All posts by sambel203

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About sambel203

I am a Wife, Mother, daughter, Aunt and loyal friend. I have always dreamed of being an Author. I wrote a couple short books. 4 are mine, 1 is a story my daughter made up and another one I am about to publish is a story my son made up and illustrated. I am currently working on my next book. Check them out in the links. I am blogging because I love writing and it helps keep me sane. I have challenged myself to write one blog every day I have to work for a year. If you follow my blog, I will follow yours! Thank you for taking the time to check out my stuff. Feel free to send me an email if there is something you would like me to write about. J.acosta08@yahoo.com

I am so tired.

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I forgot about puppy training. When we adopted Max two years ago, he was pretty much crate trained already. He wasn’t house trained but I didn’t mind teaching him to go outside. Max would actually put himself to bed in the Crate when he was tired. Image result for german shepherd puppy in a crate free image
(***Not Luna, free image on google***)
Luna is NOT crate trained. She was adopted from a farm and I assume she doesn’t understand why she’s the only one in a crate overnight. It’s because she needs to be trained still and she likes to chew and I don’t trust her to not pee everywhere while eating all my furniture. So she is crated at night and when we are out. My husband walks them in the morning, on lunch and at night. We are fencing the back yard this weekend so we can let them out to run around too now that it’s getting nicer out.Image result for sleepy cartoon lady at work free image
So I am exhausted because Baby Luna cried a lot last night. My husband got up at 4 AM and took her for a walk in hopes that it would help her sleep for a few hours. It seemed to help. We got a combined total of about 3 hours. We’ll get there. I just forgot about this whole part. Image result for coffee more free image
I was going to write about spring today, but that might have to wait till later in the week. I am also going to put something together about our surprise trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Pennsylvania next week. That’s coming up too. For now, it’s coffee and lots of it, all day. Happy Tuesday!

Meet our new addition

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Well, we did it. We are proud parents again. Meet Luna. Our German Shepherd puppy.

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We are all in puppy love but my husband is puppy hypnotized. This is his dream puppy. He’s been talking about wanting a German Shepherd for years. We spent our entire Saturday driving 7 hours round trip to pick her up and then spent $160 on toys, treats for training, a leash, collar, her own food and water bowls and now we are home and settling in.

Luckily, everyone is getting along great. We have an old man pit bull who just turned 12, Nacho. He’s just happy that he gets to go relax while the other dogs play.

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We have a 2 year old Rottweiler/ pit bull mix, Max. He’s 92 pounds and still thinks he’s a lap puppy. He’s my mush puppy.

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Luna is a very smart and very sweet puppy. Her and Max are already playing and I don’t think it will be long before she’s in charge.

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Everyone is super happy. We are now a family with 3 dogs and a turtle. We will be fencing in the backyard next weekend! How is it Monday already? Ugh… Time to get ready for work.

How was your weekend???

Hi Loves! Weekend Update

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I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We plan on cleaning up the front and back yard and cleaning the house tomorrow. There may be a trip to visit a little German Shepherd Puppy that my husband has been searching for. It’s hard to find female German Shepherd puppies available for adoption. Wish us luck!

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Sunday we will be hanging around. I am going to try to spend Sunday putting together a new book. I have heard from a few people that if I combine my mini books and sell them all together, that might help me sell a few. So I am thinking about trying that. I also would like to maybe create my own cover. I have heard that might help sell some too. We’ll see. Once I figure it out, I will let you know! If you would like to support me you can head over to my new book page, buy one and let me know what you think, that would be amazing!

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I also want to do the second revision on my new young adult fiction book. I need to add more to it. I think this book is coming along really great. I am super excited to finish and publish and promote it. So fingers crossed. The great part is that I can turn it into a series if people really like my character.

I need to work on my blog too. I keep going back and forth about upgrading to the business plan so I can add the plug ins and maybe get some more traffic. Does anyone have it, and what are your thoughts?

I will also spend time catching up on my favorite blogs and looking for new ones. So, drop your link in the comments if you want a visit.

I need to figure out Pintrest still. I am part of a group on Tailwind, I have not figured out how to do anything on it yet. I do pin my blogs, I haven’t received any traffic at all. I was thinking about working with one of the people on twitter who create pretty pins and will redo my account for a small fee. Anyone try this yet? What has been your experience?

Facebook still won’t let me post my blogs. I have no idea why. I am going to give it another few weeks so I can at least promote my new books and then maybe I’ll delete it. I am back and forth with keeping it. I hope I can promote my blogs again if I give it some time. I was getting at least 100 views from that a month. Ehh, we’ll see.

Instagram… I will leave that for another day. I am still trying to figure out what to really use it for. There is a lot of follow till I follow back and then unfollow going on there too and I just haven’t had the energy to really sit and try. I have read that it is great for some bloggers though so I will get to it at some point.

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What are your weekend plans?

Thank you for stopping by and thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

I wish you all a happy weekend!

 

Do you want a Turtle?

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****Disclaimer**** There are affiliate links in this post. I do make a small commission off each purchase you make from them. I would never promote products that I do not believe in 100%. You can count on my honest opinions on all products listed in any of my pieces. Thank you.
You better really want a turtle before you get one! I went with my family on a whim one day. I remember growing up, my friend always had a mini-turtle in a tiny tank and his name was Forest. I thought this turtle was the coolest pet. We even tried to cut school one day to head to Chinatown in New York City so we could buy our own. About 8 of us cut school and started walking to the train station. About half way down Greenwich Ave, our friend, who knew where to go and was paying for half of us to get there, was spotted by her mother (because we had to stop at a store to get cigarettes…)  We all ran and our friend was taken back to school. With limited money, we all hopped the bus to Stamford and ended up in the news because some guy was stabbed in a restaurant and we had just got kicked out of the mall… but that’s an entirely different story. 
This story is about me growing up and thinking mini-turtles are awesome and we should take the kids to Chinatown to explore. Also, if we happen to see a mini-turtle we could pick one up because they are so cute.
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Guess what? We found mini-turtles and we bought 3 because my niece was with us too.
We brought the turtles home on the subway and then the train and no one said anything. Then we started to research them and did you know that these little turtles are actually illegal? When they are so small they are illegal to buy because they carry Salmonella and other diseases. I did not know that! Now, before you go on about how that’s illegal and I am part of the problem and blah, blah, blah… I honestly didn’t know. So, I am sorry to anyone who might be offended by this.  I probably should have researched this BEFORE we went and then I probably wouldn’t have bought them. Related image
A few months later we had my daughter’s birthday party at the aquarium and she told the host about our little turtle from Chinatown and luckily the host was like “oh, a rescue turtle”. Umm, yes. Unfortunately, two of our turtles died but one, Bob, survived. Not only did it survive but it grew and grew and now we have a huge tank downstairs with a filter and rocks and turtle food and it’s crazy. Moral of the story: do your research kids. Now every animal they want we have to research for a year and visit at a rescue shelter before we consider bringing one home.
Right now, girl wants a bunny and boy wants a parrot. They are researching but we did adopt them one each through the World Wild Life Fund for Christmas presents. They received plush animals and certificates of adoption for real ones. If they can prove they are responsible, take the time to learn about their animals and visit them and they still want one; we will probably get them one. Back to Bob the turtle. He’s a giant.
This is a list of allllll the things we have needed to buy for our mini chinatown turtle. Bob is a Red-Eared Slider Turtle.
We bought him a tank like this:


Aquatic Fundamentals 16751, 75/90 Gallon Upright Aquarium Stand
heater and lights:

Zoo Med Aquatic Turtle Uvb & Heat Lighting Kit

Zoo Med Turtle Tuff Splashproof Halogen Lamp 75 Watts

Century 7 Day Heavy Duty Digital Programmable Timer – Dual Outlet (Indoor)

EHEIM Jager Aquarium Thermostat Heater 300W

Zacro LCD Digital Aquarium Thermometer Fish Tank Water Terrarium Temperature

this filter:

Fluval Canister Filter, FX4 Filter (250 Gal)

Fluval Carbon, 100-gram Nylon Bags – 3-Pack

Fluval BioMax (500g)

and he eats this food:


Tetra ReptoMin Aquatic Turtle, Newt and Frog Reptile Floating Food Sticks,10.59 Ounce

Fluker’s Buffet Blend Aquatic Turtle Food , 7.5-Ounce

Zoo Med Natural Aquatic Turtle Food, Maintenance Formula, 45-Ounce

Zacro Automatic Fish Feeder – Rechargeable Timer Fish Feeder with USB Charger Cable, Fish Food Dispenser for Aquarium or Fish Tank

Large Sun-dried Red Shrimp 10 oz. by Zoo Med

Water conditioner, because that’s a thing… Who knew?

Tetra 19514 ReptoGuard Water Conditioner Block, 6-Count

Zoo Med ReptiSafe Instant Terrarium Water Conditioner 8.75 FL. OZ. (Pack of 2)

Fluker Labs SFK43000 Eco Clean All Natural Reptile Waste Remover, 8-Ounce

A dock for his turtle butt:


ZM 40GAL TURTLE DOCK TD30

I seriously had no idea how much goes into taking care of a turtle. But I love Bob. I really do. And I better because he’s going to live forever. Okay, only 20 to 50 years…

Some weeks are just like that, I guess.

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Ever have those days where you just didn’t sleep well the night (or week) before and you wake up exhausted? Last week was a tough one for me. I was just feeling really down about a lot of things going on in my life and it felt like everyone I cared about was mad at me, or disappointed, or I was annoyed and I couldn’t communicate what was going on.Image result for cant express emotions free image
Then I got my period for the first time in over 2 months and I was like “Oh, this is why there are a million emotions going on and I don’t seem to understand any of them.” It was an overall bad week. I fought with my mom, my husband, myself. I am still on this damn waiting list to talk to a therapist since January. My son at least gets to see someone this week. I just feel like I am losing my shit and I am trying really hard to hold it altogether right now… I say all this to say, I’m exhausted. My entire soul feels tired right now. I feel like I need to nap for a week just to feel somewhat normal. Image result for tired soul free image
I know how this goes though. This is where I start to feel better, I hope. I’m starting to be able to put into words what I am feeling and then I can tell the people I feel those things with what I am thinking. So the healing/digging out  can start I guess.
 It’s getting nicer out. I am going to try to get outside more, get some sun and focus more on the positive things coming up. I am trying to get my first Young adult book completed so I can self publish in a couple weeks. Then I can focus on promotion. I am just waiting for my readers and the editor to get back to me.
We have summer coming and vacations. My blog is doing well. I am thinking about paying for the upgrade to business in a couple months if the numbers keep up.
I am going to get through this. But first I need to go home and sleep till tomorrow.
Writing wise, I’ve had 4 rejections for some online magazine articles. 1 guest blog that I sent and was never published. I have no idea why. I didn’t ask. Not one person has bought any of my other published books. I’m like losing steam. I know I’ll be fine. I know it takes time.
I’m just feeling extra shitty lately and I really want to just scream and cry and not have to leave my house at all but there are kids and things that need to be done and work that needs to be finished by deadline. So I will drag myself through it all till I finally start to feel better. I hope this passes soon. I promise to be back tomorrow happier.

Captain Marvel. A Family review

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I know this is a little late. We had some things come up, like a trip to Boston, before we could make it to see the movie.  So here it goes:Related image
I thought: Cats are evil monsters. It was a long movie. It was Interesting though. I really liked it. I liked the female power. It’s nice to identify with a super, super hero. Besides being human it doesn’t seem like she doesn’t have any big flaws but I could be wrong because I don’t read the comics, I just see the movies and then ask my husband a million questions afterwards. It makes sense that Fury calls her at the end of the Avengers. I liked the fighting. I knew that Yon-Rog was evil. He was a weirdo and I didn’t trust him. I did like it though. I would watch it again.
7 thought: Sleep. Half way in.
9 thought: It was good. I liked the humor.
Husband thought: It was a bit long. It dragged in some spots and it could have been written a little tighter. I like the humor. The ending was good but it felt rushed. She just started kicking ass and then it was over. The skrulls were really good. The characters felt organic. Her friend Maria and daughter Monica were really good characters. I appreciate the changes from the comic books. I liked the story over all. The movie version of her is so much better than the comic book version. It’s easier to identify with her. Her character flaws in the movie make more sense than they did in the comic books. The fight scenes were good. I liked all the parts but it was like 4 or 5 different movies.
Sister thought: loved woman power and throwback songs. She’s like unstoppable.
Niece thought: I liked it. That’s it.Related image
We all can’t wait to see Shazam next!

Excerpt from Kissing all the Frogs

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In honor of this month being my husband and my 11 year wedding anniversary.
Chapter 5: Ramon, my prince
Ramon and I had worked together in the past at pizza hut, we didn’t get along very well back then. His last day at work I actually told him to have a nice life and bye! He went into the marines and when he came back he was different. Besides the physical change, he lost a lot of weight, he had lasik and his hair was cut short, he seemed so much nicer and respectful.
He had a job, full time at a hospital. He had a car. He liked to work out ( not really my thing, but okay I mean, look at him). He visited me at work and asked me for my number and I gave it to him. He tried to kiss me in the rain and I dodged him. I was so nervous. Then we actually did kiss.  He asked me on a date and I said okay.  He was going to meet me right after work the following week.
The day of our date, June 13th 2006 I tried to bail so hard. I told him that I wasn’t feeling well and he showed up with Thera Flu and made it for me. We went to my friends house for a few hours and then ended up pack at my apartment. He ended up spending the night. We both called out of work the next day and spent most of the morning in bed. He got up to get dressed and walked across my room completely naked and for the first time in my entire life I felt comfortable doing the same. We just fit. Everything about him was just comfortable. We never spent a night apart after that. Image result for Love cartoon mixed race free image
After a month I was in serious like with this guy. After 3 months I told him I loved him by accident while were were hanging up the phone after making plans for later that night. Later that night he said he loved me too.
For the next 6 months he stayed over every night. The apartment was now getting crowded. Roommates girlfriend had also basically moved in, even if he wasn’t happy about it. Ray and I started looking for a place. We found one in March, 9 months after we started dating, and moved in. I gave Roommate a month notice but told him I would pay my portion of the rent for the next 3 months until he found someone. He was mad but said okay. I ended up paying for an extra month and then he found a new roommate.
Roommate and I hung out a few years later one night and said we should keep in touch more often. We haven’t though. I know that he’s engaged to someone and they moved to another place in Stamford. I just hope he’s happy like me wherever he goes.
Ray and I moved in together in April and got a puppy, Nacho. On our one year anniversary he proposed to me at one of my favorite spots. The following April 19th, 2008, we were married in Cooperstown, NY at the Otesaga. It was amazing. We were so happy. The Otesaga had shut down for renovations and we were supposed to be there the first weekend they opened back up but something had delayed them a week so we had the entire hotel and staff to ourselves for our wedding. We had about 27 guests. If I had ever imagined myself getting married, that would have been the wedding I had dreamed of.  I really never thought before Ray that I would ever get married. The next day my parents had a BBQ at their house before everyone headed back home.
Side note; A few years later on a ghost hunters show, the Otesaga was on! I guess the 4th floor is haunted. Luckily my wedding was on the 1st, so no ghosts that I was aware of….
Want to read more?
You can buy the book and learn about all my terrible ex-frogs too in this book: Kissing all the frogs
Kissing All The Frogs by [Acosta, J.]

New month, new goals!

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Happy April! I can’t believe it’s April already. Time for some NEW goals! Related image

I hit most of them last month except I am 3 less than what I was hoping for in new followers. I passed my page views from February by about 100 but I was interacting a lot more with a lot of cool people, so that’s positive.Related image

This month I am going to aim to maybe gain 28 new followers,  and hopefully get the same amount of likes, comments, views and visitors as last month. This month I am going to focus more on interacting with other blogs and trying to figure out pintrest to see if I can increase my traffic. I also wrote a new young adult book last month so I am focusing on editing  and publishing that this month so Stay tuned!

What are your goals for April?

How to get a great hair cut

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Hey Hey Hey! It’s Friday!!! Let’s get the party started! Okay,not really, I have to get through work first, and then go grocery shopping. Then home to put everything away and laundry. Then we can party! Hey, hey!
What are your plans this weekend? I am finally, FINALLY going to get my hair done. It’s been a year since I went. I have highlights but they now start at my ears… It’s really been entirely to long. This is an actual picture my daughter drew of me last weekend. I said “Honey, my hair isn’t that short!” She said “I am not done yet!” And proceeded to draw my highlights on the bottom… How sweet.
Do you have a favorite salon that you go to always? It took me forever to finally decide that it wasn’t worth salon hopping. I went to this place on a whim 8 years ago and it was the first time I ever fell in love with my hair. It was exactly what I wanted. I could just wash my hair and leave the house and it would look great or I could style it and look phenomenal.  But it was almost $300.00 for the cut, highlights and everything.
I felt amazing but that price seemed a little steep for me and my young family. I felt bad about spending that much money. That was 2 weeks of groceries and gas back then… Yes, I am old enough to say that now.
I spent years salon hopping trying to get that cut and color that I fell in love with and I could never get it. One place did chunky highlights when I asked for thin, she said they looked better. One place refused to give me a straight cut. My hair was to thin she said so she went ahead an layered it. The next place gave me thick highlights, I have to admit they were better than the chunky ones. The only place that actually gave me the cut I wanted was the training salon. That girl did exactly what I asked her to do but I was to nervous to ask for color. No place gave me the cut and color that I fell in love with.
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Last year I was done with Salon hopping and I booked my appointment back at the $300.00 place. And I paid $300.00. and I loved it again.  I will never go anywhere ever again. Also, I plan on going more than once a year so it shouldn’t be $300.00 every time. Last year just totally got away from me and before I even had a chance to look up, it was December. And now all of a sudden it’s March…Wait, really? Almost April!! Can time slow down a little bit? My hair needs taming.
**Not me or my hair but something like what I get when I go. ***
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So my advice for how to get a great haircut… Find someone you love and stay with them forever.
I go Saturday. I am so excited I could pop. What’s you’re experience with hair? Do you salon hop? Are you strictly with one person for everything? Do you have a colorist and a stylist?
Sunday I have book club with my homies. So overall it should be a great feel good weekend. Which is exactly what I need right now.
Happy Weekend loves! I hope you all have a good one.

 

My mom and me, it’s complicated

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*** This is a personal post, if you want something lighter please read some older posts. I will be back with light Friday posts tomorrow. This is just something that’s bothering me this week. ****
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I had a huge thing written about my moms and my argument the other night. And then I deleted it this morning by accident… It was about how I feel so worthless and not appreciated. When my oldest brother talks bad about me or my family, she never defends us and it is making me feel like I am not important to her. I have told her it bothers me that she doesn’t say anything back and she says that what he says really isn’t that bad. Then why tell me about it?
In my deleted post I said I was done with everything because she has done this to me my entire life, not believed in me and never defended me. She said she didn’t take me on auditions when I was younger because she didn’t think I would make it and didn’t want to take time off of work. She didn’t save for college because she didn’t think I would ever go to college. She didn’t think I would ever get married or have kids or be able to buy a house, and yet I have done all these things by myself.
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The most recent thing that happen is my mom is trying to decide what to do now that my father has died. She’s alone for the first time in her life and I am trying to be there for her and let her cry and take her time to make decisions. I am trying really hard to be there for her and be supportive.
It’s just really hard when I feel like everything I say is in one ear and out the other. There is a long complicated history about other people in my family.. Isn’t that the way families are? But besides all the details, the point that I am getting to is that all of this is making me depressed.
I have a family who loves, needs and believes in me so why do I bother putting myself in these situations where I am not appreciated at all. In fact, I feel so insulted most of the time.
So the other night my mother said a few things that really set me off and I kind of exploded on her with all the things I feel that she just ignores about me and her answer was…. to ignore everything I just said and to continue talking about her possibly moving in with my other brother next year… And I felt like I was hollow. Like my voice was gone and there was nothing left.
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I am not going to post all the details like I was yesterday. I am just going to say that this is where I am right now. I am going to try to stop doing this to myself. I do love my mom but trying to dig myself out of this feeling doesn’t just effect me anymore, I have kids and a husband who actually need and value me.
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So moving forward I will focus more on my family. The entire thing with my mom will take some time to figure out. I want to be there to listen but I need to distance myself enough to be able to just listen. It doesn’t really matter what I say anyway.
I don’t know… Anyone else in this situation? What has worked for you?