Discovering Chiang Mai.

Our favorite way to see a new place is by bike.  There is something about being on those two wheels – gliding from place to place – that makes you feel so free.  There is enough time to look around and soak in the surroundings, but still get from place to place rather quickly.  You have the ability to stop at the restaurant hidden in the trees on the side of the road, or follow the music down the street and find the crowded local market, or snap pictures of the coconut trees.

Before even setting foot in Thailand, I made a reservation with Bangkok Biking.  We spent the afternoon riding through country fields, visiting temples and ruins, learning about a former leper colony, watching local bakers, and tasting the Thai cuisine.  We biked with people from around the world, hearing their stories and sharing ours.  We had the best guide who not only gave us details on all the sites, but spent his own money buying us treats so that we could get a taste of the real Thailand.

Here is Chiang Mai by bike.

Discovering Thailand.

I fell in love with Thailand – the people, the landmarks, the beach, the city, the food.  I loved everything from the intricate shrines to the crispy spring rolls that I ate every day.  One of the reasons for this feeling was because we were able to explore such different locales within the country.  We started off in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand with access to the city, countryside, and mountains.  We flew to Koh Samui and spent about six days lounging on the Gulf of Thailand.  We finished our trip in Bangkok trying to navigate the craziness of the city.  It really was a trip of a lifetime and one that was worth the five-year wait (we called it our honeymoon since we never took one). 

I’ll try not to overwhelm you with pictures over these next few posts – I only took nearly 1,000.  Here are a few pictures from our first morning in Chiang Mai.  We spent the morning on a self-guided walking tour.  Self-guided pretty much means we pretended not to be lost half of the time.

The drinks are offerings.

This became our motto for the trip - can't get lost if you don't care where you are!

Love how "Friends" are on the menu.

Our tour guide.

I loved walking around these streets.

This is how we got around Thailand - tuk tuks.

 

Hello, 2014.

Happy 2014!  I hope that you have had a great start to your year!  I love 2014 already, even though it has a lot to live up to with 2013 being probably one of the best years of my life.   

I have been hard at work trying to come up with my word of the year.  I loved my 2013 word and tried to focus on it throughout the year.  So the other day I was brainstorming with Matt and he actually came up with a great one for me (yep, it takes two).  My 2014 word of the year is create. 

I get such joy from creating whether it is a fun project for the house, a tasty dinner, photography, or some crazy pinterest craft that never turns out like the picture.  I decided that I’m going to take a loose view of the word create and have it also include creating a more healthy routine for myself, creating organization out of the chaos that is sometimes my life, and creating more opportunities to connect with family and friends.     

I’m pretty excited about it and have already started to embrace it with a few projects around here.  I have lots of stuff to share with you over the next couple of weeks, so for now I will focus on creating a few more blog posts!

Here is my partner-in-crime helping me kick off the year of create.

What is your word of the year?

A New J.O.B.

Hello!

It's been so hard to be consistent with blogging this year.  My hope is that 2014 is very normal and we get into a stable routine in our lives.  That way I will be able to make time for blogging, working out, and other hobbies I have neglected in 2013.

The reason for my leave of absence is because right after my last post, I started interviewing for a new job!  That's right…I'm going back to work!  So every spare moment that is not consumed by Waverly or my daily life has been spent prepping for interviews, traveling for interviews, and having phone interviews.  Then after I got the job, every spare moment has been spent looking for childcare, thinking and talking about childcare, completing all my hiring tasks for my new job, and preparing for Christmas.  Last year Christmas was crazy too because we had just moved to Alexandria…I look forward to a calm Christmas season next year.

So back to the new job.  I'm head back into the beer business and will be working for the 3rd largest craft brewery in the US, New Belgium Brewing.  The 1st being Boston Beer (Sam Adams) and the 2nd being Sierra Nevada.  If you are interested in the entire list of the top 50 craft breweries, click here.  New Belgium is a huge brand out west since they were started in Fort Collins, CO in 1991, but just recently expanded to the East Coast in the past year and a half.  North Carolina, then Virginia...they are now in every southern state as well as Maryland and Delaware.  When they open a new brewery in Asheville, NC they will then have the brewing capacity to produce beer for the Northeastern States and will open PA and north.  While at Sam Adams I was fortunate enough never to have to deal with them as a competitor, because I left DC before they arrived.  The East Coast manager is excited to have me on board so I can provide information and help them open up the New Jersey and NYC markets in 2015.  Once nationwide, New Belgium will continue to grow and be a huge brand.  All the employees are excited about the future given that the company is 100% employee owned.

me in Fort Collins where it was 5 degrees!

New Belgium Brewery

the brewery is really pretty which sounds weird, but it's true.

sour beers in the making!

whoa that's a lot of beer.

bottling and packaging lines!

this was very loud. I wore ear plugs.

SO my job...is Area Manager of Virginia.  The whole beautiful state :)  I will get my urban kick by going up to Northern Virginia and my country kick by heading to places like Blacksburg!  I will manage all the state distributors for our brand as well as a sales team of 5 "Beer Rangers" - quite a title, huh?!  I have met them all and they are all pretty awesome.  Everyone has been SO SO welcoming and warm to me and they act so excited to have me on the team.  To be honest I'm a little humbled and hope I can live up to their expectations!  It's an incredible company with some kickass people.  It's a VERY laid back culture.  To paint a picture, most of the people at the office/brewery bike to work and wear outdoor gear.  The VP of Sales interviewed me in jeans, hiking boots, and a beanie.  Although Sam Adams was business casual, it was very Type A, fast paced, and intense at times.  So this is a change for me and I'm getting used to the pace and being part of the "New Belgium Family"...the internet is called the "Mothernet"!  Everyone has been awesome to me and I feel pretty lucky that I landed this gig.  I'm excited that I will be able to wear jeans and my new company Patagonia gear during my entire 2 week training sessions in Colorado!  Oh and I guess I should mention that the beer is equally as awesome.  Fat Tire is the main brand, but there are so many great beers they make that I am just now trying for the first time.  Look for Snapshot in February - new Hefeweizen!

My choice to go back to work was a very tough one.  I thought about it a lot and did a lot of gut checks toward the end of the summer.  This could be a completely separate blog post, but being a working mom and CHOOSING to make that my path took some serious thought.  I couldn't have been luckier to have the past year and a half home with Waverly and count my lucky stars that I was able to do that.  I try not to think about my next children and not being able to do that with them.  However, I missed my career.  That's basically it.  It's not that I didn't love being a stay at home mom...I did.  Even at my wits end (because being a stay at home mom is 1 million times harder than working), Waverly would wake up from a nap and I would cuddle and kiss her to death.  Yet I want both...I want to be a full time mom and a full time professional.  I'm sure part time would be completely ideal, but that's not really my profession.  It's seriously the hardest balance that women today face.  There is so much guilt and anxiety involved in not being the person to take care of your kids all the time. Then there's the selfish thoughts of wanting to have a career.  You can tell yourself that there's no reason to feel these feelings, but it doesn't make them disappear.  Every working mom has this difficult reality to face and it seems to be something only women feel, not men.  But in the end, I want to have a career in the future and worked hard to get myself to where I was when I left Boston Beer.  I also want to set an example for my children and be able to provide things for them that we wouldn't be able to without my job.  I think I have made the right choice, but only time will tell.

words will never explain how my heart explodes during moments like this

I was ready for a change from my last job and welcomed the break, but I did love it and wished for something similar in the future.  Somehow God answered me and delivered...it couldn't be more similar, it's uncanny.  I wished for all these things:  working from home when I'm not out in meetings or working with my team, managing a team, sales, awesome company culture, flexibility, great people, not too much travel, a quality product, and of course (let's be honest) a salary to make it worth it.  I got them all.  I feel blessed.  Not to mention I get to drink beer at lunch and it's more than appropriate and I get to see all the awesome bars and restaurants across VA.  What's better?

Now this doesn't mean it's all fun and games...it's a bigger job than my last one in scope.  But not in business volume (YET!).  Managing 5 people and 8 distributors is no joke.  But I think I can do it and still be the mom I want to be given all the positive things mentioned above.  My dad said, "you know, you're going to have to give 100% to your job" to which I replied, "oh yea Dad, 110% to my job, 110% to Waverly, 110% to Nick, that's how it's done, right?"  This was a comical exchange and we both chuckled while I felt immediately stressed. haha.

After accepting the position, Nick and I dove headfirst into the childcare search.  My parents are awesome grandparents and agreed to watch her 2 days a week which I love and am so grateful for.  So we needed part time care from someone else.  We weighed all the options, in home care, nanny, and a daycare center.  I didn't have much luck finding any in home daycares, but toured daycares and interview nannies.  We found two options for each that we liked, but it took me forever to decide.  I want Waverly to have a lot of attention, but want socialization.  I also will be working from home some, so that would affect the nanny dynamic.  I also needed a flexible schedule and backup care for when my parents go out of town, etc.  In the end daycare seemed to fit all our needs.

We transitioned slowly into daycare and Waverly had her first full day last week.  She cried when I left which prompted me to cry all morning.  I called mid day and they said she was doing well, but when I picked her up she was crying.  She didn't nap very long and something set her off...it wasn't what I was expecting.  I wish I had expected the worst...because I was thinking all positive and thought "she probably had a great day and will be so excited to see me!", so I set myself up.  Stupid positive thinking.  So we need to get adjusted and tweak a few things. I do believe she's getting good care though and I need to give it some time.  Nick said, "it can only go up from here!"...well I freakin hope so.  I am honestly not looking forward to January and February and knew that this would happen.  It's going to be an adjustment for childcare, I travel to CO for two weeks, it's cold outside, the holidays are over ,and it's cold and flu season. Wah, Wah, Wahhhh.  Somehow we will all survive and if it's not working, we will re-evaluate and make a change.  In between it may be rough.

haha....what a great fake cry, look at that lip!

Thanks to all my family and friends who have reached out and asked how it's going. It means a lot to have support and people to talk/cry to.

This was an epically long post, but there was a lot to tell and I didn't want to hold back.  Next blog post will have lots of pictures from our holiday season!  Thanksgiving AND Christmas in Richmond were awesome.  Now go buy some New Belgium beer! :)

Love from Richmond!