Rustling Thoughts

So I've heard a lot of rustlings of NaNoWriMo in the blogosphere during the past few weeks. Maybe a week or two ago Lydia asked the question that had been rolling around in my head for a few days: "What if we did NaNoWriMo?" So I mulled over it some more, and long story short, I think I'm going to try it! I've already got the makings of a plot, I'm going to see if I can weave "Robin Hood" with "Sleeping Beauty". I wrote (in my head, mind you) the first chapter/prologue when I was trying to sleep, and was quite pleased with it. I've got a  Pinterest Board  set up for it. I've got names picked out. I'm starting to get super excited! Now, about Speech and Debate. Lydia and I are doing a duo for Speech, if you are unfamiliar with what that is, just look up "speech duo" on Youtube. We are doing "The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal", a fable text from India. But we've reworked it to take place i...

Ok, so a while ago  Mironiel Blokzyl  made a bookshelf tag, and tagged anyone who wanted to do it, so, naturally, I stole it  decided to do it. :) But, seeing as how I was on vacation when she posted it, and away from most of my precious books, I had to wait until I returned. Anyways, I'm positive the only rules are to answer the questions, and tag people. Let the tag commence! 1) How do you rearrange your bookshelf? There was a time when I didn't even have my own shelf, I shared with Lydia, so she did the organizing. Then, I got a huge tall bookshelf, that was rather wobbly. I thing I filled about half of it, and used the other half for desk storage, since I didn't (and still don't) have a desk. I moved rooms a couple of times, and now I have a different bookshelf (that is still huge). I had a faze where I wanted everything by series and height. Now it's just what looks nice and interesting. When I get more books, I may try to organize by color. 2) ...

I love watching movies, so when  Laura  tagged me for the (see title), I was super excited! Thanks Laura! :) Ok, first order of business, the questions: 1. A movie that kept you up. (I'm assuming the question means all night) The night before leaving for Maui, Christian and I vowed to stay awake all night (we had to leave at 3 in the morning anyways). Because we didn't think Dad would let us watch a movie at 11 at night, we asked if we could watch Herbie.  He said yes. So we watched that, then some I Love Lucy 's. 2. A movie that made you scared to sleep. note: this was well before I ever watched LotR, The Hobbit, PotC, and Les Mis. I just barely made it though watching An American Tail . Yeah, an animated movie freaked me out so bad. 3.  A movie that made you go to sleep. I can't recall any particularly... When I go my wisdom teeth out, I watched halfway though the extended editions of LotR, and was rather drowsy, but I was well medi...

Wherein we manage to get home in one piece with all our bags, we eat fast-food, and we sleep in to an embarrassing hour. We departed from the lovely beach at varying times in the afternoon. Mom, Lydia, Ava, and I were the first to go up to the pool for the last time. We splashed about for a while, before going back to the room for showers, finishing packing, and cleaning out the refrigerator (which included eating left-over ice-cream, and maui onion potato chips, among other things). Dad and five kids left the condo at about 6 pm, making the 40ish minute drive to the airport. Mom arrived shortly after with Gabe and a few of the bags that wouldn't fit in the van. We got though security smoothly, though Gabe's carry-on needed to be double checked by security, and Lydia's ID had expired. We got dinner at Burger King, and lined up close to a window to eat. I am positive that Mom and Dad took pictures solely to document us eating junk food. We left the runway just after 9:...

Yesterday we met up with some new friends to go surfing off a beach a few miles south of Lahaina. We were warned multiple times that the water would be quite shallow, and that sea-urchins would be practically EVERYWHERE. Mom specifically said, "No stepping on sea-urchins on Friday." We had a blast! I'm pretty sure that Ava caught the most waves. The water was very murky. You couldn't see the reef a few feet below the surface, but if you put your foot down, you could definitely tell it was there. We were told to wear water shoes to protect our feet (good call). Ava, Lydia, and Gabe were the first ones out on the boards, and after a little while, Christian, Mia, and I went out. I'll be honest, I probably did the worst out of all of us. The fact that it had been years since we were taught a very basic lesson, and that the water was a bit too shallow for my comfort, really made me nervous. I didn't ride a wave all the way in standing up, but I did ...

Thanks for participating! 1. "Po-ta-toes. Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew." Sam, The Return of the King 2. "Look! An un-dead monkey!" Captain Jack Sparrow, Dead Man's Chest 3. "The Dwarf breathes so loud, we could have shot him in the dark." Haldir, The Fellowship of the Ring 4. "Ben, the uh, the mean declaration lady is behind you." Riley, National Treasure 5. "So you're bravely refusing to fight a swordsman half your age?" Edmund, Prince Caspian 6. "You just gestured to all of me."  Hiccup, How To Train Your Dragon 7. "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means." Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride 8. "I don't want to get married, I want to stay single and let my hair flow in the wind as I ride through the glen, firing arrows into the sunset." Fergus, Brave 9. "Next time you tase somebody, make sure he's alread...