Dirty Girls (pictures!)

Last year in December I challenged my mom. I challenged her to do Tough Mudder (http://toughmudder.com/), a 10 to 12 mile challenge course with over 20 obstacles. To get ready for Tough Mudder, which helps to Wounded Warrior Project (http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/), we decided to do the Dirty Girl Mud Run (http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/), a 3 mile challenge course with 11 obstacles which is only for women and helps the National Breast Cancer Foundation (http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/). 

We arrived and were all clean and ready for the fun to begin. 

We first had to climb over several stacks of hay called the Barn Burner which was a piece of cake, then up and over this bouncy castle type of thing.

And the laughter then began.

Into the Utopian Tubes we went and then for a little walk to our next obstacle with a cool water break on the way.

Over the triangles that got progressively bigger after the 20+ foot  Cargo Net that we had to climb up and over (so proud of my mommy!)

Into one of the several mud pits called PMS or Pretty Muddy Stuff.

And then the Jail Break, which we had to go over...

...then under.

After some more triangles...

...then the Hangover, hanging tires with tires below.

We gave each other mud baths...good for the skin :)

and then got in some more mud.

Through the Spider's Web

and over the wall

Some suspicious looking hand prints.

and ended it all with another mud bath.

WE DID IT!

Then the boys had way too much fun spraying us off at home...next time we are showering there.

PUBLISHED!

The smile on my face could not get bigger right now! Let me explain.

Each year for the past three years I take part in what is called National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short. NaNoWriMo is a competition, as much with others as it is with yourself as participants are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and the 30th. That's roughly 1,667 words a day. For the past three years, I took part in NaNoWriMo. The first year I barely finished, staying up late on the 30th and finished just short of midnight ~ the cut off. I didn't really like my story and haven't looked back at it since. The second year I finished during the day of the 30th but didn't really like my story again. 

The third year I was determined. I finished the 50,000 words on the 29th but still had to finish the story. With exams around the corner, I decided to do some editing during winter break. I gave it a look over and it wasn't half bad, actually, it was pretty good if I may say so. I tried to get my sister to help me edit but that didn't work. With the spring semester starting it was buried under books and homework. Summer came and the books went away, which is when I started to edit again. I knew it would be better to have someone else look over it to make sure my message was being conveyed and not that I just understood what I wrote several months before. That is when I enlisted Mason, my boyfriend, to help. He read it over giving notes and suggestions where he saw fit. I read them over and made changes and he read it again, catching things neither of us caught before. It was good. It was better than good. It was ready. I went to CreateSpace, a free self-publishing website, set up an account and published my book. That was a few days ago. On the 11th my book was on Kindle through Amazon. Today I just checked and my book is on Amazon. I'm on Amazon! (http://www.amazon.com/Keys-Sonja-Bauer/dp/1478367466/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344967175&sr=8-2&keywords=keys+sonja+bauer if interested). How crazy is this? I am on amazon!?! I couldn't be happier right now!

Dammit

On Thursday morning dad opened the garage door as we keep Dammit (our new kitten) still in there for the night and when we go away for a while so she/he is protected. Dammit was just as energetic as ever. When it was time for us to leave for several hours, we were calling her name (it is fun to go around the yard yelling DAMMIT!), she didn't return. Typical for the day time so we put some extra water out, closed the garage door and were off. When we came home later that day, we went around calling for her again and much to our dismay, she didn't turn up. Friday we didn't see her either so we are pretty sure one of two things happened. One, a hawk got her (living in the country and her still being small that could happen) or two, a car on the road saw a kitten without a collar (we never put collars on our cats), opened the door and she climbed in, having the people think that they were rescuing the poor little animal. 
I'm hoping someone thought they were doing good and 'rescued' her (even though she didn't need rescuing), but either way, you will be missed.