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In 2018, I decided to make a major career change and, at the end of October, left VML — the company I’d been with for 12 years and love deeply — to take a new, challenging writing role at Stryker, a global med/tech company you may know from having been in one of their hospital beds or seen one of their infamous yellow stretchers on TV. Stryker is an amazing company to work for (ranked #12 by Fortune! ); it’s headquartered here in Kalamazoo, and it’s actually why we moved here in the first place, for Luis’s job 12 years ago. He’s still with the company, but like most Stryker employees, he’s moved around and now he’s in finance (so no, we aren’t in the same building! ) In terms of how to make that happen, I know I’ll have more time to write if I spend less time glued to the news each night, so that’s one of my big goals this year

For years, I swore off buying premium denim. It wasn’t about the cost; I truly believe a good pair of jeans is worth every penny and if you wait for the perfect pair to go on sale, it can be an especially sweet treat

This weekend was my first half-marathon and you know I have to write about it. If I don’t, I’ll forget these details

Confession: I’m the heaviest I’ve been since I joined Weight Watchers in 2004, not counting when I was pregnant with each kiddo. I lost the baby weight pretty easily with both of them, even got below pre-baby weight with Ben, but I couldn’t sustain the loss (which was still 10-15 above my “goal” but was OK for me)