at it. But I I I know there's feelings. I totally get it.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Yeah, unequivocally, yeah. When I moved to Florida, because I did not grow up here, and I think coming here, moving here, learning where the grocery store, getting new routines, getting new friends gave me a sense of like I could do this anywhere. It gave me, you know, a wanderlust. You know, really, you could just go build a life anywhere. But I will, and I know we're gonna have an upcoming episode fully dedicated to adult friendships, but I do think that's a hot button. It's just harder for us, especially, you know, working moms. It's hard. We don't have a lot of time, you know. Already people have already established their routines, their village, their friendships through their kids' school, their kids' sports, dance. So it is a little bit harder for us to make those not acquaintances, not somebody you can just grab a drink with and play mahjong, but really those deep person you're gonna call in a panic, like shit, I'm stuck in traffic. I can't get to pick up. Can you go be on my emergency list and pick my kid up?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

So this is part of the reason why we're renting, because I need to find a neighborhood that has some of that. And I will tell you, I've so I started going down a rabbit hole over the weekend on chat and then comparing it to what I'm seeing in the real estate marketplace. And so I'm like, okay, what is someone from Tampa moving to Atlanta? Like, where would they live? Here's like my here's my likes, here's my family's likes, all that, right? So I'm going through the list. One of the neighborhoods that we're looking at pops up, and so then like reading all the things underneath it. It's like, oh, sometimes they can be known for being very clicky and this. I was like, oh my God, oh my god, this is gonna be like high school all over again. So I just keep like I'm trying not to go down the rabbit hole, but it's funny, it's funny what pops up on uh good old chat. So I'll be here to debunk it or not because we're going into that neighborhood to try it out.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

When we do our friendship episode, you'll have to tell us how your making new friends is going.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Oh my gosh, this is yeah, this will be a whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Yeah, I I will tell you, I am not good at making new friends as an adult. I'm the problem. It's me.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

No, I gotta tell you, people always say, Oh, you'll have no problem. And and you're right, I have no problem talking to people. That's not my issue, but I have a hard time at this point with like trusting and or wanting to listen past like the first five seconds. So it's it that part is on me. And I I do better with people that have obviously that have commonalities, right? So, like moms at dance, a lot of times I'll it's a little bit easier because that we have already know that connectivity point. I am finding like up here already, a minute later today, and I'm already finding like the people that we do business with or have done business with, there's a lot of connectivity points with the kids now, too. So, right, that's two things that I can that I have check marks next to. So I think they'll hopefully end up being, you know, some of my closer friends. Yeah. Well, good. Keep me posted. Stay tuned. Yeah, okay. So it's summertime. I've got I've got a list of things of that are like kind of going on for summer, but I have to ask the question because it got brought up in our mom chat the other day. Someone asked, Do you give your kids an allowance? Or one of the moms said, I'm gonna give my kids 20 bucks a week. They have to do chores, and then that's what they're gonna be able to use for whatever they want to go get, like a Starbucks drink or what have you. So do you pay your kids an allowance?

SPEAKER_01 27:38

I we don't. We don't have a regular allowance, but we do what we started last summer, which we're gonna do again this summer, which I talked about in one of our earlier episodes. So two of the weeks, so I have a 12 and a 14-year-old boys, and two of the weeks over the summer, instead of sending them to a camp, they are volunteering as the camp counselors. And so it's a volunteer position. It gives them the service hours that they need for the junior honor society, but we then pay them a stipend because we look at it like work. And and you know, they had to fill out a resume, they had to put an application, they had to get letters of recommendation, they had they had to do approach it like a job, and we expect them to treat it like a job. You got to be there on time, fully prepared, dedicate your time and work hard. And so we are gonna then give them a payment for that as if it were a job.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

So, what are your what are some things that you do to teach them how to save money? And I'll share some of mine because I'm not the great, I'll be the first to tell you I'm not the greatest at saving money. Um, I do, um, I like to spend money, but I'm trying to be different and I'm trying to get ahead of it with them, and I don't think I'm doing a good job at it at all.

SPEAKER_01 28:47

I I suck at this. I am a saver, I'm a huge saver, I'm cheap, I'm the frugal person. My husband is the spender. So, but whatever I'm doing with the kids, they have no concept of, I mean, they're old enough to really understand this, and they don't. They don't care about money, they don't, they don't understand it. They're, I mean, I don't I don't know what I'm doing. We did open a bank account for them. The boys opened their first bank account maybe six months ago. And now my older son is finally, he's old enough that he can go do things independently. Like I can take him to the mall with his friends or what have you, and I will give him Apple Cash, and then he I take it from his account and transfer it to his phone, and then he can go do things with Apple Pay. And he he just blows through it.

SPEAKER_00 29:33

Like, I don't I know. I like this is I'm so stuck on this. Now, I will tell you one of the things that we do, and this has been for for a while now, is and I got this from a friend of ours, and it was, you know, they've got to earn money between the when you can start working. So whether you're babysitting at 13 or 14 or 15 or whatever it is, or you go get a job at Publix at 15, what you name it. When they go to get a car, they have to put in half of what the car is going to be. So if they have $4,000, I will match it and they will have $8,000 to spend on a car. Now it's obviously a little bit tougher. Things are expensive and their age, you know, a lot of places haven't been hiring until you're 15 and 16. So I do recognize that. So we've had a little bit of leeway on it, but I do feel as if they're if they need to put in like when you buy something yourself, you value it a lot more than when you're gifted it. That's a fact. And I would just say I think having them put a big chunk of money towards something hopefully has them take care of something a little bit better and it lasts a little bit longer.

unknown 30:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:46

That's the only, that's my only financial advice.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

Yeah. My in-laws gave all three kids a book, maybe not this past Christmas, but the Christmas before, but was like a binder with like it had the inserts of like baseball cards, and they did different denominations, or you know, one through a hundred, whatever it was. And it was like they they did a couple and they put like a dollar bill on the one and maybe a five-dollar bill on the five. They they filled a couple of things in as a gift, but essentially, if the kids put filled the whole bull book up each with whatever the denomination is for that number, it would equal $5,000. And so I love that. So that's a great idea. My daughter, who's eight, is all about it because she really doesn't have things to spend. My oldest, it just nope, he's just pulling the money out of there and buying himself chip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just going to Chipotle. So it's lost on him. Last year, he really wanted a baseball bat. Those bats are really expensive. So we said the same thing. You've got to save up your own money, you've got to go buy this bat yourself. And he did, and he just tossed, you know, he's he earned it was a $400 bat, and he spent the entire summer doing extra chores. You know, we paid him for that week of volunteering and then picking up extra things. And what can I do for this amount? What can I do for the? And then the minute he got $400 and he was like, Here, go get the bat. And I don't think he learned any lesson.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Like, I just so I like the book money book idea. And then the other the question I get all the time, and you said chores a few times in there. I get the question, what chores do you have them do? And I'm like, I call it the cost of living at my house. And yeah, you you've got to earn your keep around the house. So it's laundry at any age. They, you know, uh sometimes I'll fold it, they put it away. If they're, you know, the teenagers will wash their clothes and put it away. Emptying the dishwasher, that's simple. Cleaning up after dinner and putting the dishes in the dishwasher, that's simple. Wiping off the counter, like those are all things that that gives me an extra 10 minutes to go do something else. So I think you can, you know, people need weeds picked. You need, I have got the pavers in my driveway. I've got to get those sprayed or picked, and like stuff like that. That takes us maybe time where we could be doing a little more valuable. I'm happy to have the children do and I compensate where needed. Car wash.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

But some of that stuff, like the basic stuff, like I why am I paying you to put your own clothes away?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Right, yeah, absolutely not. That's the cost of living.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Right, yeah. I will pay you when you if you do something over and above is really kind of where we're gonna talk about financial compensation. Otherwise, you're just a part of the family.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

We set a baseline of cost of living at the house, and then you're right, anything above that you can earn.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

I'm much more likely to pay, and we're working on this now, which is kind of something else I want to talk to you about, for like summer educational work. Like, I'm way more negotiable on like if you want me to pay you something after if you read a book for every book you read after your mandated number of books, that I'm much more likely to get involved with than the help around the house chore.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

I totally agree, except for I'm still in that. This is literally the first day that the kids have been off for me. And I can't even think about having them look or do any work at the moment because I'm over it at this point as well. I don't want to do any homework, I don't want to answer any math questions. I I'm like, I can't do it. So I'm taking this week off. Just we're gonna have we're we're not gonna do schoolwork this week. And then I'll re and I'll reconsider after this week. But I did get a list, I actually looked online for this for here in Georgia. They have a list of extra curricular or extra learning to do over the summer for the next grade up. And so it's like some different apps and programs that you can download. So I will do that. And I I think you're right. I think I will incentivize.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Yeah, yeah. And we and we're in it. We started today, was you know, obviously, we were on we were on vacation for two weeks. This is our real day one, but yeah, we're in it. I love schoolwork. Maybe in a different life I could have homeschooled. We'll see. I don't know. Woof. I don't I don't live in that life, but I love homework.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

I don't know that I can handle it.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Yeah, we we do like a lot of homework around here just for fun. So today we started off the kit, the boys had to each read 25 pages of their book that they had their first book. They each have to read every kid has to read three books to start. And I'll look at compensating them if they read beyond the three books. And the boys have to start off with two books that like I think are rather interesting, especially for boys. So my sixth grade going into seventh grade has to read The Outsiders.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

And my son read it, my older son read it last summer, and he really liked it. And none of my kids love reading, which is such a tragedy because I am a huge reader, they hate it, they're all math kids. But so there, he's reading The Outsiders, and then my seventh going into eighth grader is reading Lord of the Flies, and then I don't know what my daughter's. She's at camp. We sent her to camp so that I could have some space.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

Yeah, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

But I'm sure she'll read, you know, babysitter's club and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

So oh, I love it. I love it. Well, I can't wait to hear what they what they earn going forward.

SPEAKER_01 36:12

Okay, so my oldest, he's very, very smart. He all my kids are smart. God bless them. There's you know, straight A's, couple B's here and there, smart kids, every subject, junior honor society, Spanish, this, but whatever. He took the practice. Well, first he took a practice S S A T and he did pretty good. And then he took the practice H S P T. He was okay. But he does not know any vocabulary words. Like his vocabulary scores made me concerned that he is not familiar with the English language. Like, like I am astonished at the number of words he does not know. He doesn't know he's never heard of them, he doesn't know how to use them, he can't spell them. Like, what have I done wrong?

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Like, what I know. I totally understand. I mean, but are they words that he's gonna use a lot? They better be. He's they're about to be.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

He's we're sorry, we did flashcards. We're starting flashcards today. I made him drive, we flew his HSPT practice book all the way to Ireland. We sat in the car driving around three hours. I made the younger one quiz the older one on words, like read it and go through the definition. We were making sentences, like we're we're tiger parents when it comes to this. So he's on it. I'm noticing this. I'm like way far behind on that. Oh no, we're in it to win it. We're then they have to do math over the summer too. They use IXL. All three kids have an IXL program that they have to use. So they'll do math and reading and flashcard every day for the summer.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Damn, you go, girl.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Yeah, if anybody wants to send their kids to my boot camp, yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

I think you can charge uh charge me whatever. I'll send Chloe there tomorrow. Great, she'll be she'll be down there for dance camp. She can go from dance camp to Michael Ann camp. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

We're in it. Oh my god, too funny.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

So we've we talked a lot in some previous episodes about our favorite things. So I have to ask like, have you bought any of them? Have you tried anything different? Do you have anything else new you want to add to our conversation? Ooh, new stuff.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

First of all, I will say that everything on the favorite list I use all the time. I really use it every day. Still using it, still loving it. Wouldn't change a thing. I did go, especially because I was in Europe. Every time I go to Europe, you hear all these things, especially on social media, about like European skincare, French skincare, they have better access, they have better regulations, whatever, whatever. And then I go down this rabbit hole of like, well, what do I need? Which I if I'm here in Europe, like, and then I can't find it, or that's not what they sell, or it's ridiculously priced, or then I talk myself out of it. So I have literally never bought any European skincare in Europe. But I'm interested. So if anybody out there is like, yes, I've done this, I've figured this out. You should buy X, Y, Z, Y or there, please let me know because I have not.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

Wow. So I, on the other hand, did not have a lot of the products that you had used. And I got a few that I bought. So one being the Botox stick. Oh, yeah. Which is I don't know if it's linked in there or not. I would uh we should have a contact. If it's not, I will make sure it is. Yeah, that was amazing. I can already start to see a difference with that. Very much enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

You know what I love to use it? When I also love to use it like you do your makeup in the morning and then you leave, and you're, you know, it's like one or two in the afternoon. You're not gonna go put makeup on, like you're you can't put another face of makeup on it, it'll get all cakey and gross. I do a quick swipe here, like where a highlighter would go. Game changer, refresh.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Okay, yeah, totally gonna try that. Yeah, trying that. I did the uh tinted sunscreen moisturizer. Okay. Now I did not do the elf, I think you tagged the elf one. I ended up getting, I was at Sephora, so I bought the super goop and uh 100% enjoyed that. Ended up at the beach one day uh last weekend and had it on. And you can tell I'm not sunburned. No, you're not. You look great. Yeah, so it that worked. The other one I got asked about a few times was creatine, and I think we added create creatine gummies, or what I take, and I will tell you, they I started taking them again, and they're such a it's such a game changer for me. Like the afternoon is like so much better now. Oh, good, and they'll bring it or as much breakfast.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

I I use the thorn, I use the thorn powder I melted in my coffee, which I'm still drinking right now, and I like it, but it does get gritty. You can taste it. So maybe I'll switch to your gummies and give it a try.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Try the gummy, it's been good. Oh, the other thing I did buy again, and I am loving it, is your copper serum. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, the G HK copper serum. I think that's been amazing. So, one thing I did not is not on our list because it's a peptide that I had to get somewhere else. I have to tell you, I'm on a different peptide, and it's it might be controversial, which is okay. I started one, it's like new in the conversations called Reddit to tried.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Hold on, I'm writing this down. Could you spell it for me? Oh my god, I don't know. Are you pro or con?

SPEAKER_00 41:39

I'm so pro, and I'll tell you why in a second. But it's Reddit, R-E-T-A. And it's everybody calls it Reddit for short. Reddit tooth. Um so it's like a G L P1, but times three. So this is how it was described to me and what the research I'm I'm seeing on it. It's not fully approved and all of that. So I will preface that this is on the gray market. Day two, I'm on day three right now. I'm day three of it. And the appetite suppressant piece of it and the cravings that I don't have anymore are worth it for me. I was getting, I was like literally eating everything under the sun, and I was craving so many sweets, and I was like, I gotta take control of my life again. I just have gone off the rails, right? Rightfully so. There's a bunch, you know, May Sembra was happening, I was going off the rails. So it's like I'm getting my back, my life back together. So outside of just working out, I needed an enhancer. So I'm trying it. So day three, I feel great. My husband got on it too, is some of my other family members are on it. And like one brother lost, I think 40 plus pounds on it. Oh wow. It's not just weight loss. I will tell you, there's like other components of it that I think are are like healthier benefits. I think it does some things with your joints and you know creates some mental clarity, so kind of the same brain fog piece, all of that. But I I highly recommend looking it up and talking to a professional about it. It it's it is a lot of talk in the chats right now.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

Yeah, and we are not medical professionals. No, just claim. Okay, so I want to understand this. Is a you inject it once a week?

SPEAKER_00 43:29

So, yes, I'm doing it once a week. And they gave me a certain one.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Yeah. When you were taking the GLP one, I know that you were microdosing for a while, just for inflammatory purposes. But when you were actually taking it for weight loss, did you have any side effects?

SPEAKER_00 43:46

I did, and I did with this one a little bit too. I'm I'm very sensitive to the to this, to the peptides, even to the NADs, I'm I am sensitive. So on the uh semaglins. GLP1s, I was doing it twice a week to get to a full dose. This one I went for the gusto, and I will tell you, I I did feel slightly nauseous the first night. I took it at night, which I don't know, maybe that's good, maybe that's bad, but I took it at night. And I definitely just felt nauseous that first day. Outside of that, I've been fine. Nothing else since the and then the NADs, I do the same thing. I sort of I take, I think you're supposed to take it in the morning, and I take it at night because I sleep through any kind of nausea. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

Well, keep us posted. Let us know how it continues to work.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

We well, when I get asked to be in the sports illustrated swimsuit modeling next year, you'll know. Just kidding. I mean, they've already reached out, haven't they? Oh my god. I've been watching all of the replays from the weekend with some of these gals in there, and I'm like, oh my god, they look amazing.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

They do look amazing, but then some of them, I'm like, please stop walking like that.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Stop it. Oh, I gotta tell you, okay. So we had a meeting today. Oh, and we were just finally, my whole team was finally getting to just regroup from our work conference. This is a bit controversial, so I would love to know your opinion of this. Oh gosh. Okay, so we were regrouping on the meetings that we had at this convention. I will reiterate again, it is in Vegas. I get that it's in Vegas. I'm not approved, I don't live under a rock. But this was a business meeting during the conference on the actual show floor, and had a meeting with a broker who was wearing the blaze, like tuxedo jacket, no shirt. It was a it was a lady. It was a lady wearing a blazer, no shirt. Where do we stand on this? What are your thoughts? And my like my teammate was like, she was beautiful, she looked well put together, but it was a choice.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

I I'll be honest, I'm not a fan. I feel like you I shouldn't say I'm not a fan, but it is not the right move for me, and I probably I'm sitting here talking about it. I I probably would talk about it because I just have been of the nature of like being buttoned up while in business, and you know, right or wrong.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

All about it, great, but during the daytime on the show floor, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

There's a time and place that was not the place. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, and you're kind of setting off, I feel, the wrong image, right? Like, I are what are you after? Like, are you willing to do anything for the deal?

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Yeah, that's what I try to communicate all the time. I know I've said it a few times here. I do say it a few times, and like whether you are intentionally doing it or not, what you are wearing, how you look, what you're presenting is giving a message to the world around you. I know we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but everybody is. And you're communicating a message of some kind.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

So you only get one chance to make a first impression. And then if you're going into a meeting or you're going into anything in life, you've got that one time to make that impression. You don't know, you know.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

In general, these conferences blow my mind. I there's we have a thousand stories we could tell about these conferences. I don't understand how people behave this way, how they forget you're at a work conference. Like these are work people. You're gonna have to try to have a meeting with this person in the future at some point. You're gonna try to have to make a deal, like get your eye together.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Yeah, I don't disagree. I definitely have called it quince much earlier now than what I probably did in my 20s.

SPEAKER_01 47:51

But heck yeah. I mean, but even in your 20s, you weren't like no at the rocks bar dancing on the tables at the end of the night. Like, come on, save that for your friend group, not your work group.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. These people, this is like a free reign for some of them.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

Yeah, yeah. It's like they've never been let out of the house.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

That's what that is exactly what some of the commentary, and we did a group meeting afterwards as well. And that was some of the commentary. It was like some of these people haven't been let out of their house in like months. Yeah, so to each their own. As long as my team's not the story and I'm not the story, we're good. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Yeah, that's what I care about. And we had a great time, we had a great time, great business, great meetings.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Yeah, we didn't even see each other.

SPEAKER_01 48:40

I know that's bananas.

SPEAKER_00 48:42

I was looking for you to take a picture so we could share it with our our listeners, and unfortunately, no pick. I know it was crazy.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

It really happened.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

Gotta read a redo.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

We were there for such abbreviated times this year. Yes, crazy. Awesome. What was your best meal you had in Vegas?

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Oh, I did no boo this year, and it was fantastic. Oh my gosh, like incredible, incredible meal. We went to Sinatra's, yeah. My mom loved it.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

Okay, so did you not find the rest of the food was fine, but it was a prefix meal, and it was it was a like a business dinner, and it was a room that fits 25, and there were at least 32 people at this table. So, and it was a prefix menu. So, like you just had two choices, and they're you know, mask producing it. So, not the best demonstration, but like I literally had to sit pretty much on this poor gentleman that I do not know's lap. Like, I was pretty much in his lap because we just couldn't fit this many people at the table.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

Yeah, I don't host dinners like that anymore. We could probably do a whole segment on entertainment because I have a lot of people call me. I host quite a bit. That's just part of my job. So, like my favorite is a eight to eight-person dinner is ideal for me. A round table is ideal for me. I call ahead and I order apps and wine to be at the table when uh within a few minutes after us sitting down. And then the dinner is not three hours. I cannot sit for three hours. I don't really want to share three hours of my day with all of the my you know work people. I want to get in and get out in two hours and go on to the other things that we have to do. So I really cut some things out. And I I know you know conversations lead to you know business. I'm not dumb, but everybody else is in the same boat as me. They want to go, like, oh, let's get our work done, let's have our dinner, let's enjoy company, and let's move on to the next thing. And maybe it's together, maybe it's not. So definitely have some hacks of things that I've done recently.

SPEAKER_01 50:48

I love that idea. I love having wine and apps already on the table. I also cannot, I don't like a three, four-hour long, elaborate steak dinner. I I don't, in fact, if a if a group is inviting me, they're trying to woo us, our business, trying to gain our business, and that they invite, I I probably will just tell you, I'm already books and not gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

Like I'd rather let's pony up to a dive bar and do a tequila shot and move on with our lives than a big four-hour steak dinner.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

Yeah, just time is very, very valuable. I would also say the other thing that we did in New York that was great, and it was a 20-person dinner, which is I one of my teammates planned it. He ordered everything ahead family style. And that was incredible. So we sat down, they sat the salad down, then you know, and then it was or no, excuse me, appetizer, then the salad, then there were three pastas, then there were like a fish and a meat. Like it was done super well. So I would say, like, that's the family style works in the larger set. I think in a larger setting.

SPEAKER_01 51:54

Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah. I also we need to do an episode on etiquette in those sorts of situations. Like we're sitting at this long banquet table of 30 people, some you know, some you don't know. Nobody wants to be there, or very few people want to do, but you know, you have to get what you get, you have to like make some relationships here. And how do you do that? What conversations do you have? What do you talk about? We actually played a drinking game, my CEO and I at this conference that we were like, okay, every time I say, So how's your show going? We I gotta do a shot. And every time he says, Which day did you get in? He's gotta do a shot.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

So that's a good one. Take that out of the vocabulary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Don't do it. Did I tell you the story about the one time I ran into the young kid at the conference? Like, I feel like conferences are the same across every sector, every business, right? Like, whether you're in tech or you're in medical centers or whatever, conferences are conference, right? We all say that we go and we say, How's your show going? How are your meetings? Did you get it on Saturday? Like, that's universal. We ran into this kid. He, this was his first big conference ever in real estate. And we run into him, and it's probably three quarters through day one. And they're a mad dash, right? Like it's meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, and then happy hour, cocktail hour, dinner, like, and you're right back at it. And this kid, I ran into him, and I was just like, How's your show going? And he goes, It's a total shit show. This is the worst thing I've ever done. I have no idea what I'm doing. I keep getting lost. It was the most refreshingly honest response that I can't remember. I love it. Let's all just be honest.

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Oh my gosh, it's so good. So good.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

Awesome. All right, well, thank you guys for sharing some time with us. Again, we will have a link in our bio to directly to our Amazon list of all of our European travel hacks with kids, all the things I actually used on repeat, all the things you should have. Check out our other Amazon list of our favorite things and everything we talked about in our peptide episode. And we just really appreciate you sharing some time with us. And hopefully, we've provided some laughter and a couple of tips that you didn't think about.