Author: Rachel Stoops

Well here we are a month and a half later. I haven’t felt too inspired to write during this time. I’ve been feeling down far more often than I should and have been letting things get to me. Some days (like today) I haven’t even wanted to get out of bed. Why? Just to endure another day stuck in the house doing the same things as the past however many days? It’s hard. Pregnancy hormones are certainly not helping either 😂. But sitting here feeling sorry for myself isn’t going to help anyone.

I’ve been off work for 66 days – but who is counting? Okay in all honestly I am not… I just counted the days in the calendar. That is over two months of a completely unrecognizable life and learning to live in such a different way. I haven’t stepped foot inside any establishment other than my OB office since my last day at work. I’ve left the house to walk the dogs, or ride in the car with Mike to pick up groceries. This is wild.

I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss my coworkers, and I miss everything that once felt normal. Picking out my own groceries, wandering around Target buying way more things than I needed, a trip to the craft store for some fun supplies, or a visit to Home Goods for who knows what. Those days seem so far behind us, and still so far away.

Though places have started to reopen, I’ve had no desire to brave the crowds just yet. It’s officially been two weeks since the first few places started opening. We may give Home Depot/Lowes a try this weekend. I’ve been DYING to paint the nursery for at least one fun little project while I am stuck home! Because after it’s painted, I can start ordering the furniture!! 😍

I am hoping that this will be my last Debbie Downer post. It’s time to start writing about my fun pregnancy milestones, and finding the positive among this very uncertain time.

Here’s to hoping you all are staying well.

Laugh Often – Rachel

Wow has life changed in the past few weeks… Here we are amidst the Corona Virus pandemic. Something we began hearing about months ago, and never in a million years did I think we would get to a point like we are today.

So very sad, terrifying, unpredictable, and completely unknown. I have to say that this is one of the most life changing times that I’ve lived through – especially in my adult life.

On St. Patrick’s Day at 4pm we were called into a meeting where my department was told that we were being furloughed for the foreseeable future. At the time, they estimated 6 weeks. Now two weeks in, it seems like it’s going to be significantly longer. As of March 29th, the hotel officially closed its doors to wait out the pandemic. There are approximately 8 employees left in total to keep the essentials running while everyone else is away.

Receiving the news was incredibly hard and stressful. I had just announced my pregnancy at work, and had gone through a week from hell dealing with the cancellations that began to roll in. People would call and scream at us for being insensitive, blind, ridiculous, idiotic, etc. This was something that I’d never had to deal with before.

Immediately following our meeting where the news broke, we packed our important belongings, and headed out. No last emails to our clients – I was particularly worried about my brides/grooms that are still planning their upcoming weddings, and now no longer had me to help. I take great pride in my job, and great customer service, as well as the relationships that I build with all of my guests, and it was heartbreaking to walk away in such a scary time for everyone. All I can hope is that they will understand once I come back.

I had an emotional couple of days – what will life be like now? I jumped on the unemployment website along with the what turned out to be millions of other Americans to get my claim in. Something so foreign to me.

The one glimmer of good news that came was my company decided to extend our benefits through May. This was the biggest relief. When temporarily losing my job, I wasn’t so much concerned about the paycheck – we have some savings, I figured we could get by, but being pregnant, and having Crohn’s Disease – I NEED my health insurance. We were initially told that this would only last through the end of the month. With this news, everything began to feel just a little bit more… okay.

This was the first time in my adult life that I’ve had any time off work. I’ve been trying to relax and take care of myself. We’ve been taking the dogs on a walk almost daily, and getting some extra exercise in whether it be a prenatal workout on YouTube, a ride on our indoor bike, or playing Beat Saber on our VR headset. Some baking, some cooking, lots of binge-watching TV shows, and of course cleaning and organizing. My body is feeling pretty good, and I am trying to keep my mental health in a good place as well.

My coworkers and I have all been checking in on each other often. I miss them dearly, and can’t wait to be all back together in hopefully the near future.

Mike is still employed (thank goodness) and has been working from home. We are going on 3 weeks of spending every waking moment together with no escape… the joys of marriage. 🤣 But in all reality, I am very grateful to have him around to help. Though he is certainly getting off pretty easily having a pregnant wife during this pandemic! It’s not safe to go to the store for all my cravings so alas, I’m stuck with what we have. He has been very over protective of me and my health and won’t even let me join him in the grocery store. Sometimes I get to ride in the car, but always have to wait. I am okay with that, but sure miss a Target run, or could use some craft supplies! Our dog walks for fresh air will have to do. 🙂

In the meantime, stay healthy, stay safe, and stay inside. From the wise words of High School Musical – We’re All in this Together!… 😉 I’m hopeful that soon we will be able to look back on this time as a distant memory and a lesson to learn from as we dive back into an even better way of life.

Laugh Often – Rachel

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just days into 2020, I decided it was time to sit down and reflect on this past year, and what I would like to accomplish in 2020.

2019 truly was a great year, full of so many new things. Some of my favorite highlights:

• We packed up and moved to a brand new city that we had never even visited. This was terrifying by the way…
• We both started new jobs and are blessed to work with some great people that have welcomed us into their lives with open arms.
• We bought a home and are excited to continue to decorate and make it our own.

There were plenty of other little things, along with our fair share of lows, but I will keep it short and sweet as the purpose of this post is to focus on the future. 😊

It wouldn’t be a new year if we didn’t all throw out some goals, right? I figured if I publish my goals, it might hold me more accountable, but if nothing else, I can always look back at the beginning of next year to see how I did. As I went about my day, I started jotting down a list on my phone so I wouldn’t forget them. The list grew and grew – should I make some cuts and just focus on a couple of key goals? Nah – let’s share them all so I can make a conscious effort to make positive lifestyle changes. Some goals are simpler than others, so heck – let’s go for it!

1. Drink more water.
   • We’re starting simple here. Hydration is so incredibly important in so many ways. I am very aware of this, but for some reason I still find myself barely drinking any water throughout the day, whether I’m at work or on my day off. My goal will be to go through my 40 oz. Hydro Flask twice a day for a total of 80 oz. Should be easy right? Right!
2. Exercise more often.
   • I do think that I’ve started to be better about getting some exercise in lately. It helps to have a gym at work that I can use before heading home for the day and it certainly doesn’t hurt that it’s nice to wait out some of that rush hour traffic. I will admit though that if my coworker isn’t going with me, it’s much easier for me to skip too.
   • Mike has been working on growing our collection of workout gear down in the basement of our home, so that should be hugely helpful for the two of us. Between the random odds and ends, I think I can come up with a decent workout – better than nothing!
   • One of my very favorite YouTubers, Jessica Braun, turned me on to the idea of never going more than 2 days without doing some sort of exercise. This can be a full on hard core workout, or as simple as some crunches on the floor, or a walk with the doggos, but as long as you get moving, you’ll be on track! (On a side note, if you have some free time, go check out her YouTube channel because she is the absolute cutest and I could spend hours watching her. And by could… I mean I do.😳)  Anyhow, she credits this idea to another YouTuber, Matt D’Avella, and you can watch his video here. Hoping to implement this in 2020 – let’s get moving!
3. Stick to our budget.
   • My husband is an accountant… you would think this wouldn’t be an issue. While on one hand that is a perfectly correct thought – we have an extremely well thought out, analytical and organized number of excel spreadsheets that don’t miss a beat. But when it comes to the sticking to the budget part – this is where we fall short.
   • January is honestly the perfect time for us to make this more of a priority. Finances were a little bit all over the place through the home buying process and getting out of our rental. We had some double months, and more expenses than usual, so it was hard to sort through and determine if we were on budget or not. Is this an excuse? Absolutely! We could’ve budgeted regardless, but we’ve dropped the ball. Not to mention I tend to go overboard holiday shopping in December. Darn it Amazon with your 2-day shipping – making it way too easy to click buy now! Thankful for our poor delivery drivers. 😇
   • Moving forward, we would like to make it a point to check in on our budget weekly to make sure we are on track, and see if we need to dial it back on any particular category. We LOVE using Mint to help us keep track so we don’t have to do all of the hard work.
4. Cut down on sugar and dairy.
   • I think this one will be a huge step toward a healthier lifestyle. To put it bluntly – I am completely addicted to sugar. I have the biggest sweet tooth, and cannot help myself when it comes to sweet treats – especially late at night.
   • Dairy on the other hand is my necessary evil. Who doesn’t love cheese? And ice cream, and all of the other creamy delights… I have Crohn’s Disease and have become lactose intolerant over the years. Lactaid pills (I like to stock up on the Costco brand) have been my savior because this girl loves a good milkshake. Even though the lactose pills help tremendously – I know that I still don’t feel 100% after indulging.
   • Both sugar and dairy are extremely inflammatory, which Crohn’s patients certainly don’t need anymore of. So in an effort to deal with less bloating and gain more energy, I think this will be a great change! Also putting it out there – I am not going to say I will stop enjoying these completely, because let’s be real here… that just wouldn’t happen, – but here’s to making a positive adjustment! Sheesh! I’m making it sound like I have a drug addiction to kick. 😂
5. Meditate.
   • I’d like to take some time for myself each week to really center myself and get things off my mind. I take things personally. I have a hard time letting go. I stew over things and replay conversations over and over in my head that I wish could’ve gone differently. After a rough day at work, I’ll sit awake all night just thinking about what I could’ve said differently; how I could’ve made the situation better. It’s hard and it takes a toll on other aspects of my life.
   • I think that doing some meditation will allow me to work on some of these issues, and to focus on the positives rather than the negatives.
   • I’d like to start by meditating twice a week and see how that goes. Starting slow is the key to ensuring success, right?
6. Prioritize family.
   • My family is so important to me. We are very spread out, and unfortunately don’t get to spend much time together anymore. Mike and I are here in Denver now, my parents split the year between Seattle and Palm Springs, and I have one brother in L.A., and one brother still in Seattle. We try to make it home each summer to have one family gathering all together, but this just doesn’t feel like enough! I’m not great at keeping in touch with people – I really don’t enjoy talking on the phone, but when there’s so much distance in between, this might just have to be the answer. FaceTime has also been been a saving grace to at least see each other’s smiling faces, especially around the holidays, and to keep up with my cute niece and nephew!
   • My goal is to make the FaceTime calls more often and pick up the phone if that’s what it’ll take to be more in tune with my family. 🙂
7. Start a blog.
   • Check. ✔ Okay, so maybe this one should be keep up with blogging. I have been toying with the idea of starting this blog for years. YEARS. I think about it so often. I have a list of blog post topics on my phone that’s been on-going for any time a new idea pops into my mind. I had even written the introduction post long ago and had it sitting as a draft for months and months and months. Why did it take this long to hit publish? What was I scared of? Well… lots of things, but here we are, and let’s keep it up!

After giving these goals some quality consideration, it has lead me to my 2020 motto:

“Don’t sweat the small stuff”

So here’s to 2020 – a year of new, a year of better, a year of letting go, and what will hopefully be our best year yet. Looking forward to sharing the highs and lows, and I promise to share updates on these goals throughout the year. Wishing you all a great start to 2020 – may it be filled with many great successes. Feel free to share your 2020 goals below so we can work on them together!

Laugh Often – Rachel