Happy Birthday to me! I’m officially in my 30’s! I know what you’re thinking, I’ve been in my thirties for two years now. Technically, you are correct. But being 30 you just feel the shock of being 30. And 31, well 31 you haven’t really accepted that you are in fact in your thirties. But here I am at 32. 32!! I’ve never really thought too much about my age. And to be honest I probably won’t after this post, but I have decided to allow myself a couple of minutes of reflection and forward thinking.

A Year in Review:

On this day last year I was in Paris having dinner at the Eiffel Tower with Mom. Hard to beat, right? This got me thinking about what I’ve done in the last year. I traveled all around Europe with Mom (Stay tuned for a post about these adventures!), I refined my snowboarding skill, I worked 70-80 hour work weeks at a resort in Colorado, I got super burnt out from working 70-80 hour work weeks, I decided to move to California, I quit my job, I had the unique opportunity to not have any work to do for a few months, my youngest niece, Mckenna, was born, I started Laura Kristen Property Services, I finally got all of us going for Splendidly Sisters, I got sick and had my gallbladder removed, and I finally made the decision to start working on my own health.

Europe was amazing! Mom and I traveled to 9 different countries in just under a month. It was the longest vacation either of us had ever taken. I had a pretty detailed plan for the entire trip. Something I know Mom certainly appreciated. Arranging to be in Paris on my birthday was just one of many detailed moments, but honestly the random wandering that we decided to do was some of the best moments. Next week I will be doing a post all about this trip and the planning that went in to it.

Leaving Colorado was hard. It was hard to leave a job that I had been at for a few years and excelled at. It was hard to leave the many friends that I had made while in the sleepy town of Crested Butte. And it was hard to go into the unknown. I moved to California without ever visiting the area I was moving to, not having seen the house we were moving into and without a job. The last part was done on purpose. After surviving the winter ski season I was beat. Literally! I felt for months as if there was no amount of rest or sleep that would make me feel revived. So I started the awful habit of not doing anything. I would go for days just sitting on the couch watching TV or staying in bed all day reading. Sound relaxing? For someone who has worked as much as I have consistently it was nice for about a week.

Laura Kristen Property Services was a business that I have been thinking about for a couple of years now. A chance to take my experience in both property management and hospitality and do something completely my own. My goal is to help absentee home owners feel as if their assets are protected even when they are not there to see to it themselves.

Splendidly Sisters!!! Last year Jenny, Karyn and I were talking about starting a blog. To share recipes, pictures and crafty projects. But mostly to stay connected. We started to decide on names and content, but never really got started. Well, now we have!! And I could not be more excited!

What’s Up Next:

I guess this is kind of like my New Year’s, right? So let’s talk about some “resolutions”.

Last month I was having terrible abdominal pain and had to go to the hospital. If you know me, you know that me forcing myself to the hospital using means it’s serious. I hate hospitals! I assume this is mainly because the now three times I’ve been in the hospital it has been for fairly serious things. Well, this time it was for my gallbladder. After arriving at the hospital at 2 a.m., the doctor (Shaggy as Mom likes to call him due to his overall look and demeanor. Psssst..she works at this hospital and actually knows him so it is in all fondness) decided I needed to have my gallbladder removed. As I was already pretty heavily medicated as this point I thought he was joking at first. Not a very good joke if you ask me! Even less of a good joke when he’s not joking. About twelve hours after I arrived at the hospital I was going into surgery. I of course have no memory of this except for the doctors and nurse putting me to sleep. I should say here that they were amazing! They explained things very well and made me feel as comfortable as possible. My last memory before drifting off into wonderland was of laughing because the nurse called me a smartass. One might say I’m a terrible patient and I will always go down swinging ;) In case you haven’t figured it out, I survived!

I did indeed survive, but not without the complications that we all have after having a part of ourselves removed (not dramatic at all). My body does not like fats anymore! Have you ever really looked at how much fat is in everything? Everything! I know my body with somewhat adjust, but as of right now even eggs are the enemy. For someone who eats eggs at least once a day, it’s been rough.

I guess this brings me to my first “resolution”, and that’s to start taking care of myself. I’m not saying “losing weight” because I believe that it’ll come naturally, with better eating habits and more exercising that is. I will be doing a weekly Monday check in for this. So you can follow along and share your thoughts, but also so that I feel accountable.

My second “resolution” or goal is to put myself out there more. My friend, Jessica, and I were recently having a conversation about friendships and dating. We both came to the same conclusion that we don’t often put ourselves out there for these things. I brought up the old go to “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. Wayne Gretzky was obviously talking about our dating lives when he said this! Since being here in California I haven’t taken the time to get to know many people. I have joined a couple of groups of like-minded people and hope to turn this around pretty quickly!

Let me start by saying this blog will not be a place that my sisters and I get political very often. Saying this, I hope we can all agree that this world could use quite a bit more kindness. So my third “resolution” is simple: kindness. Kindness to strangers and family alike. Small random acts of kindness everyday. I hope that you too can add this to your resolution list when it comes time.

Thank you for reading! I’m glad you’ve taken this little bit of time to get to know me and I hope that you will continue to follow along. I’d like to hear about your journey as well!

Turning 32: Reflection and Forward Thinking