Dilemma-- a crisis involving two alternatives

I'm at sort of a crisis right now. And it's all because I procrastinated.

This July I wrote a book for Camp NaNoWriMo (and I won, by the way), but I didn't finish it. I've been slowly trying to end it off over these past months, so that I can have my Mom read it, edit it, and then for November I can write the sequel. And now November is a month away, and I haven't finished my novel yet.

I realized my problem about two days ago, when I was watching Jackson Pearce on Youtube. She was talking about how she had to get her manuscript to the publisher by a deadline.

I wish I had to write on a deadline like her, I thought longingly. Not because I want to write on a deadline, but because I'd be a published writer.... oh crud-puppies. I do have to write on a deadline.

And so began my inner battle trying to finish this manuscript that has about ten thousand words left on it at the least, and getting it to my agent/editor (a.k.a, my Mother) with enough time for her to edit it through.

I can't work on deadlines.

Haikus-- More or Less

I own dairy goats
Alpine, and Oberhasli
They are truly great

 
Spotted bellies, wow
From a cat who says meow
What a lame haiku

C-section kitties
I was there when it happened
More on that later

New baby rabbits
Aren't they so adorable?
No need to say it

Veronica Mars
Mom won't let me watch the show
The same way with Glee


Those are some pretty lame haikus. Oh well. They're way better than the first ones I wrote. One was about the color purple, while another was about how much I hate Mac and Cheese. They stunk. Bad.

Me Being An Idiot (And Some Quilts)

So a while back my sister Hope, my Mom and I went to this town in Kansas somewhere (once again; if I tell you where I live, then I'll be fried alive by my Mom and not get that bottle of Gatorade for Christmas) to stitch Hope's quilt together. I tagged along because I wanted to make a quilt in December, and I still do. So I tagged along.

I was kind of bored most of the time, but hey, I got to look at fabric, and the radio station the shop owners were tuned to had some awesome music, so I won't complain much.

Back to the story. I was bored most of the time. While they were quilting, I screwed around. I found some blah fabric, and some huzzah! fabric, and I messed around with the colors a bit. A little. Maybe just a teeny tiny bit more than that...

I don't know, I was pretty proud of myself for sticking that bolt of huzzah! fabric in with the blah fabrics. But the best part was, no one noticed it until about two hours later. It was fun to watch them pin the blame on some kid who came in the store earlier.

But I wasn't going to tell them it was me.

Long Time, No Blog...

It's been like, a week, maybe? I don't know, and I don't want to count.

I've been on Youtube, if the small (very small!) percentage of readers who read this are interested.

What have I been watching on Youtube?

Her name is Jackson Pearce, and she is seriously starting to become one of my favorite authors, even though I have barely read any of her books yet. Soon I will though, and then she'll officially be my favorite author. She's so funny, and whimsical (that's me, using the word whimsical), and her vlogs are awesome.

You need to check her out! That's right! Veer off from this page! Buy her books! And make sure you thank me later...

State Fair, I'm Bound!

Tomorrow I'm going to the Kansas State Fair with my fellow 4-H achievement trip winners. I'm excited, because this is the first time I will be going and roaming without my family. Maybe my friends Mon'ee and Andrea will do some of the roaming with me. I don't know. We'll see how it goes.

I hope to take a camera and take some pictures, maybe, of me eating funnel cakes, and fried alligator on a stick (I'm a vegetarian, so would alligator count as seafood?), and the annual butter statue, made entirely out of butter, and of me watching people be lazy and mechanically milk their cows with the fancy State Fair equipment.

And I'd also like to see all the crazy people around me. I haven't been near a huge crowd since Discovery Days, and a writer needs inspiration to write about.

Some chicks I met at Discovery Days. They made the best duct tape flowers out of everyone. Still, their tie making skills paled in comparison to mine.

This was a Jack Rabbit the high school girls found in the locker room on the last day of school. Why did I put it here? I don't know.


So anyway, Ciao!

Yogurt! And Some Chocolate Milk

Today we made yogurt. Or rather, we're making yogurt, as it isn't done yet and won't be for another three hours. And then there's the process of chilling it, and then adding the flavor...

But I won't get into that.

Why? You may ask. Why are you making yogurt?

Because we have these.

I tried to find a picture of our two dairy goats just now, but sadly failed. Anyway, we have Dairy goats. Huzzah! And they produce-- as in, between their two efforts-- around a gallon twice a day. We've been looking for a way to use up some of this milk, since no one in the family drinks chocolate milk like I do.

I'm going to make cheese sometime, but for now we settled for making yogurt the "pioneer" way, as my Mom calls it (meaning: we plugged in the machine, poured the milk and freeze dried yogurt starter in, and now we wait for the machine to beep).

Sadly, Mom wouldn't let me take pictures because the kitchen was such a mess (I cleaned it up a bit and took a picture after she left).

Here it is:

Well, it looks like yogurt, okay?

None of us are very happy right now. Why can't this stupid phone download pictures? Why can't I find Hope's camera?

My Horses

Unlike the Pioneer Woman, I actually ride horses (for the record, this isn't a very fake Glam-girl from Pawhuska, Oklahoma friendly blog). We own three of them.

This is Peso. He's my Dad's horse. He is (just like every horse in this state of Kansas) a Quarter horse. Peso is about 16 hands exactly, which is pretty tall when you take into consideration that the other horses we own barely peak past 14. Peso is very very very very very very squirrely, and he acts like a big- O idiot most of the time.

This is Luna. She's a quarter horse. She is just as sweet and safe as Peso is ornery. Which is A lot. We bought her after our old mare, Tonks, uh, broke her leg and died. Despite being barn sour, and a little stingy with her grain, Luna is the perfect beginner horse.

This is my horse, Lily. Also a quarter horse. She is very stubborn to everyone except my Dad-- and maybe partially to me. I fallen off of her recently, so that must count for something! Lily is the Alpha horse, most definitely. We got her with Luna, from some horse person in Oklahoma. To tell you the truth, she scared me when I first saw her.

You'd be scared, too. We went to this person's farm to look at Luna. It was cold and the wind was blowing at 100-MPH. And every horse besides Luna was acting like an idiot. Including Lily. She had her tail up high and her eyes were all wide and she was spooking at nothing and prancing around in her pen. I didn't even go try to pet her, I was so scared. My parents even told us to stay away from her (I have to laugh at this one. Who knew we'd be buying her later?)

And guess what? We couldn't get Luna to load up in our trailer. The dealer tried everything. I silently said goodbye! to Luna, because jeez, the more they tried to get her into our little two-horse trailer, the more my Dad didn't really want to buy her. But the dealer was desperate to get rid of Luna. Really, really desperate.

So we agreed to meet up halfway between Oklahoma City and Kansas (my Mother would stone me if I revealed our address!), with us bringing a larger trailer that Luna would load into. So we drove up there a week later, and guess what? The dealer brought along Lily, hoping we'd buy her. Dad went on a test drive with her, and 1,300 dollars later, we came home with two horses.

Some blog post in the future I'll tell you how we very nearly ended up selling her.

Ciao! (I'm gonna try and learn Italian.)

**Sigh**

I finally found my stats bar! Yay! Woohoo! I can see how many people have seen my blog so far!

I got the grand total: 15.

I was like, alright! That's incredible!

And then I realized that I was the one who was viewing my blog all those 15 times.

**Sigh**

Maybe someone else will stumble across my blog. Maybe. Maybe.

I can't keep hoping like I do. You know, right now I'd be happy with 1 viewer outside of my family. Just 1.

In the first week that my Mom started her blog (charity365) she got over 1600 views. That's like, the word count for a day of NaNoWriMo!

I'll keep waiting.

The Blue Bead

Sometimes I like to sit on our front porch and look out at the grand view of the country before me.I like to watch the birds, and the very rare car that may pass by our house (It's usually the same one: a gray-ish brown Dodge Ram, with that electric worker trunk). I also like looking at the log that is half obscured under a pine tree. It looks remarkably like a squirrel from where I sit.

                                                                  I hate that squirrel.

So anywho, I'm not her to talk about the squirrel log thing. I'm here to talk to you about the blue bead.

The blue bead is this flower shaped... thing that sits on our front porch. I don't know how it got there. I don't really know where it came from. All I know is that that bead has been out here as long as we have.

 

I didn't like that bead at first. It was always there on the porch, watching me. So I tried to make it as miserable as possible.

Take the heat, blue bead!

Then I realized that I was being stupid. So the blue bead and I became friends.


I should have stayed enemies with it. You know why?

Last week the blue bead disappeared. I don't know where it went. I don't know who took it. And now that it's gone, the porch is kind of lonely. I know, it was only a bead. But I'm weird like that. I humanize inanimate objects.

That's the way I am.

Überspringen Sie nicht über diesem, Leute aus Deutschland!

I now know why nobody has joined my blog yet. No, it's not because I started this blog a few days ago. It's because Google is jumbling my blog with German ones.

I was searching through other blogs today, using that NEXT BLOG--> button, and all I got was german blogs. You would not believe how many German blogs I went through. One of them was about biking (at least, that's what I could tell, as I only speak English), and I'm pretty sure another one was called eat my gold!

Well, okay then.

I bet a I've got a bunch of viewers so far, but they all don't speak English, so they just skip right over mine. I bet that's exactly what's happening.

Thanks, Google.

The Place Where I Write

This is the place where I write. Mostly.

Yep... It's my bed! I converted it into a tent for a short time earlier this summer, but my baby sister sort of tore it down.

I like my bed. It's usually quiet, and comfortable, and my dog Seamus likes to burrow down under the covers with me. I won Camp NaNoWriMo on this bed (once again, people, Google it).

Maybe some day I might bother to get a desk. When I'm rich and famous, and when I can afford one. For now, though, I'm saving up for a Pillow Pet. It's gonna be a cow, and his name is gonna be Geoffrey.

All of my cats (I have a lot of them)

Today I see the need to show you how many cats I have. I think I have uh... 9 of them? I don't know. Let's see.

 First off, this is Peeves. He is the shyest cat ever, no doubt. But he's very sweet, and he's fun to pet-- he really gets into it, you know? he appreciates any petting or scratching you give him. Stray. He lived in our garage for like two years.

 Fred. He's really sweet and cool and awesome. He likes to hang out on Hope's bed, and he makes these awesome noises when he looks at birds out of the window. I took him on a walk today.

 This is George. His brothers are Percy and Fred. George sort of has this personality that is mixed between Fred and Percy. He's ornery, but also very sweet, and you can carry him around like a ragdoll.

 Oh Percy. Percy, Percy, Percy. He is a big-O drama queen, and if you read one of my other posts, you'll know that he is very, very pushy. He makes these squirrel chattering noises that are completely adorable. I love Percy.

 OK, this is Harry. He is 108% my Mom's cat. We picked him up at the public pool when he was just a wee kitten. His feet are a little too small, he gets his bladder plugged up every other month, and to tell you the truth, he's kind of a jerk. Also, he's the size of a small elephant. But I still think he's a pretty cool cat.

            This is Crookshanks. He's a stray, too. This is my brother's cat mostly. He has a horrible meow,         and he uses it all the time. Still love him, though!

 This is Katie. She's a stray who showed up at our house, and we didn't get her fixed, so of course she got pregnant! You're probably thinking, yeah, fine okay. Big deal. I was one of those people, until she got two kittens stuck in the birth canal, and we had to help in an emergency C-section (more on that later.) She had Percy, Fred and George-- and two other kittens, but we gave them away.

This is Oliver. We picked him up after Mom lost her cat, Austin. He's just about the most good natured, mellow cat I've ever met. He doesn't have a problem with any cat out there... well, except for Hermione. But no one messes with Hermione. Stray. Thanks for showing up on our porch, buddy!

Speaking of Hermione, here she is. She was my first ever cat, so I don't know why she's last on this list. Oh well. Anyway, she is very crabby and temperamental, and if you're a cat and you have some common sense, you should give her a very wide berth. Even Grindel, our big yellow lab, is scared of her. She also has a kind side, though.

Yay! I was right! I have 9 cats.

You know, I just realized that two-thirds of my posts are about cats. To me, I look like the crazy cat lady. But cats are easy to post about, you know? You slap down a picture and some words, and walla! Instant blogpost!

Yeah, two blog posts in one day. Yee ha.

So yeah, I'm an author. An unpublished author, as you can see by the name of my blog. Sometimes it makes me sad, and sometimes I have to remind myself that I've only written one book, and that book can barely qualify to become a book.

As you can see if you look side ways, this book cannot be called a book.

Yet another picture. Note the water smudges and chicken scratch.

My other book, the one I wrote for Camp NaNoWriMo (you're on the computer, people, Google it) is still in the making. But I'm going to try to get it published once it's done. And then I'll make a sequel, as it's going to be the first in a series of books.

So for now, still writing.

My Cat, Percy

"Mom, I'm gonna be Fair Queen next year."

No reply.

 "And when they ask me who my hero is, I'm gonna say, 'Well, it'd have to be my cat, Percy. You see, he pushes for what he wants, and always insists that he gets it right then, at that moment, or else he will probably explode. And we have to give it to him, because we don't want Percy to explode. We all need to take a lesson from my cat Percy. Because if we do, we will all be better people. And we won't explode.'" I say, with as much enthusiasm as I can muster. This gets a few snickers from my sister Hope.

I mean, look at how he effectively nurses off of his mama (for future reference, her name is Katie), even though he should have stopped nursing about a month ago?

See how he hops up on a chair that Oliver claimed earlier, and Oliver doesn't do anything about it? In fact, look! Oliver is licking him (a sign of affection)! 

Yep, we can all learn a few lessons from my cat, Percy.