Archives for November 2014

Thursday in Pictures

November 21, 2014 by Kathryn

Enterprise upgraded me to this cute little Jeep at no extra charge because of the possible pending snowpocalypse later this week.

Because of some work being done on the plumbing at my in-laws house, we got to drink bottled water the whole time I was there. I even brushed my teeth with bottled water. Whoever said book tours were not glamorous was obviously not me.

And raspberries in Utah in winter for breakfast? Living the high life.

Arriving at KSL Studios in Salt Lake for the taping of Studio 5 with Brooke Walker. None of the other guests had an entourage. I felt sad for them.

I had on my TV interview shoes.

And they gave me a mic.

They did not let me keep it.

They shot it like it was live, pausing between segments just long enough for commercial breaks and adding in titles, B-roll and voice-overs as they went.

Brooke was super nice and easy to talk to. She should do this for a living.

We both have excellent posture.

My sister caught this picture of me right before I went on. Nervous much?

And afterward, we got silly in the fancy chairs.

Then off to see my sister’s office in the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Gorgeous view from her floor.

Afternoon Drops of Awesome talk with friends old and new in Saratoga Springs.

Fun fancy “liquid awesome” Mary Kay stuff from one of my favorite people Myla and a thematically appropriate gift from Sina. Aren’t these cute?

I stopped by the temple where Dan and I were married and recreated this picture all by myself. I miss my boyfriend who’s at home winning Husband of the Year while I live it up in the UT.

Then fun times with the nieces and nephews at my sister Heather’s house.

And a book talk at my favorite public library.

I love these people.

And the CRAZIEST of all crazy faces. Wow. I straight up look like that sometimes.

An Awesome Book Tour

November 20, 2014 by Kathryn

This week I get to be an author on tour. The sentence I first came up with to begin this post was, “This week I get to pretend to be an author on tour,” but if we’re sticking with the Drops of Awesome belief that in the small moments of doing great things, we actually become the people we dream of being, then today? Tomorrow? I am a rock star author. I am leaving my home to go somewhere different and promote my book. I’m on tour.

Drops of Awesome!

I’ll tell you what there will be on this tour. Books. And good food. And great friends. And LOTS of vitamin C.

I’ve been fighting a cold since Saturday. Oh what a fierce battle it has been, but so far, so good. Thanks to some great advice from people who live on Facebook – *HI PEOPLE WHO LIVE ON FACEBOOK* – I have boosted the heck out of my immune system so the germs keep doing their worst but my body keeps shoving them back down.

This trip is something I’ve wanted to do since I wrote the original Drops of Awesome blog post in 2012. I have family and friends in Utah and a whole bunch of readers there, readers who should be friends and who hopefully will be after this weekend. I went to school there and I’ve been wanting to go back and connect with a bunch of people who have supported Drops of Awesome from the first day I put it online.

When you publish a small book, and honestly nearly any-sized book these days, you mostly promote it yourself. There aren’t big, extravagant book tours and I get it. They don’t really sell that many books. But this trip isn’t about selling books. Okay. It’s a little bit about selling books, as evidenced by the orders placed by Barnes and Noble for my events and the fifty-ton suitcase full of Awesome reading material I checked at the baggage counter. Mostly though, it’s about meeting people. And spreading Awesome. And seeing my new niece in person for the first time. And playing games with my sisters. And buying new clothes so I can be on TV because it is a fact that you can never be on TV wearing clothes that have been worn previously.

A word about the outfit. I love the outfit. The outfit took me three hours of concentrated shopping to find. The email from KSL recommended that I not wear black, white, red, patterns, sparkles… the list went on. Now, all of these recommendations were specifically to help me look better on TV and I’m grateful for them, but, MAN it was hard to find an outfit to meet those specifications. I did. It is accidentally purple. I know. Weird.

Now I talked about how I’m doing a lot of the promotion myself, but I’ve been lucky to work with a publisher that has a small staff of talented publicists who work way too many hours and they’ve helped me out a ton putting this Utah trip together and with other marketing stuff. When I said, “Utah,” they said, “How high?” and then they helped me schedule radio and TV interviews and book signings all in one weekend to maximize the trip.

And they’re not the only ones to hook me up. My brother-in-law offered to buy me a plane ticket down there with his bounteous air miles, and my family and friends have offered up so many spare beds, sofas, and air mattresses, I could stay for three weeks and sleep in a different bed each night.

It’s Wednesday night and I’m on a plane from Seattle to Salt Lake City. Sitting alone. Well, not alone exactly. But no one is asking me for snacks or where the potty is, or telling me their ears feel funny. It’s a strange way to travel.

Dan and several of my lady friends are taking care of the kids this week, getting them to their band practices and performances, Cub Scout meetings, music and dance classes, birthday parties and a whole lot of school. I’m super grateful because the truth is? I’m really excited for this time to get away to talk to people about ideas I’m passionate about. What could be more fun than this?

Event details can be found here.

My BYU Radio interview with Kim Power Stilson from earlier today can be found here.

I’ll be on Studio 5 with Brooke Walker on KSL in Utah on Friday at 1:00pm MST. (Link to come)

The pictures in this post are from a recent book talk and signing at King County Library in Duvall. Below are pictures of me making crazy-sauce faces while I speak. You know you want to see that in person! If you’re in Utah, come see me.

Santa Sent Me a Letter – Discount Code

November 13, 2014 by Kathryn

I never wondered why Santa didn’t write back to me. I knew. That guy was WAY WAY WAY too busy to write letters to every single kid. Sure, Christmas Eve magic could allow him to break into the home of every kid in the world, reverse-robbery-style, but I thought letter writing would be a waste of that power. I didn’t expect a letter. But it would have made my DECADE if I had gotten one.

Well, things have changed. We’re in the digital age now and Santa’s got mad skills and communication tactics. For the past several years, the fat man has sent a free personalized video message to my kids using the PNP. When they’re 70 and I’m 90, I will still be making sure they get a video from Santa. We love these so bad.

This year I discovered a new way to hear from Santa and I’m excited about it. SantaSentMeALetter.com. It’s digital world meets old school Christmas charm, internet form meets sealing wax. The company let me go through the process and request a Santa letter for my youngest and it was a HUGE hit.

The girl who begs for mail every day and shouts with glee when I tell her that the political smear flyer with a picture of our state senator behind bars stomping on puppies is special mail for her was overjoyed to get a real letter addressed to her from one of her favorite superheroes.

It came in an envelope with a postmark from the North Pole and the letter inside was sealed with red sealing wax. She couldn’t rip it open fast enough.

Then the letter itself was personalized, talking about our family, her big life goal to stay in bed ever, our faith, and her favorite toys and friends. She proceeded to carry it around with her all night, periodically asking any literate person in her path to read it again.

It was sweet and we loved it. If you’d like to try sending your child a letter from Santa, they’re about ten bucks and well worth it, but you can get 15% off now through December 1st, if you use the code DARING2014. It seems early, but it’s really not if you think about prep and shipping time. Christmas is coming, you guys!!

So how do you best communicate with the fat man in red?

Rangel Love

November 10, 2014 by Kathryn

Wanda has a best friend. They share a lot in common. They both love Captain America. They love to play together. They’re both amazing artists and pass notes back and forth during church. I have taught both of their classes at church, although not at the same time. They aren’t exactly the same age.

They both love gum.

According to Wanda, if they were both robots, this is what they’d look like.

Although Wanda’s best friend’s parents pronounce her name “Rachel,” we’re pretty sure it’s pronounced, “Rangel.” At least, that’s how Wanda says it. I’ve heard it both ways.

If Wanda had to choose between Rangel and ice cream, she’d choose Rangel. When Wanda had to choose one friend to have over for her birthday, she chose Rangel. If Wanda had a choice between me and Rangel, well… we will never give her that choice.

You’ve got to love a 16-year-old who will give up her Sunday night to spend it celebrating the birthday of her biggest littlest fan. We love you, RANGEL!

Put it In the Past

November 3, 2014 by Kathryn