About Our Family
Hi! I'm Tori Thompson; I'm the voice you hear in all of the product videos in every listing:
And this is all about our family, friends, pets, hobbies and more! -
Kurt and I have been married since 2005. We met when I was his bartender.
We have two wonderful sons who have always been a huge help with the business.
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When I was a kid, we never really "traveled". We would go to the same spot in Northern Michigan every year, only once a year. So when I had a family, I was determined to see the entire world!
Thompsons at Niagara Falls, Canada
There are four things I love besides business: traveling, the water, Mexican Food and art! Our family really enjoys going on adventures! Being from the cold climate of Michigan, we love to go where it's warm.
White Water Rafting in Tennessee:
On one of our adventures our son was brave enough to try a trapeze in Florida at Club Med! If you have never been to Club Med, it's one of our fav vacation spots of all time!!
Swimming with Dolphins at Discovery Cover in Florida. If you haven't been to Discovery Cove, you absolutely MUST go. It was one of our favorite adventures and we can't wait to go back. Tip: do NOT go in December/Jan. It's too cold to swim all day! We went during the Arctic Freeze of 2017 and it was just like being in Michigan! Brrrrrr!:
In 2019 we went on a Royal Caribbean Cruise to the Bahamas. Kurt and I even won some money at the casino on the cruse ship! The Navigator of the Seas is TOTALLY 5 STAR!! It's really not expensive either! Highly recommend it!
I rented an INCREDIBLE mansion in Arizona for 5 days and it was seriously the best EVER!
Downtown Detroit Discovery Center. If you live in Michigan, make sure you check this place out! The kids will love it!
Hiked to the top of the Sand Dunes on Lake Michigan- Amazing View! We LOVE the West Coast of Michigan!
Hunting for Pokemon on Pokemon Go - Canadian Border
Kayaking Port St Lucie, FL. We saw a wild sting ray for the first time. We also rescued a lot of beached jelly fish.
Overlooking the Jungle in Mexico. We actually did see a MASSIVE snake in a city drain! It's head was at least 7" wide! Ok, technically it *could* have been a lizard or alligator... we don't know, but OMG it was so big! From our jungle hotel all we could really see was birds.
Trip to Kentucky. We try to go to KY every year. Hubby loves the whiskey and BBQ, I love the mountains, the frogs and the little lizards!
Cancun, Mexico. Leyland really wanted this Skrillex hair cut. Thankfully he got over that phase quickly! The Royalton Riveria hotel is AMAZZZING!!! Get a Presidential Suite, you won't regret it!
Metro Detroit
Lake Michigan
A day in the FL everglades! Was hoping to see an alligator but didn't :(
And Tennessee Too!
Las Vegas for UFC 100
Before Covid struck, I tried to plan a "surprise vacation" every month! Even if it is something really simple; a place we haven't been in our home state. In spring 2019 we stayed at this really quirky, really amazing theme hotel. I picked the "Tree House" room:
We had a 7 day cruise to Belize and Honduras booked for August 2020 but Covid canceled it. :(
SOME TIMES VACATIONS GO WRONG:
One of our fav vacations was Arizona! The food was INCREDIBLE and the view from mountain hiking was breath-taking! But then....I got stuck by my first cactus! Check out my injuries in this video:
And in Cancun, MX my lip swelled to massive proportions due to the insane sun of their beautiful April weather.... it was so scary! I felt like a Kardashian, but not in a pretty-way!:
I seriously felt like that scene from The Nutty Professor
BUT, after the lip swelling went down I was kind of impressed with myself having "plump" lips!!! I'm so used to having thin lips that I was amazed to see myself with "sexy lips" hahahahaha!:
FOOD
Another one of my passions is....NACHOS. I'm crazy about eating in general but I friggin LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Nachos! I try to get a nacho every new place I go! One of my all-time favs is Guy Fieri's restaurant inside the Cancun MX Airport. OMG, if you are as addicted to Nachos as I am, you gotta try this!
Want to see more of my fav nachos? Here's a few of my favs:
FRIENDS
My life-long friends and I enjoy humor which we express through podcasting weekly. I met Zach, Pat and Glen around 20 years ago.
Our crew, from 1999 - present:
My buddy Dave and I. I met Dave in 3rd Grade
HOBBIES
Besides Podcasting, I enjoy art and create whenever possible. The kids love the sandcastles I make in the summer. They always ask me to make dragons or alligators.
Here's a birthday cake I made that looks like a slice of pizza. The employees at the pizza place were cool and gave me a box and bread stick wrapping to complete the cake display :)
I even love cutting art into the kids hair when they let me
I once spray painted an entire room
KIDS HOBBIES
Our kids really love parkour and sports.
They're getting really good at back-flips!
OUR PETS
In October 2019 we adopted two more "children"! They were literally abandoned at a pet store. The male has a severe bone disease from not being properly cared for but the female seems healthy. They're both pretty darn old which makes the situation even more sad, however we will give them an AMAZING life!...
This is "Hawking". He's the severely crippled lizard. He's the nicest animal you will ever meet!
And this is my baby girl, Blanton. She's also a sweetheart but much more active and loves to explore.
Basically everything in my life is water-related. You probably don't know many people who have pet newts! I call them "my little water lizards"
The big newt is a female. I was going to name her Bella, but my kids insisted on naming her... they chose "Cobra Commander". When her life-long partner named Gingrich passed away we bought another newt online to keep her company. The new newt showed up and he was so tiny! They do hang out sometimes but she still misses Gingrich a lot. We hope when the little newt gets bigger they will be better friends.
Fish are what I have the most of. As of 2021 I have two 55-gallon tanks, one 5 gallon holding tank and two ponds... it sounds so crazy when I type that, lol. Here's a couple of my favorite water pets:
Whiptail / Twig / Armored / Needle Nose Catfish:
Check out how detailed this guy is in this closeup:
Orange Bristlenose Pleco (Male)
Dojo Loach and Cobra Commander meeting in a dark alley (don't worry, nobody got eaten):
Blood Parrots. These are fascinating fish because they don't exist in nature. Blood Parrots are a manmade fish. I didn't know this when I purchased a pair but they are incredible pets that grow VERY fast. When I purchased them in 2019 they were super tiny. By 2021 they are both the size of my palm. I am now looking to upgrade their 55 gallon tank to a 90 gallon.
Blood Parrots are naturally pretty shy but after 2 years they are finally allowing me to pet them.
This next fish is one of my all-time fav because he is my first fish that has teeth. He's an African Butterfly Fish and his name is Murphy. He looks so evil but I love it!:
In the lower level pond we have Shubunkin goldfish and Weather Loaches. All of them are super friendly and playful, so it's always fun to see and pet them:
This next one isn't a fish, but its the most incredible shrimp EVER! These are called Bamboo Shrimp, but are also known as Fan Shrimp, Singapore Shrimp and a slew of other names. They're HUGE for freshwater shrimp! My largest one is about the length of my pointer finger. What makes them really astounding is that they don't have typical "claws", instead they have "fans". They use the fans to continually filter the water. They consume the little particles they sift out of the water. They are super fun to watch and really beneficial to a tank!
We also have a 7-foot tall hermit crab "Sanctuary". Hermit crabs love to climb so we had to make them a home they would enjoy:
Everything in the Sanctuary is on timers, so we are able to fully control the humidity, light, heat, etc. We feed all of our pets only fresh (or fresh-freeze-dried) foods. The crabs love fish, meat, mango, avocado, tuna, dandelions during the summer and they get popcorn as a treat. Crabs are mostly nocturnal so we only get to enjoy them in the evenings, mostly on weekends.
OUR HOME
When you live in Michigan, you can't always go to the beach (we call our lakes "the beach"), BUT you can bring the beach to you!
During the summer I do a lot of gardening.
My baby loves to go for a swim. Despite his disability he can swim pretty good with a little help!
In summer 2021 I was forced to relocate a Wasp nest by hand! Here's the video:
ABOUT (ME) TORI THOMPSON
I grew up in Westland, Michigan, in an average home. We were not wealthy by any means. My family worked very hard to try to give us kids the most they could and taught us to work hard for everything we want to have "The American Dream". As a youngster I took this seriously and I excelled in Martial Arts and won numerous gold medals in a sport that was dominated by males
For a brief time I got into modeling. I really hated it, I am not tall and I wasn't very good so my career was very short
this particular photo was the most memorable because we literally lit my hands on fire. It was so hot that I could only pose for a few seconds before we had to sink my hands into water
I spent several more years in the modeling industry but it wasn't something I genuinely had interest in, in addition to being height impaired (VERY short), so I called it quits.
If you want to learn more about my life experiences I encourage you to read our blog. It's the only blog I am aware of that is written by an online seller for online sellers.
On the "Wholesale 101" blog I share with you everything I have learned about business, life and more. If you don't want to learn anything but just want to laugh, check out the Humor For Online Sellers section - if you're not an online seller you probably won't laugh, but if you are I can almost guarantee it will bring joy to your day.