Goodbye 2021 & a Linkup

GOODBYE 2021!

Goodbye 2021, you were probably the best year yet. In 2021 I found out I was pregnant, then a beautiful healthy baby girl came into our lives, and we bought a house. Every year I take a look at the previous year’s post and talk about what goals I accomplished and what I want to accomplish in the coming year. That’s what I’ll be doing today.

Related: Goodbye 2020!

My outfit

Dress: Target // Top: Target // Boots: Betsey Johnson (sold out, similar here)

Scarlett’s Dress: Carter’s

First, I wanted to start with talking about things that have changed in the last year, then I’ll go over last year’s post, followed by what goals I have for next year.

SCARLETT

Probably the biggest change of this year was the addition of our healthy and beautiful baby girl. I found out I was pregnant the day after Valentine’s Day. My husband and I were shocked. I’ll be honest, we didn’t have the reaction that most couples would have. Before the happiness set in, our first emotion was pure shock. We never wanted to have children but always said if it happens, it happens. No one is ever prepared for children, but we really weren’t prepared. We were terrified. What do we do with a little mini version of us? Are we going to ruin this child’s life before it begins?

I also started thinking about how I hadn’t been eating pregnancy friendly food and I even had an alcoholic beverage a couple of weeks prior. Before I took three pregnancy tests (yes, three lol), I had a sneaking suspicion that I was pregnant. I was only I think five or six weeks at the time and I just knew. Something felt different. My period wasn’t even that late because I have abnormal periods. One month it’s on time, the next it’s two weeks early, the following it’s two weeks late.

At six weeks I felt weird. I ended up going to the ER because I thought it was an ectopic pregnancy. Come to find out the pain I was feeling was a pre existing condition; ovarian cysts. I had numerous cysts on both ovaries, but the side that hurt I had ruptured cysts. I’ve had ruptured cysts before that made me end up in the ER because of the pain. This time was different but the doctor said it could’ve been due to the type of rupture/cyst.

On my way home from the ER I got rear ended, but baby was fine. The experience I had with the police officers and EMTs was absolutely terrible. The way I was treated left me dumbfounded. There was no concern for my unborn child, and the officers tried to convince me not to file a report. Good thing I did because there was $1000+ worth of damage to my car and if something would’ve happened to Scarlett, someone would have to be held responsible.

Anyway, throughout the pregnancy I was terrified that something was wrong. I called my OBGYN more times than I think I’ve called my husband in the decade+ I’ve known him.

With everything and all of the stress of the pregnancy (it wasn’t a good pregnancy, just click on the pregnancy category and you can read all about it), Scarlett came into our lives a little early on October 7th, 2021. It’s been a fun, challenging, and emotional time ever since. I can’t believe I’m a mom. I’m someone’s mom! I’m Scarlett’s mom!

Currently, I’m typing this on my phone while she sleeps in my arms. There are times where I just stare at this beautiful little face. I have decided to keep her face private but trust me when I say it’s a beautiful face. A few weeks ago I actually had a dumpster fire happen in the comments section on my personal Facebook because I didn’t show her face. It’s weird how entitled people are to your life, especially when you specifically say you’re keeping certain things (such as my child’s face) private. Because I’m active on YouTube and I have this blog, I don’t know the intentions of everyone following me. I’ll admit I’ve consumed a lot of true crime content and it’s made me very paranoid. Anyway, I love this baby girl, and I hope I’m a good mom.

My outfit

Dress: Target // Top: Target // Boots: Betsey Johnson (sold out, similar here)

Scarlett’s Dress: Carter’s

THE HOUSE

We bought a house this year and we officially got the keys the day or two before Scarlett decided to come into the world. The house kind of happened on accident. Our lives together have always been chaotic, unplanned, and we’re just winging it. We knew that whenever we bought a house it would be unexpected and chaotic. Which it was and still is.  During the inspections there were a few issues, and we had to go back and forth. At point I was concerned that it wasn’t going to happen. However here we are. We’re homeowners. 

Since our lease isn’t up until the end of January, my husband has been trying to get as much done in the house before we move in. There’s things he wanted to update before we moved Scarlett in because of the dust and insulation that would be flying around.  So far he’s updated the lighting in the entire house. He updated the lights to not make the house look like a dungeon, but he also had to rewire almost everything. I’ll post before and afters here eventually. In addition, having to fit lights in meant he had to cut into the ceiling. But he didn’t care because he had to spackle and sand most of the house. Once that’s all done, he’s going to paint the entire house. Actually, as of the day I’m typing this, our washer delivered and the dryer should deliver in two days.

Once my husband is done painting, we can start to move in. We’ve decided that Scarlett’s room is going to be an Alice in Wonderland theme. I’m probably going to have the most fun decorating her room. I can’t wait to be able to read the books to her. I remember watching the movie and just finding it so magical.

My outfit

Dress: Target // Top: Target // Boots: Betsey Johnson (sold out, similar here)

Scarlett’s Dress: Carter’s

CLOSING THE CBD STORE & WORKING AT THE SHOP

I worked at the shop from the beginning of my pregnancy all the way until less than a week before I went into labor. The reason why I ended up at our auto shop was because we closed our CBD store. That was closed at the end of 2020. There were many reasons why we closed but the biggest ones were the red tape that comes with the industry. As a small business we just didn’t have the same privileges that let’s say a big corporation has. A lot of other CBD stores opened and there was more supply than demand at that point. CBD is a specialty product. It’s not something that you need a high supply of. Our auto shop has been growing a lot more than we expected and they needed my help there. It was a better business decision to close the store and move me to the shop. 

I absolutely loved working at the shop. So much that I didn’t want to go on maternity leave. My last day at the shop was less than a week before Scarlett was born. We’re a family there and our employees are some of the most loyal and hardworking employees anyone could ever ask for. They are proof that if you take care of your team, your team will take care of you. When I first started at the shop I made sure my husband knew I didn’t want any special treatment. I didn’t want to be dubbed as just the owner’s wife. I worked my ass off because that’s just the kind of work ethic I have.

With all that said, I had my fair share of good and bad customer interactions. Although the good cancels out the bad 100%. As someone who’s worked in customer service both in a retail/food service setting and a corporate setting, this job was the most challenging and rewarding. Don’t get me wrong I got a lot of “women don’t belong in shops” comments but I’d give the smart ass remarks right back. That’s always fun. I can’t wait to go back once Scarlett is old enough. We’ve decided that I’m going to stay home with Scarlett. I’m so grateful that I have the privilege to be able to stay home. There are so many who would love to be in my shoes. At least I can still visit though!

Scarlett’s Dress: Carter’s

New Year Goals I set for 2021

• Grow my channel to 10k subscribers.  I hit this goal during my time away from YouTube after Scarlett was born. I wasn’t as excited about it as I would’ve hoped. Maybe it’s because my priorities were elsewhere. However, I hit the goal!
• Try and get back on track with this blog.  Once I started feeling better during pregnancy I did achieve this goal. I wrote a lot this year. Not as much as I originally hoped, but a lot more than I think I expected.
• Learn how to take a break.  LOL! Let’s try this again in 2022, shall we?
• Buy a house.  I truly didn’t think it would happen but it did!

New Year Goals for 2022

• Raise Scarlett. I think this is a given, but she is my top priority, and she will be my top priority for the rest of my life.
• Take some time off. I’ve been comparing myself to other new moms way too much that it’s affected my mental health. Due to that I’ve decided taking time away from social media and the internet in general is desperately needed.
• Get back to creating content. This is both here on the blog and YouTube. It’s taken a bit of a backseat but I’m hoping once we’re settled in the new house we can have some kind of schedule.
• Love my new body. I’m not going to set a stereotypical resolution of losing weight. As much as I would love to, I’ve decided to learn to love my new body. Of course I’d like to lose some weight and be healthier, but I want to embrace this body. This body birthed a tiny human. It moved organs around to make room for Scarlett. This body protected Scarlett until she was finally ready to come out. I was fortunate enough to have a body grow a human. With that said, as self conscious as I am, instead of thinking my body is ruined I want to learn to be proud of what my body accomplished.

Let’s move onto the linkup!

Now that we’ve gone over 2021 let’s move on to the linkup!