Nanowrimo

Nanowrimowhat? My first impression exactly. It stands for National Writing Month. An organization put together a website where authors/writers can go and chat and what not. The month of November is dedicated to writing a 50,000 word novel from scratch! In case you are curious..50,000 words is the equivalent of approx. 190 pages in book form.

There is no reward just the satisfaction that you were able to achieve this feat. Being the perfectionist i am. I knew i couldn't step away from the novel i am already writing and start a completely new one without letting my inner editor be apart of it. 50,000 words is A LOT more difficult than you would think. For me anyway...

SO! I just decided that i would challenge myself to add 50,000 words to the novel i'm already writing. What does this means for me? What took me nearly ten months, i will be doing in ONE. Yes folks, i'm taking the challenge and pressing forward! I'm quite behind, though. I'm almost halfway through the month and i've only got 15,000 more words than i started out with. I'm taking it with stride though because that's a heck of a lot more words than where i was a week and a half ago and i'm enjoying watching my story unravel in front of me..it's quite liberating!

I'm telling you all this because it'll encourage me to get it done! I won't just give up when i'm halfway there and call it good. I will be reporting back!

So wish me luck! I need all the support i can get! Now, I'm off to write some more!

meet oscar

a needy, emotional wetting, separation anxiety Wreck...

ryan bought oscar right before he left on his mission leaving his parents to raise him. the poor pup was so distraught when ryan left that the vet had to put him on puppy Prozac(yes..there is such a thing)..that's when he was diagnosed with separation anxiety. haha..oh oscar.

he sleeps with us every night. whines at the door if it's closed or until he's lifted onto the bed with us..no matter if we're already dead asleep or not. upon this..he insists upon sleeping between ryan and i. (something i do not let happen). he knows the drill now. if he's in between us just chillin before bed time, he knows he'll be moved to the other side of ryan for the remainder of the evening.

Among the MANY quirks Oscar possesses one is that he has to have his morning cheese. YES. a kraft singles slice. He will whine and beg whoever is the first to wake up in the morning until they give him his cheese. Oscar also has something we call the "happy scratch". On occasion, we let oscar join us on outings that don't require going inside a public center such as the grocery, target, movies, etc... as soon as he's let in the car he begins his "happy scratch"-both paws to the rug and scratches fervently(we don't let it happen for long).

Oscar LOVES the ocean. When he joins us on boating outings he HAS to ride on the rail of the boat. Luckily, we have him on a tight leash or he'd commit "puppy suicide" and jump right off the boat going fifty miles an hour(or whatever we're going).

I will emphasize..although, he might be part of our family we do not consider him our child. he is NOT a child, even though sometimes we think he might be handicap..it's probably just that he is a puppy stuck in a middle-aged mans body.

Oh Oscar...

obsessive? i don't know what you're talking about...

I promised myself i was done posting about twilight. but, alas, i am not. there was a new trailer that came out and the last five seconds may or may not be heart stopping. what?

ode to chick-fil-a

I've always understood ryan's love for chick-fil-a up to a certain extent. The foods great-always fresh and tastes delicious. But, today i believe i made my true conversion in fast food religion.

Now, not to disrespect/bash their sections in the mall, but my conversion has not been because of those rented out spaces in the mall. Because quite frankly, any one of those could deliver delicious food if they wanted to...but it's a completely different experience when you can actually go in and sit inside a chick-fil-a restaurant.

Let me tell you why chick-fil-a is so awesome and i think you will agree it is the best thing to ever happen to the fast food industry.

The thing i love most about chick-fil-a is the fresh flowers they provide in vases on EVERY table EVERYDAY. Happy fresh flowers that makes the place almost seem, dear i say, classy? On top of the fresh flowers, you're greeted by polite employees as soon as you walk into the institution. Employees who say things like, "my pleasure" when you ask for a refill or extra sauce. And these employees are there--every. time. Not once have i ever been greeted or spoken to by a gloomy or rude employee.

Plus, the chick-fil-a establishment is always CLEAN. Never have i ever seen a dirty table, a dirty bathroom stall, or dirty floor where my foot sticks because someone spilled their beverage. They even provide you with a hand sanitation station by the condiments/napkins and it doesn't make your hands smell like alcohol! (like my hand sanitizer does).

Another thing which i'm sure if i was a mother i would appreciate more, is the fact that EVERY tuesday night(with a purchase of a meal) KIDS EAT FREE and enjoy kid friendly activities plus a jump castle. What other fast food restaurant can you say does that every week?

I've noticed these subtle niceties every time i've eaten at a chick-fil-a, but today was the day that i put them all together! Flowers brighten my day anyway, but combine that with delicious food, excellent service, clean surroundings, and happy employees...who could ask for a better dining experience?

They have yet to let me down and in the twenty some odd years that ryan has enjoyed chick-fil-a...he's only been disappointed once. ONE disappointment in twenty years? now, that's one great track record. And did i mention they are also the healthiest fast food restaurant?

thank you chick-fil-a. thank you.

**stepping off soap box**

nashville baby!

this is a long overdue post..but nevertheless needs to be documented. when we went to tennessee for tom's wedding we did a little exploring in nashville with ryan's parents. we passed by the grand ole opry, enjoyed the largest mall i've ever seen, and walked the streets downtown while passing bars full of cowboys and girls singin' and playin' their guitars/dancing on bars. it was quite eventful and HOT(in both senses of the word).

doing what we do best.

why aren't we millionaires?

this is a question ryan and i ask each other on almost a daily basis. typically it's when we find something that we want, but don't have money for. today it was for this home...

it was built in the 1800's. i'd feel like i was back in pride and prejudice or sense and sensibility, but with updated features. we've now decided that when we do become millionaires, a home in the historic district is where we want to be..i mean how cool and classic is that?

his best friend's wedding

ryan's best friend, tom, got married last weekend..yay tom! they were sealed in nashville, tennessee temple. so we made the eight hour drive with ryan's parents to show some support.

Congrats you guys!

house huntin..

we're probably nowhere near being able to buy a house yet, but we love the search. we've seen so many cool houses and have also learned more and more about the kind of house we want. once the time eventually comes upon us..i'm dying to move into this neighborhood.

every street name is after a flower. i was born to live in this neighborhood.

keep trust in your GPS at all times

so while ryan and i were out exploring charleston the other day, we got hungry and started to crave chinese. so we looked at our handy GPS for chinese food near by.

(side story)

for months, i've been looking online to see if panda would show up in south carolina. it never has.

(end)

so you can understand my confusion/excitement/skepticism as i was scrolling down and saw panda express ten miles south west. we thought "what the hay, if it's not the panda we think it is..it's still chinese". so we took the exit it showed and began what we thought to be a 10 min drive into more like 40. we were wondering where the crap this GPS taking us. even after we decided it was taking too long, we had to know where it was trying to lead us. it eventually landed us here ...

what the GPS? we ended up eating at chick-fil-a...

happy trails...

we made that 33 hour drive once again. but, this time in the opposite direction! We're finally here in south carolina! i didn't get all of the state lines or license plates that i wanted to..but then again..i did get them on our way back west two years ago..so no biggy:) we ended up not stopping our second night and just drove straight through the night..so it ended up only taking us about two and a quarter days rather than three..woot woot!

utah:wyoming:nebraska:iowa:missouri:illinois:kentucky:tennessee:north carolina:south carolina

(this is for you mom)