simple. sweet. chaos.

So.
I kinda dropped the ball on blogging huh?
Whoops.

Life seems to just go by so fast these days and before you know it, it’s a new year, a new decade, and another chance to get back to the simple life.

With a new year comes resolutions. I’ve never been a new years resolution person. Why wait until a new year to make a change? Just make the change now and thank yourself later.

HOWEVER.

I did just sit down and write a list of goals for myself for this year.
One of my biggest goals for this year is to just chill out.
I like plans.
I like when plans go as planned.

But.

Life. Is. Busy.
It’s work. It’s kids. It’s dogs. It’s laundry. It’s dishes [and a broken dishwasher]. It’s catching up on bills just to pay them all again the next month. It’s making dinner when everybody wants something different to eat. It’s trying to write a blog post, but having to check why the dogs got so quiet…then clean up the mess they were making while being so quiet. It’s trying to find time for date night. It’s rescheduling date night, again. It’s remembering to feed the fish [I truly have no idea how that thing is still alive]. It’s forgetting to slow down and just enjoy the moments while they’re happening.
It’s. Exhausting.

You can’t plan for the dishwasher to break or for the leak from the pipes in the ceiling. You can’t plan for a kid to be sick or the flat tire on the highway. You can’t plan for the basketball practice that gets scheduled 3 HOURS in advance, and you just can’t plan your life away.

That’s a lesson I’m trying to learn. It’s hard for me. Especially when I’m dating somebody that could care less about plans and pretty much has a life motto of ‘it’s fine, it’ll work out’.
I envy that, hence why it is a goal of mine this year to “stop planning everything an enjoy the change of plans”.

Who’s with me?!

OH!
One more thing.
In the midst of the chaos and the changed plans, don’t forget to be happy.
Let’s not let plans changing stress us out and ruin the day.

-XOXO

Obviously moving to Texas was a huge life change.
And being in a committed relationship for the first time in 7 years, well yeah, there’s that too.

The biggest change that has come out of the past year though has been gaining 2 munchkins that have become my world.

They bring joy and happiness that put me on cloud 9.
They bring frustration and exhaustion that makes me want to pull my hair out.
[And also pour a large glass of wine]
But they bring laughter and a love I didn’t know possible and now I can’t imagine my life without.

So. I figured it was time you met the 2 small humans that have stolen my heart just like their daddy did.

First there’s Kaitlyn [KMT].

This little girl has her daddy wrapped right around her finger, as she should.
10 years old and always has something to say.
She can get distracted easily, but she has more determination than most people twice her age.
She’s smart, so very smart. Just like her daddy.

Then we have Austin [AET].

This kid.
6 years old with as much energy as a bouncy ball.
His one-liners will have you laughing for days and his laugh will bring overwhelming joy to your heart.
He’s got a bit of a naughty side these days [what 6 year old boy doesn’t], but he has a heart as big and as sweet as the ripest apple on the tree.

I could go on for days about these munchkins, but I’ll save more for another time.

I keep thinking that I can’t love people or places more than I already do. That I don’t have enough love to go around, but my heart keeps surprising me.
I don’t love certain things any less the more I love. I’m just finding more and more love than I ever knew to be possible.

These kids may not be my blood, but I would give anything and everything to never have to live my life without them.
Is that what being a parent is like?
If so, sign me up for #momlife.
I’m all in.

-XOXO

Well hey guys!
I guess it’s been a minute since my last post..orrr maybe like a year? Same thing, right?

I was helping a 10 year old write an essay for school last week and it made me miss writing. So I figured it was time for a new post!
Aaaaand probably time for an update as well.

As a lot of you probably know by now, I’ve relocated…again.

It all started with me making the joke after I said goodbye to my [first] car after 9 years and got my very own truck.

The joke was “Thought I wanted a boyfriend. Turns out I just wanted a truck”
[See below]

6 days later, I met Roy.

He was in the good ole town of Plainwell for work.
We both ended up at the same restaurant for dinner.
I was sitting at the bar minding my own business when he came and sat next to me.
I tried to ignore him, he wouldn’t let me.
I won’t bore you with all the mushy stuff, but fast forward 10 months and I’m now calling Texas home.

Life is funny.
And crazy.
And fun.
And unpredictable.

Texas is great!
We live in a small town that reminds me a lot of back home.

I’m back to doing hair, which I love! No celebrity’s this time, but I will be taking a couple trips this year to still live out that dream!
Stay tuned.

 Well, besides the actual move itself, not a whole lot has changed in Texas.
The weather is warmer, duh.
The sun it hotter, like way hotter.
And I always feel like I’m behind…get it? Because I’m in a different time zone..an hour behind Michigan..
I’m funny, right? No? Okay, great. Cool.

All jokes aside, we’re just doing life and enjoying every day.

-XOXO

I was on my way to breakfast this morning and I came around a curve into a clearing and this was my view…

It was a simple view with nothing special about it.
The fog was thick and made visibility pretty low, but as I came to this spot in particular, you could see the sun trying to shine through it all.

It really hit me and made me think.

There is so much hate and so much fighting going on in the world currently. Everybody has an opinion and everybody wants to have a voice and stand up for what they believe in, but I think it’s gotten to the point where people don’t even know what they’re fighting for anymore. They just want to fight. They just want to feel heard, feel like they matter.

I think we’ve forgotten why we are all really here.
I think we’ve started to forget how to just simply love.

When I came around this curve and saw that little bit of sunlight, I thought of how even on the darkest and most hate filled days, the sun is still there.
We might not be able to see it and we might not be able to feel it, but it’s there and we have to trust that it will come back eventually.

That then got me thinking about how even on the darkest and most hate filled days, the Son is still there.
Even when we don’t see Him, even when we don’t feel His presence, He is still ALWAYS with us.

Trusting God is hard.
If you’re anything like me, you like reasons and explanations for things. You like conversation and you like knowing what’s happening and what’s coming next. Unfortunately, we don’t always have that luxury with God. The answers don’t always come in black and white and He isn’t right here to have coffee or a beer with us and tell us if we’re on the right track.

Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us,
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight.”

We look around and we look back and we look in all the wrong places for answers that we just need to simply look up for.
Sometimes it’s hard, really hard to remember that we don’t have all the answers.
Sometimes the path doesn’t feel so straight.
Sometimes we question how and why and when.
Sometimes we lose hope and want to just give up.
We forget that He already has a plan for us and for our lives.

We just have to trust that He is there even when we don’t know it.

These were the thoughts in my head when I saw the sun, that thing in the sky that makes life on earth possible, trying to break through the fog to remind us it’s still there.
It was my reminder this morning that even in the midst of all the disgusting hate being spewed everywhere lately, there is still something bigger out there than all of us and all of this and He loves us all no matter what.

Something as simple as the sun was my reminder this morning and in case any of you need a small reminder like I did, well here you go.

-XOXO

NOT!

A new year doesn’t always have to mean a new you. I personally am pretty damn happy with who I am right now. Would I like a few things to be different? Of course, I’d be lying if I said everything was perfect.

My life has changed a lot this year. Hell, my life has changed a lot just this month. I feel like my life is changing daily but honestly, it just makes me so excited for what’s to come!

For many people, it seems as though 2016 is a year they can’t wait to get out of. I’ve definitely made the jokes right alongside everybody about it being a terrible year, but in reality 2016 was an amazing year for me. It took me on more adventures than I ever imagined. Not just in a travel sense, but in a very personal and emotional sense as well and I’m proud of the way I came out of it all.

I was told by someone that moving home from Nashville wasn’t a way of starting over or a fresh start, but that I was going backwards. That one hurt a little bit. At a time in my life when I was already questioning so much, hearing that stung. I let it sit for a minute and then realized all that statement did to me was confirm I was making the right decision and motivate me to prove anybody who thought that way wrong.

I’ve spent the time since I moved home finding myself again and trying my very best to stop wishing time away and live right here and right now like I don’t have tomorrow.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.”

It’s so simple and such a cliche, but it’s so incredibly true.

With a new year everybody has all of their resolutions and high hopes for changes. I personally am not making any resolutions this year. I am, however, choosing a word to focus my year around.
My word is simple.
LIVE.
I’m choosing to live my life exactly how I want to and taking it one day at a time. I want to enjoy every moment. I want to experience everything I can. I want to be the best version of myself. I want to be here, in the present, with the people I love.
I want to simply live.

So here’s to a new year full of hope and chances and a completely blank canvas. Make it whatever you want it to be and don’t let anybody else paint it for you.

-XOXO

I basically just took the trip of a lifetime.

The past 5 days have felt like 5 months and every second of it was amazing.
If you like road trips, waterfalls, and just plain perfection, I highly suggest a trip up to “God’s country”.

1500 miles later, this is just a glimpse into the incredible weekend I just had.

LINK TO VIDEO

 As you can see, we had no fun at all (;

-XOXO

Hi guys.
To be honest, I’m not really sure how to start this post. I have tried to write this one a few times and the words just never seem to come to me. This past weekend though I officially closed a huge chapter of my life and now it seems as the words are just being typed and I’m not even having to think about it.

A lot of you know by now, but for the few that don’t, I moved back to Michigan. I have been home since the beginning of May. Why am I saying that I am just now closing that chapter of my life? Well, I still had my apartment until now. I decided to keep my lease through the summer since I had signed for a year and I knew I would be going back down there to work for a week in June. This past weekend was possibly the longest 36 hours of my life though.

Myself, my dad, and a moving truck. 9 hours each way. 6 hours to pack and load my entire apartment. Little sleep and sore bodies. But, we did it.
Now, moving on.

I moved to Nashville with huge dreams and a stubbornness to would make them come true. I thought if I stayed in Michigan I would be settling for a small town, mediocre life and I wanted bigger and better than that. I wanted Nashville to be my home. I wanted an amazing life with lots of adventures and epic stories to tell my kids someday. I wanted to do celebrity hair. I wanted to work behind the scenes, work photoshoots, and get people red carpet ready. Well, I got that. I did all of those things and they were SO cool and I will never take any of those memories for granted; however, it was in the process of getting everything I thought I always wanted when I realized I had it all along.

Meeting celebrities was cool and having a kickass job was, well, kickass, but at the end of the day everybody and everything important to me was 8 hours away and nothing could make that distance disappear.

I do not regret moving to Nashville even remotely.
At that time in my life it was exactly what I needed. It changed my life and for that I will always look back on those 8 months as some of the best. The past year has felt like a roller coaster that was never going to end. Lots of ups and downs, lots of twists and turns, and lots of being flipped upside down. I shed many tears, but shared many laughs. I learned a lot about myself, a lot about others, and a lot about life.

When I decided to move home it was a pretty quick decision, yet a very thought out one. I talked about it a lot with family and friends and definitely prayed about it. It was not the easiest decision I had ever made, but it was one I had just as much peace about as the one to move south in the first place.

Some may say that people can’t change, well I disagree.
Nashville changed me.
I now look at the simple things as extraordinary. What I used to take for granted, I now embrace. The little things in life are usually the most important and doing the things that scare you immensely often end up to be the most rewarding.
I enjoy the slow and simple now. I don’t feel stuck anymore, but I feel like I am finally exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Life is funny.
It has twists and turns, curve balls, and so many hills. I’ve encountered all of them in the past 12 months and I’m sure I will keep encountering them for years to come. I’m not worried about that though. I have people around me that love and support me, a life I am absolutely, INSANELY in love with, and a feeling of “home” that will never go away. I’ve always heard home is not a place, but a feeling.
I will forever be the first to support that statement.

XOXO

6 months ago today I did the scariest thing I’ve done in my entire life by packing up my car and driving 8 hours south. I was on my way to a brand new city full of brand new people and brand new opportunities to make it my home.

It has been the most exciting, rewarding, and challenging 6 months of my life and I wouldn’t take back one second of it. Okay, maybe 1 or 2 seconds, but overall it has been incredible. I’ve had opportunities that so many people only dream of. Hell, I used to be the one dreaming of them and now I’m living them. Not everybody gets to live out their dreams and I’m beyond grateful that I get to every day.

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So now for a little update.

Last time I wrote, I was on my way to Florida for “work”, but really it was more of a mini vacation with just a tad bit of work one day. It was great! I felt like I was living somebody else’s life. I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure it was really mine. Although let’s be real, I have to do that almost daily.

We got to hang backstage at the concert all day and it was a feeling I’ll never forget.

We did make our way into the crowd a few times though to make sure we got the full experience of the day.

[Quick side note, when I started my job down here at The Dry House, I was just a stylist. I am now the owner’s assistant. I’m sure some of you will wonder what that entails, so…I still do hair everyday, but I work a lot more one on one with my boss, Ali. I assist her (hence assistant) with most of her clients and get to learn a lot from somebody who has worked extremely hard to get where they are.]

Now where were we?

Being an assistant is how I get most of my traveling opportunities. That could be out of the state, or just out of the salon for the day. We got to do a shoot a couple weeks ago with one of her clients, RaeLynn. If you’re a fan of The Voice, you will know exactly who she is, and if you’re a fan of country music, I’m sure you know as well. It was my first time being on set for a shoot making it another thing I will never forget.

Nashville also had another snowstorm. Usually a snow “storm” in Nashville is maybe an inch of snow that is melted by noon the next day, but this one actually dumped quite a bit of snow on this poor southern city. In other words, Nashville was basically closed for like 3 days, and no, I’m not kidding. The entire city basically shuts down with any snow here. If there is even a chance for snow over night, 90% of the schools will close the night before. Being from Michigan, I just sit back and laugh.

I can’t say that I miss the snow, even a little bit, but it was pretty from inside my apartment.

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To sum things up, life is treating me really well. I’m happy, work is great, and the most exciting part is this is just the beginning.

I can’t wait to see what is yet to come for me.

-XOXO

First off, yes, I’m aware that it is almost February before I’m posting a “goodbye 2015” post. Life’s been a little crazy lately, okay?

Now.

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2015 changed my life.
Plain and simple.

If you would have told me at the beginning of 2015 this is where my life would be now and I would go through everything I have in the past 12 months, I probably would have laughed in your face and responded with some smartass comment.

Why would I have laughed in your face you ask? Well. If you would have told me just one short year ago that I would be writing a blog post from an airplane 20,000 feet in the sky on my way to Florida to be backstage at basically the “B-93 Birthday Bash” of Fort Lauderdale, yeah, I would have laughed at you.

Not for one second have I ever doubted that I would make my dreams come true (that’s not meant as cocky as it sounds), I just didn’t know I would ever do it this fast.

You could say I’m pretty damn happy lately.

I ultimately had the idea of making this post more of a reflection on 2015 and how it changed my life, but the more I write, the less I want to dwell on that and the more I want to focus on what’s going on currently.

So things are great. I still LOVE Nashville, obviously. Work is amazing, also obviously. Things are really just working out really well right now.

I wish I could say more about the people I get to work with and the cool opportunities I’m getting, unfortunately I can’t, yet.

But, what I can tell is that I’m on track to do some REALLY awesome stuff this year.
STAY. TUNED.

Well, I know this is a short post. I just wanted to at least update you guys and let you know things are going amazing for me lately. Also, writing on a plane is a lot more distracting than I imagined it would be. Apparently my ADD kicked in and now I can’t focus for the life of me. Oh well.

I love you all and miss you lots!

I’ll try not to go so long before another update this time, and hopefully the next one will be more of an update instead of a bunch of my random rambling.

So all my blog posts have been pretty much rainbows and butterfly’s…until now.

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Life really is great in Nashville.

I’m happy.
I’m healthy.
I have an unbelievable job.
I live in a beautiful apartment.
I am meeting so many cool people.
I have gotten to listen to some amazing music and discover lots of new artists to love.

I really do love my life here!
BUT.
It’s so hard.

From the very moment I moved down here and started my job and started talking to clients, I’ve constantly been told how brave I am. Even before I moved, people were telling me how proud they were and how they would never be able to do what I am doing. Do not get me wrong, I am SO grateful for these kind words, I just want to be honest with myself and everybody reading this.

Yes, I packed up my life and left everything I’ve known my whole life behind and moved 8 hours from home.

By myself.
↑
That’s always the kicker. That’s when I get the “Wow! That’s amazing. You’re so brave!” response.

But! HUGE ‘but’ here.

I DID NOT DO THIS ALONE.
Yes, you read that right and just so you can be sure, I’ll write it again.

I DID NOT DO THIS ALONE.

I’ve got God.
And let me tell you, I have never had to put more faith in Him than I have in these past few months.

From the moment I decided to hit ‘send’ on an email with my resume attached to a salon in Nashville, to the countless nights I’ve laid in bed staring at my ceiling trying to figure out what’s next.
I know just how completely insane that makes me sound. What’s next? I’m sure some of you are thinking ‘Steph, you’re crazy. You just got there. Why are you already thinking about what’s next?’ And if you are thinking that, well then, I’m right there with you.

I have a lot of time to think here. As busy as it can get around me, I still come home to an empty apartment every night, which makes for a lot of “me time”. If any of you know me well at all, that means I do a lot of thinking.

I’ve always been somebody who has goals. I like goals. It gives me something to work towards and once I reach that goal, I have something to be proud of. For possibly the first time in my life, or at least in my adult life, I don’t have a goal. This is terrifying to me. For the past year, my goal has been Nashville. I didn’t know when it would happen or how, but I knew I wanted to be here and I knew I was going to make it happen. Well, I did.

So now what?

Now I trust. I have absolutely NO idea where I’m going next. I have no goal. I am simply putting my faith in God and trusting that He knows what He is doing and where He’s taking me. Which, again, if you know me at all, you know I like to be in control. I like knowing what’s coming next. I like plans. I like security. I think most of us do. It makes us feel safe and who doesn’t want to feel safe?

The amount of things in my life that lined up so perfectly for me to be where I am right now, those are the reasons I know I am where I am supposed to be right now. That’s why I have peace. That’s why I know I made the right decision in coming down here.

Why did I decide to write this today? I’ll tell ya.
2 days ago (November 14), I opened the Bible app on my phone and looked at my verse of the day.
It was around 2:30am and I had been laying in bed tossing and turning for the past 3 hours.
The verse was Jeremiah 29:11.
A very popular verse that many of us know off the top of our heads.
For any of you that don’t…

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

This verse always helps give me a sense of peace. A calming reassurance that I’m not in this alone and even when I don’t, He knows what He’s doing.
I took a deep breath and feel asleep within a half hour after reading this.

But that’t not all.
I was about to go to bed last night and grabbed my computer to check social media one last time, because of course I had to know what had happened since I had checked it 5 minutes before. (Guilty)
Next thing I knew, I was reading my old tweets from this time last year and then, this.

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For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future #faith

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Note the date. November 14, 2014. I’m a big believer in everything happening for a reason and coincidences sometimes really do mean something.

To sum up all of this rambling and the countless bunny trails I just led you on. 

Put your trust in God.
He knows what He is doing!
Even on the days/nights that I am terrified not knowing what is coming next for me, I have to have faith.
My faith, even the times when I have my doubts, is what keeps me going.

Call me brave or strong or confident, I am SO thankful to be considered any one of those words, but I am just a person in this big crazy world just as confused as any other 23 year old girl.
I just have God on my side.
I know I’m in great hands.

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I know I have said this many times already, but I am going to say it again because I truly can’t say it enough.

To everybody supporting me on this adventure,
THANK YOU. SO MUCH.

You are also a huge reason I am where I am.
I have such an amazing support system behind me.

Ya’ll are wonderful.

And with that, I love you, I miss you, and I can’t wait to come visit soon!