Life Update: A New Journey Begins

As some of you may remember, last week I mentioned I'd be posting a  big announcement in the future.....and the time has come to share it with you! Some of you may already know or have guessed from Facebook statuses, but Ryan and I have relocated to Columbia, MO - as of yesterday! This may come as surprise to many of you, as just over a year ago we relocated from Dallas, TX to Lincoln, NE. So let me explain.....

Our move from Dallas to Lincoln was based on a job opportunity for Ryan to become the Assistant Director of Sports Nutrition at the University of Nebraska. Although he had worked in sports nutrition for a few years, this was his first time to get a position in the collegiate setting, which had been a long-time goal of his. We originally thought it would take a few years of being at Nebraska to gain the experience needed to move into a director position, but apparently God had other plans!

Despite his single year of experience working with college athletes, the University of Missouri offered him the position of Director of Sports Nutrition for their athletic department - an offer that we were blown away by with surprise and much gratitude to the Lord for providing! This offer came the week after we returned from Italy; and needless to say, things started to move quickly from there - hence my lack of blog posts over the past few weeks!

A few things we are excited for:

• Joining the Family of Mizzou Tigers! - Ryan and I both had the privilege of meeting several staff members he'd be working with at Mizzou before we moved here, and were so impressed with the focus on teamwork and putting family that is fostered amongst the staff. As you can imagine, working with college athletes is an exciting but very demanding job as far as the time commitment goes, so it's nice to know you have a great group of people to work with before you start!'
• Becoming "Columbia Missourians" - I'd never visited Columbia before Ryan's job interview in May, but was pleasantly surprised at what a charming town it was! Granted, it is a "college town" with a heartbeat for University life and students. However, we were surprised at how "at home" we felt as we explored the town with apartment searching, and had a few yummy "foodie" experiences during our first few visits {I've already found an ice cream shop I adore!}. We love the downtown "District" area, and I can't wait to have my mom and sisters visit so we can explore all the cute little boutiques there!

Challenges to be faced:

• The Move's Not Over Yet - unfortunately the apartment we've chosen to live in won't be available until July 10th. We'll be in an extended stay until then, which is a new {and somewhat strange} experience for me. Thankfully, we'll have a week in Dallas to break out of our hotel box towards the end of June. In the meantime, my kitchen/cooking resources are extremely limited to a microwave and two tiny stove burners. Yep, that's it. No oven, mixer, food processor, blender, waffle maker, or ice cream maker. So I've got to get super creative with my blog post ideas!
• What's Whitney Going to Do? I'm very much an entrepreneur, and would love to somehow re-establish the personal chef business I had in Dallas here in Columbia. However, starting from scratch again is difficult, so in the meantime I plan to pursue some PRN work as a clinical dietitian at a few Columbia hospitals - in addition to my work as a blogger, of course! If you know anyone in Columbia who's interested in nutrition consults, cooking classes, or a personal chef, please let me know!

So, that's life right now. What an adventure it is! Thanks for reading and lending a listening ear. I'd love to hear about the adventures life is taking you on in the comments section below!