Of Chocolate and Prayer

I was going to call this post "Of Chocolate and Miscarriages," but that's just a little too weighty. Thus my title "Of Chocolate and Prayer".

First of all, I now have around 740 M'n'Ms in a large jar sitting in my room. I won them at the school-co'op that I go to--I take a writing class there. I never thought I was actually going to win one of those guessing games were you write the number of M'n'Ms you think are in the jar, but I wrote 642 on a slip of paper and handed it to my friend Hunter's mom, Robin. Hunter, Amber and I were getting really competitive; Hunter said he had counted them before and had come up with 650, though his mom had added a few handfuls more. So I went back and changed my vote--thanks, Robin--to 705. I barely beat Alex out of winning the candy, by only ten or twenty, I think. But anyways...I have a feeling I'll be looking at that jar for a long time. ^^

My science teacher, Ms. Bakos, had a daughter who became pregnant about twenty weeks ago. They took ultrasounds--they wanted to know right away, as she had had several miscarriages (I think that was the reason)--and saw twins, non-identical. A few weeks later, they took another ultrasound; the doctor who took them examined the pictures for several minutes, and then asked the daughter and her husband, "Are you seeing what I'm seeing? Or am I just crazy?" Because there, imprinted plainly on the sheet, was a third baby! They missed it the first time! Ms. Bakos brought the ultrasounds to us, beaming from ear-to-ear as she proudly showed us her future grandkids. Yesterday, however, she walked in, and I instantly knew something was wrong. She walked a bit slower, her red tear-filled eyes were rimmed with purple half-moons and her head was bent as if a great weight was hanging over her. I got this awful feeling in my stomach, and sure enough, her daughter had just gone into labor the night before. The babies were only nineteen weeks old, much too young to survive on their own. She just started crying when she told us...just crying. Tears were pouring down her face several times throughout the class. I gave her a hug afterwards, and told her I'm praying. I would love it if you all would include her and her daughter and son-in-law in your prayers every once in a while.

I'm also going to a nursing home tonight. See, my church has this mentoring program, and once a month we go with our pods (two other mentor-student pairs) to a service environment, serving for about four hours. I'm so excited to hang out with my awesome mentor and really good friend Kelli. We get to play bingo. *laughs*

Later,

I Can't Believe...

...that NaNo starts in two days!!

I've seen several NaNoWriMo Survival Kits and decided to do one.

1. My Laptop. Thank goodness for it. Did I tell you that I love you, Araldar? ("Araldar" actually means "Evil One" in the language of one of my stories...hm...maybe "Araldar" isn't such a fantastic name for my laptop...)
2. My Notebooks. My main notebook is this tattered one that holds about five plots, random quotes, Bible verses, great books, and excerpts from my stories. I have several others, however; unfortunately, I am very unorganized, and, if I have a "brilliant" idea, I just grab the notebook that's nearest to me. Therefore, I have several notebooks and I have to search all of them to find something specific.
3. My Bible. I have it sitting on my desk so when I get "nano-drepression", I can just look up an inspiring verse.
4. Coffee/Tea/Chocolate. I will most definitely be drinking a LOT more decaf coffee and green tea this month. *grins* The occasional cup of hot chocolate, perhaps. And a LOT of chocolate from the stash my mom got specifically for Halloween, but whose leftovers may be used for more productive purposes. ^^
5. The Work-Out Machine. Working out is a stress-reliever for me, so that contraption will be getting a lot more use this month. ^^
6. Gmail. All my friends on gmail better get prepared for some venting. *laughs*
7. Hannah. Hannah, I'm going to call you a LOT, and most of the conversations are going to be complaining about how far behind I am. And yes, we can always bury names if we get depressed. :) (Inside joke...)
8. My Family. Definitely. Where would I be without them? *grins*
9. My Diary. Oh my word, almost all the entries from this time forth until the end of November will be freaking out about NaNo.
10. My Characters. There would be no story without my awesomely-cooperative characters. One of my main characters, Jole, agreed to die without so much as a soft shriek. And another, Arayna, resigned to being stuck in jail for twelve years. And, of course, my evil character, Imandr, is really a good person at heart, but is determined to impersonate a deliciously-evil character just for me. *sighs* But of course, it's my eminently main character that's being stubborn...she's refusing to let Jole and Arayna die, and says she doesn't need to listen to me. *rolls eyes*
11. Books. Insanely inspiring books.
12. Gimp. *grins* thank goodness for Gimp.
13. Music. Lots and lots of music. I have a song for every mood. ^^

AGH! I'm so excited!! :) On Sunday, I'm setting my alarm for around six, so I can get a few pages done before church. ^^

Since I'm only doing 20,000 words, once I achieve that goal, I'm going to keep pushing and hopefully get 50,000 words so I'm ready for full force NaNo next year.

Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to be doing a lot less eating/playing/hanging out and a LOT more writing/scribbling/screaming? :D

One last thing (Note: this is an edit): An AWESOME giveaway at the Elvish Maiden!! Go enter! :)