Young Shelece Writing

I've been going through boxes and boxes of my old stuff lately... Things that used to be stored in my parents' basement.

I'm starting to think I never got rid of anything, ever. :) It's fun to see all the reminders of my past life, and also a little trippy. I thought a lot of this stuff was gone for good.

I found a ton of old stories that I wrote in my youth. In my elementary days, I went through a horse loving phase where I read and wrote about girls and their horses. Since I was a suburbanite with very little contact with horses, I got very creative sometimes. :)

In middle school and high school, I wrote comedy novels mostly. I really enjoyed reading through those... especially the comedy fantasy novel I wrote back in middle school. The plot is pretty loosey goosey and it was definitely written by a 13 year old, but you know what, the dialogue actually is funny. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it after all this time... but then, I am biased. :)

As I've gotten older, my writing has gotten more dramatic. It's funny, I tend to either write pure comedy or very dramatic. It's hard to decide which tone to take. Reading through my teenage writings that were almost always comedy... I wonder if that is what I should go back to! It is a lot of fun, and I do enjoy making people laugh.

Molly's Gotcha Day

Today marks 2 years since I brought this cute little bundle of fur home! Hard to believe it's only been that long.

She sure has grown up!

My 100 List

I read an awesome article in the BYU magazine today that really inspired me. "Make a 100 List and Thrive." The basic idea is this: Life is what you make it. Make a list of the 100 things you most want to do in this life, and then make them happen. Live the life you've dreamed. Making a list and planning is the way to achieve your dreams rather than wasting your potential.

It got me wondering, what's on my 100 list? What do I most want to do with my life? I've started my list, although I have a long way to go. Dr. Taniguchi (the man featured in this article) has a rule that he can add to his list, but he can't take anything off. I don't think I can commit to that. Life changes and what I want out of life changes from time to time too. Even so, I'm really trying to ponder what the deepest desires of my heart are....... It will take a lot for something to make this list, so it'll probably be short for a while, but eventually I'll reach 100! I don't want to put anything on there just for the sake of reaching the number--I really want to record 100 things that are meaningful to me.

I've decided too that it's okay to include some things I've already done, lifelong dreams that came true. It's very motivating to be able to cross some things off the list right from the start. :)

Anyway, here's my baby list, waiting to grow. Since my laptop hard drive is on the brink of failing (yesterday it told me my "Documents" folder no longer existed....) I'll store it here in the cloud. They aren't in any particular order... except for the first 3, which are my most important lifelong dreams I've had since I was a little girl.

Shelece's 100 List:

Get married November 4, 2017

Be a mom January 11, 2020

Write a book

Graduate college April, 2010

Get a master's degree April, 2012

Be a published author 2012. So far I've got 4 published articles (first author on 3), a textbook chapter, and some Healthy Relationships California in-house research publications. Someday I'd love to add fiction to this list!

Go to Hawaii November 5, 2017

Go to Europe (especially UK and France!) July 2016, October 2019

Go to South America

Go to Australia

Go to Asia

Go to Africa (basically I want to see 6 out of 7 continents... I have 0 interest in Antarctica. :)

Adopt a puppy February 18, 2017

Buy a house August 2018

Serve a mission

Learn a foreign language fluently

Learn how to ride a horse

Ride in a hot air balloon

Eat gator meat

Try asam pedas fish

Take my kids to see fireflies

Take my kids to the church history sites

Go to a floating lantern festival November 7, 2015

See the Northern lights

Visit Bourtange

A Million Beginnings

So, that writing challenge I am attempting...

It's in conjunction with a writing conference that is coming up, so my professor has interviewed a few different writers about their methods of starting a book.

One of them talked about writing multiple first lines, multiple beginnings, until something really clicks with her and sticks. I've been giving that a try. The challenge is to write a new opening line everyday for 30 days. I'm way behind on that, but I have drafted 5 or 6 different book openings at this point. The challenge is, none of them have stuck yet, but... it is helping me get my ideas out there and think through what I really want to write about. Hopefully one of these times something will click. Wish me luck!

Deleting my Facebook?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm thinking of deleting my Facebook.

I'm addicted to social media, sad to say. It got to the point where it was the first thing I looked at when I woke up, the last thing before I went to sleep. Any time I had free time, my first instinct was to pull up my Facebook and Instagram apps.

About a year ago (ish) I got Trevor to change my passwords to both Facebook and Instagram. Now I can only get on when he signs me on. That has helped me a lot. But you know, when he does get me on, I run into the same old problems. I get sucked in for longer than I should. While I have it available, I'm on it constantly.

And lately I've noticed whenever I do get on, it just makes me sad! I've heard of course that social media can be linked to depression and to comparing the best parts of other people's lives to your own struggles. I thought I had the perspective to not be affected by that, but tell you what, if I'm on Facebook I swear it takes me less than 5 minutes to notice myself getting sad or upset about something.

So the logical thing to do is to get rid of it. But can I really bring myself to do that? I've been on there for 13 years... It's a great way to communicate with friends and family.  It's got a history of my entire adult life.

Eh... maybe I can keep weaning myself off of it.

Life Unmasked

So I noticed a paradigm shift yesterday.

I've never been huge into make up. I don't know how to contour my face, I've never figured out lipstick. I just stuck to concealer, foundation, and mascara, with occasionally a bit of eyeliner or lip gloss. But man, did I stick to that concealer/foundation/mascara! I wore it every day all day, putting it on first thing and taking it off right before bed. I suffered a lot from acne as a teenager and early-twenties lady, so I was very self conscious of my face and I tried to keep it covered up. There were years in Provo when my own roommates never saw me without makeup.

So, then I married Trevor. I wasn't surprised when he told me he wasn't a big fan of makeup. Guys say that sometimes, but usually what they mean is, they don't like tons of makeup that looks fake. They like a little bit of natural looking makeup and they don't realize that it's makeup.

I was surprised when it turned out Trevor really didn't like makeup. It took me a long time to believe that he really liked my bare face without anything to cover it up... but that is really his preference. Slowly I started experimenting with skipping make up for days at a time. I work from home, and so I'd leave off the makeup on days when I knew Trevor would be the only one to see me. I'd put it on if I needed to leave the house for anything. But life got busy, and so sometimes I dared to leave the house without putting makeup on.... Somehow, the world did not end. People didn't react to me much differently than they had before. So... that has slowly become my new normal. I still put makeup on every once in a while, but most of the time, I don't bother with it. Somehow, Trevor thinks I am beautiful anyway.

This weekend I sorted through some of my boxes I hadn't unpacked yet. I came across a box that was stuffed with makeup. I've never quite found a foundation that matched my skin tone just right, but I've sure tried hard. There were lots of bottles of different foundations, some hardly used as I realized they just weren't going to work for me. There were mascaras and eyeliners and even some blushes, things I'd purchased during my single years in hopes it might help me win over a man (irony of ironies!).

Some of it was old and gross and easy to toss. Some of it still looked promising, so I spent some time testing out different things to see if anything was worth keeping.

It was weird. There I was, looking at myself in the mirror and going through the same motions of putting on foundation that I did every day for years. I never thought twice about it before... but this time, it seemed kind of silly. This time... I realized I did like my natural skin better than any unnatural product.

Maybe if I could find a foundation color that actually looked good on me, I'd feel differently. Maybe Trevor is getting to me and maybe I'm just getting used to seeing my face this way.

I have nothing against makeup or women who wear it. For me though... it's sort of liberating to not feel like I need it anymore. I feel more confident in myself as I am, and that's a great feeling!

Although I admit I also tried some lipstick yesterday and I was surprised how much I liked that! 😅

A Tale of Necklaces

Which is sadder... that I somehow inexplicably have both halves of a best friend necklace I remember giving to someone in Elementary School, or that I've completely forgotten who gave me the other best friend necklace?

Trevor and I are working through the boxes my parents brought from their house, which contain junk I've collected for my whole life. It's amazing the stuff I'm finding!