Okay, so we've got a massive update here for the weekend. Lotsa stuff to share!

( Really feel like reading? lol )

God blessed me with another anthem, and yes, I know it's old, but I love it. Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle". Not gonna worry if other people are bitter; I am finding joy again in the small things, because the Lord blesses us when we least expect it. I am always being tried, but He loves to surprise me. ^_^

He has to call me every night now. I'm getting addicted to that deep voice.

OMGHEISSOFLIPPINGHOT!!!!!

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

OMG!!! WE'RE ON THE PHONE SINGING CHRISTIAN ROCK SONGS TO EACH OTHER!!!!!!!!

*dreamy sigh*

I love it when he calls me at 8:45 just as he's finishing his workout. It's nice to be thought of ^_____^

"Good night, pretty lady!"

"Tee hee! Good night, handsome!"

I'm falling and I'm falling fast. Someone pinch me. lol

For my Shizu,

Sweetie, I'm so very sorry for what you're going through. God knows it's hard. I really wish with all of my being that I could be there with you as your support, but you can do this. You have a lot of strength and courage to get through any tough time, so I have no doubt that you will come out of this even stronger than before.

Still, showing a few tears here and there isn't a bad thing, or even a sign of weakness. It's a natural release, so don't hold back if you need to. We're all here for you and my phone's always available to you. Hopefully again this spring we can get together and I promise it will be the most fun ever.

I love you so much!!

Go give 13thleprechaun some love, all. She needs it now more than ever.

;______;

Dang it, people just don't understand how tragic a death in the family really is. I can't just... get over this and smile for whatever reason!

You didn't see him struggle to walk in that room. You didn't hold him while he breathed his last few breaths. You didn't feel the barely there heartbeat beyond his chest.

You did not feel the agony I felt when I kissed my little Bandit for the last time as he bled from his trembling mouth. You do not have to carry the grief I do as I continue to cope with the horrific death of a loved one.

For the love of God, understand...

I want my little Bandy....

Merry Christmas, my darlings! I hope it was a good one ^_^ Ours was still rather glum without our four-legged family member, but we made the best of it. Onward and upward to close out the holiday season!

( You must look behind the cut for something amazing!!! )

Taken from 13thleprechaun! Comment with "resistence is futile" and I'll ask you a few questions!

Well, she asked me some questions and I answered! lol

1) Of every character of mine that I've told you about, which one is the most interesting? (egotistical question is egotistical)

Toughie in a huge way, but I must answer truthfully - James. He's a step outside the box for you and I love that! His past was sad, but gave him enough ground to base his *ahem* interesting ways upon. Plus he was modeled after my ideal physical image of a sexy guy - AND A BRIT! *swoon*

2) What is the greatest game you've played and why?

Guh, stab me in the heart why don't ya, Shizu? Well, it's a tie between Final Fantasy 9 and Kingdom Hearts 2. Why? FF9 - first RPG, lotsa nostalgia and I really do love the characters. The feel of the game was just... enchanting! Opened me up to a new realm of gaming ^_^ KH2 because just that opened my mind to actually liking the villains and appreciating their stories. I didn't think so black and white anymore when it came to characters.

3) WHY ARE DORITOS LETHAL?!

BECAUSE THEY SLICED ME UP LIKE A HAM ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!!! XDDDD

4) Did you want me to paint you a picture for your birthday?

<333333 Whatever platform you prefer, my sweet, but if you would like to practice that would be lovely! I am SO looking forward to it! *huuuugs*

5) Which country do you want to visit the most?

If it weren't for the food scaring me to death, I've always wanted to go to Egypt and see the pyramids. Egyptian culture fascinates me and I think it'd be fun to see all the sights. Where's my mummy? lol

HAPPY THANKSGIVNG ALL! <333

So more Christmas decorations are up, the majority of the Thanksgiving Day prep is done, and I'll be leaving in about an hour for my secong bowling tournament! WOOT! The stress of Thanksgiving isn't getting to me, amazingly enough, so hopefully this year will be a great one! Hope yours is, too!

( Enjoy more holiday cheer! )

For... for some reason, I have discovered that Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto is interestingly attractive. Even cute. Dare I say... sexy? lol

Omg, the streak with liking older men continuuuuuuuuuuuuuues! XDDDDD

So I got the new Christmas layout up late last night, I've been painting up a storm, and I got a few decorations up! I'll be posting some pictures along the way as more go up, but for now, enjoy these two of the living room/computer room/parlor!

( Ooo, pretty... )

Also, I got my schedule for this coming week at work. Well... closing on Black Friday. Oh well. But I got Wednesday AND Monday off, too! Perfect once again for Turkey Day prep! Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, all! Much love!

So with my sister's phone call this afternoon informing me of her plans to come down here for the first weekend in December for an early Christmas, I have thus decided there is something I must do.

ACK, I must finish my Christmas shopping!!!! ...For my sister and niece anyway ^_^;; I'm also going to start with the decorating either Wednesday or Thursday of this week, because next week's going to be busy with work, I'm sure. I'm going to be too tired to want to do it later, so why not do it while I have the energy, right? Of course, this cold of mine is zapping what little I have, but that's okay! Fight through it!

Mom and I have big plans for the house this year - different themes for every room! Purple for the parlor, aka the room I'm in right now, blue for the dining room, red for the family room, and green/white for the kitchen! It's going to look gorgeous! I can't wait!!!!

I'm also really excited about the presents I'll be giving my family this year, particularly Mom. I have a couple of shirts I wear specifically for bowling; one that was made for me and the other I made. She kinda wants one, and guess what - Michaels' is having a saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale! lol So I'm going to make her one, and my dad and brother will each get a special shirt, too. Those will be my big projects this year. Gotta get started soon, omg!

Ah, I live for these sorts of moments. lol

There are things I know I need to say, I just don't know how to say them. Probably because I'm scared. I dread being rejected and cast aside because of something I've said. I'm thinking so carefully how to say it, but every time I do I see the same set of hate filled eyes looking down at me.

I'm so afraid to tell them, but I just don't know how to do it...

So today was my new supervisor, Linda's birthday. Nobody in my department seems to get the hint that birthdays should be celebrated, so I took it upon myself to get the lady something. She used to manage the Disney store in our mall, and when that went under (yeah I know, how could a Disney store go under?) she came to work for us. She's been the Home supervisor for about 18 months now and we've had our ups and downs. She's a hard woman to satisfy.

But anyway, I came into work today not expecting to see her, and when I saw she was there, I was like: oh! I have something for you in my car! So I ran back out, came in with it and apologized for not getting to wrap it, but she was surprised enough to get a gift so she didn't care if it was wrapped or not. When she opened it, though, I got the surprise of my life.

I gave her a figure of Snow White on a carousel horse; two things combined that she loves and collects. I just thought she'd be like: this will be cool for my collection! But she cried... the dear woman wept she was so touched. She said I had no idea how much that meant to her because this was her first birthday without her mother, who had passed away right before Mother's Day this year, so apparently this was a reminder of something her mother would have given her. She hugged me twice through tears and went on showing off her present to everyone before she went home.

I... didn't think that would ever happen. This is the lady that most associates in our store seem to avoid because she's so hard to please, and I feel inferior to all of them, yet I stepped out of my comfort zone and got rewarded with a truly touching moment. Why can't we all be like that? Do something unexpected and then potentially change that person's life entirely? The world would be a better place if we all did our part to make people smile.

So yeah, my update for the day. lol Oh! And pray for Kelly's boy Alex. He's being tested for that nasty flu going around and he's only 8 with a twin brother and baby sister. I don't want my second family to get all sickly ;_;

First to report, I changed departments at work a few weeks ago; I'm a Home associate now and I love it! I get to work one-on-one with my customers, provide insight, and I'm learning new things every day. It's really a lot of fun, but the best thing is I'm finally feeling accomplished after two years of working for JCP. The work I do is rewarding, and my customers appreciate my help. This is such a huge burst of confidence!

Second on the list; I've restarted my original story completely. Trinity Kingdom is officially no more, and has been re-vamped into something much easier to both write and read. It is, for the moment, entitled Coded, based on the original images in my head five years ago when I started coming up with the story. It's not as tragic and Reia's not as much of a wuss anymore. 13thleprechaun is providing valuable insight for me in shaping the characters better and helping me get the plot going the right direction. I have one chapter written and ready to go, but I'm still debating posting it so early, since I may want to save it for an actual publisher.

Lastly, I saw this video on Facebook earlier tonight and I died. Enjoy!

Omg yay! I'm going to see 13thleprechaun for her birthday in January! WOOOOOT!

I participated in my first ever bowling tournament tonight; an 8 pin no tap tournament, and I'd like to think I had a decent showing. My first game was a 198, followed by a lousy 99, and in conclusion a 202. I would normally be ecstatic about the first and last scores, but to me those are hollow victories.

See, the "8 pin no tap" rule basically means that if you knock over 8 pins with your first ball, it automatically counts as a strike. So, I did several of those, and thus the high scores. I have my doubts that my measly 499 series will stand the test until Sunday, but if I place in the top fifteen, an award will come my way ^_^

Now that I know how tournaments work, though, I plan to be ready and much better for the next one!

Okay, so I finished Green Rider last night, loved it to pieces, and have started the second book, First Rider's Call. In my ever-increasing curiosity for the various characters, I decided to delve into the small fandom in hopes of finding perhaps some fanfiction following the first book... mainly about the two characters I feel should get together.

I'm shocked to find very little, but there's a lot of the other couple that did cross my mind, however I didn't seem it plausible. I will admit I'm more partial to the one I liked first, but this other one's kinda drawing me towards it...

Bah, I'm an Alton x Karigan shipper - hear me roar!

...After this horrible headache goes away. Ow.

So last night Mom and I decided to go out for a bit and do something besides bowling. We chose to go to one of the little shopping centers nearby and we looked around a bit. We bought a couple shirts in Belks (omg, we're traitors to the JCP name. lol) and then eventually made our way to Books a Million, which I wasn't expecting to find anything within that would snag my attention. WRONG. Omg, I found a great book that I'm loving so far and I want to chronicle my adventures through it when I'm here!

The book I got is Green Rider by Kristen Britain; a fantasy novel. I never thought I'd be into this, but so far it's really, really good and I can't seem to want to put it down. Last night at 2 AM I remember telling myself "just one more chapter...!", but I fell asleep with the book on top of my face. lol

One of the reasons I love it thus far is that the main character, Karigan, has a single father, and that makes this book automatically drip with father/daughter-ness. She idolizes the man and I love her for it. Granted, he hasn't really made an appearance yet, but still - I adore the book for adding that beautiful element! And the reading style is simple to follow. Not too choppy, but not too artistic either. It's just right for me. Plus it's adding in the contemporary feel of today's life where talking about certain things is stupid, but to others it's very serious, ie magic and what-not.

Turning out to be a great read! Time to go dig into the plot some more! ^__^