July 09, 2019

Life Lessons with Steph: Dealing with a Stressful Job

Stephanie Kamp Blog: Life Lessons with Steph: Dealing with a Stressful Job

Hey guys,

So currently I do not have a stressful job, which I am so thankful for! I absolutely love my job and the people I work with. Everyone is so amazing and kind and I could not be happier! I obviously wish I was making more money but it's okay. I honestly think that at this point in my life, my happiness is most important to me because I'm young and it's not like I'm planning my retirement anytime soon. Although, lets be honest, it would be totally amazing if I was haha!

Okay so if I'm being honest, I don't really have much experience for this particular topic but I do have some ideas and I also am the type of person that tends to get stressed out easily even though I try really hard not to. Also, I've really only worked 3 real jobs in my entire life so I don't really have that much to go on. However, I've done other things growing up such as teach dance classes, babysit, dogsit, and a few other things here and there over the years. As I've mentioned a few times on here, I did not work the entire time I was in college. After I graduated I took a trip to Europe for a couple weeks with my mom and sister and basically lived off of savings for the entire summer after I graduated. I really did not know what I wanted to do with my life. I think I was really struggling with this because my whole adolescence I basically told myself and everyone I spoke to that I was moving to New York City and that I was going to work in fashion and become this super amazing, cool person and then when the time came down to it, I chickened and totally said I am not moving to New York.

Looking back it was such a crazy idea! I don't know anyone there, I couldn't afford to live there, and most importantly I didn't have a job there. I think it would have been a completely different story if I had friends or a family member who already lived there then I definitely would have taken the huge leap of faith and moved out there but I literally knew no one! And I was running low on money so I had to get a job!

My first job was working for a radio station as a semi freelancer where I would work events and basically promote the radio station. The company had 3 different stations and depending on the event I would have to promote one of the stations. This job was a lot of fun and it surprisingly paid more than my more steady job which was retail. I got my second job at DSW and this was the job that I actually relied on for my income. The radio station was basically just extra money. So if I'm being honest, the reason I wanted to write this article is because I have and have had some people in my life who have experienced stressful jobs. I know working is not fun but unfortunately it's a part of life and we all just have to put in our time so we can earn our retirement and then settle down, do some last minute traveling all before we leave this beautiful Earth! Not to sound morbid or anything but seriously, that's basically the cycle of life!

Anyways, my retail job is what I will be basing most of this off of because this was seriously the most stressful job I've ever had. And when I say something is stressful I don't just mean like what you actually do for the company, I mean the people you work with and the company you actually work for. Also, if you work in a customer environment then that can definitely make your job more stressful as well. 

One thing I have learned about working so far is that you are not going to be able to make everyone happy and that's okay. You just need to learn how to manage that and work with everyone the best you can. My advice is that you absolutely do your best and try your hardest. I also recommend that you don't overthink or overanalyze everything. Getting and staying in your head will be your worst enemy. I also recommend that you don't really have a reaction when something happens. One thing that my boss does when someone comes over with a mistake she just says okay and fixes it. It really makes us feel like there is nothing that can't be fixed because in reality there isn't when it comes to most jobs. I mean if you're a doctor and you kill a patient then that's a different story but with most jobs almost everything can be fixed. Your best bet is to just stay calm and not overreact!

Something I recommend to help you cope with a stressful job is when you get out of work, try really hard not to think about work. Maybe find a hobby or a tv show that you really enjoy and just indulge yourself in that. Work should stay at work and not follow you home. You only get so many hours a day at home, especially if you work full time so you definitely need that mental block to help relieve some of your stress. One thing that my sister and I do when we get home from work is talk about our days and get our feelings out and then we move on! We make dinner, we watch a show or two, do some things around the house and then call it a night.

I hope you enjoyed this post and look forward to reading more! I also really hope that if you have a stressful job that things either workout or you are able to find one that you enjoy more! Working is such a major part of your life and life is too precious to let something like a stressful job get in the way! Spend time with your family, friends, and other loved ones! And don't forget to enjoy all of the amazing moments that life has to offer!

Thanks for stopping by!
XO, Steph

July 08, 2019

50 Random Questions & Answers

Stephanie Kamp Blog: 50 Random Questions & Answers

Hey guys,

Here's a little Q&A for you guys. I haven't done one in a while! I used to do one like every month I think? But I stopped. Also I already totally failed my goal of writing a blog post every week day during the month of July. So I'm kind of disappointed in myself. But we've been super busy working on our house. We have friends coming into town this weekend and we've been deep cleaning and baby proofing because we have kids staying with us. It should be a lot of fun! My sister and I are both super excited! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy!

1. Where were you 3 hours ago?
At home, probably cleaning something

2. Who are you in love with?
My boyfriend!

3. Have you ever eaten a crayon?
No? lol

4. Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?
Yes, my hairbrush

5. When is the last time you went to the mall?
Probably like 2 or 3 weeks ago?

6. Are you wearing socks right now?
No

7. Does your family have a car worth over $2,000?
Yes

8. When was the last time you drove out of town?
Two weeks ago!

9. Have you been to the movies in the last 5 days?
No

10. Are you hot?
Yes!

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Water

12. What are you wearing right now?
PJ's, it's bed time!

13. Do you wash your car or let the car wash do it?
Both! Well technically my dad!

14. Last food that you ate?
A smoothie

15. Where were you last week at this time?
In bed, getting ready to go to sleep

16. Have you bought any clothing items in the last week?
No

17. When is the last time you ran?
On Friday after work because it was pouring and there was lightning everywhere!

18. What’s the last sporting event you watched?
Maybe some of the Super Bowl?

19. What is your favorite animal?
Panda

20. Your dream vacation?
Paris!

21. Last person’s house you were in?
My parents house

22. Worst injury you’ve ever had?
A torn muscle in my thigh

23. Have you been in love?
Yes!

24. Do you miss anyone right now?
Yes!

25. Last play you saw?
Anastasia

26. What is your favorite food?
Tacos

27. What are your plans for tonight?
Writing a blog post and FaceTimeing my boyfriend!

28. What is your go to shoe?
My Tory Burch Miller sandals

29. Next trip you are going to take?
Probably to Mississippi to visit my boyfriend!

30. Ever go to camp?
Yes! Every summer for like 5 or 6 years growing up

31. Were you an honor roll student in school?
Pretty much all of Elementary school, a little in middle school, and pretty much throughout all of high school

32. What do you want to know about the future?
Nothing

33. Are you wearing any perfume or cologne?
No

34. Are you due sometime this year for a doctor’s visit?
Yes, a couple different ones actually

35. Where is your best friend?
In Mississippi

36. How is your best friend?
He's good!

37. Do you have a tan?
No

38. What are you listening to right now?
Nothing

39. Do you collect anything?
Yes, shoes, handbags, makeup, and basically anything girly!

40. Who is the biggest gossiper you know?
Probably me?

41. Last time you got stopped by a cop or pulled over?
When I was in high school, I got into a car accident

42. Have you ever drank your soda from a straw?
Yes, every time I order soda at a restaurant

43. Who do you text the most?
My boyfriend!

44. Do you like hot sauce?
I like mild sauce?

45. Last time you took a shower?
Last night

46. Do you need to do laundry?
Pretty much always!

47. What is your heritage?
German/American?

48. Are you someone’s best friend?
Yes!

49. Are you rich?
No

50. What were you doing at 12AM last night?
In bed, sleeping!

Thanks for stopping by!
XO, Steph

July 02, 2019

Boyfriend Q&A

Stephanie Kamp Blog: Boyfriend Q&A
Hey guys,

So I thought it would be really fun to do a blog post featuring my boyfriend! So I FaceTimed him and made him answer a few questions about me! I ended up deleting some of them though because we thought they were kind of weird questions lol! But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy getting to know a little bit more about me from his perspective! 

1) Where and when did we first meet?

At his desk at his parents house, sometime 2016?

2) Where was our first date?

Pinchers Crab Shack

3) What was your first impression of me?

Friendly/Cute

4) When did you meet my family?

Before we started dating sometime in the summer of 2017

5) Who said “I love you” first?

He did!

6) What I often do in my free times?

Watch TV

7) How long have we been together?

1 year and 9 months but we sometimes include the months we were talking and getting to know each other

8) What was our first road trip?

A month after we got together we went to Universal with some friends but our first road trip just the two of us was to Disney for his birthday which was like 2 weeks after my birthday!

9) First thing you noticed about me?

My eyes

10) What is something I’m not good at?

Video games

11) What is something I’m good at?

Interior Design

12) Favorite feature about me?

My laugh

13) What do we argue about the most?

Food

14)Do I have any weird obsessions?

How I fold my towels

15) Nicknames for me?

Stephie-poo

16) What is my favorite restaurant?

Cheesecake Factory

17) Complete this sentence “You’re my……..”?

You're my home!

Thanks for stopping by!
XO, Steph

July 01, 2019

June Life Update 2019

Stephanie Kamp Blog: June Life Update 2019
Hey guys,

Long time no talk! I know it's been awhile and I definitely have a lot to say. I have been pretty busy lately. I've been traveling like crazy and I think I might be done for at least a month but we will have to see! Basically my life is going really well! My boyfriend graduated from Air Force Basic Training and we're doing really well. I will blog more about that later. Basically my goal for this summer is catch up on blogging and blog about all of the trips I've taken since December of last year because yes, I am that far behind. I will probably be going out of order but there's no like specific timeline so it's totally okay if I got out of order. I also want to write a few other things here and there but we will see. I honestly feel like life is on the fast forward button right now and it like refuses to pause or slowdown and it definitely will not rewind haha!

Anyways, so life has been great! Since we last talked in May, I have been to Boston, San Antonio, Alabama for a few hours and Mississippi! My boyfriend is currently stationed in Mississippi for his tech school because right after BMT you head straight to tech school where you basically learn the skills for your job. His tech school is a little longer than the average person because of his job is a little more complicated but thankfully he's only a 10 hour drive away give or take a couple hours haha. Basically he graduated from BMT and then two weeks later I decided to take a trip up there with my mom for the weekend! I currently do not have another trip planned up there for a while because I don't really know when I'll be able to get time off. I have an idea for when I would like to go back but so far it's still up in the air!

As far as everything else goes, work is still the same. I love my job and the people I work with are amazing! My boss went out of town for a week though recently and we were all freaking out that we weren't going to be able to get everything done but I think we handled it pretty well! We've been working short lately so we've all been struggling a little. Hopefully things will get back to normal there soon though. Fingers crossed!

Our house is still a work in process but we have friends coming to visit the weekend after July 4th so we've been working out butts off trying to get it in shape for them! However, it still needs soooo much work! We bought this kit to like redo our kitchen but it's definitely going to be a while before that gets done. We are currently working on my bathroom and trying to finish removing the wallpaper and getting it painted. I will probably blog about it when we get done with it! I'm really hoping it turns out super well! But we will have to see! I'm not going to give any details until it's done!

I think that pretty much sums up life so far! It's super hot here in Florida! Thankfully my Disney pass has blockout dates all summer long so I don't have to worry about dying in the heat there. I have a few more trips for this year that I want to take, I'm just not sure when or if I will be able to get time off. I have to say working full time has definitely put a damper on my travel life! I'm used to just being able to say hey I can't work these dates and then taking off on a trip but I guess that's a part of growing up and becoming an adult. I must admit, I have been very spoiled over the years. If I could get paid to travel I would definitely do it! Traveling and exploring new places is one of my favorite things to do! All right well that's it for now! I will talk to you guys later!

Oh by the way Happy Summer and Happy July 1st!

Talk to you soon!
XO, Steph


May 06, 2019

April Life Update 2019

Stephanie Kamp Blog: April Life Update 2019
Hey guys,

Sorry to leave you in the dust! I absolutely did not mean to take the entire month of April off, it just kind of worked out that way. I had a pretty busy, stressful, and challenging month of April. I went out of town a couple of weekends. Planned a few things with some friends and some family members. But the biggest thing for me in the month of April was saying goodbye to my boyfriend who left for basic training for the Air Force. He left on April 8th and his basic training started on April 9th. He's been gone for almost a month and it has been a kind of sad month for me. I thought I was going to be able to handle well because I grew up with my dad being in the military and always coming and going. But it's a different feeling when it's the person you are in love with. We chose not to say goodbye because obviously it wasn't goodbye, we chose to say see you in June which is when his graduation from basic will be. My whole family and his whole family are taking a trip out to Texas to be there and support him on his graduation day. I am seriously looking forward to this day so much.

Anyways, since he's been gone, I've written him a letter pretty much every day so far. If I wasn't able to write him a letter one day I made up for it by writing two the next day! I have also sent him about 4 cards now as well just to help lift his spirits during this challenging time for him. I have also been sending him a picture or two with every letter or card I send him. I have this little printer that prints out 2x3 photos, which is like the perfect size because he can just keep them in the envelope and look at them when he's missing home! 

Also during the month of April, we took our annual trip to the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival to celebrate my mom's birthday! We had such a great time and I look forward to this trip every year! I don't think it will ever get old. I hope that we continue on the tradition for many years to come! I'll probably write a blog post about it later. I know I say that about a lot of things but I really do plan on writing the blog posts I talk about I just have to figure out when to fit them all in. There are seriously only so many hours in a day and they seem to just fly by. Except during the month of April lol where everyday seemed to be two days long or longer. 

My sister and I also met up with some friends at SeaWorld, which was a lot of fun! We got to ride some fun roller coasters and their new water raft ride which broke down on us at least 3 times in an hour and a half long period. It was crazy! We don't really go to SeaWorld that often so it was nice to be able to go and catch up with our friends and their adorable baby! I might write a blog post about that too lol, I took quite a few pictures and definitely could share my experience because it was an interesting one! 

I celebrated Easter with my family and then had dinner with my boyfriends family and it was so much fun being able to catch up with everyone. I have a lot of little cousins and it's such a great experience being able to watch them grow up and celebrate holidays with them! It was hard celebrating the holiday without Zach but there will be many more in our future and I can't wait for all of them! 

I also went to two concerts in the month of April, I went and saw Kelsea Ballerini and then we volunteered at the NewsBoys and Michael W. Smith concert, which all in all was a good experience. I actually complained like the whole time we were there because we had to get there sooo early and then we basically just sat around and did nothing for like 2 hours, it was very annoying. I am a huge fan of not wasting time so that's what really bothered me. The part we volunteered for was literally for 10 minutes during the intermission and then we were free to do whatever we wanted. Honestly, I am glad I didn't pay to see the show because I didn't really know most of the songs, I just knew the artists and a couple of their songs. I also just like going to concerts so I wanted to be able to say I saw them in concert but if I had known we were just going to be sitting there for 2 hours in the freezing cold stadium then I probably wouldn't have volunteered. But now that it is all over and I can kind of know what to expect for next time I would volunteer again as long as if it's not on a work night or right after we got back from a weekend away at Disney haha.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and I know it's not April anymore but I figured we're only a few days in to May so it still kind of works.

Talk to you soon! 
XO, Steph

March 28, 2019

Life Lessons with Steph

Stephanie Kamp Blog: Life Lessons with Steph
Hey guys,

This post is going to be super short! For real this time! I randomly just came up with this idea and I like trying new things so we're going to try something new! I'm randomly going to write posts about life (covering pretty much any subject I think of) and things I've learned over the last 25 years. I have a few ideas already in my head for things I want to write about and I realized that they all kind of just have to deal with life and things I'm going through, things I'm working on, or things I've already gone through and have learned from them.

Some of the topics might be kind of harsh but I've always been a very truthful person and I usually tell it how it is. It's basically what I'm known for in my family. If I don't like something I'm not afraid to say it even if it might hurt someone, which yes I realize isn't really the greatest thing but it's how I've been since I was like 4 or 5. My mom always jokes that I used to run the household because if the family wanted to do something but I didn't then we didn't do it! And if we did, I usually would throw a temper tantrum. Granted I really hope my kid does not turn out this way because hearing the stories I feel awful for my mom and how I acted but sometimes you can only help a kid so much haha. 

Anyways, one of the topics I'm going to talk about first is about change. This is something has really had a big impact on me lately, especially in a couple different areas of my life. It's also been causing a lot of stress for me and I feel like if I just write about it, it might help relieve some of that stress. I might also be able to figure out a solution to the recent changes that have happened or how at least how to come to terms with everything! Some other topics include, how I deal with depression, friendships, and faith.

There isn't going to be a schedule with these posts, I'm just going to randomly write them and post them when I feel comfortable and when I feel they are ready to be seen by people. Some of them I might write and never post but like I said just writing things down might be feel better. I hope that this works and I hope that you guys enjoy reading them! 

Talk to you soon!
XO, Steph

March 27, 2019

Beauty Products Wish List Spring 2019

Hey guys,

So I meant to post this last Friday but I ended up getting behind and was just too busy last week. Then I was going to find time and post it on the weekend but then I pretty much wasn't at home all weekend so then I had to push it back even more. You guys know that I love all thing beauty and makeup and because of this I love writing about it! So I think I would share some of the things that I've had my eye on at Sephora for quite a while now! 

Stephanie Kamp Blog: Beauty Products Wish List Spring 2019

1) Sunday Riley Multivitamins Set
2) Glow Recipe Watermelon Pink Juice Moisturizer
3) Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Sleeping Mask
4) Glow Recipe Blueberry Bounce Gentle Cleanser
5) Glamglow Supermud Activated Charcol Treatment Mask
6) St. Tropez Self Tan Express Bronzing Mouse
7) Glamglow Supertoner Exfoliating Acid Solution Toner
8) St. Tropez Gradual Tan Watermelon Infusion Body Lotion
9) Sunday Riley Space Race Acne, Oil + Pores at Wrap Speed Kit
10) Sunday Riley A+ High-Dose Retinol Serum
11) Sunday Riley Flash Fix Kit

I have been really interested in the Sunday Riley products that Sephora has but they are sooo expensive. Since the last time I was looking at their products they've come out gift packages which I think is such a great idea for companies to do because it allows customers to be able to test out products without buying the full size first. I tend to have sensitive skin and I'm usually pretty reluctant to try out new products, especially ones that are so pricey. But I've heard that Sunday Riley has some great acne products and some scaring products. They also have some anti-aging products which are basically all products I'm highly interested in since I'm not getting any younger!

I also have been interested in the Glow Recipe products. I haven't read any of the reviews but the products seem really interesting! I also like their packaging and how they have mini trial sizes to test out. I also like how they are made of out fruit products and other natural ingredients!

One of my favorite brands is Glamglow and I absolutely love trying their new products whenever they come out with them. Also my favorite like by them is their supermud mask and I really want to try out the supertoner and see if it works well for my skin type!

I also love using St. Tropez items especially around this time of year so I can make sure I get my tan on! I currently have really tan feet though because I sit outside for lunch and my lunch is an hour long and so my feet are getting really tan because I usually wear pants every day to work. On the days that I wear dresses then I tend to get sunburnt knees and now I've recently started getting tan knees so I basically have the most strange/farmer's tan ever!

Talk to you soon!
XO, Steph