Stories from Kristina + Breanne

  Shared by Kristina Smedley “Never alone…” I recently joined a prenatal yoga class a couple miles from my house; one of the best decisions I’ve made over the last few months! Being pregnant is an odd experience, everyone is happy and excited for you but not many can actually relate to what you’re going through in the moment. Have they been pregnant before? Sorry husbands, this one counts you out; although we still appreciate and need your support! Were they recently pregnant? It seems like post-baby moms have new things to think and worry about than remembering their pregnancy experiences. It’s a wonderful thing to have friends and family to chat with about what’s coming next on this journey, but sometimes it’s nice to chat with someone who’s traveling a similar journey in the moment! Surprisingly it seems the norm is to not talk about the difficulties, challenges, fears moms experience when pregnant and after having their baby. I guess we want to focus on the positive and miracle...

  Shared by Breanne Smedley I had a vision this summer of how I wanted to transform our home office into a cozy, clean, productive workspace. It came through scrolling multiple Pinterest pages and blog posts with titles like, “Easy DIY office built-ins for less than $200!” “How to Ikea hack your office.” And the kicker that made me think it could all be possible… “How a (very) novice (female) builder achieved office built-ins for less than $300. And how you can too!” Sold! How do I do it? “Apparently all you need are these things,” I told Brett. Circular saw Miter saw Table saw Dremel Multi-Max  Hand sander Hole saw  Screwdriver K5 Kreg Jig  Nail gun  Paint sprayer  Caulk gun Plus some bookcases, cabinets, and plywood. “…do we have those things?” I asked. Brett informed me that we don’t even have half the things on that list. Ok, so buying all those things would cost way more than $300, and take way longer than the 3 nights we had available to work on this....

  Shared by Breanne Smedley I’m a head coach. And I’m a female. I hadn’t really considered that these two things made myself a minority among coaches. Until I started to look around. In my previous role, I was the only female head coach in the entire athletic department. In my current position, out of the 22 sports offered at the high school, four are led by women head coaches. Gymnastics.  Swimming.  Track and Field.  Volleyball. The cheerleading coach is also female, although cheerleading isn’t listed as a sport in our league. I’ve thought a lot about the significance of this. That most people don’t think twice about a male head coach of a girls team, but find it significant when (if) a woman coaches a boys team. Does it really matter what the gender of a coach is, as long as they are a “good” coach? “I don’t care if they’re a man, woman, white, black, asian, hispanic, etc. As long as they are the most qualified for the position.” An Athletic Director told me recen...

  Shared by Breanne Smedley This past week vacationing with my family on Whidbey Island has been a perfect combination of relaxation, productivity, reconnection with friends, adventure, good food, and fitness. And of course a touch of the bickering that comes with adjusting to vacation life and being around each other 24/7. It wouldn’t be a vacation without it, right?! Brett and I used to live on Whidbey Island, which makes it a really special place for us to visit every year. It’s the first place we lived together after we got married. It was where I got my first teaching and head coaching job. It’s where we met lifelong friends that we still keep in contact with. Where Brett really fell in love with fishing. Whenever we come back, a flood of memories comes back as well. We drive past the first house we lived in together. A 540 square foot bungalow right on the beach. As we drive by, memories of fishing and crabbing out of our kayak and watching the sun set over the water every ni...

  Shared by Breanne Smedley Usually August marks one of the most stressful times of the year for me. It’s the ramping up of the volleyball season. This entails a lot of planning, preparation, and communication to ensure things are in place for the whirlwind of tryouts, practices, and matches that are about to hit us. There’s logistics of it all, and the realization that no matter how much I plan, there will still be things that will go sideways. Like last year when the main basketball hoop in the gym was broken and stuck in the down position on the first day of tryouts, deeming that court unusable. Or the year before when the gym floor somehow “floated,” making it so the poles no longer fit into the holes. Can’t make this stuff up…! Things like this are bound to happen, so I do my best to prepare (and check the gym before tryouts, now!), and just accept that there will be things out of my control. But then there’s the added stress of Brett also being a head coach in the same season...

  Shared by Breanne Smedley Every summer, a couple of our friends organize an event at their house called the Pigtathalon. It’s an all-afternoon event of intense competition in classic and invented lawn games, followed by a feast of a pig that has been roasting in a cinder block pit all day. I’m not exactly sure how many years running it’s been going on, but judging by their registration system, flow of event, and carefully calculated lawn games, they’ve spent years perfecting it. The annual event brings in 25-35 people each year, ready to harness their competitiveness and let it all out in the best way possible. Through a game of corn hole, of course. This year, I competed in a group that rotated through flip cup, ladder ball, horseshoes, corn hole, and beersbee. (Beersbee-a fun combination of frisbee and horseshoes where players alternate throwing a frisbee to a pole with a bottle on top. The goal is to hit the pole or knock the bottle off without the opposing player catching the...

  Shared by Breanne Smedley I enjoy working out and being productive in the morning. It feels really good to get one of the items that ranks the highest on my priority list out of the way early, even if that means attending the 5am CrossFit, Orangetheory, Spin, Bootcamp, etc class. Over the past 9 months, I’ve also developed a morning routine that reflects the type of person I want to become. I value health, learning, and desire to be impactful in my role as a wife, mom, teacher, coach, and entrepreneur. And I know that the habits associated with these goals and values don’t just form themselves. In order to ensure these things don’t get lost in the chaos of the day, I choose to wake up at a “crazy” hour most days of the week. Meditate. Read. Write.  Workout. Even on vacation, I found a way to make it to the 5am CrossFit class nearby. “That’s crazy!” Some have said. “It’s vacation, just let yourself sleep in.” “You don’t even need to work out, you’re skinny already.” I’ve been...