Life Lately

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Well hey there! It’s been just over six months since I’ve blogged regularly, and I’ve really been missing it. A lot has changed since my last update!

Work

This is definitely my biggest update from the last six months—I got a new job!

I had been casually looking for a while, and then a friend and former Girl Scout sent me an opening in her department. She spent two hours on a Sunday night talking to me about the role (thank you, Jessica!) so I knew going into the interview process that I was actually interested in it. Because let’s be real—interviewing, negotiating, and starting a new job is really hard, so I wanted to be confident it would be a good fit before I put myself through all of that.

I had four interviews over the course of eight days in August (it was exhausting!) and accepted an offer, so I’m now the Digital Editor/Copywriter at Six Flags! I work for the national office, managing the email newsletters for all of the parks.

I’m still working remotely, and while most of my coworkers work in Dallas, I work the closest with the marketing teams for each park, and they’re all over the continent anyway. So even if I was in the office, I’d be attending most of my meetings virtually!

I will say, it’s weird to start a new job remotely. I left my old job on a Friday, went on vacation for a week, then came back on Monday and sat at the same spot but was doing a totally different job at a different company with different people. I ended up rearranging the office a little bit (we have a super long desk, so I moved all of my stuff to the other side of it) and that helped more than I expected!

I’m still getting my bearings, but I’m really enjoying it so far. I can’t wait to start visiting some of the theme parks!

Travel

Now that we’re both fully vaccinated (please get vaccinated if you aren’t already! don’t be like Tyler.), Sean and I have been (cautiously) traveling a little bit more.

At the beginning of the summer, we made two trips to St. Joe to visit family! It’s only about an hour away, so it was a nice reminder of how close we are to my extended family and Lake Michigan. We went to the beach and my cousin’s birthday party one weekend, and then the following weekend, we went back for a “season closer” party for the beer my cousins brew at a local brewery. It was so nice to see everyone for the first time in what felt like forever, and we loved getting to visit twice in quick succession!

At the end of July, we traveled to Florida to spend a week with Sean’s parents and siblings. His parents had a pool installed during the pandemic, so with the exception of a few meals out, we spent most of our time hanging out at the house. It was so nice. Swimming, reading, playing games, having light-hearted conversations super intense conversations about racism in America. We both really appreciated being able to spend some quality, in-person time with family.

A few months later, we did another trip with the in-laws (though we had a few more join in this time around), heading to Arizona for a week. Sean and I flew into Phoenix, then picked up Angela and drove up to Flagstaff, where we met up with Randi! While Sean spent the weekend camping with his siblings, Randi, Angela and I spent it hiking, working on our planners, and otherwise just sitting around enjoying being in the same room for the first time in what felt like forever.

Then Sean and I headed to Sedona to meet up with family for more hiking, reading, and relaxing.

One evening when were wandering through downtown Sedona, we happened upon a snake rescue group. I made my in-laws sit there for way too long while I hung out with both a baby king snake and a Burmese python. It made me so happy. I love snakes, but the last time I got to hang out with one was way back in high school when I volunteered at the zoo!

I’ll be sharing a full recap of the trip to Arizona soon!

Home

It’s crazy to think how much we’ve done around the house in the last six months—we often finish a project and then instantly forget what it was like before!

One major update was updating our downstairs fireplace. It was a wood-burning fireplace when we moved in, but it was deemed unusable and unsafe (honestly, it’s a miracle the house didn’t burn down before we bought it), so we we had it replaced with a gas insert.

While wood-burning fireplaces seem really charming, we’re excited about the gas insert because it fits our lives better—instead of hauling logs inside, getting the fire going, and controlling the temperature by opening windows, we can just press a button and have a fire! (Plus we would have had to rebuild the entire chimney in order to get it safe again…)

We also did a lot of work in our backyard to make it more usable. We ended up chopping off a large portion of our deck, and while it sounds counter-intuitive, we actually have so much more usable space now. It used to wrap around the big tree in our backyard, which was charming, but as the tree grew, the deck bubbled around it, meaning it was virtually impossible to have furniture sit level with the ground. We pulled the deck back so it no longer wraps around the tree, which got rid of the bubble (the deck boards seriously dropped at least six inches) and made the tree so much happier. There’s actually still a chunk of wood sticking out of the tree—it clearly wasn’t happy with the situation, so we’re glad it has more breathing room now.

Now that the deck is level, we bought all-new outdoor furniture! We have a sectional in one of the corners, plus a round dining table and chairs. We absolutely love it. Of course we had a ton of bugs in Michigan this summer, which made it a little unpleasant, but we know we’ll use all of the furniture for years to come.

And we added a garden! We didn’t think we had the time to devote to it this year, but one of our neighbors was giving out free veggie plants, so we grabbed tomatoes and peppers. Then we used the extra deck boards to make a planter box! We only got a few peppers this year, but had so many tomatoes. I loved it and can’t wait to garden more next year!

Finally, to add a bit more privacy to our back yard, we replaced the 4-foot back fence with a 6-foot fence. Now we don’t feel watched by the cars who drive down the alley behind our house, which makes it feel so much more homey!

Hobbies

One of the biggest reasons I decided to take a break from the blog was to try out other hobbies. And I definitely did that!

I kept up my reading—I’m currently at 62 books for the year so far! I’m going to do a recap of my favorite books of the year, but as a preview, I absolutely loved Malibu Rising, Project Hail Mary, and Isn’t It Bromantic.

Sean and I also finally accomplished the stereotypical pandemic project of watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe in chronological order! I originally wanted to include Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD, but by the end of season 2 of Agents of SHIELD, I decided we could skip the rest of the show (we’ve seen it all before) and stick with the movies and new shows on Disney+. As of last weekend we’re up to date, so we’re just waiting for Eternals to come out next weekend!

But when I think of hobbies, I think back to my childhood crafting hobby, so I knew I wanted to incorporate more of that into my adult life. I’ve been working on my massive Harry Potter cross-stitch a lot, and I finally finished my embroidered signature tablecloth, which is a family tradition I inherited from my grandma and my mom! I love working on crafts, even if I don’t like or keep the final product, because it’s really nice to use my hands instead of spending more of my time staring at a screen.

Shopping

And of course, I’ve made many investments over the last six months! I got these hauraches, which were my most-worn summer shoe, and while I was eying some heeled sandals from Nisolo, I went with these instead, which were half the price!

I’ve been getting ready for cooler weather lately, and am so excited about this pink utility jacket and some plaid flannels. But to prepare for all of the hiking we did in Arizona, I also got a few of these t-shirts that are my new absolute favorites. (You can take 15% off your first Senita order with this link!)

I’ll be doing a full post on this, but I decided to change my planner game up—gasp! I switched from paper Passion Planners to the Digital Passion Planner and haven’t looked back.

And of course I’ve been fueling my reading obsession with a subscription to Book of the Month! It’s such a joy to pick out and receive my books each month. 🤗

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A lot has changed over the last six months! I’m really excited to start blogging regularly again. Talk soon! ♥️