I'm Back!

So, I haven't blogged since October. (Botched that goal. Oh well.)

Here follows a relatively brief account of October and November. The brief account of December and January will follow in another blog post shortly.

October

October really derailed me. My Grandma Mary passed away. I was able to go to Arizona with the family for the inurnment, which was a bittersweet experience. It was nice to be with all of my family, immediate and extended, as we mourned together and celebrated the wonderful life Grandma Mary was. I love her and miss her, and am grateful that I was able to know her.

My Great-aunt Ducky, pictured here on the far right, passed away last month. She was one of my favorite aunts, especially as a child, because what cooler name could there possibly be than Aunt Ducky? Perhaps I'll dub one of my aunts or sisters Aunt Ducky in her honor, so my children will have the pleasure of growing up with an Aunt Ducky.

Brandon and I went to Sauvie Island to get pumpkins for Halloween. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun, though super muddy. Next time I go, I'm going to have a pair of wellies. If I can find some, that is. Cute and relatively inexpensive rainboots (not over 35 dollars) are unexpectedly hard to find out here. We took the hayride out to the pumpkin patch, and that is where I took these pictures.

I love that we have a piece of such beautiful country right next to the city. It only took us about thirty minutes to get there. I'm excited to go back in the summer to do some berry picking.

The ward Halloween Party took up a bit of our October. We were on the planning committee and it was a surprising amount of work. Among other duties, we were in charge of the pumpkin bowling room.

Yes. Since the Halloween party, our toilet paper occassionally makes funny faces at us. Still. 

Brandon's last minute costume: Mad Scientist. I realized afterwards I should have smeared eye shadow all over his face, and not just around the goggle line. Still, we were pleased with how it turned out overall. I have a picture of him looking very Mad indeed, but he begged me not to post it online. 

In case you were wondering, I was a witch. I know. So original. You wish you had thought of it. 

November

 I made a baby kimono top for my friend's baby Lillian, who was born in January. (Congrats Mel!) I also made her a doll. The colors match better in real life. Just ignore the terrible lighting in the second photo.

I was invited to a baby shower for a mother expecting a boy, so I made a stuffed elephant, and then the card and bag to go along with it.

Thanskgiving! This was going to be my first Thanksgiving away from any sort of family/friend connections. But my lovely friend/cousin-in-law, Kate, ended up coming out to visit us, and Brandon's cousins Amber (who is living in Portland working as a flight attendant) and Rachel (along with her baby and husband who are living in Bothell, WA) ended up sharing Thanksgiving dinner with us as well. Our apartment feels cramped with more than two people, so we used the church building. It worked out pretty nicely actually. 

I was really bad about taking pictures while Kate was here. I showed her some of the sights of Portland, such as Powell's City of Books (only my favorite store ever). We went to VooDoo doughnuts, which is apparently a big deal, and I hadn't been yet. We waited in line for almost 40 minutes, but that is normal evidently.  

I'm so glad Kate was able to come out and visit! And if you were wondering, yes that doughnut in the back is shaped like a doll and does have a pretzel stabbed into it, and yes it is jelly filled (color: red), and yes it was gross. The other doughnuts were decently yummy, but mostly we just liked the cool box and the slogan "Good Things Come in Pink Boxes." I'm thinking I might dress as a pink box for Halloween 2013.

 But the big event in November was NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month, for those who don't know). 50,000 words in 30 days. That works out to be about 1667 words a day. 
I DID IT. 
50, 121 words to be exact. 
It was hard. I couldn't have done it without Brandon's encouragement. My novel, unfortunately, is not done. Not even close, and basically I have to rewrite everything I wrote. My novel is a bit complicated to explain because I am still working out a lot of the major details, so I am not even going to bother trying to tell you about it at the moment. Besides, I don't want one of my numberless readers stealing my ideas. 

Just kidding.

I did consider sharing an excerpt, but then I chickened out trying to decide which part to share. Everything still needs a lot of work. Maybe in my next post...? Yay or nay? Let me know if you want to see a piece of it, and let me know if you don't. :) 

So that was October and November. Next installment: December and January!