Pink Think: “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain
The other night, I lied to a bunch of teenage girls.
We were playing a game called “Two Truths and a Lie” where a person writes down two things they’ve actually done, and one thing that is a lie. And then the rest of the players try to guess which one is the lie.
My lie: I played professional tennis.
Two of the girls, for their lies, said “I am pretty” and “I am skinny”. Sigh. Self-image issues…but that’s for another post.
Anyway, I thought it was so cool to hear the positive things people have to say about themselves. So I decided to play it here on my blog.
I’ll tweak it a bit. We’ll play “Three truths”. That’s right, no lies. What are three things you are proud of having accomplished in the past 12 months?
I’ll start.
1. Yesterday, I did not yell at my daughter. We are running late for my son’s soccer game. My oldest daughter is still in the house, so I grab her shoes and jacket and tell her to come quickly to the truck. When she finally emerges, she has a folder and book in her arms. She gets in the truck and I am really tempted to lecture her that next time we are late for something, to please not worry about bringing something to read. But I hold my tongue and don’t. At the soccer game, I realize the folder is homework she still needs to finish. Thank goodness Mom zipped it this time.
2. Last November, I finished the first draft of a novel in thirty days. It was for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where you write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. Insane but so worth it. I am revising that story right now (“Girl From Gurian”).
3. Last month, I hitched, loaded and hauled a horse trailer by myself (without my husband to coach me). When all the horses were accounted for, my oldest daughter said, “Yehey, and we made it in one piece!”
Okay, guys and gals. Your turn!What are three things you are proud of having accomplished in the past 12 months?
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Why is it so tough?
Um.
1. I finished a story I’ve been working on.
2. I went rock climbing and loved it.
3. I learned how to can chicken.
-lies are so much more exciting!!
Hmmm…I agree. This is tough!!
1. I am updating my blog regularly. That really is a feat for me!!
2. I started writing a book! I really haven’t seriously tried to write since NaNoWriMo of ’04. lol.
3. I registered with the county and state to be an official business owner. (I’m a photog. http://www.doggonepetphotography.com) It hasn’t paid off yet, I am just proud that I did it!!
This rocks! It was cool to read these things you’ve shared.
1} I’m trying to get pregnant with baby #6. Hopefully our last one. We’ve been trying since January.
2} I love going to the temple with my husband. I especially love it when one of us is in the Celestial room first- that way it is a reminder, or reflection, on what it will be like to have a loved one anxiously waiting across the veil for you. Or vice versa…anticipating to get to see the person who’s gone on before.
3} I wan to go sky diving and scuba diving. I look forward to the day I can! {Knowing me I’ll probably chicken out when it’s time to sky dive! teehee}
Er,
1) I was junior high sit-and-reach champion!
2) I’ve finished two novels, though they’re languishing in the land of the unpublished.
3) I’ve had eight addresses in four years.
Ah, this is hard, but fun so let me try:
1. I started blogging. Yah, I’m a newbie to this.
2. I’m letting my daughter figure out her college major without my opinion getting in the way of communication.
3. I went out on a field trip with my Canon to take pictures. I say I’m into photography but it’s always pushed aside for other stuff, so I’m going to do this more often.
Three truths…I’m with the others here – tough!
1. I went whitewater rafting for four days out in the wilderness – one of the best experiences of my life.
2. I started to blog this spring. Another one of those things that has really been an awesome experience!
3. I spent a good majority of the summer biking to work. It’s been great for my health (and saves at the gas pump too!).
To Queen of Chaos – I’ll just say about sky-diving, if you’re thinking about it, then I encourage you to do it. I did it a couple of years ago, and it was terrifying, but it was also another awesome experience that I’m so glad I did.
Cute idea for a blog post, Pink, but I’m gonna have to excuse myself for reasons of chronic pathological lying.
Heather: I’ve gone rock climbing and I’ve never been back since…too chicken, I guess:-).
Terra: Pet photography…sounds fun :-).
Queen: Just went today to the temple with my hubby. Always a great day when we do.
Rachel: Wow, that’s a lot of moving around. Colecting great material for your next novel, huh? 🙂
Marivic: I can’t believe you have a college-age daughter already. You don’t look old enough to have one :-).
Lance: We went for half a day whitewater rafting this past spring. I hope some day we can go for days. That would be amazing.
BPV: Goofball! :-).
One is supposed to be a lie, right?
Okay, here goes:
1) I sent three of my four daughters to school this year.
2) I developed and stuck to a strict schedule which started about three and a half months ago.
3) I started blogging.
Which is the lie??
Hi Serena! Actually, no, they all have to be truths :-), but I’ll take a stab at guessing that #1 is the lie…?
1. The last time I cut my hair, even for a trim, was almost two and a half years ago, when I cut eighteen inches of hair.
2. The don’t write songs too high for me to sing.
3. My (blasted) writing project is going much more slowly than I wish it would.
In the last twelve months?
I finished the first draft of my first novel and started on revisions.
My son got married and I didn’t tell my daughter-in-law how to run the wedding. Much. ;o) (Seriously, I didn’t.)
I went to Italy and actually managed to communicate in my very broken Italian. Once I even played “translator” for three women who spoke no Italian at all.
PI, if you’re a lover of pink, you would really appreciate my daughter’s dye job…
1. I’ve lost 30 lbs this past year
It was very hard but I feel great.
2. I got a very challenging calling but I’m working with it and learning to be better.
3. I love to write in my blog
Ok, while I would love to pull a BPV response, I did think of three things FINALLY that I could share..and like the rest of you, this was HARD!
1. I started getting out more and going more places. After suffering with acute agoraphobia for the last 35 years, I’ve been able to return to work and go back to church and hold a calling for the first time in 3 years.
2. Welcomed the birth of my 6th grandchild…a granddaughter. Was able to go and be there for her birth and welcome her to the world.
3. Go to the doctor BY MYSELF for the first time in about 5 years.
There that’s enough!
I love this. Three truths that people often think are lies:
1. I sewed patches on an official shirt that President Bush wore when he came to Oregon seven years ago. (I’m sure he’s never worn it again, and that it’s probably in the bottom of the White House Basement by now…)
2. I’ve never been skiing in my life and have no desire to do so.
3. I once helped deliver hammerhead shark babies. (Completely true! Long story, though — maybe I’ll blog about it one day…)
Okay, so I just realized that I missed the “in the last 12 months” part. Sorry. I was just so excited to play the game!
In the last twelve months:
1. I costumed a local production of Oklahoma! and loved every minute of it.
2. I stopped eating chocolate. I haven’t eaten a nibble since the day after christmas last year!
3. I mowed my front lawn for the first time in four years. (My husband usually does it, but he’s been gone fighting forest fires all summer!)
These are great answers, everyone. Thanks for playing the game. I love getting to know you better and cheering you on :-).
Q: Eighteen inches of hair…my hair is getting about that long. And I’m still waiting for the day when I get tired of it to whack it all off 🙂
Janet: Hi there! *I finished the first draft of my first novel and started on revisions.* That’s great!
Shellie: *30 lbs* Good for you!
CJ: Wow, you have taken amazing strides.
Sue Q: *hammerhead sharks* you’ll have to tell bout it more on your blog. *costumes* How fun! *no chocolate since Christmas* Okay, I’ve gone without soda for a long, long time, but chocolate? I don’t know if I could :-).
1. I took the kids on vacation by myself–and we all survived and had fun.
2. I got a book contract.
3. I ran a whole mile 🙂
Ohhh, I love this idea!!! (although it IS a toughie…LOL)
1. My hubby, son and I went to MD to visit my mom who has been in the hospital since May of this year. It was so good to see her after all she has been through…..and it had been over a year since we had seen her anyway!! (we live in TN)
2. After many years of wanting another baby, I finally got my IUD out in August and we are actively trying to conceive #2!!!
3. I got out of my scrapbooking funk and am finally starting to catch up!!!!
1) I like ice cream
2) I can deadlift 500 pounds
3) I am pretty 😉
I loved reading this post, but reading all these comments and what the others did have also been very fascinating! That’s why I came back for a seconfd look 🙂
Hi, PInk. I guess I made up my own rules, oops! The lie was number two. 🙂
Okay, I’m in.
1)I scrapped my novel and wrote an entirely new 60+ word MS that throws my MC back about 5 years.
2) I started taking Tang Soo Do and my goal is to learn bo staff. 🙂
3) Instead of moping for more than a few days about feeling alone in my writing, I organized an online critique group and had a friend build us a website.
There three really good things in my life. 🙂
Michelle
In the last year? Gosh.
Okay, well, here goes:
1) Last spring I did not lose my temper at Parent-Teacher conference with the psycho-dad who threatened me by e-mail for weeks, then screamed at me and put his fist 2 inches from my face at the meeting. (His daughter had lost a third of her points on a research project by failing to hand in her bibliography, if you want to know what set him off.) I merely called the police officer over and watched psycho-dad simmer while he was FINALLY forced to listen.
What I really wanted to do was squirt him with a fire hose. But I didn’t.
2) I did a week in Orkney (islands north of Scotland) this July, ignored the pain in my back, climbed cliffs and shimmied on my belly into tombs, tramped around 5000-year-old villages, etc. I’d been wanting to go for a couple of years now.
3) I’m nearly 28000 words into a new YA novel that I started at the end of August. It looks like the first draft will be finished by Christmas, and I may even reach my goal of 32000 words by Sept. 30. I’ve had plot and character ideas for this one since the summer of 2002, so it’s good that I’m finally writing it.
Heather: *book contract* I hope to be able to say that, too, someday :-). Good for you, taking your kids on vacation by yourself, and having fun to boot!
Christine: Can you believe, my husband scrapbooks around here? (Well, he puts photos on pages, nothing real fancy, but still) He finally realized, if he didn’t do it, it won’t get done 🙂
S William: You’re not just another pretty face, are you? 🙂
Marivic: *looks around* Yes, we have some interesting people around here, don’t we?
Serena: No worries!:-) Really? That’s the lie?
Michelle: It was great to see you Saturday, and I admire you for making things happen instead of waiting around.
PW: *fire hose* What a funny thought! *Scotland* sounds wonderful.
1. Taking an NLP and life coaching class.
2. I committed to blogging.
3. I committed to my spiritual practice.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! And congrats for finishing a novel!
Three things I’m proud of this past year?
1. I survived living in an extended hotel for s weeks.
2.I submitted to an agent.
3. I started my own writer’s group.
PS, my daughter’s inlaws grew up in the Phillipines too. Never been to Utah–I bet it’s beautiful!
Evelyn: I don’t like homework, but I love taking classes, too.
Terri: “Hi” to you too :-). Way to submit to an agent and form a writer’s group. Going “public” with my fiction has helped me take it to the next level.
Utah is indeed beautiful, and definitely very different from the Philippines :-).
1. I brought home my daughter
2. I cleaned house on some old relationships
3. I found yoga
4. I made a career move to be a novelist and I never looked back
(oops that is 4, is that allowed?)
Yay, Elizabeth, especially on number 4 (crossing my fingers for you on your ms). Yes, 4 is okay!!
1. I built a lot of an addition on my home. (It’s not done yet.)
2. I had a baby.
3. I started (and kept) working on another novel.
I know, I’m late but I wanted to join in.
Alison: I saw your handiwork on your blog, you go girl And good luck on the novel (congrats on the baby and writing during naptime:-)!
Oh fun! You’re another NaNo’er! I did NaNo last year for the first time and it was so fun! I’m planning to try again this year, are you?
What a Card: I won’t be doing it this year. I need to finish my current project first. 🙂 But cool for you…good luck and have fun!!