Category: Uncategorized

Happy Blogiversary!!!!

Today is my Blogiversary! 🙂 It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since I put up my very first blog post! I remember being so anxious about how it would be received and how scared I was to open myself up to something new. In hindsight, I’m extremely happy that I went through with it because it has been an awesome experience and a great outlet for me. I will be the first to admit that I haven’t been consistent with my posts, but ya’ll have been there to support each post that did get published. I thank you and appreciate you for that! The support that I receive from my readers is one of the things that keeps me going. I’ve had some great times and some rough times this year, but I’m still here! I’m not where I thought I would be after a year, but I’m working on some things. I’m pushing myself to be the best version of ME that I can be! It’s all about growth and progress.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a big step or a baby step, it’s still a step. I have so many goals set for this next year and I can’t wait to share them with you! Year two is going to be all about “Operation Goal Digger!” LOL!

Thanks again for all of your love and support! I love each and every one of you!

~Mrs. Accountabilitee

Try Something New!

The other night hubby and I ventured out in the streets of Seattle to find some dinner. One thing we noticed rather quickly was that most of the restaurants near our hotel closed rather early. There was this one place that we passed that was still open named “Ba Bar”. It looked nice and the sign on the front said “Street Food” so we automatically assumed that it would be a restaurant with dishes that we’re accustomed to. Lesson one… never assume! The vibe was cool and the staff was very nice. The hostess handed us the menus once we sat down and that’s when we realized we didn’t know what we had just gotten ourselves into. We weren’t familiar with anything on the menu because it was a Vietnamese restaurant. Neither of us had eaten Vietnamese food before and although we vowed to try new things on this trip we both started thinking about plan B immediately. Unfortunately, our plan B which was the hotel restaurant had just closed so we didn’t have much of a choice if we planned on eating dinner that night.

Our waiter walked us through the menu pointing out some of his favorites and the best dishes for first timers. We took his advice and ordered two small plates to share. We were pleasantly surprised when our food came out! Both dishes were amazing! We had Crispy Imperial Rolls and SĂ i Gòn Chicken Wings. The chicken wings were some of the best wings I’ve ever had! In fact, they were so good CJ was eating them! Anybody that knows my husband knows that he does not eat chicken on the bone at all! The crispy imperial rolls were to be wrapped up in a piece of lettuce with a mixture of vegetables and then dipped in the sauce that came with it. That combination was absolutely delicious! All of the ingredients were okay eaten by themselves, but when it was all together it was something magical! We also had Mexican Cokes with homemade Pomegranate Grenadine which was great! We couldn’t thank our waiter enough for the awesome suggestions and amazing service.

Thinking about our experience really made me put some things into perspective regarding life in general. Far too often we tend to run away from new things because we’re not familiar with it and we’re scared to try the unknown. Most times we’re forced to try something different just as we were the other night. The funny thing is once you do try something different you realize it’s really not as bad as you thought or even better, you end up loving it! I can only imagine how many times I’ve ran away from the unknown just because I didn’t want to take a risk and I’ve probably missed out on some pretty amazing experiences because of it. It’s crazy how something as simple as making a decision about dinner can make you look at life and your thought process as a whole. I can definitely say that I’ve been way more open to new things just in the few days that we’ve been here in Seattle simply because of that one experience.

Today’s message is YOLO (You Only Live Once)! I know it’s clichĂ©, but it’s so real! We all have one life to live and tomorrow is NOT promised! Try new things! Be open to change and move out of your comfort zone! There’s probably some awesome hidden gems that you’re not exposing yourself to merely because of the unknown! The unknown can be scary, but sometimes it’s worth it and there may even be a lesson in the experience for you.

 

Scared & Shocked

Yesterday I experienced one of the scariest moments in my life! My entire life! I’ve tried to move on from it, but it’s weighing heavy on my heart and I really can’t seem to shake it. I keep replaying the events in my head and all of the ways that it could’ve went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. Hopefully writing about what happened will help me heal.

Jailah and I went to the dollar store yesterday so that I could return some items and purchase a few more things for my sister’s baby shower tomorrow. I was completely annoyed with the manager and the cashier in the store because they just seemed to make the process way more difficult than it really needed to be. After finally finishing my transaction the manager noticed that the cashier didn’t circle the returned items on the receipt so she wanted to sit there and do it all before giving me my original receipt. I was like don’t worry about it and walked out. I certainly didn’t want to be in there any longer! Or so I thought…

Jailah and I walked out of the dollar store talking and laughing in our own little world while crossing the street. By the time we made it to the middle of the street I heard “Don’t f*cking move! Stay still!” I looked to my left and there was an officer with a vest on in the grass not too far from my car with his gun on these two guys. My brain processed the situation in a split second and I realized that this could go way left real quick! I was too far from the dollar store door to run back in there. My car was too close to them and Wawa was too far. Everything else was open space. Thankfully there was a huge pickup truck in the first parking space near us so we ran there and ducked for cover just in case these guys refused to go down without a fight. I was shaking as I noticed officers in plain clothes coming from all different directions in the parking lot towards them. Seeing the officers with their guns drawn, having to duck behind the truck for cover and hearing the aggression in their voices scared me, but it scared my baby to the core. She was crying hysterically and screaming “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die Mommy!” I tried to comfort her, but the truth of the matter was I really didn’t know what was going to happen. All I knew was that I was going to do whatever it takes to get my baby and I out of there. I couldn’t imagine being in the middle of a gun battle between the cops and these guys. I also couldn’t help but think about the possibility of these guys being killed by the cops if they didn’t comply or if the cops felt like they were in danger. Two young African American men surrounded by police with guns drawn. That situation didn’t go so well for quite a few people so I was very concerned about what we walked into. One wrong move by any of them could’ve put us in even more danger than we were already in. Not even 30 seconds after ducking behind the truck undercover cars and trucks came flying around the corner and a few seconds later marked cars were pulling up as well. They had them completely surrounded. It was like a scene straight up out of a movie. After seeing all the cars pulling up and ATF agents running to the scene I peeked to see if it was safe to make a move. I saw both guys on the ground and the officers appeared to have control of the situation so I pushed the button on my keys to open the side door and told Jailah that we were going to run to the car. I grabbed her, put her in the car, got in and maneuvered my way around some spectators so that I could exit from the other end of the shopping center.

We were back home in 3 minutes flat. I thanked God over and over again for covering us and allowing us to make it home and out of that situation safely. After consoling Jailah I was able to take a moment to breath and calm down. I tried to let it go. I tried to go on about my evening like it never happened, but I just couldn’t. My head was pounding and my mind was torturing me with all of the things that could’ve happened. “What if I parked the car one more space up and ended up right next to them as the cops pulled their guns?” “What if they didn’t want to get down and decided to grab us to keep the cops away?” “What if we had nowhere to hide?” “What if we would’ve decided to walk down to another store instead of going straight to the car?” “What if the guys ran and the cops started shooting our way?” All of these “what ifs” are constantly playing in my mind, but what’s worse is hearing the terror in my baby’s voice as she cried and told me that she didn’t want to die. That hurts my soul and every time I think about it I start crying. I never want my babies to feel the fear that she had in her heart yesterday. We both could’ve been seriously harmed or lost our lives yesterday if someone else would’ve made a bad decision. There are no words to explain how that feels.

I pray for my family everyday and I ask God to keep us safe and away from any type of harm. I ask that he cover us top to bottom, inside and out, and all around. Today we were covered! Regardless of how scared I was I immediately went into survival mode and Mommy the protector mode. Some people crumble when they have to make split second decisions. I thank God for giving me the strength to assess my situation and do what was best for us.

This situation is proof that it’s not always about the city. It’s about the people. We live in a great neighborhood that’s literally all of 3 minutes (maybe 5 if you get caught waiting for traffic at the stop sign) from this shopping center. There are a few people that I’ve seen in other neighborhoods surrounding the shopping center that seem suspect, but overall it’s relatively quiet. I’ve been in and out of that dollar store and many other stores in that shopping center more times that I could even begin to count since we moved to the area almost 2 years ago. I would have never guessed that I would witness something like this. I’m not sure if those guys were just in the area or if they actually live in the area, but their presence in that area made me feel like I was in Wilmington. Not that I’ve ever experienced that in Wilmington, but you hear about that type of behavior in the city from time to time. The county is clearly not exempt! The suburbs aren’t exempt either! All it takes is one bad apple to ruin the bunch. One person can make a decision that changes everything for those around him/her. I have no idea what these guys did or who they were, but I am very thankful that they weren’t selfish enough to risk the lives of those around them for an attempt at freedom.

Life is so precious! Cherish every single second because you really never know what you’re going to walk into! Everyday we leave our families to go to work, school, the store or to run errands not knowing if it’s going to be our last time seeing them. That’s the reality of this life we live. Make sure your loved ones know that you love them. Don’t make them assume. Tell them! Show them! You don’t want to have any regrets if something tragic were to happen. I don’t know about you, but I want my flowers and love while I’m here!

Just in case you haven’t heard it today… God loves you and so do I!

Thanks for listening fam.

Love,

Mrs. Accountabilitee

United Way Campaign

I’ve been donating to the United Way through my job for some time now, but this year I wanted to make it all about the kids! Instead of just donating and allowing them to allocate the funds, I decided to have my annual donation split between A.I. DuPont Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. I wanted to support the A.I since it’s here in my hometown, but I also wanted to extend a donation to CHOP as I was recently made aware of how awesome they are after participating in Delaware Walks With Leah. When I was younger I always wanted to volunteer at the children’s hospital, but I never got a chance to do it. I started looking into it this year so I’m hoping that I will get a chance to fulfill that dream sometime next year. If you’re interested in donating to the United Way Campaign please visit http://www.unitedway.org for more details!

~Mrs. Accountabilitee

Stop beating yourself up!

I had to remind myself of this just today as I laid across the couch feeling like my head was about to explode. I’ve been dealing with horrible sinus and allergy issues for months now and today was one of those days where I just felt useless. I was beating myself up because I had to accept the fact that my video for this week wouldn’t go up as planned and most importantly, as promised. After working 13 days straight and still trying to keep up with my day to day responsibilities at home I was really exhausted! Yesterday was my first day off, but I don’t know that I can actually call it that. After going to two events earlier in the day we also had to host an event. By the end of the night I flopped in the bed and I slept for like 10 hours! My body was like that’s enough!!!

I said all of that to say, life goes on! Far too often we end up beating ourselves up about something that we didn’t do, something that didn’t go as planned, or something that we could’ve done better. What we have to realize is that life happens and everything will not always go as planned. Instead of dwelling on the negative, give yourself a break and adjust accordingly. Remember… “Things might not always go as you planned, but they’ll always end up as they should.” Instead of giving myself a hard time tonight I’m going to take some more meds, drink some tea, and take it down. As for this week’s video, it’ll be up sometime next week in addition to the video for that week. Better late than never right?

Goodnight!!!

~Mrs. Accountabilitee