Taking a Break in April

Hello all my bloggy friends out there!

First thing's first.  I'm taking a break from blogging in April.  Many of you are participating in the A-Z challenge (okay, all of you- it's now up to 700 something bloggers?).  I just don't have the time to blog every day, so I've decided to take the month off to work on editing my WIP and writing my query letter.  I figured you all would be checking all the a-z people, so I might as well take a break!

But I promise I'll be back in May!  And I'll have something totally awesome to share when I get back.

So please stay with me, because you guys mean the world to me!  I'll periodically lurk around and maybe comment a time or two if I'm taking a break.  Don't want to miss the epic a-z blogfest completely!

Next: I've gotten a few awards I'd like to share.  Colene at The Journey gave me the Write Hard award.  Jenni Merritt gave me the Lovely Blog award, and Carol at Artzicarol Ramblings gave me the Best Blog award!  Thank you so much ladies!

Here are some fab people I'd like to give these awards to:

All my crit partners- you know who you are ;p

Alexia Chamberlynn

Jennifer Hillier

Emy Shin

Rachel Morgan

Donea Lee

Meredith Moore

Nahno Mclein

Nia Raie

Also: My very good friend Catherine Kohman is having a contest for her book Lembas for the Soul.  Her publisher is giving away 5 copies to celebrate the start of filming The Hobbit.  Go here to enter.  If you are a fan of the Lord of the Rings, this book would make an awesome companion.  It's a collection of stories inspired by the the Lord of the Rings books.

I'm really going to miss you guys this month, but hopefully I'll be all done with edits by the time I come back all refreshed and rearing to go in May!  Tootle pip and a skip!  Love you all!

OHMIGOSHAWARDS!

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for commenting on my last post!  I got 31 comments on Friday which means 31 dollars will be going to Soles4Souls.  I also got a comment from the charity itself- which is totally awesome!


I've gotten some awards recently that I really need to acknowledge 1)because the givers-of-said-awards are totally awesome and b) I may have started to forget who gave me what...(eep, blame it on the hair- go ahead, I don't mind)

Apparently I'm pretty stylin' because Colene from The Journey, Madeleine from Scribble and Edit, D.P King from The Cosmic Laire, and Madeline from Capricious Existence, and TC McKee all gave me the Stylish Blogger Award!  Thanks guys- you rock!

I also got the NEW Versatile Blogger award from Carol Riggs at Artzicarol Ramblings!










Okay so the rules say to state 7 things about myself.  I haven't done this in a while, so I will go ahead and try to think up some random things about me.

1.  I hate certain textures of food like oatmeal, fried ochra, blueberries, and mushy fruit.  Sorry, can't do em.

2.  I was 2 lbs 11 oz when I was born 3 months early.  My head fit into my dad's palm with room to spare.

3.  My daughter on the other hand, was 9 lbs 1 oz and was "2 days" early.  I say that with quotes because I swear she was at least a week late.  She's now the smallest one in her class.

4.  I can triple roll my tongue

5.  I hate feet in which the second toe is longer than the big toe.  Sadly my husband is cursed with this (as is most the population I have found out) and quite possibly my daughter, although it's hard to tell.

6.  My daughter thought I was Sarah Michelle Gellar on the cover of a magazine one time.  She'll never know just how ecstatic I was- I was obsessed with her and all things Buffy when it was on.

7.  I feel awkward and weird around kids.  Probably why I only have one.

Weelp, that's about it.  Now on to the giving-out-of-awards:

I always want to give the awards out to people I haven't given them out to yet.  So while I think all of you deserve these awards, I'll just name a few people who are totally stylin' and cool:
Angela Felsted
Rachel Morgan
Michelle Merrill
Rachael Harrie
Kindros

Thanks again for reading my blog, peeps!  Lurrrves and kisses!

Awards!

Thought I'd acknowledge the wonderful awards I got recently.  You guys are so awesome and I really am truly thankful we've become friends through our blogs!

Erica and Christy gave me two awards:

Thanks Girls- hope on over to their blog, they are two funny moms who teach, and you get two bloggers for the price of one!

Colene from The Journey gave me the Irresistible Blog Award!  Thank you to a great Crit Partner!

I also got the beautiful Magical Blog Award from Alexia Chamberlynn over at The Life and Literary Persuits of Alexia Chamberlynn  Thank you so much Alexia- and it's a gorgey award.

And then I just got two Honest Scrap awards- one from Kelly Dexter over at Nerdville Rhapsody, and the other from Lisa Galek over at Read.Write.Repeat.  Thanks so much girls- go check our their blogs.  Kelly recently started back up again from a hiatus (we missed you!) and Lisa is brilliant and is a Religious Studies major like me!



So I think I'm supposed to say some facts about myself for some of these, but I answered this a while back when I got the awards earlier, so I'll link you to that post: 7 facts about Me.

I'll go ahead and do 3 more to get to 10:

1. I am obsessed with all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer- my computer is named Buffy

2. My husband has an identical twin

3. I have a minor in communication, but have terrible social anxiety- go figure.

So now I'd like to pass these on to these wonderful bloggers:  You can choose any of the awards or all 4 of them!

Andy Thompson over at Writing Myself Crazy

Colene Murphy over at The Journey

Melissa Wideen over at Throught The Lookingglass

Lisa Galek over at Read.Write.Repeat

Jennie Bailey over at Garden Full of Lily

Donea Lee over at Queen of Procrastination

Anne Kenny over at Writers Quandary

Jen Daiker at Unedited

Maggie at The Juniper Breeze is Blowing In

Sam at One Sparkling Star

Angela Darling over at Chasing Fairydust

*edited- OMG I am so sorry to Sam and Maggie- I mixed up their blogs!  *facepalm*  See, this is what I get when I try to rush and do a million things at once!  Love you both!

You all rock, and seriously- I love all of you that read my drivel blog.  If you're not on the list (honestly because I got tired of doing all the links), go ahead and take any of these awards for yourself because I love you too!

Come back Monday because I've got an awesome Aspiring Author interview with our bloggy friend Jennie Bailey!

OMG, a NaNoWriMo Blog Post...because everyone else is doing it...



(I think there was supposed to be a spider on this sign)

So I thought I'd jump in on the bandwagon and talk about NaNoWriMo.  For those of you who read my blog and might not know what it is, November is National Novel Writing Month.  So, for the whole month of November we have to crank out a 50,000 word novel.  Yeah, last year I got a whole 0 words written on that. 

So, this year, I've decided to call it NaNoFinMo.  National Novel Finishing Month.  My goal for November is to just FINISH this darn book.  I can see the end in sight, and it's making me crazy!  But I can't rush it- I can't pull a "Suzanne Collins" and rush to the end after my climax.  But I'm hoping I can discipline myself a little better and finish the 15k words I have left.  I can totally do that.

So instead of making myself crazy about NaNo, I'll just talk about Awards!

I got three awards from Maggie over at The Juniper Breeze is Blowing In!

Thank you so much Maggie!  Since I've gotten the first two and have given them out before, I'll focus on the third one- The Versatile Blogger Award.  For this one I must tell 7 facts about myself:
1. I am obsessed with the show How I Met Your Mother- I see SO MUCH of Lily and Marshall in Hubsies and I. 
2. This topic has come up a couple times in the past couple days- I laugh when Little Monster falls.  Sorry, but it's hilarious.  (I'm talking little like, tripping type falls and falling in the toilet (yes that's happened) not huge head-busting falls...c'mon I'm not that mean).  But I do love a good trip.
3.  I cry when I listen to Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth singing Defying Gravity from Wicked- it's so beautiful.
4.  We have an only child and it's totally our choice to have an only- and we LOVE it.
5.  I need "white noise" when I sleep
6.  I hate Mcalisters Sweet Tea *ducks*
7.  I like big teeth.  Like, it's weird. 

I'd like to award this to Colene Murphy of The Journey (who is my awesome Crit Partner and has an awesome blog!), and then to some new blogs I've been following: Melissa at Through the Looking Glass, and Erica and Christy.  Susanne at SusanneWrites (because she just got a book deal!!), and Lisa Galek at Read.Write.Repeat (because she needs a little encouragement- go visit her blog!) 

And now to leave you with some fun fall colours in my neighborhood (I'm using the British spelling of colour because I think it looks sophisticated and regal, and sometimes we just need to feel a little British)  (I know you totally like to talk in a British accent in your head sometimes...like me.)



(Okay, so there aren't any real colours on this one but I just thought this looked a little creepy and cool)




(the "before" picture in front of my house)




(our "haunted house" as Little Monster calls it)



(the "after" picture)

 We had a really great fall weekend, and I hope everyone did too.  Back to the 'ol grind!