Hello, world…

Allie (Korosi) Benham is my younger sister who currently resides in North Hollywood, California.  Before Allie became a California girl, she made her way from the east coast to the midwest.  Allie was born in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and when she was only 3ish, we made the move to Batesville, Indiana.  We grew up on a farm with lots of room to play outside and have fun with friends.

How did Allie go from small town Indiana to LA, you ask?  She and her husband, Kyle, made their first cross country trip together when they made their big decision to move west following graduation from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.  Allie majored in Public Relations and Music Management and started her career working for Bread and Butter, a hospitality PR firm.  Following her start with B&B, Allie worked her way to become a Senior Brand Manager for an entertainment company, mainly working on the kids show “Yo Gabba Gabba!”.

After several years with YGG, Allie finally made the decision to start fresh and find her passion. She’s currently consulting and in search of something she can be passionate about. While she is on the hunt for the perfect job, she is enjoying having the time to work on other hobbies – her makeup artistry and this new blog of ours.

Allie and I are lucky to have one another.  We didn’t always get along growing up (I mean, little sisters can be annoying!), but we have certainly grown closer over the years despite the distance between us.  I think it all started when we were on the dance team together in high school.  I was so proud of her when she made the team! We hung out more throughout our college years and I began to see how truly talented and courageous Allie is.  I never would have had the guts to move across the country without a job right after college, but Allie did it and was successful as a result of her dedication and hard work.

Unfortunately it was tragedy that truly bonded us as sisters.  Our incredible mother, Chris Graham – aka Slade Shepherd – lost her battle with cancer in July 2014.  Last summer was rough to say the least.  However, through the grief we relied on each other and came through stronger and closer than ever.

Now, here we are – separated by thousands of miles and an ocean – and undertaking this new blog adventure together.  We are both so excited to share the goings-on in our lives, from the day-to-day dog walks and dinners to the special events like housewarmings and vacations.  We hope you will follow us on this journey and enjoy the ride with us.

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Who’s that writing about me (Allie), you ask? That’d be my sister, Kate (Korosi) Crocker. By now you know a little bit about where we grew up but what you may not know is that Kate was born in Germany and in a twist of fate, now lives there with her husband Kenne and my oh-so-adorable (and enormous) neph-pup, Remington the Great Dane. You can call him Remi for short.

Kate may have thought I was the annoying little sister, but as we got into high school and she was second in her class, head cheerleader and had all the boys telling me “your sister’s cute” I think I was the one more irritated than anything! Our time on dance team was the probably the most time we spent together before she went to Indiana State University in Terre Haute. She started at ISU pursuing an aviation degree and had years of pilot’s training (weird, right?) before she switched to accounting.

Kate started working for the Department of Defense (or DFAS) out of college. I’m not going to lie – I’m still not 100% sure what it is she does there exactly but I know she makes sure our troops are paid and taken care of. In the fall of 2014, Kate and Kenne told us they had an offer from the government to take two positions at a small Army installation near Ramstein Air Base in Germany. In January of 2015 – off they went to their new town of Kaiserslautern. Just a hop, skip and a jump from some of the most amazing travel destinations in the world, Kate and Kenne have already visited Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin and aren’t slowing down anytime soon!

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So, why blog? Well, if you know us – and if you’re reading this my guess is that you do – you probably know that we’re not the best at staying in touch. Me personally (Allie), I’m notorious for being the worst at returning calls. With all the technology today you would think one text a day, one email a week, one phone call per month would be no problem. But what do you know?? Yep, I’m terrible. But hey, Kate’s pretty bad too.

That brought us here – to keep us accountable and share what happens in our lives with our friends and family, most of whom still live in Indiana or the Midwest somewhere. Our plan is to share what’s happening in our lives. For Allie, it’s a change in career path and trying new adventures, eating clean (not always her forte), settling into home-ownership for the first time and the fun that follows in California. For Kate, it’s living in a foreign country and traveling on the weekends, life with a dog the size of another human and navigating life in a whole new way.

But for both of us, this is a way for us to share our lives, grieve the loss of Mom and connect with the outside world. This is our accountability to be better sisters to each other and better family to our loved ones. We can and will do it, and we hope you follow along for the ride.

XOXO,

Kate & Allie