Tag Archives: Life

~ Appreciate the Moment ~

21 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by in Thoughts from Jenn

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As my final day of work as a Sales & Marketing Manager approaches (tomorrow is my official last day) I can’t help but feel overwhelmed with feelings of excitement, happiness, anxiety, nervousness, and panic. Last night while laying in bed Colt rolled over happily and exclaimed  “only two days left babe.” As the statement hit my ears one half of me wanted to leap up and do backflips on the bed as this was one of the craziest most exciting decisions I have made thus far in my adult life while the other half wanted to run in the bathroom and throw up. I looked at him mute (frozen in fear) and half smiled, what was I doing?

It’s not the actual quitting of my job that freaks me out, I quit my sales and marketing job a year and a half ago with another company and not even two months later was offered this position. I know if I really wanted to I could get another job, any job, doing the same thing for another company or this company in another market, the scary part is I don’t want to. The even scarier (but exhilarating) part is the journey of recreation. The recreation to be anything I want to be, so as that realization sinks in instead of sitting here and dwelling on all the things that scare me about it (not having as much money, fear of failure, not knowing if I am making the right decision, putting all of our eggs in one basket (so not my style)) I instead decided to focus on all the things that excite me so here they are in no particular order.

What I am most looking forward to:

  • Time

I will be getting at least 4 hours of my time back per day! That’s 20 hours per week, 80 hours per month and 1,460 hours a year that were lost because I was required to work 10 hours a day (but only got paid for 8) plus another 2 hour’s for my commute (1 hour there and 1 hour back).

  • Being Colt’s Wife

Call me crazy but I am so excited to deep clean every inch of our house and my car, do our laundry, decorate and cook! I can’t wait to do all these things without half assing them because I am too tired, annoyed or don’t have the time. I look forward to learning lots of new recipes (so if you have some favorites please send them my way) and experimenting with healthy options for breakfast, lunches and dinners. I look forward to having dinner ready for my husband and spending more quality time together.

  • Eating dinner by 5pm

This alone makes me want to run and do side splits in the air. Knowing I will be able to eat dinner by 5 or 6pm on the majority of the nights is amazing. Right now I don’t get home until after 7pm so we aren’t eating dinner until 7:30 or 8pm! It sucks to eat that late and it’s totally messing with my fitness results.

  • Kailea Loves

Having more time to exercise with her, go on walks, play at the park and beach, play fetch and add to the quality of her life. I look forward to not having to leave her home alone for 8 hours a day and only getting to play with her for 3.

  • Enjoying Maui

Being able to walk down to the beach and watch a sunset with Colt, family and friends a few times a week (instead of seeing it set as I am racing the clock to get home). Being able to stop and appreciate all the beauty this island has to offer from sunrise to sunset to every beach, hike and activity in between.

  • Getting the opportunity to grow with my father in law’s business  

I have been helping my father in law with all of his Quickbooks, admin and sales stuff for the last few weeks. It is so exciting to see the incline in growth just over this last year and how much potential his company has to be very successful. I am excited be a part of it and get to help when and where I can, not to mention how inspiring it is to watch Colt’s knowledge and passion grow for the business as he continues to grow under his father.

  • Flexibility

To be and do whatever I want. To be able to visit and spend more time with family and friends. To become a personal trainer, a yoga instructor, start my own run, be a full time blogger, a professional beach bum or a Maui mama! The flexibility to try everything and anything I have ever wanted to do but never had the guts to or didn’t know how to make it happen. Speaking of which I finally (after blogging for over a year) took the plunge and became the master of my own domain which means I am now the official owner of:

http://jenniferleestewart.com

 I am very excited and look forward to taking my blogging to the next level as it is truly a passion of mine.

  • Being an overall better me

A better wife, daughter, sister, auntie, cousin, friend, partner, motivator, runner and influence. Leading by example to strengthen all my relationships and accepting people for who they are and continuing to build a foundation of strength and understanding from there.

So as I sit here smiling & focusing on all the exciting things that lie ahead my fears (even though they are trying like hell to creep in and bring me down) slowly start to fade away. I am writing myself a new life filled with simplicity, abundance, time, love, support, health, faith, family and positive prospective and I encourage you to join me on this journey and I appreciate your unconditional love along the way.

…until next time be happy for this moment, for this moment is your life…

“She took the leap and built her wings on the way down…”

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Thoughts from Jenn

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It seems to me that life will mercilessly dish out moments when you feel trapped in an airless room, with a sign persistently and aggravatingly blinking EXIT over a door that’s actually a brick wall. It’s a horrible feeling and the taunting of the “non-exit” EXIT sign only makes it worse. You stop and stare as you think “there has to be another way..”

…there has to be….

Awhile back someone had asked me if I was happy with my current job situation and although I felt like I should be happy (I have a great job) I knew the answer was no but at the time I was still too paralyzed with fear to say so. Fear of regret, fear of the unknown, fear of not knowing what I wanted to do… just fear. It consumed me so I just kept on doing what I knew I no longer wanted to do.

Today is the day that all changed, it was the day I took my life back. No more doing things that I don’t want to do everyday for countless hours of my life. No more sitting in an office staring at boxes for 10 hours a day wondering what the hell I was waiting for. No more wondering what would happen if I did get the courage to quit.

I just did it, I finally quit! My last day will be in 2 weeks from today. I can’t believe I actually did it. I have a “good” job most would say a great job but for me it wasn’t about that. Over the last few months I couldn’t help but feel like I have been wasting time. What was I doing? Where was I going? What was my future with this company? The answer came up just about as clear as the blinking sign over the brick wall which is why I knew it was time for a change.

Am I scared? …shitless, but I am free and there is nothing more amazing than that. Free to be anyone I want to be. Free to recreate me. Free to be a wife, a runner, a caretaker and hopefully one day soon a mama. Free to purse goals and dreams and new opportunities that I have only ever hoped would come true. Free to enjoy simplicity and time and best of all my husband in Maui.

Today I took my life back and I feel empowered. I set the universe in motion to pursue my positive and all the things I want out of a simpler but more fulfilling lifestyle. I closed one door and can’t wait to see the new ones open. I know everyone is going to have their own opinion on me quitting my job and quite frankly you are entitled to that, however I don’t really care. My husband supports me 100% and I honestly couldn’t ask for more than that. My parents, my sister, my current boss, my current partner in sales as well as my closest friends also support my decision and are beyond happy for me and I love each of them for that — and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

It’s time…freebirding…

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Surprise! We (were) in Reno

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by in Wanderlust

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Well I guess it is no longer a “surprise” that Colt and I spent our Christmas in Reno with our family. However, it was one BIG surprise when we showed up.

(Rewind to October)

We booked tickets back in October when I found a great deal online. It was Colt’s families year for Christmas so I just causally asked him one day if he would like to spend it in Reno. He just kind of looked at me with a “really” face and then excitingly said “Yes! Let’s do it!” I seriously couldn’t have been more excited, traveling for Christmas was like a dream come true for me. It just adds to the magic and nostalgia of an already magical holiday! We booked our tickets that night and decided we wouldn’t tell anyone (besides Ashley & Chad since they would be in Reno too). We giggled and laughed just thinking about how “surprised” they were going to be. We knew from my facebook stalking that Kellie (my mother in law) was hosting everyone at her house and that so much of Colt’s family would be there this year, it felt like real Christmas already and we were still a few months away.

(Fast forward, it’s December!)

When December 1st finally hit I was like a little kid in a candy store. I couldn’t believe we were only 20 days away from the surprise, I also couldn’t believe that it was still a surprise and that NOBODY knew that we were coming (just that sentence alone sends me into a fit of giggles, even after the fact) we were just days away from the best surprise EVER and on CHRISTMAS!

December of course flew by with work and holiday celebrations with family and trips to Oahu that before we could even say “Reno” we were on the plane. We flew out of Maui Friday December 21st on a overnight red eye to San Francisco. Our “plan” was to land in Reno at 9am on Saturday morning pick up our rental and spend the day with Colt’s family (word of advice there is no such thing as a “plan” when no one knows you are coming). We arrived in Reno a little over an hour late (we got delayed in San Francisco) just to find out from Colt’s mom’s facebook that she was snow plowing with Steve and Tristyn in Tahoe for the day! We couldn’t believe it! Here we are in RENO at 10am ready to surprise them and they were in TAHOE! (they didn’t end up coming home until after 8pm that night!)

What you will see below is a series of videos. I was so worried I wasn’t going to be able to remember every second of the experience to write about later so I decided to video blog every moment… ENJOY!

The Stake out Part I

http://youtu.be/5CPywZZey-c

The Stake out Part II

<;;;a title=”The Stew’s Take Reno”

The Stake out Part III

http://youtu.be/BTMM84SSAE4

The Stake out Part IIII

This was the last video of “the stake out” once we left the bar Kellie was home and we flew up her driveway like a mad man(woman). I (thought) I was taping the whole time but my phone died so I was only able to capture this…

http://youtu.be/UBguRS_qIQYb

..because both of our phones had died shortly after “the stake out” I unfortunately was not able to get Austin’s reaction either which was priceless (he looked like he saw the ghost of Colt, so sweet). However we were able to get Grandma’s reaction in her FULL shocked glory….

Since we weren’t able to get Kellie, Austin, and Tristyn’s reaction we later did a video interview with them asking what their “thoughts” were on the surprise…

http://youtu.be/DWpK25-Ccig

Since grandpa really had no idea what was going on during the “surprise” (he just heard grandma screaming and thought he won the Publishing Clearing house) we later asked him what he thought about the “surprise” to give him a little face time…

http://youtu.be/qF97U3SBbN4

and last but certainly not least we FINALLY got to pick up Ash and Chad (secret agents) that were “in” on the surprise…they of course got the FULL holiday mobile greeting from the Stews….

<;;a title=”Picking up Ash & Chad (secret agents)

We had so much fun with these video blogs and I couldn’t be more happy that I was able to capture every moment in its entirety! The Stew’s take Reno was a success!

I will post pictures of the rest of our amazing trip soon, until then keep laughing with one another…

~ All that I’m After is a Life Full of Laughter, As Long As I’m Laughing with You ~

06 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in The 9 month road to marrying the man of my dreams

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I think you hit a point when all of the sudden all the stuff that stresses you out and makes you mad starts to become funny (hysterically funny) and it’s not because you don’t care anymore, but because it’s out of your control and there is nothing you can do about it. I am there; right there, smack dab in the middle of it and laughing my ass off.

It all started with the invitations. If it wasn’t one thing it was another (click here) if you haven’t read that blog yet. I was so happy when Hawaii began to recieve their invites since that situation could have been a potential nightmare. I thought we were in the clear until Thursday night when Colt came strolling into the house around 9pm. He was dog tired but he had a look of excitement on his face. He put down his work stuff and excitingly pulled out a little white piece of mail and exclaimed “we got one, our first one!” I couldn’t believe it, he was right! In his hands was our FIRST returned response card! I quickly sat up on the couch and told him to rip that sucker open! As I watched him with excitement pull out the card his expression went from excitement to confusion. I quickly asked well what? Who is? Are they coming? By the expression on his face it was obviously a shocker and I needed to know immediately. He looked at me and then back at the card and said “it’s blank” I immediately didn’t understand, what do you mean it’s blank? As he turned the card to show me I quickly realized he was right! The reply card was filled out and said they were coming and they had even picked a song (the chicken dance hahahaha) but there was no NAME on the line provided for guests. It took less than a second until I took off into hysterical laughter.

Colt doesn’t get upset about much but this situation seemed to really get under his skin which made me think it was even funnier and in turn I laughed even harder. I mean really at this point how could we be mad or even surprised?!? If anything it went perfectly with all the other hiccups that came along with the invites, (plus I had a 96% gut feeling I knew exactly whose it was).

So classic!

I was anxious all week as I waited for the invites to hit the mainland. I was hoping I didn’t just get lucky with the Hawaii ones and that I would get all of the other 40 back with the dreaded red stamp. By Thursday I was getting really nervous. I talked to Margaret around mail time and she still hadn’t received it. I promised myself I wouldn’t start panicking until at least Friday and then really freaking out on Saturday.

So when Friday rolled around I couldn’t get the invite off my mind. I was at work when the first word from California came rolling in at 11:44am via picture text message from Margie Mo saying “Happiest Aloha Friday yet!!! Ahhhh!! Happy you can stop worrying about them being returned to you!” I was so relieved! Later Ashley and Mindy messaged me saying they also received theirs. Whew… I was clear now I just needed for Reno, Florida, Massachusetts and Switzerland to get theirs too and we were good!

I got through the weekend and couldn’t be happier when Ashleigh posted on my facebook today that the invite had made it to Boston. I later got the best picture text from one of my cutest guests that Florida had also received theirs!

My beautiful cousin Giana.

Everything was working out perfectly and we couldn’t be more happy and relieved. I am so glad I didn’t listen to that awful lady at the post office and that I didn’t add a stamp or waste an additional $40.00 for nothing! I am thinking everyone should have them by the end of the week, if not please let us know.

We finally have our appointment with MaryAnn at the Grand for our food and cake tasting this Sunday at 10am. Colt is so excited and I can’t wait to finalize the details so we have a few less things to worry about. We also finalized the DJ and Photographer. We will be getting our deposits out to them by the end of March. The “BIG” to do list for wedding stuff is dwindling (photographer, videographer, DJ, place, reception, hair, make-up, food and drinks) is almost done and it feels great! We will also be talking with Tiffany this week about our honeymoon. Our top four choices right now are Thailand, Bora Bora, Maldives or Paris. Once we decide I will update our wedding website with the appropriate information for our registry. We are also finalizing details for our wedding week with activities on Thursday through Sunday, so keep checking back periodically.

We can’t wait until Sunday, I will be sure to take pictures of all the yummy-ness and fun!