Tag Archives: Michelle Ghilotti

Re-Branding Empty Nesting (Video)

On a mission to rebrand empty-nesting!

Because it’s only sad if we make it so.

ENJOY YOUR LIFE!!! [Our kids learn more from watching us do that than almost anything else].

Josh and I burned the midnight oil in NYC, and hit the ground running in Paris our first two months there, too, before coming back to the U.S. to complete the process for our French long-stay visa. Our bodies have literally not stopped moving inside this latest expat and empty-nesting journey.

We’ve lived out of suitcases, moving from one fun place or neighborhood to the next (10 apartments or hotels in total in Paris & New York as we explored where we wanted to be) and we’ve LOVED every minute since we left LA on August 15th.

Our recent month in New York will go down as one of the best times of our lives. All our friends here, plus the vibrancy of the city held us tight this month as we awaited our French visas. It was the…Best. Time. Ever.

And now to continue re-branding empty nesting (second adolescence!?!) inside of our expat journey in Paris.

Paris and New York City are always a good idea! As is rivaling the fun your kids are having in college!

Empty nest, full life!
ENJOY YOUR LIFE.

Even if you don’t have college-age kids, how are you having fun? What adventures are next for you!?

Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…

To the best of the rest of your life!

Life is good.

Home Is Where We Are

Home is where we are.

We spent one month in New York recently and the empty nest is not empty. It was like Josh and my house or dorm room party every night. 🙂

And — a first time for everything! We recently spent our first Thanksgiving in 18 years without Nolan, but his Friendsgiving with 20 friends in Paris felt perfect as we were waiting for our French visas in the Big Apple…

Grateful — always — for choosing an adventurous life and for a partner who is up for anything and who I enjoy as much today as I did in ‘98 (actually, maybe more). Grateful, too, for a relationship with Nolan that only grows and gets more fun by the day as he explores and adventures on his own.

This is the life I’ve always wanted and created space for — for me individually before I met Josh, for us as a couple when we got together, and for Nolan in his own life. Exploration of self and an exploration of the world…

“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.” Usually what I say at night, three times — like a mantra as I breathe in and out just before closing my eyes.

Ushers in more dreams to take the place of those already in motion.

What dreams, adventures or closeness are you putting in motion?

Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…

To the best of the rest of your life!

Life is good.

A United Front

The musician says in the middle of his set: “You guys are sharing a scarf!”

This is our UNITED FRONT that’s not a front.

As we sat inside a recent intermission, I’m feeling all the gratitude as we continue to sit in the States (NYC) and Holland (the dog) is in the French countryside with dog sitters and Nolan was on a train to another country on his own to meet up with friends, I will share this below:

It’s taken us at least six months to get to this moment of sitting here waiting for our visas to come through for France and England/the UK. In short, when you look at someone else’s life and think oh it must be nice, let’s remember it takes effort for each of us to make something happen.It hasn’t been “easy” for us. Not this time anyway. And remember for yourself that it doesn’t necessarily have to be easy to be really, really awesome.

We don’t have the visas in hand just yet (hoping they will be approved and complete in 2 to 3 weeks while we’re here) but even without the visas, I feel complete living this life with this guy and my two other guys, too.

Laugh with us — the only two beings who *are* official in France are Nolan with his student visa and Holland who funnily enough just got his pet passport and who can freely travel within the EU as a French resident.

We soon will join them as official, too. For now — to enjoy NYC for another couple weeks!

Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…

To the best of the rest of your life!

Life is good.

Freak Out Or Flip It?

Freak out or flip it?

Flip it: all will be….well! Optimism and (being in) action have yet to let me down!

These are the chronicles of those wanting to live in another country (ahem, when they’re already IN that country)…what are you to do when your flight gets cancelled the morning before your LONG-AWAITED visa appointment in the United States (that you need because your three ‘free’ no visa needed months in that country are soon up)?

You can have a freak out (which will delay you even more because nobody does their best work when they’re freaking out) or you can take a couple breaths and decide within a few seconds, which we did, that everything was going to work out in our favor.

Dreams can make you werkkkk with their bumps, twists and turns…~>showing you how badly you really want it/them (the dream/dreams).

We did end up getting on a new flight. It was a connecting vs. direct flight, so, we crossed all fingers that it went well…

I rode this optimism allll the way. Seeing us making it, feeling it in every cell of my body because, well, we needed this flight to get us to New York by morning because our visa appointment for France and the UK was also, gulp, in the morning!

We ended up encountering quite a few bumps on this journey which included running through the Atlanta airport because of delays, our suitcases not arriving and many other little

But guess what? We made it to our visa appointment! Yes, we were very sleepy and in the same clothes, but we made it!

And now, we wait for another two weeks here in New York for our passports to be sent back to us with the France and UK visas INSIDE THEM.

Boy have we worked for and AT this — for over six months! And, I can honestly tell you that I’ve enjoyed the twists and turns along the way because as with all experiences worth having (say, like motherhood), there exists some sweat & pain and I’m always keen to see how I’m able to transform it and use it to fuel the rest of the journey. We are so much stronger and more resilient than we give ourselves credit.

Give yourself some credit! And try to enjoy the twists and turns of your own creative journey at the moment, whatever it may be.

Let’s make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand…

To the best of the rest of your life!

Life is good!