2022 was an amazing year. I’d say it is the best year of my life,thus far. My family and I moved from our oh so comfortable, predictable, like minded, flat city in the MidWest. To the fast past, super diverse, unpredictable, mountains on the west and beaches on the east, East coast. The transition was exciting, but also scary. We moved and did not have a home. So we spent the summer house hunting. In a very competitive over priced market. But during that transition with all the excitement I found myself literally on my death bed.

I was bleeding internally, I just thought I was tired. I’m in this new big city, I’ve never had any health issues and if I wouldn’t have listened to my husband and called the nurse line… it could have been tragic. While I waited a day in the emergency room with NO SERVICE. I was told I needed a blood transfusion. This was the scariest thing ever.

When it comes to my health I prefer to do my own research, before I make a decision based off a doctors recommendation. But in this situation I couldn’t. All I could do was PRAY. I had faith that God was going to bring me through this situation. But I learned I needed UNSHAKEABLE FAITH. I had to stand on what I knew…Whatever God will bring you to, God will bring you through. I had a successful blood transfusion, recovery went well and as of today my health is great.

With all of that I still had the best year ever. My family is healthy, we’ve found a circle of friends and family, and we’ve spent the holidays with in our new home. So although 2022 was an amazing year, all I can hear God saying is that, 2023 is going to be even better. So I’m accepting all things new. New routine, new challenges and new discomforts. Which will all equal up to growth, and a new version of me.

It’s the peace and quiet for me.I absolutely love coming to the nail salon. I remember as a little girl I would come every two weeks with my mom. Walking in and the smell of nail polish was the best smell ever to me. (I know weird, right!) The endless amount of nail polishes on the wall was a beautiful sight to my young eyes. In the small waiting area there would be as many magazines as there were nail polishes on the wall. As we waited for Kevin,the salon owner, to call my mother over we watched the other ladies get finished up. I was always excited to see what color they had as they walked past me to get out the door.Did they have long or short nails? A bright color or did they get that old school cotton candy color that was “Oh so pretty”😍 and classic? Kevin calls for my mother in broken English.“OK come on,you let’s go. Where is your sister?” My mother and Aunt would often go to the nail salon together. He usually asked where the other sister was. I watched with anticipation, I waited to see my mother’s nails. I wanted to get my nails done so bad as a kid. But my mother always said the same thing whenever I asked. “Getting your nails done is a bill. When you can pay your bills, you can get your nails done.” So when I got my first job at 16 and I was able to afford a nail salon trip,I did just that. And still today, I absolutely love going to the nail salon.It is my alone time when I can sit down, read my magazine and enjoy peace and quiet.

2020 has been, well 2020. I believe it’s been exactly what it supposed to be. Through it all my family and I have remained healthy. That is a major blessing within it self.

I started the year off 6 months postpartum. With the promise to myself that I would be the healthiest I’d ever been. I started going to the gym at 5:30am. I was determined to get in shape and restart my workout journey once again. Then the world STOPPED, everything closed. Gyms, schools,stores, everything. We had no idea how serious COVID was but we did take it serious. I was upset that once again something was getting in the way of my workout journey. The last time I had a workout routine going and started to see the results, I found out I was pregnant. Yes, you can still workout while pregnant but I took the news pretty hard and I just fell completely off. But January 2020 I knew it was about changing my mind. Yes the world has completely stopped but that didn’t mean I had to. I might not have been able to go as hard as I did when I was at the gym, but if I was going to be in the house with my entire family I needed to move and do something for my mental health. I found a 30day yoga challenges on Amazon prime and started there. I woke up at 6:30am with my 9year old and we did yoga. Then I started paying attention to my diet. Sitting around eating junk food while we were stuck indoors did not have me feeling my best. My husband started making fresh juice in the mornings. We started trying to make the most healthy choices as possible. When the gyms opened I gave it two weeks and then I got right back to it. I started going consistently in August. It was hard to motivate myself to go, but I continued to go. What working out did for my mental health during this crazy year is amazing. Then the mask mandate was put in place, a lot of people were upset and didn’t want to work out with a mask on. I refused to let that stop me. I’d made so much progress.

One of the biggest takeaways 2020 taught me is no matter what you are trying to accomplish there are going to be obstacles. Life changing, world stopping obstacles. But if you want it you have to keep pushing toward it no matter what. It’s always going to be something that’s going to try to get in the way of your goals, no matter how big or small. You have to make the choice to not let whatever it is stop you.

I needed 2020! It reminded me that God and God alone is in control. I leaned on and talked to God more than ever this year. I needed 2020 to appreciate my family and our health more than ever. The time we spent together made us stronger than ever. I needed 2020 to be able to sit with myself and my thoughts and build myself, connect the dots in my life without all noise and just grow. Yes 2020 was rough but we made it. We are here, hours away from 2021 and I’m ready to apply everything I learned in 2020 and be better and greater than ever. What about you? You ready? Because 2021 is coming …..Ready or not!

What in my handbag😊

Well I actually just switched bags so this one isn’t stuffed with receipts or extra things my kids give me. It very clean. This is my green with gold detail cross body. I got this bag from JustFab. It’s super cute and very functional it’s one of my favorites!

Ok so let’s look what we have inside🧐

I have my wallet,sun glasses, old movie tickets. Hand lotion a small note pad and pen. A couple lip glosses some ladies hygiene items and business cards from my stylist! This is the standard everything that’s in my handbag!

Soooo yeah it’s actually day 15 and I’ve slacked. With getting kids back to school and not feeling so well the blog slipped my mind. But it’s a lesson learned I now have an alarm set to remind me to post. Day13 post is a quote you love. If you go to my Pinterest you will see I have a Wisdom board full of quotes that I truly love but I will pick one This is a powerful quote. It’s so easy to get caught up in other people’s dysfunction, you have to be very mindful of the energy you let in your life. I just love Oprah she is full of wisdom! Share your favorite quote in the comments😃

If I won the lottery?

If I won the lottery first of all, I wouldn’t tell anyone. I would want to wear a disguise to sign the check. I would pay off all of our debit. Pay off my kids college. Take a family vacation. Maybe buy 2 or 3 homes in different cities. I would invest some of the money so it can continue to grow and save some of the money. There isn’t a lot of splurging I would do besides a new car and maybe a Fendi bag. The biggest thing would be to pay off all debt and not live beyond my means.

Proudest moment. As of right now I’m proud of the fact that I’m constantly posting everyday with this blog challenge. I’m not sure that after the 31 days I’ll continue to post everyday, I’m think maybe once a week. And more meaningful topics. Just the fact that I’m making an effort to get on here everyday and post, I’m pretty proud of that😊

First celebrity crush is today’s post topic. I don’t really remember having a specific crush. I loved to get the Word Up magazine seeing Immature, Lil bow wow, and Lil Romeo. But there want one boy or group I was crazy about.