Hey Readers!!

Picture this:

A young woman walking peacefully back to her desk in the middle of the afternoon – minding her own business – when a bee suddenly flies directly into her hair.

Now instead of doing what she wants to do – which the obvious “girly” scream and vigorous whipping of her head and hair – she remains completely calm and unaffected by it and picks up the pace back to her desk, walking as quickly as her two feet can carry her.

She does this because there are a good number of people nearby who know her and she doesn’t want to cause a scene.

Upon entering the office area and seeing that no one is up there she starts flicking her hair, swinging it around, and running her hands down through the side that the bee flew into.

Finding nothing she returns to her desk and proceeds to work on the computer only to be minorly traumatized by the nonexistent bee which she believes in still interwoven in her hair.

This girl was me today – and I could’ve sworn I heard something making a slight buzzing noise in my hair near my ear after the whole thing went down.

I just didn’t want to get stung on the neck or on the ear lobe or have a bee enter my ear. My mind cooks up the silliest things and makes me worry about if they will become reality or not.

Hope you all have a wonderfully, bee-autiful day! It was a hot one again – thank you summer – we love you!

Stay safe out there && as always, I appreciate ya!

Oh && did I tell you this week / weekend I will be reducing the kindle version of Unforeseen from .99 cents to…drum roll please…FREE!

We all love free stuff, especially good free stuff, its undeniable. Tell your friends, your co-workers, readers, neighbors, family members to watch out for it! With this please note that the e-book version will also be made available on more than just the Amazon store! Woot, woot!! More details to come towards the end of the week!

What a great way to rock the weekend! Let’s roll on into it! 

Good Afternoon Readers,

Hey sorry I’ve been absent this week I have had a really bad migraine every day this week and wasn’t able to really accomplish anything I wanted to this week! However, I hope this story makes up for it! And I hope you find as much enjoyment in it as I did!

So, during my husband and I’s weekly Walmart trip I decided I was going to get a pack of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookies because you know it’s been a while and I am in the mood for that this weekend. It’s at the same time I ask my husband if he wants me to grab a box of pie crusts to make blueberry pie as well. To this he replies no and tells me just to get the cookies. Okay no problem you don’t have to tell me twice!

Fast forward to halfway down the aisles we come up with the idea to make buffalo chicken dip because again it’s been a while – so I tell him okay I’ll run back and get the Philadelphia cream cheese. So, I go and get one and bring it back and he wanted the original not the low fat – okay no problem – I go back and get the original and come back – but we don’t need the double pack we just need the single one.
And this makes me curious because we are doubling the recipe BUT he makes it more than I do so I just go with it – it’s at this point that I ask him if he wants me to pick up one of those pie crusts now since I am going back for a third time and they are literally right there. I tell him since I know he wants to eat pie why don’t we just get them it’s not a big deal to get cookies and pie in the same weekend…so he breaks and tells me to grab it.

Fast forward to Friday night I am basically deathly sick because of my 24-hour migraine I starting and I am already worn out so I decide to go to bed pretty early because knowing this migraine it usually wakes me up at midnight and by that time its terribly painful and I then get no sleep for the next almost 24 hours until it has run its full course.

Well, I wake up at 9:30 and my ice pack is hot so I drag myself out of bed to get a cold one – during that time I thought I heard the ovens timer going off and the oven door open and close but I thought nahhhhhh it had to be a dream I was having earlier.

Hmm…I was wrong there because my parents decided to bake the cookies – which is fine because I got a 24 pack of mini ones thinking the four of us could each have six because you can’t just have one cookie, you can’t even just have two cookies, it has to AT LEAST be three or more…and it’s usually the more case for me. LOL!  

Any-who Saturday happens and a good meal was cooked so with that is of course a good dessert so my parents decide to make the blueberry cake – now mind you I still have my 24 hour BUT that didn’t stop me from eating one of my cookies at 9:30 on Friday and it didn’t stop me from eating 2 during Saturday so that leaves me with three for Sunday…until I ate another one on Saturday SO THAT leaves me with two rolling into Sunday which is fine because I was trying to eat 2 Friday, 2 Saturday, and 2 Sunday to make it last through the weekend.

Now this WHOLE TIME both of my husbands and I’s cookies have been in a container on the counter with our names on them…and every day I patiently mentioned to my husband about his cookies and eating them / trying them / getting rid of them / donating them…etc.

Sunday morning rolls around I’m feeling great! My 24 is gone, I slept for like ten hours, and it’s going to be a great day. So, I have a waffle early on in the morning and I decide I probably shouldn’t because I just got over my headache and I need to avoid any pills for them right now but hey you know what because I can’t resist them staring at me anymore, I’m just going to get rid of them. So, I ate my last two.

During that time, I’m staring down at my husband’s container – still untouched – because remember he didn’t want them – he wanted pie…so at first it started as a joke of me removing my sticky noted name and placing it perfectly over his sticky noted name so that he doesn’t think twice about it.

Which then turned into the bad part of my brain telling me well he didn’t even want them in the first place so…and you kept reminding him every day for the past few days and he didn’t want them – totally uninterested in them…so it might be okay if we just…

 SNAP. OUT. OF. IT. You are NOT eating your husbands’ cookies.

I nonchalantly took three of his six cookies out of his container. Putting one in my mouth and two in my container…and returning my label to my container.

Meanwhile my parents outside the kitchen – bless their poor souls – have no idea what I am doing and what I have now just done…

Fast forward to later on in the day we get home and I’m washing my hands in the sink when I hear my mom say, “Oh I see Adam ate some of his cookies, wonder if he liked them.” And me purposefully not turning around because my face is always a dead giveaway to them so instead, I say, “Oh I didn’t notice…” From which she says, “You didn’t eat any of his cookies did you?”

NO! (Said in my head like Rob Schneider in the movie The Animal) I told her no and back in her day she would’ve caught onto my @$$ that I was full of poo-poo but she didn’t this time instead she went right into telling me something else. PHEW! For the love of cookies! The things a cookie monster will do for them! Geez! Anyway – we eat dinner and then I hear the words from my mother, “How’d you like the cookies, Adam? Were they good?” At this point mom is washing the dishes and I just entered the kitchen and am now standing directly behind her to hand her some more things – when my husband says, “Oh I didn’t try any of the cookies yet.” All I hear is my mom say “What?” in like a joking way and then she turned around so fast I never knew she could twirl that fast. I didn’t even have a chance to try to dodge out of her view!

She’s hysterically laughing asking me if I ate his cookies. To which I began laughing hysterically too.

My dad then proceeds to say to the group that’s why he never got the bottle of water he asked for a while ago because I was out there eating cookies. He says it’s a good thing he wasn’t in the desert hahaha!

I tell my husband to please come out and try one of these cookies so that I don’t feel guilty when I split the other two. He then comes into the kitchen fists the container and like a claw machine grabs all three of them and throws them in his ice cream bowl. Then he continues to taunt me with them by dangling them in my face and pouring melted ice cream on them. Only then when he knew I was upset about it did he cuddle up to me. LOL!

But he could’ve easily eaten the blueberry pie and the rest of his ice-cream so why have the cookies too? Save some for the people in the back! Hahahah!!! So, this leads to him being sick after that and the next day for eating all the different kinds of sweets. I am all for sharing with my husband don’t get me wrong but if there was one piece of meat left for a sandwich, he would make a sandwich for himself and then I would still have to scavenge for my dinner.

 It’s all about surviving! It is a game of survival hahahah!!
​
Stay safe out there everyone && as always, I appreciate ya!

Hey Readers, 

Adrenaline Crush

Okay so I finished this novel yesterday in two hours it was a great read! It was called Adrenaline Crush by Laurie Boyle Crompton it had the perfect amount of seriousness and humor in it especially for how - at times - upsetting is was. You get sucked into the character until you are one with them - living in their shoes - feeling their feelings and seeing their sights. I would recommend it honestly!

Pocket Full

If both are your pockets were completely filled - one with excuses and one with possibilities  (meaning opportunities to remove the road blocks, to figure out a way to just make it work)

What would you choose? I would choose possibilities. But it seems like many people I meet automatically reach toward the excuse pocket. 

Not enough time in a day

When I was younger I always used to laugh at the phrase "there's not enough time in a day" but as I grow older I discover the real meaning behind it and how it pertains to me personally day by day

As of current "there's not enough time in a day" means:

- Not enough time to get a good workout in after working a long shift
- Not enough time to enjoy the outdoors during the week
- Not enough time to read a good book and get to enjoy it
- Not enough time to do website work such as blogging or photography
- Not enough time to write

As a person who thrives on a consistent routine day in and day out - not being able to pin down one that works for me to fit all of this in along with the normal is hard to grasp especially because I am a major multi-tasker. With the list above it's almost like I can only pick from a few things off the list because some of the things I want to do are so time consuming for me if I'm doing them right and dedicating the proper time to them. Maybe it's silly but it's just the way my brain thinks. But I'll figure out a routine even if I have to alternate days.

I have a great respect for women / men who work long days then come home to cook a dinner for their family and help their kids with homework / make time to do other things for themselves. You are a wonder and an expert multi-tasker!

Bad Day

Remember that song "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter? It went a little like this....cause you had a bad day, you're taking one down, you sing a sad song just to turn it around

This was me in a nutshell today - my work email crashed and excel was actin' a fool today - it kept crashing and reopening and when it was supposed to recover what didn't get saved before it crashed on me...yeah it didn't - forcing me to start over again and again and again

A task that should have taken me mere hours to do took me all day - seriously. I got nothing else accomplished that I planned to do today. Just means I be behind tomorrow BUT since I always try to look at the cup half full...it's just going to mean tomorrow is going to fly. And that means we will rolling into Friday sooner rather than later!

Stay safe out there && as always, I appreciate ya!

Déjà vu

I had that dream again this morning…

It’s one I’ve had before…

I go into a building - which is no longer there - in search of a bathroom. I have to go terribly. And while searching I see a sign that says women’s restroom elevator fl 1 with an arrow down. And this always confuses me because the men’s restroom is right there why couldn’t the women’s one be the same?
So, I tell my dad I have to take the elevator down and he says he’ll wait for me. I climb in this dingy, rickety, little elevator with a few other women and it takes us down to floor 1. Mind you there is only buttons for floor 2 - that we are on currently - and floor 1.

The elevator doors open up to something very unexpected – the center of a mall. We all disperse our separate ways and as I’m walking straight down, I turn to my left and see a sign that says restroom with an arrow pointing to the left. I walk towards it and find out it’s pointing inside of basically a party outlet store. Because there are balloons everywhere and party decorations.

As I am wandering around this huge store looking for another sign of where to go, I run into a girl who is looking for be same thing. So, we both turn around and decide to head the other direction of the store. In doing that we realize that this store has more than one level because we reach the center of it where it is open down to the bottom level by a huge circle with a banister around it – similar to how the mall is. And we are able to see that there is some kind of party going on, on the bottom floor. Like a birthday party or something. That’s make us feel a little more comfortable. After this we keep walking and eventually, we find the sign for the restroom.

In front of us are two brown doors that are side by side – the one is marked on the front men’s and the other women’s – a railroad chain is hanging down the side of the right of it while a piece of ripped caution tape hands down the left side of it. The hinges and various pad locks on the front of the doors have been painted over but are rusted giving it the feel that they probably won’t open. They both look like they have been sealed off completely and condemned. But I push on it anyway because at this point, I really have to use that toilet!

We go in and the restroom is as filthy as you can imagine. There is water and black, nasty sludge and dirt all over the floor. The once white toilet has black dirt all over the seats. During this time the girl I’m with runs for the door – repulsed by what she sees and clearly overwhelmed because there is in fact no smell – and I hear her vomiting just outside the door. I however stay inside as I nudge open all three stall doors with my foot to see if they all look as horrendous as I think they might. I find the first one is the dirtiest, the second is the least, and the third looks to me to be clogged since it is filled with...well you can only guess what...in the meantime the girl reappears from the outside of the bathroom and stands beside me...and then...well…

I wake up!

Now I don’t know exactly how many times I’ve had this dream but I know it’s been quite a few times and I know it always ends there – in that bathroom. I never know do I get out of that party store restroom? Does something happen to me? Do I ever get back to my dad? Do I ever see my mom again?

It’s a terrible feeling to see your dream-self stuck somewhere unpleasant in one of your dreamlands.

The scene of an action movie?

We were sitting down to watch a really good movie when I decide I want to go and get some movie theater popcorn!

I didn’t even get a minute away from my house and a warning on the dashboard comes up telling me to check my charging system with a picture of a battery. I can now see that the battery icon is lit up red on the dash as well. Deciding to do the most responsible thing I call my dad to let him know that hey I might need a jump when I get to the theater because the battery symbol came on and blah blah blah if I come back out it might not start back up. Just to give him the heads up to be ready for that.

I get another…maybe two minutes down the road and I start to smell something burning. The smell is getting stronger and stronger like something is on fire! So, I pull over into a safe parking lot and I’m like hmm…maybe I should pop the hood and make sure everything is okay under there…and then I think err…maybe not. But as I am walking around the car, I see all this white smoke pouring out of the passenger side corner of the hood. The burning smell is extremely bad both inside and outside of the car.
Panicking, I call my dad to tell him that I think the car is on fire. He tells me to get away from the car and he is on his way. And since that is my guess, I don’t know how long I have to get away from the car before it reaches the gas and blows it up! I grab my purse from inside and I see the navigation system flashing a new message that I don’t have time to read because I am panicking. And I run from the car!

Meanwhile outside – it is pouring down raining and I am in tee-shirt and thin sweatpants – because I was only meant to be running to get popcorn. A quick in and a quick out – note to future self: make sure you dress properly anytime you go somewhere!! LOL!! You can only imagine I am soaked to bone and shaking in no time.

I am standing away from the car in case something extreme does happen and I can still smell the burning smell. The whole time I am thinking I should’ve shut the TL off. I should’ve shut it off! Do I have time to? I panicked! What if it didn’t matter? What if I didn’t have enough time to? What if that made everything worse? I mean I don’t know!! But hey – the sad truth is…when it’s your time to go…it’s your time to go…and you can’t stop it. So, if something would have happened to me it was not because I didn’t shut the car off quick enough and could have prevented it – no it was because that was my time to go and that what was meant to happen.

That’s a little morbid for the morning I know…    

The end result was my car didn’t blow up in the pouring rain while I am dramatically soaked in a rainstorm like a scene from an action movie. Turned out it was the alternator that was just put in a year ago…

T as I like to call her (my car) have been through a lot together is these past nine years. She just turned over a hundred thousand miles this past Monday. A very reliable car, I feel safe during any bad storm – rain or snow. I have a thing for Acura’s always have and always will. But the Stang is my first love – he’d probably be mad if I didn’t give him a shoutout too! What if our cars actually were Transformers that would be pretty cool! Maybe less accidents would occur because they would just transform to stand up and stop themselves from hurting us and the others like them. But then if we get into that then we have to say well if we have good ones then we have bad ones and yeah…  

Bond, James Bond - 007 Skyfall – No, no not Skyfall…Treefall

Another darn tree fell in our yard! We just get one cleaned up and rid of, just in time for the next one to fall and laugh at us. I find it hysterical that these trees have stood for many, many years and now they decide you know what? Let’s come crashing down!

At least they haven’t hit anything remotely important…yet…

I have been telling everyone lately they are just tired, they’ve been standing for a long time and they want to lay down and rest. Or they have come to the end of their life and it is time for their new adventure as Robin Williams once said – RIP – we miss you!!

So yeah, we did that yesterday cut, load, unload, load, repeat, and then unload, stack. As you can see it was quite the lengthy process but we got it all taken care. And then I raked as best I could the saw dust chips away so that we can be somewhat back to normal. It would figure that the tree that fell would be like 50 feet long too, right? (Okay obviously that’s an exaggeration) But still – we kept pulling it out – and all you could see was tree, tree, tree…that’s how it always happens though. It couldn’t have been short or even medium, it had to be the longest one nearby. LOL!!!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone! Stay safe out there && as always, I appreciate ya!

^^ just kidding - I actually did get some today when the birthday cake I made for my husband turned out to be a slam dunk!

Yup - he wanted chocolate flavored and for me to surprise him with the rest

So how about a double layer, moist chocolate cake...

With warm fudge in the middle...

Chocolate icing/frosting on the top and sides - 

And how about chocolate sprinkles hidden in the middle?

AND don't forget to put them on top too!

Then to "top it off" -- *snickers* "top it off" LOL! I put blue candles, with a blue birthday boy sign, and a shark candle - because it IS shark week - and we watch that shizzz-nat every year!!

Welp congrats folks - we made it to the middle of the week and it feels gooooooodddd!!

I don't know what it was but I literally couldn't wake up this morning! It was so bad! I could've slept in!

OHHHHH anddddd we watched Quiet Place Part II yesterday because it finally became available on on-demand and OMG! It was worth waiting for! When they interviewed them on Monday they admitted that they are filming the 3rd one and it will be out in the spring of 2022!!!

WHOOOOOOOOP THERE IT ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!

Stay safe out there && as always, I appreciate ya!

Hey Readers,

This morning I had that satisfying feeling when the traffic light is turning yellow but your already driving through the intersection. 

The satisfaction comes for two reasons:

1. You don't have to slam the breaks on
2. You don't have to speed up to catch it
3. You make it through the light...with ease

There was a severe thunderstorm this morning but the cool thing about driving through it was that the lightening didn't travel vertically down from the clouds like it normally does - instead the lighting ran horizontally across the clouds. It was cool to see the lightening lighting up the clouds and then the streak across.

OKAY! Now it's time for a dollar store

I am someone who finds a dollar that was dropped on the dollar store floor and instead of picking it up and pocketing it - I picked it up and laid it on top for someone to see - hoping that with any luck the person that finds it needed because they were short on cash or what have you - or if someone did find it that didn't really need it that they paid it forward and left it there thinking the same thing I did

Stay safe out there && as always I appreciate ya! 

Hellllooooo Readers!

Updated the photo hobby pages with new shots that I was able to capture from my walk this weekend! 

They were all I could get before the heavy rain storm rolled in!

I do enjoy the raining - listening to it, watching it, sleeping to it - but dang we are getting a good bit of it!

Feel free to check those pictures out as a go on a walk together late afternoon!

I am working on wrapping up the latest newsletter - it should be hot off the press this week!

So if you are interested please don't forget to sign up before the month runs out to receive that edition!

This week is my hubby's birthday and he has requested I make him the most chocolatey-est cake one has ever known. So I got devils food cake mix - fudge - chocolate icing - and chocolate sprinkles! MMMMM!! YUMMMYYY!! The day I went to get all the stuff I needed to morph into an octopus so that I had more arms to carry all that and gifts, etc etc. 

Silly me forget to grab a basket on the way in! ​

BUT - back to the cake side of things - I am super excited to mix it and bake it!

Currently watching Gothika with Halle Berry - Robert Downey Jr - Penelope Cruz

I remember watching it one time back in the day probably when it first came out and it being a really good, crazyyyy kind of movie! 

Enjoy the rest of your Monday ya'll!

Stay safe out there && as always, I appreciate ya!

Hey Readers,

Just wanted to drop by and say thank you so much again for everyone who continues to purchase Unforeseen on Amazon - it means the world to me!

Wanted to shoot out a friendly reminder to please leave your honest reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads. You can find links to the pages in the "about" drop down menu on their specific pages.

Please note: 

If you wish to leave a review - which I would encourage you to do - it's the only way I will get better!

You do not have to leave your name if you don't feel comfortable doing so. There is an option for you to leave it anonymously. 

I hope you all have a great Sunday - I am thinking of going for a walk after I wrap up some things. Maybe grab some new shoots for the website? :)

Go out and enjoy that beautiful sunshine!

Stay safe out there && as always, I appreciate ya!

P.S. I was thinking we could play a form of hangman as a reveal for what this next book will be about?

_ _ _  _ _  _  _ _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _  _  _ _ _ _ _ _ _  _ _ _ _ ? 

What will be the first letter you'll choose?

I'd love to hear what you come up with! And we will fill in the blanks as letters roll in or begin the hanging. 

Good Evening Readers, 

What do you get when you mix...

Sugar and spice and a little bit of something nice?

(Meaning some freshly picked garden blueberries)

A sweet ass pie that's what!

Thank you Pillsbury for suppling lovely pie crusts! That makes me happy!

Hope you all have a sweet as pie night tonight!

I appreciate ya && as always, stay safe out there!

Happy Friday Readers!!

We made it! Weekend here we come!!

No matter how old I get I will never understand two things:

1. Why we all can't just get along

AND

2. Why we can't be kind to one another

For anyone out there who is afraid to follow your dream, don't be. I can't encourage you enough! 

Think of it like this:

Doing something for the first time can sometimes be as painful as ripping a band-aid off but after that you know what will lies ahead of you and you can try to handle it better and with more confidence than the first time

Of course you will mess up along the way but that's okay, learn from it. It's all part of your growth. It'll make you more aware of what to look for and how to do better. 

No one can do everything perfect the first time, heck I'm sure there are people out there that will do the same thing a thousand times and it still won't be perfect and that's okay too!! 

You just find your own way of doing it. Get into your own routine and it'll be the right fit for you. It will work for you. And because it does it'll start to build your confidence which will in turn make the all around experience better.

It's okay not to be perfect, because no matter what anyone tells you - no one is - thinking you are and actually being so are two very different things

Remember Rome wasn't built in a day folks...there is a reason why that saying is quoted so often. 

Gosh I want to go to Rome...at least once in my life...

I want to see Italy with my own eyes, breath in the air, explore the horizons, taste their pasta and their pizza :)

Future goals - we need to look forward to something or else we are just barely surviving day by day.

It's like when you one day decide to take that leap and leave the safety and security of your job for another. At some point along the way you realized that you were just surviving there. Your head was barely above water. That the only thing that kept you going was the check you were collecting. Through the years your work friends left, you grew to not like your job, and you weren't even getting your hours anymore although they worked you hard the hours you were there.

They worked you just long enough that you couldn't collect. So whose loss is it?

Yours for not leaving sooner? There's for not appreciating their people more and listening to their needs?  Or both for not having the guts to communicate to each other the ugly truth that was really lingering in the air?

When the smell all around you is so stained that it gags you.

Stay strong, everyone is fighting a battle out there, there own battle and we have no idea what that all entails. So be kind and share a smile, you never know if the person passing you needs it.

Stay safe out there everyone && as always, I appreciate ya!