Pretty Big Life Update
Hi! Not sure if anyone will even find this blog anymore. I’ve been wanting to get back into blogging again. This space has been weighing heavily on my mind for longer than I care to admit, and here I am months later finally hitting publish. I thought my first post back should be a life update because some major things have happened since my last few posts in 2016-2018 (and now it’s 2019. eeek sorry blog).
Career
My last blog post was about going 7 months without CrossFit due to being super busy and stressed from my middle school teaching job from fall 2017 to spring 2018. At the end of the school year I decided not to return back to teaching (that’s a whole other blog post or 2 or 3). Most of you know who read my blog that I did photography on the side and was doing my own shoots and assisting at weddings and had photographed a handful of my own weddings. My website is www.skylar-rain.com and below is a screenshot of my instagram where I post a ton of my work. @skylarrainphoto
That whole year I was teaching, I was dreaming and yearning to be self-employed by doing photography full-time. So starting in July or August of 2018 I started working toward that goal. I assisted at several weddings that fall and did tons of family sessions and a few engagement sessions. I believe November was the first month I matched my teaching salary from photography income and here I am already in September 2019 still doing photography full-time. (For me full time is matching or exceeding my former teacher salary. That allows me to pay my half of mortgage, bills, and have enough income for normal life. ) I have 12 weddings of my own this year and every weekend through November is booked with shoots, weddings, or assisting other photographers at weddings. I’m right in the middle of busy season, so at times I get overwhelmed by all the editing I have to do, but then I remember what life felt like while I was teaching and it makes me appreciate where I am now.
Last August/September of 2018, Brandon was gone for long periods of time for Army training, so I went home to New Mexico during the weeks & stayed with my parents. While home I would intern at the gym where I first started CrossFit, CrossFit Unknown Element. In November I became a CrossFit level one trainer and started interning and then coaching at the CrossFit gym I go to here in Colorado Springs in December. I’ve been coaching at CrossFit Endemic since December. I typically coach 1-2 classes a day and some days 3-4 depending on the schedule. So coaching has become like a side hustle for me and the money I make from coaching fills the gaps and just gives me extra income.
Brandon & I
My blog post from January 2018 (so crazy) was about Brandon proposing to me. This summer, June 22, 2019 we had our wedding ceremony in Colorado Springs and got to celebrate with our closest family and friends. It was seriously one of the best days and I just loved our wedding day. I haven’t posted many of our wedding photos yet, so I’ll post just a few.
We bought a house here in Colorado in April and have been working on painting and yard work and things like that. Below is a photo of our entry room that we painted and decorated. It’s one of my favorite rooms so far. (For some reason it keeps flipping the photo to horizontal. Sorry about that!)
Training & Nutrition
Now that I work at the CrossFit gym, I usually workout before I coach a class. I try to avoid making multiple trips to the gym in a day. So typically 2:30-3:45 is my workout window because I usually coach a 4 p.m. class. I’ve changed things up and haven’t been doing many CrossFit class workouts lately due to a shift in goals and needing to give my body a break. I’m mostly doing a style of training called “functional bodybuilding” and I’ve been loving it! For nutrition I’m all about that macro life and have been working with Holly since January (she used to coach at the gym I went to in Clovis (CrossFit Unknown Element) and was my nutrition coach way back in 2015 or 2016 and first introduced me to flexible dieting). Working with a nutrition coach is a game changer with accountability and consistency. I’m in a really good place mentally and physically with my nutrition. 
Anyways, I wanted to make this update brief to give everyone a glimpse into what my life has looked like lately. Like I said above God has been laying this space heavily on my heart….maybe not this blog necessarily but definitely being called back to writing/recording about my life and writing about all the ideas I have. I still see blog posts from bloggers like Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers & Tina with Carrots N’ Cake and seeing their posts fills me with the desire to keep this blog to keep recording my life. This space will like be more of a lifestyle blog (like it always has been) with some health/fitness focused posts too. I won’t make any promises about the next post but I really hope to post here more often. We’ll see what happens though.
What’s a major life update date from you! Anything you’d really like me to dive into on this blog in the future? Anything you’d like to know about my life lately?