Thankful

On Thanksgiving, this past Thursday, my Husband celebrated his 24th birthday! I feel I dont give him enough credit when it comes to all that he does for us. He's a great husband, father, friend and just everything. Im really trying not to make this a mushy post but Im so blessed and EXTREMELY THANKFUL he's in our lives. Hey B, if you're reading this, I LOVE YOU!

We spent that day at my in laws house enjoying some delicious food...where I played the role of assistant chef by the way ;) My friend from work also joined our family because her family lives on the East Coast and she couldn't be with them. On the following day, "black friday", we avoided the department store rush and took sort of a girls day trip to downtown LA! My mother in law, my friend and I were like kids in a candy store. So many good deals on makeup, clothes and fabric...so much to look at! And good street dogs and frutas ;) I ended up buying a ton of makeup brushes(6 for 10$!!) and surprisingly hair extensions haha I naturally have long hair, that touches my butt when straight, but after my pregnancy my hair has been feeling pretty thin so I bought clip ins to make me hair feel/look fuller. I'll let you know how that goes haha My husband and I both have a week vacation so we'll be staying at home getting the house ready for Christmas and lounging around :) Or whatever comes up! I'll keep ya posted. Thanks for reading and remember, don't let one day be the only day you count your blessings. Do it as often as you breath and be humble.

Motivation for your Monday

Farewell

This morning we said goodbye to our coworker who finished her military contract and is now a civilian again. She chose to have her going away breakfast at a place called Breakfast Republic. She lives in North Park(one of San Diegos neighborhoods) so she only walked 10 min there. Lucky for her. To my misfortune parking SUCKED! I parked two blocks down. Aside from parking, the food was ok, medium priced and gets busy around 9am. OH and someone decided to "pay it forward" and paid for all 8 of our meals!! Easily over 100$!! So blessed :) Gonna pray for what God wants me to do to pay it forward. CHEERS TO THE WEEKEND!

Seeing Doubles

Growing up, from about 6th grade until I was a sophomore in highschool, I struggled with self confidence and a major identity crisis. Seeing the amount of selfies I post now you would never know haha I remember at one point the most "popular" girl in 6th grade always wore a basic basic black hoodie so I begged my mom to buy me one from the swapmeet and I wore it EVERYDAY for nearly a year! My parents intervened and hid the sweater...until I found it again. Then I saw she wore some really nice Adidas and, again, begged for my parents to buy them for me in hopes it'd make me popular too. When we went to the store they didn't have my size but I was so determined to have these specific ones that I got them in a size 10 when I actually was a size 6. My parents wanted me happy and if a size 10 shoe did that for me then who were they to complain. I stuffed socks inside so my feet wouldn't keep clunking out of them and to my surprise I didn't get popular...that actually started drawing attention to me negatively. After my rough start on the first day of middle school(showing up with a super cool rolly backpack with light up wheels and getting it kicked as I walked the campus so I carried it like a suitcase and lied to my mom that someone stole it because of the awesomeness so she'd buy me a basic backpack) this moment was the worst. My teeth had never been an issue, well they were really bad but I'd never thought about fixing them because in elementary people talked about recess not physical appearance. Ok enough with my awful side stories...well once I showed up with my massive clonkers people instantly started making fun of me and my "beaver teeth" and my "big forehead" that suddenly got put on the radar. Money was tight and I went home crying so often that my parents the superheroes sacrificed to afford braces for me.

Now that you have some insight on some of my school years, if I could tell my younger self anything, it'd be to get into prayer sooner and realize I didn't have to try so hard to be like anyone else. You can be yourself, wear what you can afford and the right people who belong in your life wont even care. Once I "found" myself and became confident in who I was it would ANNOY the living crap out of me when I'd see someone copy me. I mean, I wasn't some super hot shot back then but for class projects that actually involved some imagination mine would be stellar then the next day someone would practically have copied it all! Or when I'd think my outfit was pretty rockin that day and my sister would show up two days later wearing my exact outfit! She's my best friend now, so I dont care if we copy each other. We both look good ;) Ugh as Im writing this I feel like Im going on a million side stories but I promise this post has a point haha

Obviously Im over that phase, thank GOD! But today I was in my explore page on Instagram and came across a really cool blogger mama. That led me to her blog; Love Taza. Instantly started following her, duh! Then I remembered reading a blog of someone I knew, much smaller scale than that of Love Taza, and went back to it. I opened up both side and was stunned at how much the smaller blog(which will not be named) copied the bigger one(Love Taza) and NO CREDIT was given!! Honestly, the only difference was mere name changes and basic info/pics where applicable. Content wasn't as good but who cares, the blog was a complete dupe without credit or a head nod to the originator. THAT annoyed me. I've heard the statement, "Imitation is the highest form of flattery". It's really not. It's a lack of creativity and a sign of laziness. I've been wanting to mention it but Im just like ok, you seem like a 6th grade Crystal. Whatever makes you feel better about yourself, even if you have to copy someone else, go ahead. One day you'll look back and laugh and realize that you didn't need to be like anyone else. Most people might not call you out or catch the similarities but someone will always know. Be original, be YOU and you'll have awesome readers soon! Readers who will want to read your unique content and not check your page to see what else you copied.

Roundup

The rest of my week was short because of our off day Wednesday to show appreciation for America's Veterans. On that day my husband and I took Olivia to the zoo! :) It was her first time there and Im sure she enjoyed herself because of how much she looked around and screamed like a monkey haha knocked out the rest of the work week and like my opening picture, I let myself rest. No travel games for my husband, no weekend trips to visit our family, no outrageous plans, just relaxed. My Brother in law came to visit us though and it was interesting to see him and Bryan play with Olivia! Those baby voices are hilarious haha Sunday was seriously a chill day. We cozied up just us three and watched movies, ordered some pizza..lounged around(facemask for momma); THE BEST DAY in a long time at home. Since we moved in here it hasn't completely felt "homey" because we constantly have weekend plans or a lot of people over so I cant enjoy our house. This weekend I truly did :) Oh and the picture of a snotty Olivia is hilarious so I thought I'd give you all a laugh ;) Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

STYLECON

Im baaaaaaaaaack! Ok not that I was even gone for very long, but compared to my last actual post where I include more than motivation, Yeah; its been awhile! Since then I stuck it out a few more days until the weekend to see my daughter, forgot her costumes at home(since I was at my parents house) so we just stayed in for Halloween, the week she was gone I enjoyed QT with my husband and caught up on much needed cleaning.

Bringing me into the now, this past weekend I had the most amazing time at STYLECON! I went with my brother in laws girlfriend Miranda. Most of my friends may or may not know how much I love style, fashion and makeup so when I started asking around to see who wanted to go I didn't get the shared enthusiasm I had haha My sister actually feels the same way I do but her crazy work schedule prevented her from going. Then I remembered Miranda is a fashion student(who graduates in March woop woop)! Hellooooo, I should have asked her in the first place!! Plus she literally lives in the same area so yea, PERFECT! She was down from the minute asked and we definitely had a lot of fun. I wish through my pictures you can see how gorgeous setups were and I wish that the statement "this was a great event" really channels how great it was. My first time at an event like this and I was overwhelmed with the friendliness, gorgeousness, and empowering feeling inside the building. We got super cool goodie bags and at each little booth there were even more free things. A section where people were doing hair, nails and makeup.. FREE!!!! I met some great bloggers and one of my favorites, Kathleen!! Check out my Instagram and Facebook for more detailed pictures and links to my favorites. If this event happens next year you can believe I'll be there! & you should be too :) Sorry I didn't go into dramatic detail about it but I feel so lame because I've taken every opportunity to talk about it to anyone willing to listen haha If you have any more questions just comment or private message! Now I'll be back to regular posts ;)

***DETAILS***

-CROP TOP SWEATER: FOREVER 21 (old)

-BLUE LINEN SHORTS: FOREVER 21 (old)

-OTK BOOTS: FOREVER 21

Motivation for your Monday