One spring evening my parents came home. I was about 8 years old and they had left me home alone. This wasn't such a strange occurrence back then. They knew I wouldn't get into any trouble.

But when they got home, I wasn't there. They searched the house. They called my friends. No one had seen me.

So they got in the car and started driving around the neighborhood looking for me. 

It was starting to get cold and dark and my parents were getting worried.

But then they found me. I was walking around the neighborhood with a nearly empty cookie sheet. A few candy bars were scattered across it. 

You see, recently someone had come to my house with a box of candy. They were fundraising something, and I had realized that this was a gold mine. 

So I gathered up all of my old, leftover Halloween candy from 5 months prior and went around selling it back to the people who had given it to me for free when I was trick-or-treating.

My parents followed me down the street as I hit one last house. 

I came away with about twenty bucks!



Nothing is better than Soda and Chocolate. Amen!



Here are two clips that prove that I've been awesome since I was three!

1. I played video games (and talk to the characters!)
2. I am already in love with Calvin and Hobbes and I can't even read yet!

Week three ended early for me. I hit 50,000 words and decided to stop. I have completed NaNoWriMo but I didn't complete a novel. But that's really okay with me. I just wasn't feeling anything towards my novel. Last year, it was almost romantic how much I loved my novel. This one was like a boring boyfriend. It had no passion, was always grumpy, and the relationship wasn't going anywhere fast. So I dumped it. But not before I used it mercilessly to get across the NaNo finish line. No regrets.

Hopefully next year's relationship will work out. Besides, I think I'm still missing last year's. I guess I never got closure. I need to find a publisher. Maybe that will do it.

My FINAL Word Count:

50,026

For a good chunk of my life, my mom was a biology teacher. It was a habit that I would sit in my parent's room at night and have them quiz me on science questions. Most of them were things that I was learning in school. But a lot of the time, they would ask me questions that I didn't know the answer to. This way I learned knew things.

One night my parents were asking me questions:

"What is it called when a mammal sleeps through the winter?"

"Hibernation."

"Okay. What is it called when a reptile sleeps through the summer?"

"Aestivation."

"Good!" (That was one they had taught me recently.) "What is it called when a baby animal is growing in it's mother's womb?"

"Gestation."

"Correct! What is it called when a mammal produces milk to feed it's baby?"

...

"Ummm... Carnation?"

Speaking of animals, I've always loved them. Can't say that they've always loved me...

These questions came from Daniela @ dk everyday! She tagged me and I am now answering her questions. You should all go and check out her adorable blog! I love it!

Week two is notoriously the worst week in NaNoWriMo. All of the excitement and gumption you had in week one has now faded and you're starting to realize that you have plot holes or no plot at all. This happened to me. I had to force myself to write a lot of days and I don't like the direction my novel is going in.

But then you also have freak occurrences. Last year, I injured my fingertips. Who injures their fingertips? I did in week two. It hurt to type. This year was much worse.

My laptop died.

This very severely killed my motivation and highly depressed me. This whole week has left me feeling really down and unhappy. But I persevered and kept writing.

I even won the 24 hour war in the NaNoWriMo chat room. Now everyone that participated has Weber as their last name. It's an entire army of Weber minions.

47317

I'm not going to give you all an excerpt this time. I don't feel like I wrote anything too fabulous this week, so... maybe next week if I don't decide to ditch this novel completely once I've hit 50,000 words.

Hi everyone! My name is Lauren, and I blog over here. Since the awesomespice holiday of Thanksgiving is this month, I will be sharing with you the things that I am most thankful for this year.

1. Books. I love books oh so so so much. And I have read someone AMAZING books this year. I hope I am as lucky with my book findings next year!

2. Sprinkles Cupcakes. Dude. The rumors are absolutely true...Sprinkles has the VERY best cupcakes in the world. I feel fortunate to have a Sprinkles 20 minutes from my home, and I feel even more fortunate that we go there for all special occasions. I dream of their red velvet and coconut cuppycakes!

3. Beautiful Arizona Skies. It might be wickedly hot here, but we have some of the most glorious sunsets and cloud formations. I feel so grateful for this earth Heavenly Father has given us!

4. Blog friends I got to meet. This year I got to meet a lot of friends that started out as readers of my blog, and then turned to real life friends. One of my closest friends, Kate, even flew down from Colorado to stay with me. So amazing! I'm grateful for each of them :) People wonder if online friends are as cherished as real life friends...the answer is YES!

5. Our pets. For my birthday, Ted bought me my very own cockatiel baby bird, Gizmo. I love him so much! And then in July, we bought a baby rabbit, Leo. They add so much happiness to our lives! 

6. My photography. My love of photography has grown so much this year. I love my collection of polaroids, and my "toy" cameras...and that I have been able to develop my digital photography skills. It has been a blessing to document each day of our lives.

7. My family. I can't tell you about how much joy my family brings me in my life. They are my best friends, and the greatest people I know. I feel fortunate to live near them and get to spend so much time with them.

8. My Ted. My husband Ted has been a part of my life for over 7 years now, and has been my greatest blessing. He makes me want to be a better person, and makes me smile every day. He is who I am most thankful for.

Thank you for letting me share with you my thankful list!

What are YOU thankful for?

(Don't forget to enter my giveaway here and here!)

I hadn't planned on posting on Wednesdays during my crazy November full of writing, but during my breaks from writing. (Which have been many...) I've been doodling like a mad woman. I call it doodling, because that's what it is to me. It is doodling in a controlled, artistic format. And this doodle is called a Zentangle. 

Oh my goodness. I first discovered these a about a year and a half ago and fell in love. 

This was my first ever Zentangle. Like I said. It is just glorified doodling!


This one has things from some of my favorite books.


I love Zentangling because it doesn't have to be perfect. I messed up so many times in this one, but it still looks great!


I like to put my Zentangles in a circle shape. It gives me a set area to work with when I'm drawing. And I like the circles because I like to hang them up in my room. Like this:



Cute huh?

But you don't need to stick to the basic circle if you aren't into that. You can Zentangle however you want.

And this started out as a complete scratch paper and turned into one of my favorites. I think she looks like a fortune teller!

If you aren't sure you can handle something this complex to start with, I recommend just drawing random lines and filling each in with a different doodle.


This one is one of my favorites. All I did was trace the outline of a CD a few times and filled in all of the blank spots. So simple, and yet so awesome!

And this one was done the same way. I just traced four circles. Think Zen Diagram Zentangle. Hehehe.


And for this one I just filled an entire piece of paper with circles and squares of different shapes and sizes.

Zentangling is so easy. Even if you don't feel like you have an artistic bone in your body, I guarantee you can do this. It just takes some patience and practice.

To start, I just outline a random design on a piece of card stock paper. I use a fine point Sharpie because it makes everything stand out so much better than pencil or pen! When you start, it will look something like this. A little cheesy? Don't worry, once it's finished, it will look awesome!

Every so often, I'll get in a mood to Zentangle and pop one out like a warm and yummy toaster pastry. And the past few days, I've been in a Zentangling mood! A few things have been getting me down, and losing myself in the small intricate doodles really helps me.


This one was signifying how I was feeling. The heart is black and hard to read until you get a closer look. Then you can see the ache that is there.

And while I was searching the internet for fun new doodles to use in my Zentangle, I saw a lot of people who incorporated faces into their designs. So I tried it. I LOVE how it turned out!


I am very thrilled with this one. It's my favorite of all time.

You should all try Zentangling! It's SO much fun! I would love to see any that you come up with!

When I was about 6 years old, I had been saving up lots of money. Any spare change I found on the ground, or in a couch cushion went into my little jar.