Not Another LA Blonde

Category: Personal

Goodbye 2017…

Happy New Year’s Eve y’all! Can you believe that 2018 is only a few hours away! At the end of every year I feel like each of us takes a moment to sit and reflect on the highs and lows of the past year. So as I sit here (not getting ready to leave, aka late as always) and reflect on my past year, I can’t help but think about how there were so many good things to look back on from this past year, but there are so many things to look forward to for 2018.

Let’s recap 2017:

2017 was a BIG planning year for Rob and I. We booked and planned most of our wedding and surprisingly didn’t get into any big arguments about details or anything! Rob got a huge promotion at work which is a great thing for the two of us! AND I also got a little more comfortable with blogging and posting on social media more. I learned how important it is to be engaging with my readers and look forward to learning a lot more this next year.

JANUARY:

I kicked off the new year with a trip to New York with one of my bffs. I absolutely love visiting New York and you can read all about this trip here.

FEBRUARY:

We picked out and reserved our wedding venue!

We also celebrated Valentine’s Day at Skyspace in LA.

MARCH:

We kicked the month off by celebrating Rob’s 27th birthday

And took our engagement photos!

APRIL:

This month always signifies the start of BASEBALL season, so we went to OPENING DAY for the Angels!

We ended the month with our annual trip to STAGECOACH! This year

JUNE:

I bought myself a “happy one year until the wedding” gift and got a new car. I paid for it entirely on my own with just a little bit of negotiating help from Rob.

JULY:

I found my dream wedding dress! i can’t wait to show y’all what it looks like after the big day, but if you’re really curious, you can read all about my experience here.

I also celebrated my 25th birthday in Palm Springs!

AUGUST:

We kicked off the wedding festivities with an Engagement Party!

SEPTEMBER:

We had our official food tasting at our wedding venue (I promise to post about this in the new year!).

NOVEMBER:

With Rob’s promotion at work, came a business trip to LONDON

and then we took a little detour to PARIS before coming home (I will def be posting about these two amazing trips within the first week of the new year).

So as you can see from above, 2017 was quite the year for us. There were so many good things to happen, I would say, I don’t know how 2018 can top it, but I have a good idea of how it will be the best year yet!

To start, 2018 will be a year of big change! I’m hoping to grow my blogging business and become more successful with it. I’m looking to rebrand a little bit and makes a few changes while still keeping true to who I am.

Another big thing will be finding a place for us to live. Since housing in Los Angeles is pretty pricey right now, we’ll be looking at places that we can rent and bring our little pup with us. I can’t wait to find that new home for us and start decorating and putting our own style into it. We’ll be starting from complete scratch, so it’s going to be an expensive start for us, but so worth it in the end.

And the final thing that is most important to me is my wedding in June! I will finally be marrying the man of my dreams and I can not wait to become a wife to this amazing man.

I can already see that 2018 will truly be my year to shine and I can’t wait to grow and share it all with y’all! Thank you for your continued support of me and this crazy life I live!

XOXO

December 31, 2017
A DAY TO REMEMBER

“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.” —former President George W. Bush

It was a day just like any other; people boarding their flights to travel across the country while others entered buildings to go to work. People were going about their lives thinking about going home at the end of the day to eat dinner with their families, but 16 years ago today the world changed for SOO many people. People lost their family members, their friends, their neighbors; men and women risked their lives running straight into collapsing buildings to try to save as many people as they could and not all of them made it back out.

We are all affected in some way by the 9/11 attacks. I’ll never forget waking up that morning; I was 9 years old, my brother was 3 and my youngest brother was only a few months old. I was getting ready for school and my mom had the news on and she was crying. I didn’t know then what a huge impact this day would make on our lives. I was old enough to know that something bad had happened, but I couldn’t understand why someone would want to do that to us, not when the United States was so great. I remember hoping that my aunts and uncle and cousins were ok because I knew that they lived back east. I remember my mom calling her sisters to see if they were ok and THANKFULLY they weren’t in the city. In the midst of tragedy, we stood up as a Nation and rebuilt as a stronger more UNITED front. We showed the terrorists that attacked us that we could rebuild and that even though we suffered a great loss that day, the outcome would be bigger and stronger than what we were before.

16 Years later and this beauty stands proud as the One World Trade Center

Two years ago, my fiancé and I had the opportunity to visit the 9/11 Memorial and museum while we were in New York. The museum itself was one of the saddest things I have ever experienced in my life. To see the remnants of what used to be the twin towers; to see the steel beam standing there in the middle of the room with missing posters and prayers and firehouse numbers of all those that were lost; and to hear the stories of those who never made it home that day. Listening to the voices of those people who never made it off the plane who had left messages for their loved ones on the ground…Listening to the messages that were left by the families on the ground desperately hoping that it wasn’t their loved ones on that plane. It was soo heartbreaking. I cried even when I didn’t think I had any tears left in me. Every time I’m in New York, I have to stop by the 9/11 Ground Zero Memorial to take a moment and stand in silence and pay my respect to those who lost their lives.

This stands in the middle of the museum in the exact place the original building was

To this day when I think about the tragedy we faced, it still makes me angry to know that someone would do this to us. It makes me sad to think of all those innocent people who died and for all the first responders who didn’t make it out of the wreckage. Just writing this post makes me tear up thinking about it all. It’s weird to think that there are people alive who will never know what the New York skyline looked like with 2 towers standing tall or who weren’t even alive when all of this took place and have to learn about it from a history book. I am proud to be an AMERICAN, but on September 11, I am even more proud. I’m thankful that the United States has such a strong backbone to lean on and that we don’t let an attack like this define who we are as a Nation. This is truly a day that we will NEVER FORGET.

Here is just one of the reflecting pools that is inscribed with the names of every person who died in both the ’93 and ’01 attacks. The Memorial pools are a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history.

“If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.” —Sandy Dahl, wife of Flight 93 pilot Jason Dahl

The birthdays of the victims are remembered by placing roses on their names every year

If you ever get the chance, you HAVE to visit the Memorial and the Museum as each will affect you in some way. I think it’s a great opportunity to pay respects and to learn more about the day that we remember every year. If you’d like to learn more about OWTC then you can click here but if you’d like to visit the One World Observatory which the top of the World Trade Center and see the most breathtaking views check this out.

XOXO

September 11, 2017
SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW

Dear ________,

I’ll always look at pictures of us and wonder where it all went wrong and think about all the good times we used to have. I miss you sometimes when I think about how you would be the first person I would tell things to, my best friend. We were supposed to be there for each other and be in each other’s weddings, you were supposed to be the sister I never had. But looking back now, I know that you didn’t think of me the same way that I thought of you. You just saw me as constant competition, but that’s not what I wanted to be. Now when I see you, you’re nothing more than a stranger to me. We walk past each other like we’ve never met, like we weren’t the family I thought we were, and like we didn’t have a million inside jokes or secrets with each other. Thanks for being a learning experience for me that even after all this time I still haven’t figured out.

Sincerely,

The girl you used to know

Wow, ok so that got a little emotional up there. Let’s be honest… I’m sure many of you have felt that same way about somebody you used to be close with. I know it’s happened to me a few times, but sometimes it cuts deeper than others and sometimes it still comes back to hurt you years later.

There are always going to be people that come in and out of your life at different times. Some people are meant to stay in your life forever, while others are only there for various amounts of time. Every person that comes into our life has a purpose for being there. I’ve had plenty of people come into my life and then leave and every time someone leaves, there’s a lesson to be learned. For the most part, everyone who is no longer in my life, I’ve figured out the reason that they didn’t stick around, but there are some that, I think, I will never know the lesson that was supposed to come from them. But don’t get me wrong here, this doesn’t mean that I don’t know why or what happened to make them leave my life (I know damn well what happened!).

There will be FRIENDS that eventually drift out of your life and it may not even be from something significant. It could be as simple as you went to different high schools, or your lives were on different tracks. When I was younger, I was a competitive gymnast with a very rigorous training schedule and I had friends at school that didn’t understand that and eventually we went separate ways because my commitments were not with partying on the weekend and drinking (with an 8am Saturday morning practice, there were no late Friday nights). I still see some of those people that drifted away from time to time, but they’re not really in my life anymore, not like the friends I made in high school. I have a few VERY good friends that I can call at any time and they’ll be there. Having so many friends drift away has taught me to appreciate the best friends that I have and that every friendship takes a little bit of work. I’m grateful for the friends that I have and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

There will be BOYFRIENDS that come into your life and you’re either with them for a short while or you’re with them for years before you FINALLY break up. Let’s face it, you’re devastated at first, but then you get over it and realize all the reasons that they were no good for you and why they weren’t going to fit into your life. Maybe they wanted different things in life, maybe they were holding you back from reaching your full potential, or you were blind when you were with them and couldn’t see what everyone else was telling you. But then you meet someone and something in your heart feels different than any other time; you look at them knowing that it’s forever and then that forever becomes a reality and at that moment you know that all the frogs made it possible for you to find your prince. All of those other silly boys that came first taught you valuable lessons: how you want to be treated, what you’re truly looking for in the man that you want to spend forever with, what you will/won’t put up with in a relationship and how to stick up for yourself. But most of all, you learn that you deserved to be treated like the absolute princess that you are and you won’t let anyone treat you any other way. So to them, say thank you for that learning experience and hold on to the one that treats you like no one else before has (thank you to my fiancé for showing me what true love is and for always supporting my dreams).

And I’m going to get real honest with you, there could even be FAMILY who decide that you’re not good enough for them and they walk right out of your life like they never even knew you. In the town I grew up in it’s pretty common for people to not talk to their own family. It makes me sad to think about that, but I get it; and trust me, I can relate. It doesn’t make it right and it definitely doesn’t make it ok, but sometimes there is literally nothing you can do about it. These right here are the lessons that are hardest to figure out (shoot, I honestly couldn’t tell you what lesson I’ve learned yet) and yet the memories never go away. They’re the hardest “what ifs” to deal with. For a long time I wondered if I had done one particular thing differently then would all this be different? Would the last few years have been easier or harder? But I’ve learned that you can’t think that way because the thoughts will start to consume you and you can’t live like that. You just have to hold your head up high and know that the best way to live your life is to live it exactly the way you want to.

There’s always going to be the “what ifs” in life. What if this never happened? Or what if I had done something differently? But guess what? You can’t go back and change anything now, there’s only one way to keep looking and it sure isn’t behind you. You have to remember that everything happens for a reason and even if you don’t know it yet, it’s happening. There’s a reason that certain people don’t stick around to see the most important parts of our lives and the huge milestones that you accomplish. So my advice to y’all is to live life to the fullest and to always be proud of who you are and the choices you have made in life.

Thank you for letting me get a little personal with y’all today. I had planned on a different post, but with all the upcoming milestones for me it had me thinking on a deeper level. Let me know what your thoughts are or if you have anything you’d like to share.

XOXO

July 31, 2017