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!!!

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!

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

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?

Happy Veteran's Day

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

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!

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!