So it's been awhile.

Hello lovely friends. It's been well over two weeks since I last posted a video, and you know what that means... EXCUSES TIME!
But really, I'm sorry I went missing for awhile. If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram you probably saw a bunch of pictures of myself and a very handsome man, who just happens to be my boyfriend. I've mentioned him a few times before but just in case you don't know, he's in the army stationed across the country from me and this was the first time I'd seen him since May. I won't see him again until December, so I was just really busy keeping up with school/work/him all at the same time. In my defense I DID know I would be this busy so I pre-filmed videos for you guys, but guess who's computer blew up?

If you answered: Loey's, you would be correct.

That means I lost a lot of footage (and pictures, which is such a bummer) so I'll have to start filming everything all over again. Which is good, it means the videos are that much more refined for you guys!

In other news, I bought a new car. He's a little white Ford Mustang convertible and his name is Leonardo. So my boyfriend, his brother and I went camping last weekend. I promptly backed Leo into a tree a month after buying him. THIS GIRL IS A WINNER. There's minimal damage on the back bumper (a hole the size of my thumb and a slight scratch beneath that) so I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to figure out how to get that fixed.

I'm putting up a vlog of a night out I had with the boyfriend, his brother and his brother's fiance as I type this, but I'm also going to post some pictures below for you guys. In the past I've been asked why I'm so open about my personal life with my YouTube family, and it's precisely that: you are my family. I like to think of you as my friends and just like with any of my other friends, I love for you to be able to see my pictures and know what's going on with me, just like I always want to know what's going on with you!

Anyways, here you go. And here's the vlog! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hApE1LqTRIE

 My future sister-in-law and her sweet baby boy! She and I have been friends forever.

 All of us. 

 He eats my face :(

 He REFUSES to smile on camera. He has a really nice smile too.

 I'm really not sure. 

Not wearing a bit of makeup as we said goodbye at the airport. Being a military girlfriend is incredible difficult, but it's also so completely worth it.

And I'm happy I get to share that part of my life with you guys! I love you all.

Your Loey

Dear Jakey...

Jake, do you remember how we met?
You were a year older than me.We went to a small high school, it was hard not to know anybody. But I really only talked to you my junior year. You sat across the classroom in Mrs. Leigh's computer class and we would sit on her couch and talk about life. I helped you with girl problems. You helped me laugh until I felt like I was going to fall over. I took your hat all the time. You were my "boyfriend" and we used to hold hands. Did you know that I loved you?

Jake, do you remember prom night? I didn't have a date so I declared you as mine, though you were happily taken by one of my beautiful friends. You were the best dressed boy there. I couldn't have imagined the night without you. Did you know that I loved you?

Jake, do you remember when you graduated from high school? Do you remember when I cried? I didn't think we would stay friends after that, without a class to keep us together. You knew that was a stupid thing to think. Did you know that I loved you?

Jake, do you remember when you enlisted in the army? Do you remember how heartbroken I was, how convinced I was that I would never see you again? Do you remember when you came home on senior night that fall? Did you know that I loved you?

Jakey, do you remember when we talked just a month ago? You had one of those "To Be Honest" statuses up on Facebook, so I liked it just to see what you would say- I've always been a sucker for those. Your reply was "To Be Honest: You were my imaginary girlfriend and then the army took me away". I genuinely laughed when I read it, and I told you that I loved you. And you told me that you loved me too. It was such a short conversation; we didn't talk much in the past half year or so. But I am so grateful that I was able to tell you that I loved you before you left.

These words are all I have to help me cope, because the one person who could make everything better has gone to paradise. Thank you for being the most wonderful friend anyone ever could have asked for. Thank you for being a ray of light in my life. I will see you in heaven, Jakey. And you know that I love you.

You will forever be in my heart.
Lauren

YouTube Glitches & Finding a Solution

Hi loves!

So it's been awhile since I've posted on my blog and I really don't like that I have to do it under these circumstances. Since the creation of the new YouTube layout, I've been experiencing a loss in subscribers. At first I thought it was just people unsubscribing... but I've learned it's actually a glitch in the YouTube system and I tested it myself by trying to subscribe to my own channel via another email account.

On my thebeautylodown@gmail.com account, I received a notification saying this new channel had subscribed. So I went to my page and checked, but my subscriber count did not update. On this new email account I logged into YouTube, and thebeautyLodown videos showed up in my subscriber feed.

When I counted all of the people who HAVE subscribed in the last month or so from my email, I should have hit 3,000 subs by now. But for now I'm fluctuating between 2,600 and 2,620.

Now, understand that the numbers aren't what bothers me. I don't mind if I have one subscriber or a million, I'm still going to make videos for those who want to see them. So here's my question to all of you: if you are subscribed to me, are my videos still showing up in your feed? That is all I honestly care about. YouTube has not been speedy about a response to the problem, and a member of their team actually told me it could take months to fix.

As long as my videos are still coming to you guys, I don't find a need to create a new channel. BUT if my videos aren't showing up, it may be time to close thebeautyLodown and open a new channel for my videos.

That is not what I want to do, by any means. In fact, I would be really sad starting over. But if it's necessary, I will. I know I'm not the only YouTuber experiencing this, which makes me nervous to start a new channel and have it happen all over again. So all I need to know is whether or not you are still receiving my videos in your subscriber box. You can contact me:
In my YouTube messages
On my email: thebeautylodown@gmail.com
On my Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thebeautyLodown
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/thebeautyLodown

Thank you guys so much. I'm sorry this is such a serious post, but I need to find a solution to this.

I love you girls!
Your Loey