Wear Green!

Am I Irish? No. So why do I care? I'll tell you why. When I was in third grade a girl in my class pushed me down because she said my green shamrock sticker didn't count as 'wearing' green on St. Patrick's Day. Sadly, I am still traumatized by this.

I freak out a little every year now. Not for myself, because honestly, I have enough self esteem now that if anyone tried to pinch me or push me down, I'd probably cock my fist back and bust them in the face. (Nice visual). But I don't want that to happen to my kids.

I'm laughing just thinking about what they would do if someone did that to them.

Will would probably choke them. (That's his technique of choice when provoked) And then pretend to feel remorse when the teacher sent him to the principals office. (Actually, he'd probably be horrified. He's never gotten sent to the Principal's office.)

Emma's the one who worries me. That girl is too darn sweet. She's just starting soccer for the first time and I'm going to have to teach her how to Be Aggressive, Be, Be Agressive. (Yes, I used to be a cheerleader. Can't you just see my seventeen year old self kicking around in that skirt with my pom-poms?)

Cole, without a single doubt, would tackle the kid to the ground. And I wouldn't punish him one bit. Nobody should touch my sweet little chocolate eyed boy, who can be one tough kiddo when necessary. But then he would cry when he had a Red day.

And Addy, if she were old enough to go to school, would squeal and point in their face and say, No! No! No! Being the youngest, she's already learned to scrap with the best of them.

All I'm saying is, Don't mess with the Auten's on Saint Patty's Day. Even if they forget to wear green and the teacher has to give them a puffy green shamrock sticker for protection. You might make their momma mad!

Finished!

It only took me ten tries to write my second story, but it's finally finished! More important than actually completing it is the fact that I really love it. I'm proud of it even. Beautiful words. All 80,507 of them.

Really, that's it.

PS-Let me know if you'd like to read it. I need some feedback, so if you have few spare hours...

Sister Act 2 - Oh Happy Day

Have you ever seen Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. It is one of my personal favorites because of the music. Anyway, they sing a version of Oh Happy Day that seriously makes you want to kick up your feet and dance along. It's so symbolic of how I'm feeling today. As the boy starts singing he feels timid and unsure, but then when he gets more into the song, he really lets loose and does amazing. That's just like my journey in becoming published. So, I'm totally feeling exactly like that today because I just found out that I won the LDS Publishers Choice for Unpublished author in the Book of Mormon Short Story contest. What does that mean? It means that she liked my story best out of all the stories that were entered by unpublished authors. And hopefully she'll have enough stories to turn it into a book and then I'll be published. Just one short story but one big step for me. And a big boost for my writing confidence. Pretty cool, huh? I know I'm doing the Happy Dance.

Oh Happy Day!