I love having conversations with my daughter.  She is 29 years old and single.  She is a sweet and beautiful young lady, but for some reason she can't find a Boo.  So the other day we were chatting when the people came to pick up some stuff that we were giving away.  She went down to give the stuff to the guy, but she took a long time coming out of the garage.  I figured that it was someone trying to shoot their shot as they say.  Sure enough I was right.  The young man was handsome and he was trying to get to her number.  

When she finally came upstairs she started to tell us the story about how he was trying to get her number and she asked him where he lived he said in Atlanta.  She asked him where in Atlanta and he said behind the county jail.  Well he was on probation for robbery.  That's when she said to me "The Dating Pool Has Pee In It." 

I fell out laughing.  I thought this statement was so funny.  Anyway I shared this story with one of my best friends who is my daughter's God mother and she said that the dating pool definitely has pee in it.  Now I thought that this was just for millennials, apparently this pool of pee has no age limit.  I shared the story again because it was funny to me, but I keep getting the same response and that is the dating pool really does have pee in it.

So it seems that man are not interesting in settling down anymore.  Everyone of my single friends that I talk to say the same thing.  Men are not serious they just want to hit and run.  They are not interested in being in relationships with just one woman and I wonder why?  Is there too many women out there?  Is there a man shortage?  What the heck is going on?  There are these amazing women who want to be in a serious relationship and there aren't any men who want to join them.  This is crazy.  So what is a girl to do?  Do they swim in the pool that has the pee in it or do they wait until they put some chlorine it to get rid of the germs?

I would love to hear your take on this issue especially if you are a man.  Why don't men want to be in serious relationships anymore?

Still trying to get our life back on track, my husband and I decided to join a local bowling league.  Stars & Strikes is the closest alley to us, so we went there.  We weren't sure what to expect when we got there since this was our first time back since the end of last year before the whole corona virus pandemic.  So the first night we went our plans were to bowl in the doubles league on Tuesday evening, but we and one other team were the only ones to show up.  Of course you can't have a league with just two teams, so we decided to move to the Thursday league.

The Thursday league has 10 four person teams, so that was about 40 people congregating together.  Now I wasn't nervous, because I've learned to social distance and to wear a mask.  Also the employees at the bowling alley were all wearing masks, so that made us feel safe.  We have to face it that wearing a mask is a new normal for a lot of us.  Now I must admit that on Tuesday when we first went we had our masks on, but we forgot them on Thursday.  I still felt okay, because we were spread apart from the other teams.  This week though I will make sure that I have my mask on so that I can continue to practice safety and get used to this new normal that we are now living.

Stay Safe 
Until Next Time 
Make It  A Great Day!
Audrey

I was so excited about the baby  and planning of the events leading up to her birth like the baby reveal and the baby shower.   Every time I would feel a flutter in my stomach I would talk to my "Butterfly". Pretty soon everyone was calling her Butterfly and she wasn't even here yet. 

As the months went on, I knew she was going to be something special.  She was so active;  Butterfly did all kinds of turns in my belly.  I thought it came from all of the spicy food that I was eating and boy, did I eat my share of spicy foods.  

I didn't gain a lot of weight with the pregnancy at first, only about 20 pounds.  So, I felt good, but then I gained another 20 pounds and everything started to change!

​Carrying that extra 20 pounds was tough, but things got even worse after the baby was born.  My relationship collapsed.  I didn't feel sexy anymore and my freedom was gone.  I thought that I lost myself.  I was a first time mom and I felt like I didn't know what the heck I was doing. 

Every time I looked at my daughter I knew that I had to pull myself together, so I started meditating and journaling.  I had to find my strength again.  That's when I realized my strength was dressing up, but I did it on a budget.  

Dressing up always made me feel good, so I decided to launch my blog The Budget Boutique  to help other mothers who wanted to bounce back on a budget and feel good about who they were again.  The more I planned out my outfits I knew I was on to something.   Blogging brings me so much joy.  It's still very new, but I feel like I've found myself again and the road ahead looks pretty damn amazing.​

I hope you enjoyed this article.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day
Audrey

I'm always looking at ways to create content that will bring value to peoples lives.  I was talking to my friend Georgette a couple of weeks ago and I was telling her that all I really wanted to do was do my podcast and work on the Good Morning Gwinnett site.  What I realized was that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to living a life that I say that I want.  

I know that you are probably thinking am I saying that and I will share my reason for saying that.  Part of me long for simplicity and I know what that looks like, but I suffer from not being enough, so I constantly make whatever I do bigger and bigger until it is completely out of control and then I become overwhelmed, but here's the thing.  I'm not going to do that anymore.  I will not create all of this stress for myself by making everything so big that I am stressed out just trying to control it.

I believe that this here blog is going to help me with that.  You see I discovered that journaling helps me so much in other areas of my life.  When I decided to start this blog on GMG I knew I wanted it to be about lifestyle.  I wanted to share the good, bad and the ugly about the things that affect me in my health, my business, my relationships and just my every day living.  So don't be surprised if you stop by one day and I have an article on hot flashes, because Lord knows that come out of no where and attack me.  Hey listen you stop by one day and I'm talking about relationships or something that I read in a magazine.  

What I'm saying is that I have decided that this blog is going to rescue me from myself and I'm going to enjoy sharing my life with you as it unfolds.  So make sure to check back to see what I got going on with me.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
​Audrey