Percy Jackson and Da Babiez, as well as NaNoWriMo!

Hai again. 

So, maybe it's just me, but I love babies.

I was reading The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, the part where Percy's thinking that maybe when he and Annabeth are older, they could live together in New Rome and raise a family and stuff. 

In The Mark of Athena, Percy tells this to Annabeth, and when she seems sort of shocked, he tells her to just forget it. And do you know how she responds?

"What? No! I mean...Gods, Percy, that's so sweet!" 

Maybe I'm just in a romantic mood, but thinking that Percy and Annabeth could live together in New Rome, and raise a bunch of little wise delinquents... *sigh.* It just seems so adorable and perfect to me right now. 

Can't you just see a bunch of little kids with curly black hair and clever gray eyes, or shaggy blond hair and mischievous green eyes, running around New Rome? Annabeth could teach them about architecture and engineering and Percy could teach them how to fight and be sarcastic.... *tears up.* It'd just be so beautiful!

Anyway, I've been re-reading the Heroes of Olympus series, which is why I'm bringing it up, I guess. I really like Rick Riordan's books and The House of Hades arrives at my house tomorrow! *bounces.* 

But remembering Annabeth thinking that getting married and having kids was such a sweet idea....it got me thinking. 

Do ALL people love babies?

I mean, obviously, I do. Obviously people who have them do. But if you see a cute little kid with a sweet smile and shoes on the wrong feet... Am I the only one who passes them and wishes I could just hug them?

Maybe my maternal instinct is stronger than most. Maybe I just like little kids more than others. But I was wondering if I was the only one who felt this way or if this is something across the board. 

I'm good with kids. I make them laugh, and I'm not afraid to act stupid to make them happy. Really, I like to make people in general happy. 

I'll just walk up to someone and give them a high-five, or send people random texts: "I <3 you. Have an amazing day! :)" 

You'd be surprised how happy it makes me, and how happy it makes others. 

And even if kids misbehave sometimes, even if they make a mess every now and then...I just can't help but love them!

I come from a big family. I have a decent amount of younger siblings. I know how to take care of kids, and when they need to be told no, and when they just need a hug. 

I'm a good babysitter, and when I was little there never seemed to be any future for me other than "growing up, getting married, and having kids"! Of course, I'm not just going to sit at home, cranking out babies. I still want to be a writer. I still want to change people with my words. 

And I don't mean to sound preachy, but staying at home with the kids is a pretty hard job, especially if I think I want to homeschool. 

Laundry, cooking, driving, church, teaching, extracurricular activities, sports, discipline, AND writing? 

Heck, yeah. 

I <3 da Babiez. Maybe I'm the only one. Maybe I'm one of billions. But I hope that the next time you see a little kid you know, you give them a high-five. Maybe they'll remember it in the future, and give some little kid a fistbump sometime. Wouldn't that be cool? 

On another note: Guys, it's October. 

Do you know what this MEANS?

That's right. It's time for NaNoWriMo again. 

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is an international organization for writers. It's run by the Office of Letters and Light, and was founded in the nineties by Chris Baty. Writers of all ages, genres, nationalities, races, religions, beliefs, and sexualities all come together to write a novel (or a book of poems, or a screenplay, or anything, really!) in a month. 

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is held every year starting October 31st at midnight on the dot. People from all over the world can participate. I have friends in the Americas, England, Ireland, and a couple from countries that don't even speak English! The community is amazing! 

There are three sites: The Young Writers' Program, ywp.nanowrimo.org is for writers ages 7-18, where you can choose how many words you'll write in November, and "The Real NaNo", www.nanowrimo.org is for writers ages 13-113, where to win, you must write 50,000 words. There's also Camp NaNoWriMo, which is held in two different months over the summer. This year it was April and July, but last year it was June and August. 

Anyway, NaNoWriMo is an amazing way to write anything you've ever wanted to. Millions of people across the world fill up on coffee, stretch their writing muscles, and write 50,000 words every autumn. It's a truly unifying experience. 

No matter what your background, who you are or how you live, people on NaNo accept you for who you are. After all, we writers are weird. Who cares? 

You can also get NaNoWriMo merchandise to help you persevere during the tremulous 30 days when you feel like you want to give up. Mugs, shirts, books, posters, survival kits, everything and anything you could need to make it through 30 days and nights of literary abandon! 

And the best part is, if you reach the goal you set for yourself, (anything you want on the YWP, or 50K in the real NaNo,) you'll get a promo code for Createspace. And when you finish editing anytime before June 30th? Createspace will send you five free paperback copies of your very own work of fiction! All you have to do is enter the code and pay shipping. 

It's a really spectacular experience, and I strongly encourage you to participate if you are or have ever wanted to be a writer! 

If you end up doing it, I'm Writer-Girl4 on the YWP, and RaineSummers on nanowrimo.org

I hope to see you this November! It'll be a blast. 

Anyway, I'll stop ranting about children and NaNo now. I hope you guys have an awesome day/night/afternoon/whatever, and I'll see you sometime! 

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn

(Written sometime in October and was never published because I'm a derp.)

My Summer is So Separated.

Hey y'all. 

Ummm....I didn't post. 

I suppose I could blame the movie/sleepover party I went to on Friday, but Saturday I had no excuse. 

I feel like a sucky person now. 

I just...totally, honest-to-goodness cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-fly straight-out forgot. 

So this week, my older brother Timothy went with a dozen others from our parish to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro. They were one of four groups from the US to go, and they've been gone for a week tomorrow. 

They went on a mission trip to build a school, I think, and Tim managed to make it onto the Brazilian news. He has to go out of the country to make it onto the news. Go figure. 

But anyway, he loves it there, and even though my mom had a dream he got bitten by a giant tarantula smack-dab in the middle of his forehead, that actually DIDN'T really happen, and he's totally fine and loving every minute of Brazil. 

And the week before Tim left, my brother Josh ALSO left for Boy Scout camp (hiking in the Rockies. 8O), and he's been gone for two weeks. Only three days left until he's back, though, so yay! I've missed him a lot. :3

After Tim gets back the first week of August, I leave the next week for a camp in South Texas. It's a leadership camp my friends have gone to and it's supposed to be really amazing. ^-^

Our family is so split up this summer, though. Like you guys know, my parents left for two weeks on vacation, and my oldest brother, Paul moved into an apartment last month, plus now Josh and Tim are gone too. And soon...so will I. 

Plus, a lot of my friends are going off to camps lately too. Two of my friends left this morning, and two of my friends were gone a couple weeks ago, and one of my friends is gone for two weeks starting just after my brother Tim gets back. 

All in all, it's been kind of a separated summer.  

So I guess you could say I have a lot on my mind. That could be my excuse for why I didn't post. 

I guess it's still pretty lame, as most excuses are, but it's all I got. 

Anyways, this is basically just an update on my life, but I really enjoyed writing about laughter and happiness and optimism last week. That was pretty sweet. 

If you like that as well as (or better than) just talking about myself and being all vain and arrogant (sort of) give me a holler in the comments. I'd love to hear from you! ^-^

I hope you guys are a having a FUNtastic summer, and I wish you an amazing day, night, afternoon, dusk, dawn or whatsoever it happens to be where and when you are in time and space, and I'll see you next week! 

Love and peace and ALL the zen! ✌

Keep Calm and Endeavor On, 

~Adalyn

NaNoWriMo, and Why I Am Late...Again.

I feel like I'm beginning to fall into a habit of this. 

Before i explain to you why I'm late this week, I also have an announcement to make. 

So, this month, I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo, which is a program exactly like the regular NaNoWriMo, except for the fact that it's in the summer. I'm writing a book and I'm really liking it, and it's been taking up a lot of my time. 

I wanted to do it in April or whenever the first one was, but I couldn't manage it because I was still in school and I had a bunch of other stuff to do to get ready for the hot summer months. 

But I'm doing it this month. It's super exciting and fun and if any of you are writers, I suggest you check it out. There's a children's/teen's website called The Young Writers' Program at ywp.nanowrimo.org , and there's another program for 13-113 that's just plain-ol' National Novel Writing Month at www.nanowrimo.org . And for summer there's www.campnanowrimo.org .

It's super fun and free and you can participate in it at any age. In YWP and Camp NaNo, you set your word count goal, which is the number of words you aim to write in 30 days, though in the "real" NaNoWriMo, the set goal is 50,000 words. 

It's not nearly as hard or daunting as you think, because if you write a certain amount of words a day, you reach your WCG in no time at all! 

Anyway, if you want to try it out, you can do novels, biographies, screenplays, scripts, poems, songs, or even sentences if you want! All that matters is that you write and have fun. Check it out. It's amazing. 

NOW! To the excuses for why I didn't post and my updates on the 4th! ^-^

In my defense, I did have a very impromptu-ly crazy Thursday/Friday. 

So, as you who live in the Land of the Free, also known as that fat lazy country with those unrefined savages, or The United States of America, know, Thursday just so happened to be Independence Day! It's been that way for, oh, about over two hundred years. 

The Fourth of July is kind of an important day for us rebellious, independent US of A citizens, and hence we do stupid things, like throw big parties with lots of meat and potato chips and yummy drinks. And set off big, explosive, colorful and sometimes terrifying tendrils of flame to show our excitement and joy over our freedom and liberty from other countries. 

The only drawback from these parties and fireworks is when you're sitting there watching the show, and your neighbor, who's joined you for the big, delicious celebratory party, accidentally puts the firework in upside-down. 

And so it explodes about 20 feet away from you, shocking and scaring everyone there, making you scream as you feel the shockwave and see the brilliant burst of color that has exploded all too close to you and your friends and family, and setting off the car alarm of your best friend's brand-spankin'-new bright white Toyota Tundra. 

It was an awesome and exciting experience, and since my boyfriend decided I needed to be comforted, and wrapped his arms around me, it was also sort of cute, too. 

After the party, two of my friends slept over, totally ruined half of my makeup doing blind makeovers, and stayed half of the next day, when I had to clean the house and help prepare food for a get-together we were having with some of our closest friends. 

They stayed until ten, and after a long argument between my friend Brianna and her mother, she was allowed to spend the night. And we watched Les Mis. And we wrote, since we're both aspiring authors. And then fell asleep. 

Yesterday was Saturday, and I don't really have an excuse for not posting, and I was even going to post, but in the morning I had to return canopies and chairs to my neighbors that they had let us borrow for the party, and then I was reading all afternoon. 

I finished my book at 1:30 am this morning, finally went to bed around 2am, and then woke up at 11:28 to discover my family gone to 10 o'clock mass.

So here I am, two days late after a crazy weekend, happy that I broke my record for how late I've slept in ever because I'm not nearly as tired as I have been for the past week. 

I guess a good night's sleep solved all my problems. Anyway, my mom and dad are taking my siblings and I on a surprise outing, so I guess I'll see you all next week. Though I probably won't post until Saturday, since I have a birthday party to attend. 

At least I let you know this week, right?

....Right? 

;)

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn

A Boring Narrative on My Boring Life. ;P

Hey, all! It's been another of those crazy weeks. 

VBS ended today, and at the end of the day, a bunch of kids came up and gave me a group hug. It was adorable. This is why I love Sing & Play; all the kids love you and give you hugs at the end of the week. 

I'm sad and relieved at the same time. Don't get me wrong, I love the kids and the acting and the songs, but herding children and memorizing skits at the same time as not having my parents home this week was just a teensy-tiny bit stressful. 

My parents are glad to be back in the States, and they brought me back (among other things) foreign sugar. My sweet tooth is unbelievable. But anyhoo, this is what it looked like. 

Weird, right?

I've been staying up late watching Bachelor Pad lately, which is shameful but entertaining, and I've also been getting up early because of VBS. 

I just realized how boring this week must have been to you. But it was crazy insane busy for me. :P

I'm actually about to head off to a 21st birthday party, so I suppose I'd better go. Sorry for wasting your life by telling you about mine. 

I hope you all are having a great, amazing, spectacular summer, and I'll see y'all next week! STAND STRONG! 

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn

An Update On My Stressful Misery.

Hello, all you beautiful people who read my blog! And hello all you gorgeous new people who have never seen me before and are just browsing blogger/ the Internet/ NaNo, and just happened to stumble across my blog or my profile. You are beautiful too. 

Everyone is beautiful today. 

I don't know why I'm in such a good mood right now, considering I'm having a crazy, aw-screw-it kind of day. 

First of all, I've told you guys I'm helping out with VBS again this year. It's Athens, like I said, and I have to be this Grecian girl named Thalia who is learning from St. Paul. 

It's stressful because my parents had an opportunity to go on this amazing vacation for a couple weeks, and they took it, and so...they're gone for VBS. My parents and our family play a big role--the only role, really--in making and setting up all the decorations and sets for our week-long Vacation Bible School. 

And since they're gone, all we have is a list of directions and a few good luck wishes from our parents, instead of a guiding hand as far as setting everything up. 

And I have to memorize six skits and work them out with my friend Marge on top of other lines and choreography which you will hear more about in just a moment. 

Another thing is the fact that I'm currently the only wannabe maternal figure in our house. And also the only one who doesn't have to work full-time who possesses the knowledge of how to operate the washing machine properly. 

My brothers kind of fail. 

But, then again, they're better and more willing cooks than I. And I only have to do two loads of laundry every day. They have to slave over the stove for hours. 

Or something like that. 

The third thing that's stressing me out is that I'm going to be gone at a camp this week, and we have six days to perfect the play Oklahoma! before we have to preform. I've never seen the full play/ movie, so needless to say, I'm a little nervous. 

Plus, it's an overnight theater camp, which means my family will be without any maternal figure whatsoever for six days. 

Keep in mind, none of them know how to do laundry. 

I've never been in a musical like this before, though I've been in plenty of plays. I'm still nervous though, because I was never much of a dancer. Hence why I dropped out of ballet, jazz, and tap when I was seven. 

Also, we've gotten a lot of rain here the past week. The streets are sodden. 

I went to run lines with my friend Marge, who lives across the neighborhood.

Our neighborhood is about two miles all the way around. 

And so, in it, I would not recommend scootering in the rain, through large puddles there is no possible way you can avoid. You get mud all over the back of whatever pant leg is not pushing, and you don't even realize it until there's this freezing feeling on the back of your calf. Also, your favorite flats get soaked, and you're just really thankful you brought socks in your bag. Oh, and your script is soggy. 

What? Haha. No. Pshhhh...No, no, I've never done anything like that. Haha, I'm so much more clever and practical than that! I'm not an idiot. That would be stupid. Pshhhhhhhhhhhh. 

Anyhoo, running lines went fine. Margie gave me a towel to wipe the mud off my jeans, ((shut up.)) and we had fun tossing lines back and forth. 

And then...I started to scooter home. 

Just kidding. I had learned my lesson. 

And with a humble and contrite heart that had no desire to get more mud on it, I walked. 

And I had a book idea on the way, inspired by the soaked hems of my favorite pair of jeans. So that was okay. 

Anyway, I'm gonna go take a nap and eat some candy. Not in that order. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday, and I wish you an absolutely fantabulous start to the summer! I hope your first week or two was awesome. 

Keep Calm and Endeavor On, 

~Adalyn

Today Was The Craziest Day...

I sing in the choir at my church. I think I've told you that before. 

Today was the beginning of a Catholic homeschooling conference here in my state, and there was going to be a graduation mass for the class of 2013. 

It was my mom's idea and so she had to set it up, which meant finding a pair of priests, altar servers, a Eucharistic minister, and a choir, as well as transporting an altar, crucifix, vestments, and various other things necessary for a Mass. 

So, I had to sing for this mass with my choir, and since our choir director is sick, we had to draft someone from another parish to accompany us. 

Which meant that I had to copy, print, staple, and deliver a dozen copies of the songs we were going to sing, AND help my mom set up the altar, crucifix, hymn books and pamphlets. 

It was a total hassle, but the mass was celebrated by the bishop that confirmed my brothers and I, and it was an absolutely beautiful mass. 

Afterword, we had cake and lemonade at a reception for the graduates. 

My brother is severely allergic to nuts. And you'll never guess what. 

There was almond extract in the cake icing. 

So on the way home, he started swelling up, and he was having trouble breathing, and he had hives all over his body. 

Needless to say, my dad took him to the emergency room. 

So I had to babysit my little siblings until my parents got home. 

(That would have been my Friday post, but I fell asleep while putting my youngest sibling to bed, so I didn't post. This would have been the post from Saturday.) 

My dad woke me up at 12:30am and told me to head up to my own bed, where I promptly collapsed. 

And, because my body likes to torture me, I woke up a little before 6am. For some stupid reason, whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, my body decides I need less than eight hours of sleep to function. Genius, right?

My brother was fine. He'd had an IV in and they'd pumped Benadryl into his bloodstream, so he was out of there relatively quickly. I found him sleeping on the couch in the Living Room that morning. 

So I got my chores out of the way and got dressed, and then waited around for a couple hours until we left for the second day of the conference. 

It was actually pretty good. They had a speaker talk about what to expect in and about college, and then after a half-hour break, they had several religious of varying stages come in and talk about vocations. 

Then we had pizza for lunch and after that, I had a gig watching the elementary school-age kids for three hours. 

So I basically calmed down a few rowdy kids, watched Veggie Tales, helped a few kids tracing and coloring their hands, watched more Veggie Tales, and got paid $15 for it! :D

And then...after the day was done I bought some jewelry and headed home to freshen up a bit for my very first high school dance! 

It was held at a dance hall a little ways out of my city, and I went with my older brothers and a few friends. 

We were taught a bunch of line dances, and then we basically just did whatever to a specific playlist until the last song. 

It was really fun, and I can't wait for next month when there will be another one! 

I went swimming at a friend's house today, and we spent an hour and a half in the pool before drying off and getting dressed for mass. 

And that was basically my day. 

Oh, and I had three chocolate-chip cookies. 

Now that you've caught up...yay! 

I'm sorry if it's ridiculously long. And I'm sorry I posted two days late. But, you know, my brother was kind of in the hospital, so...

I promise next Friday, you'll have a post. As long as nobody I know is mauled by a monkey or run over by a trigonometry book, I swear on my favorite hat, I'll post on Friday. 

Keep Calm and Endeaovr On, 

~Adalyn

Haircuts, Boy Scouts, and Family, Oh My!

I got my hair cut today! :O *le gasp.*

Before it was down to my waist when straight, and now it's above my shoulders! 

So it's kind of a big deal. 

I haven't gotten a "real haircut" since I was about seven, just a trim to keep it even here and there. 

The lady cut off a lot of my hair. 

But I like it. 

It's a lot easier to handle and put up and it dries a lot faster. So overall? Good hair experience! Yayyy! 

NOW! For the Boy Scouts...*shudders.* All you Boy Scouts and family members of Boy Scouts, you know what I'm talking about. They can be downright scary and stinky, all at the same time!

Buuuuuut...my brother is becoming an Eagle Scout! We're having a big double ceremony with one of his good BSofA friends, and then a party afterwords. Exciting, exciting stuff! 

And that leads me to the family part of my post title. My Grandma and my uncle and aunt and cousins are all heading down to be here for my brother. So my Granny is staying with us and my uncle and aunt are staying at a hotel about ten minutes away from my house. 

We always play Ma Jong with my Granny when she comes down. It's an unofficial tradition. We have yet to play, but probably Sunday night, well have a big game night. And I absolutely love my aunt and uncle and sort of my cousins. They're kind of the "wild and free" sort of kids. I mean, of course I love them, but they're like siblings. 

They get on your nerves a little too much sometimes. You know how it is. ;)

So anyways, thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this little excerpt of my life! And I promise it'll be more interesting next Friday! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! MLP FTW!

Anyway, Keep Calm and Endeavor On, 

~Adalyn

...Summer!

Summer! It's finally here for me! 

I'm done with school!

So...basically, I get a few weeks of downtime before Vacation Bible School, which is Athens this year! There's gonna be colemns and Romans and robes all over the place! 

I love helping out every year, because the little kids love it and its always really fun, because I'm a part of Sing and Play, which is the part where we sing and dance and act out little skits to teach the kids lessons about God. 

There's this adorable little girl named Elizabeth with very tight, medium brown ringlets and big chocolatey eyes and caramel skin. She's the sweetest little girl ever, and whenever I see her, she gives me a huge hug. 

She's probably one of the best little kids in VBS. She's always cheerful and happy and enthusiastic. She's a good dancer, too. Knows all the motions. 

To emphasize the beginning of summer, my daddy is taking me and my little sister Faith out for a daddy-daughter date night. To Red Robin's. Yummmm. 

And last night was my friend Marie's thirteenth birthday party. It was fun. We went out to a fancy dinner downtown and had cake and ice cream at home later. 

And I wore lip gloss. 

The last time I wore lip gloss, I was probably seven. I eventually threw all the lip gloss I had away because it got nasty after a while. 

But this is real lip gloss. Not that stuff they sell to little kids to make them feel like big kids. 

And I wore it. 

I'm not a big makeup girl. It's not like I'm denying my femininity or act like I'm too pretty for it to do anything or too ugly for it to help. 

I've just never really worn makeup. It's never been that important to my life because there was never any pressure to wear any. Perks of homeschooling, eh? ;)

But I'll be a regular at all those chemicals we stick all over our faces for some reason by the end of the summer. My mom is forcing me to learn. 

Still, makeup comes in handy, so I'm willing to give it a whirl. In the meantime, I'll enjoy my last couple weeks of chemical-less cheeks/ eyes/ eyebrows/ everything else. Yayyyy. 

Anyway, I gots to go! I've got my date tonight! ~<3

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,

~Adalyn