Love, Life and Everything

ADHD and dyslexia often show up together.  Not always, but definitely enough times that tons of research has been done on coexisting conditions. Many other things often occur with these 2, but these 2 are the ones I have the most experience with.  This could be one of the reasons some parents say their child is too lazy or doesn't pay attention well enough to learn to read.  However, many times, those same children also have extremely high listening comprehension or are very good at other subjects that require less reading but more hands-on interaction.  While the inability to pay attention may hinder reading, it does not mean they are lazy, unwilling, or that they are incapable of learning to read because they lack the ability to pay attention to the reading lesson long enough.  It simply means that they need a completely different approach.  One that is multisensory and quickly paced enough that they get the basics of what they need from each lesson witho...

 *Trigger warning - this blog talks about hypothetical trauma, abuse, and trauma carried through generations. Here's a hypothetical situation:  A woman in the middle ages is repeatedly mistreated by a man (it may or may not be her husband).    She's so traumatized by this that she vows to protect herself and her future children.  She is constantly tense, can never relax, and is in a constant state of hyper-vigilance and anxiety.  She goes on to have multiple children -  both boys and girls.  The girls pick up on her tenseness and begin to copy it in themselves; they also believe men are bad and try to protect themselves as well.  Her sons do as well, but they are also treated poorly because of their mother's belief that all men are inherently bad.  As a result, they go on to mistreat women because they feel they need to retaliate for the way their mother treated them.  The girls assume all men are bad and carry their mother's b...

 Camila is a hypnotized empath with no feelings of her own.  She's also a teacher at Encantado Elementary.  She's almost completely blank and does the bidding of those in control of her.  However, she can feel and manipulate emotions. She tries this numerous times on Ricky.  She isn't successful, and she's later punished for letting him escape.  The Twins work through her when she is in a semi hypnotic state when Laura and her team search the warehouse.

  Jose is Ricky's former best friend.  He was also Laura's friend at one point.  But after a botched brainwashing (discovered later in the book), when he sees new recruits going through some sort of initiation, he becomes angry, manipulative, and fixates on Laura being a witch.  The "bad guys" let him believe that he saw a witch's ritual, and that Laura was one of the ones he saw since it works to their advantage.  He later kills Ricky's father in an attempt to kill Laura.  He is going through intense deprogramming to undo the botched brainwashing and to get any information about the other agency to help Laura and the others find the rest of the missing children. 

  No one knows much about the Twins, except they have ill intent and are mediaries between their boss and the other "recruits."  They are telepathic and finish each other's sentences in a way that confuses their victims so they can be controlled.  This acts as a start to the brain-washing process that most of the recruits appear to undergo.  They can also cause those in a certain hypnotic state to speak their words for them. 

  Dax is Laura's partner. He has an extremely keen sense of hearing and only wears a wire so that others can hear him.  He has a crush on Laura but keeps it under wraps.  Ricky and Laura are the only ones that know.  He respects Laura's relationship with Ricky.  He's later compromised by The Twins and nearly kills Laura as a result.  Murphy is able to undo the mind control, and while he's able to return to his duties and help them find compromised children, he still feels bad about himself for allowing The Twins to get to him.  

Steven is not an agent. His loyalties lie with Murphy and Murphy alone.  Laura and Ricky are not sure what his connection to Murphy is, but it's clear that Steven would die for Murphy if needed. He also has a unique set of abilities that are unlike anything Laura has seen.  Murphy tells her that Steven has unique training that the others do not have. Steven has a witty sense of humor and remains calm and collected in all situations.  

Ricardo "Ricky" Santistevan, Jr is the head counselor for Encantado Schools.  He is the son Ricardo Santistevan, Sr who owns the bus company.  He was driving the bus when he dated Laura when she was a teenager.  To those who don't know him, he is calm, cool, and collected.  But to those who do, they know he has a temper and is often impetuous.  He also has an unnatural ability to read body language and the intentions behind them.  When reflecting on a past scenario, he can recall actions, intentions, etc, that he may not have been able to pick up on in the moment.  There are other aspects of his abilities that have not come to full fruition yet.  He thought he had this ability well hidden, but Laura was able to figure it out, as were the "bad guys." Murphy knew of Ricky's ability long ago when he posed as one of Ricky's psychology professors in college.  Without Ricky truly realizing it, Murphy had helped him sharpen his ability, knowing he w...

Murphy is a man of mysteries and many special abilities.  Some of his abilities include mind reading, empathic abilities, and many others that he has yet to divulge. He was born in Spain.  No one is fully sure what he's capable of, but as a mentor to both Laura and Ricky in their younger years, he helped them hone their own abilities.   No one knows what his real name is.  Laura has always known him as Murphy.  Ricky knew him as Professor Montenegro... Steven knows him as something else, but won't say.  He sees Laura as a daughter, and it's clear he feels a special connection to Ricky, though he won't divulge any information to Laura.  Laura only found out about Murphy's time as Ricky's professor when Ricky "met" Murphy for the first time after his escape from Camila's house. Although Laura can feel emotions, and Ricky can read body language, Murphy is able to hide a lot from the two of them through disciplined mental abilities. He can shield his ...

Agent Laura Sullivan is a petite yet feisty redheaded empath. She was placed as a kindergarten teacher at Encantado Elementary School to investigate the strange disappearances of local children and the sudden disappearance of the agent placed there prior to her.  Her abilities are growing, but she can't conceive of anything better than being able to feel other's emotions.  She has warned Ricky and others, that if a person can feel something, they can also manipulate it. She was recruited by the agency as a teenager after her tragic breakup with Ricardo "Ricky" Santisevan, Jr., who was the school's bus driver at the time.  They had been framed, and he broke up with her because he believed she lied about their relationship because she never loved him.  The truth was she lied to save him from going to jail. Upon returning to Encantado, she is ordered to reconnect with him to help discover who is behind the disappearances.  Part of her is reluctant because of her pe...

This is for people who've read the book.  It's simply to refresh your memory.  If you haven't read the book, this will give you a glimpse into the world of Ricky and Laura and the agency they work for.  But it won't give you the intricacies of their inner world or the flow of the book that made so many people unable to put the book down.  In-depth character profiles will follow this summary.      Agent Laura Sullivan, an empath, is placed undercover in Encantado Elementary as a Kindergarten teacher.  She's there to investigate the strange disappearances of children in the area, and the disappearance of the undercover agent placed there before her. She's ordered by her supervisor, Murphy, to reconnect with her former boyfriend, Ricardo "Ricky" Santistevan, Jr., who is now the head counselor for the school district. Together, they discover that the mystery is deeper than they thought. They encounter much resistance through Jose, Ricky's former best ...

    Because I know it's been a bit since everyone read book 1, every week, I'll be putting the profile of one of the characters from my first book in anticipation of my 2nd book. These characters will be returning in Book 2. I'll start with a brief summary of the book, and post one key returning character each week after.

When I was in Home Depot last summer, I was on the phone with my husband.  He said I needed to get a measuring tape to keep in my car.  The good kind, not a cheap one.  I said I would go and look for one.  I was in the conduit section and needed to measure something.  But, I turned around as I was talking to him, and, low and behold, there's the exact brand he wanted me to get sitting in a PVC fittings box.  Synchronicity is defined as an apparently meaningful coincidence in time of two or more similar or identical events that are causally unrelated.  People often take them as personal messages from the universe that mean something.  It could be significant, or it could be something small.  There are many areas of synchronicity, numbers, nature, objects, stars, weather, spirituality, dreams, thoughts, etc. Some people totally ignore the synchronicity in their lives, and others delve into complete superstition regarding it.  I feel ...

  Last year, during my birthday month, I did an extreme gratitude challenge.  I didn't just focus on one gratitude each day. I ended up with over 300 by the end of the month because I did 1 the 1st day, 2 the 2nd day, 3 the 3rd day, etc. During that month, I felt a profound change in myself, I recovered from negativity faster, I was sick less, and others around me appeared happier.  I shared my gratitudes on my Facebook page.  Many people didn't think I could have that many different things to be grateful for, but each day, it got easier to find things to be grateful for, and I was able to find the positive in many negative experiences.  For example, the person I grew into as a result of my husband's illness was something I had a lot of gratitude for. Well, after the month was over, I often forgot to practice gratitudes daily.  And, while practicing such an extreme challenge for a month did carry over for quite a while, about halfway through the year, my li...

  Entrance to Capulin Volcano When I was a very little girl, my grandparents took me to Capulin Volcano. We looked at all the pictures in the visitor's center,  which I have a vague memory of.  And then my grandpa was going to walk down into the volcano with me.  I freaked.  My grandparents couldn't figure out why,  after all,  the volcano was extinct and perfectly safe to walk down.  What they didn't realize is that I saw something very different than what everyone else saw.  I saw a sandy slope with a large hole at the bottom. (Think of looking down at the top of an hourglass while the sand funnels down the hole, or sand dunes) I didn't see a trail, lava rocks, trees,  dirt.  My intense fear of this volcano totally changed my perception of what I saw at that moment.  Maybe if my grandparents had understood my very distorted vision,  they might've been able to convince me to release that and go down into the volcano....

  Dictionary.com defines serendipity as this: " noun,plural ser·en·dip·i·ties. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident "  Most people say that it's a series of happy events that lead to an unexpected, but desirable outcome.  But, as I've become more observant of the events taking place in my life, I don't agree with that.  I think that sometimes events, good or bad, take place to prevent something bad, or to give you something good. On Thursday, my husband and I drove down to Espanola to get more conduit for our plumbing project.  We were also supposed to get 2ft rebar.  I managed to forget the rebar, which meant we either needed to drive back down to Espanola, or get the local hardware store to cut 2 long bars in half, but, the next day, we were supposed to meet a friend for lunch.  Friday morning, he had something come up, and had to cancel.  We decided to drive to Questa, get the longer rebar cut in half and take it to the prop...

      After finishing one month of a very intense gratitude challenge, I can definitively tell you that gratitude is so much more than the definition above because the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual response it elicits is undefinable.  It really is.  I generally considered myself a pretty chill person, but I knew that I carried a lot of inward stress.  Most people never realized that about me, saying I was pretty laid-back and easygoing.  But, the way I carried myself and the amount of tension in my muscles was a strong indicator of how much stress I was carrying.       I have a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome, which of course, is systemic, and not just in the ovaries.  As a result of this condition, my body naturally creates more cortisol than other women without this syndrome.  I've had this all my life, and I've learned to carry my stress well.  But that doesn't mean it's easy.  I also h...

  Wow!  That's about all I can say.  Just wow.  This really has changed my life.  All those things I mentioned before are still true.  I'm still experiencing more confidence, less reactivity, less stress.  But, I'm also experiencing faster healing times, better sleep, more vivid dreams, and my husband says when I nap, I'm not completely scrunched up.  Things seem to flow better in my life.  Even on the difficult days, things just seem a lot easier.  I'm less frustrated, less quick to temper, and just overall happier. Seriously, you all need to try this, and bring it into your lives daily.  You won't regret it, I promise. You certainly don't have to make it as hard as I have, even just one daily gratitude - for anything, will give you results you'll start to notice if you do it consistently. 

  This has been absolutely amazing and very hard at the same time.  In addition to the benefits I listed last week, I'm also much more relaxed and at ease with myself and the world.  I'm also seeing more "magic" in the world - in nature, and in my immediate surroundings. But, this week was hard for me, especially the last few days.  I wasn't feeling well with some sort of low grade cold that's going around my school, and it was making me feel blah and down in the dumps.  The good news is, that I wasn't as grumpy, moody, and on edge as I normally am when I'm a tiny bit sick.  But, I also learned some sad news about someone I know, and that tried very hard to pull me down.  It almost felt as if the universe was testing me, to see if I would give up.  I didn't, and I won't.  And although I'm still feeling a bit down, it somehow doesn't seem so bad, because I know it will get better.  I am still encouraging people to try this challenge, mod...

  This inspirational quote is not wrong.  But here are some other things I've noticed so far in just one week of doing this challenge.  My recovery rate from stress is a lot faster, which surprised me.  I've been laughing a lot more.  I'm experiencing less reactivity to difficult conversations.  Instead, I'm learning to really listen to what the other person is saying, instead of negatively reacting to it and having an unwarranted emotional response. This has helped things a lot.  And, I'm noticing a boost in confidence.  I'm less likely to avoid doing something important because my confidence is higher and I'm not as worried about a negative response from doing whatever thing it was I would've tried to avoid in the past.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you view it, with the confidence, a bit of arrogance tried to creep in there.  I'm realizing this is because it was something I had suppressed and didn't integrate i...