5 Years of NaNoWriMo Completed Successfully!

This year was my 5th year in a row successfully completing NaNoWriMo - yay! 50,000 + words accomplished in the space of 1 month. And this year came with its own set of challenges. I had to get adjusted to writing on a very weird schedule this year. I couldn't just write whenever an idea popped into my head - I had to save it for whenever Gemma was napping. And when she was napping, even if the creative juices weren't flowing, I knew I had to get to work anyway, because time was short! Another difficulty came when my granny passed away and I had to spend most of a week traveling to and from Kansas City for the funeral. I fell behind while I was out in the Midwest, as I knew I would, but managed to catch up and actually get ahead some when I got back. I was glad I got ahead, because just a couple of days after I got back, we were on the road again, heading up to Bedford, Virginia for Thanksgiving. At which point I fell slightly behind again.

But after all of that, I managed to finish up yesterday - with approximately a day and a half to spare! I'm not sure I've ever finished before Nov. 30 before, so that was a new milestone for me. And, like last year, I was somehow able to wrap up the plot at the end of my 50,000 words too, so I have a completed story as well! Now I am going to try to do some fast (but careful) editing in hopes that I can maybe have printed copies of my newest novel, Lunatics and Lycanthropy, to give as Christmas gifts!!!

Gemma's First Thanksgiving (and other things)

I'm finally getting around to writing another blog post. Things have been a bit crazy here of late. The week before Thanksgiving, my Granny (my dad's mom) passed away. Because the funeral was going to be in Kansas City, we had a hard time figuring out what to do. We really wanted all three of us to be able to go, but we didn't want to take Gemma on a plane, and we didn't really have time to do the incredibly long car ride to get there. So, in the end, I flew out with my parents and sister and Cy and Gemma stayed home. It was a very hard decision. It was the first time Cy and I had spent a night apart since we got married, and it was definitely my first time away from little Gemma. I was so worried that she wouldn't even remember me when I got back, but fortunately that was not the case! She was so excited to see me! It was a quick and difficult trip to Kansas City and back, but I am glad that I went. My Granny had been through some very awful suffering in the last few weeks of her life, and I was glad that she was finally at peace, and glad that I was able to go to her funeral. While there, I was very touched to see that she had pictures of me, Cy, and Gemma on display in her house. I do regret that she did not get to meet sweet little Gemma in person.

After traveling in cars and planes and sitting in airports the whole week before Thanksgiving, I wasn't feeling terribly excited about getting back in the car and driving 8 hours each way to visit my mom's parents in Bedford, Virginia. But I definitely wanted them to be able to meet Gemma, so we piled in the car and headed on up. We split the trip in half by spending the night at my parents' house each way before finishing up the trip.

Even though I am still exhausted from so much traveling, I am so glad that we made the trip. Gemma did fantastic with all the time in the car, and with meeting so many new people and letting them hold her. She is such a sweetie, and I am so thankful that she is so laid back. My grandparents were absolutely thrilled to meet her! I practically had to pry her away from my Grandma a few times because she enjoyed holding her so much!

While in Virginia, we also got to see two of my uncles and aunts, and my three boy cousins. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my uncle Jeff's house, and it was a huge feast! There were even three different kinds of meat - turkey, duck, and capon. Everything was delicious. We enjoyed the food, but mostly we enjoyed getting to see family that we hadn't seen in a couple of years.

Before we left, we got to take a "four-generation photo" with my Grandma, my mom, me, and Gemma. It was a very sweet moment.

Though we had a really good time seeing anyone, we were so incredibly relieved to be home. We are looking forward to not having to travel again for a very long time, hopefully! We are enjoying being back at home and are focusing most of our efforts now on getting the house ready for Christmas!

Six Months Old!

Gemma officially turned 6 months old yesterday, and went for her 6 month checkup this morning. She is doing great - a lot of things have happened for her just in the past week. She has suddenly gotten the hang of eating solids and is just scarfing down everything we give her. She seems to take after her dad - she seems to particularly love her green beans! In the past week, she has also gotten much closer to being able to sit on her own. As of yesterday, she could do it for about 30 seconds to 1 minute before she sort of toppled over. Also yesterday, her first tooth finally broke the surface! She has been working on it for a while and had a kind of rough week, and though you can't really see her tooth too much yet, it is definitely there now!

This morning, we took Gemma for her 6 month checkup. Cy and I both made guesses on how much she would weigh: he picked 13.6; I picked 13.10. She was 13.13 (10th percentile), which was good. . .she almost made 14 pounds, but not quite! She was 24.5 inches long (10th percentile), and her head was 16.2 (25th percentile). Surprisingly, she was still on the growth charts! Then she had to get her shots. . .she cried pretty hard, but just for a few minutes. Still, I hated it for her. :( I am looking forward to her 9 month checkup - I was promised she would not have to have any shots! Anyway. . .the point is that she is doing great, for which we are very thankful. Time is just going by so fast - I can't believe how grown up my little girl is getting already! :)

Gemma's First Halloween

Yesterday we celebrated Gemma's first Halloween. Being only six months old, she of course really had no idea what was going on, but Cy and I had fun. We finally got around to carving our pumpkins. Cy carved a creepy scarecrow on his, mine was a pumpkin in disguise, and Cy carved a cute little cat on Gemma's baby-sized pumpkin. (We like to say that Gemma is like a little cat because she likes to use our couch as a scratching post. Also, she likes to lick stuff like a cat.)

When it was time for trick-or-treating, we suited Gemma up in her strawberry costume and headed out to the porch. She was very sweet and cooperative and didn't seem to mind the costume at all, even the hat. And she looked soooooooo cute!!! All the moms of trick-or-treaters kept running up to see Gemma and just exclaiming over how cute she looked.

In the past couple of years, we have always bought way too much candy and had very few trick-or-treaters. I think it is because we live so far back in the neighborhood that not too many people bother walking back to where our house is. This year, someone across the street had tons of friends visiting from other neighborhoods, so we ran out of candy in about 20 minutes as I had only bought 1 bag this time. Oh well. We still had fun seeing a few kiddos in costumes (none as cute as Gemma of course).

So yes, Gemma's first Halloween was more for us than for her, but hey, she looked cute and we had a good time. Can't wait until next year when she is more aware - how much fun will that be?!