My 26th Birthday!!

January 14, 2019

My 26th Birthday!!

It’s my 26th birthday, y’all!! Well, kinda. (Edit: I actually had this post completely written and ready to publish last Monday, which was my actual birthday. But my husband had other plans. I’ll get into all of that at the end of the post.) I love that my birthday is right after the holidays. Once Christmas is over, it can get kinda sad but then I remember New Years is right around the corner and then my birthday is exactly one week after that which means I have two more things to get excited about after Christmas so it’s not so sad after all. The only bad part was when I was in school and we’d have to go back from Christmas break on my birthday. That was never fun!

What’s also not fun is having to write a birthday post that’s not as positive as the ones I’ve done in the past. This year definitely had a lot to live up to compared to the previous year. I knew it wasn’t going to be as magical as the year I got married, obviously. I just had no idea there would be as many unexpected challenges as there were.

The majority of the issues we faced this year stemmed from family and career, generally speaking. And when I say “we,” I mean my husband and me. We’re a unit and go through everything together. I’d be lying if I said the difficult times didn’t also affect our relationship because, of course it did. How couldn’t it? But with 6 ½ years of creating a solid foundation, we worked through it together.

When I look back at this year, it immediately gives me a bad taste and brings down my mood. I know it shouldn’t be that way, but sometimes things happen. That’s just life. Thankfully, there is one thing that can always put a smile on my face and that’s our new Australian Shepherd. Our German Shepherd has been our only baby for 4 ½ years and I love her so incredibly much. But she’s always been a Daddy’s girl, so it was comforting to bring in a new puppy that ended up being a total Momma’s boy. He’s such a cuddlebug and has brought us so much joy.

Having this new puppy (he’s now 10 months) has really made me so content with my life, which also got me thinking. When I was younger, I had a timeline for my life just like everyone else. So far everything’s pretty much gone as planned, but I’m reaching the age where I imagined I would be starting a family with an actual baby coming into the picture.

Now that I’m here and actually living it, a baby is the last thing I want in my life. Not to be rude or anything, that’s just how it is. There’s a million reasons I could list, and maybe I will one day in the future. I’m just tired of having to explain my decisions, so for now I’ll leave it at that. Maybe I’ll change my mind in a few years, but right now it’s an absolute no.

Although I was pretty let down by this past year, I have to look at it as an inevitable learning experience. I learned a lot about people, life, where to spend my time, how to let go. All of those hard life lessons seemed to come all at once. Coming out of this past year, I’ve been appreciating how blessed I am with what I have. My home, my sweet little loving family, my blog, my supporters and followers. I’m so blessed and grateful for all those things. This new year can only get better. I plan on taking all the lessons I learned and improving my life and happiness as I enter into my 26th year.

Now onto my actual birthday that made this post get published a week behind schedule...The Friday before my birthday, my husband comes home from work and tells me to start packing. I was beyond confused and just stood there staring at him with a blank face. He then starts spilling his guts on all the planning he’s been doing to surprise me with a birthday vacation to Atlanta. He literally had everything planned out for the entire trip! I immediately started balling like a baby and barely remembered anything he said. I’ve never been surprised with a vacation before. It was the most grateful, loving, joyous feeling in the world!

So I did as he said and started planning out everything I needed to pack. We drove the 4 ½ hours north on Sunday and spent 4 nights. A vacation and some time away was wayyy overdue for the both of us. We had such a great time, but also missed our pups terribly. Thankfully, I have an amazing sister that watched our house and our children while we were gone. That gave me comfort knowing everything was okay and our babies were happy.

We visited the aquarium, the municipal market, went snow tubing at Margaritaville, and took a hike up Stone Mountain. We ate some delicious food, my two favorites were Alon’s Bakery and Highland Bakery. We stayed at our first Airbnb, which was such a different experience than a traditional hotel. And I learned that Atlanta roads are a million times more difficult to drive than any city I’ve driven in before, including Los Angeles! Jacob gave me the best birthday I could have ever asked for. This is one I’ll remember and cherish forever.

And to top it all off, I ended my birthday week with a very important Saints win (Who Dat?!) and finally got to see Kevin Hart perform live for the last date of his Irresponsible Tour last night. Not to mention Alabama's loss on my actual birthday - what a gift that was!! There couldn’t have been a better way to end such a challenging year, while also bringing such a fresh start to a new age. ♥