Written by Callie, Kenzie, and Brenna

Callie

September was a wild month that flew by in a flash. There are three things that stand out the most though and interestingly enough they all happened in the last 10 days of the month.

First, Jason and I bought a house! It’s one of the only houses that we have BOTH liked. The price was a bit higher than we had planned for but we liked it too much to let it pass us by. So for real now, if you have contacts in Fort Worth and know of anyone hiring a detail-driven, email-responding, social media updating, general overall manager type person, hit me up. Because I need a job like yesterday.

Look how cute! It’s got big, old trees in the front yard and back, large windows, and a she-shed out back!

Second, Jason and I got in a wreck. This was my first time being in one and I was driving. Even though Jason teases me now about not knowing how to drive, it was 100% not my fault. We were in our Camry and somehow managed to flip the Kia of the person that pulled out right in front of us. I’m so thankful that no one was hurt or went to the hospital! This was my first experience dealing with the police (I was a really good kid) and the first time for dealing with insurance people. It’s not been the best. They both work really slow and I need them to speed it up a bit.

Third and lastly, I participated in my first styled shoot! Most styled shoots are for weddings but this one was for a photographer and she had her senior representatives for the shoot! I’ll have a whole blog post about it headed your way soon, but I loved every minute of it! I’ve been wanting to get in the styled shoot game for a while now and with all the wedding decor rentals Kenzie and I have, we were able to create a really wonderful set up that everyone loved! I’m hoping this launches Local Pines Collaborative a bit and I’ll get more inquiries for more shoots and virtual assistant gigs! Also shout out to Kenzie, Brenna, and Jason for helping me do all the things at the shoot, because I could not have made it that great without y’all!

ramble and rove - wedding blogger - styled shoot - Natalia J photogrpahy - wedding styled shoot - pallet table - cedar runner

Kenzie

Hello again, friends.

For me, September passed in much the same way that August did, very quickly and not so great. In all honesty, I’ve been pretty emotionally drained and stressed out which is just annoying and confusing. But! I don’t want this to be another sad update because my life isn’t sad, it’s just… rough currently haha.

So, first of all, here’s a super cute photo of Scout to cheer everyone up - including myself - that I took on my new iPhone X which is very nice and I am enjoying greatly.

One good thing from this month is that I finally heard something about my dear Volkswagen Van, Vinny (as in Vincent Van Go, haha get it? You can thank Claire for that stroke of pun genius). He’s been in the shop nearly a month and my dad finally got a hold of them. They gave me a price for fixing all of the electric which Dad said was a good price and I trust him because I know nothing and it should be done in the coming weeks! That’s super exciting because then I’ll have it back and be able to practice driving it without stalling it and start working on one of the many other projects that need to happen on it.

Also, the styled shoot! Callie mentioned it earlier and there will be an entire post on it, but for now, I’ll just say that it was so much fun! Going in, I was very nervous and a little doubtful, but everything turned out super adorable and I can’t wait to see the pictures. I hope that we get to help Callie out with more in the future.

Lastly, I just want to encourage everyone to take a look around your life and really appreciate what you have. I’ve been down, but overall, I am so dang lucky. Lucky to be alive at all and lucky to have such wonderful people in my life that truly care about me. Every once and a while, try to show or tell those people how much they mean to you. I hope this blog counts as that for the people in my life. You know who you are!

Brenna

Last month I really didn’t do much. Which sounds lame but it was kind of nice having a month with a pretty empty plate knowing the next few months are going to be crazy with wedding stuff.

Speaking of wedding stuff, I’m just so ready for it to be here. Not necessarily because I’m dying to live with JT or have that married title but because I’m tired of all the DECISIONS. I get so overwhelmed with the baby details that I just spend more time than I’d like being worried about stuff that probably doesn’t matter in the end. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so excited to start my life with JT as his trophy wife and personal cookie maker. There’s no doubt about that and I know he’s excited too.

I turned 26 this month and had to sign up for my own health insurance which sucked because I was really enjoying riding my parents insurance gravy train. I wish I hadn’t been so eager to become a “grown-up” because it’s really not all I thought it would be. *cries inside

Later on in September I participated in Orangetheory’s semi-annual Dri-Tri and didn’t die! I did the sprint version back in March and was pretty nervous going into the full version but it was so worth it. The Dri-Tri is a 2000m row, 300 reps of body weight exercises followed by a 5k run on the treadmill. ALL. FOR. TIME. My goal was to finish in under an hour and OTF’s goal for me was to finish in under 53:32 and I finished in 52:41. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t puke immediately after but y’all, I haven’t been that proud of my self in a long time so it was worth the embarrassment.

The theme was “Fall in Love with Dri-Tri” so naturally, I did the most. This is my favorite coach Nikia! We are laughing because she was on her tiptoes so I wouldn’t look like a giant.

Things are really starting to pick up at work and by the end of October (God-willing) I will be in a satellite office in Conroe. So YAY! No more 45 minute drive to and from work every day. Currently, we have 7 office warehouses, a collision center, it’s body shop and I can’t even begin to tell you how many storage units all under construction at the same time. So if you need to rent an office warehouse get with me and I’ll show you just how gorgeous they are going to be in under 60 days. It would also make my boss happy to get these bad boys rented out.

Living by this quote lately. (Shameless handlettering plug)

That’s about it for me guys! I’m with Kenzie on making time to appreciate all that you have in your life. I am truly thankful for all that I have, my health and the people who show me unconditional love daily. I thank God multiple times a day for these things but I think it’s important to let y’all know how thankful and appreciative I am. You know who you are!