In this episode of The Best Dam Podcast, Jill is joined by author Magon Peuker, who shares her incredible journey of escaping an abusive marriage, navigating life as a special needs parent, and finding her voice to write the bestselling children's book, Raelynn's Flower Garden. Her story is a powerful testament to the strength of a mother, the healing power of positive change, and the necessity of kindness.

Magon's book’s core message is about kindness  and the acceptance of kids who look and are different. It’s a way of creating a lasting legacy for her daughter, Raelynn, and sends a powerful message that there is a person inside who wants to be heard and loved.

DISCUSSION

1. The Journey to a Brighter Life: Magon is a mom of three girls, including 15-year-old McKayla and 13-year-old Raelynn. Raelynn has a rare genetic mutation called MYLK, which has caused seven strokes, making her nonverbal and wheelchair-bound. Magon fled an abusive marriage in California after a traumatic night, moving to Nevada three years ago for safety and a better life with her children. She found her "rock" in her current husband in Nevada, and the family is now complete with their one-and-a-half-year-old baby girl.
   
   
2. A Legacy of Kindness: Magon initially began writing an autobiography about her traumatic life experiences, but the heavy topics led her to put it aside. After an incident where Raelynn came home from school with bruises, Magon felt compelled to "turn this bad situation into something good". She wrote the children's book, Raelynn's Flower Garden, in just two days. What Magon thought would be a small project for friends and family has become a bestselling book that led to speaking engagements and podcast appearances.
   
   
3. The Voice of a Warrior Daughter: Magon discussed the unique role her older daughter, McKayla, was forced into due to Raelynn's complex medical needs and the family's trauma. McKayla grew up learning independence and maturity early. Now, three years later, McKayla told her mother that moving was "the best decision you ever made," which brought Magon immense comfort.
   
   
4. Finding the Aha Moment: Magon shared that her biggest aha moment was realizing her potential and being where she is now—in Boulder City with a supportive husband, healthy kids, and a completed family. She feels like she has "made it in life" and knows things are "only gonna go up from here".
   
   
5. From Writing from the Heart to More Books: Magon describes her writing as coming from a vulnerable, "real and raw" state, presenting her work as if she is speaking to the reader. She hopes to eventually finish her autobiography to share her full story. She also revealed that there are more books to come in the "Raelynn series".
   
   
6. A Missed Opportunity and a Family Talent: Magon revealed that she was chosen to be on The Voice in 2011, but tragedy struck two days before her audition when her 19-year-old brother passed away in a car accident. She loves to sing and is encouraging McKayla, who is a great singer, to pursue her talent. Magon's first job was working in the food industry at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

LEARN MORE

To learn more about Magon Peuker and Raelynn's Flower Garden, visit www.magonpeuker.com. 

KEYWORDS

Raelynn's Flower Garden, Special Needs Parent, Resilience, The Best Dam Podcast, Boulder City Chamber of Commerce

#RaelynnsFlowerGarden #SpecialNeedsParent #Resilience #TheBestDamPodcast #BoulderCityChamberofCommerce 

Podcast Transcript

Jill: Hello, I'm so excited to talk to you, Ms. Megan Peuker. Thank you so much for being on today. This is gonna be an amazing little conversation. We have a lot in common, more so than you even realize, and, super impressed with your skills, your life experiences, and what it is you bring to the table. Megan, will you tell us a little bit more about who you are, why you're here to talk to us today, and, about the amazing book you wrote?

Magon: Yeah. Thank you so much, Jill, for having me. So excited to be here. Little background, of myself is that I was born and raised in California and I was previously married and I had two children with this person, and we were married for 13 years and built a life out there. I was married very young and we had kids very young.

We had two daughters, McKayla, who's 15 now, and then our little Raelynn who is 13. And she's, special needs, she has a rare disease and a rare genetic mutation. It's called MYLK, and not many people know what that is. But in a nutshell, it's pretty much just where your vasculature is just too small to supply sufficient blood flow to your brain.

And in other parts of her body too. So it's a systemic issue. And she's had seven strokes to date. So we've definitely had our fair share of, medical complexities throughout her life and her short 13 years. And, we, we actually fled to Nevada. Three years ago, because I got out of an abusive relationship with my ex, and we came out to Nevada because I had found somebody out here that I had gone to middle school with. We were friends in middle school and he had lived out here for 25 years, and my parents had moved out to Arizona and I wanted to be closer to them. And I was just like, what? I can't stay in California. I can't stay, in the house that something horrible happened in.

And so I came out here and. My current husband has just been my rock, my saving Grace. And we ended up just, a year and a half ago, we just had our baby girl.

Jill: Oh.

Magon: She completes our family. And, she's one and a half. she's crazy. She's all over the place. But we have three girls now and we're just balancing life as much as we possibly can.

Jill: It sounds like you're probably have some built-in babysitters too. Your 15 year old's name is

Magon: McKayla.

Jill: McKayla, I'm sorry, I didn't remember that. And is Mikayla loving your newest little person?

Magon: It's really quite, cool to see the relationship. Because she is like a second mom.

Jill: Yeah, I bet.

Magon:  Almost. And when you have your kids in your early twenties, you're just figuring things out. And then there's this whole other era when you're almost 40 and then you have another baby. So it is nice that McKayla is able to be that like help to me and help out more than. I have to worry about another kid, on top of it.

Jill: And so what is McKayla's role with Raelynn? I would imagine that, you've gotta be really careful about that balance. I have had this situation of my own, with my own girls, and so I do know that, you wanna make sure McKayla has a full life too, because there's a lot of time dedicated to Raelin. So now what does that look like? How do, what is that relationship with those two?

Magon: I'm so glad you asked that, because a lot of people are always so fixated on. The needs of that special needs child and everything is just so Raelynn, and what does she need? And she's at the hospital and she's, we're doing studies and we're doing testing and we're doing all of these things and it really throws your other children on the back burner.

And so for Mikayla growing up, she was two and a half when Raelynn was born. And we didn't know. Anything until Raelynn was about eight months old. And so I would say she was about three, three and a half years old when all of this unfolded. We're away at the hospital, we're just, we're in it, we're in the thick of it, right?

We're just powering through life and we're in survival mode at that point. And it's really difficult to tear your heart. For this little three and a half year old girl That wants to just have this normal life, but you're in this medical world with your other child and so she's really had to learn this independence.

And this, mom and dad couldn't be there for a lot of things. I feel guilty in some ways, but I also know that we couldn't have done it any other way. she's really grown into this beautiful. Mature young woman because she was pushed into that role. She was forced into a role where she had to be, more, more mature and more independent than most kids because we just, we couldn't be there for her.

And, there were things like little graduations and kindergarten, first days of kindergarten and things like that we missed, And, now I feel like I have a really better relationship with her because I was able to get into a good relationship. It all, it helps me, right?

As a mom and as a woman, it helps me. But when you have that, support in the home, we actually have a better relationship now to where we can go out and do those things right And go get coffee together and go shopping together. I feel like our relationship is better than ever now.

Jill: Yeah.

Magon: But definitely, when she was growing up, she had to be like. On her. I wouldn't wanna say on her own, but she had to be without mom and dad. For a lot of that.

Jill: So she learned independence early. I would imagine. She's gonna be an amazing leader with a lot of compassion for people that may not, they may look different than she does.

So I bet I can't wait to meet her. I bet. She's amazing. share with me, okay. As, what made you wanna write a book? Where did Raelynn's Flower Garden come in? What you decided? Okay. I've been journaling my life. Maybe it's time to help share with others. what was that? What threw you into that?

Magon: I will say that I was not prepared to ever write a children's book. I have had one of those lives where so many people have heard little snippets. Here and there. And they were just like, you need to write a book about your life. And so I was actually in the middle of an autobiography, which I'm still writing and.

That kind of came to a halt because with the writing, there's really heavy topics.

Jill: Oh yeah.

Magon: And there's just death and grief and just, there's this toxic, marriage that I was just getting out of. And the traumas with that, it was a little too much to write about. It was just too real. And it just, it pulls you in and for days and days you're just in this funk because of, you're writing about it.

So I put that on the back burner and I had an opportunity when the. The school, we had an incident at the school and Ray came home and she came home in bruises one day and I was like, we, we can't have that obviously. And I wanna turn this bad situation into something good, into something that can help people to understand how we can.

You know

Jill: how to learn from it.

Magon: Exactly.

Jill: Yeah. Yeah.

Magon: And so that's what I did. I sat for two days. it's a children's book, so it's short.

But I took a break from my autobiography and I said, I just, I wanna write this book for Raelynn and I wanna. Have this legacy for Raelynn.

And I want people to learn kindness, and I want people to learn to, like the acceptance of kids that look different And are different. And she's nonverbal and she's in a wheelchair. And I just want that message to go out to as many people as possible because just need to show kindness to her.

There's a person in there, she's not able to communicate. But she does communicate with us, and I know there's a voice in there. I know that there's a person in there and she just wants to be heard and loved at the end of the day. And so that was my message with this book. And I originally thought, that'll be cool.

I'll just write this book and. Leave a book for Raelynn and some of my friends and family might be able to enjoy it and I can give out a handful of copies to

Jill: Yeah.

Magon: Grandparents and stuff, and it'll just be this cool thing, cute little thing, And it just ended up being so much bigger than that. It just took off.

And I was given opportunities to be at Art in the park and meet other people, through different booths and vendors. now I'm like, I have this website and now you know, people wanna book me for speaking engagements and podcasts, and I'm just like, this is so much bigger than I could have imagined.

Jill: Like the legacy, you did it, you accomplished exactly what you talked about, and I would imagine it was probably cathartic for you as well.

Magon: It was, yes. It definitely was. And so I am, I'm happy to tell the story. I love everything that Raelynn's Flower Garden has to offer. But it's. The real story behind it That I want to get out. And so it's definitely a stepping stone in that direction. But my thoughts, my hopes, my dreams is to just get this whole story out.

And, be a platform for my autobiography when that comes out, and the next couple books that are gonna be coming out in the Raelynn series.

Jill: Yeah. How cool. So there's more to come. There is. thank you for that little, I'm sure it's not exclusive. You probably told everybody that, but I'm gonna pretend like you're announcing something here. Maybe we'll have you come back when you do actually release those two so we can be the exclusive announcer of The Raelynn series.

Magon: That would be great.

Jill: How fun. And so have you picked back up on the autobiography? Are you actually working with it now? is enough Time happened, enough healing happened that you can have that discussion now?

Magon: I did, and actually I was up writing till almost midnight last night on it.

And Something sparked that writing in me again, and I think it just takes time. This is pretty fresh. And I don't know if you want me to get into this now, this happened three years ago where, I fled to Nevada, like I said, and, it was the anniversary, is coming up November 17th is our horror night.

It was the night that my ex locked himself, we were going through a divorce at the time.

And, he didn't like that. And I had COVID during that time and he came up to be with the children and help me during that time. And he. Went off that night. And that was November 17th will always be a day that is etched in my mind and it etched in my children's mind.

And it's a traumatic night because my ex tried to take his life on that night. And and it was a horrific way. he locked himself in our. In my closet. And we were able to flee to the neighbor's house, which we have a great relationship with these people.

They gave us the code to their door 'cause they knew the situation. They knew it was turning ugly. And McKayla being the warrior that she is, at, she think she was 12 at the time, which would've made. Raelynn 10. She throws, Raelynn on top of her. She runs to safety to the neighbor's house.

I'm trailing be behind them and we get out just in time and my ex-husband FaceTimes me in the closet and proceeds to take his life with a handgun and ends up shooting himself. In, in the head and he survives.

Jill: Oh, Jesus.

Magon: And so that was a night that I was like, this person could never be around my children again.

Jill: No, you're right.

Magon: And this is a toxic person. This is a dangerous person. And this whole time I just, I, he knew that even though we were getting a divorce, I wanted nothing more than two. To do the co-parenting, to still have him there for all the special events In the girl's life, that would've been the most amazing outcome. And it just didn't turn out that way.

Jill: So thank you for sharing such a, that's a very tender I can hear in your heart and your voice that's a very tender story to try to share and a very, scary story as well. And I can only imagine. it probably made McKayla have to grow up very quickly and I would imagine Raelynn still fills and understands that there was something traumatic going on.

She wasn't safe. She must have sensed that. How do you bring those girls and yourself back from that? Was there counseling? Was there, I imagine a lot of family support. How, just the simple cleaning of the mess and getting your belongings out. Would've been traumatic enough, but to know that you witnessed all of that and sadly that man chose to make you have to witness it via FaceTime. There's a lot of animosity I would imagine, too.

Magon: I will say that going back to that day, I didn't think that he was gonna survive, and doctors were saying, there's no way this person's gonna survive. And even if he does, it's gonna be a year. At least that he's in this, rehab facility.

So I was at ease with that as far as I don't have to worry on a daily basis that this person's gonna have the capacity or the ability to come after me. Because that's initially what he did tell me. had we been in that house, I fear. for the safety of my life, for the, For my girl's life, because he did threaten those things On a daily basis. And so the fact that he pulled that off, thank goodness it was just him. But I will say that at the end of the day, I was relieved in a sense that he was in the hospital. He didn't have the capacity to, come after us.

But then two months later, he is walking out of the hospital driving a car, And so I'm like, we need to get the restraining order, on, and we need to get out of this situation. We need to get outta California. I didn't feel safe at that time being in that house. And, he had all of the code still and Naloxone.

I just said, I cannot be here anymore. And yeah, so we fled and, talk about, like you said, McKayla, she was already having to grow up. In a mature way for, her sister, but then this on top of it and having to like witness that trauma and go through that with me. I don't have a handbook for that.

I don't have, I don't have anything that I can offer other than I was just so blessed to have both of my girls With me alive that night, and. I could not be more thankful that's, all of those materialistic things go away. At the end of the day, you're just like, okay, I don't need any of that stuff.

I don't need the stuff in the house. I don't need the, whatever you think is important. It was my two girls. And they were safe. And they were alive and they were healthy. And I left with a shirt on my back and I, that was it. No looking back.

Jill: So I would imagine too, there's gotta be a bit of a closure there.

You knew you needed to move on, you knew you were in the process of the divorce. You knew all of those things were happening, but I would imagine that almost solidifies your choice. My choice was the right choice. I'm moving forward. There's closure there. and now next steps. It's time to start healing, right?

Magon: There's closure, but there's also this new opening of why, why would you choose that, over, over any other option, and having to rock your kids to bed every night when they're blaming, Raelynn's a different story. She's, I can feel it in her. She knows what's happened.

She's scared about what happened, but we don't really bring that into her life. I don't wanna cause her any more trauma.

Jill: Heck yeah. I totally agree.

Magon: But my 15 year old's at that level where she does wanna talk about it and she's been very clear. I do not wanna have anything to do with him. I do not wanna have anything to do with the family and.

She wants to feel safe, it took her a while because she's a teenager and she's having to move to a new place, and there's this new stepdad and there's, new schools and it's all new to her. And as a teenager, that's probably one of the hardest times to go through something like that.

Jill: Absolutely.

Magon: But I will tell you that when we sit down and have our conversations now, three years later, she's mom, this is the best decision you ever made. Even if. I didn't agree with it in the beginning. I feel safe. I love my new stepdad. I love the family that we've created here. I love my school, I love my friends.

I love where we're at. I would've never had any of that, had things been different or had you stayed in that, past relationship and she's stayed in this, with the opportunity, like to have her own dad in her life or have a stepdad and that says. That speaks volumes to me.

Jill: And that's got to bring so much comfort to your heart.

Magon: It does.

Jill: Oh yeah.

Magon: Because as a mom, you don't necessarily wanna do things for yourself. And I feel being a mom, you don't wanna feel selfish in the thing, in the choices that you make. They always should, involve your children.

And I had to step away from that for a little bit, and I had to say what is right for me and what is right for my family. And that's how I ended up where I'm at right now. But it did seem selfish in the beginning because my, Mikayla's going you're seeing somebody else.

You're, we're going somewhere different. You're plucking me from this life. and so it all makes sense now.

Jill: Yeah. You've gotta go through that refiner's fire to come out that other side and see the difference. And she does too. And, these are life lessons that she'll take with her.

And I would imagine her life will be a lot different. Having seen some of these experiences, it probably will set in hi, in her mind, the person that she chooses to be with, and, the type of, maybe the bar that has been set will be a bit different because of this life experience.

Magon: I really hope so.

I hope she, that she sees the difference between the two, between a toxic relationship and between a healthy relationship. And she's seen both worlds and, I can only hope that she, chooses the latter so she sees how much better our life is now.

Jill: So I'm not sure if she'd ever want to write a book, but I would imagine maybe even a chapter in your book coming from her voice would be very enlightening and potentially educational for people her age that are also going through this kind of, that life chapter of hers is very important to your life's chapters.

And so it'd be interesting to hear if she had interest in expressing that in a public way like that.

Magon: I love that actually. And I never thought about that. We did talk about her. Her having a voice in her writing. She does enjoy English. She does enjoy, writing and she loves to come to me for those types of projects, but that would be a great idea to add to the book.

Jill: Very cool. I want to know. What is it like to be an author? I, have not written a book. I have been tempted. I've had people ask me to do something such, but, my little brother, ironically, so to give you a little bit of information about me, so my older sister has a son with Asperger's. my, I have a daughter that's on the spectrum and then my younger brother has a son on the spectrum.

And so our family understands and ex. And understands more of the academic challenges. my daughter has some physical challenges, but, so I would imagine he wrote a book my younger brother did, and actually three. And I find it fascinating, his thought process, and he does it from a spin of like a little mystery kind of thing and what teenagers are doing, interacting, in school and how they interact with kids with special needs.

And so I found that fascinating that he would even go there. And so it blew me away. you're talking about a retired police officer that's seen a lot, and yet he could be tender enough to write these kids book, and I find that fascinating. And so I'm really impressed with him. But how do you know to be an author, to sit down and go, okay, I'm just gonna sit at this computer and I'm just gonna write my thoughts.

How do you even organize it? I just, the physicality of being an author, what does that look like?

Magon: Yeah. So I. Like I said, I never thought I would write a children's book for one. And I'm an organized person by nature. And I've got that type like a personality where everything's methodical and thought out ahead of time and planned and, organized.

My house has to be clean and organized. So I definitely think I have help with already having some of those characteristics, but I think. With my writing, I'm su just such at a, like a vulnerable state, and I'm just so real and raw in my writing and I present my work as if I'm just sitting here speaking to you.

And so it's not this, very formal made up piece. I'm sitting here in my thoughts and I'm thinking, and I am, playing around with things and I'm just, I'm writing from the heart and it's very raw and it's very real and it's very emotional. And so I think that's one of my strengths is that I just, I love to be truthful and I love to be.

Find that common ground with somebody and be able to connect with them. And I've learned that, especially through this writing process, that if you have a story or if you have advice, or if you have anything and you bring that, to the conversation, just like you and I,

I didn't know anything about you from today, until today. And here we are, having so many similarities and had. I not shared my story with you, you would not have been able to share your story with me. And so just being able to have that communication, have that open talk, and be, vulnerable and be real and raw and emotional, I think is just the key.

Jill: Yeah, I absolutely agree. I love that. And so I'm going to, take up this challenge at some point in time. So have you had an aha moment in this process? This has been long for you and for your girls. And so the book I would imagine has had some aha moments itself in your life in, in, in totality.

But, has there been an experience that you would love to share about some kind of an aha moment?

Magon: I think the aha moment for me has just has been recent. And I think looking back at my life and what I would've become, I knew my potential all along.

And so knowing that something wasn't right in my marriage, knowing that I needed to get out of that.

Knowing that I needed to move on and move onto something better that wasn't holding me back so that I had a voice, so that I had a partner, so that I had this healthy lifestyle. That's the aha moment for me is

Jill: Interesting

Magon: being here in Boulder City with a husband that is supportive and loving and caring. Having these healthy kids. Having this completed family.

And the other life that I had is just it's like a whole lifetime ago. It was, it's days that it comes screaming back and it's oh my gosh, this just happened. Especially with the day coming up. But on a daily basis, I'm just like, wow.

Like I've really made it. I'm here. I'm a bestselling author,

Jill:  Right

Magon: I'm a mom. My kids don't hate me. They love me. Like I have a great relationship, with my family, with, with everybody. And that's the aha. That's what I can literally come out and say is the best feeling is to have this well-rounded, feeling of friendship and love and feel like I've made it in life and I know it's only gonna go up from here because I have more books and I have more events, and I just feel like this is the start of the aha.

Jill: I love it. I love hearing that because, it, it gives all of us that, that boost to know that, you know what, we might be going through some challenges.

But there's always a brighter side. There's always another side, and you gotta charge through it, right? there's not a leadership book out there that doesn't say, oh yeah, you're gonna have, every day's gonna be perfect and now you're gonna be a great leader. It all takes a little bit of that.

Like I said, the refiners fire. You've gotta have that rubble and that grit and that, resistance in order to bring you to the other side to know good from bad and to be able to understand. There is something brighter and better. And I think the, you brought up a point that to know that you're valuable, right?

You aren't, you didn't take this and go, why me? And this is horrible. And you obviously are a very positive person and you took the steps to make your life better for your girls and yourself. And now look at this wonderful life you have. So that's awesome. I am, I'm super proud. I'm so glad I got to meet you.

I'm glad you came on today. Let's do a little bit more about who Megan is. What was your first job?

Magon: So I lived in California, like I said, so my first job, I was 16 years old and I had just gotten my car from my 16th birthday and I was driving from Julian High School. I don't know if you know where Julian is, but it's this big, it's a mountain town, little, PI company town.

And I was driving down to the Wild Animal Park, the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

Jill: Oh, cool.

Magon: And I was going to school full-time and then I was working part-time and I loved having that job. I really did. It was a fun first job for me and I got to meet some fun people and I got to see the animals and I got great benefits to be able to go to the park, and so I loved that.

Jill: How cool. And I would imagine the care of those animals helped you for the care of your family.

Magon: Yeah. So I wasn't able to actually work directly with the animals. But I was able to work, talk with people that did, and then I, being 16, you'd have to have a degree, for that.

Jill: Oh, got it. so I did not know that, but Okay.

Magon: Yeah, you would have to have a degree to work with the animals and to do those things. But, I worked in the food industry. I worked, and in, in the restaurants there, but,

Jill: oh, very good.

Magon: It was a great, beautiful scenery and I got to watch animals, Walk by and it was really cool.

Jill: I love that. So I remember one of my favorite jobs was, it was more like a summer thing or during special events, but there was a flower shop here in Boulder City called ES Flowers, and I got to work around the flowers and. It was just such a happy job, even when you were making flowers for funerals, which is, kinda a, a bummer.

But it was, they're just beautiful and they make people cheerful and happy. And anyway, I loved working in that flower shop. It was that same, just the environment makes you happy. So what is something people may not know about you?

Magon: I'm pretty, I'm an open book for the most part, and that's a hard one.

Jill: I would, I think you, had mentioned something about your, beautiful singing voice.

Magon: You know what? Yeah. Okay. So I believe it, it was 2011 is what it would've been. So back in 2011, I was chosen to be on The Voice.

Jill: Oh my gosh.

Magon: Which is the, the TV show where people go, it's like American Idol,

Jill: Yeah.

Magon: But it was each kind of a different version of it. I was so excited. And, my mom was gonna go with me and travel and we were gonna, stand on the line and, do the, do the audition and everything. And, unfortunately I got a call two days before that. And I had found out that my 19-year-old brother had passed in a car accident.

And I, our family was devastated with that, obviously. And crazy enough, I was just writing about that in my autobiography last night. And so it's so fresh in my mind and I can remember the day I just, it's one of those days where. You remember the sights, the sounds like what you were doing, how you were feeling.

You can plug yourself right back into that moment when you found out. And it's just, you can relive that whole thing as if it happened again. And I was trying to be there for my parents. I was trying to keep it together for myself. Mikayla was only one at that time. And so it was a very hard, hard time, And. I said, absolutely not. I can't do this. that dream, that ship has sailed and we're done with that, it. I often go back and I think, what would that life have been like? Had I, had I gone to that audition, had things been different, I would've gone and it would've been really cool to see how far I would've made, how far I would've made it.

And but I love to sing. I'm a shower singer. I sing all over the house and. I, McKayla really loves to sing.

Jill: Oh, great.

Magon: And I hear her sing, from she, she's in the room below us and so I just hear her belting out, in the shower in the morning. And I'm like, you really, you need to go do the national anthem at school, or you need, you need to do something with this 'cause.

Jill: Okay. So does she sing the national?

Magon: She sings. She is Okay. She's a great singer.

Jill: You need to have her practice that and we'll have her, next year for Spring Jam.

Magon: Okay.

Jill: She can do the national Anthem at Spring Jamboree to open the event for us.

Magon: That would be awesome.

Jill: Yeah.

Magon: I'll tell her that. She'll probably get so nervous, but I'm like, you need to, you need to get your voice out there.

Jill: Hey, she's got quite a few, what, 6, 7, 8 months to practice, Tell her to be ready and, I would love, love, love to invite her to do that. That would be great. I'll give her a challenge and then if she gets too nervous, then you can be her backup and you guys can do a duet.

Magon: Perfect.

Jill: Love it. All right. All right. That sounds good. Oh, that's so exciting. congratulations for having that talent and that skill. My husband says I can't. Carry a tune if I had it in a bucket. And he's absolutely right. However, everybody has their own skills and their own things that they bring to this world, and so that's pretty exciting that you have that ability.

And I'm glad that McKayla is also expressing that. What a fun way to make yourself feel better too. I bet.

Magon: Yeah, it is. It's a good outlet for sure.

Jill: That's very cool. congratulations on that. I'm sorry that tragedy happened in your family's life and like you said, you've been through it, you've had some challenges in your life and tragedy

Magon: I have and.

That's, that's the reason why this autobiography needs to come out. Just, I've talked with many people and when they hear little snippets of my life, they're just like, wow, that actually happened to you. And wow, we've never heard of anything like that happening to somebody. But you're the one person that's happened to.

And it's. Like one or two things that I will share with somebody and they're like, wow, you need to make a book. But I'm like, but that's not all. then this happened and then this happened.

Jill: Yeah.

Magon: And people are like, wow. Like most people don't go through one or two of those things, let alone10 or 20 things that you've gone through. And so

Jill: What an impact you'll have on others' lives.

Magon: I'm excited.

Jill: Yeah. That's something to really strive for. So what book are you reading right now?

Magon: So I actually just finished a book called Hopi and it was my publisher's book.

Jill: Oh,

Magon: So Hope Mueller is my publisher.

She is, she's a good friend of mine. Our, our daughters did volleyball together at the high school, and so I wanted to keep it local. I love, keeping everything local in Boulder City. I love supporting other people in Boulder City and. I didn't wanna go with the big court, big publishing company or something, but she was like, yeah, I'm a publisher and I've never done a children's book before, but I, it's called Brave Women at Work.

That we can definitely get you on because you fit that narrative and you fit that as a, as. Yourself as a woman. But we're gonna take on this challenge and we're gonna do it. And it's been great. So how fun. Yeah. And her book is amazing. talk about a life, like she, she had some crazy things happen to her and it talks about her life and growing up and how she went from.

This commune world into this corporate world, and she's,

Jill:  Wow.

Magon: Yeah. So Hopi, yeah, that's the one

Jill: I just, I'm gonna find that one for sure and have our book club read that too. And I don't know, have you ever met Pam Honey? Pam wrote a book about her son with special needs, Jordan. And, we have Pam on the podcast, so you'll have to, you'll have to check out Best damn podcast and look up Pam, honey.

Magon: I will.

Jill: 'cause she wrote a book. She's here local. She and I grew up together. And, anyway, I think

Magon: And she's local and bolder then?

Jill: Yeah, she's right here.

Magon: Okay, great.

Jill: She's amazing.

Magon: Yeah,

Jill: I'll definitely, I love her to death. And so I would imagine that your life has encompassed a lot of life lessons, but what's something that your mom and dad taught you that you still use today?

Magon: The biggest thing that they've taught me is just to rise above the challenge and just to show up each day. And so I think I've carried that on with me and to be able to overcome, and I teach my girls this too, is that at the end of the day, you have a decision to make and you can. Have something ugly happen.

You can have something horrible happen. You can have something good happen, but at the end of the day, it's your choice to, to, make it how you want it, and you can react in a way that you know is going to be beneficial to you. And so I think that's carried on with me. It's carried on with my girls, my 15-year-old, Mikayla's, she's a teenager, she's, everything's.

Kind of, dreary right now with some things. But for the most part, I remind her that at the end of the day, it's your decision to make yourself happy to have the life that you want. And to overcome all those bad things that happened to you in the day and to make a lesson out of it and to, to move on, move forward, just keep pushing forward, keep persevering.

Jill: She's very blessed to have a mom like you that can lead that and be by example. And so I am so glad that we had the time to visit to Will you tell us how we can find out more about Raelynn's, Raelynn's Garden? Flower garden, excuse me. Find more information about that and then also, how they can either find that book, but how they can find more information about you.

Magon: Yeah, so if you go onto my website, it's my name megan er.com. I have a website and it tells you all of my upcoming events. It tells you, I, I have the podcast up there that I've been on and it has speaking engagement, book signings, and the really cool thing that's. The the most fun about my website is that you can get a signed copy from Raelynn, and so you can buy my book on Amazon, but I always tell people that if you want a signed copy from Raelynn, I have copies that I will personally drop off to you.

And, or send to you. And yeah, just megan Peuker.com and it has all of my events and everything that's upcoming with me. And you get to learn more about our family and our background and meet, meet Raelynn and so

Jill: well, I would love to meet Raelynn in person. And I'm really hoping McKayla wants to come on and do the national anthem for us next season.

And so thank you so much. This has been an absolute pleasure and I would imagine that a lot of people are gonna be informed and have, the option to be able to connect with you if they've got any further questions. And so in the show notes, we'll have all of that information. Everything will be linked.

We'll make sure that they can connect with you and they can always give us a call too. But thank you so much for being a part of the best damn podcast. We're glad to have you as part of our family.

Magon: Thank you so much, Jill.