Julie Gumm - Author

The Big Reveal…

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…will be Monday morning.

Sorry. Was that mean?

I got the mostly-finished cover design late on Thursday night. The uber-talented Cameron Smith has been AWESOME and tolerated a lot of back and forth, “I don’t know, there’s just something…” and general wishy-washiness on my part.

Up to this point we’d really been focused on getting the front right, so I hadn’t seen the whole thing.

When I opened it up, I will admit that I got a little teary. Sure, I’d seen my name on the front, but something about seeing my name on the spine of a book made me all tingly. I could envision it on a bookshelf. In someone’s living room. It was AWESOME!

Earlier on Thursday I dragged Jen out for a photo shoot so that I could get a new headshot for the back cover. I needed someone I could be a total goofball with, and that would humor me by taking 900 shots with two wardrobe changes. Plus there’s a couple picturesque spots near her house.

So it wasn’t 900 shots, it was only 360.

Then we met Stacey at Wildflower Bread Company and the girls helped me go through a printed draft of the book and come up with chapter titles and figure out if my section breaks were right. I had Stacey read some of the sections and see if they made sense to an adoption newbie. (Although I’m not sure she TOTALLY qualifies as she’s listened to me babble “adoption-ese” for 3.5 years.)

We had to move to Starbucks when we closed down Wildflower at 9 (they seriously need to expand their hours). We went through all of the photos and had quite a few giggles. We did find about 7 or 8 REALLY great shots so I was ecstatic.

THESE, are NOT them.

“I’ve had THIS much sleep this week.”

Demonstrating how hard it was to smile without showing my braces for 2 years.

“Are people staring?”

You can’t really see them, but I was demonstrating “prom hands”.

AND…this is what happens when the two of us have a camera and the giggles…

So before I lay my head on a pillow on Sunday night (or most likely in the wee hours of Monday) I will send the book to the printer.

And I will post the cover for you all to see! 🙂

Convertible Dreams

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I’ve wanted a convertible for as LONG as I can remember.

One of my good friends in high school had a convertible and I would finagle my way into her car as often as possible, begging for the top to be down. Yes, sometimes that meant driving with the heater on, but who cares.

Throughout our married years and the 10 vehicles we’ve owned, my mantra has been the same “If it’s not a convertible I really don’t care what I drive.” This hasn’t been some whiny, manipulative plea for Mark to buy me a convertible, but rather a – “you pick what makes the most sense” kind of thing. He loves to research vehicles and hunt for the best car at the best deal. Me? Not so much.

Sure I’ve had some input like “the next minivan MUST have four doors” and “leather would be nice for the kid spills”, but that’s where my enthusiasm ends.

Ten years ago when we first started paying off our debt we made a deal. Mark wanted to refinance the house on a 15-year mortgage. I was a little freaked out about the higher payments and how tight our budget was going to be. So he sweetened the pot.

“When we pay off the house you can have the next 12 months of mortgage payments and buy a convertible – any convertible you want.”

At least I remember the “any convertible you want” part, he may beg to differ 🙂

If you’ve been following our journey, you know that the 15 years turned into six! We paid off the house in November 2007.

Then we started the adoption process.

Then Mark left his job.

Now we both work in full time ministry.

And we have four kids.

NONE of those things are conducive to buying a convertible, especially the latter one.

The other night at dinner (with my parents and brother as witnesses) the topic came up.  I mentioned how someone needed to make a convertible mini-van. Surely I wasn’t the only kid-toting mom that dreamt of the wind in her hair while she carpooled sweaty elementary kids around?

Then someone, I think maybe Noah, pointed out that we could trade Dad’s car in for a convertible – thus still having the six passenger van for when we were all together. The convertible could become my primary car and the mini-van could be dads.

Mark laughed and said, “Sure, if you can buy a convertible for what my car is worth, go for it.”

It was kind of the same laugh he used when he said “If you can go a year without clothes/shoe shopping I’ll buy you an iphone.”

As in “good luck with that”.

This morning, in what can only be a moment of divine intervention, I saw a news article about this, the first “SUV-inspired” convertible.

It’s the new Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. Beautiful, no?

Unfortunately not equal in value to our 1997 Toyota Camry.

So I’ll be picking up a copy of AutoTrader soon 🙂

Mark should really learn to stop issuing challenges 🙂

This Is It

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It is deadline week.

And the only way this baby is going to get done is for me to take a week off work.

So that’s what I’m doing.

I would say that I’m going to take a break from Facebook and Twitter but I know better. I need a software program that blocks those two apps – too addicting. But I may be noticeably more absent.

I promise to blog when the book cover is done.

Let’s do it!