Jon Jon loves me. Oh yes, he does...

I got to work late today - had an awards ceremony for The Soph. I am so grateful to work for a place that allows flexibility with my schedule. It is nice to not feel torn between attending an event or supporting your child and earning money. So as much as I can't wait to work from home again one day, i love, love, love my job here at the college.

I have some down time after they craziness before the holidays and am trying to take care of me for a bit. I was so sleep deprived and stiff and sore from so many nights of painting that I decided to train for a half marathon at the end of March. I have always loved to run and it gets me in shape the fastest. I have been training for almost 3 weeks now and in just the little time I am already feeling so much better. I have energy again and while I am still not sleeping great, at least I am feeling so much better during the day. I was such a zombie by the end of December!

I will have a lot of work coming up with my coloring books coming out in a few months plus some other projects in the works that are REALLY exciting. I am changing my name back to my maiden name of Michelle Nelson. I had toyed with the idea of Michelle Lee, but after much more thought Michelle Nelson just feel so, well, ME. So I need to change over my web domain and it is in need of a redesign - been so long since I have done that - cobblers children, no shoes and all that...

This really is a rambling post, but I guess that is what my brain is like right now. I had two months of intense concentration and now I am in this period of letting my brain just wander freely about before I get busy again. I think that is why I love my running so much. I have all this time to just think and ponder. I love it. I am up to 4 miles for my long runs and after this week the distance picks up more and more. The last time I ran a half marathon I was 19 so doing it at 36 is something that will make me really happy with myself. And if my butt gets smaller in the process? Well, happy day!!!

ok, sorry for the not much of anything interesting to say post, but I wish you all a meandering, relaxing Friday and for those of you lucky enough for a three day weekend like me? ENJOY! And wallow around in laziness and doing whatever you feel like. I know I will! Have fun!

In the car about to go to the movies.






Saw Marley and Me. Bawled our eyes out. BAWLED.





Came home and made milkshakes. Yum.






Made them 'fancy.'






Cuddled up on the couch and rented Phantom of the Opera.









Girl's night? AWESOME. The Soph is a very cool person to hang out with. I highly suggest getting your own The Soph. They're totally FUN.

Man, I have tried to sit down and write this post all week and weekend. Here goes again. I will post whatever point I get to this time regardless if it is done or not when children come in and begin asking for waffles, pancakes eggs or some such nonsense. Really? Breakfast? NOW? Can't you see I am writing in my DIARY!?? Gah, fine. Children and their getting in the way, eating food and such.

Ok, that kind of tangent writing is what gets me in trouble in the first place. Let me 'splain. No, no, there is no time for that, let me sum up. "Hey! you moved your little finger! That's great!" Ok, moving on! (BTW, If you get that reference you are my kinda person! Find me on Facebook and I will totally FRIEND you!!)

Ok to sum up:
1. I worked like a dog for all of November and December on a project. (A YEAR AGO - 2007) Woohoo! My ship!! Here it comes! I can see it!!

2. Meetings postponed. I was asked to work on another big project ASAP - a meeting coming in May.

3. Worked like mad for 6 weeks on said project.

4. Meeting in May postponed to June. Meeting in June postponed to July.

5. Meeting In July postponed to August. Grrrr.....

6. There was a GREAT meeting in August. Finally!! Wonderful things said about my art, another meeting scheduled for later. But much enthusasm and promise was conveyed to me. "This is good!!" they say. Things take time!! 8 months of waiting is NOTHING! It takes 9 to make a baby, this is your labor of insanity, er, love you think.

7. Meanwhile, you get asked to work on the other products. You say "Ok, sure," but think, "yeah RIGHT, screw you, give me something to get excited about, maybe THEN I will bust ass for you again for nothing!"

8. Don't do another thing and enjoy your evenings of relaxation, cooking meals that include actual VEGETABLES for your children.

9. Begin to get antsy with all this free time at night. Just working 40 hours a weeks feels so...wrong...and lazy of you. Boyfriend says to enjoy it, it could change and you will wish you had rested. Think to yourself about all the naps you should totally have taken when you were preggers before the baby arrived and how you wished you had listened to those smug, know it all moms that you thought were just being perfect. Turns out those moms were right and knew you were about to join the darkside too and they were secretly gloating over the fact that I thought I had a clue about babies and was going to be insane and sleep deprived just like them. ANd they KNEW you wouldn't take those damn naps and you would be regretting it one day!! Decide you will do the same thing to other joyful, yet completely naive young mothers too for revenge - sounds like fun.

10. Get all rested up. Enjoyed the primetime line up again after WAY TOO LONG. Realize I am still not over my anger at the writer's strike.

11. Received a phone call the first week of November that went some thing like this: ""They are interested!! VERY interested!! We need you to finish the other three products NOW. Or yesterday is even better! You've been working on them right???? ASAP!! Faster than that if possible! Do you know magic maybe???"

12. Suddenly it is like a newborn has been thrust into my arms. I need to finish 70 illustrations in about 6 weeks. While still working full time. Oops. Why didn't I listen to those other moms?! This is gonna suck.

13. I don't sleep.

14. Kids eat much mac and cheese and instant mash potatoes. Pizza man begins to call us by name and asks how the dogs are and how the painting is going.

15. There is no sleeping to be had.

16. I am slowly going insane, but moving forward.

17. Write many sleep deprived posts that all start, "Good lord am I tired."

18. Feel bad that I am so boring, but too tired to care.

19. FINISH the illustrations!!!!

20. Go on Christmas break in Florida and SLEEP. Also maybe eat too much. Come back with pants a wee tight from cake, candy and maybe copious amounts of wine.

21. Come back into town, sleep more. Go to lots of movies.

22. Have awesome New Year's party. Rock Band too much. Drink too much, have headache next day. Sleep in until 1pm next day. Ouch.

23. Work starts.

24. Half-Marathon training for 12 weeks starts because I need another project that will keep me busy for 3 months that will make my butt smaller instead of bigger like the last one.

25. Running going great. Up to 3 miles by Wednesday. Half-Marathon is March 29.

26. THE MEETING is scheduled for Thurs. Jan 8.

27. I am HORRIBLE to be around. Boyfriend, children, dogs, coworkers all shudder and scatter when I come around.

28. I am SCARED. I don't want a postponement. Worse, dear God, I cannot handle a year of my life (6 years in the making) being REJECTED even if it is just one buyer.

29. FINALLY get the phone call at 5:30pm after FREAKING out all day at work.

30. Hobby Lobby is buying my coloring book!!!! They ordered LOTS of each of four books! And plan on reorders throughout the year with numbers that sound BIG to me. They have a meeting in February to see the prototypes for the other product we made (18 in that series - can't say what it is yet but they said YES to the coloring books!!!)

31. I am in disbelief. A huge, national chain has agreed to carry coloring books filled with MY art!! It is CRAZY!!!

32. I go on my run, not sure I am actually running or floating.

33. I get a phone call, "Hobby Lobby wants to see any other coloring books you can have by the February meeting. We are thinking at least two more, can you do that?"

34. "If you want, I can fly." (Same movie - srsly, if you know we should totally be friends. Look me up.)

35. Friday night the fam and I goe out to celebrate at 'spensive steak house. YUM.

36. Kids order steak, mac and cheese and french fries. Not a veggie to be seen. Too happy to care.

37. Run 4 miles the next day. Feels good.

38. Made dinner that night. Involved vegetables. Children ate them. Good mom!


So the last year was a little crazy. Ok, insane. But I managed. And I have the payoff. And there are other meetings scheduled with other stores. And no, I can't quit my job. I only make a small percentage on each book. Don't ask how much, I am not gonna tell you. People react all weird when money starts getting discussed. Let me put it this way if you are super curious, I know I was curious before all this began. All the sayings are true. It IS a labor of LOVE. Don't do any of this to get rich or quit your job. I intend on quitting my job AND getting rich on my art EVENTUALLY. But this first sale, while it is AWESOME and I am SO HAPPY, and Hobby Lobby is my most FAVORITEST store EVER, is not making me rich. It will be a nice check that will get put in the bank and I won't even see that check for 4 to 8 months depending on where in the yearly quarter the order gets placed/paid. Do it because you love it. The money will follow. In the meantime, you better have a full time job or a rich partner. Rich partner is TOTALLY the way to go if you can find it, I highly recommend that one. You would get to sleep much more I suspect.

Pics from the celebration dinner that included protein and LOTS of starches! (Please ignore my children's hair. Attempts were made, I promise. But it was a Friday after school and hoods and hats and all. Don't judge. You can totally judge on the veggie thing if you feel so compelled, but the hair thing? YOU try motivating preteens about their hair and get back to me on that one.)