Girl Smarts

There is a character in The Ordinary who is witty, fearless, and sure of who she is. She makes her debut partway through The Ordinary. She doesn't play a huge role in book one or book two, but she's pretty center stage in book three (still working on #3!). She's kind of who I'd like to be, in a way. I'm talking about Ky, Jordan's sister.  I admire Ky in so many ways, but the way Ky doesn't let fear hold her back is definitely what I admire the most. I tend to sit right in the middle of fear. Paralized and crying! Haha.

Now I'd like to introduce you to my daughter, Kyleigh. She is almost twelve (four more days, actually!) and she is fierce! We call her Ky a lot. Made a connection yet? Ky was born from this little lady right here. She stands up to her brother even though he can be intimidating at times. She's quick to forgive, easy to love and is a terrific friend. And she is fearless. She isn't afraid to be who she is regardless of the circumstance. She's awesome.

This is her first year in middle school. She's a social little gal and I was kind of surprised she hadn't found a club or group to join. But, right before Christmas, she informed us she wanted to join the Academic Challenge Team. The what now? We'd never heard of that. At first, she wasn't really sure either. We didn't get much information out of her except they push buzzers and answer questions. Before long, we were able to attend her first meet and got to see first hand what exactly the Academic Challenge Team was. We. are. impressed.

Have you seen The Chase? If not, google it and then come on back. It might be awhile because it's a pretty addicting show. It's okay. I understand. The Academic Challenge is kind of like that except without the Beast. And the chasing. The team who answers the most questions correctly wins. I could never, ever, EVER join this team. My brain would freeze and I would be dead weight. Dead, I say. 

Kyleigh, on the other hand, it's like she doesn't know she's supposed to be scared. She doesn't know it may be embarrassing to get the question wrong (which it's not. My brain would tell me it would be!). Our Ky started the first meet as the team captain and has been the entire time. No one else will do it. See. They know fear. 

I'm not just saying this because she's my daughter, but that girl carries the team. I love her little teammates and wish I could help them have Kyleigh's confidence. They got this! They just don't know it yet! 

Their last meet was yesterday and there were only three of them there. Normally, each grade level is separated into different rooms to compete but because of the flu epidemic, they were short staffed. They announced they would all compete in the same room and take turns. Sixth grade was up first. My fear swelled for her! If she noticed my wide eyes as she stood to take her place at the table, she sure didn't notice. She didn't seem intimidated by that packed cafeteria at all. She killed it in the first two rounds, which is the team challenge. They all discuss the question and she gives the answer (because she's the team captain). The last two rounds are the buzzer round and the other team had a really fast buzzer pusher. That kid was fast I tell you! 

Ultimately, they lost this round, but she was recognized as our team's high scorer. She didn't gloat or even tell her dad when we got home. She's humble, too.

As Ky's (Jordan's sister) character progresses, she may have some fear. She's up for a challenge and I'm anxious to see how she handles it all. More on that later! In the meantime, I'll keep watching my fearless girl and all her girl smarts and hopefully gleen some from her.

Happy Anniversary!

It's late. Well, technically it's early, I guess. Our house has been hit by a nasty bug and I'm on watch tonight. Our oldest had/has (I never know if since he's still a child I can say had) childhood onset absence seizures. He hasn't had a seizure for a few years now, but I don't mess with fevers. They lower the threshold and make having one more likely. In ten more minutes, I can check him and give him more meds to make sure that fever stays down.

I turned to facebook to entertain my weary eyes and clicked on, on this day. I love that little facebook gem. I'll take that walk down memory lane every day. Thank you very much. Today's caught me off guard a bit. Memories definitely flooded over me and I began writing a facebook post about it. I realized quickly that it was turning into a very, very long post and decided it should be on the blog instead.

A year ago today, I did the hardest thing I'd done in a long time and clicked the publish button on Amazon making The Ordinary available to all. Almost a year before, I began writing it to pass the time while waiting for my son to do his homeschool work. See, that firecracker, amazing kid of mine needed me to be close by. Laundry and housework had to wait until he was finished and one can only plan and grade so much. I was bored. So, I did something my husband continually encouraged me to do. I began to write. One page turned into ten. Ten to thirty. Pretty soon I wasn't just writing while Kaleb worked. I wrote every chance I got. It was so. much. fun. My husband would say, "I'm taking the kids. Go write." And I did. And I loved it.

I, however, had no intention of ever showing that creation of mine to another soul...well, besides my husband! My husband read it as I went and encouraged me, but, he's my husband. He loves me. He never criticizes me and thinks everything I do is amazing. I'm not exaggerating. Really. I love him and his support, but I didn't believe him. I really wanted to. But, remember, I called this The Ordinary for a reason. I felt extraordinarily ordinary. I felt beyond ordinary. I couldn't see past that.

The day I finished it was amazing and so anticlimactic all at once. I typed the end, pushed my chair back and stood up. My hands shot in the air and I exclaimed to my empty house, "I did it!" I quickly texted my husband and that was that.

I spent the next few months editing it. My middle daughter wanted to read it, so I handed her the latest, marked up, edited version. I had gone through it once again and was putting the corrections in the computer. I gave her the first couple chapters and off she went. She came back not long after and said, "I can't read this with all your writing on there!" That was the start of something amazing. I read it to her and watched Natalie's journey come to life in one of my favorite people's eyes. She would come home from school and beg me to read it to her. She'd give me pointers, like Essentials and Ordinaries should be able to have Essential babies. :) And at night when it was time to tuck in, she would beg for just one more chapter. It. was. awesome.

It put me in a bit of a pickle, though. We were about 3/4 of the way through and my mom was coming for a visit. I live 2,000 miles away from family so they were none the wiser. I knew Kyleigh was going to ask me to read it to her and my little secret would be out.

We took the kids to Universal Studios that year for Christmas. We surprised them with the trip and also with my mom coming with us. She came out to the car with me to help bring a few things into the hotel. As we walked in, I said the words. "Hey, I wrote a book." She looked at me and asked what I meant. I tipped my folder holding the 200+ manuscript in her direction and said it again. "I wrote a book."

Her reaction was beyond amazing. She didn't care what it was. She was just so impressed I'd written it. Before she left, she asked to read it. I told her she didn't have to. I knew it was a genre she didn't necessarily like, but she really wanted to. The morning of her flight, I quickly printed it and she tucked it in her suitcase.

After that, I told a few more people. Five total. I looked into Kindle Direct Publishing because it was an easy way to get it to those five people who lived across the USA from me. I was going to put it up for free, but my sister said she wanted to be the first person to buy my book! Thanks, Vickie! So, after looking at the button for what felt like an eternity, I clicked publish. 

Look! There it is!

My husband had been on a business trip and returned home that day. We picked him up at the airport and stopped for dinner on the way home. As we sat there, I received a text from my sister that my book was live on Amazon! I can't tell you what I was feeling. It was a jumble of good and bad emotions I'm still sorting through. My husband declared he was going to post it to facebook and I wanted to die right there. All three of my babies looked at me waiting for my response. Had it been he and I, I would have told him no way. But, how could I say no with them watching? I want them to be fearless. I needed to be fearless. So I nodded and fought the urge to throw up. I didn't sleep well for the next two weeks. Seriously. I have never felt so vulnerable in my life. I hadn't realized how good I was at sitting on the comfortable side of fear.

What happened next was really pretty amazing. So many friends and family responded with surprise and support. So many people bought my book! I couldn't believe it. And the kind words and great reviews that followed buoyed me up and pushed me to do more.

One thing this journey has taught me is that kindness and support doesn't always happen. Truth be told I've been pretty surprised at some who have been radio silent. Those of you who stand in my corner and accept me, flaws, uploaded rough draft and all, I truly love and appreciate all of you.

I feel the love and am so very grateful!

Seriously! Thank you!

This next picture is just because I need to prove to you all that I do know a thing or two about grammar...despite my rough draft upload and editing blinders! You know. Because facebook tests are real. Muh-ah! Love you!

Clips

We moved to our little town nine and a half years ago. Up until then, we'd had T-Mobile as our carrier for...years. Probably ten years before that. But, our little T-Mobile did not have good service in our area. We struggled for a year or two not willing to give up the amazing price. Too many failed and dropped calls later, we caved.

Enter Verizon. My husband got a work discount, but it was still much higher than T-Mobile. Much higher. It was sad but we did really enjoy the coverage we received.

Every now and again we would stop back into T-Mobile and they would pull up our address on their coverage map and we slowly watched it fill in. Last Saturday we stopped in again and were pleasantly surprised. The difference between Verizon and T-Mobile wasn't significant enough we felt we couldn't switch! Yay. Doing so would not only pay off almost $1000 in phones but drop our bill by almost $100 a month and give us unlimited data (we had 12 something or other...I need to pay closer attention to details!). Oh and free Netflix for life.

We made the switch, but one thing we hadn't counted on was needing to purchase a new phone for my daughter. In order to move it to T-Mobile, it needed to be a 6s or higher. She had a 6 plus. It was on its last leg anyway. It wouldn't work half the time and randomly called people. And it never randomly called her mother. Rude.

The solution to our little predicament landed me with a new iPhone 8. My husband knew I'd enjoy the camera (He is the sweetest!!) and insisted I take the new phone. This leads me to CLIPS! Maybe I missed that little gold mine on my iPhone 7, but I don't think so. I. Love. That. Thing. Mainly because I'm easily entertained and that thing is definitely entertaining me.

That being said, I'm going to upload a little something I made for my husband last night...that so sounds different than what I mean! Haha. He teaches an evening class about an hour away on Tuesdays. My youngest has been really sick and needed some extra snuggles which means my house is falling apart. Which is fine. I'd rather snuggle my baby, but it was a great opportunity to have a little fun. This is what I sent him. My only regret is not seeing him watch it.

Riverbed Road

My mother grew up in a little town in southern Utah. Right next to her little town was an even tinier town, Greenville. I talked about it and shared some pictures here. When we would visit my grandmother, we would always take a trip to Greenville. There were two ways to get there but our favorite was by far the riverbed road.

First of all, to get to the riverbed road you got to drive past the coolest nursery ever. A nursery in the front and a small farm in the back. Sometimes we would get really lucky and the peacocks would have their feathers out for us. As we followed the gentle curves of the road and we would listen to mom and grandma share their memories. The pictures they painted were so vivid I could imagine I was there with them.

I love that place and the area around it. So many memories are wrapped up in the smells, sites and sounds of that place. So. many. I still can't drive on gravel and not think of my grandmother.

I've shared a bit about my husband and his newfound love of art. The past year or so he's been nurturing that hidden talent and growing so much! I've been trying to get him to sketch my memories and he did! He's awesome like that.

To say I love it is an understatement. I mean, come on. My greatest love created one of my fondest memories! Does it get any better than that?