Getting Back on Track Part 1

I want to start out with the biggest of apologies. Just as I was starting to get things rolling here at The Chill Shop, things hit a serious pause. That’s why I wanted this month’s blog post to share a little behind the scenes of what has been going on. It’s a two-part series, so grab some tea as this may take a while. 

Right now it’s November 2022. The last blog I posted was back in April this year. And well, a lot has happened in these last 7 months. Before I get into those details, I want to jump back a little bit further to 2021. 

On Father’s Day last year, my Father in law suddenly passed away (in my husband's arms no less). To say it was a painful shock would be an immense understatement. And sadly that was the beginning of a lot starts and stops for The Chill Shop. I was going to launch this business at the end of June 2021. So I pivoted and did a soft launch in August with no big fan fare.

After that, my husband spent a lot of time out of state helping his sister care for their mother whose health was failing (which meant I was single parenting our two boys a lot that fall). Sadly, she ended up passing away in April this year. My husband’s parent’s story is what I love to call a True Love Story. Therefore, it really wasn’t much of a surprise that one wouldn’t last long without the other. And I absolutely cherish the 21 years I got to know them both. They were both so loving and would do absolutely anything for others. HUGE philanthropists. I aspire to be like them.

Through the heavy weight of grief, our family slowly kept going through life. An opportunity presented itself for us to purchase an office condo that went up for sale near our home. This would give me the opportunity to start getting out of the house to work again. While I certainly love what I do, I also appreciate having space between my work and home life. We closed on that property exactly 4 days before leaving for Italy for 12 days.

While our Italy trip had been planned for about a year and a half, all the other things in life were not. So off to Italy we went. It was just me and my two sons (Charlie and Will - which is where Chill comes from) as my husband didn’t want to go out of the country with ailing parents (both parents were still alive when the trip was planned). While it was certainly a trip of a lifetime, we will definitely be back with my husband. We went to Venice, Florence, Assisi, Pompeii, Sorento, Capri and Rome. Yes…it was marvelous and exhausting all at the same time!

In 2020, my oldest son’s 8th grade trip to DC got canceled for obvious reasons. This year, my youngest son got to go on his 8th grade DC trip. My husband and I thought it would be good to take Will to DC this summer so he could get his trip. Just two weeks after getting back from Italy, we were off to DC for 8 days. And I thought being in the nation’s capital for the 4th of July would be a cool experience. It was a very HOT experience! Glad we did it, but I don’t think I’ll be going back during the summer anytime soon. 

Not only did we come back from DC with great family memories, but we also came back with COVID. Charlie tested positive on our last day there (the rest of us tested negative), so my husband stayed behind with him, and Will and I flew home. After getting home, Will and I ended up testing positive for COIVD just as Charlie tested negative (hubby stayed negative the whole time), so they flew home to take care of us while we were sick. 

Then two weeks after everyone was negative, we were off to our summer cottage in Michigan for 3 weeks. We came home 3 days before school started. So to say our summer was busy doesn’t quite do reality justice. Either way, I’m so grateful for the memories made during this difficult year and a half. 

Now that we were properly home for a spell, I reached out to my contractor to finally start work on the remodel I needed to do in the office condo we bought in May (only to have another pause due to another death in the family - it really is too much). While their ability to get things done quickly is awesome, the holdup with approvals and permits has not been fun. But I have all the confidence that things should be done by the end of this year. 

Get ready for Part 2 where I share what actually happened.

Until next time....

Dianna