June 2023:
This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Southern Belle in Training!
Highs of the Month:
- At the very end of June, I finally got some very good news regarding a health scare that I've been dealing with for the last few months! Truly the biggest blessing! I am currently drafting an update blog post about it (as well as an update on the bursitis in my left hip that I've been dealing with since January). I hope to have this post up in the next couple of weeks.
- Attending and working at my first music festival as an adult! (Technically, my first-ever festival was a Christian music festival in New Hampshire with my church the summer before 12th grade.) The first BEACH IT! country music festival was held at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront June 23-25th. I was there all three days both for work and to attend some performances. It was fun to bump into a few local friends and some of Ryan's extended family members. I also got to meet so many wonderful radio listeners, and meet Thomas Rhett, Kip Moore and Megan Moroney!
- My friend Emily from Charlottesville finally got to visit me in Virginia Beach! She was actually my final overnight guest that I got to host in my now former apartment. The weekend Emily visited worked out so well, because our friend Lily was also in town from Charlottesville for a wedding! And our other friend Sierra also lives in Virginia Beach now. The four of us got to go out to breakfast Saturday morning and it was so much fun to be with some Charlottesville friends in my new city. Emily and I had a great rest of the weekend, too. I was so excited for her to finally meet Ryan!
Lows of the Month:
- More stress and anxiety over my health (until the good news I got at the very end of the month). Even though things are better on that front now, my high anxiety this year has inspired me to try and look into starting counseling sometime in the next few months.
- The horrible food poisoning / stomach bug that hit me for several days after coming home from the Dominican Republic! It was honestly so bad that I felt like I needed another vacation after getting over it. What a rough end to a good vacation!
- A few rude comments I received after sharing the news about moving into Ryan's apartment. 95% of the comments and DMs I received were incredibly kind and supportive, but there were a couple not as kind and very judgmental messages. I feel lucky that as a part-time blogger/influencer I don't get nearly as many negative messages as those that do this full-time, but I guess the rare times I do they really do affect me. Isn't it crazy how our brains can sometimes fixate on the negative even when there's so much positive? Ugh haha.
June Weekend Recaps:
2nd-4th - I was in the Dominican Republic with my dad for a dad/daughter trip! Read all about our trip and a review of our resort HERE. I got home very late on Saturday night after some flight delays. On Sunday, I started getting some horrible food poisoning / stomach bug symptoms that lasted well into the next week. Woof! At least the weekend had started out great while I was still on vacation.
9th-11th - My good friend Emily from Charlottesville finally got to visit me in Virginia Beach!! She was supposed to visit me last summer, but it had to be cancelled when I got super sick last July. Good things are worth the wait though! We had such a fun weekend together. On Friday, we grabbed drinks at a rooftop bar, and then met our friend Sierra for dinner. (Sierra was a friend of both of ours from Charlottesville, and she also has since moved to Virginia Beach!) On Saturday morning, we grabbed brunch with Sierra and our other mutual friend, Lily! Lily still lives in Charlottesville like Emily, but was coincidentally in Virginia Beach that weekend for a wedding. I still frequently miss all of my Charlottesville girlfriends, so it was such a treat to have brunch with three of them! Emily and I then headed to the beach for a great day, and then had dinner with Ryan that evening so she could finally meet him. We ended the day with a second beach trip and ice cream! On Sunday, Ryan and I brought Emily to church with us, and then I had a work event with all of my coworkers that afternoon and evening.
16th-18th - A very busy weekend with work! I was thrilled when Ryan suggested we do a date night on Friday before the weekend got super busy for me. On Friday evening we went to dinner at Luce, one of our favorite restaurants, and then got ice cream after. On Saturday, I had back-to-back work events that took up the entire day. One was in the neighboring city of Chesapeake, and my second event was all the way out in Franklin (a town about an hour west). On Sunday, I spent most of the first half of the day working on apartment moving prep, and then Ryan and I got apps and drinks at a fun outdoor bar with another couple in the late afternoon.
23rd-25th - My first-ever country music festival weekend! What a whirlwind. The BEACH IT! music festival came to Virginia Beach, and I was out there Friday, Saturday and Sunday for work! There were some incredible highs (meeting a few country artists, meeting tons of our amazing radio listeners, a gorgeous double rainbow, great live music performances), but a few lows as well (very long days, some stressful moments on the work side of things, getting caught in two separate rain downpours). I'm really excited for next year's BEACH IT! since I have one behind me now. I think I'll have a much better idea of what to expect on how to balance the long work hours and also have the most fun attending some of the performance.
June Purchases:
- Didn't do a ton of personal shopping this month as I had so many expenses to prep for going into July (medical bills and moving), but I did buy a couple fun things for myself! I finally hopped on the exercise dress trend with this adorable scalloped dress! It comes in a few fun colors. I did find it runs small in the stomach area- I would size up.
- The most adorable little earrings for my day job in country radio and all of our summer concerts from one of my favorite small businesses!
- I had the opportunity to partner again in June with Splash of Pink, a Lilly Pulitzer signature store! They sent me two gorgeous outfits from the Lilly summer collection. The first was this cute romper, and the second was this elegant sundress!
June Blog Posts:
I was going to comment on your moving post but just read your update and am posting it here! As a conservative Christian who completely relates to what you said about sermons, etc. growing up, I wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS on the move and I 100% agree. I hope you all living together is a time to continued love, fun, and growth.
ReplyDeleteI miss seeing you on Instagram (I'm still on a hiatus--people are the worst).
xo,
Brittany
www.basicbritt.com
As someone who's passionate about this topic, I really appreciated the way you approached it with a fresh perspective. Your insights were both informative and inspiring, and I found myself feeling energized and motivated after reading your post.
ReplyDeleteXOX
Kelvin
nywatchmarket.com