Let me just say I love to read. I truly can read a book per day if it is interesting. I thought I would share some of my favorites from the past year. A lot of what I have read is nonfiction, criminal justice reform, or self-improvement/educational stuff. I have provided affiliate links for each if you would like to purchase them, simply choose the link. I also included a short description to make it easy for you all.
Happy Reading
1. Mad as Hell, A Mom’s Journey– I wrote this book and yes I have read it at least 50 times. It is my journey through my son’s addiction and incarceration.
2. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America– This is one of the best books I have ever read, it provides a comprehensive look at the history of addiction and corruption in this country. Beth Macy
3. Just Mercy– Bryan Stevenson’s commitment to justice reform and fighting for those wrongly convicted is amazing.
4. From Dope to Hope- Crazy story of Tim Ryan’s LONG journey through addiction, continued recovery, and hope
5. Total Money Makeover– Dave Ramsey really can get you out of debt
6. Unbroken Brain– provides an alternate way of looking at addiction and recovery
7. Born a Crime- Trevor Noah’s journey as a mixed child is eye opening and inspiring
8. The New Jim Crow– details the targeting and control over communities of color that truly exist within our criminal justice system today
9. Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration- details approaches to reduce mass incarceration
10. Infinite Hope- Anthony Graves details his 16 years in solitary for a crime he did not commit
Author: ssgreenbean
Thrift store queen with 2 beautiful grown men and a life full of gratitude, fashion, and food
Mad as Hell, A Mom’s Journey
Mad as Hell, A Mom’s Journey
My son is home and for the first time in a year I have exhaled. The book I wrote to not go crazy on this wild journey of my son’s addiction and incarceration is available this Thursday, September 12th on Kindle and Amazon. My hope is that anyone who reads it will know they are not alone and that I can provide some laughter and hope along the way.
Oh the adventures we will have
I have learned so much about an rv in the last month, I thought I would share the adventure Hooking up the truck to the camper is the hardest thing, first you have to back right up to the hitch connector and wait for the clamp to engage. Once this is done we have to pull it out of our steep ass driveway, hitch grinding the entire time into the street so we can get level enough to put on the stabilizer bars. These damn things scare the crap out of me so I simply stand back and watch. You have to put the trailer tongue down to take the weight off the truck then put on these steel bars in with a pry bar that makes a loud noise when on, good lord. Oh then there is two chain connectors that attach to the truck and the power supply for the lights to work. I’m tired just talking about it even though after the 3rd time we did the whole process in under 10 minutes.
On our first trip we learned that you need atleast a 4000 watt generator after we lost all power, oh n check your battery connectors to make sure they are all hooked up, another lesson as ours weren’t. Locate the gfi before you leave just in case it gets tripped you know where to find it, its in our bathroom, who knew.
The great part is we get to sleep in our own bed, no one bothers us, and we get to go to great places. The pictures below were taken at Mt Hood.
Book Adventures
Congratulations! “Mad As Hell A Mom’s Journey” is available for pre-order in the Kindle Store.
It is available* for customers to pre-order here.
Customers who pre-ordered the book will receive the content on the release date, 09/16/2019.
The paperback will be available on 9/16/2019 but cannot be pre-ordered.
I hope that anyone who has ever had a child incarcerated will find one thing in the book that makes them laugh. Thanks for the support.
All proceeds from sales will be dedicated toward the fight for the removal mandatory minimum sentencing for first time and non violent drug offenders.
OMG really
I was watching house hunter tonight on HGTV and I am amazed at the stupidity that I see from those who have endless money. So if you don’t have a door to close off the toilet is that is a deal breaker? shut up… Do you fart in front of your spouse? My husband knows that this is healthy as the doctor who did my intestine surgery 30 years ago stated that passing gas is essential so get over it, oh my god. If you have a place to sleep, people you love, I don’t care if it is a one room shack, celebrate… thats all
The campers maiden voyage
We just arrived home from our annual Grass cart racing camping trip in Wamic Oregon and let me tell you we had FUN…. There were 12 of us and we for the first time hooked up the new camper. Let me say out loud that we know nothing about a RV, I watched Youtube, yep and you can learn alot from other people so use your resources but there are things they don’t tell you and I am going to let you all know.
Our RV is a 2017 with a power slide and awning, this includes legs (stabilizer bars and a tongue jack also electric) this is fantastic as you are not manually cranking to get your RV setup at the site but that frickin hitch and hooking up to the truck is a pain in my ass. Hooking up is the easy part, there is this little latch on the hitch that is up when not connected and down when fully engaged with the hitch. It sucks bad, you have to be at exactly the right frickin angle for it to click and release and most camp sights are not level so it is the MOST frustrating part of the entire process. We hooked up in 2.5 seconds but getting that hitch to release when you park is dumb.. you have to figure out if you are uneven (which you will be if you are in a forest camp site) how many plastic blocks you need under the wheels to get level. We needed 3 and my husband deserves Kudo’s as he had to miss a big ass tree and get on top of the blocks without running me over. Maybe that was his plan ha as I have great life insurance…. obviously I survived
So here is what I learned this week:
1. get some walkie talkies- they allow you to talk to the driver (husband) outside the vehicle, they were great. We bought ours at Bimart for $30 bucks
2. make sure you have some leveling blocks- we bought the 10 pack Campco but I will be investigating other options on Amazon, mostly because those little yellow blocks move when you back up.
3. A 2000 watt inverter compressor is not big enough power to operate your trailer. The microwave absolutely needs 4000 watts and if you do not have enough external power your breaker will pop and NO outlets will work. This cannot be reset until you get to a place where you can plug in to a 30 amp outlet to correct.
4. Grey and black water tanks- grey is shower and dish water, empty it as often as you like (anywhere). The black tank my husband the germaphobe is not going near. We do not poop in our camper, (unless we were in the middle of frickin nowhere why put yourself thru the trauma) but regardless we need to empty and there is a special hose for this task. I have no issue doing this, put on your rubber gloves and hook up a rinse hose. I put a cup of fabric softener in the black tank before we leave camping and some easy chemicals like borac acid laundry soap and baking soda, easy, cheap and works fantastic.
5. Snoring in the wood cannot be controlled so don’t try.
Happy camping more to follow
Pure stupidity at its finest
Today I attended my CPR/first aid certification course. I arrived and a man with a keg beer belly and long white hair was in the back of the room, also a participant. I being friendly Fran spoke to this ass hat and asked him where he worked in our organization. He informed me he is a crew chief for one of our offender work crews. Ok I am passionate about rehabilitation and second chances so I engaged in a very brief conversation.
What the hell, this dude in 3 minutes asked how long I worked for our company. When I replied that I relocated from Idaho. The first thing out of his mouth was how could I move from such a beautiful state with such wonderful Trumpster conservatives. Ugh that’s exactly the reason I moved to get away from the bigots I watched treat non white and LGBTQ like shit my entire life.
It got worse, he refused to participate in the CPR portion of the course and sat for 4 hours doing absolutely nothing other than watching us. He stated he was only interested in the first aid portion of the course. What?
The point of this post is to demonstrate the quality of people we have working with men trying to rebuild their lives. I cannot imagine how he treats the work crew participants and know for certain in just 3 minutes it is horrible. We have to identify and stop allowing people like this man to have any power or influence with anyone coming out of the criminal justice system.
Camping Adventures
My husband and I go on an annual tent camping trip every July with a group of friends. Yes we sleep in a tent but anyone who knows my husband understands that he is a glamper not a camper.
- He has a water module that hangs from a tree and a room that goes underneath it so you can wash off, and the water is even warm after being heated by the sun all day.
- The tent, this mac daddy Mountain HardWear beauty that a man over 6 feet can stand straight up in.
- Cooking over a camp fire, ha you say. We have a stainless steel massive camp stove that runs on propane.
- Air mattress, double decker with an auto pump so no sleeping on the cold ground.
- Rugs, rugs and more rugs. My husband doesn’t want dirt tracked in the tent, ha
So I tell you all this because we finally took the plunge and purchased an actual RV. It is a 27 foot with 2 pop out beds and a slider. Now we were not planning on buying a trailer. We kind of fell into it when a gal I used to work with posted it for sale at a price we felt was too good to pass up.
- How in the hell do you back a trailer that is 27 ft long when the only thing we have ever towed is a small tent trailer when our boys were young?
- Practice for my husband as I won’t be doing that, EVER. I have a hard time backing up my smart car ;0)
- Turn the wheels left to go right, huh that makes no sense
- You Tube is our newest obsession
- Tires- who knew that tires on a trailer only last a max of 7 years
- A trip to the tire shop to ensure we don’t have any unforeseen blow outs
- The tires are pretty cheap and have hard side walls unlike car tires and have different weight limitations, who knew
- A trip to the tire shop to ensure we don’t have any unforeseen blow outs
- A generator- we learned that if you are camping somewhere without power (such as the camp site we stay at )you will need one if you want to have lights, fridge, etc.
- An inverter I learned is quiet and pretty efficient
- I found one on Craigslist that is 2000 watts which is plenty big for our use
- Gear- lots and lots of gear
- A sanitation hose used to empty the poop tank
- My husband has already told everyone there is no pooping allowed in the trailer, ha
- Power cables, stabilizer jacks, hoses, stabilizer bars (keep the trailer from swaying while being towed), leveling pads, and too much other crap to mention
- A sanitation hose used to empty the poop tank
- Decorations- as the thrift store queen, I bought sheets, hanging storage, and kitchen stuff galore.
- Amazon is your friend, next day delivery and everything you ever need in life for an RV.
- Etsy- the custom decals are fantastic and super easy to apply
- Joanne’s- fabric on sale and then 50 % off, replace those old ugly curtains
Here are some photo’s. Our adventure is in 2 weeks and we cannot wait to make the maiden voyage. I had to add some flair so I added some super fun wood look self adhesive contact paper. Amazon 9 bucks and what a great update. Hand painted closet handles (home goods $12) and fun dog artwork, replaced those ugly green curtains (Joanne fabrics $15), ram head (a buck at the goodwill). oh and nothing beats some good ole elbow grease- we scrubbed every inch of the trailer inside and out and it looks beautiful. Hope you enjoy
Committed 29 and Counting
This guy and I have been hanging out for 29 years. It seems crazy that over half my life I have spent with him. There have been many bumps and challenges and it takes commitment to make it last but it is so worth the effort. When we said the words for better or worse we meant it, I’m grateful for the journey, love, and joy he brings to my hyperactive self, ha. Happy Anniversary to us
SsGreenBean 