And here I am. Only one month since part one of my Washington trip. *Coughs* Sorry about that.
Day Four
Friday, August 18
We went to Faraget. Guys, this place is SO pretty!! Clear water lakes surrounded by evergreens are such a treat to this Texan! So, we got there and Micaiah and I filmed our Q&A. That was actually pretty painless. Then we went down to the actual lake and hiked for awhile. Then we got to walk in the water, and Micaiah and her siblings thought me how to skip rocks. Micaiah's siblings found a wild apple tree, and after both tasting it and proclaiming it terrible, they said we needed to taste it. Of coarse, I tried it. It really wasn't to bad. We went to a late lunch, and then back to their home. That's where we discovered the Q&A had wind noise all through it, and it was cut off! So, we determinedly hiked up to a nice bench (It was up a steep hill) and re-filmed the video while having to turn the camera back on every fifteen minutes as it stopped.
So after that exhausting and awesome day, we both crashed.
Amazing ice cream
Day Five
Saturday, August 19
Micaiah joined me for a jog that morning. She learned that I am not a very good jogger, and I learned she is extremely good company during runs. Then, after a leisurely morning, we did a bit of shopping. We mostly parked at the Hallmark store and Micaiah and I sighed over Signed, Sealed Delived. Then we went to the card section and drooled over those. We had ice cream at this place that actually folds whatever toppings you want into the ice cream! Is that to cool or what? I can't have to much ice cream because of my dairy problem, but I was able to have some mint ice cream with chocolate chips and sprinkles. That stuff was good!
When we got back to their home we had homemade pizza. And Micaiah, her brother and I, being the mature adults-of-sorts we were, engaged in a forty five minute sword fight with each other using styrofoam swords. I finally got to use all those sword fighting tips I had picked up. I don't know if anyone was proclaimed a winner, but we sure did have fun!
We all watched a Hallmark movie together because it had my much loved stars Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner. Well, I don't love the stars so much as I love the characters they play in Bionic Woman.
Me, Ivy, Micaiah, and Abi.
Day Six
Sunday, August 20
Micaiah and I got ready to meet the authors Ivy Rose and Abigayle Claire for coffee (or tea, in my case)! The coffee shop we had agreed to meet at was... well... lets just say it didn't have the best atmosphere. So, Ivy and Abi arrived, and we walked down to Starbucks. I had Starbucks for the first time in my life. I got a very odd look from the lady as I ordered just plain sweet tea. We had a lovely time talking, and we walked around a bookshop! Abi and Ivy were seriously a delight to be with. Though I thought it would have been a good joke that Abi and I, who live only an hour apart and have met up before, flew all the way to Washington to meet up. And then Ivy and Micaiah, who live only an hour apart, had never met until the Texan's planned a meet up. ;D
Then Micaiah and I went back to their home and watched Prince Caspian, our favorite Narnia movie.
At the football practice!
Micaiah's a natural at photography.
Day Seven
Monday, August 21
We watched the eclipse! They had an extra pair of glasses, which I got to use. It was pretty awesome to see it, even at only 90%. The temperature dropped a lot!
We went back to their home, and I packed up my stuff. We talked, and took her brother to football practice. They introduced me to Bring Your Own Book, which has very quickly become one of my favorite games (Its like Apples to Apples with books instead of cards).
Then came one of my favorite parts of the trip. Micaiah and I sat out on their patio. We were shivering out there, but this country girl needed some time to watch the stars every night. We stargazed and talked. Then when we got to cold for that, we moved inside onto the couch and talked. We had to get up super early the next day, but it didn't matter. Words cannot describe how much talks like that mean to me.
Day Eight
Tuesday, August 22
We got up at 4:00 after having stayed up until 12:30. They took me to the airport and we had to say goodbye. I was so sad to say goodbye to my time with Micaiah and her amazing family, but I was happy to be going back to my own. After going through security I had a bit of time before my flight so I stopped and got myself a snack. I would like to say it was something good for me, but at that time of the morning Lays and Coke was the best I could do. And after searching all week long for one souvenir to take home, I found an awesome shirt in the airport and bought it. I slept through most of my first flight. Then I had a nice, thirty minute layover, so I got to leisurely make my way to my next plane. I slept more, and wrote. The Austen airport looked so good to my homesick heart. I met up with my family, and got some much needed hugs. Then they took me to my favorite restaurant, Whataburger (Texan burgers).
This trip was so amazing-I enjoyed the whole time. I cannot wait until Micaiah and I are able to meet up again!!
Below is the Q&A we filmed together! Part two is coming soon!
Well everyone, I wish I had a lovely excuse why I am still not showing y'all the second part to my Washington trip. Or why I'm not posting the Q&A. But I don't.
I have just begun today a huge edit of Flight From Kelar my NaNo novel from 2016. I've already done two previous edits, but this one is to fix a problem with my message, not my grammar (Though that could use some help as well). To be perfectly honest, this edit has been discouraging. I've been working on this project for almost a year, and it is my longest book at just over 53k. And after two rounds of editing, I was completely dissatisfied with how I had done the message in it. It was forced, and came to a way to perfect ending. So now I am trying to fix that. Its not easy, but it is worth it.
Also I am getting ready to revamp the blog a bit. Nothing drastic, just a little bit of tweaking.
There are so many things I want to talk about today. I still owe y'all the second part to my Washington Trip (Yeah, that's way overdue), and the Q&A. Its Monday, which is the day I typically post about my life and what's going on, but two things have come up today and I'm afraid y'all will have to wait until next week to hear about what's been going on in my life.
Today is the sixteenth anniversary of 9/11. I was just barely two when it happened and I don't remember it at all. I watched every year as another anniversary happened and you could almost feel the tension in the air. We were scared. We were heartbroken. We were determined not to let this happen again. We would not let this break us. We as a nation changed. So many things in our life's are dated by 'pre 9/11' and 'post 9/11.'
This is not a day of hatred towards those who did this to us, this is a day of remembering those who died.
I owe so much to those people. They are the reason I can get on a plane today and have no fear of what is going to happen, because they have worked so hard to make it safe for me. There are so many things like that.
God has used this terrible, event to change our nation for the better.
We will not forget. We pray it will not happen again.
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 50:20
Also, this is national suicide prevention week. Elissa from Letters to Jayna has put together a whole weeks worth of posts from different bloggers around. Even though I'm not actually part of her posts, I wanted to participate.
I've tried so many different ways of saying this, but I guess I just have to write it out.
One of the people I care most about in the world has attempted suicide three times. By God's grace she has never succeeded.
Its not easy to talk about. Its not easy to deal with the fact that her life hangs in the balance at this very moment.
She has so many reasons to stay. She has so many reasons to fight. But its hard and messy.
God has a plan for her. Its a plan for a hope and a future. A plan to help her out of this mess. A plan to help her make the broken things beautiful.
God has a reason for her to fight. He has a reason for her to stay. Even if she can't see it right now, there is an amazing plan.
There's a plan for you to.
Please stay.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
August was pretty amazing! Below are my highlights, but I've left off highlights from my trip to Washington, because those are going to be done in others posts.
I read three and a half books in one day. Two were short books.
I edited What I've Become, which was my camp project this April. Now my sister pointed out a few things that I need to go fix, and then it will be as perfect as its going to get. I also did the second edit of Flight from Kelar. This book is my November NaNo project and I have been working on it for what seems like forever. I still have one pretty major edit in which I need to fix the spiritual side. I felt like it came out really weak so far.
I played laser tag with my siblings. That was pretty fun.
We have a stay cat who adopted us and is extremely creepy. This cat looks in our windows all the time, stares at me while I'm doing things. Notice I said he stares at me. Only me. We have named this cat Tux because of how its colored, and I'm pretty sure its plotting something against me. I love cats, but this one... ;)
We survived Hurricane Harvey! We got a lot of rain here, and it delayed a couple things, but that's it. My mom is working in the call center of Austen Disaster Relief Network (ADRN) to help the victims. So, sometimes I'm going into work with her, which is always fun.
I got to go see the movie Leap with my sister Grace, which was really cute.
My sister and I got a brand new shelf for our room, and when I'm done organizing it will leave more room for books. Pretty cool, right?
And of coarse one whole week of my month was taken up with an amazing, awesome trip where I got to fly for the first time!
The best book of the month was Gestern by Grace Pennington, but Through the Tunnel and The Girl Who Could See came very close! My least favorite was probably City on our Knees, it wasn't a bad book, but dozens of tiny story's in one book is a style I find very annoying.
Guys, I cannot tell you how hard it was to choose blog posts this month. Apparently everyone was just ultra inspired, because the posts were amazing!!
