Hello, beautiful people, it's Peytona! I owe you all a BIG apology. I had a post I planned on doing for Christmas last year and I completely forgot to finish it! ???? Shame on me, right? And then life happened. So many crazy stuff has happened these past several months. As a way to say I'm sorry. I'll go back and talk about some key things that happened since December. Bear with me. ❤
December - Dad and I travelled to Dallas to see my aunt and uncle. It was so much fun! We celebrated Christmas beforehand as a family (my parents, my brother, and I). I got some cute clothes and body spray. When we were in Dallas, my aunt and uncle got me a fancy razor. I find it to be super useful. I got to hang out with some Christians from our sister church down there and made some new friends. It was a lot of fun. We had a great time. We took two days to get there, stopping in Nashville, TN as a midpoint. We had a good time travelling. On the way back we stayed in Nashville for a day and explored downtown. I wish I had taken pictures. It's all good. We saw the TN Titans football stadium. That was pretty cool and in Dallas, my aunt and uncle showed me the Cowboys football stadium. It was uber shiny. All in all it was a good trip. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
January - This month was all about sharing The Mutates: The Creation with publishers and agents as well as starting my new podcast called Lyrically Lyme! Have I told you guys about Neil Haley? He's my radio producer. I met him on Twitter actually. He followed me and I emailed him for an interview on his show. He took a liking to me and wanted to help me reach a bigger audience. We established a bartering agreement that if I would help him edit videos and post on his social media, he would then cohost a show with me and help me find guests. It was a win-win situation! So my first guest on the show was my buddy Olivia Maxwell. She's my first celebrity friend. Her father, Ron Maxwell, directed the famous movie "Gettysburg." Pretty cool, huh? I met her through LinkedIn. So I had that going for me and was playing the waiting game with agents and publishers. I was mostly getting nos, but finally on January 31st - after praying to God about wanting one - I finally got my yes. It all started with posting on Facebook that people pray for me as I submit The Mutates to publishers and agents. A friend of mine named Glen recommended TouchPoint because he published with them in the past. I gave it a shot, sent my query letter and everything, and they said they were interested in The Mutates. Isn't that exciting??? I'm so pumped!! I felt like that was a big kiss from my Abba. ?
February - This month was all about dating and finding work. I was still feeling myself after getting my first yes from TouchPoint and Valentine's was coming up - why not give love a shot? My church movement has its own dating website called DT Heart & Soul so I signed up for that again (I had done it for a month or two the year before) and I met some cool guys there. No sparks were flying or anything like that, but it was fun to meet new people. While I was still working for my dad as his editor and assistant, my income was pretty low so I wanted to find more employment. I was working for mom too as her assistant and social media manager, but I had no consistent pay besides what I was getting from dad. Lyrically Lyme wasn't bringing in money yet either (still hasn't yet, but I'm hopeful!) so I decided to try my hand at LinkedIn job hunting. I brushed up my resume and started sending it out there. Not much was going on there so I tried Indeed. I really like Indeed; it's simple to use and a fun way to apply for jobs. I got some hits but nothing too promising. February was also the time in school that I started working on College Algebra. I know. Fun, right? Not really. Let's move on.
March - I was still looking for work when mom stumbled across this company called LionBridge. They're a technology company that has different kinds of services. I applied for the job and started the process of filling out applications and doing background checks. It was exciting. Around this time, mom and I were preparing for the women's service that would be taking place on April 7th. It was a busy month. I got the job with LionBridge as a Social Media Evaluator and started training for that. I was so happy to have another job. I hadn't heard back from TouchPoint to see if they were interested in The Mutates still so I sent them an email this month asking if they were. I was so relieved when they got back to me saying they were still interested. Yayy!! The weather started improvin this month so that was also very exciting.
April - Another busy month this one. I started writing articles for dad and he started paying me extra, which was amazing! The women's service was a hit. I sang one of my originals. People were impacted. LionBridge was taking their sweet time placing me in their system so I looked for more work in the meantime. I had a birthday party on the 20th, even though my birthday was on the 28th. I was going out of town for my birthday weekend. Easter was impactful and great. I had a blast going away with mom for my birthday. We went to Massachussetts. It snowed, which was insane but it was beautiful. I had a great birthday. We went to visit the sister church in Albany, NY and they sang to me. I then went exploring Albany with mom and had dinner at P.F. Chang's. It was delicious! Oh! I also started a fundraiser for my album. This time, I used Facebook instead of Kickstarter. So far I've raised over $500!! I'm so encouraged. PSA: If you'd like to help me bring comfort and healing to the suffering through music, check out my fundraiser on Facebook. It's the album name: 12 Songs of Faith. I've done some live streams of me singing snippets from the album. Be sure to check it out! PSA over.
May - So far it's been a pretty good month. I met some cool peeps from this group called Single Disciples Connections or SDC. It's a group with nearly 4500 Christians from our movement of churches - the ICOC (International Churches of Christ). I'm still hoping to date this year. We'll see what happens. LionBridge finally added me to their system! I started officially working for them on Thursday. I'm pretty excited. The fundraiser is doing well. I'm at $620 raised. I just talked with my music producer last night. He told me I can start recording with the funds I've raised!!!! I'm so stinkin' excited! I can finally work on my music. It's a dream come true. Thanks again to all those that donated. It means the world to me. So I'm thinking of doing five songs of just me playing and singing. I plan on doing a live stream today to share with people on Facebook and ask which songs I should record on this EP. AHHH!!! SO EXCITED!!! I emailed TouchPoint again to see how things are going with reviewing The Mutates. I'm praying that they send me a contract soon. I'm over the moon excited, you guys. Please keep me in your prayers.
Yeah, so that's what's been going on with me. How are you doing? Post in the comments. I'd love to hear from you. I'll try to make Saturdays my day to update my blog. *Fingers crossed* God has been so good to me. I'm so encouraged. Don't give up on your dreams, you guys. God placed them on your heart for a reason. Don't quit! I love you all. Have a great Saturday and if you haven't already, check out my Facebook page - Peyton Naomi Leonard.
Smooches! Xoxo ?❤????????