ENJOY LIFE

We are busy.  We have responsibilities.  But we try to take time to enjoy the little (and big) things.

This week was stake conference for church.  So we spent some time with the Bettenhausens.  Scott and I truly enjoy spending time with Jelly Bean and Raisin.

Waiting for stake conference and taking pictures for Kiara...

Scott and Raisin on their devices.

Games and french toast after conference.  Mmmmmm!

Scott and Raisin have a great relationship!

She loves him and he loves her!

Kiara has also been enjoying life... with Cody.  We like him too!They got to go to the Meridian Temple dedication.  And they write stories together.  And the go to FHE together and make gingerbread houses.  And Cody makes origami flowers.  And they like going dancing.

What a special experience!

Their story - although difficult to read - is about cows and why they eat grass...

Silly kids!

Yummm!

Cody is talented!  He folded this flower.

Dancing is fun!

And Kiara got to meet Buddy, the elf with her roommates.  She and Amber took a picture with another North Pole friend:

Buddy, the elf!

North Pole fun!

Kiara and Cody are so cute!

Crazy co-eds!

NaNoWriMo DISTRACTIONS

We still have lives - despite participating in NaNoWriMo. 

Yes, we've caught this girl trying to write all night long...

Kotten Kandy, Taffy and I helped at an Eagle Scout Project for a great guy whom I will call A1 Steaksauce.  We made lines for archery in the lawn.  It was good.  I couldn't do much of the shoveling, but I was able to help line stones/pavers/bricks (not sure what to call them.)

A1 Steaksauce leads the way!

Kotten Kandy and Taffy digging the trench.

It was FREEZING!!!!

And hard work!!!!

But this girl kept smiling and doing her part!

While Kotten Kandy and I were doing service, Scott and Chris went to the Ohio State football game.  They love this yearly tradition.  And Ohio won!

Silly man!  I sure love this guy!

O-H-I-O!

Kiara has been having tons of fun with her crazy roommates and Cody.  They play games, watch movies, dance, and do all sorts of fun things together.  I'm so glad she's happy!  I hope she's studying and looking for a job too.  BTW I got to facetime Cody... and I think he's great.  So I approve of Kiara Lea's choice.

Amber - Kiara - Mary

These 3 co-eds make me smile!

I love them all!!!

Playing games....

College life...  Thanks, Amber, for the pics!

Cody and Kiara

Here are a few random pictures I forgot to post:

Laying on the floor?!

How cute is Raisin?!

She steals my heart!

And so does this guy!

Jelly Bean (I mean Batman) was hanging out

on my kitchen floor after Halloween....

Oh!  And I read another book.  I read Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence. 

I loved the premise of this book, but I didn't like the author's book choices and language.  Let me explain.
The premise of this book is fairly simple.  It's a book of letters that Annie, a librarian, has written to various books.  Some of those books are love letters.  Some are break-up letters about books she does not like.  It made me want to write letters to my favorite books and some books I wish I had never read.
After reading this book, I knew that I would not like book advice from this woman.  She seemed liberal in her choices and liked love stories way too much.  She is also extremely liberal in her word choices (ie. she uses a LOT of four letter words).  Her sense of humor was sometimes OK, but usually crude. 
I guess I read the book because I thought "I could write something like this... and make it better with more thought out summaries of book plots.  I could choose books that weren't full of immorality and other negative principles."  So maybe I'll write a letter to Fahrenheit 451 someday too, and I'll include The Way of Kings and Harry Potter and the Hunger Games.  But don't expect bad language from me.

WHATCHA DOIN'?

It's fun to FINALLY get pictures from my BYUI co-ed!  And it looks like she's doing some fun things!  She's doing well in school!  She's made a lot of friends!  She hangs out with a cute boy a lot!  And she eats chocolate with her BFFs/roommates!

Kiara and Cody

Mary

Amber

Key Lime Pie

What are we doing?  Writing...

NaNoWriMo is life... in November.

AUTHORS AT WORK

Halloween was wonderful!  We ate our traditional chili and cornbread.  We dressed up.  We took Amy's kids trick-or-treating.  I passed out candy and "ooohed" and "ahhed" over all of the trolls, princesses, monsters, super heroes and zombies.  (Which is my favorite part!)  We shared our evening with good friends....

Our gang of Trick-or-Treaters

My boy!

Raisin is the cutest cat EVER!

This girl only sent me this photo from her crazy, fun Halloween celebrations...

She promised more.

She promised to send pictures of some of her friends.

She's kinda in trouble.

GJ made my day with her costume!

My sister does NOT dress up for Halloween.

She was required to for work this year...

I pretended that it wasn't a requirement and that she was doing it just for me!

I  LOVE my fun sister!  And I love that she channeled her inner-hippie!

And I LOVED being Penelope Garcia, technical analyst for the FBI!

Scott and a few of his employees got in on the fun too!

Nancy is the pirate, Scott is Rossi (from the BAU) and Paige is a paper doll

I just love Paige!

Scott does too... I promise.

And then we had our last rogue self-reliance class - for now.  Although we still plan to meet and encourage each other in our financial goals and accomplishments.

Getting ready for our class with kids hyped up on sugar was lots of fun...

Raisin is in a candy stupor in this pic...  But she loves Scott!

And Jelly Bean loves his Taffy!

And these two are crazy, silly after all of the excitement!

All of these activities were just warm-ups to the real "holiday": NaNoWriMo.  There are nine of us participating this year: Myself, Scott, Mark, Amy, Tyler, Kotten Kandy, Juice, Nuts and Marmalade.  We all got a good start on our books.  And we're all excited!  This year Scott got the least amount of sleep - he stayed awake all night!  I actually made it until 4:15ish and got up at 7ish.  This is such a fun, worth-while tradition!  And it encourages writing!  And we make it social too!

Sodas ✓

Friends ✓

Computers ✓

Ideas ✓

Amy's Silly Writing Puns ✓

Attitudes and Excitement ✓

And then we wrote...

Don't worry, Amy and I prepared for the month on Saturday by making freezer meals.  Our families may be neglected while we strive to reach our 50,000 word count, but they won't starve.

And this picture is because Key Lime Pie didn't send me the promised pictures of Halloween.

Meet her friend, Cody!