Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - 230 | Mom Tell ALL!! (answering your questions live!)

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

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When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. what's up everybody i think we're live welcome back to a couple things this has been interesting to say the least do we have anyone here um ladies behind the camera can you use this link to post to socials so people know where to find us i'm just going to jump into it um we're not live

It says we're live in the studio. Okay. Guys, Andrew is the tech guy. Does anybody know this about our relationship? I am not. I didn't even know how to find a charger for my phone. Ms. Caroline was trying so wonderfully, and did such a great job to set this up. Yeah, I just couldn't find how to charge my phone.

So it's interesting. But welcome. Andrew is on a wonderful trip. that is well-deserved he works his absolute butt off every single day and he is on a five-day trip with some of his best friends and i'm so excited for him the pictures i've been getting truly make my heart just like explode he looks like a kid in a candy store uh he looks so happy so so happy which is really fun a couple updates for you guys bear started walking which is well hi we have some people. Kim Wells, hello. Genevieve, hi. So back to the updates. Bear started walking,

which is wild. Andrew, because he's into that kind of stuff and data, he actually has it down to the exact day that each of our kids walked. Drew holds the record at 279 days alive. Jet was 294 and Bear was 289. all before 10 months, which is very scary. He's now, like, truly trying to walk just, like, on his own, which is crazy. Having a kid under the age of one that walks is impressive, but also not a lot of fun, because they don't understand anything you say, and they just are a little, you know, liabilities. It's officially fall, which is great.

I think we made 12 batches of my mom's pumpkin bread yesterday, which was incredible. If you guys don't know what that recipe is, it is maybe the best pumpkin bread you'll ever have in your life. It is my mom's recipe. You could literally just Google Sean Johnson's mom's pumpkin bread and it comes up or it's on my Instagram. The amount of people who have asked me for healthy swaps with it, though, I kind of just want to chuckle and let me just give you like a little information. It's not healthy. Nothing about it is healthy. I'm not going to make it healthy because it's not supposed to be.

me it's an indulgent delicious treat and i think if you start swapping out coconut oil for vegetable oil and all this is it's not going to taste the same so just that's it also can i just go on a small rant the amount of people who have asked me ladies i would like you to chime in here what a little tea stands for in a recipe is this not universal language did we not all learn this Excuse me. A teaspoon? A little tea? You don't know this?

Little tea, big tea? Oh, yeah. Oh, not this. Like a little tea on a recipe card is a teaspoon. A capitalized tea is a tablespoon. I thought this was universal. So the little tea on the recipe card is a teaspoon. Sorry to be harsh.

Also, kids, another update. We're in the school shopping phase of life, which is wild. Drew starts kindergarten next. year, so we're starting to have to apply to independent schools around Nashville and Franklin and Brentwood for private schools here because the school we're like in the zone four isn't like a great school that fits both of our kids. It's a long story. Anyways, shopping for a private school is wild. Like this is the wild, wild west. I came from the Midwest where you went to the public school closest to your house and it was phenomenal. Going through like religious affiliations

and the amount of money you want to spend. What? I didn't even spend this much money on college. Has been wild. And just trying to figure out, like, what our priorities are with school. You can go the best education route. You can go the best academic route. You can go the most religious, the most conservative or liberal or, like, oh, my gosh, all

these different things. And for us, we're just trying to find a place that can foster, like, a really good atmosphere for all of our children who are very different. and gives them, like, a good experience, not like a militarized experience. Anyways, if you guys have any recommendations of, like, things to take into account when it comes to schools, because this is my first rodeo, please give me things to think about because I also feel like I'm, like, planting a flag in the city here wherever I choose, and it's just, like, wild. It's wild.

Okay, a couple of comments before we jump to today's topic. Yay for doing school of choice and, oof, yes, private is tough. Private is tough. We applied to two schools last year, just trying to get into a school by kindergarten, and we didn't get into either. Which is wild. That's wild. So why not public? There's just like Nashville is up and coming with their public schools, and it's just kind of known here that some public schools, they don't have like the actual.

academic or athletic opportunities or, like, resources yet. So, like, the financial backing to those schools isn't great. So better teachers, better opportunities, safer environments are found in the private schools here, which is hard. Which is weird for me coming from the Midwest where, like, public schools were better, which is strange. Also, yeah, it's just weird. In the Midwest, we could also, like, go to school out of district.

district but you just like paid a fee to get into the school here you cannot do that you can only go to a public school that you are zoned for which is also new to me um more comments it says schools that allow parent involvement and encouragement is our best yes i actually visited ander and i visited a school the other day it had the most amazing like community vibe everybody was so passionate about the school in every grade it was really fun to see and so many parents were involved i loved that um manna said if i could afford it i'd choose private as well dude we might have to move by the age of third grade we're going to go broke um some have better learning programs yes and then kim says uh make sure you can have your voice heard for your kids inside the school whether they

above average or need help it will help you and your children throughout their school career Yeah. There's so much, guys. Peggy said, I can't believe they're going to be going to school already. I know. I cannot believe I have a pre-kinderner already. Drew impresses the crap out of me. She's such a studious, curious, like, hungry to learn girl. She begs for more and more and more and more and more books every night. And she's like already starting to read, which is crazy. Like we're teaching her how to read. we're going through the phonics we're going she can write she can she knows every letter capital lowercase she knows like the sounds of like combined work combined letters i don't know if there's a word for that um i obviously wasn't very good at that um it's just wild it's really cool to see it's really special uh more comments oh my gosh we need to get to the questions as long as your kids needs are met and you feel like they're doing great that's all that matters i have two nieces and nephews in private school and they excel so well oh yay Sierra said hi mom mom of two here

how was the transition from two to three um Sierra not to be blunt but it was rough uh it was really rough for us I don't think going from two to three is always super rough it was really rough for us because we had our first colicky baby bear had some different needs and issues that we hadn't dealt with before with our other kids and we went into our third thing thinking it was going to be the easiest because we had done it twice going on three times already. And he was just as different as possible. Like he ate different, slept different. He ended up having a tongue tie that we had to like have a revision on because he couldn't

nurse or feed. So he was just very different. And so it kind of took all that confidence that I had built up with the other two kids and threw it out the window. And so it made me, it made it really difficult to kind of figure out him. now we are thriving now three is amazing and I love it and I could never imagine not having three kids I will say we are done we are not having any more children but it was it was hard it was definitely our hardest I would say going from two to three was our hardest going from zero to one was

our second hardest and then one to two didn't feel too hard for us so anyways um up next Allison said my baby starts kindergarten next year, and I'm not ready. She is very ready, though. Yeah, Drew is very ready. It's so hard. It's so hard to, like, not just live in the grief of, like, all the stages that we will not be in anymore. So, like, I try not to live in that world.

I try to live in, like, the excited for, like, what my kids are going through. But it is sad. I can't believe they're going to start school. Guys, we have so many comments. This is great. Hannah said, how did you know you wanted a third? kid and how do you know that you're done having kids currently have two and don't know how to navigate the next steps if there are any i don't know how to explain it other than it's a feeling

after having two i still felt like someone was missing and even though i'm not one that loves being pregnant even though like i have very large children and like the end of my pregnancies are hard and like everything like even though i knew like the pregnancy was daunting i still knew i was missing someone and we needed to have another one. I don't feel that way anymore. Like I look at our family and I feel like our family is complete. I don't like see someone missing or like extra space where it's like, oh, that needs to be filled. I just feel done. I've also had three C-sections, three very large babies, a very large husband. And I can tell in my body, I'm so proud that like I've been able to like stay healthy and get back to feeling strong after three kids. But I do. But I do.

don't think my body would handle a fourth pregnancy and a fourth C-section well. And I can just tell, like, if I want to be able to chase my kids around forever at the level that I want, I'm done. Stephanie says, hey, I've been a fan in the Olympics, even bigger fan now. And yes, hottest husband ever. You go, girl. Thanks. I agree.

Didn't know if you're talking about your own husband or mine. But yes, my husband is the hottest husband ever. the girls are dying um my husband is smoking okay amy v said are you watching and rooting for anyone on dancing with the stars yes stephen and alona they are the best and i hope they come one and two i don't care who wins and who doesn't um but like i love their stories i love their strength i love what they um stand for in today's world and especially as a mom, like to think of Stephen who is a male gymnast where the male gymnast usually don't get recognized as much as female gymnast to see him be recognized for being

truly himself, like wearing glasses, doing Rubik's cubes, like embracing a different side of masculinity that we haven't really showcased or celebrated before. I think is really, really special in being a mom to a boy, seeing him be popularized and be praised for being the way he is, I think is so cool and so powerful. And then Alona, being a mom to a daughter, to see her showcase strength and beauty in a different way than the world wants to, like, define it as, I think is one of the most generationally, like, historic things that will happen in a very long time. She is changing the face of, like, beauty in women, and it's incredible.

So, yes, I want both of them to win. Okay, I'm just going to jump into the questions because we haven't even started and we have a long way to go. We asked you guys on Instagram to send in questions for this podcast, and you did not disappoint. You sent in so many questions that we are going to probably have to do a part two, but part two for when Andrew comes back because a lot of questions had to do with Andrew in our relationship as well. So diving into some of those before we get started, if you haven't yet, please press a subscribe button here on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also, if you guys didn't know,

we have a newsletter and it's bomb. It's a lot of fun, Jenny. We give you recipes, hacks, stories, discount codes, giveaways, a bunch of things that we don't post. anywhere else I found on the newsletter. It's basically a long-form way for us to share everything going on and everything we have access to that you can't share on like Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or whatever all they are. So if you guys want to join the newsletter, it's free. It's literally free to put in your email down below and you can get access to giveways codes, all the things.

We try to like aggregate it all there as well. Diving into the questions, let's jump into it. If I don't get to your question today, remember I'll probably get to it in part two. my gosh there's so many questions over here too peggy let's just start there peggy said i couldn't believe that oh hate comments you got on bear walking at nine months like don't they know your children were bred from two superstar athletes okay let's just address that um i didn't obviously read that comment before i read it out loud um hate comments make me sad not because i get offended by them because in my heart, I'm just like, what makes you feel that towards someone else?

But I didn't push him to walk. He literally started standing up on his own at like six months. And my kids just did that, which is wild. I also am an active believer. I will showcase this on Instagram. Crawling upstairs, teaching kids how to climb, teaching kids risky things is something that my husband and I do actively. Like I teach my children to crawl up the stairs at a very, very young age and how to climb down them because I think that empowers them and actually sets them up for success rather than like failure in the sense of they don't know how to walk up the stairs until they're after one and all of a sudden there's something bad that happens. So my husband and I are just very comfortable with physicality.

So I think my kids like naturally gravitate towards that. um so yeah there's so many comments i think i said that a hundred times questions number one what is usually the hardest part when my husband goes out of town honestly i just miss him he's my best friend like he's truly my best friend in life and yeah it can be difficult to like parent three kids solo and like do work and like all that stuff but I manage just like other parents manage and it's not that bad at all like I love spending time with all my three children and it's definitely doable and easy or not easy but like manageable but yeah I think the hardest part is just like I miss my best friend I miss I literally like keep a note when he leaves and he does the same thing of like

things to talk about with him, that like things that happened that I don't get to like debrief with him on a daily basis. So I'm excited to go over that when he gets back. Number two, what does my health journey look like right now? I am finally getting into a groove and I feel great. I feel really proud of myself because I feel like the third kid, third pregnancy, third C-Section hit the hardest. It took me probably to my lowest. And I don't mean that in a dramatic way. It just was, like mentally, physically, it was the hardest to recover from. And I have a personal trainer now that comes to my house, which I've absolutely loved. There's two or three moms who join me.

We've been doing it three or four times a week consistently, and I'm starting to feel strong again. I started doing this. It's called Choose Joy, J-O-I. It's this hormone supplement program. It's amazing, you guys. you do an entire hormone and blood panel and then based off of that they like prescribe all of your supplements that you should take daily and because of like the mental for lack of a better word depression and postpartum like inconsistencies that I felt I felt like I really had some hormonal

imbalances and like nutritional imbalances and they showed up on those blood panels and now I get to take supplements that like fix that and it has just made my life feel so much better I feel normal again and like I can actually operate and think so my health journey feels great we're actually doing a Spartan race here soon all of us ladies and instead of being terrified of it I actually feel like really good and I'm really excited about that and like I said I'm just proud amanda Pratt asks so we just need to put our email in the chat to be in the newsletter yeah yep they said yes um Anna Scott says each kid develops differently, but yes, we did those early teachings with our kids, too. And then next question.

Number three, do you have any date night suggestions? We go to dinner sometimes, but want to switch it up. So something Andrew and I started doing for date nights, which I absolutely love, is we alternate even and odd, like, weeks of the month. So, like, one, two, three, we basically label them one, two, three, four. and I get odd weeks, Andrew gets even weeks. And basically on those date nights that are odd, I get to plan it. I get to say where we're going to eat and what activity we're doing. And it's a surprise to Andrew.

And then the even weeks, he does the same thing. So as far as like ideas of like what to do, just try new restaurants and try new activities. Go for a bike ride. Go for a hike. Go to a like paint. What are those painting classes called where it's like? You basically like sip and stroke, yeah, where you like follow the instructor. You can try anything, axe throwing.

Go watch a movie. But I like doing the surprise because it kind of, we either go back to places that we love or we try new things. But it's exciting for each person to kind of surprise each other. And, yeah, have a little fun. Four, how has motherhood impacted our faith journey? it's made it so much stronger. I feel like before kids, you feel like you get to a point in life where you feel like you can control everything.

You can control most variables that affect your life, which isn't leaning into your faith. And then you have children and realize you can't control anything or rarely anything. And like it's all a miracle and it's all just like in God's hands. And you have to either go crazy trying to control everything that you cannot control or lean into faith and let it all go. to him and use him for strength.

So it just caused me to be stronger in my faith. Let's see. Up next, do you ever still struggle with food and exercise? How did you start overcoming these struggles? Yes, but on a very small scale. And I don't mean that in like a bragging way. I spent 10 years working with a nutritionist and diet like a dietitian and psychologist every single week, literally every single week for 10 years, trying to overcome my food and exercise issues, eating disorders, obsessions, insecurities, binging, purging, over exercising, under exercising, like everything, using supplements that I should not have been using. like all these different things.

And so I worked with professionals for 10 years who really kind of got me through it. I went on to study nutrition, studied psychology, and then I just try to educate myself as much as possible. But I will say whenever I start to feel those thoughts or obsessions slowly try to creep their way back in, that's when I talked to my husband. And then that's when I also like outsource help again, whether it's checking back in with my dietitian or hiring a personal trainer or trying to figure out what it is in my life that's kind of like tipping those scales again and just trying to be hyper aware. So I don't think

I'm fully cured from it, but I'm so hyper aware of it that I never want to be in that hole that I was again. So I like overanalyzed my life very frequently to make sure I'm still strong or able to like handle the situation um next step says any upcoming trips you're excited about we're headed back to tijuana and i'm so excited we're taking the whole team we're going to have a blast and we're taking the kids we're doing the whole thing again we have a goal to do at least one mission trip as a family every single year and this is one that we do every single year and so i'm really excited for that our kids loved it last year it was so so special. I do think we're going to leave bear here, which kind of makes me sad to even think

about. But he's not quite old enough to be able to like do anything, obviously. And I want the kids to be able to be on the build site as long as possible. So yeah. How have you had to show up for Andrew since his dad passed? I lost my dad a year ago. I'm so sorry. That's really, really hard. That was a loss that we didn't see coming and was probably the hardest loss we've had to deal with in both of our lives. Obviously, Andrews, that's definitely the hardest grief and kind of trauma he's ever gone through. But I would say it was the hardest I've ever gone through as well because he was truly one of the greatest humans I ever had the privilege of knowing. and how have I had to show up for Andrew just by being his teammate.

I don't know how to explain it more than just being there for him and being someone to listen to his heart when he needs to say I'm having a hard day or I remember this and also being a teammate in life where if he's having a horrible day and he needs to go sit in his grief and he needs to kind of go do his thing to heal, I'm going to pick up the slack. That's my job. That's our job for each other. And just making sure that, yeah, I don't brush it off.

Um, crazy goat lady says there are scratch off cards. You can get to give ideas for date nights. You pick a card, scratch off the silver cover, and it gives you a task to do. do for date night. It keeps it a surprise and spontaneous. That sounds really fun. Thank you. Number eight, are you currently reading any books? Would you recommend them? I have a whole entire stack next to my bedside of books right now, which is fun. They're all biblically based,

and they're all about marriage and life and parenting. So I don't know if that interests you guys, but I'm actually reading the book called The Power of the Praying Wife, and it is great. So I recommend that. Devotionals, the Bible. I'm in a real Bible phase right now, guys. I don't know if it's a phase. I think that's just life. Number nine, how is Mama really feeling about Bear taking his first few steps? I'm proud of him. Because it's really fun to see your kids grow and learn new things to get excited. But I'm scared. Because, like, every time my kid starts to walk, that's when, like, the real big bumps and bruises come.

So I'm sure we're going to have, like, bloody mouths, nose, noses, bumps all over our faces, you know, that kind of stuff. So I'm nervous. in the comment section we have some more comments someone said what vitamins do you use it's called choose joy joe i or or joy and blokes so joy is the women's version blokes is the men's version um next up how many people work for you guys on your team four come into the office almost every day. But I think we have like a team of about 20. It sounds like a lot.

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They're like not right now. Okay. Okay. Next up, was it a big adjustment going from being an only child to marrying it to Andrew's big family? Yes, massively. But it's also kind of like what my dream was in life. I love big families. I think because this is getting down a row at home, but because of my life and the way it played out with gymnastics, I was very, very isolated from such a young age, traveling the world by myself, traveling with the national team that I never really had a lot of friends or a really close community of any kind. And so having a big family to me was this dream of like having a really tight community that I had never had before. And so when I met Andrew and met his family and got to see how close they all were and how bonded they were, it was just one overwhelming, but too, amazing.

And I knew that's what I wanted in life. So I loved it. What are some motherhood topics you feel aren't talked about? enough but should be um let's see postpartum um the dynamic between husband and wife after you have a kids i don't think is talked about ever and it should be um how hard it is how i would say this i'd say something that's not talked about is like how moms should not raise their children alone and I don't mean that like without a spouse I mean that like without a community moms should be raising their kids in a community that's like how we're made to do it it's like friends

neighbors moms from daycare or school like having more moms to relate to and to get through life with I think is really important um next up are you guys part of a church or a small group how do you recommend find anyone yes all of the above we go to to church every single Sunday we've made it a rule in our household that we don't miss church we have to be like on a deathbed to miss church um or like you know you know what i mean respectfully we aren't like going there ill but we don't miss church um we also are part of women's bible study and men's bible study how do we find them you can find them through your church we've also started women's and men's Bible studies and small groups through like our closest friends um through school

through neighborhoods but it takes effort it's not just going to like fall into your lap you have to actually like make it happen um next question says what's something you do that helps bring you confidence work out and hang with friends I think those are probably the two most empowering things for me is like being around other adults because you're around babies all day and having time to myself to make myself feel strong is my two favorite did you ever have to overcome trust issues and relationships after being in the gymnastics world for so long yes and I still do um Andrew would even say this like when we started dating it was very very clear that Andrew trusted everyone like his natural inclination was to trust unless that was broken like he would always trust you no matter what until it got broken um whereas mine was like i was always skeptical and judgmental and feared trusting anybody and he had to earn my trust which comes from a lot of trauma um and i'm working on that i'm naturally not a trusting person and that's not okay and so i've been working through that with andrew and with a therapist and

everything but yeah we've had to work through that a lot um what have you been learning as a wife in this season oh wow a lot of things that my husband and i are teammates we are totally different people we have different lives different lifestyles and that we are not each other's parents i think when you get into the season of parenting it's very easy to let that parenting into your spouse life where you're trying to control and criticize and teach and like micromanage each other and I think as a wife I've been really needing to lean into working and letting go of that and like honoring my husband for who he is and how he does life and letting him be him I've got to work on that yes um how is the house renovation going and will you be sharing a lot

about the process. It is going. It is fully done being demoed. The framing process has started. We will share everything. This has been a labor of love. This is something that fell into our laps that we were not expecting. We had a dream of like 10 years down the road finding land that we could have animals on and have my parents on and have like many generations, multiple houses for like families to like all live on. And we really didn't have any. like thought that that would happen before the 10 year mark and something truly like opened up and kept being served into our lives like you should get this you should get this and just by the grace god we got it I don't know how um and it's just been a labor of love we have the most amazing

dream team of builders and designers who are some of our favorite humans in the entire world our builder was is like the best ever and my dad used to work for him my dad is working on the project our designer lori parangipay i think is just the greatest of all time and i love working with her and everything we're designing in this house is for our specific family but also to share with like our community if you were to ever be in our house you would very quickly understand that it is like Hotel East, as they laugh. We have people living in our house, I would say at least 60% of the year, all different people.

People are always visiting, staying, living, moving, eating dinner. It's a revolving door. And that was our dream for our home. And so we're truly trying to build a place where that allows that 24-7. I have a dream of having a guest book in our house that's just filled to the brim. with like everyone's names and when they were there and who they brought and why everything. Yeah. So we'll share it all.

Cut me off when I'm gone long enough. Oh, it's 30 minutes. Okay. Will 2025 be as busy as 2024? What a fantastic year for you all with amazing family experiences. Probably not since it's not an Olympic year. Olympic years are the hardest years ever because it's like our life times a million because the Olympics come back around. that being said who knows as our team would tell you you never know what it's going to be like

so we don't have any plans for it to be as busy but i'm sure it will what is something your postpartum nurses did that you loved or made made you feel seen hmm i would say something that my postpartum nurses did that made me feel seen so we were very blessed to be able to have night nurses and postpartum nurses past the hospital um a really good friend of ours she has she's one of our closest friends her company is choose joy nursing and her husband went to school with my husband we've just been close for availing time so she would come into our home a couple nights a week and do night nursing and something that made me feel seen was just asking the mom how they're doing like everyone is so excited to meet your baby and to take care of your baby which is such a

priority obviously but every once in a while when someone genuinely is like but how are you what can I get you can I make you food can I bring you a smoothie can I you know do laundry like whatever When postpartum nurses would truly check in on me, that made me feel seen. It made me feel like a human. A couple questions from the comments. We have Haley, who's asking tips on potty training. My girl is three and is so stubborn. I didn't even attempt to start potty training until after three.

I didn't take away passies. I don't transition to big girl or big boy beds. And I don't do potty training until after three. A lot of people might tell you to do up. otherwise, to each their own, don't care, don't care at all. But for me, I didn't feel like I could truly communicate with my children until after the age of three. That's when they start to understand things.

You can kind of rationalize in a very small way with them. So with potty training, I didn't even start until after three. And within, it's just repetition. Potty training, bribery, a lot of M&Ms. and a lot of patience. Like, Jet has probably been my, has been easier than Drew, but still has accidents, and you just, you don't want to shame them because they're still figuring it out.

So just a lot of patience. What are your craziest dreams for your family for 2025? So something my husband and I agreed to do every year is once our kids reached basically this age. starting like the three, fours. We spend the summer traveling. So craziest dreams would be two things. One, to move into our new home.

I think that's maybe crazy because I don't know how long it takes. And two, we would like to try to do Africa for our family summer trip next year, which sounds crazy. Camping and tents, going through different safari regions, seeing all the animals. In my mind, I feel like our kids are almost in a, like the most beautiful age where it will just seem surreal to them, which I think would be really special. But it's a dream. We'll see. I don't know if we can do that and go out of the house.

So how do you maintain your friendships in this season of life effort? We do a morning mama's Bible study, which I feel like are some of our closest friends. And then we at least, we do at least one or two nights every single week where we do dinner with friends at our house. So just work. What has been your favorite trip, just you and Andrew? And favorite trip as a family? Favorite trip as a family? I don't know if there's like a favorite trip to Texas.

on a whim where we stopped at like a Amish farm and did the whole like no electricity and got to see all the farm animals and like everything was actually incredible. But then going to Italy was amazing. So I don't know if I have a favorite, I think just quality time is great. And my favorite trip with Andrew, Andrew and I did 13 countries in two and a half weeks in Europe um right after we got married and it was incredible we just got to spontaneously go wherever we wanted and that was really fun um next one there's a um tips for not comparing yourself to others on instagram it's hard since i'm not an influencer limit your time on instagram is what i would

say like go live in real life and not on edited versions of you know not reality i can tell you first hand caroline is the most amazing editor in the entire world she's sitting behind the camera um everything you see from our life is like real and authentic but it's edited everything you see on instagram is edited and made to like look a certain way so don't compare yourself to an edited version of someone else's life because it's not real um could you do a whole episode about the olympics like things people wouldn't know about going how to get tickets the olympic village etc it's so interesting yeah i think you might not like what i have to say this is my personal opinion but the olympics are so much better on tv and

they're just so it's so hard to navigate the olympics in person i've been to uh many i went to Beijing Vancouver um Montreal uh Paris London so probably five oh Rio six and not a single one is easy and with all of those i had i hate to say special access but i had special access as like media and it was still so difficult and it's so expensive and when you go to the olympics in person you might be able to see get to see like at the max five events because every event is hours apart from each other and the tickets are so expensive have a really big watch party at home Anyways. How to handle being a former athlete now as a mom of a five-month-old and your body just isn't the same anymore. Girl, your body just gave birth to a baby. That's still being an athlete.

Having a baby is really physically challenging. And I think you just need to give yourself grace and realize that you're in a different phase of life. But you can also get back to being an elite athlete after you have a baby. Having a kid does not hinder that ability. It just takes time and give yourself time because I don't even like try to even remotely think of my body or my abilities that had anything to do with prior to pregnancy for at least a year. Does that make sense? So like I don't even try to look at a scale or lift comparative weights until after a year postpartum because it takes that long. for your body just to heal. Okay. Do you work from an office space or do you work from home every day? Both. We during COVID did a big project where we did an office house that is like

not our home where it was kind of going to be a content house, but the content house is kind of went kaput. And so my parents live here. It's also an office. It's a way to kind of get out of the house and not work around the kids and then my parents go to our house so we kind of just like swap houses um you seem so grounded and humble do you have any mentors in your life that help you i just try to surround myself with people that i want to be like just good-hearted humble down-to-earth grounded people so all my friends my family my husband what will your kids be for Halloween this year. Well, as long as it doesn't change, Drew is going to be Ariel. Is that what she got? She was talking about Ariel. So Drew is going to be Ariel. Jet's going to be a race car driver.

And Bear, Drew and Jet chose, which was Mike Wozowski or Sully from Monsters. And then do you let your kids eat Halloween candy? Yeah. Are you serious? it's Halloween you got to let him splurge every once or a while um as long as it's like safe and you know whatever a couple more questions from the comments and then i will say adios um kaira says curious by your concerns for your boys playing football c t discussion andrew's long-term symptoms from football injuries Andrew is very lucky He's a long snapper

Couldn't really be tackled Couldn't really tackle others So Andrew's doing great And had a great experience I think every single sport Has their downsides And has their pros and cons NFL

Football obviously CT is a huge discussion And safety precautions young like as young kids all the way into the professional leagues and stuff yes you're going to have to be very cautious of that and that would that concerns me um but then my son jet has also had this like passion since the day he was born and I don't even know how to explain it because like I did not push this on him this is him but he's chosen motorcycles and BMX and like wilds adrenaline scary things that also can cause broken bones and concussions and gymnastics is a very scary sport.

Drew is in love with ice skating. That's very dangerous. So I think every single sport out there and hobby out there has pros and cons that we have to kind of filter through. But as long as we do them in a safe way as possible, yeah, I don't know. I'm not against football. We would just have to be smart about it. Next up says, curious who your inspirations were growing up now, growing up and now as an adult. My parents, my teammates, and then some Olympic gymnasts, Mary Louretton, Shannon Miller, Kim Zabescal.

Lance Armstrong, I absolutely loved. Two more. Do you use any sleep training methods with your kids? First time I'm a five-month-old and would like more sleep, but feel overwhelmed by all the options. sleep our opinions every you can't go wrong everyone has very polarizing opinions and thoughts of sleep training we did kind of mom's on call method that's the overarching thing that we did we used choose joy there she is genius sleep training and she has a lot of she does similar to moms on call but just kind of catered methods to different kids um um

Or taking Kara babies was a game changer, for sure. I have done so many consults with them with, like, older kids. So Choose Joy specializes in, like, babies, and that's a close friend of mine here in Nashville, so I would call her all the time. But I had so many calls with Kara in regards to Jett, because Jett had some very, very hard regressions that I didn't know how to get through,

and she is a genius. So I would check out Taking Carra. and then what are your intentions for the end of the year um to enjoy my family during the holidays the holidays are exciting and so much fun and i'm excited to be around extended family and do Halloween and Thanksgiving and Drew's birthday and Christmas and just spend time with family which is great uh thank you Thank you, everyone. How did I do for my first solo?

I feel like I said, um, a lot. I'll probably think about that for the next couple hours. Thank you guys. Welcome to a couple of things. Make sure you press the subscribe button. Join us for the part two. I will get to your questions. And that's all I got.

Bye.