moving across the country

"Thinking 'Here goes nothing' could be the start of everything." Drew Wagner

If you don't know already, Chris and I have plans to move our family across the country to the Central Coast of California in the next couple of months. We have slowly been planning this for a couple of years now, and we are getting down to the wire at this point. I wanted to write a blog post about our journey in making that decision and our "game plan" from here on out - it has been a LONG transition and I have pretty much been in beast mode as far as selling things, packing items, and getting us in "moving mode"! It has been intense! When we moved 45 minutes from our apartment in Brighton to our current home in Chelsea, we completely blanked and put off all of our moving responsibilities until the last second. It was a little bit of a reality check and we knew that for our move to Cali, we had to really buckle down and get things done. It was super disorganized and it felt like it took two messy months! I wanted to just kind of lay it all out on the table in a blog post for a couple of reasons - for my own sanity, so I can sort of neatly organize our plan for the next few months, and for anyone else who is grappling with the idea of making a huge transition in their lives. (Taking a two thousand mile road trip across the country to move to an entirely new place with a very young toddler and a crazy black lab? Let's DO DIS.)

So, the whole idea was born a long time ago. In fact, when Chris and I were strictly friends, he was going to move back out to California to be with his family. We said our friendly goodbyes (he handed me his leftovers from his lunch and we hugged. #meanttobe) at the end of the school year and I accepted the fact that I probably would never see him again! I was pretty bummed because we had really hit it off, but I knew that he was excited to be back out on the coast with his family and loved ones. I was kind of planning to move to some faraway place, but I had no idea where. I've always been the type of person who wanted to experience life in a new area. I made a  plan with a couple of friends to move to Budapest, Hungary (mmmmmmmkay) just because I wanted to live somewhere completely unique! Unfortunately, the plan quickly capsized and I was heartbroken that the plan wouldn't happen. My best friend and I would frequently talk about various cities we would move to together - we were dead set that we would get an apartment in Chicago together, and then I made some serious plans to move to Portland with some other friends. Basically, I've been destined to live in a new place for quite a while.

Chris didn't end up moving that summer, and we started chitchatting again later on. We joked that we could be roommates, and I told him that I would be up for it because I want to see more of the world! I was excitedly talking about it with my friends and one of them actually told me, "You're not actually moving to California with some random guy." I have a thing for proving people wrong when they doubt me. #dontdoubtagangster (Just kidding - I didn't realize it might actually happen one day!) And then, what do you know, we fell in love and decided to do it for real and started making plans. As you all probably know, a little tiny human decided to make his way into the world and all of these plans were postponed - We moved in together and just did our thing together! We had so much fun and many good times (and rough times!) in our first apartment.

Fast forward a year and a half, we've been living in a lovely little place in Chelsea, and renting from a family member. We have decided that it's time to chase our dream to move to the West Coast, and we are so excited to finally announce that. Our drive to do it sooner than later is for quite a few reasons - we are in a flexible place now while Ben is still quite young and he starts school somewhere, we want to spend time with Chris' family, and Chris' dad Don has been having some health issues. (I'm not going to get into anything to respect his privacy! If you're reading this, Hi Don!) We love Chris' family so much, and we want to be able to be there with them. They are the kind of family that makes you feel right at home, and I am so lucky to be able to have a whole new group of amazing people in my life because I met Chris. All of Chris' siblings have been so kind to me, and I just love them all so much! Chris has wanted to move back to be near for them for quite some time, and this has been important to him for years. Also, I'm kind of freaking out internally because this is a pretty huge change for us, and change can be really scary! We don't have an exact date picked out, but we are thinking mid to late November. Soon? I know it - moving is a lot of work, and we've basically been in intense moving mode. We are planning to drive Chris' truck across the country, and even the idea of our road trip together is so exciting to me. I've never been to Colorado, Nevada, Utah... we are visiting the Grand Canyon, and I'm so excited to see the gorgeous mountains and make stops along the way! I feel super thankful and pumped that it's happening, but like anything else, it's also bittersweet - Michigan has always been my home, and it's my comfort zone. We will still be making regular visits with our family members in Michigan, but it won't be easy to not be able to see them on short notice. This is my first time moving away from my parents, and I know that it will be really difficult at times, but we want to be able to experience life with Chris' amazing and wonderful family for a while and also live somewhere new when we still are able to be really flexible with where we are. It feels like something we've just been subtly inspired to do for a long time, and we've decided to make it happen and see what's in store for us.

So, our game plan? Here's what our "to do" tasks are at this point:

• Finish selling or donating all of our items. (One of the most time-consuming tasks!)
• Sell my car.
• Make sure Chris' truck is safe to drive, and purchase new tires.
• Tie up any loose ends with the salon; make sure taxes are all good to go for this year.
• Purchase an inexpensive trailer to hook onto the truck to haul any furniture we are taking.
• Spend plenty of time with our loved ones in Michigan.
• Pack all items we need.
• Track where our stops along the way will be, find motels and spots where we will be staying.
• Make sure everything health-wise is up to date for all of us.

Those are our "for right now" to-do's - there are a few things that we will need to do right before we head out. We have been very strict with our budget in preparation for this as well! Obviously everyone's situation is different, and we are lucky to have family to stay with for a while after we arrive to give us that little window of time to get on our feet and be ready to find our own place. I hope this post is encouraging to anyone who has a dream or a goal to start getting after it. It's NOT easy -I've learned that anything worthwhile takes a lot of patience and hard work, plus a little bit of fearlessness. We experienced this with our little guy Benjamin - being a parent is not easy work - it takes a lot of time, patience, love, sweat and tears, but it's part of the journey of raising another human being, which is a huge, magical, amazing responsibility. The big stuff ain't easy, y'all! But going after those big dreams are the things that will make you deeply proud of yourself and see how strong you are. This paragraph kind of just went off on a tangent that I wasn't expecting! Whoops. Anyhow, I hope that you are all really doing great today. Being a human (and being a mama, if you're a fellow mom!) isn't easy, but it's an amazing and wild ride. How are you doing today? What big goals do you want to set for yourself? Comment below if you're feeling like it! (I always LOVE hearing comments or what you guys have to say!) 

Hugs,

Megan

P.S. I started listening to a podcast called The Armchair Expert (Dax Shephard's podcast!) and it is seriously AMAZING. I absolutely love it and I think everyone should listen! I've loved the episodes with Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham, and Kristen Bell (his wife!) so far! Y'all KNOW how I feel about a good podcast. Mm-hmm! Woo!

halloween 2018!

Photo via Pinterest - Classy Girls Wear Pearls blog.

It is October 25th today, which means that Halloween is a mere six days away! Are you in the spirit? BOO! I can't help but feel spirited when I see the changing leaves and tons of Halloween decorations wherever I go! When autumn comes around, I tend to focus on the "autumn" spirit instead of the spooky scary Halloween stuff - so I wanted to make a post FULL of my favorite Halloween recommendations to get you in the spooky mood. Activities, podcasts, TV shows, and movies that are all totally freaky and will get you in the mood to be a little scary!

Spooky Activities:

• If you're able to get a date night with your partner or a night out with friends, go on a haunted hay ride or to a haunted house! I can't really deal with haunted houses (enclosed spaces with a bunch of people who are there for one reason only - to make me want to pee my pants from fear? Nooooo thanks.) That being said, I do love haunted forests and I would love to go on a haunted hay ride! If you live in Michigan, there are tons of these attractions, along with corn mazes and cider mills if you're not feeling like being freaked out!
• Play around with Halloween makeup! Practice on your friends and your own face to see what creepy looks you can put together, or try out different colors of eyeshadow and liner or lipstick! Go for a witchy look with dark lip colors and green liner.
• Walk around those strange pop-up Halloween shops! I love how they just take over in an abandoned PetSmart or sporting goods store and they're full of creepiest things - huge animated clowns and insane asylum "patients". It's always kind of fun to look at all the costumes and the cheesy decorations!
• Have a scary movie night with family or friends! Make some creepy and cute desserts or appetizers and have a movie marathon night. There are tons of cute ideas on Pinterest for Halloween-themed party foods that are really fun to make.
• Carve up some pumpkins - or, have a pumpkin painting party instead if you don't like dealing with all the pumpkin guts! 

Freaky Podcasts:

• My Favorite Murder with Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff. Their website is right here! This is an awesome true crime podcast if you love learning about serial killers and freaky stories. I love listening to their shows, but now that Ben is a little older, I have to be strategic about it because I don't want him absorbing all of these horrendous stories haha! Not for small ears but definitely super intriguing and funny.They really do their research and make the stories super intense, and you can't help but look up the stories after listening for yourself!

• Dirty John by Christopher Goffard. This podcast isn't as dark and freaky as some of the stories in My Favorite Murder, but it's a super interesting story about a dirty con man who ended up getting what he deserved in the craziest way. If you want to hear a dark story but don't want to end up with nightmares for weeks, I would recommend this one! It's like reading a mystery novel and watching it unfold.

TV Shows and Movies:

• The Haunting of Hill House. This is a new Netflix show and it is GOOD. Chris and I couldn't help but watch it every night, and we would be genuinely scared! It is extremely well-written and just put together really nicely. I love the fact that it's a TV show because it gives time to let stories and characters really develop. Does the Bent-Neck Lady scare me to no end? Did the surprise SHOCK me? Yes and yes.
• American Horror Story. This show honestly sometimes freaks me out too much. It can get pretty weird and uncomfortable, so it's definitely not for the faint of heart!
• Silence of the Lambs. This is an older scary movie, but it's my personal favorite - a lot of the newer scary movies don't have an interesting storyline and are just meant to shock, and this one is just a really awesome movie! I have loved it for years.
• Some other scary movies that I think are definitely worth the watch? The Shining, It, (both the older and newer version!) Insidious, The Woman in Black, and Get Out. What are your favorite scary movies?

So, what are some of your Halloween traditions? Are you passing out candy this year, going to a Halloween party, or doing a little trick-or-treating with your little ones (or for yourself - no shame in that game!) We are definitely going to be dressing up this year, and handing out candy in our neighborhood. We finally live in a neighborhood where there will be a lot of trick-or-treaters, and I'm really excited to sit on our porch with Chris and Ben and see all the costumes! Let me know below what you're dressing up as this year! 

Tricks and treats,

Megan

Happy Halloween! Image via Pinterest.

Budgeting on Groceries: My Top 5 Tips!

Hey all!

I am writing to you today because I have been working on making our budget tighter and (hopefully) our savings more plentiful. When Chris and I first moved in together, our grocery shopping trips were mildly hilarious. We bought so many random items (S'mores chocolate milk anyone? Cups of edible cookie dough?) and we would just stock up like crazy. We lived on the third floor, and Chris built a pulley on our balcony to help us carry up all our grocery bags. Haha! We didn't have Ben yet, we were both working and we had supplemental income from the salon, and we basically just went a little crazy. We have slowly been learning to cut down on costs, cook more often at home, and waste less. (SO MUCH would go to waste!) I cook dinner pretty much every night - we might get takeout, go to a dinner at one of our family member's homes, or go out to eat once in a while, but typically Chef Bigliardi is serving the specials, y'all! I have become a better and more efficient grocery shopper through experience, tips from family and friends, and websites! It truly is a talent - I remember my mom stocking her coupon book every week before we went grocery shopping. Now, I am a little envious of her wild coupon skills! So, here are a few of the tricks that I use to cut down on extra spending...

1. Plan your meals. You guys - seriously. Plan them out. Make a list. Figure out what you're all going to have for breakfast (or at least a rough idea), lunch, and dinner. I usually plan dinner the most - it's the only one I actually write down for my meal planning list. If you're looking to save money, don't buy a bunch of extra stuff that you're not going to use! If you're just starting out in your own kitchen, make simple, simple recipes. That way, you don't have to buy a ton of ingredients that you're only going to use once! You can sauté or bake pretty much anything (okay, maybe not a Twinkie...) with extra virgin olive oil with a little salt and seasonings and it's delicious! (Chicken, sausage, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes, etc.) Look up meal ideas with like 3-5 ingredients, and go from there. I can link up some easy recipes below if anyone is interested!
2. Where to shop? Lately, I have been LOVING Aldi for our weekly meals. Chris was skeptical of Aldi at first because it's not really your standard grocery store and I think he thought the selection was questionable, but I love it! It's kind of like the same idea as Trader Joe's but really cheap prices and a low-cost system. (You pay a quarter to use a cart so you put the cart back after to get your quarter back and you bag up your groceries yourself on a long counter near the checkout area! This cuts down on their labor costs.) I actually have noticed that many of their products are high-quality and I can't tell the difference between their brand and the main brands. (Plus, they pay fair wages to their employees which I think is rad!) This week, I went grocery shopping and spent less than $60 on all of our food for the week. (We might stop back at the store for a couple of things but we should be pretty good to go for the most part.) This is for a family of three, and I paid less than $60! Before I started going to Aldi and planning out my list more efficiently, I would often spend well over $100 each week. (Seriously!) I also really like shopping at Meijer (certain things I have to buy at a big-box store, like our diapers/wipes and certain food items! I like only certain kinds of coffee and creamers haha!) which is a Midwestern grocery store chain - I like to think of it as "Fancy Walmart" and the fact that it more local to my region makes me feel less guilty for shopping at a big box store. (Walmart is good in a pinch but it's just not my favorite place in the world to shop! I don't think they have a good produce section and I just am not crazy about the whole shopping experience there.)

   

   EVERYTHING I bought at Aldi - all for under $60 dollars! What what!

3. Look into programs at your local grocery stores! I mentioned Meijer earlier, and I am a member of their system called "M-Perks", which is a membership rewards system. I shop there pretty frequently and that means that I often get tons of coupons and even random discounts off my total. I often get discounts around $6, which doesn't seem like a lot but it helps when you're budgeting! (Think about it this way - $6 is a full pack of baby wipes, or the price for a 3-pound bag of frozen chicken which would be enough chicken for 4 meals! Or a TON of zucchini. Worth it to me!) 
4. Get strategic about your meals. What can you buy in bulk that will be something you can use for multiple meals? I mentioned the large bags of frozen chicken breasts earlier - if you cook with a lot of chicken as a protein, buy in bulk. I used to also use raw chicken tenderloins instead of chicken breasts in recipes because it was cheaper, and if they were just cubed and put in pasta or a stir fry, we couldn't tell the difference.
5. Think about shopping differently. Before we had Ben, and even before I met Chris, I was always a spender. I loved buying myself little inexpensive things - a cheap outfit there, a makeup item here. I was never able to really save any money because I didn't think about it that much when I spent my money. I very rarely buy clothes now, because I know I can wear what I have already and no one's going to care! I often buy my clothes at thrift stores because they are unique, inexpensive and pre-washed (which means I can't shrink them like I always do with new clothes! Ugh!) I only buy new makeup when I need something or I know I will really love it. (I bought a Too Faced matte lipstick a couple of years ago and I only wore it a handful of times. I also bought a Smashbox matte lipstick and ONLY wore it for a wedding Chris and I went to! I could have bought the same shade from a drugstore brand and not wasted the money.) Only buy the expensive stuff when you KNOW it's going to be something you're really going to use.

Thanks for reading, everyone! To those of you who may not live on your own or don't have any littles yet, this may be extremely boring for you, and for that I apologize! Now that we are trying to budget our money efficiently and we have a family of 3, I love learning about how I can save money and think about money differently. Remember that as hard as it may be, try not to stress about cash too much. Money comes and goes, and as soon as you think you're not going to be able to make it work, something could happen to bring wealth into your life! (And vice versa - so don't get too comfortable with spending frivolously because it's a hard habit to break! I speak from experience.) 

Hugs,

Megan

Also, what are your grocery shopping tips for me? I always love hearing other people's ideas! What are you making this week for dinner? Anything special?

mental health awareness: my journey with OCD

Last week (or maybe this week?) I saw that it was Mental Health Awareness Day. I saw lots of quote photos being shared and posted about mental health and self-care. It made me think about my own struggle with mental health, and how I've learned to cope. I would love to become an awareness advocate of a little thing I like to call Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Otherwise known (in my mind) as the Guilt, Doubt and Worry Disorder. I am nervous to post about this because it's something that I have dealt with for over a decade, and it's been my biggest obstacle and challenge in life. Also, it's kind of scary writing about this stuff - I don't want people to think differently of me, ya know?

When I think about my OCD in a visual, it looks a little like this. A seed is planted in the garden of your mind. It can be a thought, something that happened, just something small usually. This seed could start out like a normal little seed, but suddenly it begins to grow into something more. Something much worse, a dark, twisted, thick vine that grows around all of the flowers, fruit and veggies in your mind, and tightens around their roots. The flowers begin to die, and the fruit's growth begins to slow until eventually none grows. All that's growing in your garden is this diseased, methodical, powerful root, and it has wiped out the beauty and growth in your mind.

Dark? I know. It's not fun, and it's not cute.

People say a lot of funny little things to make their quirks seem silly. "OMG, I am sooooo OCD about my house - I like it to be super clean!" "I am so OCD - I just need to have my volume at a certain number!" There are makeup brands labeled "Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics" and there is a TV show called "Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners". I try not to get too frustrated about people's slip-ups and them making light of it, but it kind of makes me want to smack my head against a wall because people truly don't understand what they're saying. Not only does that confuse people who are dealing with OCD and have no idea that they have it (which is most people with OCD) but it also makes it seem like it's a silly, trivial illness. Just quirky people who like to keep things clean!

I first began experiencing true OCD symptoms when I was 11. I remember it very clearly - it was like my brain literally changed. I had something that I was feeling guilty about and I confessed it to my mom (it was a stupid and silly thing but something in my mind told me that I needed to tell her.) Suddenly, I just felt different. My brain went from feeling sort of simple and not worried about much of anything to just feeling off. I remember watching a movie with my family that night and just thinking, "I hope this feeling is gone tomorrow." Only, it wasn't. It stayed with me. It caused me to begin laying in bed at night, dwelling and ruminating over all the past events in my life, trying to pick out anything I may have done wrong in my childhood. Finally, I would remember "something" ( I put it in quotation marks because the things I would find to feel guilty for weren't things that mattered, or sometimes my OCD would kind of make something up. I know - WTF?) and I would obsess, obsess, obsess for months until I told my mom. Once, it was because I stole a tiny rock when I was 7 or 8. I remembered that I knew better than to do that, so why did I do it? I obsessed over it for months, I would cry every night in bed, and I started not even wanting to get ready for school.

It got worse. My OCD would ruminate over an event that I couldn't remember and literally try to fabricate things. It would make me think about the same horrible thoughts over and over throughout the day - I honestly couldn't get through a day without thinking about these OCD thoughts at least a hundred times. I felt like I was the most disgusting and messed up person in the world - and I felt all alone in it. It was just always there. And it made it so much harder because I had no idea why I felt this way - I didn't even really know OCD was an option for what was happening to me. The funny thing is, at some point between late middle school and early high school, I began washing my hands constantly and obsessing over germs. My hands would be absolutely raw all winter - cracked, bleeding cuts from dryness and over-washing, and I couldn't stop. I STILL didn't make the OCD connection. I would worry that if I didn't wash my hands after touching the countertop, it could have had some residue from raw chicken on it and I would poison my family. Unloading the dishwasher became a high-anxiety event, and I couldn't get through cleaning our kitchen without washing my hands at least 10 times.

I was very good at hiding it, too - I think people with OCD (especially those who don't KNOW they have OCD) are pretty good at this. You just feel so ashamed and you think you're this horrible person, but you still find a way to seem like a happy-go-lucky and funny individual. No one would have known anything was going on! No one. I am writing about this because I want anyone who has felt any of these symptoms to truly look into Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and find help. Unfortunately, OCD is not something that can be cured - you have it forever, which at first can feel like a ton of bricks, but it's going to be okay. If you know you have it, just remember that it's not that there is anything wrong with YOU.

Yes, I still have OCD. I have gotten treatment, but it's still there, and it affects me often, in various ways. When I was pregnant, it really messed with my brain and made me feel very depressed. If I wrote out everything that my OCD obsesses over and causes turmoil in my mind, this post would be way too long to read - just look up common OCD obsessive thoughts and tick down the list. But learning what it is has been the biggest help to me - It's not ME - I am a kind, smart, good person. It's just OCD. It's just that my brain turns on panic signals more often, and it works a little different neurologically.

If you're crying every night, if you can't stop obsessive thoughts, if you feel like you need to fulfill a compulsion ("confessing" to someone, washing your hands, doing something just because you feel incredibly uneasy and sick if you don't do it), that's not healthy or normal. When I was really affected by it during pregnancy, I finally started talking to a therapist, and thank God I did. I want to be the kind of mom who is there to talk about any issues that Ben is struggling with, and I also want to be calm mentally and there for him in any way that I can - taking care of myself is important for me now. Look for the patterns in your behavior. Seek help! Talk to a trusted friend or therapist. I try to be very transparent about my therapy because I know it can be embarrassing or hard to talk about. I take Zoloft to help with it, as well. Talk about it - find a therapist who handles OCD cases, and ask about it. God has helped me through it all - I have prayed about it countless times, and sometimes my prayers aren't so nice, but God's helped me all the way through regardless. Sometimes, I like to think of people who experience OCD as those who feel the weight of the world - we feel the guilt and worry for ten people. Maybe this is a blessing in some way that we can't see yet? Chris has been my biggest supporter, even when he doesn't understand what I'm dealing with.

I love being happy - and most of the time now, I'm pretty damn happy. But it wasn't always that way, and sometimes it still isn't! Just because you are struggling with something doesn't mean you're not still a wonderful, fun, unique, and energetic person. You're just a human being.

I hope you're all doing really well today and I hope you're all loving fall. Remember that needing help is perfectly okay, and you are wonderful just the way you are.

Hugs,

Megan

endings and beginnings

It has been kind of a crazy month, guys. One of those months where it feels like you don't get the chance to take a deep breath. Those times are often the tougher times, and they can be transformative.  The past couple of years of my life have felt this way - tough, lovely, transformative, and challenging.  I've been through more changes and experienced more new things in my life in the past couple of years than I ever have before - I've become a mom to my favorite person in the world, I've fallen in love with and became a fiancé to a loving, funny, handsome guy. We've clumsily ran a business together, traveled across the country three times, and learned to become parents to our little bean. I've experienced my parents going through their divorce, moved twice, started going to therapy for the first time and learning that what I had been dealing with for many years had a name, gained a whole new part of my family by meeting Chris, made and lost friends, learned to "adult" (pay the bills, cook decently well, be responsible, keep a house relatively clean), and we've made plans to move across the country with our little family of three.

Gah. Lots of learning, lots of absorbing, lots of change. Some of it is really really wonderful and some of it has just plain sucked. That's how life is. C'est la vie!

One of the big changes for us in the latest few weeks is the closing of the salon that we have been co-running for the past couple of years. It was originally Chris' stepdad's salon, and he passed away about four years ago. Chris helped take care of the salon in the meantime, and there were good years. More recently, the salon began to take a hit - it's a tanning salon, and fixing equipment is expensive and complicated. If you've ever met me, you can probably tell that I'm not an avid tanner, and it slowly went from a fun project for me to help with to kind of a burden - financially, it fell farther and farther behind, and the past couple of months it hasn't been making nearly enough to pay for itself to exist - rent, payroll, supplies, lotions, and repairs add up quickly. Last week, we finally decided to close it for good. It feels like a strange, satisfying and yet bittersweet ending to an era - the salon had been a longstanding  frustration for us, and yet we had become friends with some employees and it had become a normal part of many of our days. It has been a fixture in its community for almost 20 years, and it feels like the "black sheep" of our family has kind of dissipated. (In many ways, it was a wonderful learning experience for us - but in many ways, it also felt like kind of a dark cloud over us - we could never get on top of all the repairs and issues that were happening, and it felt like we were constantly failing.)

It felt like something that was worthy of dedicating a post to - a farewell to that chapter of our lives. It has kind of been my part-time job ever since Ben was born, and it often made me feel like I wasn't doing enough - I was still learning to be a mom all day and night, keep the house clean and our own bills paid, and many days I was driving two hours roundtrip to the salon as well, trying to make sure all the supplies were there and everyone had their paychecks for the week. I wasn't able to do mechanical repairs, but I tried to keep things semi-together, with the help of a great manager (I see you Marti!) and Chris to guide me when I was in a tough situation. Our employees dealt with customers regulating pooping and peeing in trash cans, customers who would yell at them and constantly complain, and we dealt with constant negative reviews on Facebook and people basically roasting us online. I would be lying if I told you all that it's closing didn't feel like kind of a relief, but it also feels like a small failure on my part - I had wanted to fix the place up, make it all shiny and new again, and bring up business and fix the whole thing! It was kind of out of our control at that point, and its end was inevitable. I definitely learned a lot from that salon - the basics of running an actual working brick-and-mortar business, employee dynamics (I learned that some people are going to dislike me no matter how I act toward them! It's gonna be OKAY. Some people just aren't very nice.), budgeting and learning to buy quality items. (We spent thousands of dollars on replacement after replacement of one of our pieces of equipment.) All sorts of good stuff to take with us wherever we go.

Want to know something strange? Someone broke into the salon two days after we closed it! I'm talking, breaking the glass, unlocking the door, rooting around in the drawers, and then bolting. We have it on our cameras and with the help of the police, we are trying to figure out how to take care of the situation. Kind of felt like the cherry on the sundae! (Or is it the icing on the cake? Can I use either interchangeably? I DON'T KNOW!)

Anyway, the moral to this strange and random story? If you're feeling stressed about your current situation, know that it can change in a day - and really, you're in control of it. Also, you will probably learn a lot from the hard stuff. Maybe you're in a job where you feel passionless - find something that you feel joyful about in that job. (I repainted and redecorated our front wall about a year ago, and I felt SO proud of myself when I did that! It was such a small thing.) I felt so stressed by the salon in a lot of ways over the past couple of months, and in one day, it was closed and the situation completely changed. Whatever you're working at or going through - you've got this! Thanks for listening to my long story here, guys. Hope you're all having a great week!

Hugs,

Megan