Speaker 5 0:02

Hi, I'm Kristen with an E, and this is Talk with Kristen with an E, a place to slow down, be honest without having all the answers, and feel a little less alone together. Let's talk it out

Kristen 0:21

Hey, everybody. Welcome back. It's been a long time. This was definitely longer than expected break, a break I didn't even announce, a break I didn't know was happening. So nothing bad happened, don't worry. But instead of just jumping into a topic of an episode like I normally do, I wanna take a few minutes to kind of catch you up on where I've been, what I've done, what's been going on, and look forward a little bit to what you can expect for this next season. So where do we start? So I am Kristine with an E. I'm a wife. I'm a mom. I'm a worker. I'm a boss. Oh, I'm a podcaster, sort of. It's... like I said, it's been a while. I think I can still do this. So my last episode was in May, and a lot has happened since then. So what I thought I would do is kind of go month by month of what's been going on, what you've missed, and then I think you'll see how it kind of all connects to where we're going now. So May. May was a pretty big month. It was, like, end of school time, Memorial Day, dance recital. For those of you who don't know, I had been dancing for, mm, about four years maybe. Yeah, I think about four years. I did, tap and jazz, hip hop one year. But anyway, I'd been dancing for a while, and I loved it. I loved being on stage. I loved the friends I had made. I loved just everything. And it was so wonderful because at the recital this year, I actually won an award, and it was such a big deal because at least as long as I've been going there and my son's been dancing there, there haven't been awards for adults so, 'cause she has two adult classes. And then I got the award, and I was just so excited. Like, it was one of those things where when I started dancing years ago, I had never danced before, and starting something as an adult can be really scary, and doing something that you might not be good at is scary, and going to a place where you don't know anybody. Like, everything about it was so scary, but then looking at how far I'd come to suddenly I was winning an award, like this whole trophy of being, you know, one of the dancers of the year. It was, it was really such I wanna say it was monumental, and looking back, like, and talking about it, I know it sounds kind of silly, like, "Oh, you're a grown woman," like, "What do you care if you got a trophy or something?" But it was more than just the trophy. It was being recognized that all the work I had put in had paid off, that somebody had noticed, that it was appreciated and just recognized. And so for that, I was just so grateful. And my friend Mary, who you will hear on the podcast later this season, also won one of the awards, and it was a special time for us to have those two awards together. So like I said, May was a pretty big month because that was a really big deal, and honestly, I hadn't planned on stopping the podcast in May when it happened because you know me. Usually I do a wrap-up. I talk about, like, what we've learned in the season and that we're gonna take a quick break, and I didn't do that. I just, like, radio silent on everyone. I did post a couple things on Instagram and Facebook as, like, proof of life, like, "Hey, here's what I've been doing while I've been gone. Hey, I am still alive." But I didn't even do that very much, so I don't know. Maybe you all did think I died. I didn't. I'm still here, actually even more alive than ever. June went right into lots of pool days with my son and our friends, and we had a family vacation, which was a lot of fun. Went up to, a lake house in northern Illinois, did some sightseeing stuff. They had a little beach there. It was just... It was so nice to get away and kind of unplug and just be together as a family. The boys went fishing. I laid out and read my book. Like, it was just a good time to kind of reconnect because especially if you have kids, you know the end of the school year is just busy with different events and tests and activities, and being able to kind of just spend some time together was just really nice. And I was kind of just starting in the summer just living my life and just being present and kind of just focusing on the people that matter. And as I talk about May and June and really why I stopped podcasting then was 'cause there was just so much going on. And not even so much, like, I had other stuff to do that was more important. It was just there were other things that were taking my attention. Because I can't remember if I mentioned at the end of last season or not that I took up golf. So yes, yes, I did. We live in a community that has a golf course in it, and since we'd moved here, I kept telling my friends, like, "Guys, we should, we should go golfing. We should join the ladies league. We should do this." Keep in mind, I had never golfed before. I did a lot of miniature golfing when I was younger, and I'd been to the driving range a time or two, but, like, I was not a golfer. I really had no interest in golfing at all. So It was kind of a surprise when we did. And honestly, it was kind of funny. So this was actually last summer, so summer of 2025. We were at the pool with some of my girlfriends. I'm like, "Guys, let's just do it. Let's just join the league next year." And, Alex tells it that she was drunk when she made the decision, and I just talked them all into it, but they did agree. So then this spring, when it came time to sign up, I was like, you know, group text like, "Hey, you guys said you were gonna do it. Are we gonna do it?" And we did it, and it was so fun. So it was, the girls that did it, some of them had golfed before. Some of them had never golfed before. I personally had been golfing exactly two times and then joined the league. I don't know that I recommend that so much. Like, maybe in retrospect looking at it, maybe I should have, I don't know, practiced or done a little bit more before just going out and golfing. But you know what? I had watched a lot of YouTube, so I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing. it's Golf is hard, guys. There are some times where I'm like, "I love golf. This is so wonderful." There are other days I'm like, "I'm just gonna burn all my clubs and all my balls and everything else because this is the dumbest sport in the world." And, that's why I love it, I guess, because it's a love-hate relationship. But anyway, I was golfing all summer long So that was part of it too, because, going out with the girls and working and spending time with my family, it was just May, June, and July were just very busy months, and I wasn't putting the time into podcasting. So now that we're up to July, July was a really good month. Fourth of July is my second favorite holiday, so I absolutely love spending time. We, we always go, like, to the pool, and our neighborhood has a Fourth of July golf cart parade, and we watch that, and there's fireworks. Like, it's just... Seriously, it's such a wonderful day. And then shortly after that, I went on my book club trip. So if you remember last year, I went on my first book club trip with my virtual book club, and this is a book club where Ariel and I met, oof, 15 or so years ago online during our beauty blogging time, and then kept in touch off and on throughout the years. And then when she started a book club, I think it's been three or four years now, asked me if I would join, and I did. And then last year, we took our first ever book club trip. We went out to a little place in Indiana, stayed in a cabin, went to town. Like, it was just a really good getaway. So this year, we went to a place in Missouri, and, I got the place. I kinda made a plan. it was so perfect. And I have a reel about it. I think I shared it on my personal Instagram, not the podcast Instagram, so I will see if I can share that. But we had a house in the woods, and it was right on this lake, and there was a little beach there, and we went to the pool, and we played games, and we read, and it was just, it was so good. I love these girls so much because we all come from different places, and we're all connected because we knew Ariel at some point, which is why I think it's even cooler because Ariel is like, you know, the hub and we're the spokes, and we're all connected to her. But because of her, we've gotten to know each other too and have really kind of built this friendship. And it's kind of like being on an extended sleepover with your girlfriends. Like, we stayed up late the one night. We were playing games and laughing, and it was just, it was so much fun. And it's like, I feel like you need times like that to kind of reconnect with yourself because it is so easy to get I don't know, bogged down, tired, burnout, like just your everyday life that's, you know, kinda like Groundhog Day. You do the same thing every day. You take the kids to school, you go to work, you have the kids' activities, you come home, you have dinner, you get ready for bed. Like rinse and repeat. So I think it's important to take those times and kind of just break away from the everyday life and make time for yourself and spend time with friends. And I also think one of the things it made me realize is just how important adult friendship is. And I know I talked about this, in previous seasons, and it's something we're going to cover more this season also, is just along with my golf girlfriends and the book club girlfriends, like, as much as I have struggled with making adult friendships or as much as I have struggled making friends as an adult, these are friendships that I have put the work into, that I have nurtured, and that I really appreciate. And it's just, it's so nice to have those kind of people now because it's something I feel that I had kind of gone without for a while. And to have that, it's just, it's just special. So that was July. And then August was my birthday month. And I don't know how much I've talked about it on the podcast, but I am really into themed birthday parties. last year, I had a game night theme. The year before, it was slumber party theme. and it was really kind of like I was trying to recreate the slumber parties that I'd had as a child that I'd always had for my birthday parties. So like we had out the mattress and the living room floor. We watched, I think we watched Legally Blonde. the year before that, it was just, let's see, was a regular Y2K party. everybody had to get dressed up, and we played all 2000s music, and it was fully decorated. It was so fun. So you get the idea. So this year, what I really wanted to do was a prom dress party. So it was thrift store prom dress party, and a few weeks before the party, a bunch of us had gone to different thrift shops and tried on dresses and found the most perfect or outrageous or whatever dresses we could find. And then we showed up, and it was all dolled up. Because if you think back to prom or homecoming when you were younger, if you're around my age, which is now forty-three, Olive Garden was always the place to go. Like, you would-- That's where you would go to eat out 'cause it was like the fancy restaurant. So thrift store prom dress party, we went to Olive Garden for dinner, and then we went out on the town, and we went to a karaoke place, and we went to a line dance place. And it was just probably one of my best birthdays ever. I know that's a stretch because I've had 43 of them now. But at least in recent memory, it was the best. It was, the girls from my golf team, my neighborhood friends, like the girls that I consider my best friends right now, and, it was just so fun. Like, there was no pressure. We were just able to be ourselves and just have a good time, and it was just such a special night. I can't say enough good things about it, Like, it was just a really good birthday party. Also, I highly recommend it if you are looking for a themed party to try, thrift store prom dress party, the way to go. Like, it is, it's such a fun time. Like, honestly, I would do that again, even not for my birthday party. Like, I would just love to get dressed up and go out and just have fun. Like, it was just... It was absolutely wonderful. So September, end of August, September, that's when you, you know, back to school activities, getting back in the regular schedule of everything. Summer's over, even though here in Missouri it was still a bazillion degrees through all of September. but September was really good because our spring and summer golf league season was coming to an end. And we, as I mentioned just a little while ago, some of us had golfed before, some of us had never golfed before, but we joined the team, and we were all in. And let me tell you, it paid off. So we make it to the playoffs, and I think it was only the top, six teams. The top six teams made it. I think there were 12, 12 teams total. So basically you had to be in the top half to get to the playoffs in this kind of bracket. Oh no, it was the top eight teams because there were two teams of two brackets of four. So like one plays four, two plays three, and then the other bracket one plays four, two plays three, and you move on and so on and so forth. So we were the third-ranked team in our bracket. So we played team two and We won them. We won them, no, we beat them. We won against them. And then, the one in four teams had played, and I can't remember which one won. It might have been team four. And then we played them, and we won. And so then we already had won our bracket, and then it was time to play the team in the other bracket. And let me tell you guys, like, it was very stressful. I learned a lot about myself in golf, which again, we'll do whole episodes on that, don't worry. But one of the things I learned is that there wa- if there was pressure or I was overthinking it Not that I ever overthink anything ever, she said sarcastically. If I got in my head too much, it just, I wasn't good anymore, and I felt like I was letting the team down because in the final two games, both our... when we won our bracket and then we were playing for the championship, I was so in my head, I could not hit anything. Like, I was having the worst shots, like to the point where I was like, "You guys can kick me off the team. Like, I am not helping." Oh, P.S., probably should have, should have said this sooner. It's a four-person scramble, which basically you have four people hit the ball, then you can pick whichever one is the best one, and everybody goes to that spot, hits the ball, and so on and so forth till you get your ball in the little cup by the flag. Anyway, I was not very good in those last two games, and it did a lot for my confidence and kind of really just made me feel like not a great golfer. But we won We won the whole freaking thing. Like, here we are, people who hadn't golfed before, just learning what we were doing, put ourselves out there, and won the whole thing. Like, even talking about it now a month later, it still feels so crazy. Like, how did we do that? I will tell you, it's partly because we had a pretty high handicap because we were new golfers, but that's outside of our control, and this is just how golf works. but it was just like, it was, it was so cool. It was really cool. So that was September, and, I think I learned a lot from golf this season. also, we enjoyed it so much, we signed up for fall league. Fall league is something they'd never done before, and they're doing it as a two-person scramble. And, the day this goes live, it'll be our final game of the season. So we survived fall league. the two-person scramble was a little bit more challenging for me because in the four-person scramble, you get four opportunities to find a ball that works. In two-person scramble, you only get two chances, And as I go back to talking just a little bit ago about how I get in my head with golf, when strangers are watching me, I feel like people are judging me. I feel like I'm taking too long, and I just, I... It's, it's not a good place for me. And I understand that this is a me problem, and it's all in my head problem, and it's something that I need to work on, and we will. So that's kind of what I did all summer when I wasn't recording. It was a lot of stuff. I know talking about it in this, like, 15, 20 minutes, it may not sound like a lot, but this was on top of, like, all my other stuff, of working all the time, and being with my husband, and being with my son, and making time for my friends, along with the things I already talked about. Like, it was just, it was a lot, and that's how the podcast kind of got on the back burner because, when I did think, like, "Oh, this would be a really good episode," I just, I was tired from things, or I wasn't in the mental space to do it, and I was like, "Oh, I'll come back." I did record one episode. it was probably brilliant. However, I did not have my audio hooked up properly, and there was no sound. So it was just 28 minutes of silence, which is really sad, 'cause I'd put a lot of work into that one. But anyway, neither here nor there, we are moving on. So what does all of this mean for this upcoming season? So I learned a lot from this summer. I learned a lot about myself. I learned about putting myself out there. I learned about trying new things, sometimes failing at them, but learning. I learned to build my confidence. I learned to put myself out there more with friendships too, and spending more time with people, and getting to know people. And I think that's a lot of what we want to cover this year in the episode, because... So the big themes for this upcoming season are really about becoming, and it's becoming who you are, who you wanna be, how you grow. We're gonna talk about confidence, because it is something I have struggled with for so long. I wanna talk about how we gain confidence, how we grow confidence. I wanna talk about friendship. Like, I've talked about some of my friendships in this episode that I deepened over the summer, and I wanna talk about how we do that. Like, how do you make time for friends as an adult working woman, or if you're a mom, or if you're both, or if y- you know, you have a husband, you have other people that need your time? How can you make time for your friend and your friend, for yourself and your friendships, and make that a priority? We're gonna talk about golf. The golf girls have agreed to do an episode with me, and I am going to hold them to that, because my experience that I had may be similar to some of theirs, but each of us experienced it in our own way, and I think there is something that we can take away from and learn from everyone who was on the team. We're gonna talk about aging. Yes, I said it. I turned 43, which in my head still, like, it... Okay, in my head, it sounds very old In my heart and my brain and everything, I don't feel 43. I don't know what 43 is supposed to feel like, but I feel like my, my psyche is, like, still somewhere between 2004 and 2007. Like, I am literally still 23, 21, 25. Like, that's where I am mentally. So, so we're gonna talk about aging. Like, how do we age gracefully or not so gracefully? What's going on with our bodies? You guys, there is so much I wanna talk about on that one, so we will. In fact, that may be more than one episode. I don't even know yet. But we're gonna talk about aging and perimenopause and what is going on with our bodies. We're also gonna talk about careers, leadership, starting again, building resiliency. Like, these are all things that I and others I know have experienced and maybe some of you have experienced or are experiencing, and I just kind of wanna break it down. Like, what are we doing? How are we doing it? How are we learning and growing and just all the things? We're gonna focus on that, and really, what it all becomes down to is who are we becoming? Who do we wanna be? How are we going to get there, and how do all these pieces play into it? So I don't know about you, but I am very excited to be back and to talk about these things with you, I know my husband's like, "You've taken too long of a break. No one's gonna be there anymore. You've lost your listeners. You've lost the attention." And maybe I have, and I struggle with that because building a podcast, building anything, you know, building a brand or a social media or a platform, they always say like, "Oh, you've gotta post all the time. You've gotta be really active." Here's the thing, you guys. I'm not gonna do that. While I am trying to actively spend less time on social media like Instagram and Facebook, I'm not gonna turn around and just spend more time and try to post every day and be all these things. Like, that's not who I am. I am not trying to be Joe Rogan. I don't know how big this podcast is ever going to be. What I do know is there are people that are listening, and there are people who have reached out to me and said, "Hey, I really appreciate that you talked about it. Hey, when you told this story, it resonated with me. Hey, I loved your episode about this." And that, my friends, is why I'm going to keep doing this. I don't care if I have 100 listeners, 100,000 listeners, or if I only have one listener, and if that one listener is just me in my car 'cause I wanna see how I sound. Like, it doesn't matter. I feel like there are things that I am learning that other people may be learning or maybe other people need to learn, and regardless, I just want to share things, and I love talking with people. That's why I started this podcast, and I would love to talk with you. And if that is you just listening or that's you coming and being a guest or that's you just reaching out by email or Instagram or Facebook or however you wanna reach out to me, that's what I want. I do wanna build a community, and just like I have built my friend group here, and while it's a small friend group and we're all tight, that's what I want for all of you too. So I am back. The plan is for a new episode every other week on Wednesdays, and I'm just... I'm so excited. As I started recording, I was like, "I don't know if I can still do this. I don't know if I remember how to do this." But you know what? That's part of the process too. So if you stuck around, thank you for being here and waiting for me to come back. If you're new, welcome. There's like 40-something other episodes I have already published that you can go back and listen to. And if you're just now joining us or whether you're new or returning, I hope you'll stick around because I'm very excited as we learn together about how we're going to become the people we wanna be. All right. Talk soon, guys. Bye.

Speaker 4 24:30

Thanks for spending this time with me. I hope this conversation made you feel a little less alone. Take care of yourself, and I'll talk with you soon