yes, I am still here

Hello?? Hello? Anyone still out there?

My hubby & I recently got back from a trip away, and spent some time talking about what we wanted to focus on for the year 2018. (Better 3 weeks late, than never, eh?)

[This is what we look like, in case you forgot.]

I came up with 3 personal goals (unrelated to my business). Yes these are sort of random, but here they are:

• Play the piano at least 30 minutes a week. 
• Eliminate ALL bottled salad dressings from our fridge. Just another step in my journey to cook higher quality food. [Only exception: MONICAL'S Sweet & Tart. You know it.]
• Revive this lil ole' blog of mine. 

I'm realizing as I grow older (almost 30, yikes!!) that I really enjoy going back and reading about my life in the years prior. If I am not recording anything, how am I going to re-visit these days 5, 10, 20 years from now?? My memory is not the best and I'm sure it will only go downhill from here.

So here we are... over a year since my last blog post. Let's do a catch-up of 2017!

First big project for Sara's Sweets... we introduced a Fundraising Program! We were able to work with 20+ area schools and organizations to help them raise money for their various projects, trips, supplies, etc. Love being able to give back through the business!

[Hoping to do even more of this in 2018!]

Late spring.... we got MORE new neighbors at the plaza... Dash & Joey's Gourmet Smoothies and Juices! They've been such great neighbors, and it is so nice to have a healthier option close by for quick lunches & snacks.

[My favorite smoothie - Night at the Roxbury - blueberries, strawberries, almond butter, avocado, dates, milk.]

Here's a big one - we MOVED! This is quite the story... we weren't planning on moving, but our neighbors were selling their house. A couple was NOT interested in the neighbors' house, but was interested in ours. Their realtor happened to be an acquaintance, so he contacted us, we let them walk through the house, they made an offer and it was a done deal. Literally like 3 days. Then Ben traveled to Laos for 2 weeks to visit his brother, and tasked me with finding us a new (old) house. Plus take care of all the paperwork with closing out the old house! Yikes! 

Fortunately we were able to find one pretty quickly and moved in June! (After doing a bunch of work to the house. Still needs more work... potential future blog posts?? I'll be happy to never strip hardwood floors again in my life.) Definitely a crazy time for us.

[welcome home!]

In the summer, our family was able to take an awesome vacation, a cruise through the Baltic Sea. My mom & dad joined the three of us, and it was definitely a memorable week! We enjoyed stops in Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland), St. Petersburg (Russia), Riga (Latvia), and Tallinn (Estonia).

[fam bam]

We had a blast learning about other cultures, and James loved having french fries and chocolate ice cream for dinner every night on the ship. If you ever have the chance to go on an overseas cruise, take it! It is such a great way to see multiple destinations without the worry/headache of arranging the transportation from place to place.

[THE BEST crepes in Helsinki. A few moments later, James fell through the flimsy folding chair and crashed to the concrete. Nothing a little ice cream cone wouldn't fix.]

Throughout the summer, I trained for my fifth marathon - Holland Haven Marathon along the coast of western Michigan. The course was point-to-point and ran from Grand Haven to Holland. This was the first real chance I'd had to seriously train for a race since opening the bakery, and I had a goal to BQ! (The deadline to qualify for Boston was literally the day after the race.) 

[so happy to BQ!]

I ended up finishing in 3:30, which was fast enough to qualify. So I signed up! Only to find out 3.5 weeks later that I was pregnant. What a surprise for us, but such a blessing! (Getting pregnant with James was NOT an easy task..... I didn't think it would ever happen to us naturally.) So, after debating a hot minute, I decided NOT to run Boston in April, even though we'd already paid the registration fee. Something about running 26.2 miles while 7 months pregnant, and training through a cold winter while pregnant did not sound too fun.

Late fall, we celebrated Halloween & our sweet James' 3rd birthday.... he has a complete and total obsession with Batman. Luckily I knew someone who could make a pretty cool cake.

[na na na na na na na na na BATMAN!]

[He still talks about this cake.]

Late summer/early fall, we began a project at the bakery - a complete EXPANSION of our workspace! We essentially doubled our kitchen production space, and finished out a retail space in the front of our second suite. It was quite the investment but it has been SO WORTH IT! We are able to do so much more in shorter time.

We got to welcome MORE new neighbors - Coffe Amor! It has been such a joy to share space with them. Hands-down, the best coffee and espresso beverages around. (Those peppermint bark mochas are what got me through the holiday season.)

[Peppermint Bark Mocha + Reindeer Crunch cupcake = perfect holiday treat]

We finished the year off with a big team celebration and pizza night..... this was just one of many Sara's Sweets get-togethers throughout the year! I am just SO thankful for each of these women & what they bring to the team. I will say that I am in the best state of work/life balance that I've EVER been with the business. That's a good thing!

Our family is super excited for a fun 2018! Hopefully not as crazy as last year, but ya never know. I've learned to throw any expectations out the window because I never know what God has planned for us. If you'd have asked me when Ben & I got married 7.5 years ago what my life would look like, this is definitely NOT what I would have predicted. Wouldn't have it any other way!

Cheers to 2018!