This and That

NaNoWriMo begins in two days. I’m so excited. While I could be way more prepared, I’m feeling totally ready to just jump into my story. Read more of my thoughts on my writing blog, here.

Saturday was our last church’s annual Reformation Party and we attended; it was good to see everyone again. I actually didn’t show up in the traditional Renaissance clothes so it was a little funny. I was going for a biker/Victorian-esque type outfit and was told I hit the nail on the head (it’s about 95 % black). I personally loved it even though it’s so different. Everyone was laughing and I was even told I looked really cute! LOL! It was a lot fun; we did line dancing, Freeze Tag, and lots of talking with friends. I even got to talk to the new friends I made at Family Camp and that was lots of fun.

I finished a Study in Scarlett. OH MY WORD. BEST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY YET! I think it’s my new favorite, I got so into it near the end and was actually holding my hand over my mouth through parts of it. Such a good story! Sherlock was really on his game in this one. I loved the end of chapter 3 where he basically told Inspector Gregson and Inspector Lastrade that everything they thought of the murder was incorrect and how he had come to a completely different conclusion and then he just walked out of the room like a boss. I could almost hear the Z-snap off the pages. Sherlock Holmes rocks and I love him.

Today The Boys got to hang over at our house for the afternoon and we played Cops and Robbers. We all ended up wearing all the Gothic/biker stuff I’d picked up and we looked ridiculously crazy. I can only imagine what the neighbors are thinking of us. We joked that it was the Halloween version of Cops and Robbers. And we used my new Captain America shield too (which, by the way, is about the same size as the actual shield and is super cool, even though it’s made out of cheap plastic. I love it and it came in handy dodging bullets. So, I’m super tired from all that today, so I’m going to cut this short and go start reading the next Sherlock Holmes story. It’s called the Empty House. I’m looking forward to it.

~Jamie

 

 

Sucessfully Graduated

Well, my graduation/birthday party went well and without a hitch. It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect and nearly everyone we invited showed up. There was just over fifty people in my house and backyard between four and eight o’ clock. The Boys’ family stayed till ten and we played Cops and Robbers together, so it was basically the best day ever.

I was very happy to be surrounded by friends from all times of my life. Old church friends and new church friends got along wonderfully. My old friends all told me as they were leaving, “I love your friends!” and my new friends were happily stating “Your friends are nice!” Everyone mixed well and I was pleased to hear everyone talking and getting along nicely.

Here’s one of the two chocolate cakes we got from Costco; the other said Happy Graduation. Mom got lots of balloons (I love balloons). There was pork sandwiches and meatballs, veggies and cheeseball. The meatballs were easy to make but it didn’t feel like it because my mom stressed over them for over a week and a half. We now have a running joke about how meatballs are stressful and they were suppose to be easy. lol

Everyone watched a slideshow of pictures that Kayla made and Dad gave this mini speech in front of everyone about it and it was quite nice. I got my certificate and everyone was clapping and cheering. Happily, no one asked the dreaded college question, except Dylan and that was after everyone had left and we were lying ‘dead’ in the front yard during Cops and Robbers and were simply talking. And it was okay because he said he probably wasn’t going to college either. And than we talked about Latin and shouted at Daryck to stop swinging over our dead bodies. Lol.

(me and my adorable adopted sister Nechet who wrote me the sweetest card; I love this picture! lol )

I got many beautiful gifts (and sweet, sweet cash, lol.) A hat from one dear friend, a beautiful scarf made with my favorite color purple, a necklace, several books, lots of notebooks and writing supplies. Some of the money has already been spent on See’s Candy, an Avengers Calender for next year, the official Avengers poster, and two shirts from the Disney store.

My favorite gift was easily the one Dylan gave me and that wasn’t until the Monday afterwards. Mom and I dropped off two tables we’d borrowed from his family at their house and Mrs B raced us inside all excited and was like, “Dylan just got Jamie her present, we literally just brought it home!” And inside he handed me a huge book which contained every single book and story of Sherlock Holmes by Arther Conan Doyle, complete with golden edged pages and a beautiful cream colored cover with Holmes’s silhouette on it. I’m so excited to now own every single Holmes story in such a gorgeous book; and to read them all with Dylan for the rest of the year. Thanks for the wonderful book, bro!

All in all, it worked out just about perfectly and I loved every minute of the party.  The family is still recovering a little bit but we’ve got the house all back in order and I’ve mailed most of my thank you notes already.

Everything school and graduation related is now out of the way and I’m ready for two more weeks of world building before NaNoWriMo begins!

Life is taking a change but I’m looking forward to it.

~Jamie

My Life’s Soundtrack (Part 1)

Stole this idea from Jedi~Chick ’cause it looked totally fun!!! The idea is basically cataloging the songs that remind you of different times in your life. Like a soundtrack. So, here’s mine; or at least, four of them. I might do a part 2 next Friday.

Do you know that almost sub-conscious feeling, like when you were a REALLY little kid, so innocent, so pure—that deep in-your-soul feeling, almost? I get it listening to this intro song because I watched 101 Dalmatians when I was very young. Like, a couple times but than I didn’t get to see till I was sixteen–that’s a huge time gap. I got the soundtrack for my sixteenth birthday and listening to this song just gave that awe induced feeling. That sub-conscious “I remember!” feeling.

Same with this cartoon (I know, not a song, but who cares). In fact, when I was trying to remember the old cartoons which I saw only when I was very little, this was the VERY first to pop in my head. Isn’t that weird–this one. And the one scene that stuck out was were Clarice steps out in front of the very glittery curtain and starts singing. This conjures that sub-conscious ‘little child’ feeling too. Re-watching this took me straight back.

This music reminds me of my….what was it, sixteenth year? I think I was sixteen when our Pastor’s family filmed Friday at Noon. That was pretty big for our little church (I got to be an extra several times in it) and Gabe wrote some darn good music for it. I listened to it a lot because I was always re-watching the trailers. This is one of my favorite tracks from his complete soundtrack and it’s got some of the themes from the film. It simply reminds me of those days in summer where everyone was talking about Friday at Noon. That just seems like a pretty large event my life.

This? THIS SCREAMS NANOWRIMO! I listened to this constantly when I was writing my month long book challenge last Novemeber. I vividly connect this piece with sitting in my purple butterfly chair with my laptop with my bedroom door closed to block out all the noise and hurriedly typing away anything that came into my head to go down next on paper. Just, ‘WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! GET OUT! GET IT ON THAT COMPUTER SCREEN! I DON’T CARE IF IT’S UTTER TRASH, JUST WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, NO, DON’T FIX THAT! LEAVE IT! COME ON, KEEP THOSE FINGERS GOING, YOU HAVE A DEADLINE, LET’S MOVE! THIS FOR 50,000 WORDS! COME ON! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!!!” Loved every minute of it. I’ll probably do it again this year. Because writing is one of my hugest passions in life and it’s what I’m really good at. But, let’s save that for another post.

Oh, if you have nothing else to do now that you’ve gotten to the end of this post, go check out Jedi~Chick’s post!!

~Jamie

short stories and the random birth of CCFIA

This totally happened to me at Family Camp two years ago–except I knew the person, sorta. He was new. Anyway, we were sitting in the outside cathedral (Except twenty times smaller than a cathedral) and I was squished on a bench with all the Pastor’s younger daughters, and Kayla, and I was holding a small grasshopper for Mr M because he wanted to save it for fishing bait. So, someone was up front holding service and we’re sitting there trying to pay attention but I kept opening my cupped hands to peek at the grasshopper. Brilliant.

Well. It hopped out one of those times. And landed on the back of the guy sitting on the bench in front of us. All the girls are quietly gasping and giggling and I’ve got their older brother and Mr M turning and looking over at us wondering what is going on. And I couldn’t loose that grasshopper! So I jumped out of my seat and grabbed it right off of the guy’s back with my hand. He kinda jumped and looked over at his shoulder at me and I’m all, “Sorry! Sorry!” and the girls are smothering themselves because this is during service and we’re supposed to be paying attention! It was sooo funny. But not embarressing actually. Because, hey. I was tough enough to be grabbing at grasshoppers when everyone was like, ‘Ew, no, gross! Blaaw!” So… there’s a insect story for you.

Every time. Every single time I go into a store and they have some rings sitting out, and I’ll put one on and than it will take me five minutes to twist and wiggle it to come off. It’s like, seriously, Rings, why do you slid right on but can’t slide right back off!?!?!?!

Number one reason I don’t wear stuff on my fingers. IT WILL BECOME PERMANENT WITH MY BONES!  The only rings I shall probably ever wear consistently will be, Lord willing, my engagement and than wedding ring. I wouldn’t mind if they stick to my bones. XD

Like, outside of always having no sharp crayons, this was my biggest problem with coloring when I was little. My picture would look great till I needed to color the sky blue and that one darn Indigo crayon looked just fine till I swept it across my sky. Made me so mad!!!

But we have become very, very rare. Sometimes it feels lonely. Any more of my rare species still out there??!?! We should call ourselves something neat. Like… Calm and Collected Female Intelligence Agency. Oooooh, I like that! The CCFIA….

Okay! I’m team captain, who else joins? *looks at sister* I could make a blog button….

Wow, I do too much excessive rambling…

~Jamie

They’ll Never Change

I was thinking about how much things have changed. I was thinking about all those precious girls at our last church and thinking how much they’ve grown up. I was thinking about how time has moved on, how we’re no longer seeing each other, how we’ve grown apart because of time and 60 miles. The change. And our dear cousins; the two kids I was closest with for most of my childhood. We’re all very different now. We’re going down different paths. We dress differently, we talk differently; we’ve changed. Everything has changed.

But the memories are still there. I still remember running through the corn maze at Young’s Farm with my cousins, screaming, shrieking, laughing together before going on a hayride. Happy faces, giggles, hay sticking to our pant legs, the world being a simple place. I still remember racing across the green belt in my long skirt, playing Freeze Tag with my church friends. The hard and heavy breathing, the grabbing of hands, the shrieks of laughter; a sense of peace as a Sunday’s sun set in the west and our gang of church kids dragging back up the street for much needed water.

I never see my cousins or old church friends anymore.

But I still have the memories. They’ll always be there and they’ll never change . . .

~Jamie