Granny's 90th Birthday

Front and center because for once, it paid off to be the shortest grandchild. :)

Yesterday, our family gathered to celebrate Granny's 90th birthday. All 5 of her kids were able to make it, and a few of us grandkids too. I got to see my cousin Ash King and his wife for the first time in probably 3 years. It was a lot of fun getting caught up.

Dad: "Is this button working?" Haha.

We all agreed that we need to get together more often. When we were all kids, we'd get together for Thanksgiving every year, but now that everyone is all grown up and spread out, I don't get to see most of my cousins very often. I guess that's the beauty of Facebook and social media. We may not see each other in person, but I can still stalk their lives!

Roaring Twenties Ball

So, the Roaring Twenties ball was a hit! Despite some last minute hitches (like David Archuleta scheduling a fireside in Denver at exactly the same time!!), everything came together and I had a blast. Some of the people there described it as the best YSA dance they'd ever been to, or even the best YSA activity. 

I feel so gratitude for all the amazing people on my committee. Every single one of them poured tons of time and energy into this dance, and it all paid off. :)

Rocking my inner flapper.

We had a live band for the first hour!

Ode to My Birthday Balloon

Three and a half months ago, my mom got me a balloon for my birthday.

Every since then, it's been bumping around my ceiling in circles. This little thing was unsinkable. Even when it encountered an occasional disaster... Like the time I hit the fan switch by accident instead of the light switch, and the balloon tail got BADLY tangled up in the ceiling fan. (That's why it's just got a stubby little tail in this picture).

Just when I thought this thing would last forever, I discovered it on the floor this morning. Not even the floor of my bedroom... somehow it followed me out into the main room of the basement when I was starting my workday.

Rest in peace, little balloon! You've been a great decoration these last few months.

Adventure Mouse

If you know my family, then you know that I am probably not the bravest kid in the bunch.

I blame it on the fact that I'm so much smaller than the rest of them.

I mean, I'm not saying I'm a total pansy... but I tend to be somewhat risk averse.

As the oldest kid, though, there was a time when I was the bravest kid by default. And that was the case when we went to Disneyland back in 2000.

Little us in Disneyland

Dad grew up in LA, so he'd basically been to Disneyland a hundred million times. (I was born in Orange County and my parents took me to Disneyland a couple times, but I was so little that I couldn't remember it.) My poor mom gets pretty motion sick on a lot of the rides in the park, so between that and having a small child with him on his most recent trips, it had been a while since he'd gone on any rides besides, say, Peter Pan.

During our trip in 2000, Dad quickly recruited me, as the oldest child, to accompany him on all the "big kid" rides. You know, like Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, that kind of thing. (Occasionally Jason joined us too--but that didn't always go so well. Poor little kindergartner Jason got so scared on Space Mountain he attempted to climb out of the ride. :) I was a little scared going into some of them, because I didn't know what to expect. But it turned out none of the rides were scary. I liked them, in fact. And I was so proud to be the brave kid that Dad took with him on all the "high adventure" rides. He called me his "Adventure Mouse." :) Which at the time seemed a little weird to me, because mice aren't brave really... I think I just realized right this second that he said mouse because we were at Disneyland. Duh. Haha, can't believe it took me this long...

Fast forward now to last year, 2015. Our family (minus missionary Jason) ventured back to Disneyland for the first time in over 10 years. Dad, Kristie, and I went on several of the more intense rides (ha, intense... well, you know, for Disneyland) but not all of them. I offered to go on Tower of Terror and California Screamin' (California's big roller coaster with one of those big loop de loop things) but in the end, I wimped out. I remembered how as a child, I hated Splash Mountain because of the drop. Why would I want to go on a ride that was all drops?!? And as silly as it sounds, it was the Ferris Wheel in California Adventure that convinced me not to go on California Screamin'. Being up in that Ferris Wheel for so long triggered my fear of heights BIG time, and as I sat up there, watching the roller coaster shoot past even HIGHER than the ferris wheel, I lost all my nerve. (Somewhere Melissa is reading this and laughing... she's seen how I think I love ferris wheels until I get on them, and then I FREAK out. :)

On the Ferris Wheel of doom

I knew my dad was a little disappointed, but I told him I couldn't go on those rides after all. I thought Kristie might, because she is an unstoppable force of nature, but she got so shook up on the Star Tours ride that she opted out of the other rides out of fear of getting sick.

So, this year! This year I was DETERMINED to reclaim my title as the Adventure Mouse and go on ALL the rides! And I did. :) It's dumb, but I'm super proud. I went on Tower of Terror twice and California Screamin' twice. And I loved them! Who knew?!?!? I think what I'm most proud of is that somehow, this time I wasn't even afraid prior to the rides.

This was the second time, where I was even brave enough to give a thumb's up before we dropped.

California Screamin'. You can tell I didn't know where the camera was because I didn't smile haha.

We even went on Splash Mountain again and it didn't even phase me. I like it now. :)

Anyway, basically I am celebrating overcoming some of my childhood fears. :D I have officially conquered all of Disneyland. I can go on basically any ride without fear! (Except for the Teacups... those would make me puke.)

We'll see if I hold on to this title in the future. I don't know when/if we'll go to Disneyland again, but we spent lots of time talking about what Jason and Kristie would do if we had them with us... whether they'd come with me and Dad on Tower of Terror and California Screamin' or not. Not really sure how it would go. But I think seeing their wimpy big sister rock those rides would convince them to give 'em a try. :)

Disneyland!

They call Disneyland the happiest place on Earth, and for me, it definitely ranks in the top 5. Going to Disneyland relaxes me like nothing else. It unlocks my inner child at her happiest and best, no cares in the world and no reasons to stress. No matter what happens, I am happy and determined to have a perfect day.

Our family is back in Disneyland this week! We landed in CA late yesterday, and we'll be spending 3 days in the park. Today was probably the busiest I've seen Disneyland. Most of our trips have been in the off-season, when we could walk on to rides as many times as we wanted, and laugh at the ridiculous size of the waiting area. Today we got to see what those waiting areas look like filled with people.

This was a big surprise, because today was forecast to be the least crowded day all year. Of course, we probably weren't the only ones to hear that, so maybe that's why it ended up pretty busy haha. And when we were here last year, it was IMMEDIATELY after last year Disneyland measles scare, which probably helped clear out the park!

The Radiator Springs Ride

We still got to ride on lots of rides. There were several open that weren't last time we were here, or even the last few times I was here. I don't think I've been on Splash Mountain since 2000. That ride used to TERRIFY me!! I was so proud to ride it again and realize I'm not scared at all anymore. Bring on the big drop!

Today I was even brave enough to check out the Tower of Terror, and miracle of miracles, I liked it! Tomorrow I want to go on California Screamin', the big roller coaster in California Adventure. If I survive that ride, I'll have conquered Disneyland--no more rides that scare me. :)

Photographic evidence that I was on Tower of Terror. :) Dad and I are in the second row, farthest to the left.

7,000 Words, Baby!

7,735 to be precise, written since January 1. My novel is 9,828 words long if you count what I wrote in 2015.

So obviously my pace has slowed a bit, but I'm still trekking along!

Online it says that Young Adult books usually max out around 80,000-100,000 words, so if we go by that, I'm about 10% of the way done.

Tonight I finished the opening segment of the book... a sort of extended prologue to what is going to happen for the rest of the book. It's incredibly raw and it will need lots of editing, but it does the gist of what I want it to. There's lots of good sand there for making castles later. And... I'm hoping if I complete the whole first draft before I revise (miracle of miracles), that I'll have a better sense of the big picture of the plot, so when I do go back and edit, I can tie it together more neatly and emphasize the themes I want more strongly and all of that good stuff.

Here's hoping I can keep keeping this up!! Sorry for all the blog updates, it helps keep me accountable if I keep reporting on my efforts. :)

6,000 Words

I've hit 6,000 words now! I'm still on a roll and hopefully I will stay that way.

There is a quote by Shannon Hale that I love: “Writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.” That's resonating with me more deeply than it has before. Last night, I wrote a scene with a teenager character who basically spewed out a lot of exposition. It's not something I'm going to want to keep in the final draft, but it gave me a lot of insight into who he is and what his motivations are. I can see there are some flecks of gold in it that I could refine... later, but for now I'm charging ahead and still telling the story. When it's done, I'll go back and turn this sand into a castle.