Well friends, it is now almost the end of 2013. 2013 has been, overall, a fantastic year for me. Here is a recap:
January:
The year started off with me hating the stress and inability to take any time off from my previous job. I was really struggling with living the life I wanted to live and living the life that my job made me live. I rarely worked out (maybe twice a week), gained about 10lbs and was generally rather depressed. I was searching for something but at the time I really didn’t know what the answer was. The only thing I had ever known was get up, go work for someone, get paid and come home. I rather enjoyed the work itself, but the organization I worked for had lost several people and the workload was becoming unmanageable. I’ve worked too long to continue to take what felt like several steps backward. I went from being in charge of interns and assistants to being the lowest of the low… a contractor. This had a profound effect on my desire to put in what felt like a million hours a week. Who wants to be told they are shit, but work harder? No, sorry, that does not make me spoiled, that makes me have self worth. Anyway, the beginning of the year wasn’t all bad. My best friend was here for New Years and I got to ring it in with her, my fiancé and other friends. I was so happy to celebrate with her in Seattle! We met in college but she now lives in Hong Kong. Not close enough!
February:
By the time February came around I knew I needed to make some serious changes with my life. I was unbelievably stressed out and making substantially less money that at my previous position. Some of you might wonder why I would leave a job to make less, but I did it for the “opportunity.” Basically, I’d been told I would work there for a few months, get offered a full time job if I did a good job, and make almost double what I was previously making. That, it turns out, was a complete lie. I also was told I couldn’t take time off for my wedding unless I got the permission of every other person doing the same job I was doing. Needless to say, there were tons of problems with the way this organization was run and I had to make some changes. Together, my fiancé and I decided that I would give notice, quit without having anything else lined up, take the next couple of months to regroup and get ready for the wedding and generally figure shit out. We went away to Whidbey Island for three nights over President’s day weekend. When I came back I bravely gave notice that I was leaving. I’ve never felt such a sense of relief even though I was terrified because I’ve never been reliant on a man in my life and I knew my fiancé (now husband) would have to support me until I figured out my next move.
March:
March was fairly uneventful in 2013 as far as travel. However, it was jam packed with wedding planning. There were all kinds of last minute details to put together and it really ramped up this month. Truthfully, March is somewhat of a blur! At the end of the month I was approached to take a contract position. I tried it out but it wasn’t a good fit. Truthfully, I didn’t like working in a dark, windowless basement. There was something a bit Manson-esque about the whole thing!
April:
April was a great month. My husband and I (weren’t even looking) and found a new house we fell in love with. We decided to put an offer in and it was accepted! Then of course we had to put our house on the market, which was a fiasco in and of itself. More about that later…. In the middle of the month the hubs and I flew to Oahu to attend one of my really good friend’s wedding. She had it on the North Shore but we go there a few days early and decided to stay on the Ko Olina side of the island as it is sunnier. We had a GREAT trip, got up and worked out every morning, made sure to get all of our steps in, and relaxed. We then stayed at Turtle Bay for the night of her wedding (do NOT recommend at all, way too overpriced for what you get despite it being a lovely resort.) We then headed down to Waikiki for the last night and stayed at the Royal Hawaiian. Words cannot express how much I love that hotel. I’m spoiled for life!
After we returned from Hawaii, I had a short turn around and then headed off to Vegas with three of my best girls for my bachelorette party! OMG that was a fun weekend. I think I did a post on it after but needless to say, we had a blast. I’m so thankful for my girls putting that together and coming along!
May:
Wedding month!!!!! May was an amazing month. Amazing and totally insane. Seriously, wait until you hear what we did….. So, I mentioned earlier that we had to put our house on the market. Well, we lived in a craftsman foursquare built in 1904. It was a beautiful house, but we just wanted something with a little more outside space. It has beautiful cherry hardwood floors (when we moved in) but our dog had scratched them terribly. So, while I was in Las Vegas, my husband decided he was going to have them refinished. Ok, no big deal, we would go stay in a hotel for two nights while it was done. Except the guy he hired had no clue what he was doing, completely ruined the floors and we had to have someone else come in to fix them… What would have been a fun couple of nights at the W turned into a week at the Residence Inn. Great place to stay, but it was not my home and it was less than a month before the wedding! I was a tad bit stressed. Turns out, having the floors refinished was a good idea and the house sold the first weekend it was listed for full price. We were able to convince the owners of our new house to move out a week early and we decided to move the weekend before our wedding! Who does that?!?! We hired movers and got all moved in that weekend but things were hardly put together by the time the wedding rolled around. But really, who cares?
Besides the house drama, I did have a lovely bridal shower and great time with my friends. We had a Mexican food and drinks and sat outside on my friend’s deck overlooking the entire city. And, the highlight of the year was our wedding. I loved it so much I cannot even express it. We got married at the Four Seasons Seattle and that venue is first class. The day was magical! I’m still obsessed with my dress, the decor, everything. I loved it. And I love love love being married. That is the best part! After the wedding night we stayed home for two nights before flying out to Cancun for our honeymoon. We stayed at Excellence Playa Mujeres and the hotel is gorgeous. It is an all inclusive resort and so all food is included. The food is OK. I love eating (I can’t help myself) and it all starts to taste the same after a while. We spent the first two days lounging on our rooftop pool and sleeping. Seriously, we slept so much. Exhaustion from moving and the wedding. The third day we went to Chichen Itza for the day. It was interesting but truthfully, I’ve never been so hot in my life. I felt like I was melting and I lived in New Orleans for three years! We were supposed to stay there for eight nights but there was a hurricane in Chiapas and we were getting the outer bands by day four. The weather was horrible, pouring down rain and wind. We couldn’t even leave the room! The next morning my husband was kind of in a tizzy (he hates being contained in a room with nothing to do!) He called American Airlines and got us on a flight to LA at noon that day. (PS, I kind of love American because they are so good about changes). So, our unplanned part 2 of the honeymoon commenced. We got into LA and decided to stay at The Peninsula for one night and then go to Disney for the last two nights of our honeymoon. The next morning we walked around Beverly Hills, had lunch at Mr. Chow and then had a drink with a good friend in the afternoon. We then went to Disney and checked into our hotel and had dinner. We stayed at the California Adventure hotel and it was very nice, although they were ridiculously strict about check in/check out times! The most fun part was, of course, Disneyland!!!!!! We had a blast. We got there as soon as the park opened (7 a.m. for those staying at the hotels) and knocked out a bunch of rides. After we were pooped, we headed to Main Street USA for lunch then back to the hotel for a quick cat nap. I napped and the man worked, then we went back to the park to get as many rides in as possible. What an amazing day! The next morning we again headed to the park early, but this time we went to California Adventure. My favorite ride was the California Screamer! We only stayed for half a day and then had to pack and head to the airport for home. Overall, it was a great save to an otherwise rained out honeymoon!
June:
June was total recovery month. We focused on putting our house together and I struggled with what I wanted to do now that the wedding was over and I no longer had a way of making money. I bummed around most of the month but I did find a new training studio and started lifting weights (I lifted weights weekly up until the wedding but then took about a month off.) I also took my first spin class (well, first stadium style spin class) at Flywheel Bellevue. It was so fun, but I waited another three weeks before I went again. Don’t ask why, I’m now completely addicted to Flywheel.
July:
July brought a couple of trips, one to Oregon for a horse show and the other to Vancouver BC to see Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z. I also decided this month that I might want to get an MBA so I signed up for a GMAT class and began attending. The most exciting part of the month, though, was getting my new baby girl, Ninabelle Von Schraderhaus, a German Shepherd Dog. She was seven and a half weeks old when we picked her up, but we met her two weeks before that. She has been the greatest addition to our growing family (um, two cats and two dogs! yikes!) We love her dearly and she continues to grow every day!
August:
August brought the weddings of two more friends. One involved a trip to Pendleton, Oregon for the weekend. I had a great time seeing old friends and reconnecting. Also, Pendleton is pretty cool. I grew up not far from there but never spent a ton of time in Pendleton. Great Pacific has amazing pizza and Northwest wines!
September:
In September we had another trip to Hawaii, this time to Maui for a friend’s 40th birthday. We stayed five nights and had two sets of friends there at the time. It was a great trip. Also, this is the month that I decided to open my own business. I’d been debating doing this for years (I actually started a business plan for this about three years ago but didn’t think I could make a go of it at the time, now I regret waiting so long!) I found an office, wrote a check, and bought the basic supplies (computer, printer, etc.) While we were in Hawaii I put together a business plan and it has continued to evolve. I bought a domain and started working on a website. This is all still a work in progress but it feels so good to have something to call my own!
October:
The beginning of October brought another trip, this time a girls trip to Scottsdale. We spent two nights at the W there and had an absolute blast. October is also my birthday month and, like any girl, I prefer to celebrate it all month 😉 We didn’t do anything too wild, went to dinner at Canlis in Seattle. The view there is amazing and it is super old school. Men have to wear jackets and everyone actually does dress up (very unusual for Seattle.) The rest of the month was spent watching the Seahawks on the weekends, working out, and working on my business.
November:
November was a fairly low key month. We both were working really hard and just trying to enjoy the weekends. I also discovered low carb this month and finally made progress on some of the weight I gained at the beginning of the year. Losing is so hard, especially when you are hungry because you work out. I work out because it makes me feel mentally and physically great, but I’d like to be back to my “normal” size (the size I was for about 20 years!) My parents visited for Thanksgiving and we went to Woodinville for wine tasting. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. Great wines, beautiful scenery. Also, Nina passed her AKC Puppy STAR training class!
December:
Once again, December was much like November. We were both working extremely hard and that took up the vast majority of our time. Ninabelle was spayed and we’ve had to keep her quiet for two weeks at this point. (She has a vet appointment tomorrow and I’m hoping she can resume normal activity!) We went to Hermiston for Christmas and took the entire week off. And that brings me to now….
I have some big plans for 2014. Some to do with my career, some to do with some new projects and a lot of traveling! I’ll work on a separate post on what’s in store as far as goals go for 2014. One of those goals is spending a vast amount of more time on this blog. I love writing and really would like to do something great with it. 🙂
XOXO
LB
Fit Fearless Love 