Reflections

Dear 2017.

Dear 2017

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Top of the Rock NYC, Holiday dresses under $100

Top of the Rock NYC, Holiday dresses under $100

Top of the Rock NYC, Holiday dresses under $100

Top of the Rock NYC, Holiday dresses under $100

Top of the Rock NYC, Holiday dresses under $100

Top of the Rock NYC, Holiday dresses under $100

Photography by: Banavenue

Dear 2017,

It’s not me, it’s you. I regret to say that I am NOT sad to see you go. So much happened this year. More than has happened in any year to date. I wish I could say that you rocked because that would be a cute blog post and all being that I am at the top of the Rock (Rockafeller Center) but to be honest, you mostly sucked. When I started trying to recap the year, I got stuck several times because there were only a couple major things that stuck out. The bad. The hard. The heartbreaking. And that made me sad that I couldn’t remember all of the good because of this. So I forced myself to sit down and remember all of it. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

January– I rang in the New Year in Seaside, Florida watching one of my oldest friends get married! Seaside is one of my absolute favorite places. I then traveled to Waco, Texas the following weekend to watch another childhood friend get married. This also gave me an excuse to visit the popular Magnolia Market for the first time and it did not disappoint! I ended the month with an early Galentine’s Day celebration at my favorite rooftop wine bar in Houston – Sonoma!

February– Not much more to mention about this month besides the fact a man entered my life that changed the rest of the course of the year for me. We will call him “bumble boy”. To be honest I didn’t really share much about this topic with you guys but it was a big factor this year.

March– By far my hardest month of the year. It started off great with a trip to Puerto Vallarta (my first sponsored travel opportunity) and with my best friend, Britt! Shortly after that, I moved home for the short term and had the first of two hip surgeries. Right after my surgery, the guy I met back in February and had spent almost every day with since, completely ghosted me. No text, call or anything to break things off. He just stopped responding to texts/calls. I regret to say I spiraled into a deep depression between these two things. I barely ate, got out of bed, or thought about anything else. For those of you that have been ghosted or had your heart broken by a boy, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy! This was the first time I had been broken up with and the worst part to this day, is that I have no idea why.

April– Since the hip surgery recovery involved being in bed and on crutches for 6 weeks, I had SO many friends visit me at my parents house. I am truly so grateful for all of these friends who helped me more than they knew by just being there in my lowest time. April brought LOTS of pool days and relaxing at hotel Adams. It was also the first (and only) time I opened up about “bumble boy” on the blog.

May– After being off of work for 7 weeks, I went back to my full time job. As much as I hated going back to my desk job, I needed the consistency of a schedule more than I knew at the time. I was still thinking about “bumble boy” every day, ALL day. My family also celebrated my youngest sister graduating from the University of Texas in Austin.

June– June was a fun month! I experienced my first two “staycations” at two of Houston’s nicest hotels! The first staycation involved a wine and taco convention. That’s right, unlimited wine and tacos. Need I say more? The second staycation involved a penthouse, my blogger babes, and a night out at Sonoma Wine Bar! The common theme in June was lots of wine 🙂 I ended the month with a spontaneous girls trip to Denver and Boulder, Colorado and it was by far one of the best trips with one of my oldest best friends and a new one too!

July– July 4th was spent with some of my blogger besties at her grandparent’s ranch and then again with new friends in San Marcos floating the river.

August– It was a full month of big blog collaborations (which I am SO thankful for!) with Academy and CStudio Home, traveling within Texas, wedding shenanigans, and birthday celebrations! August was also the month that Hurricane Harvey reeked havoc on Houston. Thankfully my house and family’s houses were not harmed but I cannot say the same for so many of my friends and it was heartbreaking to watch the people you care so much about, lose everything. As much as it hurt to watch these things, it was a good reminder to not take a single thing for granted, that there could always be worse, and to be thankful for all of life’s many blessings even when we feel God has wronged us. I also must add that my best friends and I got stuck in Fredericksburg (Texas wine country) during the flood and our sweet host comped the entire stay. If you are planning a trip to Fredericksburg, I highly suggest where we stayed for SO many reasons. More here.

September– While I HATE to admit that I was still thinking about “bumble boy” more days than not and after watching so many people lose everything, I had a major realization. What the hell was I doing with my life? Why was I succumbing to the devil? Why was I letting someone or something steal my joy EVERY day? For someone that thought they had everything figured out, I heard God say, “Let go, let go of everything and trust me”. And that’s what I did. I quit the job that was stealing my joy. I moved home. I booked several one way airplane tickets and I felt the most overwhelming sense of peace that I had EVER felt. Travels included: New York Fashion Week (for the second year in a row!), Boston, Nantucket, Copenhagen, Prague, Vienna, Milan and Cinque Terra. Read more about that big announcement here.

October– I ended my month long travel diaries and came back home to have my second hip surgery. While the recovery process ended up being much easier, the first week after surgery was AWFUL in every way. I battled severe nausea and migraines which resulted in an ER trip and trying over 15 medications to get these symptoms under control. I ended up having to completely forgo pain meds the rest of my recovery because of these side effects. Thankfully after the first week (from HELL), my recovery was mostly smooth sailing minus a severe amount of weight loss that I can’t seem to gain back. I ended the month by going to see Bruno Mars with the family. Best concert ever!!

November– November brought some exciting things for the blog! My biggest campaign to date with Olay, an event with Banana Republic, and my most profitable month to date! I cannot put into words how thankful I am that my leap of faith to blog full time (even if just for the short term) proved to be paying off in a big way. More than the money aspect, November brought so many opportunities to connect with all of YOU. If there is anything I have learned this year, it’s that this blog thing doesn’t have to be one sided! It has been so rewarding to start developing a community with you all and it is truly the highlight of my day when I get to chat with you via email or direct message.

December– December was a busy busy month and for that I am thankful. It was the first month that I did not think about “bumble boy” almost a single time. If you only knew how many times I prayed to God that he would erase that boy from my memory. Every day, y’all. My time was spent pouring myself into the blog. 12 hours a day. Between 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways and sharing tons of holiday gift inspiration, I didn’t sleep much but my heart was SO full. I finally felt like I was making a difference. Like I was helping you more than you were helping me! Other highlights of the month included my family taking a vacation to Cabo, ringing in the New Year in Chicago (my sister’s new home), Houston seeing it’s first snow in years, two slips and falls that set me back in physical therapy (clutz!), two amazing roaring 20s parties and more joy than I have felt in months!

While there were so many ups this year, most were regretfully clouded with sadness, grief, and anger. I put on a front to my family and friends that I was ok while I most certainly was not. But two things that stayed constant for me this year were God and all of you. When I think about what I am most thankful for this year, it truly is my faith, my steadfast friends that might not have known what was going on but loved me anyway and my growing relationship with each and every one of you. Most days I would be wallowing in my own self pity or not able to pull myself out of depressing thoughts and then I would get a message from one of you that would turn my entire day around. The thing is that you had no idea what you were doing. You had no idea what I was going through and yet God placed each of you and your voice in my life for a reason. I can only hope that I can return the favor to all of you this year. 2018- this is OUR year!

 

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A year in review.

When going over pictures from 2015 I decided that it would be an injustice not to share all of the wonderful memories from 2015 on here. This is honestly the first time that I have sat down after the new year to reflect on everything I was able to see, accomplish, and do the year prior. Before sitting down to recap, I thought to myself “2015 was alright, nothing big happened though”. WOW. That could not be further from the truth!! So I don’t keep you here for longer than need be I picked my favorites from each month of the year. Somehow even my favorites became a little lengthy. I guess that’s just proof of a great year!

January

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I went to the dark side guys!! 🙂

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Best friends getting together to celebrate the engagement of Jessica to the love of her life!

February

Weekend trip to New Orleans with some of my favorite girls! We crammed 7 girls in a tiny hotel room, came home a couple hundred dollars richer, and had the weekend of a lifetime!

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March

The second most wonderful time of the year- RODEOHOUSTON!! I look forward to the rodeo as soon as Christmas is over. This year I was able to see Hunter Hayes, Brad Paisley, PitBull and Dierks Bentley.

 

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April

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Fiesta in San Antonio with my girls!

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Chopped my hair off and went lighter again!

May 

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Coming together to celebrate the bride-to-be, Jessica!

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Jessica’s Bachelorette party in Austin, TX.

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Sissy graduated from the second best University in Texas!

June

SO much happened in June so get ready for a whirlwind here. I am going to have to do a separate blog post on my trip to Europe because there are just so many pictures there is no way to recap them here so I will just give you all a sneak preview 🙂

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Sent sissy off to Europe (we would be seeing her very soon though!)

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Jessica’s big day!!

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Off to Europe we go! First stop: Barcelona, Spain

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Second stop: Paris, France

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Last stop: Athens, Greece

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July

Beach trips to Galveston, TX

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August

We attended White Linen Night in the Heights, Houston area.

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I met my blogger bestie, Margret, from Style The Girl. So thankful I met her!! She has given me so much advice on starting my blog and is such a sweet friend!

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Celebrated sissy’s birthday with a Peddle Party! SO MUCH FUN!

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Got to visit best friends in Fort Worth, TX.

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September

Cheering on our Aggies in their first game of the season!

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Meeting blogger babes at the Neiman Marcus fashion show event.

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Cheered on the Houston Astros game after game. All the way to the playoffs!

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October

October was the month for friends. I traveled back to good old College Station for a couple Aggie games, explored my city and celebrated a couple birthdays, and had everyone over for Halloween!

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November

On top of officially launching the blog, I traveled to Belize with friends!

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Went to Dallas with family for Thanksgiving!

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Celebrated my great aunt’s 80th birthday in style.

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December

In December we fan-girled over One Direction at their concert, started a wine club with old and new friends, and celebrated the birth of Jesus!

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Decorated our first home with the cutest christmas tree.

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And celebrated Christmas in my parents new home in our matching pj’s.

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And these were just my favorites! Sorry for the novel of a post but it was too hard to narrow them down! Going through all of my pictures really made me realize what a great year 2015 was. I traveled to SO many place! 2016 sure does have some big shoes to fill but I am so ready for it!! Best wishes for a great year, everyone!

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