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.)

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

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 

And Here I Am, Late Again.

I seem to be bad at schedules. I'll have to set a reminder for myself on my iPod or something.

So, eighth grade is slowly drawing to a close, and I only have a month left until I'm done and officially going into high school!

Sometimes I love being a homeschooler.

Other times, I don't. For instance:

Every Wednesday morning, I go on a walk/run with one of my best friends, Opal, who is also a sheltered homeschooler.

Well, actually, she's not. She watches animes online that say bad stuff. Like the C word! (Crap. @-@)

I'm kidding.

...you guys know I'm kidding, right?

But, ANYWAY....

So we were running this morning, and we had sort of gotten off a little late, which means what?

That's right. The six-graders were already at the bus stop.

And they were staring. I could totally tell what was going through their innocent little brains: "why are two girls older than us already up, running, and wearing clothes like THAT?"

Because, though I was dressed well enough in some purple athletic shorts and a peach tank top with a gray jacket over it, my lovely, fashion-savvy friend was dressed in a trashy old teal t-shirt and too-short Longhorn-orange sweatpants, along with the most obvious shoes EVER.

But YEAH. So anyway, if the SIXTH-graders are looking at us like we're aliens, homeschoolers must be even weirder than I thought.

That's all for now, and then I'll probably post on Friday. Probably.

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,
~Adalyn

My Dog Ate a Kid.

So, there are these kids that live down the street from us, and they're always walking through everyone's yards and leaving lovely stuff on everyone's doorsteps. Like sticks. And broken sheets of plastic. And dead bugs.

I got fed up with it. One of them was walking around and around our yard, and looking back at the oldest kid, who seemed to be egging him on, and so I opened the front door, and asked, "Do you need something?"

The kid opened his mouth to answer, and just then, my beloved and protective terrier, Rascal, squeezed from behind my legs and went to politely check the kid out.

The boy immediately screamed, and I yelled, "Don't run! He can't chase you if you don't run!" But the kid didn't listen. He screeched like a banshee and ran around in circles, which everyone knows is not the thing to do when you have a terrier with the legs of a stallion.

In the forefront of my mind, of course, I was running towards my dog and yelling, "Rascal! No! Bad boy! Come!", but in the background, I could hear the older kid, the one who had been egging him on, laughing his head off! He was cracking up while his friend or little brother or whatever was being attacked by a dog in a stranger's yard!

If it was my little brother, I would have run towards the dog, pried the hound off him, and yelled at the girl (AKA moi) about controlling her dog. I wouldn't be laughing and not doing anything but sitting on my expensive green bike.

I grabbed my dog and herded him into the house, dragged him to my room, and threw him in the crate. I then rushed back outside to see if the kid was okay.

He was wailing, collapsed on the grass. "Are you okay?" I said, approaching him quickly. "Did he bite you?" The kid on the bike called from down the street. The younger one saw me coming and scrambled up, crying and bawling.

He started for the older kid, but the boy on the bike got this weird look on his face and sped away down the street, threw his bike into the garage, and shut it from he inside. I didn't see him for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, the littler kid stumbled up the street to his house, I guess. To tell his parents on the meany-pants stranger girl whose dog had practically torn his face off.

And so, I don't think those kids'll be loping around our yard for a while, even if Rascal chasing the kid around WAS an accident. Maybe they've finally learned a lesson.