hi babes! LONG TIME NO TALK. i can't believe how long it's been since i sat down to chat with you all.
FIRST OF ALL. thank you thank you thank you for keeping the pike place kitchen alive during my hiatus. i had so many comments to respond to and you guys kept increasing the hits day by day and i can't tell you how much that means to me.
so i'm sure you're wondering… what has she been up to!?
2017 was a whirlwind of a year. so much happened and i had so much going on and my anxiety was probably at its all time high – which is why i had to take a break and step away from posting and social media in general. idk how much i've talked about my anxiety here on the blog, its something i'd like to bring more of into this space, but honestly planning our wedding myself and trying to keep everyone happy was a miserable experience for me. the end result was amazing and i'm so grateful and blessed, but getting there was not fun. i spent a lot of the first 9 months of 2017 crying and yelling and running and hiding under the covers. and i wasn't ready to be THAT vulnerable on the blog while it was happening so… i stepped away. i always knew i'd come back, but this past year was full of life changes that took over. i'll do a post on my anxiety and wedding planning later when i have time to pull my thoughts together!
but now i'm back and i thought it would be fun to do a little highlight reel for you to catch you up real quick!
my last post was at the end of JUNE. which honestly makes a ton of sense because in july/august/september i was SUPER busy. i had a superrrrr busy work schedule and i was trying to pull everything together for… my WEDDING.
but before we got married we attended two other weddings! and in julyyyyyy we got a kitten! he was six weeks when we got him (we were told he was eight, but the vet said probably six). his name is oliver and he's the cutesttttt love bug. he loves being cuddled until he doesn't. he LOVES to play and chase and hunt. frankie and i both don't remember life before him lol.
Frankie and I got married on September 29th and it was beautiful and amazing and everything i could have hoped for/dreamed for. i plan on doing a fullllll wedding post (I PROMISE).
our honeymoon was supposed to be in puerto rico in october… but the hurricanes came through and destroyed everything a week before our wedding. so i planned a roadtrip to vermont on the fly and we ended up having SUCH a good time. (again, another post i want to write and i promiseeeeee to do!).
on our honeymoon i actually accepted a new position at work! so i'll be traveling less and more able to get into a routine which i'm SO excited for. i'm settled into my office but currently still juggling my old responsibilities, my new responsibilities, and someeeee unexpected extra ones too. so work life has been a little stressful too.
in early november… WE RAN A MARATHON. it was such a whirlwind and such an empowering/motivating experience and im so grateful to my body for being able to do it. it was amazing. my best friend in seattle also found out she was accepted for a transfer to NYC which is SO exciting. she and her fiance were staying with us during the marathon and it was so fun!
later in november we went to alabama for a wedding and made a trip to nashville out of it. we had SO MUCH FUN. nashville was surprisingly foodie and i was in heaven with the live music obvi. i PROMISE to do this post as well lol. alllll the things i meant to catch you guys up on.
I hosted thanksgiving for the first time! i made the turkey and the stuffing and the whole shebang! it was lovely and wonderful to celebrate in our apartment and not have to travel for our first married thanksgiving. (i put my foot down and said we won't go anywhere for ANY holidays this year and its so wonderful!)
in december… frankie tore his ACL/meniscus playing soccer… at the FIRST game i was able to go to that year. how ironic. so that was an overwhelming experience trying to find the right doctors/making decisions about the surgery (which he had this wednesday and went SO SO well!).
I hosted christmas too and made an amazinnnngggg prime rib (i have a recipe post coming for this!) and my mom stayed with us and frankies brother came over christmas day and it was just so cute and cozy and perfect. my mom gifted us an AIRFRYER!!! which i loveeeee and can't wait to share recipes with you guys for! and we got an ice machine which has been LIFE CHANGING. i'm obsessed.
then we had people over for new years and it was soooo much fun. we usually stay in for new years anyway so that wasn't a big deal, but it was nice to do appetizers and snacky food and easy stuff. SO FUN.
and that brings us to HERE. and where i am now. i'm still coaching for beachbody and we're starting the launch of the 80 day obsession TOMORROW. which i'm so excited for – i can't wait to get back into a meal plan and to do 80 different workouts. i need a routine and more consistency. things have just been so stressful and wonderful and overwhelming since the wedding that i've TOTALLY fallen off. i'm running a group on facebook specifically for going through the 80 day obsession sooooo if you're interested let me know!
which kind of brings me to the blog and where i'm going with the blog. im just not in the same place i was when i was posting recipes once a week, where i was coming up with stuff that we wouldn't actually eat or make on a regular basis and i'd spend hours photographing it so it looked PERFECT. i'm just not there anymore. i have big goals for 2018 with my coaching business and financially in general, but i don't want to abandon the blog. i just want to be posting more relevant content. which means i'll be posting recipes we REALLY loved from our new meal plan with the 80 day obsession. i'm thinking it'll be mainly whole30/paleo stuff because thats what i prefer to eat, with some other stuff peppered in.
what do you guys think?! is that something you're interested in? are you interested in my 80 day obsession journey? if so i can do something similar to my first whole30 where i wrote down all my meals and did a recap. just let me knowwwww. i also want to switch back to sharing more of my lifestyle and not JUST focused on food all the time. i want to tell you guys about wedding planning and our travels and our lives just in general, thats what makes me feel the most connected to you guys!
again, thank you so much for being patient with me. i love this community i'm building here and i love that you guys gave me the freedom to do what i needed to do when i needed to do it. so THANK YOU.
