Kitchen Table Convos

For this episode, we play a game called “Table Topics” and learn about what we think our Spirit Animals are, what we considered to be our Favorite Songs, and even recalled about a few favorites moments in our marriage so far. Enjoy the convo!

In this episode, we celebrate and welcome the new year by discussing some of the intentions we plan to set for 2021. Amanda shares how she wants to face doubts that come with her career path and I talk about what it means to feel more confident in my creative pursuits. Whether it’s a resolution, a theme or a mantra, we hope that you achieve whatever it is you want to achieve, however big or small. We’re rooting for you!

Kitchen Table Convos resume after being away for a few months. Amanda just finished her first semester of grad school so during this break after finals week, we found an opportunity to record this conversation! In this episode, we check in on Amanda’s experience and discuss the challenges she’s had to deal with so far on this journey to becoming a PA (Physician’s Assistant). With the amount of information and pressure, we found out that we’ve been grasping for some sense of balance in order to manage the stress. A manifestation of that comes in the form of seemingly meaningless Reality TV shows. If you want to hear Tito have a passionate rant about the current season of the Bachelorette, this might be the episode for you. Enjoy the convo!

Finding new skills and practices to implement in our lives is something we all try to achieve. Some of these things are more impactful and stick with us forever, and others are smaller experiences where you can just say "Oh yeah! I did that once!" In this episode, we share some of the things we've picked up over the years that have brought value in our lives. Enjoy the Convo!

Before we got married, we were in a long distance relationship for 3 years. In this episode, we share some moments of how we made the decision to be in a relationship despite living in different states. From the very jump, we really got to learn how we communicated with each and we found ways for us to be able to still be a couple despite this predicament of living over a thousand miles apart. It’s a story that we love to reflect on, and as thankful as we are to have gone through that experience, we NEVER want to be apart that long again : ) Enjoy the Convo!

This episode, we are celebrating our 9 year wedding anniversary so we thought it would be fitting to share stories about how our relationship started! Through a series of coincidences, fate somehow led us to each other. We talk about being on different sides of the world, ending up in the same town, but never really crossing paths until after high school. Sometimes, those small coincidences can turn into something special that we would have never expected. Enjoy the convos!

In this episode, the topic is all about coffee! In general, we wouldn’t consider ourselves connoisseurs of the craft, however, coffee has played a part in different seasons of our lives. In this chat, we go back down memory lane and attach a specific coffee drink to a certain period in our relationship. Whether it’s high octane beans, decaf or even tea, take an hour with a cup of your favorite hot beverage and enjoy the convo with us.

It’s certainly strange times for everyone. In this episode, we check in and discuss how we’ve been feeling as social distancing and sheltering in place has been put in place. Although it’s swinging back and forth from feeling at ease to super anxious within minutes, we’ve put a lot of focus about being intentional about certain routines that keep us grounded. We hope you enjoy the convos and hope that some of you relate to our experience!

A continuation from the previous episode, we talk about our "guilty" pleasures. We discuss some of our food indulgences like late night cereal (best thing ever) or our changing opinions about reality tv shows or unlikely songs we would secretly play in our CD players as kids. We hope that these last couple of episodes give you a temporary distraction from these uncertain times. Enjoy the convo!

Times are weird, so we invite you to take a break and enjoy some light hearted conversation with a couple of your old friends. In this episode, we talk about things we used to love as kids, and different activities we were involved in that you may not have known about us. From Amanda memorizing quotes from the movie “Titanic” or stories about Tito’s short lived powerlifting days, we hope that we provide you with a little escape from it all. Enjoy the convos!

In this episode, we play the classic "Would You Rather" game and ask hypothetical questions like "If you won the lottery, would you rather take the lump sum or take the installments?" or "Would you rather get unlimited sushi for life or unlimited tacos?" Let us know what your answer are for the questions we ask. Enjoy the convo!

After about week of battling the flu, we are back with more convos! In this episode, we didn’t really have a specific theme to discuss. We just recapped my experience about being sick and how I turn into a completely useless baby during it. It turns out, I’m not a superhero

We are on 3rd and final part of the “Nervous Nellies” series and on this episode, I share a story from a few years ago when I decided to take a step backwards at my job in order to figure out what to do next. I’m super grateful for the experience and the job I had in Orlando, and loved the people I worked with, but at that point in my life, I had to make a change. I hope this episode relates to people who are feeling stuck and not knowing which direction to point in their careers. Enjoy the Convos!

If we were being honest with ourselves, Amanda and I are afraid more often than not. However, we do have moments where we were able to successfully accomplish things that required bravery. No matter how big or small these “wins” are, we realize that fear and bravery are not mutually exclusive. Most times, they co-exist and we’re grateful that we have each other to help manage the stresses on a day to day basis so we can celebrate times when we can honestly say, “we did it!” Enjoy the Convo!

Anxiousness and nervousness is a standard in the Mendoza household. In this episode, we have a conversation about our tendency to worry about pretty much everything and find some of the reasons why we might act this way. From silly ,unreasonable paranoia to the obsessive need to control time and schedules, we both are at constant work to learn how to manage our nervous energies better. If you’re like us, know that you’re not alone! Enjoy the convo.

There's nothing like starting the new decade with another episode of the Kitchen Table Convos with the Mendozas! In this episode, we recap the holidays and share stories about being sick, traditions, and also Amanda's competitive gambling streak

In this episode, we start introducing our backgrounds and sharing some of our childhood memories. In talking through our experiences, it really opened up more topics to talk about in future episodes. Whether it’s a more in depth look into my experiences as a young immigrant moving from the Philippines to a small rural city in Michigan, or Amanda’s childhood view on her surroundings, these stories ultimately inform the way we interact with our world even as adults. Enjoy the Convo!

We are back with some HEAT! For this episode we have a fun conversation about some of our pet peeves. We rant about those small and seemingly insignificant things that for some reason, gets under our skin. Although irritating, we completely acknowledge that we are really grateful for our life and we are only (semi) serious about our gripes. Find someone that you can have hilarious pet peeve rants with, cause that’s what life is all about. We hope you enjoy the Convo. Let us know if you have the same pet peeves as us or what little things get you going!

We are back with another installment of the podcast with the VERY important topic of Pizza! This universally loved food item has presented itself throughout our lives and have lived in our memories as some sort of nostalgic goodness. In this episode, Amanda and I recount some of our earliest memories about this beloved dish, and as life goes forward, we share some stories of others we’ve accumulated along the way. Enjoy the Convo!

Welcome back for part two of the series where we talk about Diabetes and the impact it’s played in not only Amanda’s life but also in our dynamic as a married couple. On part 1, we gave a basic overview of what the disease is and on this episode, we discuss the moments leading up to the diagnosis and also share stories about what it’s like to manage it on a daily basis. Enjoy the convos!

Let’s get educational with a two-episode series about Diabetes. Amanda is a type 1 diabetic and is a huge part of our marriage. I wanted to give an opportunity for people to learn more about this disease, and also get to know us more through the stories and experiences that we share. For part 1 of this series, Amanda and I breakdown what diabetes is. We attempt to explain this disease in a way that is easy, digestible and accessible for everybody, and we hope that it sheds some light on what exactly is happening in the body. On the next episode, we plan to share personal stories about living with this disease and talk about some of the ups and downs that all comes with it. Enjoy the convos!

In this special Halloween edition of Kitchen Table a Convos, Amanda and I share our feelings about this holiday, tell stories about costumes, talk about our favorite sweets. If you don’t want to listen to this episode, at least stick around for our epic intro. Enjoy the Convo!

The name of this podcast has really taken on a deeper meaning to both of us personally. We’ve realized how many stories we all have that revolves around the kitchen table. In this episode we share some moments in our lives that had some type of meaning in our life today. Enjoy the Convo!

We are back from a vacation at the breathtaking sites of Niagara Falls in Ontario,Canada! In this episode, we talk about how a small moment completely framed our outlook into this short 3 day trip. Because of this, we actually were able to fully enjoy our time, rather than overthink every single step we took. We hope you’re enjoying the podcast and we hope you dig this latest episode.

If Episode 9 wasn’t weird enough, then we got a doozy for you for our 10th episode (woo!!!) In this conversation, we discuss how our implementation of house plants have completely helped us improve our moods, keep us calm and feel closer and grounded to nature. We take some wild and entertaining detours along the way. Enjoy the Convo!

Whether you call it quirks, weird ticks, or idiosyncrasies, we all have our unique approach about certain things in our life. In this episode, We say goodbye to summer and talk about the amazing quirks that make us love each other even more. This was a fun one! Enjoy the Convo!

In this episode, we tell stories about following our intuition. Whether it’s pursuing something good, or warning is about something that may be bad, our guts sometimes knows what’s up. We will spend our lifetime trying to be better at following our gut in the midst of fear, but in our experience so far, we’ve found that our intuition is always rooting for us to win. We hope that yours does too and you find the courage to follow it no matter how big or small. Enjoy the Convo!

This episode was recorded on Tito’s Golden birthday! We recapped what we did that day and talked about a spot that we absolutely fell in love with. After some talks about kombucha and good vibes, we moved on to the main topic. This episode is all about our lovely dog Molly, and all of the nicknames she’s acquired over the years. We tell some stories about them and share some of the best memories we have of Molly. Enjoy the Convo!

After a year and a half after moving from Orlando to Grand Rapids, Amanda and I finally unpack our thoughts and reflect on the journey that got us here. Sometimes you don’t know if what you’re about to do is courageous or stupid, and you won’t find out until you actually do the thing. We’re happy we could navigate it together and we can tell stories about it now. Enjoy the Convo!

It’s super easy to get lost in the chase of achieving the big things in life, that we forget how to fully appreciate the everyday. In this episode, Amanda and I share some of the things we do together as a couple to make sure that we are intentional about being more in the moment so we can always be grounded while we pursue everything else.

In this episode, we discuss random table topics and find out what some of our ideal date night ideas are, movies that bawl our eyes out and end it with some sweet dessert talk to wrap the whole thing up. Enjoy the Convo!

We take the Convo on the road to the place that Amanda and I grew up and met, Flushing, Michigan. In this short mobile episode, we share how it feels to be back home, and talk about some go to spots. Although we don’t see ourselves moving back, we can certainly see the charm of this place and in this episode, we go through some fond memories that we’ve had here. Enjoy the Convo!

In this episode, we talked about some of our favorite travel experiences. We discuss why traveling for us is not only a way to take a break, but also ultimately a way for us to open ourselves up to different cultures and different people. Enjoy the Convo!

Welcome to the first episode of the Kitchen Table Convos! In this episode we jump right into it and talk about Overthinking and what it means in our personals goals and how it plays into our dynamics as a married couple. Amanda talks about her journey of finally finding a degree that is worthy of pursuing and the path she’s on in getting there. Tito talks about the delicate balance of having drive and motivation but also finding contentment within that.