November Happenings

November turned out to be a very busy month.



I finished my novel! I started the challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in November, and I did it in 15 days. Whew, talk about brain marathon! My novel isn't really a novel persay, it's a guide book to the Maya and the ruins in Tulum, Mexico. I'm at the editing stage of it now. I have it printed out and just need to go through everything and figure out which paragraphs go where and what I can delete out of it. 50,000 words equates to 98 single spaced pages of text. I plan on including photos and have assigned Ken to do some illustrations. Once I have it all edited and put together, I plan on getting it out to a publisher.

I'm glad I finished so quickly. I spent a week getting my house in order to host Thanksgiving at my house. I haven't hosted a holiday meal at our house in about 8 years. It was just me, Ken, the boys, and Ken's parents for Thanksgiving. Ken's mom has done the Turkey Day meal for a long time, and all Ken's siblings were out of town this year. We decided to give his mom a break.

I went all out. I made a feast fit for Kings and Queens. It was very tasty. I even made my own cranberry sauce. That was super yummy. Much better than from a can. We had the works, lots of appetizers, the main meal (turkey, homemade stuffing, real mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, squash, dinner rolls...the works!), for desert Ken's mom baked a blue berry pie, and I had 2 pumpkin pies from Trader Joe's (yummy goodness). I bought whipped cream and vanilla bean ice cream to go with it.

I also broke out the good dishes. Not my every day wear. I got out my great Uncle Elmer and Great Aunt Marietta's flatware. I had a floral center piece, and used my great grandmothers, and grandmothers silver and glass serving dishes.

A week's worth of blog

And what a week it's been!

Last Thursday evening we headed to Wisconsin Dells for a long weekend family get-a-way. We arrived late in the evening, but this meant we had all day Friday to play. I excused the kids from school for the day, so they thought that was pretty cool.

On Friday we attended one of those time share sales pitch deals. Big yawn...yadda, yadda, yadda...We weren't interested at first and we were convinced we would say no, and go on with our day. Our hour and a half sales pitch turned into a 4 hour sales pitch. The more we listened and then we took a tour and crunched some numbers and Whoa la! We are now proud owners of a time share. We got a really good deal on it, and it is vacations for a life time. We can pass them onto our kids or we can sell it. Either way it turned out to be a win-win situation for us.

The time share works on a point based system. We are able to use it year round. We aren't locked into a certain week or place or amount of days to stay. If we don't use all our points in one year they roll over into the next year, so we don't lose anything if we don't use it one year. As owners of this time share, we are also eligible for discounts at other hotels around the world. We are also eligible for discounts on airfare, car rentals, and cruises.

Since we purchased the time share, they gave us free weekend passes to the indoor water park of the resort we purchased our time share from. Needless to say we spent the rest of Friday in the pool. We had an awesome time.

Saturday morning after breakfast we headed back for more water park fun. Then in the afternoon we headed to an indoor amusement extravaganza! Bumper cars, ball pit, go-carts, bowling, video games...a whole lotta fun in one place..or as Ken called it ..one big money pit.

I did get to meet a gal I've been talking to online for a little over a year while we were in Wisconsin. It was fun meeting and her family finally. We hit it off great, and we were bummed we couldn't hang out longer.

Sunday we headed home.

Monday...gee I've already forgotten what I did on Monday. I did something though.

Tuesday I went grocery shopping at the new Cub Foods grocery store that opened up next to Wal-Greens about 3 very long blocks from my house. It is really nice. I ended up spending two hours in there just finding every thing and looking around. I was surprised at the many things they do carry, as they are a smaller sized store.

Wednesday evening...I caught up on TV shows I had missed.

Thursday evening I spent 5 hours watching TV and getting completely caught up on missed shows and current shows.

I took the week off from writing. I've just been busy and brain dead. I am back at it now. I am currently up to 26k words. Only 24k more to go in 10 days. I hope I can make it. But I'm on the second leg of the NaNo marathon and refreshed, so I think I'll make it to the finish line.

One week into the NaNo

I have almost reached a count of 15,000 words. Whew...what a week it has been. And to answer your questions about why I am doing the NaNo and what I hope to gain from it.

For the last 4 years I have been taking correspondence writing courses on writing for children's magazines. I have learned many things and the thing I loved most about it is that I have been able to tap into my creative side of myself and have really enjoyed this hobby. Where this hobby takes me is entirely anybodies guess. I would certainly like to get published as an end result.

I have a few online friends who have encouraged me to get involved in the NaNo. Write a novel in one month. Sure why not? What have I got to lose? And what a great way to get inspired to get a novel done. I have to admit the challenge has been very addicting. I spent the month of October mapping the novel out, by doing character builds and story outlines.

Don't worry...no plans to quit the day job just yet. Do I expect to become the next best selling author and appear on Oprah. If I'm going to dream, I might as well dream big, but I won't be too disappointed if that doesn't happen. And if it just turns out to be a bit of extra income coming in, then that's not such a bad thing either.

Here is the latest excerpt.
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It was a beautiful day, so we had the party outdoors in the back yard. The kids all had a great time, and most of them were too young to figure out that Calvin wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. He played in the corner of the playground area and had his back turned to everyone. He made no eye contact with any one, and he showed no facial expression. I couldn’t tell if he enjoyed it or was miserable. He wasn’t fussing and whining, so I really am not sure how to read it based on his reaction. This was the largest group of people he’s been around and apparently he is my little anti-social kid.

When we brought out the cake to sing happy birthday with a big candle in the shape of a number two on it, he cried. He wanted nothing to do with it. I think the flame might have scared him, but it could have been the crowd of people too. I’m really not certain.

We opened presents after cake. I sat Calvin on my lap when we sat down on the patio to open gifts as all the guests gathered around us to see the excitement on his face when he opened their present. Calvin just sat there though. So I took his little hands in mine and helped him rip the paper. He did not like that one little bit. He moved his hands away from mine, stood up, turned his back towards everyone, and hugged me for dear life. He had his arms wrapped around my neck very tightly, that it started to choke me. James came to my rescue and took him from me. James gave him his favorite blanket and calmed him down. I felt horrible. Jeremy then decided that he would open Calvin’s presents for him. One of the kids asked why Calvin didn’t want his presents. I had no answer for that question. I told the kids to go ahead and open Calvin’s gifts for him and we would give them to him later when he was in a better mood.

Calvin seemed to settle down after the craziness of present opening ended and his new toys were out and about they yard. The kids were all having fun with his new toys. Calvin decided he wanted to play with his new basketball someone had given him. James brought the Little Tykes indoor basket ball hoop outside so Calvin could play with his new basket ball. I was hoping that would at least engage him to play with at least one of the other children, but he refused. One of the kids did try, but Calvin held onto the ball and just stared him down until he gave up and left Calvin alone. Calvin made every single basket he shot for. It truly was amazing watching him. Calvin continued to make baskets for a half an hour. Over and over again, he made basket after basket.

I sat on the deck with rest of the adults while the kids played together in the yard, all the kids except of course Calvin. James reached into the cooler and handed me a beer. It was just what I needed. I think he sensed the tenseness and stress I was feeling. Although, now the worst part of the party was over, I could wind down and relax. I had no where to go that evening, so I decided it was time to drink my troubles away.

After all our guests had left, James brought all the toys, Jeremy, and Calvin inside and we settled in for the night. I hated the fact that I could not tell if Calvin enjoyed his birthday or not. He exhibited his infamous poker face the whole entire day. Jeremy, on the other hand, was excited. I’m glad at least one of my children had fun with all the planning we did for this. I thought for sure that Calvin would be at least be excited about the Thomas Cake but that back fired on me and not only did he cry when we presented it, but he didn’t eat any of it either. It just really saddens my heart the way the day turned out. Who knew my little boy would hate his birthday? What child hates birthday parties? None that I ever knew of.
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Let the fun begin

Midnight, November 1st. The official start of National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days. This is my first year at doing this, so wish me luck. 50,000 words in 30 days, or 1,666.6 words per day, or 70 words per hour.

My novel is going to a diary style account of one woman's journey through diagnosis and raising a child with Autism. She will discover her strengths and weaknesses as she learns to reach through to her child who is in a world of his own. Follow her tragedies and triumphs as told by her.

I will post bits & pieces on my blog as I go. Stay tuned.