The Overcoming Adversity Bloghop

I was meant to do my overcoming adversity blog post yesterday but life in it's chaotic nature got in the way, apologies for that but I hope you enjoy my attempt at the wonderful bloghop. Love and hugs Joss xxx

Beating the Odds

“She’s dyslexic; there’s no doubt about it.”  The words still rang in her head, all these years later, as she sat at her computer; mouse curser, hovering over the email from the latest publisher to whom she’d sent her work.

As long as she could remember, she had dreamed of being a writer. Those words, back when she was a child, had seemed to put an end to any hope of that dream coming true, and yet she’d continued to try, working very hard at school, taking any extra help that was offered, at least at first; until life succeeded in distracting her for a while.

However, here she now sat; twenty eight years old, and too afraid to open the email before her. Would it be a rejection? Had her editor done enough? Were her words clear enough, clever enough, good enough?

There was only one way to find out, and yet fear gripped her.

She should have given up, should have walked away from that dream and tried for the other; but, with her disability, animal care was no longer an option. After all, how could someone, who at times, struggled to care for themselves, possibly care for animals?

No, this was her only hope. She had to jump for this dream or simply give up on her dreams, altogether. Years of work and all that time spent fighting her Dyslexia, striving to learn what seemed to come so naturally to everyone else had brought her to this point. She couldn’t walk away now.

Finger, hovering for a moment; she took a deep breath, clicked the left mouse button and closed her eyes as silently she begged for good news. Opening them, she scanned the page, her hands flying to her mouth; tears coursing down her face. She felt like a fool, as she sobbed uncontrollably, forcing herself to read again; to process the words before her to the full.

She’d been accepted, they wanted to publish her book, and her dream had come true.

*

            She’d spent the start of her year, crying over her disability, feeling useless and worthless, as she was forced to take to the four wheels of a mobility scooter in order to get around. Ashamed and humiliated, she had been certain that her life was over. But now, here she sat; her book in her hands, a real book, no longer, just loose sheets of paper with printed words, but a real book with a cover, acknowledgements, and her name big and bold for all to see.

            However, as one disability had been revealed to her and accepted by her, she had overcome another; she’d beaten her dyslexia, had achieved what had once seemed so impossible and become a published author.

Her back might never heal, but she had her proof anything is possible; no matter how great the odds may seem. At last, she felt hope, hope for the future, and freedom from the despair that had threatened to devour her.

           

update on life in the Solheim family.

I have been neglecting my blog for some time now and am feeling somewhat guilty about it, so I am going to try to make a very conscious effort to update it at least once a week. I figure that once a week should be an easy enough target to achieve and should I do better than that, then great.

So what’s new in the Solheim house. 

Well we have some new friends, I can't remember if I told you about our kittens or not, but we now have to kitten Timmy and Tizzy. They are twins as they were born in the same sack, and Tizzy has already been off to the vets and been spayed. We don't want any little accidents, especially as her brother lives with us too. Timmy will be off to the vets as well soon, living as we do in the country, there are a lot of feral cats around on the farms and so we felt the responsible thing to do, was have Timmy done so he at least isn't adding to the feral population. 

Timmy and Tizzy, (Tizzy is the one with the most black)

Tizzy of course was named after Tizzy in Insane Reno, while Timmy was named after TIMMEH!!! from south park. Husband and sons choice when it came to his name. 

They are very sweet little cats, and Tizzy is a funny little girl, she likes to go around on your shoulder and also to crawl under the quilt to sleep. Timmy too has his quirks, he'll let you cuddle him quite happily until his sister walks in and then he acts like he's to tough for cuddles and goes and sits at the end of the bed, he loves to hunt but hasn't quite mastered doing so in the tree and as a result his pounces while in the tree frequently result in him tumbling to the ground. He scares the hell out of me sometimes doing that, but so far he hasn't done himself any damage. 

other new additions to the family are pipsqueak (aka Gary, I'll explain shortly) and Pigwig, two beautiful little Guinea pig boars. They were my Christmas present from hubby this year and are absolute sweethearts. Pigwig is a very gentle boy who is a little shy, although his confidence is growing everyday. 

pigwig

We named him pigwig because of his funny hairstyle lol. looks like he has a bald spot and could do with a wig lol, when pigwig first came to us he had a bit of a bite on his nose, caused by one of the other guinea pigs he was with, thankfully that has healed very nicely now, bless him. 

pipsqueak aka Gary

Pipsqueak is the real character out of the two, he is very bossy, likes to make sure you know he is there and has to be louder than everything else. Which means he frequently argues with the oven timer. When it starts beeping it is very hard to hear over pipsqueak. Because he is very self-opinionated,  my husband took to calling him Gary, after someone we know who is very similar, it's starting to stick more than pipsqueak is, I frequently call him Gary myself now without even realising it. 

Gary/ pipsqueak is an escape artist. He has worked out he can squeeze through the bars of their cage and frequently does so, usually when he deems you are taking to long to come and top up his food bowls. (please note that his food bowls can be full when he does this, just in pipsqueaks opinion they are not filled with the right things)  What follows is an awful lot of guessing on what it is that he does want and if you don't have it, you can expect a whole lot of complaining. This morning while I was feeding the cats pipsqueak decided I was taking too long, only I didn't realise he was out, until he made me jump out of my skin, when he brushed past my ankle, apparently I was taking too long on the cats and he'd had enough of waiting. 

any who, as I got the guinea wigs for Christmas, I guess I should tell you all about ours. 

The start of the Christmas holidays were less than pleasant this year, as I caught Norovirus, was very weak and feeling very poorly. Nothing would stay down and all I could do was sleep, I was very worried that it was going to last until Christmas, however, God was nice to me and Christmas day I was feeling a lot better. I was still pretty weak so couldn't stand for long periods of time, without getting dizzy or feeling faint, but well enough that we were able to join my husbands mother, sister, and a friend for a lovely Christmas day. 

Kye of course was overjoyed with all his presents and we all had a great time, especially playing Kye silly new dog game. In which you have to feed the dog and be the first too scoop so many doggy do's lol. We got a bit of a jam at one point and Dan was forced to blow into the dogs mouth in order to remove it, that and the way the dog seems to fart as you pump the lead, made for a very entertaining game, that had us all in stitches. We're a little immature lol. 

Dan giving the doggy do game mouth to mouth 

My two boys full after their Christmas Dinner. 

What else is there to say, well we got the first proof of Insane Reno, there is no greater feeling than holding your own book in your hand for the first time and knowing that all the hard work paid off. However, we did decide to give it another quick edit before putting it out there in paperback form. We just finished the edit and I should be sending it off to my publisher today, so we can get the paperback ball rolling. 

me holding my paperback of Insane Reno. 

If you are still in the process of trying to get your book published then don't lose heart and never give up it is a truly amazing experience and well worth all the work involved. I bawled my eyes out when my proof copy arrived in the post lol, tears of joy though, that's for sure. 

2012 was a year of ups and downs. Learning just how bad my back was and that I had spinal stenosis was not so fun, as well as coming to terms with all that meant, was certainly hard, but getting a publishing deal and being able to buy my book from Amazon was amazing  hoping 2013 is has just as many good points, if perhaps a few less lows lol. 

we sold our Skyline too, that went of to France to help people learn to drift. I think it's great that it will be doing what it was made to do and was quite happy to see it go and we are now on the search for a new car, a saab 95 estate, diesel, it looks like it may be a long search, but when we find one, it means we will be able to take my mobility scooter everywhere with us and give me lots more freedom. 

If of course I still have it, as the new changes from disability living allowance to pip, means that many disabled people could be losing there motobility items, car's, mobility scooters and wheelchairs. I think this is terrible, I know without speedy McNipster my mobility scooter, I will very much be home bound. As I am not strong enough yet in my arms to get my wheelchair, that I brought, up the hill outside our home. I have no idea how I will get my son to school and can't afford to buy a mobility scooter, but if they do make the changes to pip me and lots of people like me will be losing there freedom. I don't want to dwell on that however and am keeping my fingers crossed that, that does not happen. 

lets talk about something nicer, Ludo.

Ludo has well and truly grown into an almost fully grown boy, as you can see with Harley laying on him here. bit blurry pic here apologies, but it was hard to get the shot when they were laying on me and I was trying to hold the cam where I couldn't see the screen to snap it. I did my best. 

His training is coming along well in the sense that he is doing what I ask, but I need to somehow find a way to get him calmer as everything is done a great speed.

I made the mistake the other day of teaching him how to remove my headset, not because I need him to actually do that, but because he was bored and wanted to learn something and as my back was quite bad and I was struggling to move that day, I needed it to be something where I didn't need to move from where I was. 

I now regret it whole heartedly as whenever Ludo wants your attention, which is a lot, he starts nudging my head set off, then back on, off, on, off, on over and over, until you cave in and play tuggie with him.
I think I need to wait for him to grow up a bit and get into a more calm place before fully going at the training, unless someone knows away to help get him into that calmer state. 

Any tips gratefully received

So I think that is pretty much everything that has been going on, I am of course working on Annie which is coming along nicely, I think it is going to be somewhat longer than Insane Reno, but we shall see. Hope you are all well and happy and had nice Christmases love and hugs, Joss xx.