A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell made me feel like I needed more. This book gave all of the twists and turns that a thriller should and more. It kept me guessing at every turn. The mommy blogger and all of her postings gave me all of the feels. As a blogger, I too wanted to blog about this book as I was listening to it on my long, but not long enough to listen to the whole thing, kind of commute.

Stephanie’s best friend, Emily, disappears and she is desperate to find the mother of her little boy’s best friend. She and Emily’s husband are too, desperate to find her, or are they?

What’s on TV you ask? The answer is; I have no idea. Between work, commuting and a young child, I have no idea what anyone is watching. When Game of Thrones was a hit, I got the highlights of the show as I would eat lunch with my team mates at work. They’d talk about it, I thought it was a great show just by their feedback on the previous nights recap at lunch. I have watched a few episodes of the show but would fall asleep on the couch. I am still on season 2 of Breaking Bad on Netflix and that show ended years ago. This is how far back my watching experiences go. Come to think of it, I barely have a hobby. All my attention goes to work and my child. What are you watching during your busy schedule?

The Woman in the Window is a rollercoaster of a ride. This book kept me at the edge of my seat for the entire ride. It’s a psychological thriller that starts off with Anna, a psychologist with a deep phobia of going outside her house. Her agoraphobia keeps her indoors while she witnesses a murder just outside her window. Finn keeps throwing new things at the listener at every turn. I’m glad I heard the story on audiobook as the person reading is also acting out the part of a desperate woman trying to get to the bottom of what she thought she witnessed. Is she going crazy or did she not see what she thought she saw.

Today as I was driving home, competing with visitors to the Hampton’s. We were all stuck on bumper to bumper traffic. What I thought was a nice motorist driving next to me. Who yelled out the window, with a heavy accent, your tire is flat. What a nice man I thought what a nice man. So i dothe quick test of getting my hands off the weel to see if the car pushes to any direction to figure out which side is flat. It pushed a little to the right. I get out of the highway and head to a gas station to check it out. I get out check the tires and all of them are fine. Now I quickly looked around to see if the guy followed me. The nice man has turned into the creepy man who must be blind. Luckily no one followed me. But you get I was looking at my rearview mirror the entire time all the way home. And was ready to pass my house if I noticed anyone in a bright blue car following me. Hey, you never know. Better safe than sorry.

As a kid, I was never allergic to anything. Pollen? Bring it on.

Now that I’m getting older. I can’t go a day without feeling like it’s allergy day. Some days worst than others. Today both of my eyes are pleading for help. So much so that I’ve been having to wear my glasses to work and not my contacts. Dear pollen, please take it easy in us all.

Happiness is a Choice You Make is a wonderful book. Talking to the older generation is one of my favorite things to do. They are so wise. Most of the elderly that I know complain about all of the things they can no longer do and how doctor’s are out to get them. The doctors want them to go quicker, but want to keep them alive so they collect their money. These are my parents and they drive me nuts. But this little book keeps all of the positive aspects of growing old. They speak fondly of family and living like today is your last. As it may just be. I truly enjoyed listening to this book as everyone was so happy talk to the author and provide insights to a happy end of life.

One of elders the author interviewed wants to get married all while living at a nursing home. I thought, how cute is she and her lover? Another is just happy to be able to live another day. Listening to these elders made me want to go to my parents house and have a conversation with them about life and how they are living and retell their stories about the good old days.

Last week I went to a women’s conference. At the Holiday Inn Express. I felt so #empowered that I went home and cleaned out the entire office. This office is filled with toys and paperwork and it has also turned into my husband’s man cave with his Magic the Gathering playing cards. Hey, it keeps him sharp. We just have a lot of boxes filled with these playing cards.

But I digress. Back to the conference! They taught us how to divide your time in order to get it all done. So; divide a piece of paper into four blocks. These are your blocks of time. One of the locks has the heading of “DO” the other is “GO,” “BUY” and “CALLS.” Place only 5 things on your blocks, 7 max. As you can’t do more than 5 per day, 7 if everything goes to plan. Which of course hardly ever does. Whatever you don’t do on that list place it on your to do for the next day or week. Another empowering lesson was to do affirmations at least once a day. Tell yourself: “I Can,” “I Am,” “I Will,” “I Have,” “I Deserve!”

This conference was also so upbeat that we were all happy and laughing at every turn of the presentations.

On a side note, when I was getting into the elevator to get back to the conference during a break. We saw a man who excused himself and pushed his sweatshirt down to cover his private parts. Us girls turned to each other and asked each other “is he naked under that sweatshirt?” He saw his companions in the lobby and even they were taken aback. Shockingly they asked “what are you doing?” His response was that he had left his pants in the car. I have so many questions! Didn’t you have a pair of pants on when you got into the hotel? Was there not a towel available for you to cover yourself? Couldn’t you make a phone call to your family to bring the pants to you? So, so many questions lol.

At first I thought this book was going to be about a hot mess of a person who barely had time to wash their face in the mornings before work. Boy was I wrong! This girl will make the time to wash, moisturize and even put on a little makeup.

This was the type of story that made me want to do the same. Get up every morning like it’s a brand new beginning. Forget about the mess left yesterday and begin anew today.

Rachel, may I call you Rachel? I feel like we’re friends now so we can be on a first name basis, puts it all out there for us. From her childhood trauma to her struggles with adoption its all out there and then some with some great advise. My greatest take away advise is to set up a time to be mad at your trauma. Today at 6PM we’re going to think about the traumatizing thing that happened in our life and that is going to be the only time today that we’re allowed to think about it.  I have been using this little trick myself and it is helpful.

Thank you Rachel for your honesty and to push others to be who they want to be in their lives and not let the little lies we tell ourselves to take over our thoughts and stinkin’ thinikin’. I can not wait to get to your next book.

So I’m continuing to study for my Project Management course that I have decided to take this upcoming summer. I am very nervous about going back to school and an continuing to study during my spare time to prepare myself for what’s coming #anxietymuch!

I’ve been taking a test after each chapter that I have been studying, more like just reading. Because at the time it comes to take the test I have bombed almost every single test. Just when I think I’m memorizing everything and doing really well….I am not! This is truly very frustrating and putting more pressure on my anxiety.

I have decided to cut myself some slack as I’ve been way too stressed about this than I need to be. So I will continue to read the chapters, take notes and take the practice tests. If I don’t do so well, than that’s ok My class is a few months away and hopefully with the help of a teacher, I will do much better on the tests. Meanwhile, daddy took our baby girl to dinner for daddy daughter time, and I am going to use this time to hit the books.

 

 

 

I am thinking of going back to take a course at my local college and am prepping on my own for the course to be easier on me. With a full time job and a small child, studying aint easy. For me to memorize anything that I am studying I need total quiet and that is not happening. Not at work during my lunch hour, not at the coffee house nor at home. Especially at home, my 5-year old does not allow any of this to happen. So I am talking to my daughter to have her understand that between the hours of 8 and 9PM is mommys time to study. It hasn’t worked too well as she also wants to “study” with me. So she scribbles on a piece of paper and starts to talk and talk. Mommy needs silence!