Happy Birthday Jim Henson!

 

1936-1990. He would have been 77 (that is, if I got my math right).

Live long and prosper.

Writing, writing, writing, procrastination, writing, and music.

This week I have been helping out at my church's VBS. The theme is Christmas In July. I am the song leader, while Mom accompanies me and the kids on piano.
All I can say is WOW. I love little kids... But trying to get 65 of them to all calm down enough to listen to you while you try to teach them a song is HARD! Dad says, "It's good practice for when you get older and are a worship team leader!" I replied by saying, "Yeah... sure Dad. But when I'm a worship team leader I won't be saying, 'ok guys, calm down now! I'm gonna teach you a song. I'm gonna sing a line and you repeat after me!'" At least I hope I won't be doing that....
Anyway, VBS has been tiring me out completely but it's SO fun! We have theme days. Tonight's theme is "favorite hat" (Grama, I'm wearing a red W+R Financial Services hat!).

I have taken a challenge from Jake at Teenage Writer (I'm too lazy to get the link.... If you go to my profile you can find his blog - which is full of great authorly advice and tips!) to finish a novel by August 15th.
I have been writing, writing, writing the past week! I have managed about 7,000 words since accepting the challenge and I finally got my characters off the island they've been stuck on for the past few months (both in the fictional timeline and the real timeline)! I am very happy with myself! The island scenes were the ones that needed the most re-writing. Now I move onto the castle scene and the climax.... Which also needs heavy re-writing to make the characters seem more diabolical and the plot not so rushed (hey, it was the end of NaNoWriMo, I was trying to cram everything in). Also, I have re-write this whole sub-plot thingy because I killed one of the characters that was going to be in it... Heh heh. I think he may have a replacement, though. I can't quite decide... I have this one character who is constantly worrying about everything. He has no home and family to go now that he is off the island, so should he stick with my main characters or should I just drop him off somewhere and never mention him again? I feel like that wouldn't be very nice, so I have a feeling he'll be sticking around for awhile... You are lucky William The Worrier.

While writing, I have mostly been listening to the Master and Commander movie soundtrack. I absolutely LOVE the music from that movie! It's so.... oceany! Which is perfect because my novel takes place on land, on a boat, on an island, on a boat, and on land! It's great music to novel by.

Today I have been very distracted from my writing, though. I started the day out by watching some Veggietales (who can go wrong with Veggietales??) and then I did some writing... then watched some more Veggietales... some writing.... some American Girl videos (go girloftheyearstudios!).... writing..... And then my friend called and we got talking about Warriors and How It Should Have Ended. I was telling her about How Tangled Should Have Ended.

So there you have it.... writing, procrastination, and music.... And it all combines to make a totally random blog post!

But it's not over yet....

BBC Sherlock was nominated for 13 Emmy awards! I may just have to watch the Emmy's this year.... I hope Benedict Cumberbatch wins something. I don't think he's ever won something for his performance as Sherlock Holmes and he totally deserves it as he is an incredible actor.
Speaking of... It's Benedict Cumberbatch's birthday today! He is 36. Happy birthday to one of my favorite actors!

Last night my mom and I started watching Cranford, a period drama set in the 1840's or 50's sometime. The industrial revolution is hitting England and the small, unchanged town of Cranford - run by the local ladies - is facing big changes, such as the impending railroad which is set to run just a few miles away from their town.
It's great so far! If you like period dramas, this one is a good one to watch. The characters are lovable (although not as well developed as some in Jane Austin's novels, I find) and I am looking forwards to finding out what happens tonight!

I should probably get back to writing now... So goodbye and happy writing! Or re-writing.... Or editing... Or whatever you happen to be doing right now whether it has anything to do with writing or not. And please pray that I survive the rest of VBS. =)

P.S. Mom signed me up for a driving class!! It starts in September and runs 8 weeks. Scary!

Meet Linda.

Today for my (actual) birthday, my parents and I went out to eat at the American Girl Doll bistro.
I got a doll.
My last.
I know... I say that every time. But this time I mean it.
I have wanted this doll since 2005. As far as I can remember, she has been the doll I have wanted the longest (except for Kaya, but since I have Kaya now, she doesn't count).
Originally I had planned to get this doll (because I also used to want her when I was younger) :

But then I saw the doll I got and remembered how much I loved her. Plus I had a PERFECT name picked out for her! Linda.
She is named after Linda McCartney. As my friends may know, I have been increasingly more and more fond of the Beatles since my friend Jen introduced me to them. My favorite Beatle is Paul McCartney and the more interviews I watched of him or the more things I learned about him, the more I thought he was a pretty cool guy. And his wife Linda is pretty cool to! So, my doll is named after Linda McCartney.
But that's not all. She's also named after Rose, the 9th Doctor's companion (1, because I have a new found love in the show. And 2, because Rose goes really well with the name Linda!). Her third name is Meagan because that is what I was originally going to name her. Her last name is Cohan after George M. Cohan, the vaudeville child star and "America's first actor." He wrote THE song of World War 1, Over There. He wrote hit Broadway musicals and songs from 1904-1925ish.

So, I present to you, Linda Rose Meagan Cohan.

The outfit is new as well! The Weekend Fun Outfit. I also got Kit's Reporter Accessories because Linda is a photographer, just like her namesake.
Linda also loves animals and is very sweet in spirit. She is good friends with Kirsten Larson.

And there you have it. My last doll.

Linda Rose Meagan Cohan.

Birthday Party!

My party yesterday was great! As I said before, I only had two friends and their families (brothers, moms, dads, and dogs) over. They've been my homeschool buddies for 8 years and we've been in co-ops practically that whole time together. We had been planning to get together sometime in April to watch the Tintin movie (because my friend hadn't seen it yet) but that kind of fell through.... So I decided to have a Tintin birthday party with them to play games, eat food, and watch the movie!

On Wednesday night my dad and I hurriedly made some pictures to decorate the house with.
Here is what I came up with:

My dad drew this one and I colored it in:

This is a picture I drew in 2010 that we hung up:

And one that I drew last year that we hung above the TV:

The first sight that people saw when they walked in, was this:

Nestor-doll greets you, with Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock.

In the background, all my Tintin books:

And Snowy (a beanie baby) with the XFLR-6 rocket:

We played Apples to Apples and Monopoly. Then it was time for dinner! Yummy bacon-cheeseburger pie (thanks for the recipe Grama! Everyone loved it!), potato salad, corn on the cob, and fruit!
Then the movie!

My friends liked the movie!
Then the cake!! My mom really outdid herself this year. Nearly every year for my birthday I have had a cake, made by my mother, that has some sort of shape to it. I've had a Daddy cake before and a Bichon cake. This year, I asked for a Tintin cake. This is what Mom came up with:

Isn't my mother amazing???!!
First, she baked a rectangle cake, then my dad drew Tintin on a thin piece of paper, mom cut out the face from the paper, stuck it on the cake, and cut out Tintin's face! This is definitely the best looking birthday cake I've ever had! It tasted pretty good too, =D The frosting was made with food coloring mixed to make the different colors.
I got to eat Tintin's quiff!!

Slowly, piece by piece, he disappeared....

One lucky guest got to eat Tintin's ear. Van Gogh anyone?

The dogs had fun as well.

Rosey and Davie love to play with the fox toy, while poor, destructive, lovable, lab puppy had to stay in the backyard.

A day full of family, friends, and fun. Not to mention Tintin! Now that's my kind of party!

Yellowstone!

Yesterday we went to Yellowstone National Park! I would have blogged about it last night but I had a bad migraine.

The entrance to the park:

Tintin by the GPS ("Turn right in 400 meters.... turn right.... TURN RIGHT!")

 

The landscape:

Tintin by the Beehive Geyser:

We saw Old Faithful erupt as well but we were on the wrong side and only saw steam. It wasn't very high. Beehive was cooler.

Buffalo:

"Hahahaha." My cousin said that the above buffalo looks like he would laugh like Santa Claus.

The highlight of Yellowstone was the waterfall/mini-grand canyon.

The waterfall started over here:

And wound around over here:

Another picture of Tintin (he's having a good time! Although he wishes Captain Haddock and Snowy could have come along....)

There were lots of things like this next video... bubbling and gurgling. I thought my cousin in Canada would think it was funny! =D

This hill was rising up out of Yellowstone:

I just HAD to take a picture of it because of Lord of the Rings. I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring right now and as we're driving across the country my thoughts are bouncing between, "Man, God did a good job with that mountain!" and "Wow! That looks like the scene I just read in Lord of the Rings!"

From The Fellowship (Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin are in The Old Forest):

A heavy weight was settling steadily on Frodo's heart, and he regretted now with every step forward that he had ever thought of challenging the menace of the trees. He was, indeed, just about to stop and propose going back (if that was still possible), when things took a new turn. The path stopped climbing, and became for a while nearly level. The dark trees drew aside, and ahead they could see the path going almost straight forward. Before the,, but some distance off, there stood a green hill-top, treeless, rising like a bald head out of the encircling wood. The path seemed to be making directly for it.

The last stop in Yellowstone was the "Mud Volcano's." They weren't too impressive (perhaps because the steam coming from them made it hard to see), but the parking lot was! There were 4 buffalo in the parking lot examining the cars!

You can see frightened people hiding in the bathrooms. It was quite comical.

Today we passed through the city of Wall; home to Wall Drug.

I always like to see all the different signs leading up to the actual place. However, we didn't actually go into Wall Drug. We just stopped at Subway to eat lunch.

Now we are in Nebraska for my cousin's wedding!
We went out to eat with family tonight at Pizza Hut. Tintin came along.

Tomorrow Tintin and I are going to explore the lobby of the hotel.
Until then, goodnight!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! It's my friends birthday today and I just wanted to let her know that I'm thinking about her! =D