Life Lately // Updates To Catch You Up On In My Life

Top: Abercrombie Cropped Cinched Halter (XS / TTS to slightly small) – (similar dress, blouse option, similar top + skirt combo)
Bottom: Abercrombie Tiered Maxi Skirt (XXS / size down) – (super similar dress, similar dress, similar dress)
Shoes: Dolce Vita ‘Noles’ (6 / size up) – (also here, similar, similar)
Bag: Louis Vuitton ‘Coussin’ PM (similar)

Hello and happy Monday!  I can’t believe we’re already into September and Fall is around the corner.  It’s been a long time since I updated on what’s been going on in my life (the last life update was in March 2020 when the pandemic was just starting to really hit the U.S.) and looking back, it’s crazy to realize just how much has happened.  Since we’re long overdue, I figured I’d go ahead and share today some of what’s been happening behind the scenes.

Recent Life Update

If you ever meet me in person, you’ll find that I’m very much an open book, but I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a bit nerve-wracking to get vulnerable on the internet.  I do think it’s helpful to share my personal story though, so you’ll find my updates include both the highs and lows of what I’ve been going through lately.  So, grab a drink and let’s catch up!

Started New Consulting Project at Work

I work full-time as a software consultant at a Dallas technology startup called Dialexa, and it’s a job that I love and find very fulfilling.  For the last 2 years, I’ve been working on the same project as the engineering team lead and while that project is still ongoing, I’ve officially transitioned my role to a new team member and am now working on a new project with a new client!  The last couple of weeks have been a lot of meetings along with several work days of long hours, but I love the energy and excitement of starting something new.

Am Almost 100% Plant-Based

In March of this year, I decided to commit to eating a plant-based diet.  My motivation started initially as a test to see if this would help with inflammation that I’ve noticed in my body — my face was really puffy especially around my cheeks and I just felt kinda blah overall.  I found this video on “leaky gut” really eye-opening and it was enough to convince me that I should test out switching to a plant-based diet for a couple weeks to see if it made a difference in how I felt.  The difference even after a week of switching to completely plant-based was pretty remarkable as I was sleeping better, felt lighter, and had more energy.  It was definitely reason enough to stick with the plant-based diet for longer and I’ve felt so much better.  I still will have fish once a week as Adrian and I have a weekly sushi night, but otherwise I’ve really enjoyed the plant-based switch!

Lost 10 Lbs

I gained about 10 lbs of Covid weight and developed some really bad snacking habits during the last few months of 2020.  Getting a better handle on my snacking along with switching to a plant-based diet finally helped me get back to where I was pre-Covid plus a few extra pounds.  I’ve incorporated a number of other changes that have helped me finally shed some weight (let me know if you’re interested in the biohacking I’m doing) so I’m hoping to continue on my current trend to reach my goal weight by January 2022

Kids Are Back In School

The kids are back to attending school in person!  Part of me has been really nervous about how this would affect our Covid exposure as Dylan and Mei are both too young for vaccinations, but so far I’ve been happy with all the different protocols in place as well as how they’re making sure to enforce those requirements as well.  All the appreciation goes out to the amazing teachers who are doing so much to keep everyone safe on top of creating enriching experiences for our kids!

Diagnosed for ADHD

I’m so grateful for the incredible teachers and counselors at my kids’ school as they were able to help guide us into looking at getting diagnosed for what they thought could potentially be attention issues with Dylan.  As Dylan is our first-born, many of the issues we’ve noticed with Dylan we just thought were things that he would outgrow eventually or were just “normal” given his age.  I also didn’t fully realize the long-term impact of untreated ADHD — it wasn’t I reached out to one of the child behavioral therapists that the school recommended that I knew to ask Dylan questions around certain feelings of anxiety / depression that I realized the serious mental and emotional consequences at risk.

We’ve since had Dylan formally diagnosed with not only ADHD but also auditory processing disorder.  We’re working through treatment solutions for both now and it’s been incredibly enlightening to see the change it’s made in Dylan.

As I did my research into ADHD, I in turn realized that I have ADHD as well and was formally diagnosed a few months ago.  It’s funny how I’ve joked to people in the past about I feel like I have ADHD sometimes is actually because in reality I do have ADHD.  While my type of ADHD is different than Dylan’s type, it has also helped explain to me issues that I’ve had around organization, procrastination, and even just remembering things.

Since getting my ADHD treated, it’s been a night and day difference.  Part of me wonders how much easier my life would have been had I gotten diagnosed earlier, but better late than never!

ADHD is a pretty weighty topic and one that could definitely get its own blog post, so let me know if you’re interested.

Redoing the Kids’ Rooms

Almost every minute of spare time I’ve had the last month has been spent on my latest home project to redo the kids’ rooms.  Currently, Mei and Dylan have their own rooms, joined with a Jack-and-Jill bathroom in between.  We don’t have any sort of dedicated playroom for them so this has ended up with their toys ending up in the all the common areas of the house.  Even our formal dining table was becoming a display for the various Lego creations that the kids would complete!

After a few different ideas, we’ve decided to transform Mei’s current room into a dedicated “sleep room” with a bunk bed for the kids and to transform Dylan’s current room into a dedicated play room.  It’s been a frenzy of selling existing furniture, putting together new furniture, and figuring out a better setup / organization strategy so their rooms don’t devolve into chaos within a few weeks.  See a sneak peek I shared here!

Looking Forward To A Florida Vacation

I’ll be traveling with the kids on a mini vacation to Destin, Florida next week and I cannot wait!  We visited Panama City Beach, Florida over Spring Break and even though it’s still along the 30A strip, I feel like it was such a different experience than what I’ve seen of Destin.  There’s a new direct flight that just opened up via Southwest Airlines from Dallas to Destin/Fort Walton Beach and we’re staying in our own private Airbnb that looks amazing.  I’m excited to go back for a few days and fit in what will likely be our last vacation before the busyness of the holidays start!

Turned 40 Years Old

40 has always sounded old to me and it’s hard to believe that here I am at 40 years old.  I can do a whole post reflecting on my 30s but most importantly, it was a decade that gave me my family.  I cannot imagine my life without my kids — they have been my greatest gift and being their mom has been my greatest work.  I learned to overcome my imposter syndrome, learned to better value myself and my time, and am going into my 40s with so much more resilience and focus than I had before.

I had my birthday towards the end of July and enjoyed a small celebration with my family, but here’s hoping that I can get in a tropical beach vacation to celebrate next year when international travel is looking safer!

Top: Abercrombie Cropped Cinched Halter (XS / TTS to slightly small) – (similar dress, blouse option, similar top + skirt combo)
Bottom: Abercrombie Tiered Maxi Skirt (XXS / size down) – (super similar dress, similar dress, similar dress)
Shoes: Dolce Vita ‘Noles’ (6 / size up) – (also here, similar, similar)
Bag: Louis Vuitton ‘Coussin’ PM (similar)

I took almost a week off posting recently just to catch up with my own life so I’m glad I had a chance to catch you up on a bit of what’s been happening behind the scenes.  It feels so good to share and I’m excited to get back to regular programming here again!

Do you have any questions about this recent life update?  Let me know in a comment below!