Hello, Detroit moms!!! I’m excited to be a new contributor and share my story with you.

My name is Krystle English, and I’m the mother of two funny girls, the wife of an actor, a senior marketing coordinator for an architecture and engineering firm, and a minimalista— more on that later…

Right off the bat, I am not originally from Detroit. I was born in California and raised in Texas. I received my Bachelor of Science in marketing and multinational Business operations from Florida State University and my Master of Business Administration, Marketing Emphasis, from Keller Graduate School.

How did I get here?

I met my husband, a Michigan native from Fraser, in Los Angeles at an adult dodgeball league. We clicked right away! So much so that after a night of dodgeball and karaoke, I told him that we should drive to Las Vegas and get married. Four years later, we got married in Las Vegas at the oldest Catholic church in the city. A little over a year later, I gave birth to a beautiful little girl named Josephine (JoJo).

Everything they say about Los Angeles is true. There is always bumper to bumper traffic, the word “the” is inserted in front of all the freeway names, and everything is expensive. So, after a year of figuring out parenthood in LA, we decided to move closer to family in a place that we could afford. A little over two years ago, we packed our car to the brim, including JoJo and our two cats (Miggy and Harvey), and made our way across the country from Los Angeles to Detroit.

Where am I from?

I was born in Bakersfield, California and grew up in Grapevine, Texas. My dad was in telecommunications and got transferred out to Texas when I was 10. I was very surprised when we got there that it looked like my old town; I had thought that we were moving to a ranch where everyone said, “Howdy!” I quickly got accustomed to living in Texas and said “Fixin’ to” and “y’all” quite frequently. I got my undergraduate degree at Florida State University even though I never visited the school. Holy humidity! (Perhaps I was just getting prepared for Michigan summers!). After I graduated, I moved back to Texas for a few years before deciding that I wanted to work behind the scenes in movies. So, after a friend moved out there, I decided I would, too. I started out in casting then doing production assistant work. I quickly realized it was not my calling. Late nights and working more than 12 hours a day was not OK. (And maybe this was just preparing me for motherhood!). I decided to join a temp agency and then found my career in marketing for the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. I have been in it for over 11 years, and I absolutely love it! In fact, it was a job at one of the oldest architecture firms in Detroit that allowed my family to move back!

Back to Detroit

We moved to Detroit in January 2017, bought a house in May, and then I found out I was pregnant with baby number two in September. Cecilia (Cece) was born in the city of Detroit a week early unlike her sister who was a week late. Now my husband and I are raising two very strong-willed, independent, and hilarious girls. JoJo is a four-year-old who wants to be a comedian like her dad and loves to tell jokes. She also tends to drag her feet, just like when she was born. Cece is a one-year-old daredevil who pretends that she doesn’t understand the word “no”! She is a morning person and has done everything early, including walking at nine months. While it has definitely been a challenge, I love these girls so much and am excited to watch them grow (very slowly) here in this great city!

Before our move to Detroit, I started to delve into minimalism, mostly to fit everything into two small storage pods and one SUV. This is something I am very passionate about now and have been documenting my journey on my blog, Minimalista Momma. I’m really trying to figure out what it means for me and how the extra space, both mental and physical, I get from decluttering or downsizing allows me to be more present for my girls, my husband, and my job.

My husband says that I’ve gone to downtown Detroit more often than he did growing up, which makes a lot of sense because I work there. I’ve fallen in love with the city of Detroit, and I am excited to share what this place means to me, especially as a mom, with all of you!