When I was little, my aunt gave me the nickname Christabelle. She said I was just like a Southern Belle. My dad gave me the nickname Christer. The two names merged (as sometimes happens with nicknames in my family) and the nickname Christerbelle was born.
I am from a small town in northern California. After high school, I was excited (and nervous) to start my college adventure in a much more populated location, UCLA. Go Bruins! I graduated with a B.A. in Business/Economics and a minor in Accounting.
After college, I moved to San Francisco and worked as a corporate auditor for one of the “Big 4” accounting firms. I enjoyed living in San Francisco and some of the work but knew that I was not a “lifer”. I am grateful for the experience I gained and doors it opened but would not be quick to repeat it or go back to that life. After I was laid off during the 2008-2009 recession, I spent four and a half months traveling and relaxing before starting work as an accountant at a public company in Stockton, CA.
Almost a year later, I reconnected with a guy I knew as a child. We started dating long distance and after just eight months, we decided to get married. I worked another six months in California before making the move to Montana. I slowly made friends and started another job as an accountant for a public company but knew in my heart that I wouldn’t be in Montana forever. Montana is a beautiful place but this California girl was missing the West Coast. After two and a half years in Montana, my husband and I moved to Oregon!
Eight months after we moved, we welcomed our first child, a daughter. Life has not slowed down since! If you follow me on social media, you’ll hear/see me refer to her as “The Bean.” She is my little jelly bean, my jumping bean, my vanilla bean.
After four and a half years, we decided to say good-bye to our house in Newberg, Oregon and move over the Cascades to Central Oregon. As my husband and I seem to do everything at once, our second daughter was born five months after we moved! Baby girl is my little “Sweet Pea” as she’s just as sweet as can be and *almost* always happy and smiling.
On this blog, you’ll find an array of topics including our journey with Sweet Pea’s Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney, hauls for my favorite holiday, Christmas, and my craft projects, whether those are ideas, works in progress or completed.
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