Tag: love

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – Flirty Little Secret (Jessica Lepe)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

I have been on a “trying to read more this year than I did last year kick”. I also have a closet full of books that I’m trying to get through as well, however, I didn’t have this particular book just sitting on my shelf.

I’ll admit I was trying NOT to buy any more books because I’m honestly running out of room and when I saw this one and read what it was about, I was honestly curious to see how it turned out. Most of the time I would just buy the book and then it sits on my shelf because I forget about it, but I was determined to read this one.

Not to mention, this was the first book that has been published by this author, Jessica Lepe, which I never get a chance to find an authors very first published works, I never get THAT lucky.

So, the book is about Lucy, a guidance consulter at a high school who also as an online presents as @TheMissGuidedCounselor on Instagram where she gives out the best advice for her followers that no one really knows who she is. She also struggles with a lot of mental health. Which I can say I related to her so much in this book.

Then, you have Fletcher, who is a teacher who transferred to the same high school Lucy works. Little does he know that he has been also talking to Lucy on Instagram through his online present as @BravesGuy93. Fletcher also has his table of family issues that Lucy has been helping him out with.

Anyway, they have such an awkward cute meet, which I’m not going to spoil any details with that because its just hilarious and I honestly would act like Lucy if that ever did happen to me.

Also, I forgot to mention that the book is different chapters of both Lucy perspective and Fletchers perspective. Which I honestly quite enjoyed because a lot of books that I’ve read, its always based off of one persons perspective, but it was so interested to read both sides.

I don’t want to give out too many details as I think this book would be a great read for anyone who is a teen/young adult. The reason why I would recommend this to that age group is that I think it would benefit a lot to actually read what a modern romance is nowadays, especially if there is also mental health in the mix to all that.

I think a lot of people nowadays don’t want to work on relationships and would rather skip to another new person versus sitting down and working on the problems they have if they truly loved each other. I think this book does an amazing job talking about how mental health can affect you when being in a relationship when you aren’t at 100%.

One of the scenes in the book that I am referring to is the scene where Lucy and Fletcher have their very first date. When Fletcher comes to pick up Lucy, he finds he so overwhelmed with a list of stuff she has been delaying doing because of her mental health and instead of just leaving her to deal with them herself, he cancels the dinner plans and takes her around help her get the stuff she needs done, done.

In my eyes, that not only shows that Fletcher is willing to help Lucy in need, but it shows that he wants to be with her through the good, bad, and the ugly times. If I were Lucy, I would snatch that man up for myself since there aren’t many men that would do that, its slim pickings that will.

Overall, I really liked the book and found that I couldn’t put the book down, especially when the author was going back from Lucy to Fletcher, I wanted to know what happened next. Honestly, I wouldn’t be mad if there was a sequel, but I think how the book ended, it ended in a perfect way there wouldn’t need to be a sequel.

Honestly, I will be following this author because I loved her writing style and I related to Lucy in so many ways, which can be hard to do when sometimes authors want to give us the fairy tale hope of happily ever after, but life isn’t like that and I think Flirty Little Secret showed the side that we really don’t see with relationships nowadays.

Let me know in the comments if you have also gotten a chance to read this or if its on your book list to check out!

Posted in Mom Talk

Mom Talk: How I Dated a Walking-Talking Red Flag

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

I know this post is overdue, but last year, I talked about how difficult it is to be single and dating nowadays and most of the red flags I ran into were because of one particular ex of mind. Now, since it’s been over a year since I last had to deal with him, I figured it was time to talk about how bad the relationship really was.

I’m not going to use his real name, so for the sake of this post, we are going to call him Ronnie or “Red-Flag Ronnie”, which fits him perfectly. Now, let’s get into this mess of a relationship that only lasted 3 months.

So, I first met Ronnie on Facebook Dating. I don’t remember who swiped on who first, but he was the one who sent the first message wanting to talk through texting. Which I usually have no problem doing, but looking back now, he didn’t want me to have his socials.

Anyway, the first day of texting, he really didn’t impress me right off. The conversation was going well until he mentioned wanting to do sexual stuff. To me, if that’s the first thing you want to have a conversation about when we just started talking, you aren’t looking for something serious.

Of course, whenever a guy starts the conversation out like that, I ignore them or move on to the next one. However, I decided this time to give Ronnie the benefit of the doubt, but boy did I know what I would be dealing with.

So, we continued to talk, and not even a week later, he was already asking me to borrow money. The first time was so that his phone service wouldn’t get shut off so we could still text and then it was “I don’t have money for food” or “I need a couple bucks to get me a vape pen”. Even though I was giving him little amounts here and there, boy does it add up.

Then we planned to meet for the first time, but he didn’t have a way to get to me unless he took the bus. Want to guess who paid for the bus ticket? Shocker, I know. I even had to pick him up at the bus stop too. Apparently, he totaled his truck and couldn’t pay to get it back up and running, but had his license.

Meeting him in person for the first time, I honestly enjoyed it and didn’t notice any other red flags at the time. Of course, we made it official, but when I asked if he wanted to make it Facebook official, he didn’t want to do it.

That honestly should’ve been another red flag, especially since the name that he used on Facebook wasn’t his actual name. Not to mention, he wouldn’t even friend me on Facebook, which I thought was also odd. If you were dating someone, wouldn’t you want to show that you are with someone? I mean, I do.

So, once we had the first weekend together, I thought everything was great. I waited until the next weekend I didn’t have my daughter, for him to come back down, but the second time he visited, he was glued to playing my gaming PC. All he did most of that weekend was play Rust, trying to get me into it which I honestly couldn’t do.

Pretty much you can guess that almost every time he came down after that, spent playing on my gaming laptop. I would even ask if he could spend time with me and when I was able to get him off my gaming laptop, he was glued to his phone. It was a nightmare getting him to do anything with me unless he wanted to do it too.

Then there was the time when it was a weekend we weren’t seeing each other and he randomly texted me that he possibly got someone pregnant. Now, I wish I would’ve dumped him right there and then. I don’t know why I didn’t, but he told me it was a “false alarm” the next time I was able to see him again.

Then he claimed he needed a place to stay because of his current living situation, his “roommates” were all moving out and so he asked if he could stay with us. I agreed as long as he got a job and was giving money towards the bills and food. This man, I swear you not, got a job and then quit a day later because he called out on his second day.

Instead of job searching, while I was working, he was playing on my gaming laptop all day and all hours of the day and night. Then would sleep, eat, and repeat. Until one of my family members offered him another job and he finally was working, but I had checked out of the relationship.

I think he could sense that the end was near because he even tried to get me to start looking at apartments for us to live in. I had told him no because I wasn’t going to be the only one that was paying for everything, especially when he couldn’t keep a job.

He even told me through text messaged that he supposedly loved me and got mad when I didn’t say it back. I only say the “I love you”, when I mean it and I would never do it in text message. I didn’t love him and I wasn’t going to say it back or be forced to say it back because he did.

When I had enough, I wrote him something, the one time he was actually working, explaining that it was over. I wanted to get all my thoughts on paper to figure out what I wanted to say. He kinda had a sense of that and asked what was wrong. All I told him was that I had written something down for him, and immediately, he asked “Is it a break-up letter?”.

I told him we could talk about it later since I didn’t want to mention it while he was working. He then kept asking and I finally just told him. Apparently, I made him cry at work over it. Well, you asked and didn’t want to wait until later.

It was pretty awkward when he got back from work and he read my letter. He sent me what he was feeling in a text message thinking that I didn’t want to be with him because he wasn’t rich.

First of all, I just want to clarify that I never judge someone by how their lifestyle is. I don’t care if you are rich or poor, its about how you are as a person. Clearly, my brain was not working when I met Ronnie, since he made himself seem better than he really was.

Once I ended it with him and he moved out, it was a huge relief not having to deal with him. He still tried to contact me and ask me for money, but I shut him down. I wasn’t going to keep stressing myself over it.

You also might be wondering, “Why didn’t he give out his real name?”. Well, this might answer a few things as well as the big one, why he couldn’t keep a job. Well, it turns out that Red-Flag Ronnie had a record. Now, I didn’t search his name when he gave it for his bus ticket, but if I had, I would’ve blocked him.

Turns out that when Ronnie was in college, he sexually assaulted someone. Which is why he doesn’t use his real name because if you were to search it, it pulls up articles that talked about it from a few years ago. Apparently, the case was still on going.

Ronnie did tell me about it, but he spun the story very differently than what the articles explained. He told me that he met this girl, and they hooked up, the boyfriend supposedly found out she cheated and apparently, the girl didn’t want her boyfriend to leave her and claimed that Ronnie assaulted her instead.

However, that wasn’t what the article said. The news article said that he threatened her with a knife, which he never mentioned. Mind you, I didn’t find this all out until after the fact, if I knew this, I would have ended things and blocked him right off.

Which explains quite a bit why he couldn’t keep a job and probably one of the reasons why women wanted nothing to do with him after they found that out. This is exactly why whenever you are dating someone, Google their full name and see what pops up.

Granted, a few other things happened with that relationship, such as him raising his voice at me and having angry outbursts when things didn’t go his way that were some more red flags.

In the end, I learned a few things and I now know if I attempt to go back on Facebook Dating, I know exactly what I want to avoid. I think one of the big things that I’m not going to do is rush into things. Nothing goes well when you rush.

I’m now at the mentality of “if something is meant to be, it will be.” I’ve also completely accept that famous quote Chandler Bing in Friends says:

Posted in Mom Talk

Mom Talk: The Dating World of 2024

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies! I wanted to bring up something that I’m having trouble with, but some pointers I wanted to bring up if you are a newly single. Whether your a single parent, just got out of a long relationship, or have been single for awhile, but just started looking, this might be good information to know!

Now, for all of you who have been following me since the very beginning, I decided to leave my children’s father back in 2021. I didn’t start dating again until 6 months after I had left him. A lot of people asked why I didn’t just jump right into and it was because I wanted to work on myself.

I wanted to make sure that I loved myself before I jumped into another relationship. However, I felt like I had to start putting myself out there. I also had a few people that were pushing me to get out there as well.

I was expecting the dating world to be back before I first met the father of my children. Back when it was 2014. Oh no, things had really changed this time since I first went back on dating sites.

First, Facebook had a dating part that they had added and that’s where I first started. I met a few guys that I had really great conversations. Most of them would ghost me or never talk to me after saying ‘hello’. Other guys weren’t really there for meeting anyone to build a relationship, just hook ups. Then there were the few guys that actually caught my heart and shredded it down to practically nothing.

At the end of 2021, I did find someone I really started to fall for and started dating him. I’m not going to go into complete details, but he was the one that got away. It also didn’t help that life happened and I didn’t really know how to handle it. We tried rekindling it back last year, but he had his life that he had a lot going on.

Anyway, I decided in March to give this dating thing another try and this time my walls would be up no matter what. However, I still have hope for that one guy he will come running back into my life so we can try again, but as the saying goes, “If you love someone, let them go. If they come back to you, it was meant to be, if not, it never was.”

So, nowadays, I’m focused on building a friendship with some of the guys I’ve been talking to. I don’t want to rush into anything and I know what I’m looking for, but I am keeping an eye out for the red flags.

Here are a few Red Flags you should keep in mind:

–No Job or Can’t Keep a Job– This is a HUGE red flag. My more recent ex had this issue and I lost a LOT of money because I was supporting him. I learned my lesson on that. Even if they wanted to borrow $20 bucks here and there, don’t do it. Trust me, it adds up faster than you think.

–No Car/No License– This is a red flag for me because I live in Maine and in order to go anywhere, you really need to have a car. I have nothing against those that don’t have a car or license, but please don’t date people just because they will cart you around.

It’s one thing if you are taking an Uber or taxi to meet up with them, but it’s another thing to demand them to bring you here or there. Keep this in mind, the first time you tell someone you will give them a ride, they will always think you will give them a ride.

–Separated/In a Open Relationship– This one is tricky because all situations are different. I feel that if you still are married, you shouldn’t be dating until your divorce is final, but that is just me. I also am not a fan of “open relationships”. I know that people’s opinions have changed on that, but I’m against it completely. When I’m in a relationship with a guy, I don’t want him to share me or me to have to share him.

Nothing against those who are in an open relationship. If it works for you or for your situation, great! I don’t think I could handle it very well, emotionally.

–Love Bombing – I didn’t even know this was an actual red flag, but it is! I really hate to bring it back to my more current ex, but he did the same thing to me. Pretty much all the time he would call be “beautiful” to the point that the word meant nothing. He would also use this whenever we got into an argument, he would change the subject into complimenting me instead of talking about the issue at hand. If you don’t know what “love bombing” is, it is when someone frequently attempts to influence another person with over-the-top displays of attention and affection.

–Not Respecting Your Bountries – This is a huge red flag, if they can’t respect your bountries, that shows that they have no respect for you. Granted, in the beginning of a relationship is learning what each other bountries are. That is why if you let them know what your bountries are at the begining, you can tell right away if they will respect them or not. I had an ex that got mad at me for hanging out with my best friend for one night, just because I didn’t include him.

–They Want You To Always Put Them First – If you have children, you would understand that when it comes to a new relationship, you and your kids come first. It brings us back to situtation I talked about before. That ex wanted me to put him on the thrown, honestly, he is in most of these red flags, I should just write about how awful the experience really was.

–Talk Badly About Ex’s/Or Still Talking To Their Ex’s – So, I can’t say that I haven’t talked badly about an ex since as you can see from this post, however, I’m not one of those that goes onto the internet and blasts them by name. If they can talk badly about their ex or say all their ex’s are crazy without explaining why, that is a problem to be aware of.

What is even more of a red flag is still talking or being friends with an ex. Depending on the situation, I will keep an open mind. If you have a baby daddy or baby mommy, that is a different situation since you are communicating about the kids. That’s the relationship I have with my daughter’s father, its strictly about our daughter.

–Drug/Alcohol Problem – This is another huge red flag to keep in mind because they will tend to put their “habit” first. There’s nothing wrong with having a social drink every now and then, but if they need it constantly or all the time, that is a problem.

–Bad Feeling/Gut Feeling – You know your body better than anyone else does, but if there is something off or fishy about the person you are talking to, trust your gut! Most of us want to listen with our hearts or heads, but sometimes its better to listen to your gut first.

If you aren’t sure, talk about it with friends or family. They would be the first one to notice the red quicker than you would. Especially, if you are so into them. You don’t have to listen to them, but its always good to get a 3rd party’s advice of the situation.

–No Social Media/Different Name for Social Media – Okay, so this one isn’t really a red flag, but it really depends who you ask on this. My last ex had a different name on his Facebook. I really didn’t think anything of it until I found out there was a bigger reason why he didn’t give out his full name. It’s okay for someone to not want to have a social media presence, but if they can’t seem to tell you their true name, really look into why that is.

There could be a number of reasons why, but if you start out talking to them and right at the bat they give you a fake name, that’s a red flag. The reason why I say this, is because they are hiding something from you. Whether they have a double life or have been in trouble with the law, this is something you want to pay attention to. Especially, if you plan on having your kids meet them after going out with them for some time.

–Ignoring You/Taking Longer to Reply – This one, I really had a lot of issues when it came to them taking either days to reply. However, I have finally understand that if someone likes you enough to talk to you, they will. If they don’t or have excuses as to why they haven’t replied back to you, take the hint that they aren’t interested in you.

It’s one thing if they are at work or in the middle of doing something and they give you a heads up that they are busy and will talk to you later. Its another thing if they are straight up ignoring you and you see that they are active or they posted on their story or Facebook.

Don’t waste your time waiting for a reply. My rule is if they don’t reply back to you within 24-28 hours, move on to the next one. Everyone checks their phone more than once a day, so there isn’t really an excuse as to why they can’t reply to you.

–They Don’t Want To Meet In Public/Wants You To Meet At Their House – The first meeting with someone you met online, it should be in public. The reason why I say this is because of the fact that if you feel uncomfortable or the person is starting to creep you out, you can get outta there faster.

Most of the time, if a guy/girl are asking you to meet at their place, it usually means they just want to hook up. Not for everyone, but most of the time its usually that reason.

Another key thing to keep in mind, is that if you go on a date with someone in public, let a friend or family member know where you are, just in case something goes wrong. Or even have a friend at the location with you watching from a distance, so if there is something wrong or off about your date, you can text them to let them know, that way your still safe.

Overall, the best way to handle the dating world is think of it as a battlefield. The problem with today’s dating world is that there are too many apps, tons of being ghosted, and no one really looking for something real anymore.

Posted in Mom Talk

Mom Talk: Don’t Stay For The Kids

Posted on by Katie Night

I watched my mother for years stay with my father. Even though I didn’t really understood what was going on, but as I got older, I realized that my mom was only with my father for my siblings and I. You could see her put on that fake smile just to make sure that us kids didn’t know what was going on, but we knew.

I knew, I was the oldest and watched my mom put on this front that everything was okay, but she was slowly drifting herself down a hole just to keep the presents of a ‘happy family’ alive for us.

Well, I ended up doing the same thing my mom did, but my story is different.

As you know, I have been with the same guy for awhile and ended up having 2 beautiful children as well. However, over time, things started to change. I felt like I was putting up this front to pretend to be who I really was.

Everytime I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see myself anymore. I felt different and that can happen after having a child, you change completely just for your kid. Usually with the right partner, can be the happily ever after, but that’s not what was happening.

I’m not going to go into details about our breakup because the details are between me and my child’s father. Unfortunately, some of the people round us are very noisy and don’t understand as to why we broke up in the first place.

I realized about a year ago, if not more, that I wasn’t happy and that the only thing that kept me from leaving was our daughter. I felt like I had to stay with him because I didn’t want to ruin my daughter’s view of a ‘happy family’. Or I had to stay because that is what was the right thing to do, instead it made me realize that this was something I wasn’t just doing to myself, but to my daughter as well.

I was teaching her that it was okay to stay in an unhappy relationship.

Now, my daughter is 3, but the kids know, the sense it. I don’t know how, but they do. My daughter would give me a hard time knowing that she sensed something was up between Mommy and Daddy.

Kids aren’t stupid, they know what is going on and that’s what made me realized I had to make a change, not just for me, but for my daughter. I didn’t want her to group up and watch her follow in the same foot steps that I ended up walking in.

So, I made a change for 2021.

This year, I’m focusing on getting myself to a better place. Getting back to the real me, the one that I used to love and used to not give a shit about whatever I do. The me that I haven’t been able to embrace for a long time.

So, don’t stay because you have a family, you should want to stay with your spouse because they not only are the love of your life, but you both make a great team together and are the best of friends.

Don’t just put up with it because you have the family. You have to love yourself before you can expect anyone else to love you in return. Embrace your inner weirdo!

As for me, I’m taking it one step at a time and one day at a time. You never know what the future can hold, but I plan on being or trying to be positive for

Posted in Writing Works

Finally Free – Friday’s Short Stories

Posted on by Katie Night

Finally Free

Hey Dearies! So, this one is another short story based on an idea or prompt! This one inspired me or gave me the idea from Safe Haven, but with a different twist to it. This one has mentions of abuse, so if you are triggered by that, please don’t read! 

What would freedom really be for those who are trapped?

Hailey didn’t know what freedom was until she got dropped off at the docks of Hawaii. She had finally left the pain and hurt that had been damaging her for years. She never thought that she would have to be on the run, but she figured being in Hawaii would give herself and her ex more distance between each other.

She looked around in amaze as she took a deep breath of her new surroundings. Picking up her bag pack that only held a few essentials that he grabbed in rush from leaving Kevin. She shook her head as she wandered around the street, she was amazed at the beautiful view of the ocean.

Hailey had always wanted to come to Hawaii, but after high school, her plans completely changed. They had especially changed since she met Kevin. The worse regret of her life. If she would’ve known what he would’ve been like before she had got with him, she would’ve run for her life.

Now she is running for her life.

Discouraging the thought of Kevin, something caught her eyes, as she watched him walk by. He looked familiar to her and it took her only a second to realize it was him, the real reason why she ran to Hawaii, all because of Ethan Brooks.

Her heart started to beat faster as he gazed into her eyes and stopping right in front of her.

“Hailey? Is that really you?” Her heart dropped, he still remembers her. Especially, since it’s been almost 3 years since she last saw him.

She was silent, a tear had fallen from her cheek, as she didn’t expect to cry in front of him. Instead of walking away from him, Ethan embraced her in his arms, holding her tightly. It made her feel safe and at home.

They stood there for a few minutes before Ethan pulled away from his embrace and took another look at her. Even though was in Hawaii, Hailey didn’t dress like she was comfortable. Wearing jeans and a tank top with a sweater covering her arms and zipped up to her neck.

Ethan noticed the bruise that slowly healing on her neck. Once he noticed that, he noticed other bruises of hers that were now more noticeable. “Walk with me, my beach house isn’t that far from here.” He grabbed her hand and took her bag of hers, throwing it over her shoulder, as he led to his beach house that was down the street from the boardwalk.

As soon as they got into Ethan’s beach house, Hailey was shocked at the place that she was in. She never knew that Ethan was rich, but he sure lived like it. She then took a view of the balcony that showed over the ocean, waves crashing onto the beach. It was heaven to her.

“Why didn’t you meet up with me that night?” Ethan spoke, he wasn’t going to catch up with her once he saw her bruises. Hailey beats herself up over not leaving to go with Ethan. She had met him in a nightclub, it was right after she 21, she went out with her friends to celebrate.

Hailey was talking to Kevin, but she was single when she met Ethan. When they danced, they clicked just like that and she followed him home where they had an amazing time. He told her he was leaving to go back to Hawaii and he wanted to take her with him, but before she could, she tried to explain it to Kevin, but it ended badly.

Hailey didn’t want to think about it, but she had to give Ethan an answer. “It’s harder for me to explain.” She spoke, turning to face him, tears fell from her eyes. “You don’t want to know what he did to me.”

Ethan, hugged her again, she hugged him back as she tried to maintain her crying, but it came out like waterfalls. “I’m sorry. I wanted to. I was ready to go and then he found out-”

“You don’t need to explain. You’re here with me now, aren’t you?” Ethan smiled, wiping her tears away as she gave him a smile in return. “Feel free to stay with me. I’m gonna make you something to eat, why don’t you go take a shower.”

Haily nodded as Ethan showed her the bathroom, giving her a set of sweat pants and shirt, then handing her a towel before walking out into the kitchen.

Hailey shut them down and started to strip out of her old clothes and looked at her naked self in the mirror, the black and blue bruises that were up and down on her body. She turned and looked at the deep scar that planted down her back, that hadn’t started to heal.

That scar was what gave her strength to leave Kevin.

After her shower, she got dressed in the clothes Ethan gave her and then headed into the kitchen, he was just finishing up cooking burgers. Her stomach growled, she hadn’t had anything since she left California except a cereal bar.

They ate together in silence. As Hailey was washing the dirty dishes, Ethan noticed the scar on her back, he was shocked at how bad the situation she was in. He turned her around, which scared her, she gazed into his eyes.

Ethan leaned his forehead against hers and studied her eyes, kissing her forehead. “I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Stay with me.” He promised as Hailey was in shock, but it felt so right. She then nodded and then went to kiss his cheek, but Ethan turned his head, having her miss his cheek and plant a kiss onto his lips instead.

They kissed for a second, Hailey’s heart fluttered as she missed his kiss. Ethan pulled her closer and held her close, as they both had missed each other, more than they had known. In his arms, it was like wrapping yourself in a heavy blanket.

In the next few days, Ethan and Hailey caught up on what they missed in each other lives. The more time they spent together, they ended up growing closer to where they before. Hailey started to see a better version of herself in his arms, but having Ethan around made her forget all the pain and hurt that Kevin had ever put her in.

She was finally free from it all. The best part is that she was finally happier, stronger, and more empowered about her life choices. She was a bird that was finally free to fly where ever she wanted to go.

Let me know in the comments of what you thought about this short story! These will be posted every Friday and if you have a prompt or idea that you would like me to try out, let me know in the comments! 

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – Ever After (Laurel-Leaf Books)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies! Back with another book review for you all! So, this one I never thought this was really a book, but it is and you can find it on Amazon.

Ever After is a motion picture that Drew Barrymore stars in as the main character, Danielle. This movie is one of my all-time favorite version of a Cinderella story, next to Hillary Duffs more modern version in A Cinderella Story.

The ‘Cinderella’ story has been told in many different ways in, by different writers and in different genres. In my opinion, ‘Cinderella’s story is one of the easiest recreations that any writer can do, but I’m always curious to see what writers come up with and try to do.

The same goes for any other fairy tale story, but I think this version is the best because not only is it in the perfect timeline and location to do it.

The theme of where this Cinderella story is set more like how the original Cinderella story started. Danielle lives with her father, her more died in childbirth and her father raises her the best he can. Of course, when she is 8, he re-marries Baroness Rodmilla of Ghent, otherwise known as her evil stepmother, and has two daughters of her own.

However, the reason why Rodmilla marries Danielle’s father is to get further up the line, or into the castle, basically wanting to live the life of riches. So, she really doesn’t care about Danielle, anyway, makes Danielle a ‘slave’ when her father dies.

I will say, Danielle puts up with a bunch of crap as a servant, but how she meets Prince Henry is even funnier than how the other versions. She ends up meeting him and throws apples at him thinking that he is stealing their horse.

The entire book is an exact play-by-play of the movie, which made me feel like I was just reading the movie and I ended up finishing it in a day. So, instead of watching the movie, you can read it, however, depending on how fast you read, it could take a day, perfect for passing the time.

There are only a few slight things that weren’t in the movie, but even if it wasn’t, it doesn’t change the way the book is, instead, I feel like it gives more of a backstory to some of the parts that are ‘rushed’ when created into a movie, or they were parts that they didn’t put into the movie.

Overall, this is an amazing book, even though it is literally the movie script, but in a book form and since I don’t own the movie, it’s not a bad way to pass the time. Perfect for a rainy or snowy day when you can’t go anywhere and want to snuggle up to a good book.

I also think that it would be a great bedtime story or a book that you could read to your kids before bed, you won’t finish it all before bed, but you could finish a chapter a night before bed no problem.

So, since I’ve reviewed the book, later in this month, I will be reviewing the movie because you know that’s what makes sense to do, right?

What do you think about the book? Were you as shocked as I to find out that there was a book to the movie? Let me know in the comments below.

 

 

Posted in Writing Works

The Monster’s Of Weddings (Friday Short Stories)

Posted on by Katie Night

The Monster’s Of Weddings

Hey Dearies! Here is another little short story about when two mother’s end up butting heads over their daughter or soon to be daughter in law, about the plans for the wedding. Basically, this gives you an idea of how I would think Bridzella is awoken from her slumber when you are a bride.

Weddings are stressful. They’re especially tricky when one family is magical and the other hates spells, and both mothers want to control the celebration.

“I don’t know what I’m really getting into,” Tiffany said as she was being held in her fiances’ arms. She was dealing with a lot when it came to the wedding. As soon as she accepted his proposal, both her mother and Gail’s mother have been at each other’s throats, trying to make the wedding as there.

“I’m sorry, love. I know my mother can be a little wicked, but don’t worry. Once this wedding is over, everything will be perfect.” Gail explained as he gave her a light kiss on her cheek. “I’ll be back before the wedding, I’m going to get your wedding present, until then, try to get everyone to get along.”

Tiffany nodded as she gave her fiance one more hug, and then planted a kiss on his lips. She watched as he got on her horse and rode off the dirt path.

“Tiffany! Dear, I need to ask you what you want to do with the place settings for the reception?” She heard Gail’s mother calling out to her. Tiffany took a deep breath and turned around, giving her a small smile as she watched her mother-in-law, Selma, get closer to her.

Selma handed her a picture of lily’s, but before she could answer, her mother, Judy, can out and handed her a flower vase with sunflowers. “Tif, love. I think you would rather go with these, they will bright out the room for sure!”

Judy watched as Selma rolled her eyes, “I’m sorry, but you must be mistaken, lilies bring out her wedding dress better than those silly little sunflowers would ever do.” Selma snapped as Judy frowned, then they turned back to Tiffany.

“I honestly don’t know which one I like best, but perhaps I see the other choices for flowers and then I can make my decision?” Tiffany spoke sweetly to both her mother and mother-in-law.

Tiffany had a fear that something like this would happen. Selma and her family were gifted with magic and they weren’t, which made it harder for Judy to really expect Gail to be apart of their family.

Sadly, Selma has been planning for the day her son would get married and she was excited to finally meet Tiffany, the one who had ‘stolen’ her son’s heart, but will also steal the one thing that she’s been loving and caring for since after Gail’s father had passed.

Both of the mothers looked back at each other, giving them a dirty look to each. Selma looked back at Tiffany and frowned. “I guess my choice wasn’t good enough, eh?” Selma snapped at Tiffany, which shocked Tiffany because she has always been nice to her, but this must of been the last straw for Selma. “Wait till my son hears about this!”

Selma went back into the cottage, that they all were staying at until the wedding. “Selma, Gail just left, he went into town to get my wedding present. He’s gone until tomorrow night.” Tiffany explained as calmly as she could.
Selma threw the photos of the lilies on the ground and stormed off into the cottage.

Tiffany and her mother went back inside.
“Child, I know this is a difficult choice you have to make, but that old hag should know that everything that I’ve chosen for your wedding is already perfect!” Judy spoke, as

Tiffany had put some water into a teapot. Tiffany had a fire of anger, burning inside her. She had hoped that her mother and Gail’s mother would’ve gotten along. She also didn’t understand why the choices that she was given to choose from, was making it so she would favor one mother over the other.

She just wanted to plan the wedding with what she wanted, she wanted her day to be the happiest, most magical day of her life. Dealing with her mother and soon to be mother-in-law’s bickering back and forth, Tiffany was dreading planning this wedding.

Tiffany slammed the teapot on the floor and turned to her mother, she noticed that Selma had run out of her room to see what was going on.

“Just stop, mother! Please!” Tiffany looked over at Selma and Judy together. “Both of you are making this entire process of planning a wedding dreadful! I know both of you are trying to help me, but it seems like it’s about you both! This is Gail and I’s wedding day, we want it to be the most magical and wonderful day of our lives, but you aren’t allowing me to choose what I want for my special day!”

Tiffany turned to her mother, who was shocked at the outburst that was currently happening. “Mother, I love you, but you need to be okay with Gail and his family. Once we are married, we are all going to be one.”

She then turned to Selma, who too had a surprised look on her face at Tiffany’s outburst. “Selma, I know you want this to be perfect, but you have to be okay with me disagreeing with the choices you have already chosen for me.”

Tiffany then took a deep breath and slowly picked up the broken teapot that laid on the floor. “I just wanted you to both get along.” She spoke softly, but loud enough for them to hear it, as she picked up the broken pieces and laid them out onto the table.

Tiffany then ran off into her room. Selma and Judy stared at each other in silence.
“I better go check on her.” Judy sat, but before she could heat out, she was stopped by Selma.

“Your daughter is right, we should learn to get along with each other,” Selma spoke, letting go of Judy’s wrist. “I’m sorry for my behavior. It just hasn’t been easy since Gail’s father passed away a few weeks ago. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

Judy then placed her hand on top of Selma’s and looked up into her eyes. “I’m sorry, too. I didn’t know Gail’s father, but I know how you feel.” Judy pulled out a napkin and handed it to Selma. “I lost my husband before Tiffany was born.”

Selma looked us, as then were red, from her crying, “Oh, Judy, I’m so very sorry, I shouldn’t-”

Judy gave her a warming smile. “Don’t worry about it. We both judged each other before we even got a chance to finally know each other. Let’s just put it all in the past or at least for the kid’s sake.”

Selma smiled as she wiped her tears. Then walking over to the teapot that Tiffany had dropped, she whisked her hands around and the teapot was fixed, brand new, just as it was before it was broken.

Both of them headed over to Tiffany’s door, where they could hear her sobbing on the other side of the door. Judy approached the nob, but before knocking on the door.

“Tiffany, can we come in, dear?”

Tiffany wiped her eyes and cleared her voice. “Yes, mother.”

Judy carefully opened the door and watched in shock of how her mother-in-law and mother were acting to each other. Normally, they would be staring at each other, giving dirty looks, but this time, they were only focusing on Tiffany.

“Hun, we just wanted to come in here and apologize. I’m sorry that we were so picking about your wedding. Especially how we treated each other. From now on, you choose whatever you for your wedding, anything at all.” Selma explained as Tiffany stood up to her bed, smiling.

Tiffany grabbed onto both of their hands and smiled. “Thank you.”

Finally, the big day approached, Tiffany was more than excited for her big day, but she got rather sad before she was about to walk down the aisle. She had always dreamed of her father walking her down the aisle, giving herself away, but this reality was, she would be walking alone.

Just as she grabbed her flowers, she took a deep breath and noticed her mother and mother-in-law, wrapping around each of her arms.
“I know this is something your father would’ve done, but Selma and I decided that we don’t want you to do to this alone.” Judy smiled, as they both gave Tiffany a boost of confidence.
Tiffany looked down the aisle and smiled when her eyes gazed upon Gail. Walking down the aisle never seemed so easy, once she approached Gail, both her mother and Selma gave her a kiss on the cheek and held her hand out to Gail.

He smiled as he saw his beautiful bride be. Leaning into Tiffany’s ear, he whispered. “I’m surprised things are going quite well with you three. What’s your secret?”

Tiffany giggled and leaned into his ear. “Just a little bit of bridezilla seemed to do the trick.” As they turned to face the preacher to start the beginning of their lives together.

Let me know what you think about this week’s short story! Comment down below if you have a song in mind for what I should do next for next Friday’s!

Posted in Writing Works

Ain’t Your Mama (Friday’s Short Stories)

Posted on by Katie Night

Ain’t Your Mama

Hey Dearies, so this week is another song that I’ve turned into a short story. I’m a big fan of JLo and ‘Ain’t Your Mama’ is one of my favorite songs that she has done. The song is about how women shouldn’t be treated to be someone’s slave. What I have gathered from it is that women shouldn’t be the only one to do everything, but 50/50 and sharing the responsibility in a partnership because we ‘AINT NO ONE’S MAMA!’ The only mother we want to be is our children’s mama.

Jackie watched as she slaved over the stove, making another meal for her boyfriend, Will. She was already over this life she was doing, ever since she moved in with him. Before that, their life was great.

They would go out for dates at least once a week, they would make time for each other and they were so in love, but that all changed when she agreed to move in with him.

She never thought that she would be cleaning up after him every day and night. She never thought she would have to come home from work and make sure he had a hot meal to eat every night.

Jackie felt more like a zombie, repeating the same things every day. Wake up, clean, cook, go to work, and repeat.

She craved the love that they used to have together, the nights that they would cuddle on the couch together and spent time playing games or watching movies. She missed those times, but now, all Will seemed to want to do was be on his phone or play video games without her.

As she was stirring the boiling pasta, it hit her. She was doing everything that his mother would be doing for him.

For weeks and weeks, she had asked him to help her or split up the chores, like they did with bills, but she would get the same old saying:

“I’ll do it later.”

Which was Will’s code for ‘I ain’t doing it at all.’ Jackie was over it all, she was tired of the same old stuff that she didn’t think she was signing up for when she moved in. She thought that he would do his part, too.

Jackie knew how much she loved Will, but the pattern had to stop, she couldn’t keep living like this, she wanted to respect and help, not because she asked, but because that’s what was needed.

The thought of marriage and having children with Will scared Jackie to think that it would be even worse than it already was now.

As she turned off the stove, drain the pasta, as she heard Will screaming through the headset. She placed the pasta in with the sauce and mixed it, then took the bowl to the kitchen table, where she had hoped they could’ve eaten together since she had gotten everything ready for the kitchen table and not for their TV food trays.

Will finally came into the room, smiling at her and then grabbing what he wanted for food and then walking back in the living room.

Jackie has had enough, she wasn’t going to spend another night sitting at the table alone, she wasn’t going to spend another day catering to his needs while hers are put on the back burner, and she wasn’t going to spend another day waiting for Will to change his ways.

She grabbed the bowl of salad, that she had just made and walked into the living room, dumping the salad all over him.

“I’m so sick of this, Will! I’m done!” She said, dropping the bowl onto the floor as Will didn’t know what to react.

“What the hell? Your gonna clean this up, aren’t you?” He snapped back at her, which made Jackie’s blood boil more.

“I’m going to clean this up? What do you think I am, your maid?” She yelled, crossing her arms across her chest. Will stood up, as the salad pieces fell to the ground. “If you want someone to clean up after you then you might as well go move back in with mommy.”

Jackie then left the living room and went into the bedroom, packing her stuff and leaving Will. As hard as it was to do that, she couldn’t help but cry. Deep down, she knew she couldn’t change him, unless he was willing to change for himself.

As she drove off to her sister’s house, she cursed how lazy he had become and how his mother pampered him so much that he wasn’t able to do anything for himself, but it was one less thing she was worried about.

She was more focused on herself and if love did happen to knock on her doorstep, she would make very clear that she wouldn’t end up being someone bitch ever again.

Let me know what you think about this week’s short story! Comment down below if you have a song in mind for what I should do next for next Friday’s!

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review: Game Of Thrones (Book 1)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies! So, as I’ve been getting back into reading, I started to read the infamous GOT books, I got them after the show had already aired, but that’s what usually happens when a book gets turned into a series or movie, either you read it before it turned into a live-action or you find out after the fact.

To me, the only series that I have read before they wanted to release a T.V. series or live-action was the House of Night Series, but those books will be for another time and its a rumor that I’m not 100% sure if they are doing or not.

Anyway, back to GOT. If you haven’t already seen this series, it’s about castles, dragons, kingdoms, but more suited for adults. The first book follows really closely with the first season, as I was reading this, I was also watching an episode that followed what I had read.

WARNING: Spoilers to come! Don’t read forward if you don’t want me to spoil it for you!

The first thing I want to say is that, if you are a fan of the series, they did a really good job of following the book, but to me, the book was really hard to get into because I’m not really used to reading books like this, meaning it does have a lot of big words and it took me a little bit longer to get into, but once Ned becomes the hand, it’s a lot easier.

The way the book is set up is that every chapter is a different person’s point-of-view. The best part is that chapters aren’t in a cycle, they are very random, first, you’ll be reading about Ned, then you’ll jump to Jon or Dany.

About halfway through the book, King Robert, who goes out hunting and ends up getting hurt badly, he dies in the first season and in the book. I was getting a little bit worry that he still wasn’t dead, but you have to remember, the book always has more detail than the T.V. Show.

I do want to say, after watching the series before reading the book and then watching the episodes that occur from what I read in the book, it really helped me to understand who the characters were and what the story is about.

Now that I’m rewatching the series as I read them, it does help me when I’m going through and reading each of the books. Which if you didn’t know, there are 5 books in the Game Of Thrones series.

So, for once, one of the books is spot on to the, I would say the first season of GOT. What did you think about the book? Have you read it or were you like me and found out after the fact? Let me know below!

Also, I want to note that these books take a lot of time to finish, so please be patient for me to get through the second book!

Posted in Writing Works

Kerosene – Friday’s Short Stories

Posted on by Katie Night

Kerosene

Hey Dearies! Sorry that this one is a little late, but I decided to mix it up by taking a song and turn it into a short story! So, I went with the song Kerosene by Miranda Lambert. 

Well I’m giving up on love ’cause love’s given up on me

The sun was setting on a long hot day and Sasha Kendel had just lit a cigarette, sitting outside her shitty trailer. She never liked the taste of cigarettes, but there was nothing else for her to do.

She never thought her life would be exactly like her father’s, living in a small crappy town where everyone knows your business and what you do. That was one of the reasons why her mother left, but Sasha got suckered into coming back to Fairfield, Georgia.

All her plans to leave went down the drain when she met Frankie Londe. He had walked into her life and at the time, made it worth wild. She was also in love with the idea of being in love that she forgets all of her original plans.

But that went all down the drain after Sasha found him with her.

It was a late night, she had taken the late shift at the only dinner they had in Fairfield. It had been a long day that she just wanted to go home and relax. She hoped that Frankie would be at their trailer, waiting for her when she got home.

As she walked to her car, she caught a glimpse of the bar, that was just across the street, she saw drunk people dancing and having a good time, but what stopped her in her tracks as she noticed someone.

Frankie was in the middle of the dance floor locking his lips with some blond that she had never met. At that moment, her heart dropped. She never thought in a million years that the love of her life would betray her.

As Sasha took another drag of her cigarette, then tossing the butt into the grown. She was so angry, she didn’t know what to do. She knew that Frankie was inside, making love to that blond that he was with last night. She never gave a notice that she was home, yet.

She got up from the porch and walked over to the kerosene that had caught her eye and grabbed it. Opening the container and pouring it all over her shitty trailer, dumping it all over the front door, around the trailer and back over to his black Ford truck.

She threw the container in the middle of the field and got into her car, taking out another cigarette and taking a match to lite it, then tossing it to the kerosene path that leads up to her trailer.

The flame took quickly, as it rapidly burned the path of kerosene, leading up to the front door and blazing the entire trailer in flames. Sasha took another drag and drove up the path and onto the highway.

She took one look in her rearview mirror and watched as her old life had burnt away, watching two naked people jumping from the window, half-naked and running away as the trailer blew up.

Sasha smiled and then placed her eyes back on the road. “Cheaters never prosper.” She said, driving down the highway and heading towards her new fresh start.

Let me know in the comments of what you thought about this short story! These will be posted every Friday and if you have a prompt or idea that you would like me to try out, let me know in the comments! 

Posted in Arts and Crafts, Crochet, Top Projects for Crochet/Knitting

Crafty Sassy: Top 5 Crochet Hearts

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies! Since this week is the week of Valentine’s Day, I wanted to find some more patterns for this lovely day! Even if you don’t celebrate it, hearts, like these can be the extra accessory to add to many projects!

Now, I looked around to find free patterns for these, but do keep in mind, I’m looking for different ways to crochet a heart. Like I said before, they can add the finishing touch to projects, such as hats, baby blankets, blankets, clothes, bags, and so much more! You can even make these to wear as jewelry!

Note: These are NOT my own patterns, I will be leaving links to these free patterns, but all rights go to the creators themselves.

  1. Crochet Simple Heart

Heart-1.jpg

This pattern is fairly simple and very easy to make, it is also like how I made my bookmark or close to the same stitches. If you want a solid perfect heart, this would be the one you go for.

Link for the pattern: https://www.crochet365knittoo.com/crochet-heart-pattern/

2. Quick Crochet Hearts (In 3 sizes)

crochet-heart.jpg

I love the idea of being able to make hearts in all sizes or in different sizes. This creator has three sizes, which is perfect if you are looking for a particular size for projects. Not to mention, these are great practice project for those who are wanting to learn how to crochet.

Link for the pattern: https://www.stitching-together.com/quick-crochet-hearts-you-wont-want-to-stop-making-them/

3. Crochet Spiral Heart

Heart-1-2.jpg

I think this idea is simple, but it is so beautiful! I think these would make a perfect pin or add a wonderful touch to a headband! Not to mention, it’s not like a normal rose shape or heart shape, its more unique and the pattern is amazing!

Link to the pattern: http://handmadeparis.com/crochet-spiral-heart/

4. Red Heart Valentine Heart

RHC0537-019745M.jpg

Technically, this is a coaster pattern, but there doesn’t mean it has to be just a coaster, you can make this to be a wonderful add-on to a baby blanket or a hat. Not to mention, this is a little different from how a normal shape heart is crocheted.

Link to the pattern: https://www.yarnspirations.com/red-heart-valentine-heart-coaster/RHC0537-019745M.html

5. Crochet Heart Applique

Crochet-heart-applique-hearts-in-three-sizes-free-crochet-pattern.jpg

Here is another pattern, that has 3 different sizes, but they are a little different from the other ones that are on this list. They are more drawn together than the other ones but are just as quick and easy to create.

Link to the pattern: https://www.goldenlucycrafts.com/2015/03/02/crochet-hearts-applique-pattern/

There we have it! There are many others that I found, but most of them were patterns that you had to pay for the pattern itself, which I only wanted to find the ones that were free.

Especailly, ones that were different or unique to create. Which ones are your favorites?

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted in Writing Works

Off The Record (Friday’s Short Stories)

Posted on by Katie Night

Off The Record

Hey Dearies! This one is another romatic short story, but more about rich people, got the idea from one of the many books I read on Wattpad, but with this one, I almost wanted to make it into a book! Who knows, I might, but enjoy!

She’s working her way to the top the only way a woman can in this business: by being absolutely ruthless, heartless, and six times as tough as the men. But when one of those men, an underling, begins to soften her heart, she panics. Will she take their relationship off the books? Or take the “safe” path and send him away?

Allie Jaques never expected to fall in love, especially with someone that she had been partners with for years. She had been running her father’s business since he had passed, 3 years ago. Even though she was never close with him, she bravely took on his entire corporation.

After her mother had been out of the picture, as soon as she turned 16, she had been completely on her own and was doing just fine, that was until her father’s personal assistant, Carol Briggs came to her and told her about her father. She didn’t know what to say or how to feel but took the position.

She’s had her heart broken before, as she had dappled in mixing business with pleasure, but when he wanted to start a family, things ended on bad terms as Allie wanted to focus on building up that small little store. In other words, when the opportunity came around with the position, she gladly took it to get away from her ex.

“Alright gentleman, that will be all.” She spoke as she ended the meeting, gathering her paperwork as the others left the room, all, but Mr. Devin Wells. He was another parter that his father had sign on before he passed, but to Allie, it was nice to know someone who didn’t know her father quite as well as the other partners.

She felt his eyes on him, as she always has. Watching her every move, she loved it when the attention was on her, but Mr. Wells makes her want to do unspeakable things to her. She had been dreaming about it and thinking about it for months, how his touch would feel, how he would please her.

It made her blush just thinking about it, but she couldn’t have history repeat itself. She didn’t want to mix her business with his pleasure, but she couldn’t stop herself. As she kept gathering the papers, she was relieved to see her assistant come in. “Ms. Jaques? You have a call on the line, they say it’s about the meeting for tonight.” Helen said as she walked in.

“I’ll be right there, can you take these and schedule another meeting for next week?” She asked as Helen nodded, taking the paperwork from her hands and leaving the room.

As she was about to head out the door, Mr. Wells stopped her in her tracks. Placing his arm in front of her and turning his head to face her.

“Is there something you need, Mr. Wells?” Allie asked her heart started to beat faster when his eyes looked at hers.

“I’d like to talk to you, over dinner.” He said, smiling, as Allie couldn’t believe what he was finally asking. Allie wanted to jump to say yes, but her mind reminded her about what happened with her ex.

“Sorry, I don’t do dinner dates.” She smirked as she rejected him. He smirked back, but placed his arm down, letting her walk out and she headed towards her office.

Once she got in, she sat at her desk and dropped the papers all over her desk, putting her hands on her forehead. She had to say strong, she didn’t want her heart to control her life, as it once did.

She also didn’t want her needs to get in the middle of the business’s needs. It was hard enough that she had rejected men before, but there was something different about this one. She couldn’t put her finger on why she wanted to catch his attention.

Allie ended up staying up until she was about to head to the dinner meeting she had with two of the biggest clients. She needed her focus to be on making sure they wanted to sign again for the next 5 years on being partners with the company.

Helen had knocked and entered her office, holding her dry cleaning and placed it on her mini couch. “The limo will be here in 10 minutes, Ms. Jaques. Is there anything else you need for me to do?” She smiled, holding her hands perfectly together.

She had been with the company as long as my father had and she had been nothing, but sweet to Allie. Always making sure she had everything she needed, even staying longer to make sure things were completed before going home to her family.

I returned the smile as I got up from my desk. “Thank you, Helen. I can handle the rest, go home and see your family. Say him to Thomas for me.” Helen smiled and nodded.

“Thank you, I will. Have a good night, Ms. Jaques.” She said as she left the office.

Allie quickly got dressed and did some of her makeup, making sure it wasn’t too much. She then took the pins from her hair and let it fall to hang on her shoulders. Her hair was naturally curly, which made it easier for her.

Quickly grabbing her purse and heading down to the limo that was waiting for her. As the limo arrived at Romana Restaurant, she got a text message from Helen.

‘Mr. Klans canceled, but the other partner will be there, Mr. Wells.’

Allie’s face flushed as she entered the restaurant to see Mr. Wells, standing at the front of the restaurant, waiting to get seated at a table. Her first reaction was to turn away, she then remembers that she did have plans with Mr. Wells and Mr. Klans tonight.

She’s couldn’t cancel, she needed Mr. Wells to be convinced to stay for another few more years. She needed this partnership just as Mr. Wells needed it. Taking a deep breath, she composed herself and headed towards Mr. Wells.

“Ms. Jaques, a pleasure to see you again.” Mr. Wells said as a waitress was ready to seat us. He held out his hand, as she shook it. She watched as he eyed her up and down. She pulled away from his grasp and looked at him.

“Same with you.” Allie quickly said as they followed the waitress to a closed area for meetings. As they sat down, they ordered some drinks and looked over the menus. It was silent after the waitress left, but Allie was so hungry, she didn’t bother will a casual conversation like she normally did.

“It’s nice to finally get you alone to me.” Mr. Wells spoke as the waitress came back with their drinks, she quickly took a sip of wine and ordered their food. Once the waitress took their menu’s and left, Allie thought of what to say to him.

“This is just business, Mr. Wells. Nothing more.” She stated, but he chuckled at the response she had, places his elbows on the table, holding his hands together.

“Or so you think.” He then took a sip of his drink. “Why don’t we just call each other by our first names, Allison.”

When he said her full name, she had chills running up her back just thinking about it. She shook her head, telling herself to focus on the task at hand, making sure he’s still a partnership.

“Stop messing around, Devin. Let me get to the point, are you going to stay as a partner or no?” She snapped as he started to laugh again. She took a sip of her wine and waited for an answer.

“Let’s put business aspect aside for once, Allie. That’s all we ever talk about.” Devin spoke as our food came to us and placed it in front of us.

“Because that is all we will ever talk about is business,” Allie spoke with a straight face, hoping that Devin wouldn’t keep on this much longer.

“Is that you ever think about is work?” He asked as she finished her glass of wine. She was about done with this meeting. She got the waitresses attention and had her box her food. When she came back, she grabbed her food and got up from the table.

“Thank you for your time, but if you aren’t going to take this seriously, I’ll be on my way,” Allie said, but before she could leave the room, Devin had pushed her up against the wall, holding her hands above her head. “What are you doing?” She asked.

“Something we have been wanting to do for a long time.” He said as he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.

It was so exciting for her, she hadn’t been kissed in a long time, but with Devin, she didn’t want it to stop. He dropped her hands, as they fell onto his chest, making them wander all over his body. He held his hands at her waist as they kept kissing passionately.

He pulled away, leaning his forehead on Allie’s and smirked. “Why did you stop?” Allie asked as they both stopped to catch their breath.

“If I kept going, I don’t think I would be able to stop.” He said as Allie adjected herself.

She couldn’t believe that just happened, instead of dealing with the awkwardness of the situation, she got up and left. Caught a cab and went home.

Allie decided to get ready for bed, when she got to her penthouse apartment, changing in a simple tank top and shorts. She then looked everywhere for her phone, until she realized that she had left it there at the restaurant, along with her purse and food.

All of a sudden, after she made herself a quick cup of tea, there was a knock at the door. It was 10 o’clock at night and she wasn’t expecting anyone. As she opened the door, Devin Wells was standing there when her phone, purse, and food in his hands.

“You left and forgot these. I figured you would need them.” He said, handing her stuff, as she placed them on her kitchen counter.

“Thank you, I was about to call the restaurant-,” Before she finished her sentence, he had caught her off guard by kissing her once again. She threw her hands in his hair, as he lifted her on her counter. She pulled away from his lips. “We can’t do this.” She whispered to him.

“But we can.” He said, kissing her lips once more, and then placing kisses up and down her neck. “What’s the harm?”

“What the hell,” Allie kissed him back as he embraced her in his arms.

After that night, they kept their contact but making sure that their business wasn’t in the mix of their pleasure. The agreement they had made sure that they were nothing more than just friends with benefits, but after a few months, Allie could help, but start to have feelings for him.

She didn’t want to tell him, knowing how their agreement was, she didn’t want to change it, but the longer they were together, the more she wanted to make it permanent.

Allie had just gotten out of work and headed straight home, she was expecting Devin to come over, but canceled plans with him. She was on her period and didn’t want to deal with him. As she got home, Devin was in her penthouse, cooking dinner. He had a key, but that was whenever she wanted a late-night booty call.

She never expected this. “What are you doing here?” She asked as he smiled. Devin never really came over when it was her time of the month and it surprised her that he was even here, although, the last time she was on her period, he ended up buying her chocolates.

The food smelled too good, as she watched him prepare a simple stuffed shells recipe. “I was in the mood to cook and didn’t want to eat alone, so I figured I’ve cooked for us.” He said as he poured me a glass of wine.

“This seems extra than just friends with benefits, Devin,” Allie spoke, as she took a sip of her wine.

“Is that a problem?” He asked. She didn’t know how to answer, but she didn’t want to overstay her welcome of their agreement. She loved the fact that he was spoiling her like such, but didn’t want this to be too good to be true and ruin it all.

“I don’t know, is it for you?” She asked as he shook his head no.

“Not at all, but there is something I need to ask you.” He said as he placed the food into the oven and throwing a towel over his shoulder. “Didn’t know if you wanted to come with me to a charity event, it’s sort of like a ball and I don’t want to hire a date, like I did last time.”

“Oh,” She said, as she wasn’t sure if she would want to go to a ball, but it was exciting to be asked. “Wouldn’t that be weird if I went? It would kinda make us a couple in the public eye, you know.”

He walked over to her and smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist, looking down into her eyes. “What if we were?” He asked. Allie’s heart raised, she didn’t know what to say. “Look, I know we had an agreement about us just sleeping together, but I want more with us. I don’t just want to be the person you lay with, I want to be the person you want to grow old with.”

The words he was saying were too good to be true, but then that voice in her head reminded her that he was still her business partner and didn’t know what would happen if they had become a couple. Would her father’s hard work be gone? Would the business crumble? Or would the partners drop her father’s company?

She had so many questions of what if’s that she was more worried about how other’s would think, instead of how she would think if they became something more. She was afraid of history repeating itself but more afraid to take that chance.

Allie and Devin ate in silent and as soon as they were both done, he left, not even giving her a kiss goodbye, like he normally does. All she told him as she wasn’t sure, which turned into another argument.

It was the night of the charity ball, Allie was debating ongoing, but since she was formally invited and it was for a children’s charity for orphans, she didn’t want to miss it. She hadn’t talked to Devin for months, and the only times that they did was when they had their weekly meetings.

As she was looking in her closet, she was trying to decide what to wear when Helen walked into the room, standing in the doorway wearing a black fine mermaid gown.

“The limo is here, Ms. Jaques. And I just want to say, thank you again for inviting me and my husband.”

I smiled. “No problem at all, I figured that a night out from the kids would be good for you too.”

Helen walked over and gave her a hug. Then she turned to the closet to pull out a sliver diamond dress that was tight-fitting at the top til the waist and then it was looser towards more of the bottom. “I think this one would look good on you,” Helen said and Allie agreed.

Without question about the dress Helen chose, Allie quickly got dressed and braided the sides of her hair, still having her long naturally curly hair fall to her sides.

Once they got to the charity event, Allie made sure to pledge her donation and then grabbed a glass of champagne, taking a sip and looking around the ballroom, her eyes were looking to catch Devin, but she couldn’t seem to find them.

But Helen and her husband, caught her eye, they were dancing together, Allie smiled as she saw how happy they were. Allie wished she would have that one day, but after what happened with Devin, she never thought she would find someone like him again.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she really missed him. She missed not talking to him, missed spending time with him, and mostly just missed his presence.

“Enjoying the view,” Devin spoke, as he stood next to her, holding a glass of champagne as well.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me.” Allie snapped, as she didn’t know why he was talking to her. She thought that he was still upset with her.

“I’ve talked to you,” Devin said, taking a sip of his champagne. “How about a dance?” He asked as he took both of their champagnes and placed them on the table.

Devin and Allie danced, moving around the ballroom floor with the others. “Why haven’t you returned my calls?” Devin whispered in her ear.

“I didn’t think you wanted to talk to me,” Allie said, looking up at him. He pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear.

“I always want to talk to you, Allison. Why can’t we be together?” He asked as she smiled. She wanted to be with him, but all she could think about was the business.

“I just don’t know. I worry about the business. I don’t want our public relationship to interfere with the business.” Allie explained, but Devin just smiled.

“If anything, it will grow.” He said as he twirled her around. “So, what do you say?”

She only took a minute to think about it before placing a kiss on his lips. She was ready for her happiness to start and she didn’t care about how everyone would feel about it, she was ready to start the next chapter.

After they came out to the public about their relationship, Devin was right, the business grows and they ended up combining both of their businesses into one giant one. After all that, Allie finally had the happy ending she deserved.

Let me know in the comments of what you thought about this short story! These will be posted every Friday and if you have a prompt or idea that you would like me to try out, let me know in the comments! 

Posted in Writing Works

The Downfall of Luck (Friday’s Short Stories)

Posted on by Katie Night

The Downfall of Luck 

Hey Dearies! Here is another one for you all! This one is about having really good luck and it turning out from better to worse!

A poor young boy or girl comes into an unexpected fortune. Not all fortunes are good. Sometimes discovering a fortune will destroy your life.

James never had any good luck in his life. He was broke, poor, and lived a stole car. He had to struggle his entire life, his parents worked hard, but his father left when he was two. His mother, on the other hand, kept working hard to provide for James, but ended up going down a dark path and ended her life when he was 12.

He’s been in and out of children’s homes that when he turned 15, he fled to be on his own. After that, he has been living on the streets ever since. He’s tried getting jobs or getting back on his feet, but no one wanted to hold out their hand to help. James was tired of being on the streets, but that’s all he had.

At the age of 27, he got what he was asking for. It was more than just luck, but hopefulness of his future.
James was doing his normal routine, looking for a job by asking around, gathering what he could for food to help feed himself, and hoping that some stranger would give him enough money to find a place to take a shower.

As he was walking in the streets of L.A., a tall blond businessman dropped his wallet, as he was leaving the coffee shop. He seemed too busy to notice what he dropped since he was on his phone.

James picked up the wallet and thought for a second. His luck was changing, but would it be worth it to use this man’s money? He then decided to follow that man, trying to catch up to him in the crowd, but once the man stopped, he finally tapped him on the shoulder.

“Sir, you dropped this?” James spoke as the man turned to face him. James held out the wallet to him.

“I’ll call you back, Charlie.” The man said as he placed his phone back in his pocket. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Have a nice day.” James said as the man took the wallet, but before James could leave, the man called back out to James.

“Wait, here.” The man said, handing James a hundred dollar bill. “Not many people would return a wallet back to its owner. Take it.”

James was shocked as to how many dollars were in his wallet, he was more shocked that this man was handing a homeless man a hundred dollar bill. James took the bill and smiled at the man.

“Thank you, sir.” He said as the man nodded and then turned away down the street. The first thing James thought of was taking a much-needed shower and getting some new clothes for himself.

Once he did that, he looked good as new. He had about 60 bucks left and wanted to make it last, but how. He started to question where he could make some more money or at least get a little bit more.

Then it hit him, as he looked up as to where he was, a casino. He smiled at the idea and walked inside. The lights were bright and the machines were loud, getting the attention of everyone who held chips in their cups, he didn’t know where to start.

He walked by a few machines and cashed in a few bucks to start, but there was one machine that caught his eye. The Wheel of Cash. James watched as people sprung the wheel, watching the click tick down to the number of prize money that was labeled onto the wheel. There were 4 jackpots, 4 losers, and the rest was random amounts of money under $2500 dollars.

It was $10 to play, but the chances he’d win were slim to none. Maybe this was my lucky day? James asked himself as he stood in line for the Wheel of Cash. There was only one person in front of him, a woman, who he had recognized quite well. She was one of those that would dress up for men wanting a good time.

Her name was Candy, she had asked him a few times if he wanted to spend some alone time with her, but both times he was completely broke. He watched her spin the wheel, checking out how she was dressed.

It wasn’t her normal entire, she usually had on short skirts and crop tops with her 5-inch heels that were always bright pink, but tonight she was dressed a little more class. Her blond hair was curled and pinned up, she didn’t have a lot of makeup on, and she was wearing a blue glittery dress.

As the wheel finally came to a stop, landing on $350 dollars, she gathered her cash and walked into James. “I’m so sorry.” She spoke, as James held out his hand to her.

“James, funny seeing you here.” She smirked as he pulled her to her feet.

“Same with you. I thought you were still on the street?” He asked. She shook her head no.

“I got out of that game a long time ago. I ended up falling in love and he saved me from what I was doing.” Candy said smiling at James, but she turned her head in another direction, her smiled changed. “Good to see you, I must be going.”

James watched as she walked away, but then realized he was next for the spin. Looking up at the Wheel of Cash, he saw the jackpot was for 1 million. Taking a deep breath and putting in his money and sprung the wheel.

His nerves were everywhere, he was so afraid of where it was gonna land. As the wheel started to slow down, he watched as it passed a jackpot, but it was still slowing down as it ticked to another Jackpot, stopping dead in its tracks.

The machine went off, letting the entire casino know that there was a jackpot winner.

After that, he was handed a million dollars in cash and was offered a suite room at the hotel as there a free treat for winning the jackpot.

This was it, he had finally had good luck, but didn’t know what to do with it. He had never had as much as maybe $500 dollars to his name, but now he had a million.

Instead of saving it and using some of the money to get him back on his feet, he decided to stay at the casino hotel for longer than he offered. He got himself a whole new wardrobe and took care of himself, making himself look like a million bucks.

He ate as much as he wanted, he slept with as many women as he wanted, and he lived life like he was born a royal. When the money started to get lower, he tried the Wheel again, hitting another jackpot.

One day, before he was heading down to the casino’s bar, there was a knock on the door. As he opened the door, he was surprised to see Candy standing before him. They didn’t speak a word, but she rushed up to him, pressing her lips against his.

Night after night, Candy would be over in his suite. He kept winning jackpots, to the point that the order of the casino was wondering if he was cheating or rigging his machines.

The casino’s owner, Logan Morin, was ready to make a deal with this man and find out what he was doing with his casino, but as he approached his door, the man was shocked to see his wife coming out of his hotel room, placing a kiss on his lips. It made his blood boil.

Logan called up his men and busted the door down. “That’s why you keep winning!” He shouted, pulling a guy from the back of his pants. “You are getting my money and my wife!”

James was shocked, he never thought Candy was married nor did she mention it. He put his hands up as he was about to explain, but before he could, the sound of a gun went off as he felt his entire body go into shock.

James looked down at his stomach as saw blood pouring out as he collapsed onto the floor. This was it, his luck had turned on him. Candy was the one making him win the jackpots. He said there and thought his last thought, what he would’ve done differently.

Let me know in the comments of what you thought about this short story! These will be posted every Friday and if you have a prompt or idea that you would like me to try out, let me know in the comments! 

Posted in Writing Works

The Art of Love (Friday’s Short Stories)

Posted on by Katie Night

The Art of Love

Hey Dearies! I know this one is a little late, but I wanted to make sure I took a little extra time on this one. It’s not exactly like the prompt, but I did add in a little twist of it. 

Two dirt-poor art students survive by sharing a nasty little apartment above a bodega. They struggle through four years, barely making ends meet, comforting one another through tragedies and triumph, but never openly admit how they feel about each other…until they graduate, and one of them gets a job in another city. Is it too late to confess their love?

Living in New York City wasn’t easy, let alone being a paint. Jackie Brown wanted to see her name on every billboard, street store, and all over New York. Since she was 3, that was always her dream.

Her father was a famous painter himself, as so as her mother. Once they had her, Jackie’s mother felt that her child was holding her back from becoming famous and so let Jackie and her husband to New York.

Last time Jackie saw her mother, was 10 years ago. Now, she was 23, fresh from college and off to make her hobby into her dream, however, New York was expensive. Jackie’s father wanted to come with her, to make sure her dreams really did come true, but Jackie didn’t want her father to help her on that journey.

She wanted this one by herself.

After being in New York for a few days, she managed to find a place for her to stay in. Kenny Hunt was her only available option, especially with money being so tight, she didn’t want to be left on the streets.

Climbing up to the 3rd floor, onto an old book store, she knocked onto the door, with the faded ‘3C’ that sat on an old wooden door. After a minute or two, the door finally opened with Kenny behind it.

“Jackie, right?” He asked.

“Yes.” She nodded, giving him a soft smile as he opened the door more for her to come in. “Thank you again for this.”

She turned to face him, looking at his dirty blond hair and bright blue eyes. As she gazed into his eyes, he looked like he was hurt inside, like someone has ripped his heart out from his body and stuffed it in a trash can.

Kenny turned away, walking back to his canvas, ignoring her. As she looked around, she notices this was a very old room, it was a room that didn’t look like it was used for sleeping at all. The wide-open space had faded, cracked dark wooden floors. The paint used for the walls was faded and looked like there once were mirrors that inclosed the place.

As she turned to her left, there was a mini hall, looked like there were a few other rooms and hopefully a bathroom. Behind her was a stove, sink, and fridge that looked out of place from this room, but more than an old dance studio was out of place for any of this.

She didn’t see any mattresses or beds for her, in the opened space. Instead, the opened spaces were covered with canvases, paint, and brushes. It was like heaven to Jackie, making this choice the best one she had made for herself.

“Where can I put my stuff?” She asked, as his blue eyes looked up from the canvas.

“Down the hall to the right. Just don’t go into my room.” Kenny snapped as he went back to painting. Jackie was curious to know what he was painted but instead went to put her stuff away.

After being there for a few weeks, Jackie got herself comfortable, but Kenny seemed to rather ignore her. She had tried to work up the courage to place an empty canvas on one of the many empty easels, but hadn’t.

Brushstroke after brushstroke, she watched him from afar, not wanting her to see her eyes on him, she watched him move the brush back and forth like it was a dance he knew how to dance. Not to mention she couldn’t help but notice his arms had a few tattoos, but the one that caught her eye the most was the tree tattoo inside his left arm.

She wanted to ask him about it, it was the only one that she had noticed that was fairly new to his body, as the other tattoos he had were more faded. It took her a minute to realize that the tattoo was the tree from Lord of the Rings.

She got up and walked out of her room and slowly approached Kenny. He looked up for a second but turned away back to his piece. As she got closer, she noticed that his painting wasn’t of any object or item, that she thought it was, it was simply a mess of different colors of blacks and greys.

It was different from what her parents have painted before, but they were more into landscapes, such as mountains, hills, forests, and lakes. This was solid, but it spoke to her that something in his past had made him paint this way.

“What?” Kenny snapped, jumping Jackie, as she was zoned into his piece, rather than him.

“I-I was wondering if could use that spare easel?” She spoke nervously, she wanted to ask about his tree tattoo, but she had forgotten it, getting lost in his eyes.

Kenny changed his emotion, looked rather more confused like he didn’t think she would ask something from him so bold. “You paint too?” He asked as she nodded.

“I do, my parents do, too.” She said as he looked at her.

“Go for it.” He said, going back to his easel. Jackie was so enlightened that she ran to grab her supplies and set them up next to the easel.

Over the next couple of months, the started to bond over their love of painting and art. As much as they wanted to spend all of their time painting, Kenny had a part-time job down at the book store and Jackie had just gotten a job as a florist, that was also down the street.

Jackie had just finished her latest creation, it was of a couple, standing in the middle of the rain, sharing a deep kiss, with the background having rainfall underneath them all, not giving a care in the world as to what would happen.

It reminded her of her last love, that were that couple she painted. He had her heart, but she didn’t want it. She had gotten pregnant, but ended up losing the baby, which changed their relationship although. He wanted to settle down and build a giant family, as Jackie just wanted to paint and when she was ready, start a family.

That was their last kiss goodbye. They didn’t want to hold each other back and wanted to have one last kiss before they moved onto different lifestyles. Hence, why she wanted to leave New York.

Kenny came over, as she signed off of her painting. “Incredible, really.” He touched her shoulder as she watched him look into every detail she put into the painting. “What are going to call it?”

Jackie took a minute to think about it, coming up with the titles of her paintings was harder than it was for her parents. “Not sure yet.” Still admiring her work.

She glanced at Kenny’s easel, he had just a blank canvas, naked, as Jackie liked to call it. Ever since she started to paint in the same room as him, his painting has changed from dark and depression, to more artistic and creative, making them more appealing to the eye.

Her heart fluttered each time he would come up to her and watched her paint, as she would do the same. She had tried to open him and get him to talk to her, but he was a locked door, not letting anyone in.

That all changed. Jackie was working at her job when she got a phone call from the office from her mother. She wanted to let her know she was dying from cancer. That was the real reason why she left in the first place, she didn’t want Jackie to see her.

Jackie’s heart dropped as she got off the phone, it all made sense, she wondered why her father was always upset and depressed, but she thought it was because her mother had left, choosing her work over the family when really she was getting treatment for her breast cancer.

After work, when she got home, she didn’t say anything to Kenny, as he watched as she sadly went into her bedroom. She wasn’t in the mood to talk, didn’t even feel like painting, which was a first for her because she had always loved to paint.

“Jackie?” Kenny called out, but there was no reply from her, he didn’t want to intrude. It made him worry about her. Her happy self was what was keeping him inspired to paint masterpieces ever since his little sister had passed away.

Instead of answering Kenny, she curled herself up in a ball on her mattress and started to cry. There was nothing she could do, but felt like she needed to do something. She wanted to go to her happy place, but painting sounded so foreign to her.

She felt Kenny’s eyes on her like he was drilling a laser into her head. As much as she wanted Kenny’s attention, there was something more that she wanted. A distraction.

Siting up from her bed, she looked over at Kenny, as he sat on the bed beside her, gazing at his blue eyes, but her eyes wandered to his lips. “Is everything okay?” He asked, but instead of answering him, she leaned into his faces and pressed her lips against his.

Kenny froze for a second, not realizing that her lips were upon his, he didn’t know how to react, but before he could embrace the kiss, she had pulled away. Kenny’s mind was questioning if he should kiss her back or leave the room awkwardly.

Jackie looked back at him, waiting for his response, but his face looked confused. Did she kiss him wrong? She thought, but maybe it was too sudden for him, she thought again.

Until he caught her off guard and very slowly placed his lips together with hers.

She was lost into the moment, embracing Kenny’s warmth that she so craved, however, instead of taking their clothes off to get further lost into each other’s arms, they both laid down on her bed, and had him embrace her, snuggling up close together and making her feel something that she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Safe.

As he brushed a strand of hair from her face, she finally spoke, telling him about her mother and her condiction.

“Go to her, you should spend your last moments together,” Kenny spoke, as much as it killed him to see her go, not knowing how long she would be gone for or if she would ever come back, he didn’t want to miss out on those final moments that he did with his sister.

“I can’t, I don’t have the money,” Jackie said as he understood her situation, he was in the same boat, being an inspiring artist wasn’t easy. He had been doing odd jobs, just to save up for an apartment, but it was never enough.

 

The next morning, Jackie was left alone in her bed, Kenny had stayed with her all night long, just to make sure she was okay, but he wasn’t next to her. She got up and started getting ready for the day, when she saw a note on the fridge, with enough money to get her to see her mother and possibly come back.

‘Don’t miss another moment away from your mother. You’ll regret it in the end.’ – Kenny

She smiled, as he was right. Quickly, she packed a few things and took the train to the other side of town, trying to make sure she was able to get to the hospital in time. Once she arrived, she was greeted by her father.

He hugged her tightly in his arms. “I missed you, buttercup.” He said, calling her by her childhood nickname. He started calling her that when she picked out some flowers from their garden and they happened to be buttercups.

Jackie didn’t want to let go from her father’s embrace, but slowly turned to look into the small hospital room, she could see her mother, looking pain and cold.

Her eyes started to water as he came closer to her mother’s bed, she was still alive but looked like she was barely holding on. “Mommy?” She spoke, making her mother awake and open her eyes to see her daughter.

Jackie came closer to her mother and hugged her tightly as she could, she was so weak, but was glad her daughter was sitting next to her. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” Her mother spoke, as she held onto Jackie’s hand.

“Don’t worry about it, what matters is that I’m here for you,” Jackie said, kissing her mother’s hand and wiping her tears.

Jackie shared everything that was going on in her life, now. She even talked about Kenny, to her surprise, her mother said that he would be perfect for her. They played a few games, up until her mother was too weak to do so.

She died 2 months later after their last game of Uno. The last thing Jackie told her was to never give on chasing your dreams. Jackie knew she would never forget, but it made her think about Kenny. He was her new dream now, she needed to share her life with someone and he was perfect for her.

After the funeral, she said her last goodbyes to her father and headed back on the train, even though her mother had passed, she was wanting to get back to Kenny and to tell him how she felt about him.

Going up to their apartment, she was worried that he wouldn’t want to talk to her, after taking the money he gave to her to see her dying mother, but maybe he would. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door, watching Kenny stand in the middle of the studio, painting, he almost dropped his paintbrush when he saw her.

Jackie dropped her bag, and ran to him, embracing into his arms, not caring if he was covered in paint or not. She looked into his eyes and the waterworks just came down. He understood her pain as to lose something, but kept her in his arms.

“I missed you so much, Jackie. You have no idea.” He said, looking into Jackies eyes, wiping away the tears from her face, as he turned to face her to all the work he had done when she was gone. It was all pictures of her.

One of them was when she was puzzled on painting and ended up getting paint on her face. Another was of her dancing. The more she kept looking at the paintings, she realized that he returned the feelings for her, but there was one painting that caught her eye.

It was a painting of them, laying on her bed together, after their first kiss and how she told him about her mother. She didn’t know how he did it, but it was perfect. “I love this one,” Jackie said as Kenny came closer.

“Not as much as I love you,” Kenny spoke as Jackie stared at him in amazement. “I understand if you don’t return the feelings, but I do love you and I just needed to tell you.”

Jackie then pressed her lips against his, embracing his presence and telling him that she accepted his feelings for her. She pulled away, leaning their foreheads together as she smiled. “I love you too.”

Let me know in the comments of what you thought about this short story! These will be posted every Friday and if you have a prompt or idea that you would like me to try out, let me know in the comments! 

Posted in Writing Works

The Scars He Left Behind (Friday’s Short Stories)

Posted on by Katie Night

‘Hey, Dearies! So, this is the first, of many, short stories that I’ll be posting every Friday. I’ll be posting the writing prompt or idea from where I got it from, and then you’ll get to read my version of the story. These are all fiction, nothing is real unless said otherwise. These are something fun to do and if you want to comment or send me a version of your story, from the prompt, I’ll be happy to read it and possibly post it on my blog, if you would like!’ 

Tell the story of a scar, whether a physical scar or emotional one. To be a writer, said Stephen King, “The only requirement is the ability to remember every scar.”

The Scars He Left Behind

Looking up from the stars, Lela was waiting for something to catch her eye, whether it be a shooting star or the moon turning full as it looked down upon her. The full moon gave

Lela a sense of power, made her feel safe.

She usually did this every night, feeling the hot summer day finally cool off and letting the dark sky raise over the town like a blanket, hiding us underneath it. It was her favorite time of day.

Until now.

Things have changed for her, she had a busy plate, going into her 3rd year of high school. She wasn’t a straight-A student but did enough work to make sure she passed her classes. This year was different, not only had she given up on love, but she found it again.

Or so she thought.

It started out so simple, she thought, but how wrong was she. It started with a random message on a chat room, she was on there talking to one of her two best friends about the excitement that happened during lunch, a fight broke out and they got to witness it first hand.

It was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to them on that day, but for Lela, it was him.

The message from him popped up on her screen, she didn’t know what to do, nor react. She never had a guy take interest in her since middle school, but even then, she still didn’t know what to say, nor how to respond.

‘Can you help me meet Sarah? She seemed to log off.’

Little did Lela know that would be the start of a new chapter for her, not her friend Sarah.

‘Can’t you ask her yourself?’

Lela snapped back, thinking that this man wouldn’t want any interest in her. Why would they?

‘Sadly, I can’t seem to find her. I was supposed to meet her at the library, but I can’t seem to find her?’

Lela laughed at the message. She remembered Sarah was meeting up with her mystery guy today, but with midterms just about to start, she ended up setting up her date at the library with him.

Lela decided to stay home since she had to make sure to be home for her younger brother.

‘Didn’t you use her profile picture?’

Lela tried to explain, as much as she didn’t want to continue the conversation, she felt that she had to at least help him. Although, she chuckled at the fact that he didn’t have much common sense and wondered what Sarah saw in him.

She decided to do some snooping of her own and clicked on his profile picture. He looked semi-cute, or average. He wasn’t fat, nor was he too skinny. His dark hair complemented his eyes. As she kept looking, it seems that she found that they had more in common than she thought.

Lela thought he was kinda cute, but when she saw the year of his birth, she froze. Not only was Sarah talking to a much older guy, but a guy that would be legally called a man.

Chills went down Lela’s back as the conversation continued. Not only had it changed from helping him find Sarah, but his interest in her instead.

That was only the beginning.

After that same conversation, things changed. Lela and this man got closer and not even the 3rd day of talking, they finally met. To her mother’s disgrace, she didn’t want to see her 15-year-old daughter with someone who was 5 years older but tried her best to fight it.

She didn’t know what else to do, she banned her from seeing him, but that just made Lela want to be with him much more. The more the mother forbid it, the more she snuck around to see him.

It had been a week together for Lela and him, but in that week she lost so much. She didn’t know how it happened, it just did. His tongue mouthed words that made her jump into his bed. Making it seem that her virginity was something he wanted to take from her. Claim in with the others he took before hers, add it to his collection.

Once it was gone, she never got it back. The worst part is what came after that.

For months, she tried to build a so-called relationship with him, but he didn’t seem invested in her. Instead, his games came before her, the only time he wanted her was when he needed to be pleasured by her.

The times she did nor didn’t, he still went off and found another woman to laid in his bed. Forgive and forget, she thought over and over, the many times that he cheated. She didn’t know what else to do.

The scar.

He left two on that day in June. The heat was too hot to do much, but he still managed to leave a scar on her shoulder. She wanted to spend time with him, wanted to be apart of that world he was so attached too, but instead cut her left shoulder, and left her there, thinking she was wrong.

The second scar ended right in heart, making it seem like she might never find love again. Making it be more impossible or out of reach, just like the stars are from our grasp.

Once Lela had enough, she ended it, walking away from the first relationship she could ever call her own. She always looks down at that scar, to remind her that she is stronger than those dark times from where she got it from.

Looking back at the stars once more, she took a deep breath and smiled. Getting up from the patch of grass she was laying on and standing up tall, ready to walk into her next chapter, even with the scar he gave her.

Let me know in the comments of what you thought about this short story! These will be posted every Friday and if you have a prompt or idea that you would like me to try out, let me know in the comments! 

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review: A Sucky Love Story (Brittani Louise Taylor)

Posted on by Katie Night

I am a big Youtube fan, I’ve been watching Youtube since I was 13. Always wanting to start a channel of my own and really be myself. There were two big names that I used to watch on the daily: Shane Dawson and Brittani Louise Taylor.

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Ever since then, I’ve followed them both on social media, but we are going to talk about Brittani, first. The first video I watched of hers, was the mini two-part episode she did with Shane, ‘Emo Breakup.’

Here is the link, if you would like to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st8-oYpI_FE

Brittani was one of those people who loved to show herself being herself, which is one of the reasons why I loved watching her videos. She gave me the inspiration to keep being myself. However, little did any of us followers knew, she had been going through something even more frightening. An abusive relationship.

Since she was going through a trial, she wasn’t allowed to say anything about what was going on in her situation, so her lawyer told her to write a book instead, which she did. Out came ‘A Sucky Love Story’.

I’m not going to go completely into details, but as a person who has been watching Youtube for a while, you never would’ve thought anything wrong would be happening in their lives.

Brittani was on Tinder, trying to find her ‘soul mate’, as she says in her book. She had a few failed attempts at Tinder, but was still hopeful, until she found Milos. At first, she didn’t like him, but over time, he changed everything about him to what Brittani was attractive too.

In the end, Brittani had gone through hell and back, figuring out that everything that he told her, was turning into a lie. At one point, multiple detectives and law enforcement officials said that the way Milos actions of him and his so-called ‘mother’, made them think to believe that they were going to try to human traffic her and their son.

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Brittani wanted to tell her story so that anyone who does start or is currently trying out online dating, just to make sure you know the signs and that you are careful who you meet. She wanted to make sure that no one goes through the same thing she had to endure.

My Opinion of the Book:

I couldn’t put it down, I had to keep on reading, so that I could find out the real truth and what really happened to her. She does an amazing job and had notes from when everything happened. I ended up getting teary towards the end of the book, but it was amazingly written.

I would 100% recommend it, but I highly recommend it to those that are thinking or already started online dating. It’s good to keep in mind what can happen to you when you meet someone online and how cautious you need to be when it comes to that.

At the end of Brittani’s relationship with Milos, the best thing that came out it all was her son Rex, who is now happy with his mother and grandmother. Brittani is still doing Youtube videos, whenever she has a chance, but because of her relationship, she has to alter her and her son’s life.

If you are one of those people who says, “If he is abusing you, just leave,” it’s a lot hard said than done because that person can manipulate you to change your mind and try to work out things together.

If you are in an abusive relationship, talk to someone and try to make a plan, there are all kinds of people and place who are willing to help, even if you have children, they want to help you. Here is the list of links if you want to reach out for help:

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If you want to check out Brittani’s channel and watch the videos she made when she was with Milos or what she is currently doing now:

https://www.youtube.com/user/BrittaniLouiseTaylor

If you want to get somewhat of a sneak peek to what really happens to Brittani, she did make a video with Shane Dawson explaining bits and pieces of what really happened to her, but in order to really find out what happened, you will need to read her book.

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Link for Shane Dawson’s video with Brittani: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNuKpwX6Tz4

 

Posted in Writing Works

The Black Widow’s Partner In Crime (Friday’s Short Stories)

Posted on by Katie Night

*Just letting all of you know that I really don’t know where this idea came from. I started the beginning of this story when I was tipsy (thanks to the bud lite strawberrita’s I had the night before), and I ended up finishing this story the next morning. I’m sorry if this is a weird story, but hey, a weird story is an interesting story.*

By: Katie Night

Andrea sat at the bar, with a drink in hand. She had been siting at the bar for about 20 minutes, nothing had sparked her attention. Her last husband had been gone for about a month, before she started to crave for another man’s affection.

He had a heart attack and thought that he was the one for her. She thought that she was going to spend the rest of her life with him. Making memories, having children, and growing old together.

She just wanted someone to love her for her. She looked up at the bartender, as he poured her another shot. It burned in the back of her throat, but made it so she could hold back the tears she wan’t to let loose. She checked her phone, once more, looking at her flip phone that had a picture of her and her late husband.

Another 5 minutes had passed and she was getting tired of sitting, waiting for someone to approach her. It was like they knew she had lost her husband and that they were avoiding her like the plague. She struggled her shoulders and downed the rest of her drink, when she felt someone sit down next to her.

“Can I by you a drink?” The man wearing a business suit asked, as she looked at him in shock. She turned and looked around to see if he had might off meant to talk to someone else, but it was only them sitting at the bar.

She moved her hair behind her ear and smiled. “Sure.” He then turned to the bartender and he quickly made a drink.

“So, what is a beautiful lady like you doing in a bar alone?” He asked. She took a slip, waiting him to say more, but she was speak less. She didn’t think anyone would come and approached her tonight.

“It’s better than being home alone.” She responded. He moved his grey-black hair back and placed his hand on hers. She froze, not knowing what he would do.

“You are still alone, aren’t you?” He asked once more. She wondered if he was trying to hit on her, but she couldn’t tell. Although, he noticed that him asking questions about her, bothered her, he pulled his hand away. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be so demanding on questioning you.”

She shrugged her shoulders. She started to feel the alcohol hitting her, making her more relaxed and able to more flirty. “I was really waiting for you to ask me what my name was.” She smirked as his lips formed a small smile. “Andrea.”

She held her hand out as did he, shaking hands. “Kevin.” She felt something different about Kevin. She couldn’t tell what it was, but his aurora said something else. He had a dark soul, but with little room for love. She still wanted to know what was different about him that made him approach her?

The rest of the night, they talked. Nothing, but talked. She told him about her college days, as he told her about the late nights he was doing surgery. By the time they noticed what time it was, the bar was about to close up for the night. Kevin walked Andrea to her car and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Andrea heart had warmed up with excitement and passion. She didn’t want to stop seeing him again. Kevin was all she could think about. The only question she had for him was why her? There were a few other ladies at the bar, but he chose her. She tossed and turned all night long, over thinking about Kevin.

 

The next night, Kevin, met up with her at her house. They could resist themselves and had to have themselves, right on her kitchen table, the one that her and Jeff had picked out after they got married.

She was lost in the moment, forgot about that table, her late husband, and everything else. The only thing she could think of was how much thrill she was having. making love to a stranger on her husband’s table. The look in Kevin’s eyes during the act of affection. It burned in her mind.

Once they were done, a small idea popped in her head. She gave Kevin a smirk, but he had no idea what she was thinking, or so she thought. Kevin picked up her clothes and threw them at her.

“Don’t even think about playing me, sweetheart.” He spoke and Andrea’s eye’s widened. How could he know what she was thinking? She threw her dress over her head, forgetting about her undergarments.

“How did you-” She tired to speak, but he interrupted her.

“I can read your thoughts and I know what you were thinking.” Kevin spoke as he slowly walked towards her. The only thing she noticed, was his eyes, even though, he was half-naked in front of her, his eyes scared her the most. “I love how your mind thinks, Andrea. I bet if we stick together, we can do exactly what you are thinking, to a couple of rich suckers.”

 

After that night, Andrea and Kevin worked hand in hand, roping in rich idiots that married Andrea, but they wouldn’t last a week in that house. Kevin grew angry whenever anyone else touched Andrea and would kill the new husband, before the end of the week.

The would make love to each other, with the money that the late husband had left for her the night before. No one noticed what was going on. Kevin would admit the late husbands in for surgery, but they would never make it.

Andrea loved to do it for the thrills. She loved the fact that another man touched her, Kevin would rip him apart. She wanted some to want her so bad, that he would kill any man that touched. her.

Once another one of her husbands had passed, she tried to wait as long as she could, but her cravings for affection always came back. She would go out to wealthy bars, sit and wait, until another sucker wanted to give her the world. She would play off sweet and simple, before getting them so drunk, she would mention to get married.

Those late husbands of Andrea, would fall so hard for her, they always said yes and then married her that same night. Once they would come home for their ‘honeymoon’, Kevin would be waiting.

Andrea and Kevin thought that this was something they would keep on doing forever until, people started to notice the pattern, they were leaving behind. The head of the police department, Steve Jones, had started to look into the case. He watched, from his car for weeks, as multiple men would enter that house alive, but would leave in a body bag.

There was only one man that came and go as he pleased. The head of the surgery department Kevin Rosevelt. He was one of the very known surgeons in the department, that even received an award for donating money to big charity events. It puzzled Jones’ to why he was doing this or what he was getting out of this?

“Dr. Rosevelt, good to see you again.” Jones said as he approached Kevin in the hospital, after the last husband of Andrea Whites’ had died. They shook hands and Kevin gave him a smile.

“You too, Steve. What brings you here?” Kevin asked as he was questionable about the reasoning to why he was here. He figured it was for another award or another patient was a officer.

They both sat down as Jones’ laid them down a few files on his desk. “I wanted to ask you a few questions on these missing men. Some of them you operated on and I just wanted to know how those surgeries went.”

Kevin looked through the files, there were about 6 different men in each of the files, 4 of them, he operated on. He stayed calm, as he had a feeling Jones’ was onto him.

“I only operated on 4 of these men, Jones’, why are these two in the same pile? I’ve never had them for patients either.” Kevin said, giving the files back to Jones’, hoping Jones’ would by them and move on.

“Do you have any relations with Mrs. Andrea White?” Jones asked. Kevin stood puzzled to him, wondering how he knew.

“She is one of my friends. Why are you questioning me about her?” Jones knew right away that if he told Kevin about the investigation, they would either flee the town or kill him.

“We are just asking because she has gotten married to these men and they happened to all of died within the week of them getting married. You operated on 4 of them and called time of death on the other 2. We just making sure that they have been dying of natural causes and not being murdered.” Jones explained. He didn’t wished he didn’t give so much information to him, but he hoped that maybe, he would confess or prove that he didn’t kill these women.

Kevin threw a hand in his face and then took the filed back. Looking through each of them again. He pulled the first man, Lance Drotter, he was a wealthy business man, but he only lasted three days when he was with Andrea.

“Mr. Lance Drotter, he came in, not breathing, we tried to bring him back, but nothing worked, so we called time of death at 15:23. Further look into his death, he had a stroke. Mrs. White had no idea of his medical history until she brought him to the hospital.”

Kevin threw that file down in front of Jones’, as his pager was going off. ” I wish I could go into detail even more, but I have to head down to the ER, so I’ll make it quick with the other cases.” He spoke. “Carl Jenson, alcohol poisoning. Gregory John, blood clot stopped his heart. Mattew Carter, came in unresponsive due to suicide attempt. Donald Heath, liver failure. Last but not least, Parker Adams, brain dead on the table. Happy now?”

Kevin rushed out of his office and Jones’ sensed that talking about these men upset him. Not only did he have the ER to worry about, but something about these deaths, Jones’ could tell it bothered him very much.

Jones’ wondered if he would get Andrea to talk some more, since Kevin didn’t give out too much information. He left the hospital, with the files of the dead 6 men. He figured he would look back into the files to see if he missed any more information.

 

Kevin knew Jones’ was onto him, he quickly got out of his office and went to one of the empty on call rooms. He dialed Andrea’s number, as quick as he could. “When do you want me at the hospital?” Andrea answered with, he would usually call her for her to spend some time with him in the on call room.

“Get out of the house with your stuff, the cops are on to us.” Kevin snapped as Andrea stayed silent. “We need to get out of here as soon as we can because Jones’ is going to be headed to your house now.”

“I already have the bag packed. You want me to take the SUV?” She replied as that car wouldn’t be detected by the cops right away.

“Yes, then go to the bank, take everything out of the accounts. I’ll meet you at the bank and we will leave.” Kevin said as he feared that she wouldn’t be able to take everything out of the bank right off.

“I’ll come and get you first. If I go to the bank first, they will figured it out. We need to go to the bank in the next town over.” Andrea paused for a second. “I’ll be there in 5 minutes. I’m going to throw my phone in the lake on the way to get you. I love you.”

They bother hung up and Kevin rushed to grab other stuff from his desk.

 

Andrea quickly got into the SUV and then opened the garage, there was Jones, waiting for her. He wouldn’t move, so she ran him over. After, that she just kept driving, hoping that no one noticed she did a hit an run. Once she reached to the hospital, Kevin quickly jumped into the car and planted a kiss on her lips.

“Go, I just got a call from the hospital that they are doing a locked down.” Kevin said as Andrea stepped on the gas. The drove and drove for hours, Andrea felt that nothing could stop them, once they left town and reached the other bank.

They quickly went in and out of the bank, cashing out their accounts and cards, making it so the cops couldn’t trace their whereabouts. Kevin took over driving. They kept driving and driving, as they heard the sirens on their tail. Andrea never felt so much thrill in her entire life.

She was wanted. So, wasn’t Kevin. She was called the ‘Black Widow’. Kevin and her stayed low, but when they arrived in a new town, the craving for a wealthy man passed her mind and she couldn’t help herself.

She would sit at the bar, and waited patiently for their next victim.

 

Posted in Mom Talk

Mom Talk: Dealing With Depression As A Mom

Posted on by Katie Night

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A lot of people think that having a baby will bring you joy and happiness for your family. Which is does, but a lot of people don’t understand that there is a lot going on then just taking care of a baby.

I have been dealing with depression since I was 13. It’s been a long rocky-road for me. Sometimes, I just wish that I could just be happy, but having depression, makes you want to do nothing. Be nothing. You are always sad inside and no one will really know unless you talk to them about it.

When you have a baby, after the baby is born, some mom struggle with, what it is called, ‘baby blues’. It usually happens to a lot of moms within the first month of their baby being born. That’s why a lot of OBGYN’s ask you about ‘baby blues’, at your 6 week post-postpartum check up. They want to make sure that you and the baby are in good hands.

As a mom who has already lost a child and just had another one, it’s really difficult for me to watch my daughter grow because my son died when he was only a month old. It’s started to hit me a few days ago, that’s why there hasn’t been a lot of blogging going on.

Not just with the depression, stress and other issues are also on my mind. It makes it worse, especially when you have a little one that needs you every waking minute. There are days that I don’t want to get up, but my daughter gives me the kick that I need to get up and go on with my life.

It makes me sad that I can’t see my son reach the milestones that my daughter is, but she gives me a sense of hope. Just because I lost my son, I can’t get up on the fact that he’s gone. I always know that he will always watch over my daughter and any future children that I may have.

Before you say that a newly mother can’t be depressed, think about this. Have you ever had a child? Have you ever thought of the crying to never end? Have you ever go nuts, in your mind, because your baby is crying and you don’t know why?

I give praises to newly mothers, especially ones that have babies or children with birth defects. I also want to praise all the mothers that try their best, when they think their best isn’t good enough.

You moms are doing amazing!

It’s good to hear a good thing or too. To me, it makes me feel inspired and more confident to shoot for the stars.

But the one thing that I always do, when I’m feeling depressed or down, I talk to someone. Whether it is a friend, family member, or my fiance. I talk to someone. I rather people know what’s going on, versus keeping it all locked inside. As much as I sometimes would rather not talk to anyone, I know that I should.

If you are a mom, who’s struggling with depression or ‘baby blues’, talk to someone or talk to your doctor, they can give you some medication that will make it easier for you to handle. As much as some people don’t like taking medications, I am one of those people, it does work.

I am always an open ear. Seriously, if you need someone to talk to, go to my Contact page and send me a message. It’s better to open up to someone, rather than no one.

To all those moms, you keep doing what you are doing, better days are sure to come.

*If you really need help and need to talk to someone or a medical professionally, click on the link below. It gives a list of hotlines and explains depression in depth. The hotline is there and is completely anonymous.

https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/depression-hotline/

Posted in Mom Talk

How to Deal With Family Drama (Mom Talk)

Posted on by Katie Night

Whenever I hear the term “drama”, it immediately makes me think of high school. I honestly thought that drama would be out of my life for good after I graduated high school, boy was I wrong.

There is drama almost everywhere you look. Whether its at work, social media, or family, its bound to happen at some point. The best kind of drama is when its not happening to you. However, it is very difficult to avoid or stay away from since not everyone is going to agree with you.

Family drama can cause issues and damage, depending what the issue is at hand, it might cause some to avoid or even go low contact with other family members. Like for example, I don’t talk to my father, he did a lot of bad stuff in the past that I don’t want my children around him at all. It was a decision I made for my children and myself.

Because of this, it has caused issues for other family members, which I don’t care anymore. Some people think I should forgive him and others agree with my decision and respect me more that I don’t want my children around toxic people like that.

As a parent, you’ll always have to deal with drama, whether it’s family or in-laws. You tend to deal with more if you are co-parenting. The best advise for that drama is to remain civil the best you can. I think of it as getting along for my daughter’s sake since I would rather get along versus have my daughter stress over her parents fighting.

A lot of people, like myself, will tend to not say what’s on my mind, especially to people I know can get very emotional and take to heart. I don’t do it because I have no back bone, I do it because it keeps the peace and its not something I have to stress about it.

Over time, I’ve realized that I am a recovering people pleaser which I’m trying my best to stop doing that. Its hard, especially if you are like me and want to make sure everyone gets along. (You can tell that I’m a Libra!)

Here are the top suggestions for trying to avoid the unwanted family drama:

  1. Set Clear Boundaries – I have struggled with this one, a lot. Looking back, I wish I was more clear on what my boundaries were when it came to A LOT of things, but the past is in the past. Setting boundaries lets the other party know that this is the line and don’t go past it, but in a kind way.
  2. COMMUNICATE – Communicate is key to any relationship! Whether it’s family, your co-parent, friends, neighbors, etc. You need to communicate directly. In a nice way, or in a way that can help you get the other party to understand.
  3. Don’t Gossip – I know this is hard for ANYONE to do, especially when its family. When its family, its kinda hard NOT to gossip because if you don’t hear about it at all, you’ll find out or hear others gossiping about it at the family reunion or holidays. Not gossiping can help with the spread of miscommunicate. Which can have a snowball effect on its own.
  4. Find out what triggers others to react – Especially when you are telling someone boundaries, before you react, think about what tone or words will trigger this person so that you can avoid a blowup. Before you react, count to 3 and take a deep breathe. I do this especially because I’ve react before thinking about how to say something and it doesn’t go well.

These are a few things that can help you, but don’t be upset if they don’t work. There are special cases where NOTHING works and you are stuck with trying to please a person who cannot be pleased.

One thing that helps me, is journaling. Looking back at how I felt in that moment and trying to understand how I could handle the situation differently. If its something I really don’t want to remember, I’ll rip it up or burn it and its like a sense of relief off my shoulders.

What are the best ways you have handled family drama?

Posted in Mom Talk

How To Deal With Unwanted Advice (Mom Talk)

Posted on by Katie Night

Once you find out your expecting your first child, its an amazing feeling! Your excited to experience being pregnant and feeling your child grow to giving birth and watching them grow. However, the moment you get pregnant, the unwanted advise will start to kick in.

Some people are very genuine, but there are others that will pull the whole, “When I was pregnant,” or “I raise my kids this way.”  It can be very overwhelming and it does make you very cautious about how you will raise your kids because you’ll feel like you need to raise your kids the way they are telling you.

Best part, you don’t NEED to take their advise.

I would nod and thank them anyway. I was always raised to be kind and respectful to my elders or anyone in general. I would say usually, “Thank you for the advise, I’ll keep that in mind.” Saying something as simple as that is sweet and perfect to use.

As a mom, you will get told by everyone how to care for your child. From your family to doctors to strangers. Even before the baby’s born, you will be told how to even take care of yourself.

What’s important is what’s best for YOU. If you aren’t sure about something, whether when you are pregnant or kids, ask your provider, they would know what is best. Of course you can always go to your mom, but if you really are unsure, going to a professional would be the best advise that you can get.

When I was first pregnant with my son, I wasn’t as vocal as I wanted to be. It was all new, exciting, and I was scared shitless. I was worrying about all the wrong things that could happen with the pregnancy, especially with it being my first. I was even more overwhelmed when I found out my son was going to have a heart condition.

Even when they knew about his heart condition, I still got the unwanted advise. I don’t think many people understood that with his heart condition, it was all together going to be a different situation. I just kept to myself and thanked them anyway since I was more worried about if my son was going to make it.

My daughter, it was completely different. I put my foot down to a lot of stuff. I’m still trying to make sure that peoples advice doesn’t change the way I want to raise my kids. Plus, we as moms, get judged on everything.

With my more recent daughter, I did get some advise, but honestly I did take most of it in consideration since there has been a huge gap between my oldest daughter, to my youngest and there had been a lot of changes since she was little.

To me, I will take the advice into consideration, but if it’s something that I, as a parent, will not do to parent my child, then I speak up. Sometimes, I can’t speak up to others about this because I’m afraid of hurting their feelings, but I have learned that when it comes to you parenting your kids, the only feeling that matters is your kids and yours.

There are three ways you can handle unwanted advise:

  1. Ignoring  it – This is what I usually do, if a stranger were to approach me with unwanted advise. I usually will nod my head. Sometimes, I do it with family, its easier to do, if you don’t want to make a big deal out or you know it will turn into a giant fight, this would be your best go to.
  2. Speaking up, in a polite way – If you are a person that voices your opinion, but don’t want to offend anyone. This would be more towards close friends, maybe family. Telling them in a polite way, will make it seem not as harsh as bluntly coming out and telling them what is what.
  3. Bluntly telling them straight up – I only go this far, if I’m frustrated. If I have had a bad day and didn’t have any coffee, I snap. I usually will only snap at family, because they have been in my shoes. Plus they understand that they would rather me snap at them versus my kids.

There is one thing that we always need to keep in mind. How we parent our kids, may not be the same as other, but we should respect how others parent. The world we live in now, there are too many people judging before they know the full story, but when it comes to advise, we need to handle it as we feel comfortable.

Posted in Mom Talk

Being a Stay-At-Home Mom (Mom Talk)

Posted on by Katie Night

Image result for stay at home mom

A lot of moms don’t have the pleasure to stay home with their children nowadays. In order just to live, you need both parents income and even that can barely keep you afloat. Even then its still a struggle to afford daycare on top of all the other bills as well.

Back in the day, the husband would be out working, while the wife stayed home to care for the kids, keeping the house clean and in order, and as well as making sure that there was a cooked meal ready for when the husband got home.

Being a stay-at-home mom isn’t for everyone. I honestly never really thought about being a stay-at-home mom much until after I had lost my son and got pregnant with my daughter that I didn’t want to miss out on her growing up and reaching milestones that I would never get to experience with my son.

After I had her, I knew I would have a very difficult time leaving her when I had to go back to work. So, her father and I decided that being a stay-at-home mom would be the best thing for not only me, but it would save us on having to pay for childcare as well.

At the time, I didn’t have my license and the only places I could walk were just to my mother-in-laws, which I didn’t do much because we lived on a very busy street. Not to mention, I was living in a trailer park that also wasn’t close to any store at all either.

We did have a mini backyard that I had a swing that I could go out on, which was nice to have, but I felt very alone during the day and even more at night. Since my daughters father worked night shift, I barely had time with him during the day before he had to leave for work.

I did feel very alone, even though I was with my daughter, I felt so alone. The social interaction I would get from her father, was more of what bills need to be paid, what groceries we needed, and what we were going to do the weekend. I felt like I was on zombie mode.

Which is why I started to get into blogging more and even had a pen pal that I would e-mail just to stay sane. Sure, I had my family I could call and text, which I did often, but they didn’t really understand what struggles a stay-at-home mom can go through.

I become very depressed after the 2nd year of being a stay-at-home mom. I loved being able to spend time with my daughter and watching her grow up and learn new things, but I also hated being stuck and alone most of the day.

Thankfully, I did manage to get out at least once a week when my mom would come on Sundays. We would do our usual visit to see my great-grandmother or do something fun for the day either visiting family or shopping or just getting out of the house.

The sad part was, the moment I got home, I was alone again.

My depression got so bad to a point that I didn’t think I’d ever get to the point of not being here. However, the voice in my head kept telling me, “your daughter needs you.” That was the thing that kept me going, but it also terrified me of how she would have to cope if I went through with it.

Thankfully, my mom helped me get myself out of the tunnel of darkness and back on my feet. After the 3rd year of being a stay-at-home mom, I got a job and started working again.

After that, I moved in with her, got my license, bought my first car, and worked on myself within the first 6 months of leaving my ex. As much as I loved spending all the time in the world with my daughter, I was slowly losing myself.

I never regret being a stay-at-home mom because my daughter and I had lots of fun and she always made me smile, especially on my bad days. If I had to go back and do it again, I think I would, but I would find a remote job so that I didn’t loose my mind completely.

Being a stay-at-home mom is hard, but the memories and watching your child grow up and hit milestones, is priceless. I really wish we didn’t live the way that we did so that more mother’s could experience it for themselves for at least the first year.

I wish I did that with my youngest daughter that I had back in February of this year, but with how my current living situation is, it would be difficult to do. I did take a longer maternity leave with this one, but ended up going back to work shortly after.

Overall, choosing to be a stay-at-home mom has is ups and downs, however, it is up to you to see if that lifestyle is something for you. After being back in the workforce, I personally wouldn’t be able to do it again, unless I was working from home.