Changes To Come

Cheers to it almost being the weekend!  In case you haven't read my last few blog posts, I'm in the mist of writing my second novel, LBB, because it is up for option with Harlequin.  And speaking of Harlequin, they just got purchased by HarperCollins.  So, as you can imagine this has been both an exciting and nerve wrecking experience thus far.  

I still have mt first novel, Forever Branded in the works as well.  It's kind of on the back burner since it's not up for option yet. I'm waiting to see how LBB turns out and before I make any decisions about whether to keep moving with self publishing Forever Branded or shopping it around to some publishers.  It's not exactly the right fit for any of the Harlequin lines right now.  Although, it's a romance, it has some heavy subject matter in it.  And I'm not one to be edited or have my writing voice changed.  Being true to myself, my characters and the telling of their stories is very important to me.

Also, we're finally in the packing the stages and getting ready to move.  Y'all I'm so excited to be moving a place with a dishwasher, legit maintenance men and closer to Target again!  It's the simple things that make the biggest difference.  We'll have 2 bathrooms!  A fireplace and it's near the church we had started going to and fell in love with as well as our favorite library.  Moo gets to be reunited with her bff and it's in the same neighborhood as their school.

Yes, I said their.  I had a meeting today about JJ's evaluation results.  No autism!  He'll get re-evaluated in 2016 though if we don't see any progress or if we see any regression or behavioral issues consistent with autism.  We decided that he'll be going to preschool for three year olds three days a week starting this August.  As it stands, he and Moo will be going to the same school.  Of course, with all the school changes still not finalized here, they told me that could change.

He's getting a new private therapist to work with him on the two days he'll be home.  I'm requesting a male just because he's starting to hit that aggressive boy stage where all he wants to do is wrestle and rough play.  I feel like a male therapist will be more equipped to handle that as well as provide some advice in what I can do to tone it down.  Who knows boys better than other men who have been boys?

My husband was pretty much left to do as he pleased. So, he's a little lost when it comes to dealing with the how to tone it down aspect.  In fact, he's probably a little at fault for this situation because he wrestles with JJ often and I told him that for now no more wrestling until JJ can understand the difference between a playful hit and a full force hit.  It's all the same to him when he's doing it at the moment and he doesn't know that he's hit too hard until it's too late.

I'm also gearing up for my Chick-fil-A Moms special event tomorrow for Mom's Night Out!  I'm excited to be meeting up with some new and old faces from around my area.  I'm participating in the 21 Days Challenge with Listerine.  I've partnered with Red Robin to help raise awareness about food allergies specifically and look forward sharing my post with you guys on Friday.  There are a few other things in the works.

So, my plate is very full to say the least.  Therefore, I've been thinking that it maybe time to make a change here on YUMMommy and take a small blogging break.  I don't want to stretch myself thin or risk giving myself writer's block before I finish my books.  That would not be a good look.

I'm thinking that maybe, I'll just still do my Thankful Thursday posts and finish out all of my sponsored posts for this month and then for rest of May and June just do that one weekly post.  I'd come back in July for another series of posts related to the trip that we are taking and then probably go back to just doing Thankful Thursday until August.  Nothing is set in stone yet, but it's been quiet on the blog and it's just because I have a lot going on.

Just hang in here and I'll still be around, but not as much.  You'll still be able to find me on all of my social media accounts.  They're in the sidebar to the right.  So, make sure you follow me if you're not.  I'll also be doing more videos on YouTube now that my camera battery, charger and tripod all came in the mail last week.  And of course, I'll be documenting my writing journey, doing book review and author interviews over on my author/writing blog!

So, again the changes that coming will be less of me here, more of me on my other blog and YouTube.  I hope that once the dust settles, I'll have two books to promote, book signing events to attend and meet all my readers and even greater news to share about JJ's progress!  Thank you to everyone who's been so loyal about showing me love and support.  I am eternally grateful and I love you guys!!

Life Gets Hard

When were young, we couldn't wake to be adults.  Now that we're adults, some of us can't wait until somebody invents a time machine and we can turn back the clock and be teens again.  I've been feeling the stresses of being an adult lately.  In the mist of trying to get prepared to celebrate my third wedding anniversary (which was Monday), life decided to deal me a few lemons.

It all started on Sunday at 1:28 AM.  The kids were in bed sleeping and I was on my way to join them in dream land.  The Mr was at work as usual.  Just I'm finally drifting off into a peaceful slumber, I hear a crash and the sound of breaking glass.  Immediately, I shoot up straight out of bed and hit the panic button our alarm system.  

It was not a drill folks, somebody had indeed just busted out our bedroom window where the kiddies and I were sleeping.  It all happened so fast.  I thought that my heart was going to explode because it was beating so fast.  My legs and hands were shaking but in the back in my mind I just kept telling myself to stay calm because I had two kids to protect should the vandal decide to hurl his/her body through the window next. 

I gathered up the kids and put them in the living room. Called 911 and the alarm company to make sure that police were on the way. They were.  I called my husband at work and told him what happened and the he needed to come home right away.  I phoned our landlord and left her voicemail telling her what happened and that we would like to speak to her as soon as possible about getting the window fixed.

During all of this the same vandal launched a huge stone through our neighbors bedroom window as well.  Initially, I thought they were trying to break out our kitchen window.  At that point I had already armed myself with my trusty steel baseball bat.  I had every intention of taking the intruder's head off when they stuck it through the window.  Sadly, they got away before the police came and because the neighbors didn't have their back porch light on we didn't get a good luck at who it was.

Now, let me state for the record that we live in a mixed income neighborhood.  There are several families, an nice apartment complex and a park in area.  Our street is pretty much quiet and everybody is pretty friendly and keeps to themselves. There is a police sub station less than five minutes away.  That being said, I believe wholeheartedly that whoever targeted our apartment was not a resident of our neighborhood.

Anyways, you would think that our landlord would immediately call us once she got our voicemail.  At the very least, you'd think that she'd want to see if any other damages were caused and to see if we or the neighbors were hurt.  Nope.  We don't hear anything from her.  Instead, we hear from her nephew who she sends to make sure we have boarded up the window and to tell the neighbors to board up their windows.

Like really?!  So, at that point the Mr is pissed off because it's obvious that she knows what happened but has not tried to reach out to us personally.  She decides on Monday.  The Mr tells us her that we were not pleased to have not heard from her and asks when she will send someone out to look at the window for repairs?

Y'all guess what her reply was?  She had the nerve to tell him that we were responsible for the window and that it was her belief that my husband had broken the window due to us having a dispute!  Are you kidding me?  I promise you, I can't make this stuff up.  Like lady we've seen you all of five times, two of those times my husband was not home.  She doesn't know us well enough to make assumptions about issues within our marriage.

More importantly, if I was having any kind of dispute with my husband, I'm sure I would have told that to the cops and the neighbors would have told it to them as well.  Long story short she is refusing to fix the window.  And I started to let this bother me and put me in a negative space.  I was a little happy when we moved in here because it seemed like she didn't have any problems with making repairs.  However, I see that was clearly a front.

And I don't do fronts, fakes or phonies!  But I kept my cool.  You see, my faith is stronger than it was at the beginning of this year.  I prayed on it and asked God to not let me moved by the situation because I knew He would work it out for our good.  And you know what, He is. 

Since, our landlord won't listen to us or go by the terms of the lease that pretty much state in plain English that she is responsible for all repairs, except in cases of negligence, we decided to get the city involved.  They sent out a code inspector today and he assured us that here in QC landlords are responsible for all repairs even in cases of negligence.  That's what security deposits are for.  And if damage done under negligence does exceed the amount of the security deposit, they have to take the tenant to small claims court for the difference.

In the words of Tamar Braxton, "Won't He do it?!!"  She now has 60 days to get the window repaired along with some other issues the code inspector found inside and underneath the apartment.  This has taught me that I truly don't have to fight every battle.  God is more than willing to step in and send the right resources our way at the right time.

All it takes is maintaining the faith and not allowing yourself to be moved.  Life gets hard, but my faith is becoming harder.  It's morphing into an impenetrable force field.  I only have one life to live and I will not live it stressing about the hardships that will I encounter along the way.

Searching For Hope

Last week and this weekend have been very trying.  And that's putting it mildly.  So, we finally had to put our foot down on our landlord because something crawled into one of the walls from underneath the house, got stuck and died.  We woke up to find maggots coming through the baseboards (which aren't flush with the floor at all) and foul smell.  At first I thought the Mr had spilled some rice because I wasn't wearing my glasses.  But when I went to put on my glasses because it seemed like the rice was moving, I threw a fit when I saw they were maggots!

I was ready to go through the roof.  We are clean freaks because who likes living in a dirty house.  Secondly, with my kids' allergies I'm cleaning pretty much three times a day (sweeping, steam mopping, the whole nine).  We called the landlord multiple times and he kept forwarding us to voicemail.  On Thursday, he shows up to attempt to fix our clogged bathroom sink.  We don't get in to with him or anything.  He simply asks if we've seen more bugs and I say no and walk off.

Friday comes and I go to check the mail.  Low and behold what do I find?  I packet with the landlord's handwriting on it.  It's a note saying that he's terminated our month to month lease.  And guess what else?  It's dated for the Thursday!  Like really, he couldn't have told us Thursday that he was terminating our lease because he doesn't want to fix anything and we're filing a code violation complaint?

Y'all my first thought was to do something very un-Christian-ish.  After my anger simmered down a bit, panic set in.  We've been looking to buy a house which is a long process and we only had seven days from the Friday to find a new place to live!!  I was freaking out because all I could think about was that my family was going to be homeless.  I don't know if any of you have ever been homeless, but I almost was as a child and the Mr was homeless (yea like sleeping outside) when he was a child.

So over these past few days we've been calling around and calling around and going to see rental properties.  Up until a few minutes ago we were really wondering if we'd have find a hotel and put our stuff in storage?  Living month to month in a hotel is more expensive than paying a mortgage or rent.  And we still would have needed to buy food and pay for gas.  But God is good!  We have finally found a place.

It's farther from the Mr's job and smaller than the place we're leaving but it will do.  It's bug-free, leak-free, and mold-free!  Plus, it puts us back in city limits.  So, now I can get the hustle and bustle of being in the mist of it all.  Moo gets to be five minutes away from her favorite library and places like the Discovery Place.  I'm two minutes from college dorm.  That's perfect because I'm going back to school.  So, I don't have far to ride in case there's emergency back home.

At the end of the day, we didn't let this defeat us.  I'm wiped away my tears and forced myself to look on the bright side which is that we'll be free of this rental for good.  The 23rd Psalm says the Lord is our shepard and we shall not want for anything. And I trusted in Him and kept searching for hope hat we find something.   And we did.   Keep us in prayer yall!!