So, as it turns out, we knew each other for about 18 years before we realized we were sisters. Seriously. (We are not REALLY sisters in the DNA sense, but we might as well be! We share a brain!)

 

We were talking one Saturday, and Lisa threw a perimenopausal rant. Carleen was all, "Hey, I've been all through that—my uterus left the building a few years back. Let's talk about this menopause thing." And the rest, they say, is history.

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As we got to know each other, we found out that we had basically lived parallel lives—Lisa in Minot, North Dakota, and Carleen in Virginia, Minnesota. We had similar prom dresses. We both loved the lake. We were both kinda nerdy-cute. We were both in the woodwinds section. We were both optimists.

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The more we talked, the more we realized we had a book in us. We had never done anything like this before (but why does that have to be a thing, right?). We figured, hey, we're teachers—we're totally skilled at figuring sh*t out in the moment with limited resources! We can do this! :)

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We wrote #EXTRAOrdinary in about three months in the sumer of 2018, both of us sitting on our respective decks, sipping coffee, and banging away on our keyboards. There were times when it felt like the book wrote itself—we were just the scribes. (We're pixie dusty that way...)

 

Throughout this experience, we worked with the best publisher EVER—a small, woman-owned business called Wise Ink (in Minneapolis) that only prints books with purpose. We're super grateful for all of our friends there who helped us get to the finish line.

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1. Lisa is the Big Sister, and Carleen is the Little Sister.

2. Lisa is good with numbers and schedules, and Carleen is good with graphic design and other techy stuff.

3. We love tacos and mashed potatoes.

4. Let's not forget cake, coffee, and whiskey.

5. We have both poured chicken broth in our coffee by mistake. #ChickenCoffee

6. We like #hashtags and don't care that they are out of style.

7. We swear just a little bit, especially when it's kinda funny.

8. We think we are funny, even though our husbands don't.

9. We believe in social justice, equity, and inclusiveness. #AllAreWelcomeHere

10. We are #MamaBears.

11. We adore our families, especially our #Kiddos.

12. We have adopted each other's families.

13. Lisa likes llamas, and Carleen likes flamingos.

14. We believe that Love > Fear, and it always wins.

15. We don't fight, we don't get jealous, and we never run out of thing to talk about, ever.

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