I'm back from the dead.
haha, jk. I never died.
But I haven't been around here much.
Or at all.
I've tried I tell you! And I really was working on those posts (I SWEAR) that I kept promising I was working on...
So guess what.
Today is December 29th, 2014.
And that means there are two days left in 2014.
WHHHHHAAAAT.
2014 JUST GOT HERE.
IT CAN'T ALREADY BE TWO DAYS UNTIL 2015.
Is it just me that screams this?
If yay, ok then.
If nay, high fives to everyone who screams that it can't be 2015.
And now. I shall do lists, because every person does lists at the end of the year (and actually, they're quite enjoyable)
Top Ten Things of This Year
1) Getting to see my family after three years in Indonesia.
2) Traveling to many many (like twenty. Forrealsdoe) states to see my friends that I had not seen in longer than 3 years. We made new memories. And terrible pictures. Terrible I tell you. jk
3) Growing closer to God.
4) I went to a weekend somewhat like Disciple Now. IT WAS AMAZING
5) I FINISHED A QUILT TOP (after having the fabric for like twenty million years (two amounts to that, right?) AND I'M ALMOST DONE WITH ANOTHER ONE.
6) I grew closer to my friends (online and uh, inline? lol)
7) I wrote two and a half novels! YAY. Totaling up to: 143,831 words this year!
8) Having the access to talk to my friends back home in Papua. :)
9) Books. When I was able to read, I realized just how great, and amazing, and wonderful, and incredible, books really are. :)
10) Having good times. Laughing. Making good, lasting memories.
(the embarrassments were worth it, lol jk)
Top Ten Worst Things of 2014
1) I had to leave Papua in order to come to America (Ironic, I know)
2) I had to say goodbye to my friends in Papua. *sobs* I miss them so...
3) I got to see a lot of friends, and we reacquainted... but then, we had to say goodbye. :(
4) Not reading my Bible more.
5) Not writing enough
6) Blogging next to never
7) Wasting time on things that never matter
8) Not talking about what really matters in life.
9) Not going to all the different youth groups simply because I didn't know anyone.
10) Missing my home. Wanting to know just when we will go back. I miss it so much.
My Top Five Favorite Characters of 2014
1) LIAM. LIAM. LIAM. LIAM IS MY FAVORITE EVER. He is a secondary character from my NaNo 2014 novel , BUT WHO CARES. I LOVE HIM. Sure he's a jerk at the beginning of the novel, but he grows out of it.
2) Catrinity, who remembers that name? :) Painted Skies was definitely my favorite novel I ever wrote. Catrinity was the main character with green dreadlocks and a curse. (Hence the green dreads)
3) Anaya, no I never talk about Slaved. (I never talk about Underground either, but hey Liam's my favorite character ever so it makes up for it.) Anaya is more of a butt. (forgive my potty mouth) But with being a slave and American and both parents dead, it's kind of hard not to be. (I'm not saying that all Americans are butts, but it kind of seems to be that teenagers aren't very nice except to people way up in the status. But Anaya, *sighs* characters are like your children. You love them even when you know they do everything wrong. And you tell them what to do and they do the complete opposite.
4) Manic. Manic. Manic. He was also from Painted Skies. He was one of Catrinity's friends. Of whom sent her on the whole journey. Like if she didn't go, he was killed. And ya'll, unlike Anaya, she's got a heart. But Manic, how he acted. How he talked. And his brotherly love for Catrinity. I love it. :)
5) Scarlett. I love Scarlett so much. I was writing Slaved one day when I realized I was writing Scarlett instead of Anaya. *headdesk* I feel ashamed because Scarlett is NOTHING like Anaya, she's sweet and tries hard to love everyone (even Liam. I must be the only one to enjoy his jokes, I don't think there were many in the actual book, but I talk to him, we make funny ones. It's not as frightening as it sounds.). Scarlett has been the easiest first person POV ever. And I really enjoy that (HEY WHO DOESNT!?). Scarlett is this good kid, btw, she did what I told her to do--just about the entire time BELIEVE IT OR NOT. I love her so much. :)
Some of My Favorite Pictures from the Past Year (I have decided to hold back some of the really strange pictures. )
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| This was my birthday cake made by my amazing aunt! LOOK AT IT. |
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| In August, I got to meet my critique partner, Mary, and her family! It was such an awesome day! :D |
While we were in NC/SC, we got to see Sonny (pronounced Sony, like the company.)!! He was on his way up north to do some training. (He lives in Papua and works with my dad.)
This is with our pastor and his wife (who was my Sunday School teacher for what feels like forever, like 3rd and half of 4th grade.). We love them to death and wish they hadn't retired from the church *sobs*
uh. We're weird, I guess. We were having fun at the pool side.
Here we are again! :D Such lovelies we are. :)
Our friends from Papua who now live in NC, it was SO much fun to see them again, even though I was sure it would be extremely awkward. Nope. We started playing and talking like we'd seen each other the day before.
I got to go to Disney World for the second time! It's such a pretty place. And hot. It's very hot in September down in Orlando.
Loved seeing these girls again! :)
We're so sweet, and then I have a brother. She understood. She has one too. lol
WE WENT AND SAW THE ARCH. AND IF YOU HAVE NEVER GONE AND SEEN IT OHMIGOSH IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST COOLEST THINGS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE THANK YOU
These are also our friends from Papua! (The two girls, far left and the dark headed one resting her chin on my head) It was a ton of fun to get to see them again!
I hadn't seen these girls in LITTERALLY 7 years. And none of us had stayed in touch (like for reals, I learned it was my fault. :/ ) All three of us were five when I moved, but we got there and talked and acted like I'd lived there the past seven years. I only got to see them twice while we were there (we were in that town of Ohio for five days) but it was a fun two times. Including hiking and squeezing through a small part of a cave that made me think I was fat.
I CARVED A PUMPKIN. Emily helped me. BUT HEY YA'LL. I've never even been allowed to touch a knife to a pumpkin around Halloween!
When we were little, the two older boys in the back (or near the back), John, and I were close to best friends. ;) The moved to PNG, and we moved to Papua. And, again, didn't stay in touch. (Guess who's fault that is.) They moved back to America. And we got to go see them. The night we arrived it was REALLY awkward silence. Like really awkward. Like we said nothing. At all. Day 2. They went to school. We went to a chocolate factory. We got back right after the kids got off the bus. I know how I go about getting to talk to old friends. I play a game with them. Hey they like soccer too? We divided into teams. And hey it took us no time. When we walked in laughing and talking and pretty much out of control, our dads said something like, "I think they re-met."
WE WENT TO THE OLDEST PRETZEL FACTORY IN AMERICA. SOFT PRETZALS YA'LL ARE AMAZING.
We went to Washington DC. IT WAS SO COOL. And beautiful, everything was gorgeous. And I don't know if it was just me or not, but I pointed out every place that Nicholas Cage found a clue.
My family says that they did not force me into doing this. They thought my hair would stick straight up. Lucky for me I condition it well. And. It has a natural wave to it. :)
We got to be in TN for my cousin's 15th birthday! fun!
I am the cute, annoyed teenage babysitter who must babysit the rather annoying baby. jkjkjkjkjkjk I love her to death :)
On the far left is my eldest cousin, when I say we did this and that at my cousin's house, usually I'm referring to her because it's her and her husband's house. She was a Dalmatian (really?) because her husband is a fireman. It was cute. :)
Are we cool or what?
So that DN (Disciple Now) like thing I was talking about, this was my small group from the weekend (yah, it was something real small, we had the largest group out of 300 teens) I had a ton of fun with the girls! We stayed up half the night talking about potatoes and squashes and Hank Murphy (he was the worship leader) and about how good Hank Murphy's music was and Instagram and more nonsense. (Yes we really did talk about potatoes and squashes.)
This is my cousin and I with Hank Murphy! It was an awesome weekend! (And please, forgive my hair! I apparently only got ten hours of sleep in three days and cared not of what I looked like because there were three hundred others kids there that got the same amount of sleep)
But the album ONE by Hank Murphy is amazing. Like they are some well written songs. Ohmygosh, they are cool and really are some good worship songs.
LOOK. LOOK. WE MET LOVE & THE OUTCOME. We saw them at the Klove Christmas Tour. AHHHHMAZZZZING. I loved every moment of it and cared not that they went 20+ minutes over time. :)
*squeals with delight* It is my second quilt top! My first is already quilted and binded, and my Granny is getting this one quilted. So excited!
on Christmas Eve, we played Dirt Santa, my eldest cousin had a talent of picking up little boy toys
LOOK. IT'S TOOTHLESS. AND HE ROCKS AN ANTHEM LIGHTS NEW ERA CAP. PLUS A BRACELET THAT SAYS "I CAN'T SHUT UP". He's just like his mama. I am so proud.
So hey 2014 was one of the best years I've had, but, who's to making 2015 even better?! I AAAMMM!
Editing my NaNo novel?! Whoo! Ha, not sure if I'm looking forward to that or not.
BTW, any advice on getting through a really hard to write novel? (Slaved is getting rather difficult.)
It was fun writing this post. :) I quite enjoyed it. If you made it to read this sentence, thank you for enduring my weirdness. :)
abrielle lindsay
