Life Changes!

 Hi everyone,

My life has had a lot of changes this past year, some good and bad. It wouldn't be life if we didn't have any bad times.  I will also tell you about the life changes that I want to change/in the process of changing.

The first life change was back in the fall of last year. I found out that I was expecting again! I was due in May of 2022. Around 21 weeks we found out that it was another boy, We quickly decided on a name. We did have a boy and girl name chosen, so we just checked choosing the baby's name off of our to do list. Baby Kade made his appearance on May 16th, 2022! We are in love with him and big brother loves him too.

Life change #2 was that we got married November 13th,2021, making us almost married for 1 entire year. Time sure does fly by!  Grayson was the ring bearer but ended up falling asleep minutes before the ceremony so my husband's best man just held him during the whole ceremony. 

Life change number three was that Grayson started going to early headstart. He really loves it. He runs into the building and runs to his classroom. Since going there he has learned a ton and has been doing a lot of new things, We are however still working on potty training but its getting there. In the fall, he'll actually be going to 2 different centers. One of them he will actually be riding the bus to and from home. He'll love that for sure,

The last life change that I have is a really devastating one for me to talk about. On July 18th, 2022 my mom sadly passed away due to Parkinson's Disease. She was diagnosed in her 40's and she passed away when she was 61 years old.  Last fall, she was moved into a nursing home and about a month or 2 before she passed she was on hospice. They weren't giving her too long but she proved them wrong!

Now the life changes that I want to change/ in the process of working on are working on my blog more. If you guys have any ideas of posts let me know down below. Also eating healthier/being more healthier in general and promoting my Scentsy more (more about that in another post). 

<3 Amanda  

Who Am I?

Hey guys,

In simple words, you can say that I am a young lady. But really, I am a young lady who has had her struggles in the past. In life, everyone has their struggles as life would be boring without them because they make us who we are.  Now my struggles might not sound too extreme to you, but they are unique to my life.  This winter, I will be turning 27 and I know that I’m still at a young age so I will have more struggles in the future.

When I was younger around the age of early elementary school, I was diagnosed with Selective Mutism, which in basic terms means that my lips were sealed at school and I would only talk at home or at school to people I was comfortable with. I was put in speech to help me try to be more talkative and open up more. My speech teacher was amazing. She even gave my parents her home phone number, so I could call her at home at nights. Even though it has been many years since that age, I can still remember that calling her at home and talking on the phone to her was much easier than talking in person. Thinking about that now, I’m not sure why that was, maybe because someone wasn’t looking right at me and making fun of how I was talking.  Beside my speech teacher, my general teachers were always so supportive and encouraging. The never forced me to do anything I wasn’t comfortable with. 

Throughout middle and high school, I was still a quiet person but I feel like I improved since elementary school. I still got that gut feeling in my stomach when I was called up to do a presentation, but I remembered getting up in front of the class and looking at whether teacher I had for that hour and just took a few deep breathes and thought to myself that even if I am a little quiet and maybe the whole class and the teacher can’t hear everything that I say, that I still got up in front of everyone and tried my best. There is one teacher that comes to my mind when I remember getting in front of the class. I had her for Social Studies in my sixth grade year. We had to do current events and present them to the class. If I recall correctly, I think I declined out of doing the first presentation but then I presented the next time we had a current event presentation.  I knew beforehand that I had to present because she had drawn sticks with our names on them, and had our names on the whiteboard. The day came when I had to present my current event. I got up in the front and just looked around and looked at her, and begun. Before I knew I was finished. When she passed out our current events back to us, I had a smiley face drawn on mine.  Just by looking at that showed me that she truly cared about me and was proud of me.

Going along the same lines of my Selective Mutism is bullying.  All throughout elementary, middle and high school I was bullied.  I’m pretty sure I was bullied because of how I looked and the way I talked.  Being bullied really sucked and was something that I struggled with.  I actually transferred school my senior year of high school due to being bullied. I didn’t tell the principal or anyone the real reason of why I wanted to be transferred to the other high school in my city.  You could say that I let the bullies win by transferring but to be honest I don’t care that they won in that sense because in my opinion, I won even more  I met a ton of new friends and the teachers were amazing (not saying that my teachers from my former high school wasn’t amazing as well).

I have had some personal family struggles as well that kind of affected my whole immediate family. The summer before my sophomore year of high school, my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. That changed a lot to our family.  She wasn’t able to drive anymore due to her reflexes. She also walked slower, her penmanship wasn’t really legible anymore and she had to get glasses.  A few years back, she actually had Deep Brain Stimulation and had a pace maker put in her chest. Also, in 2015, she fell and broke 9 ribs resulting in her being in a rehabilitation center from early October to early December.   I know that it was only a few months but you still don’t know what could happen throughout that time.

When I was in my early twenties, my parents separated and got a divorce.  Even though I was in my early twenties, it still affected me a little.  No child at any age wants their parents to get a divorce.  But I knew that it was the right thing to do. My older brothers and I were actually surprised they stayed together as long as they did as we thought they would have been divorced years back.  Sometimes a marriage doesn’t work out and parents need to separate but their child(ren) should never blame themselves.

The final topic I wanted to chat about is friends. We all need friends in our lives. One thing that is important to remember is that friends change over time. Your childhood friends might not be your adult friends, and the same goes with your friends from high school or even college.  Everyone has their own path and journey and should be allowed to do something that they love and makes them happy.  There were many friends I had in the past and in recent years even that I’m no longer friends with and even though that makes me sad, I still hope the best for them.

If you’re ever walking around outside or in a mall, and perhaps you are a people watcher. Even though you are a people watcher, you don’t really know them deep down and personally. You might see them laughing and smiling with friends but they might be going through something serious.  A key thing to do each day is to make someone’s day different. You don’t even have to do much; a smile or a “Hi” goes a long way. 

<3 Amanda 

Draw My Life

Hey guys,

I have seen this going around YouTube a lot before so I wanted to do one as well but I wanted to do a Blogger version. I'm not a good drawer so please bear with me. This was a fun post to create. I hope you enjoy it!

I was born on December 28th, 1990 making me 26 years old.  I was my parents' third child with 2 older brothers "D" and "B".

In elementary school, I was the quiet student. I was actually diagnosed with Selective Mutism. My teachers were understanding and didn't force me to talk if I didn't want to. You can check out my post about overcoming Selective Mutism here.

When I was 7, my mom had my younger brother, "J".

The summer before my sophomore year of high school, my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. She was only 45 years old. Since then she has had Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery (D.B.S). You can check out how it is to have a parent with Parkinson's Disease, here.

I was in my first relationship at age 21. We broke up before 2 months. You can read why we broke up here.

In 2013, my parents got divorced. My older brothers and I knew that it was coming. We actually thought it would happened earlier.

My second boyfriend was in 2012-2014. We were actually engaged but he broke off the engagement with the reasoning that his feelings changed. It turned out in the end that he was cheating on me.

Since then, I have been in 5 other relationships which you can read in the picture of how they all ended.  I have been cheated on, abused and ditched. 

In 2013 after being graduated for some time, I decided to enroll in an online college for Early Childhood Development. In 2015, I completed my Associate Degree. During those years, I developed some great friendships with "A", "K" and "S". 

I decided to continue my schooling and currently in the process of finishing my Bachelor year. I only have 4 more classes left! Here are some online college tips.

One of the main reasons that I started my blog is to bring awareness to bullying. Throughout elementary,middle and high schools, I have been bullied. I want to help put an end to it. Check out my post about ending bullying here.

Due to some personal circumstances in my life at the time, I needed a way to vent and that's when I decided to start a blog. First blog post, here. Stay tuned for an updated post about where I am now.

Even though I have some hard times which everyone does. I know that there are plenty of more good times ahead.

<3 Amanda 

Having A Parent With A Disease (Parkinson's Disease)

(http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/parkinson.html)

Hey guys,

I had this topic in my head for awhile now but I have derided to write the post today. You never think that one of your parents will be diagnosed with a disease at a young age and then have to live with it for the rest of their life. I had to experience that the summer before my sophomore year of high school when my mom,age 45, was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease.  My parents sat us down in the living room (my 2 older brothers and younger brother) and explained to us that my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. I don't think it hit me at first but as the months went by, I saw a difference in her.She was unable to drive then (and still unable to drive), couldn't do things with me anymore, and other things along those lines. I think it ended up affecting me more than my brothers as I'm my mom's only daughter and moms and daughters typically do things together.  

In 2015, she decided to have Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery, which I, personally, didn't think it would do anything and was nervous that they would hit the wrong nerve and then the surgery would be unsuccessful. The surgery happened and again, in my opinion, I don't think it helped, if it did anything, it made her worse. Then in October of 2015, she fell and ended up breaking 9 ribs and puncturing a lung. She was in the hospital for a few days and then was in a rehabilitation center until early December. She did have caregivers come in and assist her with various tasks but since then she has gotten better (still have PD) but is capable of doing some things by herself.



<3 Amanda