Rejected!

It already came. I was expecting it and so wasn't disappointed when it arrived. It was actually almost more of an excited. Like, "Wow! I'm important enough to get a letter telling me I'm a loser!"

Here is my first rejection letter in it's entirety.

Thanks for your query, but I'm sorry to say I'm not the right agent for your book. I wish you the best of luck in your search for representation.

Sincerely,

Maya Rock

And there you go. Not important enough to have my name at the top of the letter, but you can't have your cake and eat it too. (Personally I always thought that if I couldn't have my cake and eat it too, I would just eat it and let it be someone else's. I don't care if it's my cake, as long as I get to eat it, I'm good. A nice, dense, moist, layered chocolate please.)

So now I've got to get that daggum synopsis in good shape so I can send out more queries so I can get more rejections. *SIGH*

My Blunder

So, I finally did it. I finally sent a query letter to a real-life, professional editor. I sent it to an agent for Writers House. So, kind of exciting. I am making progress on the road to my book being published. So, I am expecting my first rejection letter within the next three weeks. Here's the letter exactly as I sent it.

Melanie Nelson

(208)284-4818
yesmelanieis@gmail.com

February 23, 2009

Maya Rock
Writers House
mrock@writershouse.com

Dear Maya Rock,

Of all the agents at Writers House, I thought that you would be most interested in reading my book and I hope that it fits with your personal taste.

Karen Moss, is no longer able to classify herself as normal. The story starts as Karen wakes up in a strange place, with a strange man, and wearing strange clothes. The image in the mirror reflects an older version of herself. When she learns that she is no longer seventeen years old, but twenty-two, her family and husband (the strange man) determine that she has amnesia. The truth, though, is much more disconcerting; she shifts through time. While she was five years into her future, an older Karen had taken her place as a seventeen year old. Although the shifts were never predictable, a frightening change occurs when they become new and unknown even to the older Karen. Not only is time behaving erratically, the lives of Karen’s future family are in mortal danger and only Karen can prevent a tragic outcome.

Told from the viewpoint of our younger Karen – excepting journal entries and written messages from the future heroin – and replete with humor and real-to-life teenage attitudes, this 81,000+ word story will entertain teenagers and adults alike.

Because of the time-traveling aspect of Glimpse, I would categorize it as a YA Science Fiction, though light on the science and heavy on the fiction.

I have been faithfully writing in my journal since I was seven years old and have excelled in my English and Literature college courses. Reading and writing have always been my passion and I spend as much time with both as I can. Since I am a stay at home mom, I am able to make plenty of time for these, my hobbies.

Thank you for your time. I am looking forward to the prospect of working with you in the future and hearing back from you shortly.

Sincerely,

Melanie Nelson

Then, that night when Aaron got home from work he pointed out to me that I spelled heroin wrong. Yes. Heroin is a hard drug. Heroine is a female hero. Apparently I wrote about a drug. I don't know that an editor will over look that, and since a query letter is VERY important to publication, my manuscript will likely not be solicited. Not that the letter is very good anyway. But, whatever. I sent in a letter to an agent. Yay me.

Icky Stain

Help! All of you wonderful readers, I need advice. To get to the petition for it I will first tell my story.
I got lots of new shirts from Shade, right? Well, the first time I wore one of the shirts I got a stain on it. It was one of the days when a lot of my family was in town and staying with us. In fact, I even invited some extended family over that night for dinner and games. After many people had left and while others were watching a movie, I excused myself to go to the bathroom. While washing my hands I glanced up at the mirror and saw something startling in the reflection. There were two very peculiarly placed dark spots on my shirt.


Gah! My first reaction was to think that for some reason I had lactated through my layers of clothes. But that didn't make sense because 1) I haven't nursed a baby for about a year now and 2) the other layers of clothes were dry. Then I realized that the spots were dry as well, not wet as they looked.
I've since washed the shirt, but the stains remain. I have NO IDEA what it is or how I got it. (I just hope that no one noticed it before me!) So, now I have this brand new shirt, only worn once, with stains that prevent me from ever wearing it again. Here is where I need help. Are there any tricks for removing spots? I don't know any of them. All advice is welcome, so please leave a comment with your ideas. Thanks!

SuperBoy

The other day after I changed Morgan's in preparation for his nap he found his one pair of underpants and begged to wear them. Well, I wasn't just gonna throw a pair of underwear on him right before he went to sleep. Not without a diaper anyway. So to please my pleasant child I put the underwear on over his clothes. He was satisfied and wore them the rest of the day. Maybe if I can get him excited enough about the underpants he will want to wear them more, even if that means using the big boy potty.

Okay, a little embarrassed about the following. Just shows immaturity and recklessness. But hey.
June 4, 2002
On Sat I went to the cruise with Laurie and Sarah Thomson. Laurie thought it would be fun to spray people with silly string. We agreed. We just got there and were next to a guy on a motorcycle. Laurie made Sarah spray him. He was mad. He chased us, swore at us, scared us, banged on the window, then told on us. We got pulled over. We all had to show the cops our ID’s. They questioned us and Laurie and Sarah fed them a stupid lie. “Oh, she was shaking it with the lid off and accidentally sprayed him." Stupid huh? They obviously didn’t believe it, but didn’t say much. They took all 3 cans of silly string, (2 of which were still un-opened). Then they let us go. Man, tough luck, huh? And he was the first guy we even sprayed. I suppose it was pretty stupid though huh? It won’t be repeated.

For a YCL (Youth Camp Leader) adventure we went white water rafting. I was actually already 18 and had been to girls camp my allotted 6 years already, but since my mom was the camp director and because I really bad wanted to do the white water rafting I was allowed to go an extra year.
July 11, 2002
Of course we all had river guides, and the one on my boat happened to be the perfect guy. No joke. He was probably the most gorgeous guy that I have ever seen, including t.v. and movies. He had perfect white teeth that smiled a lot. Gorgeous eyes, blonde hair, a perfect tan. (Oh my gosh he was so dark.) Muscles galore, 6 pack baby. And he was funny and nice. Not to mention a returned missionary.
I think he liked Annie Davis. He flirted with her a lot. Jealousy. Every YCL thought he was cute. I mean hot. I don’t think anybody got a picture of him. We weren’t thinking. Oh! I won a game of “Queen of the raft.” And he said “Good job.” !

I don't remember ever thinking a tan was all that impressive, but I guess I made an exception for this guy. His name was Ben. And woo! He spoke two words to me! Ha ha.

AJ Rumina

Last night I went to a launch party, which included a fashion show/open house for a new line of clothes. My cousin is one of the creators of this line and the business and she's done a great job. The clothes are really cute. The company is called AJ Rumina and the line is Bustin' Out. Since clothes are generally made with a cup B size in mind, this line is specifically for those with larger cup sizes. So if you fit the bill you should for sure go check out the website. Click here.
Even though I've kinda been getting a lot of shirts lately, (what with Christmas and the gift card I had to Shade) I got me a cute new shirt. I got the pink polo. You'll see it on the website. I'll be wearing it today. (As soon as I get off my rump and get showered and all that jazz!)
Anyway, yay Michelle and yay new clothes!

Totally pampered

I had a couple of firsts today. I got my free pedi and facial. And by golly, that's something that I would pay money for.
I had my pedicure first. I sat on a nice massaging chair while my feet soaked in a little foot jacuzzi. Then the beautician, Roy, (a girl) massaged my feet and put lotions and the gritty sand stuff that feels so good on them. So nice! After that Roy painted the toenails.
Then we moved to another room for the facial. With dimmed lights and towels around my face and steam blowing at me, Roy applied the different creams and masks with a nice warm and damp towel following each application. While I had a mask on she gave me a hand massage. Ah. When my face was all cleansed and moisturized she applied makeup on me. (Though I did the mascara and eyeliner. Neither of us were completely comfortable with her doing it. She was afraid of poking my eye and I'm always afraid when someone is that close to my eyeball with a pointy object.
It was nice and relaxing and I quite enjoyed it; more than I was expecting to. So, if you live around here you should check out Visage Skin and Beauty Bar in Pleasant Grove.

Here I am with my painted toes and sparkly face. :)

Cold Climate

Don't let him fool you, this is the face of a very guilty boy.

Lately this mischievous child has learned that chairs make great stools. He has also learned that the counter tops are unexplored playgrounds. It's not hard to push a kitchen chair over to the counter - I know, because my two year old can do it - and with the chair in place it's not hard to get onto the counter. (I know this for the same reason as above.)

So, yesterday when I was in the bathroom for a very short amount of time Morgan saw an opportunity. When I came out he was pushing a kitchen chair back under the table. So, thinking that he was just tidying up a bit I praised Morgan for his efforts. Then I noticed a bulge in his cheek. Then I put two and two together. It's not hard, because I can do it. While I was in the bathroom for no more than a minute, Morgan pushed the chair to the counter, climbed onto it, crammed a gobstopper in his mouth, got off the counter, and replaced the chair. So conniving! I didn't think two year olds were supposed to have that conspiring ability.

Today he climbed onto the table and started playing with the thermostat box. I saw this happen, so I made him get down and reprimanded him. Why didn't I think to look at the thermostat to see which buttons he'd pushed and switches he'd flipped? A mystery. This was around noon. At 4:30 I finally checked it. He'd turned the heat off and the air conditioning on. Now, the AC was set to keep the house around 74 degrees, so not too big a deal right? Right. If you have the AC set to automatic, which we always do. Morgan switched it to on. Meaning that the air was blowing constantly for four hours or so. I did notice that there was air coming out much more often than usual, but I didn't notice the air was cold. Honestly, it only got down to 65 degrees. We heat our house to 67, so not much of a difference. But oh boy, what a little menace I have.

Morgan's Mess

This is how Morgan prefers the toy room. No toys may be in the toy box, games and pieces, (the smaller the pieces, the better) must be scattered everywhere, and the cleanup gets to be done by Mommy. But, this doesn't always go according to plan, as Mommy makes sure the mess maker has to help.
The biggest problem is that now Morgan can open the closet doors. The closet in this room houses all of our board/card games, and when he isn't supervised, that is a great source of entertainment for Morgan.

Where are you?

Here are some of Morgan's favorite places to hide. He usually hides when it's time for bed or a nap, or even a diaper change. Buthe always wants me to find him and chants from his spot, "where are you?"

As was shown in a previous post, under the bathroom sink is a prime spot to hide. Unfortunately for Morgan, this is the only bathroom where the cabinets are jammed full of stuff, so the only place he can fit.

The laundry basket. I used to hide under them when I was little too. Fun stuff.
The first spot he discovered and the most frequented is the corner behind the rocker in his bedroom. It's always a race to see if he can get back there before I catch him to change his diaper.

Graduation

And here's some of my journal entry from my homeschool graduation. There were about 50 graduates that year. We graduated in the Northwest Nazarene University Brandt Center.

Just so you know, I wrote three pages about this day, so not ALL of it was like the following, only about 2 pages. :)
So, we went to NNU first thing in the morning and practiced and such then had a lot of down time. I luckily met a girl and we made friends so I had someone to hang out with since I didn't know anyone there. Except Joe from last weeks feature. But...
May 28, 2002
Joe walked by a couple of times but never said anything or even looked at me.

When we got our yearbooks I got the courage to find Joe and ask him to sign mine.
Here, I’ll write what he wrote in mine. “Melanie, It was cool to meet you and I think we should keep in touch. Maybe go skiing sometime. We’ll keep in touch.” And he wrote his phone number. Then I wrote in his. I don’t remember what exactly, but I didn’t leave my number or anything, then he asked for it. And guess what? I gave it to him! He isn’t LDS Oiy. Then we talked. We talked for 1½-2 hours! I kind of promised to teach him how to ski. He said we would have to go bowling sometime or something before the snow comes…But I think he likes me! And what’s worse, I like him! He was so cool and funny. And he was really easy to talk to. I wasn’t even afraid to talk to Joe. He doesn’t have a shy affect on me. Why can’t he be a Mormon?!?!
Here I write a lot about how much I want to date him and stuff and lament that he isn't LDS. I find it very funny. He never asked to date me. Boy was I silly.
He’s fun to talk to. And to tease. I basically had a 1½-2 hour flirt session. I’ve never flirted before that.
Okay, so, maybe I did flirt a little, but not for 2 hours. I don't know what I thought flirting was. Perhaps talking to a boy and smiling? Oh, naive little Melanie.
I bet I’m sounding so young and dumb. (Yep)
I even had the nerve to fix Joe’s crooked graduation cap. How is that for an amateur flirt aye?

Although it's embarrassing and silly the way I thought about it then, I do have fond memories now. And, like I said in my journal, it would be a day I would remember for a long time, not because of Joe, but because I graduated. (Not that the diploma I got was good for anything.)

Elmo!

Yesterday we went to Kid to Kid since they are having a big sale this weekend, (buy 1 get 1 free on all discounted items.) But mostly we went for Elmo.
He hadn't arrived yet when we first got there, so Morgan went to the toy section of the store and played while I perused the shirts nearby. Then Aaron spotted the big red monster, so I tried to get Morgan into a position where he would see him. But, get this, he was fighting me on it because he wanted to play with an ELMO toy! Okay, maybe not that significant....
When we got him to the crowd of kids and parents thronging Elmo, Aaron lifted Morgan so he could see. His reaction was stunned silence. At first. Then he pointed and said Elmo and tried to fight his way through the kids in front of us. I held him back and we waited our turn, then I set Morgan loose. Elmo knelt down and held his arms out for Morgan. Morgan took one step forward, then turned and tried to flee. I guess we prefer our Elmo to be significantly smaller than us. So I handed the camera to Aaron and picked up Morgan and went up to Elmo and tried to persuade Morgan to give him high five and such. But he just wasn't too sure about the floppy red guy with the lolling tongue. (Note: Elmo doesn't actually HAVE a tongue on the show.) After getting the picture we yielded to the other kids waiting in line.

I continued to shop and Morgan returned to the toys. But then he'd catch sight of Elmo. The rest of the time we were there Morgan stalked Elmo at a distance, preferring to watch him safely behind a clothes rack. Soon there weren't many kids around and Elmo would engage with Morgan. Morgan would do his normal show-off stunts, (hit himself in the head, fall to the floor, etc) and Elmo would copy or whatever.
As I was paying for the goods Morgan was finally brave enough to go up to Elmo. (It helped that they were now handing out candy.) And, with Morgan's clever cuteness he even managed to mooch a second piece off of them. (I think our little boy had them pretty enchanted at this point.)

P.S. Happy Valentines Day!

P.P.S. Morgan ate six stickers today.

Cold December

1. Put your music library on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG TITLE DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing this. Post a comment on their blog that says "You've been tagged! See my blog for details."

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS, "IS THIS OKAY," YOU SAY?
Australia

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
I Saw the Sign

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Honey, Honey

4)HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Breath 2 AM

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Sweet Tangerine

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Hey There Delilah

7) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS?
The Promise

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Saint Simon

9) WHAT IS 2+2?
I'm Yours

10) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
All I Want Is You

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
500 Miles

12) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
A Cautionary Song

13) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Somewhere Over the Rainbow

14) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
I Left The Light On

15) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Pink Bullets

16) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
La Camisa Negra

17) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Wine Red

18) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Kiss Me

19) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Mr. Pitiful

20) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
We Will Become Silhouettes

21) WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Cold December

Okay, well, I finally made a playlist for myself, this tag as motivation, (yest I still hesitate to inflict my music taste on everyone else) but it didn't turn out very funny-like. But I've read several others that are quite amusing. So, I tag Shelly, and Erin, and Emma. I do believe those are my only friends who have playlist and haven't done the tag yet.

As good as it gets

Aaron and I teach primary. We have the kids turning ten this year. As incentive for them to bring their scriptures to class we decided to make them charts. After eight weeks of bringing their scriptures they will get a candy bar of their choice.
Now, we all know that I'm not one of those crafty people, but I wanted to make these charts cute. So, I got out my dusty scrapbooking kit and found some colored paper and went to it. Looking at the completed work, I can see that they would be cuter, if, say, the lines were straight and even, and if their names weren't written on with my childish handwriting. I can see that it would be improved with the letters cut-out and glued on. But I had no interest in cutting out each individual letter. So this is what they'll get. And they're young enough that they probably won't care. And most of them are boys anyway.

Family

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had my family come down this past weekend. On Sunday we all went to my relatives house who also live in Saratoga Springs and another of my dad's siblings and her family came as well. This is the first time in a long time that we've had so many of the Martin family together and it was tons of fun. (Only 3 families, and not even all of them, but still fun.)

We ate. We chatted. We played Last Night on Earth, (the zombie game) which is a favorite game of ours, and apparently everyone else's too.

And the kids played and made big messes, but for the most part, they were happy. Fun times.

6 Things

Tagged

6 Things that make me happy (in no particular order):

1) Morgan. When he's being good. Especially when he hugs and cuddles with me.

2) Yummy food. It's probably very detrimental to my waist line, but junk food makes me happy. The less nutritious the better.

3) Having family around. I do like spending time with family.

4) The weekends. It's nice to have Aaron home and to spend more time together.

5) Having the bills paid. I'm always happy on payday right after getting the newest set of bills all taken care of. Even though that usually means there isn't much money left, at least the bills are paid!

6) New clothes. There's nothing like it!

Kay, I tag Jana, because she hasn't posted in a little while. I tag Chanel, because it's been even longer since she has updated her blog (though I'm not sure how into the whole tag thing she is). I tag Candice, because, once again, it's been long since I've seen an update on her blog, and I tag Stephanie, because I think she might actually do it.

Cuddle bug

I've made a happy discovery this winter. Morgan, who is affectionate, but rather busy, doesn't usually want to cuddle. However, if you are sitting on the couch watching a movie or something, and happen to be using a blanket, Morgan turns very cuddly. It's wonderful. So, if I want a little snuggle time with Morgan all I have to do is sit on the couch with a blanket and he'll come running. And since we have a pretty cold house in the winter, my opportunities abound.
This weekend most of my family came down for a visit. My cousin recently returned from his mission to Armenia, so they came for the homecoming. Anyway, Morgan caught Grandma with a blanket and joined her, so I took some cute pictures. He loves his grandma. Oh, but, side-note, during church he was so entertained and giggly when he attempted to put his fingers in Grandma's nose. He thought is was SO funny and kept trying.

New Clothes

So, I mentioned how I had the $30 GC for Shade. Today they were having the $3-$7 sale, and I went. And I got six shirts. And I still have 11 cents left on the gift card. I'm very happy with my purchases, and can now get rid of some old shirts.
You can't tell much from this pic, but these are them. I love how long they are. I got a couple of the same style in different colors, but I'm fine with that. Yay.

A package

So, I got my package from Seriouslysoblessed. Here are the contents.

Those are gift certificates, earrings and a Seriously So Blessed decal. There is a Shade clothing store in American Fork, which is having a sale this weekend, like, everything for $3-$7. I have a $30 GC, so with those prices, it will go pretty far. Yay. And the hoodie. Yes ma'am, that does say hot and righteous.

Morgans first EVER cupcake

Yesterday I gave Morgan a cupcake. He has never in his 2 years of life eaten a cupcake. Now, before you go thinking that we neglect or deprive, let me tell you that he has been offered a cupcake before but has had zero interest. Morgan has only very recently started liking sweet things, like cookies and cakes. (He's always liked candy though). So when I gave him the cupcake yesterday and he devoured it, I was surprised.

So, I got him in his chair and took the paper wrapping off the cake and handed it to Morgan. He almost immediately dropped, it frosting side down, on the table. So he worked on eating the cake part.But then he decided he was missing out on the frosting part, so he went about the surprisingly difficult task of turning it right side up. Frosting is sticky, and it was quite glued to the table!
Morgan has a thing about getting his hands dirty or sticky. He doesn't like it. So, even though they were already covered in sugary sweetness, Morgan tried to protect his hands by not using them at all. Apparently he has no qualms with a dirty face.
When most of it was gone, he decided it would be easiest to pick it up. Then he crammed it into his mouth.
And we are left with a sticky boy and a pile of crumbs. Oh, and a big frosting mess. Morgan didn't know what to do with his hands, and didn't fight at all when I cleaned them off.

Ah, the happiness of sweets. I'm happy to see a little bit of me in him finally. :) Now he asks for cupcakes all the time.
After dinner Aaron gave Morgan another cupcake. He demolished it in record time and didn't even need to be cleaned up afterward! He managed not to get any frosting on his fingers or face somehow. I can barely eat a cupcake like that.

Black light mini-golf

For date night on Friday we went to Tafalga, (or something) and played some indoor miniature golf with blacklights. It was a fun time. Oh, and date nights for us usually involve Morgan as well. So, date nights are kinda like family nights. Morgan did awesome. He just followed us around holding his golf club and a lame little slinky that we won with the tickets that we got from the arcade.

Kay, this is retarded. I don't know why the picture is sideways. I rotated it in iphoto so it should be corrected here too. Oh well. I'm gonna leave it.

The good ol' days

More journals. For those of you just joining us, I copy some of my more humorous journal entries here from when I was a teenager. However, this entry was written on my 18th birthday. Is it getting too old to be funny? It's not quite 7 years ago. Too close to my current age? Should I stop doing the entries?

May 23, 2002
After the meeting I talked to a guy. Wow. I meet once a month for a graduation mtg with homeschooling seniors in the area. There is a guy there that looked familiar. The first couple of times I was like, “he looks and sounds a lot like the ski instructor Joseph.” It was driving me crazy. Then last time when we introduced ourselves he said his name was Joe! So afterwards I went up and greeted him, then asked this bizarre question. “Do you ski?” “No, never have in my life.” It actually came as a shock. I almost convinced myself it was the same guy. So then I explained to him why I asked the question and we talked about skiing and his uncanny resemblance. Way cool. He’s a nice guy. And he has to be cute if I thought he was Joseph. When I was leaving he said, “I’ll see you on Saturday.” (the graduation) But he said it like he would really see me. Maybe look forward to it.

Here I am at Seminary graduation. Names have been changed for the protection of all.

I went over to James and told him congratulations. (I even slugged him on the arm, totally unintentionally. Quite embarrassing actually.) Then he said something like, “Well hey, how about a hug?” Then he hugged me! You’re probably thinking “big deal, it’s just a hug.” Nope. Not “just a hug.” This could signify the birth of a new stage in life. The stage with boys. Next I will hold some ones hand, then maybe get kissed, and how knows, maybe even married. Of course, this is James. He hugs everybody. But so! He hugged me! I was important enough to be hugged. We talked a little but my family was two feet away and laughing and staring, so I cut the conversation short.

Ugh! Family! Seriously. Sometimes showing support involves NOT being physically near and gawking. I do remember the embarrassment of that moment.