Ramblings of a SAHM

Thursday, November 27, 2003

Happy Thanksgiving! The crew and I are traveling to nowhere Indiana today so I'll be posting again on Monday. Have a fun and safe weekend (especially you Black Friday shoppers, I'll be out there too!).

Quote of the Day: "Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." -Henry David Thoreau

Katie at 8:21 AM

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

WOW! What a thrill! I just had my novel word count verified and I won! Course Greg wasn't that impressed with the nifty certificate or little logo as my prizes. hehe I plan to buy the T-shirt, does that count? I finished up with 51,377 although the book is far from complete and I'm sure it's a mess. lol But I did it! Woohoo!

Katie at 4:06 PM

Taking a quick break from my writing to post a quick update. I'm currently at 47,051 words. The end is so near that I can taste it! Except the house is going to hell in a hand basket: I need to clean up lunch, Kyle colored on one of the walls with crayon (a bit of WD-40 will get it up), and the laundry basket is overflowing again. Plus I could really use a shower... (um, really, that's not me you are smelling) But it's okay, I'm almost a certified novelist so those around me will just have to deal with my art! hehe It'll be interesting to read what I've written when I'm done. The last few days I have just been spitting out words in areas of the novel that I feel like writing. It's going to need a huge edit before I dare show it to anyone.

Oh and who can I blame for not telling me about Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? The book is too funny! The audio book that Greg bought is even more hilarious because Adams reads it himself. There's nothing like dry wit read with a British accent. Course now several things make sense like the online language translator being called "Babel Fish" and the number 42 being referenced a lot. Greg has the next couple of books on his digital media player so we're going to listen to them on the drive to my parent's house tomorrow. Plus he bought me all 5 of the series in a special edition book (cause even though he doesn't care much for reading the written word he knows I love it). So I feel like a dork cause I'm just now discovering this great book. Oh well, better late than never! :)

Quote of the Day: "If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now." -Zaphod from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Katie at 12:00 PM

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

*looks around* Is it Thursday? I'm having a good day so I was just wondering... Kyle, Kelly and I went to JoAnn's after dropping Zach off at school and bought a few goodies and then the grocery store. And they were well behaved! Then we came home, the twins got dressed and we picked up Zach from school. I bravely took all 5 into the grocery store (yeah I know I was already there once today, I forgot some stuff with the first trip!) and they were well behaved there too. I'm afraid to question if they are really my kids and weren't replaced with identical robots over night.

Let's see, I need to start the girls' plaid jumpers for Christmas. I ended up buying the fabric off eBay and got an awesome deal. With shipping, it worked out to $3 a yard for a very soft beautiful Christmas plaid. You can't beat that! I'm still trying to find fabric for their dresses, I can't decide between a velvet/velour or satin. Plus all one color or red/green/black? Decisions, decisions...

My NaNoWriMo novel is worrying me. I'm currently a little under 41,000 words. Greg might be a sweetie and let me load my story onto his laptop so I can write while we're at my parents. Otherwise I have to come up with 9,000 words in the next 48 hours. Anyone got some plot lines I can borrow?

For those of you using my blog as a procrastination tool, here's a little thing I wrote a while back (in my best Erma Bombeck style):

Are they all yours?

At the grocery store: Watch out, there's a two for one deal in aisle 5.

In the women's section of a department store: I didn't think shopping for a bathing suit was hard enough so I borrowed some children to make the experience easier.

At a restaurant: We asked for the Children Section, they came with the table.

At the park: Actually they followed my son home one day and he asked if we could keep them.

At the mall: Bill Gates will give me a $1 for every time someone asks me that question. I'm on my way to becoming a millionaire, thanks!

In a parking lot: I'm practicing to be part of the 10 clowns tumbling out of a tiny car circus act.

On the sidewalk: I'm a gypsy, do you have any kids for sale?

At home, answering the door: I have a boy and a girl. Wait... *counts the children quickly.* Dang it! *yelling over my shoulder* Tell your father to quit playing with the cloning machine again!

While waiting in line: I don't have any kids. *asked in a psychotic hushed voice* Do you see children?

At school: I'm testing the number of children it takes to drive a person insane.

Anywhere: Yes, we're trying to take over the world.

Katie at 12:43 PM

Monday, November 24, 2003

Ack, stop the world, I wanna get off! Too many nutty things going on at once: 4 loads of laundry, it's too cold to go outside and play, need a noodle recipe for Thanksgiving, trying to figure out why my Club Scrap kit hasn't arrived, need to buy fabric at JoAnn's, grocery shopping, and I have to write 12,000 words in my novel before Thursday. Plus the usual household stuff, help Zach with his homework, keep the house from being declared a disaster area, feed the kids, husband, and dog. Blah, I need a nap!

Quote of the Day: "Well-behave women rarely make history." -Louise Thatcher Ulrich

Katie at 1:10 PM

Saturday, November 22, 2003

Quote of the Day: "No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a little chocolate" -Me

Off to buy some chocolate...

Katie at 9:11 AM

Friday, November 21, 2003

Well crap. Or I guess I should say puke. Here I was just yesterday patting myself on the back because the kids were all healthy. So what happens this morning? Emily pukes all over herself in the minivan while I was unloading them for preschool. Ally had a mini melt down because she didn't want to go to school without Emily but she didn't want to go home and miss school either. Meanwhile poor Em was sitting in the van covered in puke. Finally I left my cell phone number with their teacher in case Ally changes her mind and wants to come home early. Now I'm mentally preparing myself for a weekend of sick kids. *sigh* Oh did I mention that I have a head cold? When it rains, it pours. ha At least Greg comes home tonight but I'm sure he's not going to be thrilled to be stuck here with sick kids (we're suppose to go to my aunt's house for the weekend). Ugh... *whine, whine, whine*

Katie at 10:08 AM

Thursday, November 20, 2003

Yippee, it's Thursday! I have no idea why I like this day so much. The kids are eating lunch so I'm taking a quick break to check my email and forums. And update my NaNo word count. I did my 3,000 last night and I wrote about 2,500 words this morning while Zach was at school and Kelly napped (the rest played and watched Nick Jr.) So drum roll please... I'm at 37,500 words! The end is near, thank goodness. I'm hitting weird blocks with my plot outline so I've been jumping around. I'll try to find a decent excerpt to post tomorrow.

Let's see, next I need to clean the house, aka FlyLady Home Blessing. The emails kill me so I quit those but the theory is sound: Fly Lady. Then I hope to scrapbook (almost done with 20 pages of Christmas! Two 2 page layouts per child) and figure out a technique article to post at my forum tomorrow morning. I also have some scrapbook questionnaires to fill out. And some thank you notes to send. And some pictures to scan and print. Plus it's Survivor night! Woohoo! I love Thursdays. :)

Quote of the Day: "My mom used to say it doesn't matter how many kids you have... because one kid'll take up 100% of your time so more kids can't possibly take up more than 100% of your time." -Karen Brown

Katie at 12:00 PM

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Long, long day! Whew! Ran kids to and from school, went to Wal-Mart (hate the place and they didn't even have what I needed), attempted to buy fabric online (no luck!), made lunch, cleaned the kitchen, played with Magic Nuudles with the kids, did 3 loads of laundry, scrapbooked a tiny bit, dinner, listened to Zach read, and I just finished giving them all baths and putting them to bed. Where's the vodka?

Now according to my new estimate for my NaNo daily word goal, I have to write 3,000 words. Instead of having 8 more days to write (we're gone for Thanksgiving so I've already lost 4), we're also going to be gone this weekend. Including today I have 6 days and 18,000 words to go. Oy!

Quote of the Day: "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." -Phyllis Diller

Katie at 7:54 PM

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Hmm... Tuesday. I'm trying to avoid doing any work. hehehehe If you are too, go here: Strong Bad's Emails I like the Japanese Cartoon and English Paper ones best. hehehehe

Regardless of my avoidance of work, it finds me anyways. For some strange reason that only a 2 year old mind can comprehend (and even then, that's iffy), Kyle woke me up this morning at 5:30 crying from Kelly's crib. Kelly's crib is not in Kyle's room and that's not where I put him to sleep last night, mind you. So I get up and go into the girls' room and he starts bouncing on the mattress which wakes Kelly up. She had this look on her face like "What the hell?" Poor girl. So I pull him out of the crib, he goes potty, I put him back to bed, and then I managed to get another hours worth of sleep before starting the day again. *yawn*

Grocery shopping was pretty boring this morning. Nothing was on sale except for turkey, stuffing, cranberries and pie ingredients. None of which I need. grrrr.... I hate paying full price. Em, Ally, Kyle, and Kelly were all very good though. :)

Let's see, what else? Oh I gave myself a very nice manicure in an attempt to stay awake with the kids. And I found out what gum arabic is (one of the ingredients listed on my Mountain Dew can). It's raining so I can't send the kids outside. I think I need to find some new rainy day activities to do with them, coloring is getting a bit old. We're out of shrinky dinks and play-doh but Santa will be restocking those in a month. I need to mop the kitchen floor but can't do that until they are in bed. My life is so exciting, I know. hehe

In NaNo land, I'm waiting for inspiration to strike. I'll probably put in a couple of late nights since Greg is in Maryland for the week. *waves* The kids aren't very cooperative when it comes to thinking and writing. It would go something like this:

"Kierana, we must go on," he said tugging on her arm. She felt physically drained and struggled to stay on her feet.

No, you can not cut up that book. Get off the back of the couch. Kyle, where's your diaper? *crash* What was that? *crying baby in the background* Give Kelly her toy back! "It wasn't me, it was Ally" "It was Emily!" *whining and fighting*

Uh, Kierana? You're on your own, babe...

Katie at 3:38 PM

Monday, November 17, 2003

Okay who's playing with the weather dial again? *looks sternly at the kids* It's nice out today after a miserably cold wet weekend. Like 60 degrees and sunny right now. Wacko weather...

I'm a little behind on my NaNo, I skipped writing yesterday. I finished up most of Kierana's grieving today, I'm at 32,000 words. I need to find my outline to see what to write next. I think I'll have them visit some gnomes (cause it's on the way home). It feels great to be over half way done. :)

Oh Kelly had her 1 year check up today. She impressed the doctor by walking and doing a little spin. hehe She weighs 22lb 9oz and is 31 inches tall. There was a med student shadowing the kids' ped, I think the 5 of mine might have scared her into choosing adult medicine instead. hehe

Quote of the Day: "The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it." -Franklin P. Jones

Katie at 4:37 PM

Sunday, November 16, 2003

A rather blah day today. Kyle got me up at 7:30am, have I mentioned I hate getting up before 8am? Tossed cereal at the kids, sent some emails, checked my scrapbook forum. Then I folded some laundry (still have the towels to do) and went to the grocery store to buy food for brunch. Made and cleaned that up. Greg's off having a hitch put on the Jeep to pick up his new old boat tomorrow. I'm excited, I'm not a big water person but we have a nice lake nearby. I think it'll be great to go out on the boat on weekends. I need to look into buying life jackets for all the kids.

Um, after yesterday's depressing writing for my NaNo, I'm not in a hurry to get back to it. Maybe I'll skip ahead a bit and write her grieving process later.

Next up, folding the towels and I have to call my aunt about next weekend. I hope to do a little scrapbooking later. There's probably some housework that needs to be done too, there always is. I could use a nap. *yawn*

Katie at 12:12 PM

Saturday, November 15, 2003

Ugh, I just killed off Kierana's lover in my NaNoWriMo novel. Course he dies saving her. *sniff, sniff* Even though I knew that was going to happen, it is tough stuff to write. My background music includes: "Grieve" (Peter Gabriel) and "November Rain" (Guns-N-Roses). Very depressing. I'm at 29,002 words right now, I needed a quick break before I go back to it. Poor Kierana... :(

Katie at 1:02 PM

Friday, November 14, 2003

My baby girl is 1 today! :)

Katie at 4:59 PM

Thursday, November 13, 2003

OMG! I'm halfway through my novel! Last night at about 11pm I finished the night's work at 26,031 words. Whew! Looking back at my blog, I just realized I wrote about 10k worth of words in two days. I guess I hit what one would call a "flow" (the opposite of a "block"). The words just flowed through my fingertips. I also found out some interesting things about my characters including a serious seduction attempt on Kierana that I wasn't expecting. *raises eyebrows* I'd still like to write another 2,000 words today if I can find time.

So back to the real world. I did a speed cleaning before Greg returned home (and he's happily napping upstairs after his red eye flight back from Seattle). I have my first parent/teacher conference ever with Zach's kindergarten teacher this afternoon. That should be interesting. :/ It's also Survivor night on TV. And I need to write up another article for my scrapbook forum. Thursdays are good days around here. :)

Excerpt from last night's writing (ignore any grammar problems), I should probably give you a set up for this one but I won't. :b

"Quetear said you wanted to see me?"

"Make at least a dozen more," Caiden told the soldier. He turned to Kierana. "Yes, come with me." He held open the tent flap and she ducked under to enter.

"Is everything okay?"

"Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring her question.

She shrugged her shoulders. Her muscles felt too stiff to make even that simple motion. "I'm fine. I think so. I don’t know." She felt like she had been in emotional overload all morning and then she had fallen into a coma like sleep all afternoon. It hadn't given her too much time to actually think about the whole situation.

"Sit," he said and she did, sitting on a section of cut log made for that purpose. He knelt behind her. His hands touched her shoulders and she tensed. The sparks flew between them and she forced herself not to move away.

"What are you doing?"

"You're too tense. Remember after the skavens?" His hands began kneading the muscles of her upper back. His touch caused a familiar warmth to spread through her body.

"Yes," she sighed, enjoying the soothing motions of his hands. She had taken a similar beating during a skaven hunt several months ago. Caiden had stopped by her tent the next morning and helped rub away the pain.

"This morning," he began, his hands pressing circles down her back.

"Mmm…"

"It won't happen again?" His hands slipped under her shirt and the touch of his skin on hers caused a pleasant shock to run down her spine.

"No," she answered when her mouth would work again. Caiden's hands stroking her bare skin was clouding her thoughts. "It was too much of a shock too fast. I'll know what to expect tonight," she reassured. She wanted to be the one to rescue Minolan, there was no way they could talk her out of it.

"Feel better?" he asked, running his hand lightly up and down her back. The mild friction caused her nerves to stand on end.

She shivered and smiled. "Yes, much. Thanks."

He seemed reluctant to stop but he pulled his hands out of her shirt. He walked around to her front and offered his hands to help her up. She stood but he didn't let go of her hands. "They are probably ready to go," he said, glancing at the tent exit. He clasped her hands with both of his and brought them to his mouth. The pressure from his lips tugged at her lower belly and Kierana gasped. "He's not the only one who would do anything for you." His warm brown eyes were full of promise and Kierana was taken aback.

"I…" she began but too confused she didn’t know how to finish the thought. She realized her mouth was hanging open in astonishment. With a shake of her head, she forcefully closed her mouth, jarring her back to her senses.

He let go of her hands then and the temperature of the small space seemed to drop ten degrees. She knew if she pressed her hands to her face, they would both still be warm. He chivalrously held open the tent flap for her and still dumbfounded by what he had offered, she walked out of the tent. She saw the group of warriors still by the edge of the camp and made her way over to them. Her senses told her without looking that Caiden was a step behind her the entire way.

"Kier, good to see you awake!" Jalask greeted. She stared up at him. "Are you okay? You look a little…" His eyes went from her face to the wood elf she knew was standing behind her. Jalask raised an eyebrow and turned away without another word.

"I'm fine," she said. She seemed to be saying that a lot today, why was everyone so concerned about her. A strange impulse made her glance at Butu. The usual neutral expression on his face wasn’t so neutral. She blinked and thought she had imagined the tightening of his jaw and his dark eyes flashing in anger.

Katie at 12:11 PM

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Woohoo, I broke 20,000 words! Course I'm suppose to be at 24,000 today to finish by the 26th. The kids are watching Toy Story at the moment (yes, we do everything backwards around here). It's one of my favorite movies so it's rather distracting. "You...Are...A...Toy!" Oh there are so many good lines from this movie. hehehe

Anyway I should be typing these words in my story so I better flip back to Word. I'll try to clean up another excerpt tomorrow to post.

Quote of the Day: "That wasn't flying. That was falling with style." -Woody, Toy Story

Katie at 1:13 PM

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Oops. Yesterday got away from me. Mondays have a habit of doing that. So do Tuesdays for that matter. The kids are happily watching Toy Story 2 at the moment so I'm going to take this chance to write. I'm at 16,240 words, I'd like to be at 20,000 by the end of the day. Excerpt from yesterday's writing, not terribly witty or anything but it sets up what I plan to work on today:

"So this is the swamp?" Kierana asked. She stopped at the water's edge. At least she thought it was water as she peered into the murky green soup in front of her. She pulled the top of her shirt over her nose and mouth. Not only was the sight of the swamp unpleasant, the stench was unbearable. She picked up her foot and carefully set it back down on the mushy ground.

"Yep," answered Minolan. "Lovely place." His voice was muffled under the scarf he had wrapped around the lower part of his head.

"You'll get used to it," said Jalask, walking past them. His weight caused him to sink deeper with each step. Kierana noticed that the barbarian didn't have anything covering his nose. She glanced behind her, he was the only one braving the smell without protection. Jalask stopped as he sunk down to his knees in the muck. He turned around frustrated and bellowed, "Is there a better way?"

Katie at 1:06 PM

Sunday, November 09, 2003

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm on the computer. lol I finished all my work early. Well not really but that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. hehe

Sometimes a person needs a pity party for one. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I just finished a toy room purge. I try to do them every few months to throw away the accumulation of McDonald toys and anything that's broken or chewed on (don't ask). I'm throwing away about half a big garbage bag of stuff, sheesh. Good thing it's trash day, there's no way that stuff will find its way back into the house.

I'm working on Christmas finally. Talking to some of my online friends, I seem to be in the minority because I haven't done any planning or buying yet. So today I made a long wish list of toys and books at amazon.com that Santa might bring the kids. And I ordered most of their Christmas outfits from The Children's Place. I plan to sew plaid jumpers for the girls and I need to either buy dresses for their other outfit or make those too. The kids only need 2 sets of Christmas outfits, it's usually 3 (we're missing one Christmas party this year). I'm sure I'll ramble more about Christmas as it gets closer.

I'm way behind on my NaNo novel. I hit a block in the plot line so I skipped over it but nothing I wrote afterwards was very aspiring. I'm suppose to be at 16,000 words today and I'm currently under 13,000. Blah... Greg's on business travel this week so I hope to catch up then. I'm giving up on my sister's quilt for her birthday, she can get money this year. LOL Although I'm thinking about sewing quilts for Emily and Ally for their 5th birthday in December. Don't ask me about the logic in that decision, there isn't any.

Katie at 3:16 PM

Friday, November 07, 2003

Ugh, it's been one of those days. It feels like I woke up an hour late and I've been running behind since. And to top it off, I'm coming down with a head cold. I have that itchy sensation in the back of my throat and the sinus pressure headache starting. Joy. Is it bed time yet?

I may go on a self imposed computer ban for the weekend, so if you don't see me online, that's why. There's too much stuff to do around the house. I hate to do it because it'll mean I'll be 6,000 words behind my NaNo goal on Monday (I don't see 2,000 happening today either) plus I won't be moderating my new forum for a few days. But real life takes priority over my computer/online life. Such sacrifices, hehe. Anyway have a great weekend and I'll be sure to post the portraits of all 5 kids on Monday.

Quote of the Day: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt from the heart." -Helen Keller

Katie at 4:59 PM

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Looks like I'll be spending most of the day working on the computer today. It's raining outside so I can't rake leaves anyway. Darn... I need to write my 2,000 NaNo words and a "sewing in scrapbooks" article. Plus take some digital pictures, burn some other pictures to a CD, and order some prints online. Sheesh what did people do before computers? Here's a bit from my novel, I think I wrote this on Tuesday (as always ignore grammatical errors):

Outside the castle, Kierana forgot how cold it was, darn winter. She turned back to enter the castle to find a coat to borrow so she could practice on the target range. She heard laughter to her right and yelped when she was hit by something A cold and wet sensation seeped through her tunic and chilled her skin. She glanced down to see the remains of a snowball melting on her clothing.

"Ha, we got you!" Quetear called from behind a snow mound. Kierana stared at him. What was going on?

"Duck, Kier!" shouted Caiden from her other side. Without questioning him, she crouched down to the ground and watched a snowball soar over her head to hit Quetear squarely in the face. The hobbit fell back behind the snow wall. A snowball fight?

"Come to our side, Lady K," called Jalask. Without completely standing up, Kierana scurried behind Caiden and Jalask’s snow mound.

"What are you crazy people doing?" she asked shivering. She tried to brush off the remaining chunks of the snowball. Her teeth chattered and her exposed skin was turning pink.

"A snowball fight," Jalask replied, stating the obvious. He took aim at the other side and lobed 3 snowballs in quick succession. Kierana heard a groan from the other side as they were hit.

"You're the silly girl out here without a coat," Caiden chided. "Take mine." He slipped off his coat and held it out for her to put on. He was wearing a knitted sweater and long sleeve shirt underneath so Kierana didn’t feel too guilty borrowing his coat. The instant warmth and smell of Caiden made her insides melt.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, staring into his brown eyes.

"Watch out!" Jalask called. The three ducked and were pelted with snowballs anyway. Kierana stood and peeked over the snow wall. Butu, Minolan, and Quetear were quickly making more snowballs across the way behind their snow wall. She shook the snow of out her hair and turned back to watch Jalask and Caiden hurriedly make snowballs to retaliate.

Katie at 9:37 AM

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

As usual I have too many things to do and not enough time to do them all. First my forum is up and running! I still need to add a background graphic (which I'm making from scratch, why do I do these things to myself?!?) and later I'm going to post more discussions. Here's the link: Scrapbook Corner. Course the forum is CSS (Cascade Style Sheet or something) which means more code and crap to learn. Sheesh.

Oh and here's the weather board I promised. Weather Board Instructions from Disney's Out of the Box. The kids do not like cutting felt, I found that out the hard way. Greg wants me to make a "wind" piece. Um, okay. I'd also like to make little thermometers to show the temp (just hot, warm, cool, cold). Course I have no idea where I'm hanging this thing. Oh well...

Oh geez, still haven't written my 2k words for NaNoWriMo plus I still need to finish emails (wrote a nice long one to a friend and then Kyle bumped my arm and it disappeared in the black hole of Hotmail so I quit last night). I also need to update some links and it's Wednesday, there's actually decent TV shows on tonight (namely Angel on WB). Is it bad when you start thinking and wanting to talk in html code? Ugh... I should get off the internet/computer and back to the real world. lol

Katie at 11:08 AM

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

8,265! The novel is moving right along nicely. This is going much better than I expected. My outline is helping a ton plus my characters also like to go off on relevant tangents to boost my word count (like a snowball fight yesterday and a tactics meeting today). I'll try to clean up some excerpts to post tomorrow.

The kids are doing well, we've almost finished the weather board, I'll take a picture tonight. The weather has been exceptionally nice (low 70's, sunny) so we spent some time outside earlier. We also went grocery shopping this morning (Em, Ally, Kyle, Kelly and me) and spent $117 on weekly groceries but saved $83 with store specials and coupons. Woohoo! I love saving money. We bought Finding Nemo and watched it twice so far. "I speak whale! Woooo-eeee-oooo!" LMAO

A couple of online friends have convinced me to start an online forum for one of my hobbies (you know who you are *sticks out tongue*) so now I have another new project that I probably don't have time to do. Oh well, as I always say, I'll sleep when I'm dead. When I get it up and running, I'll post the link.

Now I'm off to start dinner (pork chops, veggies, and noodles), fold some laundry, and help Zach with his homework. I might attempt to begin to cut some squares for my sister's birthday quilt (you didn't read that, dear). It's Tuesday, nothing good on TV anyway. If any of you have sent me an email recently, I promise to answer tonight or tomorrow. I'm really bad about answering emails, it's become my newest thing to procrastinate since our phone line was disconnected (long story with a big OOPS! involved, lol).
Have a nice day!

Katie at 3:49 PM

Monday, November 03, 2003

It's amazing how the weirdest things come in handy. For example, Zach's class is asking for donations for their Native American Day coming up in a few weeks. One of the items needed is green Easter grass. For some odd reason, we've had an extra bag of the stuff sitting in a kitchen cabinet since last Easter. I've resisted throwing it away for months (I have anti-packrat tendencies) and voila! It's now useful. They also need sardines, fresh cranberries and a kiddie pool. I'm not sure what exactly any of these have to do with Native Americans but I bet Zach will have fun.

I don't feel very good today, just a general under the weather feeling, nothing specific. I'd love to take a nap but unless I can drug the kids to sleep, I'm not getting one. It's a gorgeous day out, sunny and 70 degrees. Greg's picking up some leaf bags after lunch so if I can get over this vague "I'm going to faint" feeling, I need to rake leaves. We also need to finish up our weather board (the kids need to cut out the suns and glue pom poms to cloud shapes) and I need to write out a grocery list. Finding Nemo comes out tomorrow! I love Pixar movies, they are too funny.

NaNoWriMo is going well, I wrote about 1800 words this morning. I'm in the middle of a scene so if I can finish it up later, I'll be over 6,000. Right now I'm at 5,663. Slow and steady wins the race. :)

Quote of the Day: "A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the first word you thought of." - Burt Bacharach

Katie at 12:21 PM

Sunday, November 02, 2003

3891 words total and real life is getting in the way again. I need to clean up breakfast, get the kids dressed, start some laundry, clean off the dining room table, start a quilt, rake the leaves, read the Sunday paper, go to the grocery store for milk, and put together our craft project for the day. Zach wants to make a weather board, it's a cute idea and I have all the supplies for it already. I'll find the link for the instructions later and include a picture of the finished project. Quick excerpt from today's writing:

"Minolan!" Jalask roared. Kierana had been lost in her little world with Caiden that she hadn't noticed the commotion to her right. She stifled a laugh when she saw Quetear swinging from the chandler, his whip wrapped around the light fixture. His feet dangled several feet from the floor.

"It wasn't me," Minolan weakly defended himself. She could see the laughter dancing in his blue eyes. He winked at her and she grinned back. Minolan was the practical joker of the group, she would bet her sword that he was the cause of Quetear hanging.

"Uh huh," Jalask answered, clearly doubting every word the bard said. He plucked the hobbit down and with a quick tug on the whip, the chandler was free. "Lesson over," he said with a sigh.

Katie at 9:47 AM

Saturday, November 01, 2003

NaNoWriMo has started! And Greg's already making fun of me. :b Ah, such is the life of a writer. haha So far I have 2,394 words since this morning starting at 8:30 (with some breaks for diaper changes, lunch, and stealing candy from the kids' Halloween stash). I'll probably write some more today though. The weather is too crummy to work outside as planned so I've declared it a PJ day. So without further ado, here's the first two paragraphs of Kierana book 2 (the title is also work in progress obviously...)

Snowflakes fell softly outside Kierana's bedroom window. The wood elf leaned her forehead against the glass, the gloomy gray skies matching her mood. She pressed her fingertips to the cold glass, the flakes clinging to the other side melted instantly. With a sigh, she turned away from the window, walking aimlessly into the center of her room.

She should be happy. They had killed the dragon that had destroyed her family and her village so many years ago. She had gotten her long awaited revenge. But she was quickly learning that revenge was always bitter sweet. The dragon was dead but so was Thedoff.

Katie at 12:50 PM

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