Rainy Days With Amanda

It is actually a pretty cold day here in South Texas. I'm currently lounging around my home in joggers and a Golden Girls shirt I made my senior year of high school. Today is going pretty great until I inevitably have to go to the grocery store. Anyways, I've been seeing some other bloggers write their reflections for the 2018 year, so thought it was time to do mine. As I reflect on this year's things, I can't help but feel like I'm a little, excuse my French, badass. I would say that this year has definitely been my year. My year of being bold and taking control of what I want to do in my life. Of course, I had my downs as much as I had my ups, but I feel like I came out conquering and fighting the demons. Here is my year in review for 2018! Side Note: I wrote about most of this stuff in my Rainy Thoughts segment of my blog, so these are just small tidbits. Getting Laid Off At first, I felt that this was a little embarrassing to talk about...

Hey everyone! Here is another book review right on time! I’ve been pretty active recently and have been dabbling myself in different things. Some things I stick to and some things are just a fad. But writing and doing this blog has been constant for the past two years, and I’m pretty proud of that!  Anyways, this is another book I found at the Dollar Tree. Here is my review on  Dreaming for Freud by Sheila Kohler. SPOILER ALERT. A Bit of Background   Sheila Kohler is a south African author. She received her undergraduate degree in literature r the Sorbonne, then her graduate degree in psychology at the Institute Catholique. After raising her 3 children, she moved in the U.S. in 1981 and got her MFA in writing at Columbia. Sheila published her first story in the summer of 1987, "The Mountain," which came out in, The Quarterly, and won her the O'Henry prize in 1988. This story became the first chapter of her novel,  The Perfect Place . Sheila publis...

Hello everyone! It's been feeling a lot like Seattle here in Texas. The rain has been non-stop for a week now. I actually really enjoy the rain, especially on the weekends, but as soon as I saw the black slug on my front doorstep, I was over it. I'm ready for some sun! Anyways, I found Liane Moriarty  while I was waiting at a Barnes & Nobles for time to pass for work. I was going through the aisles and one of her other books, What Alice Forgot , caught my attention. I read the first chapter, was hooked, put it back on the shelf because it was time to head to work and that weekend I went to a Half Price Books and didn't find that book, but found this capturing and page-turning book, The Husband's Secret . SPOILER ALERT! A little of Background Liane Moriarty is an Australian author. Liane has written 10 books, which includes 3 children's books. She is best known for her novel, Big Little Lies , which was adapted into an HBO limited series, which went o...

Hello everyone! It's been about 2 and a half months since I got married! Yes, time flies by and I have been insanely busy. But I really wanted to do a blog post on getting married and planning a wedding. I know I went on so many forums and blog posts about how they planned, what they did, what they wish they did and did not do, etc, etc. So here are my thoughts on getting married and the whole process and some advice for you! Planning the Wedding Planning your wedding is some stressful stuff! I actually didn't choose to have a wedding planner. I have experience in planning events, so thought it would be one of those things that I could cut back on. If you're planning your own wedding without a wedding planning/coordinator, I have some advice for you: Plan Early. Repeat after me. PLAN EARLY! The last thing you want to do is planning everything last minute. That is just too stressful. Once you have your dates in mind, start planning. First, if you're getting...

Yep. I moved back home! I think my first rainy thoughts was on being homesick, but now I'm back and I can already tell that I am right where I'm supposed to be. So, I wanted to write a few words about being away and moving back home. Let's go! Being Away From Home Being away from home means doing everything on your own. Of course, with technology, you can easily skype, text, call or facetime with people, but it's just not the same. If I had a problem with my car, I was the one looking up places to go, reviews, etc. I was the one deciding what I wanted to eat, what I wanted to do every day and how long I wanted to go without washing the dishes (I actually really don't like falling asleep with the dishes in the sink).  Being away means learning more about who you are. Like with the dishes, I learned that I prefer my chicken baked, that I am good at entertaining myself and that I actually like doing crafts and arranging flowers. Would I have learned that...