Hey.  I’m back.
Sorry.
It’s been two years.
HOW has it been two years?

This sounds weird to say, but it is a lot easier for me to write when I’m struggling or hurting. During happy times I’m just busy being happy. And positive emotions are harder for me to put into words. So I guess you can say the last two years have been full of happiness because I haven’t even attempted to blog.

A whole lot has changed. Like a lot. Most of you know me in real life and probably follow me on social media, so it won’t come as a shock to you, but for those of you that do not, here’s a synopsis.

I left things off on a positive note after dad’s battle with Covid-19 in the summer of 2020. Thank you for all of your prayers for my father and for my family. God is good and He listens to the brokenhearted. God healed my dad. He is back working, playing tennis, and teaching Sunday school class. I still can’t believe we went through that. It’s so surreal. And I fully believe all of the prayers spilled over into all the other aspects of our lives, not just dad’s healing. Shortly after he was back home with mom, I went back to Atlanta. Back to work. Life in a city in quarantine.

I have always been into art. At my kindergarten graduation when they asked what I want to be when I grew up, my answer was an artist. I would doodle on all of my homework, tests, desks, and binders. I would draw all over myself and the bulletins during church. Computers gave me photoshop, layout, and graphic design. Art has always been an outlet for me, it had just fallen to the wayside in my twenties while I paid my bills with real jobs.  But in May 2020, I went into Michaels bought some supplies. Watercolors, acrylics, some canvases, new brushes. I felt like creating something and art is a very quarantine-friendly hobby.

If you had told me that in two years’ time, I would have painted a hundred commissions, I would have laughed in your face. It started with one little Yorkie on a canvas board and some Lisa Frank kittens on some white sneakers. And a lot of encouragement from my coworkers that saw more in me than I could in myself.

It is so weird to think that dozens of people have my paintings in their homes! My pet portraits have been sent to states as far as New York. Clients that don’t even know me, like my art. HOW cool is that?! I am mostly painting pets over at baracustoms.com and you can find me on Instagram @baracustoms.

I probably should’ve just branded as  “Kristen Waters art, but I wasn’t married when I started and I didn’t want to jinx it by branding ahead of myself. Which leads me to my next massive life change since my last post.

Also in May 2020, I wrote, “I want something real that doesn’t run at the first struggle. Someone special and a close-knit community to ride out the waves of this life with.

Within two weeks of that blog, God brought Landon into my life. A very handsome redhead with a genuine heart for people and an entrepreneurial spirit, which I am all about. Dating in quarantine really strips you of distractions and helps you get to know someone quickly. The next year we were engaged and married. Let’s be honest,  he and I are in our thirties. Long engagements are for the younguns. When you know, you know.

My friends might have started growing up without me, but the joke’s on them. I am one of the last to get married but I skipped the childbirth process and jumped straight into parenthood with a child older than theirs. Chase is about to be 11, so he hit it off well with Cannon and Jack and Juliet. We’ve enjoyed the times we could get together. He is a sweet, old soul and he loves educating me on all of the details of whichever gaming universe he’s currently in and whatever new facts and words he’s recently learned.

And while I never imagined myself a dog mom, and Landon definitely didn’t see himself as a cat dad, our little family has settled into this life nicely. Callie a very anxious two-year-old pup and Shyssa my 13-year old moody cat.

We celebrated our wedding on September 24, 2021, with friends and family. Dad walked me down the aisle, just like I hoped and prayed. Please enjoy these magical pictures from Ali Harpe Photography.

Venue: The Branches Clubhouse
Flowers: Monica Smith
Coordinator: Your Big Day ATL
Catering: Proof of the Pudding

So that’s what I’ve been up to the last two years. Not that you were all on the edge of your seat waiting for my update. But I like to keep my little online journal in the current decade. So that’s where I’m at.

Until next time.