Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay I completely forgot to get pictures today... :(  I've been really, really stressed and not sleeping much because my dad and brother have the flu and it is scaring me because during my entire life I can't remember them ever getting the flu.  My brother has cerebral palsy so his immune system is not as good as most people, so it's always a little scary when he gets sick.  My brother is the main reason I'm super paranoid about getting sick and bringing it home to him... people I worked with just don't understand.  He had a fever of over 100F for three or four days, but it finally broke last night and stayed under 100F today.  It got as high as 103F which is very scary.  It's been a rough week.  So if you believe in prayer I'd really appreciate it if you could think of them.  He's improving, but he can still use the prayers and my dad is horribly sick, but he's strong so I'm not as scared.  I just hate that he feels so awful.

So the other thing I've been putting off posting (because I wanted to get pictures and haven't) is that we moved into our new house about a month ago.  It's not done yet, but I'm still loving having my own space again.  :D  We don't have a kitchen (funds ran out), but we do have a microwave, toaster oven and crock pot.  Oh and we still have our fridge.  Basically what we're missing is a stove/oven, sink, dishwasher, counters (everything is on small tables I borrowed from my parents) and cabinets, but it will come in time.

The reason I'm telling you about the kitchen is because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday ever.  I love Thanksgiving!  So my mom usually does most of the cooking, but since she's having to take care of my dad and brother, I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner.  Keep in mind I HATE cooking and I only have a toaster oven and microwave to cook in lol.  I made chicken (a turkey wouldn't fit in the toaster over and actually I just prefer chicken), dressing, sweet potatoes, rice, green bean casserole (my favorite!), cranberry sauce and blackberry cobbler with ice cream.  The dressing and blackberry cobbler were from a box and the cranberry sauce was from a can, but it was still an awesome Thanksgiving dinner for my first time ever cooking it and my first big meal cooked in my new house.  I did it as a surprise for my parents and brother.  They loved it and were amazed how well it turned out with only using a toaster oven and microwave lol.

So I'm thankful for my family, my new house, my awesome Thanksgiving dinner in my not finished kitchen, my toaster oven, my microwave, my critters and my health!  I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving!!!

Saturday, November 23, 2013

NaNo Update - I'm Finished (for real this time!)


I finished writing 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org)!!!  I actually have 50,252 words.  :)  I haven't even thought of a name for my second book, but I can tell you I already love it and the characters.  I'm definitely planning to edit it and not just put it in my throw away folder (that I never actually delete).  In fact since there are still eight days left of November I'm going to keep writing.  I have no idea how much I will actually get written, but I'm having so much fun with this story I'm going to keep going until November ends or maybe even beyond.  :)  

So my first story was 26,573 words and my second one is 23,679 words so far.  The second one was so much more fun to write.  :)  I'm definitely not quitting now!  

I hope everyone who is trying NaNo this year is doing well and I wish you success in completing your novel in thirty days.  :)  It's late and I'm cross eyed from staring at the computer screen for so long, so I'm going to bed.  Night!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

NaNo Update - I'm Finished!!!

Haha I totally just tricked you.  I'm not finished with NaNo, but I am finished with that book.  I skipped to the ending and had a lot of fun writing the end.  I wrote 4,047 words in the last hour and a half.  My total word count is up to 26,573, so I'm over halfway there.  The cool thing about NaNo is that if you finish your novel (or novella since this one is so short) before hitting 50,000 words you can just start another one!!  I'm going to spend today thinking about what I want to do my next one about and I'm going to try to make it something funky, fun and exciting.

I have never given up on a novel in the middle of NaNo before, but I just really was not loving my story at all.  The idea has potential and is fun, but I couldn't figure out what to do with the middle of it to make it fun and not boring.  I will probably come back to it sometime when I don't have a deadline and work on it again, but for now I need a break from it.  So if you have some fun, silly ideas for my next one I am all ears.  :)

P.S.  Appydoesdressage I used your ideas with some slight modifications!  So thank you for the inspiration.  I really appreciate it.  I had a lot more fun writing the ending than I did the beginning.  :D

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

NaNo Update!

Yay!  I got to 20,000+ words today.  It was a total grind.  I spent hours writing today to catch up.  On day 12 I had 12,642 words.... then I didn't write for FIVE whole days!!!  Not a single word in five days!  So I wrote 7,650 words today to make up for it.  So I am back on track, but barely.  I have to be more careful.  It is just so hard to sit and write some days, especially since I am still getting things done in my new house, like installing interior doors!!  So, I'm done writing for today.  I've been staring at the computer so long I'm cross eyed!  I'll update again soon.  How are your NaNos going?

Monday, November 11, 2013

Happy Veteran's Day

I decided to make something of my own this year.  Do you like it?


Monday, November 4, 2013

NaNo Update

I finally broke 10,000 words (10,101 to be exact)!  I'm sort of feeling frustrated because every word is so much effort.  This story is not flowing well at all.  I decided this year not to plan out my story at all, because the very first year I did NaNo (I wrote 50,000 words in 14 days because I forgot about Nano until halfway through November) I didn't plan it and I did so well!!!  It's not working as well this time around...  The idea really intrigued me at first and now it's just really boring.

I decided to write about a spoiled rich girl with a fancy warmblood horse that she can barely ride because he's unruly.  Suddenly she finds herself transported to a world where horses live free on the prairie and people have to work hard every day just to survive and provide the basic necessities to their families.  She has to learn what it's like to work for her things instead of just flashing around a piece of plastic and buying whatever she wants.  She also has to learn to communicate with her horse (yeah he ended up there with her too somehow) without saddles, bridles, bits, spurs, whips, fences, etc.  That's it. That was my whole idea when I started this.  It was a nice idea, but there really is no plot yet.  I have no idea how she got to this place (or if she is even there, maybe it's a dream) or what my end goal is for the story, so I'm just cranking out words while I try to think of a plot.  :)

If any of you want to throw around plot ideas I welcome all suggestions!  I'm going back and forth between this all being a dream at the end of the story or it being real and her deciding to stay with her new friends in the new world.  Oh and it's fantasy by the way, if you hadn't guessed by the whole transporting to pretend worlds part.  :D

Well, back to writing!  Oh I forgot to mention I've only been writing one or two  hours a day because I've been so busy!  I'm hoping to have more time to write tomorrow.  Good luck to my fellow bloggers who are participating in NaNoWriMo this year!  I'm rooting for you guys!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

House Building Update and NaNoWriMo


Guess what!  We get to move into our house tomorrow!!!!  I'm so excited!  We finished installing the shower today and turned our water on for the first time.  :D  I can't wait to move in.  We still have some stuff to do, such as some baseboards, painting and installing the interior doors, installing a bar light in the bathroom, etc., but the majority is finished.  Once we finish all of the ends and odds I will take pictures to show all of you.  There are still tools all over the place right now.  I have a lot of cleaning and picking up to do.



I've decided to participate in the National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org) challenge again.  The challenge basically is writing 50,000 words in 30 days.  It's a way to help writers just let go of everything and write whatever comes to mind.  It can be a huge help for writer's block and it's fun!  I won in 2009, 2010 and 2011, but I skipped 2012, so I'm excited to do it again.  I waited until yesterday to decide what to write about because a lot of times it's easier to write if you have no plan.  It worked out better for me in past years when I did that.  I'm not in love with my story idea right now, but it could get better! :D  Yesterday I wrote 4,310 words... today NONE so far.  I was too busy working on the house.  I'm going to go write as much as I can in the next two hours before it is tomorrow.  Night guys!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

ABC's of Me

Wow I've been horrible about posting!  Sorry!  I'm alive, just busy.  I will try to get back to posting soon.  If everything goes as planned we can move into our new house in a week.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

I saw something fun on someone's blog and thought I would try it.  It's sort of just a questionnaire type thing.  Give it a shot if you would like!


A: Age: Late twenties.  Time is going by so quickly it's not even funny.
B: Bed size: Queen.
C. Chore you hate:  Washing dishes and cleaning the toilet.
D. Dogs: 2 - Storm, twelve year old Siberian Husky and Jackal, five year old Beagle/Mountain Cur cross.
E. Essential start to your day: Um....  I don't know.  I don't drink coffee, rarely eat breakfast, hate showering in the morning (I like to be clean before I crawl into bed at night!), etc.  I pretty much wake up, throw on some clothes, take the dogs out, feed the dogs, feed the horses, feed the chickens and sometimes I feed the cat, but usually my husband does that... so yeah, mornings aren't really about me.  Did I mention I am not a morning person?
F. Favorite color: Blue!  Specifically royal blue.  I don't like everything to be blue though, just my horse's stuff (like his halter, buckets, blanket, etc.) and my cars.  My favorite colors in a house are neutral tones, browns, tans, creams, etc.  I also really like the green and gray I picked out for two of my rooms in my new house.  I like black too.  As for clothes, I like fall colors.  


G. Gold or silver:  In jewelry?  Silver!  I've always preferred silver, but was told I look better in gold, imagine that.  I do like to mix them together though!  My wedding ring is both.  It's a two piece set with an engagement part and wedding part.  One is white gold and one is yellow gold.  :)
H: Height: 5’11"
I: Instruments that you can play: Piano.  It's been so long though I've probably forgotten it all!   
K: Kids: None!  Unless you count the furkids (and feathered kids), then I have two dogs, two horses, a donkey, two cats (well my grandparents have basically adopted one of them), five ducks (the predators got a bunch of them dang it) and several chickens.  
L: Live: USA!
M: Mom’s name: Um, she would kill me if I posted her name on the internet!  That's where I got my internet safety paranoia from.
N: Nicknames: Um... I had a coworker who called me donkey (said just like Shrek says it) because of Led Zeppelin (my donkey, you can read more about him on my other blog http://rdxhorses.blogspot.com).
O: Overnight hospital stays: No overnight stays and I would like to keep it that way!!  Well I might have been in the hospital overnight when I was born since I'm a twin and my mom had a c-section.....
P: Pet peeve: Too many to count!  My biggest one is people who don't wash their hands and people who don't use their blinkers when driving.
Q: Quirk: Wow some of these are hard....  I have no idea if I have any quirks.  I guess one quirk is that I like to smash my hamburgers, sandwiches and hot dogs.......  it helps them stay together!  Honest!
R: Righty or lefty: Righty.
S: Sibling: Two.  Older brother and twin sister (we're not identical).
T: Time you wake up: I am not a morning person, so usually nine am.  I have very mild insomnia and sometimes can't go to sleep until one or two or three in the morning.  Sucks!
U: Underwear: Meaning?  What kind or do I wear them??  I do wear underwear.... normal, boring, comfortable, cotton underwear.
V: Vegetables you dislike: Almost all of them....
W: What makes you run late: My husband usually.  Ha!  Or forgetting I'm supposed to be somewhere (doesn't apply to jobs, I'm always on time for jobs).  I normally get to places embarrassingly early.
X: X-rays: Meaning how many I've had?  Some of these questions aren't clear...  I've had x-rays done on my teeth at the dentist all my life.  Other than that I can only think of one other time and it was of my stomach because I was having a weird pain.  Everything was fine.  I think my doctor was just trying to rule everything out.  
Y: Yummy food you make: I hate cooking.  About the only things I like to make are macaroni and cheese, cheesy rice and for dessert those amazing no bake cookies that have cocoa, peanut butter, oats, vanilla, etc. in them.  Yummy! 
Z: Zoo favorite animal: My favorite animal at the zoo is the Otter!  I love them!  Also cheetahs (and pretty much any big cat).  Also wolves if they have any.  Oh and zebras of course!  

That was fun!  Harder than I expected, but fun.  Leave a comment if you decide to play along so I can read your answers please!

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Sticks are for fetching (and destroying)!

 My new favorite shot of the boys together.  :)

I completely forgot to post these pictures!  Since the weather has cooled off I've been enjoying an almost daily game of fetch and destroy with the dogs.  They each have their own role.  Mac fetches the sticks.  Jackal waits by me until Mac brings the stick back and then tries to steal it and if he does he destroys it into a million pieces.  Storm watches the whole proceedings with mild interest (she'd rather be chasing squirrels or checking fence lines for an escape route lol) and occasionally will jump in and steal the stick from both of them.... just to drop it because she totally didn't even want it LOL!  Here are the rest of the pictures.

Mac looks sooo good with his haircut.  :)

This boy is a pro stick (log) retriever!  That stick is longer than his whole body and he could barely fit his itty bitty mouth around it lol.

Waiting for Mac to bring the stick back. 

 Storm waiting for me to get distracted so she can sneak away lol.

Jackal holding on to a stick.  I had to hold one end of it while getting the pictures because as soon as I hand him a stick he puts his paw on one end and starts destroying it.  :)  I love the reflection of the sky in his eyes.

I'll try to get more pictures since the weather has been so nice.  I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to visit your blogs soon.  Hopefully when our house is done I'll have more time for blogging.  :)

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Cheetahs!

Remember how in my last post I said I loved cheetahs?  Well if you love cheetahs you have to watch this video!  Sorry I can't embed the video, but here is the link:  http://io9.com/coincidentally-i-was-thinking-just-yesterday-in-a-momen-267537811.  So awesome!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Zoo Pictures


I never got around to posting these pictures I took during a trip to the zoo months ago.  These are some of my favorites.  There were a lot of photos that didn't turn out because of fences in the way. Oh well.  Let me know what you think of them!  Oh and you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.  :)

 Pretty lioness relaxing on a log. 

 The male taking a nap on a rock.

 Lions are champions at being lazy lol.

 Isn't she gorgeous!!  I love big cats!

 Pretty Serval... this one didn't turn out well because I took it through a chain link fence.

 The tigers were relaxing too hehe.

 So gorgeous!  Tigers were my favorite big cat when I was a kid. 

 Adorable red panda stuffing his face...

 Doesn't he look so happy!!  So cute!

 This was the only capybara I saw.  He was chilling out in the shade.

 Gorgeous male Cheetah!!!  These are my favorite big cats.  The ultimate athletes! 

 Mariana fruit dove.  I had no idea what this was lol.

 Violaceous Euphonia.  This one either!  Never even heard of it.

 
 I love hornbills!  Did you know these are the birds Zazu from The Lion King was modeled after?

 Laughing Kookaburra!  One of my favorite shots from the day!

Burrowing owl.

 I completely forgot to even look at what kind of penguin this was... it was fairly small.  Anyone know what kind he is?  I'm not very good at identifying the different types of penguins lol.  The king penguin and the emperor penguin are about the only ones I recognize immediately.

I don't know what these are.  I'm not as good at identifying birds as other animals.

 
 Gaboon Viper.  Never heard of this one before, but he's so cool!

 Komodo dragon.  I always liked these guys!

 Adorable otter!!!  I LOVE otters!  They are one of my absolute favorite animals and I would so love to have one as a pet even though I know that's not a good idea (not to mention illegal).  My husband had to drag me away from the otters.  I took a ton of video of them playing.  :D

 My elephant pictures didn't turn out very well because it was midday and the sun was too intense.  This one is pretty good though so I posted it.

 Another one of my favorite animals!  A wolf!!  Doesn't he look so relaxed?  We got to stand mere feet from him.  :D

As I'm sure you could guess Zebras are another favorite.  :D  It turned out a bit blurry....

This is an edited one...  does it look better or is it too sharp?

So what do you think?  I had soooo much fun taking them.  I love having the opportunity to take pictures of such amazing animals.  :)

I almost forgot this picture of an adorable meerkat.  These guys are tough to photograph!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Stormy Feeling Her Oats


Lately it's been really hot so Storm hasn't felt like playing outside much.  She goes outside to pee and then immediately goes back to the door and asks to be let in.  However a few days ago... or maybe it was last week... I don't even remember, it was a bit cooler and she was feeling sparky.  She was instigating play with Jackal and it was soooo cute!  The pictures aren't very good because I had it in auto and they were moving around a lot.  Check them out!

 
 
 Jackal looks like he's surrendering lol.  She kept rolling him on the ground.  Poor guy.

See she rolled him here....

.... and here lol!!

Trying to look all innocent and failing miserably LOL!  She had just rolled him before this shot.

 They look pleased with themselves.  

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!  I sure enjoyed watching them play.  :)