The Point of Everything

So, hi.

I have so many things to talk about and yet nothing I want to talk about. I reserved four books from the library and of course they all came in at the same time, so I have been plowing through books lately. It’s been nice.

I’m almost 33 weeks pregnant and just now starting to get regular comments about my bump from strangers. I was at the arts festival last week squatting down to look at a piece of pottery, and the artist leaned over and asked, “Do you do prenatal yoga?” Sometimes I forget that I’m even pregnant, so it took me a minute to connect to the point of such a random question. “What?” I said. She smiled. “You just move really well for having that big baby."

So that made me feel pretty good, even though, no, I haven't been doing much prenatal yoga or much of anything at all. I swore I would be more fit this pregnancy, but I'm really just too busy and tired to care about it. I took R on a walk two days ago and tried jogging for 3.8 seconds and got a side cramp almost immediately, so there's that.

Then there was the guy in line at the sno cone stand who looked down at my stomach, chuckled, and said, “Looks like you’ve already had four or five sno cones already.” To be honest, stuff like that doesn’t bother me. I’m not one of those pregnant women who get offended by someone implying that my stomach is big. I mean come on. Let’s not kid ourselves. It is big, and I just laugh right along with them. I'm too thankful for my healthy, growing baby to get insulted by anyone's comments, because they are just making conversation and not really trying to be rude anyway. This, of course, doesn't apply to Jordan, who isn't allowed to comment on my size unless he wants to see The Rage.

Beka sent me our maternity photos, and this is one of my favorites. My two Baby Bums. 

R was a squirmy little bean and basically refused to be held, but we finally got her to cooperate for this one by offering her a food pouch, which she is eating in the photo. Ha! Strategic cropping for the win.

I’m so excited for R to be a big sister. I think she’s going to do so great. And although I realize maternity leave is not a day at Disneyland, I can’t tell you how excited I am to be able to be off work this summer and spend some time just doing my mom role and not with the addition of work and deadlines and rush-hour commutes into the city. 

I finally talked to my boss a month or so ago and figured out exactly what my leave will look like. I got six weeks last time with R, and this time I am thrilled that they agreed to give me eight. Most of that will be unpaid but still totally worth it. I will also be able to work full time from home for a couple of additional months, which I am so thankful for. R was born on a Monday morning, and Jordan went back to work that Thursday. This time he is going to take a full week off, and I’m really excited for that too. All around I feel very blessed and thankful and excited going into this final month and a half of pregnancy.

I feel like I’ve been taking more photos of R lately but sharing less and less of them. As she gets older, I have been feeling that I don’t want to share too much publicly about her. I’m really happy with my decision not to type out her full name on the blog, although I’m sure many of you know what it is, which is fine. I’ve gotten in the habit of typing her initial in texts and emails too, even to my friends and family, which is kind of funny. I plan on doing the same for Baby Boy (yes, he does have a name)!

I guess what I’m saying in a roundabout way is that I’m just not sure what I want to write about right now, so that’s why it might be a little quiet on the blog. I was playing with R a couple of weeks ago, and she does this thing where sometimes she comes over and pats your face or your back, like she’s mimicking what we do to her sometimes. She put her hand on my cheek and looked right into my eyes and smiled, and I swear to you I’m not being dramatic. I actually had tears well up in my eyes as I thought about how much I love her.

And okay, spoiler alert: I’m about to say something that will make me look like a crazy religious nutso. But do you know what that makes me think of? It makes me think about how much God loves me. How much he loves YOU. Maybe you don’t believe that, but I do. I've been taking a lot of comfort in that lately, because life can be really wonderful but also really hard. There's so much uncertainty, and I have been stressing about some of that lately, but at least I have one constant.

I suppose that last paragraph is kind of unrelated to anything else I wrote in this post. But actually if you think about it, maybe it’s also kind of the point of everything.

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. 

The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito.

― C.S. Lewis

Breastfeeding, Formula & Pumping: An Update at 11 Months

^^^Using my last bag of frozen milk. 6/13/16

I’ve gotten a few questions here and there about my breastfeeding journey, and I’ve mentioned it in passing in the last few monthly R updates, so I thought I would pop in to share in a bit more depth what has been going on just in case any of you are interested. Please feel free to email me and/or leave comments or follow-up questions below!

I initially wrote a post about breastfeeding back in February, so read that if you want more information about the first few weeks and months. In that post, I was a month into pumping at work, and I wrote that I was having trouble pumping enough for R’s bottles. Well, long story short, I was never able to pump enough for her bottles, and over the next few months it only got worse. I went from pumping 5 ounces at a time to 3 to 2, and on my last day of pumping at work, I got 1.5 ounces total from two sessions. At that time, R needed 12 ounces a day of pumped milk, so you can see the problem.

Ultimately the decision to stop pumping and supplement with formula was not something I chose myself but was chosen for me. I wasn’t getting enough milk, and formula was necessary because I wasn't with her during the day to nurse. It took a while for me to accept the fact that we would need to give R formula and I wouldn’t make it a full year of exclusively breastfeeding. 

It’s not that I ever had a problem with formula. I had a problem with quitting. 

I felt like I was giving up, like maybe if I stayed up late or got up early to pump just a little bit more, I could get enough for her. And there were many nights when I did stay up late and days I get up early to pump, adding a few precious ounces to those already sitting in the refrigerator.

But I eventually decided that the stress and tears were not worth it, and I got a canister of formula when she was 8.5 months old. We started out mixing formula in with pumped milk for her bottles, and she did great with it, which simultaneously made me feel extremely relieved and extremely insulted that she didn’t notice a difference between my milk and the fake stuff. (I’m only sort of kidding about that last part.)

After a few weeks, we gave her a full formula bottle, and she took it just fine, which I am so thankful for! I continued to pump at work, but the stress was lifted to get enough to fill her bottles, and we mixed in my pumped milk with formula for her daycare bottles. I was able to breastfeed in the morning and night during the week days and all day on the weekends. However, I definitely started to notice a supply drop on the weekends since I was pumping so little during the days. It took a long time for my milk to let down, and R would get really mad about it.

I decided to stop pumping at work when R was 10 months old. I was consistently only getting 1-2 ounces a day, and we had used up every single bag of frozen milk I had in the freezer. It just wasn’t worth the effort for me to mix a few ounces in with her formula bottles for daycare. 

R is still breastfeeding in the morning and night and taking bottles with 6 ounces of formula during the day. She is doing very well, and consequently so am I. Pumping had become something I dreaded every day, and it is a relief to not have to do that anymore. I am fine now, but making the initial decision to supplement with formula and ultimately quit pumping, as much as I hated it, was very hard for me. Again, I have no problem with formula, but I just felt like a quitter and a failure for not being able to continue to make pumping work for us. It felt like a competition with myself, and I hate losing. Not to mention that I have friends who have babies the same age as R who are working and pumping just fine. But as I’ve learned, everyone is different, and comparing is not only useless but just plain dumb.

I love nursing R, and as she has gotten older it has only gotten easier. She is eating on a more regular schedule, less often during the day, and she and I both know how to do it so I am so much more comfortable feeding her anywhere we go. Plus, it’s free and in my opinion easier than washing bottles and making sure we have formula on hand. I plan on continuing to nurse in the morning and at night as long as my supply keeps up or until she and I decide it’s time to quit.

I don’t exactly know what I did expect, but I can tell you that I fully did not expect breastfeeding to be such a huge commitment, on my body, my emotions, my time, and, let’s be honest, my daily wardrobe choices. I will forever be grateful I have been able to nurse R as long as I did, and I have so much more understanding, compassion, and respect for the decisions that moms make to feed their babies, whatever that looks like.

And to all you working, pumping moms who might be reading this: solidarity, sisters. I am giving you a gigantic high-five through the screen. You rock.

Ask Anything Answers: Part 1 [A Vlog]

In today's post, I will be answering some of the questions I got in my "ask anything" post a few weeks ago. The comment box is still open, so feel free to keep adding questions! 

Click here to ask a question.

Below the video are the questions I answered in this first vlog. Next to each question are the times so you can jump to a specific question if you don't feel like watching the whole thing. The video should be embedded into the post, but if you're having trouble, watch it on YouTube here.

1. (0:30) Do you ever plan on moving from Oklahoma?

2. (1:03) If you didn't live in Oklahoma, where would you live?

3. (1:37) What does Jordan do for his job?

4. (2:56) How often have you edited/deleted old blog posts?

5. (4:25) Name a habit you are most proud of.

6. (6:00) You used to respond to almost every comment that you got, but I've noticed your responses are way down. What changed?

More answers will be coming at you soon! 

Question: Do you like the vlogs, or would you rather I just wrote down all the answers in a regular blog post?

I Do Believe in Turn Signals. I Do Not Believe in Aliens.

Happy MLK Day to my American friends, and happy Monday to everyone else! Today Megan and I are hosting a little linkup called "I Believe" in honor of one of the most famous believers in American history. Check out what I believe in and then write your own post and link up! I really believe you should. (Sorry, was that too much?)

I Believe...

That toilet paper should always be placed with the new sheet on top.

Why is this so difficult? And yet every time Jordan replaces the toilet paper, he puts it in wrong.

In the value of turn signals.

You know how you're driving behind someone, and they randomly slow down for no reason? And then they turn and you're like, "A turn signal would have been nice." Yeah, that.

Everyone should love their job.

If you don't love your job, find one you do love. It's out there for everyone.

Audio books should not count on the same list as total books read for the year.

I've been wanting to mention this for a while now, and I would love to hear your opinion on this. When someone says they read x number of books last year, do you assume they mean physically read the book? Or is it okay if this number includes listening to an audio book?

Here's my thing, and I'm sorry if this offends anyone but this is just what I think about it:

Reading is hard. You have to concentrate. You have to be intentional about it. You usually can't be doing something else while you're reading, so it's a lot more work to actually finish a book. Plus, if I learned anything from reading What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, it's that we're all losing our ability to concentrate on actual books, so reading is an important skill we all need to continue to practice.

An audio book, on the other hand, you can do while doing basically anything--driving to work, on a road trip, cooking dinner, exercising. Audio books are still reading, but I don't think it's reading in the same sense as reading a book is.

So I personally will only include books I physically read in my list of books read for the year. Other people can obviously do what they want, but I maintain my position that audio books and books books should not be on the same list.

This is probably the most ridiculous discussion ever, but I've honestly been dying to ask you guys: what do you think?

Families should enjoy being together.

I take many things for granted that I shouldn't, but I don't take my family for granted. We have so much fun together, and I love it.

In the importance of going to church.

I really really love my church. Sometimes I do wish I could just sleep in, but honestly? Being there is the highlight of my week. I don't want to be one of those Christians who beats people over the head about Jesus, but in all seriousness I just want you to know that I wish everyone believed in the power of the Gospel, and I really do pray for you guys.

The Cubs will win a World Series... some day.

They WILL. And it will be awesome. And I will never stop talking about it ever.

I do not believe in ghosts. Or aliens.

I just don't. The end.

What do you believe?

Link up below!

Life of an Editor: FAQs (Part 2)

Back today with the second half of your questions! Find part 1 here.

1) Are you able to just read for fun or are you always editing as you read anything?

This is a question I get a lot. People always want to know how I can read for fun at home when I already read all day for my job. But here's the thing: it's so nice to grab a book and just read it without worrying about whether or not I'm catching all the commas or how I'm going to suggest the author rewrite this or that scene. I can just read it and think what I want about it. End of story.

That said, I don't know if I will ever be able to "turn off," so to speak, the editing. I catch errors all the time in books, on signs, in my church bulletin, in blog posts I read. But for the most part, I realize that we're all human, and you will not find a single book or article without at least one error.

I also find myself saying, "If I were their editor..." if I read a book I had problems with. Or I'm like, "What was the editor doing?" But sometimes you can't blame the editor. Maybe he or she suggested the change, and the author freaked out or the publisher didn't go for it. You never know.

2) Do you edit other people's emails/blog posts/tweets?

When people find out I'm an editor, their first reaction is usually something like, "Oh my gosh please don't ever read anything I write! I'm going to be so self-conscious now."

So here's the truth: yes, when I read tweets and Facebook statuses and blog posts and emails, I do notice misspellings and improper grammar. HOWEVER, I am not judging you. People make mistakes. I make mistakes all the time. It's super embarrassing. I understand that not everyone cares about words as much as I do. 

Honestly? I will only judge you if you repeatedly misspell words like your/you're or abbreviate words like "sorry" to "sry." No.

I have a very small number of blog friends whom I will email or text to say, "Hey, you misspelled [blank] in your post today." Mostly, I realize no one wants to hear that, but there are a few people I know would appreciate knowing so they can correct the mistake. I  only do it if the mistake is in the title or is a funny error like writing poop when you meant pop or something.

3) Do you mentally edit people when they're talking?

Short answer: sometimes.

I'm not one of those people who goes around correcting everyone out loud, though. That's rude and annoying, and if I did that I would probably have no friends. I do correct Jordan out loud sometimes, and I will correct people if they ask or seem to want to know. Otherwise, I will just keep it to myself. And, honestly, in a regular conversation, I don't have time to sit there silently correcting people in my head, because I'm actually listening to what they're saying and having a conversation.

4) Do you ever see yourself doing freelance editing full time?

I will save my rant about working from home vs. office jobs for another post. (Long story short: I get really really annoyed when people act like freelancing is the "dream" and you're just settling if you have an office job. Stop doing that.)

Right now I will simply say that I don't know. I think freelancing full time is a completely viable career option, and once Jordan and I have kids it would be nice to have a more flexible schedule and not have to pay for daycare. For the time being, however, I really do love my job and don't have any immediate plans to jump on the full-time freelance train.

5) Are you ever going to go back to school?

I really hope not. At this point in time, I have zero desire to go back to school. And honestly? Unless my career goals drastically change, I won't need to.

6) What does your supervisor do?

I report directly to the executive director, who is head of the organization. Not to sound too drunk with power, but I am the editor of the publication. I decide which articles are in and which ones are out, and I write a monthly "from the editor" column in every issue. I'm kind of a big deal.

At my last job, there was an actual editing department, and over the four years I was there, I eventually worked my way up to being one of the supervisors. Each of us was in charge of a team of editors, and we managed their book schedules, discussed their edits, did quality control reviews, and of course got forwarded all the angry author calls.

7) Do you edit more than one thing at a time?

Answer: sometimes.

Like I said in the last post, if something is particularly dull or lengthy, I might switch it out with something shorter just to keep things moving and myself sharp. I can be in the middle of a few different projects at once, and it's not a problem for me. But these days? I usually just do one thing at a time, because a lot of the stuff I deal with is shorter.

* * *
Okay! I think that wraps it up. Thanks to everyone who showed interest in this series and asked questions. This was fun!


Feel free to leave me any feedback/more questions/responses in the comments!

Life of an Editor: FAQs (Part 1)

In the first part of this series, I wrote about what I do on a daily basis, my editing process, and how I got into professional editing in the first place. For that post, go here.

You guys asked some great questions about my job, and I'm really excited you are interested in what I do. I will have 2 posts of FAQs since I didn't want this to get insanely long. Click here for Part 2!

1) HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH DIFFERENT WRITING STYLES? (ALSO SIMILAR: DO YOU FIND YOURSELF REWRITING A LOT AS YOU EDIT?)

This is such a great question. Everyone has different writing styles, and it's extremely important to me to maintain the author's original voice and tone. I never want an author to feel like their book is not their own.

That said, it isn't unusual for me to have a suggestion for rephrasing. Sometimes it's an individual sentence that needs to be rewritten because it's incomplete or incorrect. Sometimes it's an entire introduction or scene that's missing a vital component or just doesn't sound quite right. In my experience working with hundreds of authors on both fiction and nonfiction books and articles, I've found that it's much easier to show what I am suggesting rather than to try to explain it.

So, what I normally do is summarize my suggestion and then say something like this: "Here's an example of how you could rephrase. Feel free to rework this using your own author voice." [Then I provide a rewrite in my own words]

That way, I can rewrite the part I feel needs to be rewritten BUT I give them the option to rewrite my words into something that sounds like they wrote it in the first place. Does that make sense? Usually what ends up happening is the author will use my basic example but maybe switch a few words around or revise just slightly. Or, they take the basic idea of the rewrite and write a new scene/section on their own. My point gets across and the revision is made, but the author doesn't feel as though I've completely taken over and changed their book.

2) WHAT DO YOU FIND IS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE AS AN EDITOR?

This isn't so much a challenge, but one of the most annoying things about being an editor is how quick other people are to point out when I make a mistake. I'll say the wrong word or misspell something, and they'll instantly be like, "Hey! But you're an editor. I can't believe you made that mistake." 

I want to be like EDITORS ARE PEOPLE TOO.

There is not one blog post I have ever written that doesn't have a mistake in it. Hopefully I catch it during my editing before it's published, but not all the time. It's actually a lot easier to catch mistakes in other people's writing than to catch them in your own. (<-- IRONY! I had a mistake in that very sentence I had to fix.) Also, on the weekends and basically whenever I'm not actually working, either at my day job or freelancing, it's like my brain shuts off or something, because I routinely do and say stupid things. I like to joke and say I'm "off duty" and my brain is resting.

I'd say one of my biggest challenges is trying to explain a difficult edit to someone. Sometimes I see the edit that needs to be made, but I can't figure out the right way to explain it. (See question #1)

3) IS IT CHALLENGING TO EDIT SOMETHING THAT IS VERY TECHNICAL AND DRY?

Yes and no. Obviously there are certain subjects I am more interested in than others. For me, it's going to be more interesting to read about, say, running than finance. But I have actually edited a few financial books, and I've enjoyed them! When I'm editing something, I'm thinking about that subject matter and how I can improve what I have before me.

There are a few things at my current work that I have to edit every month that literally put me to sleep. Like, I'm actually sitting at my desk nodding off. Clearly I'm not doing a good job editing something if I'm half asleep.

In that case, if something is really, truly just dull, I will give myself a set number of pages or a set amount of time I am going to edit before I move on to something else. That way, I can work in chunks and still do a good editing job even though the thing I'm editing might be super boring.

Also, in many cases (depending, of course, on the subject matter) if a book is dry, that means I as the editor need to do a good job making it not dry, which then makes editing it interesting, if that makes sense.

4) WHAT DO YOU DO IN A COLLEGE ENGLISH CLASS?

Mostly I read a lot of books, wrote a lot of essays, and discussed a lot of symbolism. A lot of symbolism. I also took some creative writing classes, so I wrote short stories. And I took a journalism class.

Actually, the reason I added a second major (religion) was because you can really only take so many English classes at once before you literally do not have enough time in the day to read all those books. (Yes, I actually read the books. I didn't use SparkNotes.) I had some holes to fill in my schedule and decided to tack on another major. Overachiever, anyone?

In my college English classes, we didn't talk about grammar that much, or at all, really. I learned grammar by looking up tons and tons of rules in the style book until I had them memorized. I still often refresh myself on rules just to make sure I'm doing it right, and I always look something up if I have a question.

Okay that's it for now! Next time I'll cover the following questions:

1) Are you ever able to just read for fun without editing what you're reading?

2) Do you edit other people's emails/blog posts/tweets?

3) Do you mentally edit people when they're talking?

4) Do you ever see yourself doing freelance editing full time?

5) Are you ever going to go back to school?

6) What does your supervisor do?

If you have a burning question that I haven't covered yet or don't have listed to cover in part 2, let me know so I can add it.

Life of an Editor [part 1]

Click here for Part 2!

A few months ago, Charlotte did a post titled "A Translator's Life" where she walked us through her day job working as a translator of books from English to French. It's not a job you run across every day, and I found it really interesting.

It got me thinking that some of you might be interested in how I got into editing and exactly what an editor does. This is going to be a two-part post. Part 1 will cover how I got into editing, a little bit about my job history, and my general workflow (or, how I edit). In Part 2, I will give some advice for someone wanting to get into editing and answer a few general questions I often get about editing and being an editor.

Most people switch their college major at least a few times, but I had always known that I wanted to major in English. I'd been saying it since middle school. This declaration was almost always followed up with: "So, do you want to be a teacher?"

My answer was always no. I honestly never did want to be a teacher. For one thing, I don't think I would be a good teacher. For another, it just never interested me. There was journalism, but I didn't (and still don't) think I would like reporting. So what was someone supposed to do with an English degree?

Ever since I can remember, I've had a passion for editing. It's such a weird thing to have a passion for, but I seriously love it. This is super nerdy, but one of my favorite things was getting a paper back from a professor with marks all over it and having the opportunity to revise it and turn it in for a higher grade. (Not that I, ahem, ever got ANY papers back with marks on them.) Friends started sending me their papers and resumes to look over, and I even had family members send me different things. So it's hard to pinpoint an exact moment when I thought editing might be a good career option for me, because I feel like I've been editing my whole life.

After college, I decided to look for jobs in the publishing world. I applied to all sorts of book publishing companies, magazines (both online and in print), journals, and websites. There are a ton of opportunities for editing that you don't even think about. For example, there are some full-time bloggers who pay editors to proofread their posts before they publish them. And let's not forget the amount of people who are writing books these days. Goodness knows they need editing before they share their works with the world. English is an extremely versatile major, I've discovered, because companies are always looking for people who can communicate professionally and communicate well, and that goes for anyone, no matter what your job it.

After all summer searching for jobs, I found one at a book publishing company in Oklahoma, where I worked in the editing department for 4 years. I left in the summer of 2012 to work for an online retail company based in Oklahoma City. I wrote product descriptions and handled a lot of their online marketing and social media accounts. I knew almost as soon as I started that I wouldn't be there long; it just wasn't the right fit for me. For one thing: I didn't love writing for a living as much as I loved editing. I guess they thought I wasn't the right fit either, because I got fired in February 2013 and was out of a full-time job for 8 months last year.

It was super stressful but also kind of awesome because I had a lot of freedom. I spent much of that time starting up a freelance editing business, which is still happening on the side (shameless plug) but is not quite as stressful since it isn't actually required to pay my bills. (Hence the fact that I've slacked on writing on my professional editing blog this summer. Starting that back up has been on my to-do list for a while now.)

There's a long story about how I found my current job, but the short version is that I Googled a list of nonprofit companies in OKC that were hiring and happened upon an ad for an editor of their monthly journal. Based on what they were looking for, I was under qualified (as in, I don't have a master's), but I had nothing to lose, so I applied anyway.

And booya, suckers! I scored a sweet gig at an office downtown OKC, where I get to edit to my heart's desire all the day long. I kind of love it a lot. That is why I always tell people to apply for any job, even ones you don't think you're qualified for. What do you have to lose?

As you can see by the photo I used to open this post, although I do edit mostly on the computer, I do still edit occasionally with an old-fashioned paper and red pen. I just like it, especially for articles that need extensive rewrites. I've found it's easier for me to print out the pages so I can flip through them, draw lines, and circle things rather than scrolling and clicking. It's also a needed break from staring at a computer for hours on end. Plus, on really nice days I take my papers and sit outside and edit. Winning.

The majority of my editing, however, happens on the computer in a Word document using Track Changes. If you're not familiar, Track Changes is a program that highlights changes you make in the document as you make them, so I can add or remove commas, add notes, and make suggestions, and the author will be able to see everything and accept or reject changes if they want to. This is the easiest way to exchange notes with an author and allow them to see all the changes that I am requesting.

At my day job, it's not uncommon for me to edit an article five or six times before it's ready for print. And I always read the entire thing out loud at least once. That's the best way to catch any tiny errors your eyes might jump over if you read through it on the computer.

When I'm doing freelance editing, I either do one or two edits, depending on what the author pays for. The first round is always more expensive because it's more extensive, but as you move through the editing rounds, the book is (hopefully) better, so there are less edits and it takes less time on my end.

I really can't explain how I edit as far as how I actually do it. I just read something and am able to see how a story or article works and the ways in which it needs to be changed to make it better. I can't tell you how I learned it or why I'm good at it. I just know that it's something I love doing, and I hope I continue to love it for a very long time.

Got any questions for me? I'll be covering some FAQs in Part 2, so let me know if you have a burning question about editing that I can answer for you!

The View from My Hotel Room

I'm back from my business trip! 

To say I was nervous is a grand understatement. I'm pretty sure I didn't stop sweating the entire two days I was in Salt Lake City. I got back on Saturday afternoon and crashed. I fully intended to sit down and write a recap post last night, but then my mother-in-law gave me a coupon for a free Shutterfly book that expired today, so I decided it would be a brilliant idea to get sucked into that rabbit hole. Five hours later. I swear, those books will be the death of me. At least now I have a 2013 recap book coming my way in a few weeks.

I just want to thank all of you who wished me well on my trip. I realize I was making entirely too big a deal out of this whole thing, but it's the first time I've ever traveled for business. I wanted to present myself well, especially considering I was leading a board meeting where I was the youngest one in the room by at least twenty years.

I'm so thankful for a job I don't hate and coworkers I actually enjoyed spending two full days with. Plus, see that picture up there? That was the view from my hotel room! Not too shabby.

I have more pictures to share plus a few stories, but for now, I will leave you with a view of Salt Lake City at night. This was taken coming down from higher on the mountain up in Park City on Saturday night. 

No editing, just the sunset over the mountains and the city lights. 
Happy Monday, friends.

Car Naps, Blog Cheating & Salmon Recipes

This post could alternatively be titled: 5 Random Things You Probably Won't Find Interesting but I'm Telling You Anyway, but... that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

1. Car Naps

Let's just come out with it: I've started taking naps in my car during my lunch hour.

*This is a picture of me c. 2011 jumping for joy after I paid off my car 

I can't decide how embarrassed I should feel about this, but I also kind of don't care because it's awesome. I only feel embarrassed when people walk through the parking lot and stare at me awkwardly, but then again I'm asleep, so really it doesn't matter.

My morning alarm has been going off super early lately (see #3), and by the time 2:00 rolls around, I'm pretty much falling asleep at my desk.

A few weeks ago, I took a blanket out to my car, cracked the windows, and fell dead asleep for about a half hour. I woke up feeling oh so good, and I didn't once feel tired during the afternoon! I started making my half-hour car nap a daily thing, and it's amazing. It helps that it takes me approximately .457 seconds to fall asleep, and I don't even set an alarm. I naturally wake up 20-30 minutes later feeling refreshed, even if I do have a bit of bed head going on.

**Be honest: On a scale of 1 to crazy, how weird would you rate my car naps?

2. Blogger Meetups

Remember in my March recap how I said I got together with Beka for the second time and we again forgot to take a picture? Well, we met up at the OKC marathon expo, and we finally took a picture together! 

This girl totally rocks. We've met three times now, and it's like talking to a friend I've known for years. Consequently, both of our husbands are glad neither of us turned out to be a psychopathic killer. I might not make any money from this blog, but I'm making friends, and that's really the best part.

**Have you met any blog friends in real life?

3. Blog Cheating

Bet you didn't know I have another blog, did you? Yes, I'm cheating on The Lady Okie, but only a little bit. I have an editing blog, where I post writing and editing tips once a week--every Thursday. If you're a writer or an editor, check out my editing blog!

Lately I've been waking up early before my morning workout (hello, 4:30 a.m.) to work on some freelance projects, hence the need for a midday siesta. When it rains, it pours apparently, because I last week I had THREE editing projects going on at once, hence my almost complete lack of blogging. I finished two of them, so I just have one more left. 

I edit for my day job, but I also do freelance editing on the side, so if you have a book that needs editing, let me know! I'm really very good.

4. Apparently I Like Salmon Now

I've gone through my entire life up until this year thinking I hated salmon. Well, turns out I do not, in fact, hate salmon. Who knew? 
Well, okay me. I didn't know.

Last week we ate it twice for dinner, and both recipes I tried were de-freaking-licious and very simple. Jordan approved as well. He's a huge salmon fan and is very excited that I like it too now. Here are the recipes, in case you're looking for new ways to cook salmon:

1. Black Bean Lime Salmon
2. Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon

**Any other salmon lovers in the house? Share a favorite recipe so I can try it!

5. Pullup Update

You may remember my announcement that I want to try to do 3 legit pullups this year. I shared with you a few awesome (in my opinion) arm workout videos. 

That was March 31.

Since that time, I have been working out my upper body almost every other day. Basically every time I go running, I add 15 minutes of arm workouts. I'm currently doing a lot of pushups, tricep dips, and lat pulldowns. I'm super proud of my progress on the lat machine. I'm doing 3 sets of 10. I started at 50 lbs, and just a few days ago I did my first set of 70 lbs! Progress. 

ALSO, Jordan and I are doing our own pushup challenge for May. We started May 1 with one pushup, and every day we add a pushup. By May 31, hopefully I'm able to do 31 pushups! I'll keep you posted. (<-- EDIT: Jordan would like it to be known that he is doing this with me as moral support, but apparently he already can do 31 pushups. I guess he's going to keep it going every day for a year...? So, yeah I don't know. I guess we'll see.)

All right. I think that's all I've got for today.

Now everyone share something random with me. Ready? Go.

***P.S. I hope you're planning on linking up on May 21 for Runners Tell All. This month's topic is: Share a running picture. I've got some good ones! And by good, I mean terrible. This should be fun. Go here for all the info.