(Finally) A NaNoWriMo Update

Hello people!

I said I was going to do weekly updates during NaNo and I totally flunked...but I WAS out of town with my fam for these past two weeks, so I haven't had a lot of time. The first week was for a business adventure thingy my brother and dad were doing. My mom and I had fun and shopped. :D Oh, and we also went to the Atlanta Aquarium which was awesome! Here's a pic of a whale shark:

And the second week my dad had a work meeting in Florida, so we stayed there for a week. I had a ton of writing time during this period! Yay! I wrote about 2k words a day, but on the way back home, I kind of slacked off...and I was also a little stuck. The middle of a book is always the hardest to write. But I wasn't stuck for long. Yay again!

Now I am home and I'm getting used to the chill in North Carolina...Florida weather is amazing. And I can't believe that November is halfway gone! Where'd the time go?

Okay, now some more NaNo updates / random tidbits:

I did start a day early because I knew I was going to be busy the first week and that helped a lot.

I figured out that I don't write well in the car. I get distracted too easily and can stare out the window for hours. *shrugs*

I learned that I LOVE writing in scenes rather than chapters. Last year, I made myself write at least around 2k words per chapter, but this year I'm writing whatever amount I need for that scene and it feels soooo freeing and I can just mash scenes together to make a chapter. Voila! I have a scene with barely a hundred words in it and my longest has around 2k words (so I may make that one a chapter in and of itself).

Um... my brain just blanked...where was I?

Oh, plotting helped me a LOT for the first act of my novel. But now that I'm in my second act (I barely had it plotted out), I get stuck easier. I need to get back to my plot board and start planning more of it, but then I get stressed 'cause I gotta write my words in for the day, but if I get my words in, then I don't feel like planning...and yeah. But I just got to suck it up and do it. Lolzzzz...

*dozes off*

Hmm? Oh, right. Still here.

My favorite character so far is Fae. Makes sense since I planned her out a lot and she was my first character that popped into my head for this story. She's sarcastic which makes dialogue really fun to write. She also has a sad backstory that hasn't been revealed yet...Muhahahahaha

And I have another character who I am still trying to work out while writing... I gave him a backstory, but his wants/desires are still confusing to me and why does he want to stay in the hacked game? (oooh, is that a snippet from my novel. Yes...yes it is.) Sure he wants to help others escapes if he can, but whyyy?

And I have two villains. One I hate. That's good. The other one is suppose to be not as hated, but he's still doing something really bad that makes him a villain. So, bad in a good sort of way...? Or good in a bad sort of way? Or..nevermind...

Now for word coouuunt. My word count is....*trumpet noises*

20, 536!

As of right now. And I need to write more to get today's goal in. So I will write about what my novel is about on a later date! Thanks for reading!

Oh, and to get more updates sooner and such, follow me on Instagram @ justjoys_blog

Life Update: Vacation!!

A couple weeks ago my family (except for my two older brothers 'cause they're in college ;( ) went on vacation to Florida! It was so fun and relaxing. The ocean was clear and the sand was like sugar. This was my favorite beach vacation! Then we went to Magic Kingdom for the last day. So anyway, here are pics:

They had the best shells here! We found this one, but found a little inhabitant living there.

We went air boating, which was super fun, and saw some alligators!

It's kinda hard to see, but here is a manatee!

We saw dolphins, but I couldn't get a good picture. It was so cool though!

Disney World!!

These mosaics were made all with little tiles!

My favorite part in this park was the light show at the end!

This was the best pic I got from the light parade.

It was a really fun trip with the fam. :) 

Now tonight, I am going to my first prom! Look out for that post! 

Thanks for reading!

QOTW / Leadership Trip Story

~*~

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day! :)

This past weekend, my youth group held a leadership trip for one day and night. It was amazing! We are all leaders because we lead ourselves and leading ourselves is the basic, yet hardest form of leadership. They taught about overcoming fears and insecurities as well.

Lots of people are more afraid of speaking in front of people than death. (Which would be me, because I DO NOT like being in the spotlight, unless other people are with me...) So, guess what our youth pastor had us do? He made all of us memorize a verse that we liked, then called us up in the front and say that verse to everyone. He had us do it several times and made us start over if we didn't speak loud enough or said "um" or stumbled through. He wanted us to get over our fear.

Then, he had us do it again, but this time say why we liked our verse. Thankfully I wasn't first so I could think about it. Well, I did know why I liked it, I just had to put it in words, if you know what I mean. xD (Oh, and my most recent favorite verse is "Who knows whether you have not been called to the kingdom for such a time as this?" - Esther 4:14)

I thought we were done after that, and I felt so relieved, but nope. He had us all stand in a line at the front and he called one of us at a time to step forward and say the same things again, but this time he and some other teachers asked about our verse and what some things mean. It was so scary because we didn't know what we we would be questioned. I love preparing and knowing what was gonna happen, but this time I didn't... My heart was thumping so hard and, ugh, I wanted to relax about it, but I couldn't. .-.

The funniest thing about this trip was that the boys seemed to talk more than the girls. Like, we talked and all, but the guys, man...

So, we had to be in our cabins by 12 at night (oh, and the guys area was right next to the girls area, it was just separated by a wall.) and the girls were ready and in bed trying to sleep at 12:30.

The guys, on the other hand, were playing cards as far as I could tell/hear. The walls were not soundproof at all. I could here them shuffling the cards and that's not very loud...The guys talked about random things, including my brother telling the story about how he got his braces caught on the carpet (that was hilarious) and another guy talking about how he hardly had any arm and leg hair...that was very...weird...(and he was embarrassed when we told him we heard that xD)

The guys talked and played games till around 2:00am and I did not get to sleep before they were quiet...which wasn't very quiet because someone had the loudest snore ever. I woke up at different times during the night, but oh well. It was annoying at that time, but now it's funny. :P

Overall, the trip was super fun with great teaching. :)

Btw, this christian song is sooo catchy: Into Your Arms - Capital Kings Just had to put that out there. xD

QOTW / Catching Up On Life And Snowy Pics

~*~

Sooo sorry I didn't post any pics last week, like I said I would. I've been busy prepping for my b-day party that got delayed till yesterday even though my actual birthday was on December 16.

Pic of my beautiful friends and I at my party :D

(Top) Elly, Celia, Alissa, and I
(Bottom) Layne, Anna, and Hannah

Also, I've been getting my novel completed and after hardcore writing, I didn't feel like posting anything.  :P One of the winner goodies from NaNo was a code to get a free hardcover copy of your draft and it expired today.  I am happy to say that I finished my draft in time! I made a cover for it and ordered a copy of it yesterday.

Also, on Tuesday I got my braces off!!! I'm so excited! I can finally have gum and other snackies I otherwise couldn't have. Woo! I wasn't expecting to look the way I look without braces, although I didn't know what I was expecting in the first place, but I am sooo glad they are off! It's been 3 1/2 years!

Now unto the snowy pics. I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, but here they are:

Kitties exploring the porch.

I was trying to get a creative photo, but it was terribly hard and this was the best one that turned out. I had a coat, hat and gloves on still, but I had to take my boots off for the picture and I couldn't last more than 30 seconds standing there. My feet kept getting numb and I would run inside and jump around trying to warm them up. I had to go back three times to get this pic. xD

I had a mirror outside because I wanted to try and make it look like a portal or something with photoshop (I haven't gotten it to work yet) and I took a random picture, and I didn't even mean to, but it turned out well besides the fact that the flash popped up. 

Another mirror picture.

I love seeing the snow sparkle in the sunlight.

I had my mom pose her arm holding that snowball and my brother is suppose to look like he's about to get hit and is trying to defend himself.

Hope you enjoyed this post! 

Bye for now! 

QOTW / Lately I've Been...

~*~

(Lately I've been, I've been losin' sleep...The title makes me want to break out into that song...)

Sorry for not posting in a while! Things have been quite busy over here.

On Thursday, my family and I drove off to Charlotte. My oldest brothers were going to be staying at UNC, Charlotte and would be getting their dorm on Sunday. My parents decided to have one last little family trip before my brothers leave. They took us to The Great Wolf Lodge for a day!

Yes, my younger brother used his GoPro at the water park. xD The footage is pretty cool!

The two Green and Yellow slides were definitely the best. The yellow one goes straight down for about 2 seconds (usually I don't like those, but this was real quick) and then it opened up and we rode up and down the sides. The green one, which is my favorite out of the two, twists and turns and goes pretty fast and it's just so fun! 

Saturday we explored a big mall and then Sunday came. We went to the grocery store and picked up some items. We helped them unpack and get organized from 1pm - 5pm. It was quite busy. I was sad as the realization hit me that we would be leaving soon without them.

Last pic of us siblings together before we left.

We left and headed home. It was hard, but it's easier now. We have all chatted together and they are doing well and liking their classes so that's good. :)

There was a beautiful sunset on the way home!

Now school has started back up again and so has the urgency of finishing my novel. Yeah, I still haven't finished my novel from NaNo...procrastination is my enemy. It's time for me to get hardcore about it. I'm glad that there isn't a lot I have to write still!

What have you been doing recently?

6 Word Story / Catching Up On Life...

Photo via

Snow fell, as shall the queen.

~*~

I decided not to catch up on the past Daily December's nor do today's as I'm going to write a lifestyle post!

Okay dokey, soooo....let's see where to begin....

Artsy photo of candles. xD

I turned 16 on December 16!! It's so weird, like, when I was young 16 used to feel so far away, but I would dream about being so cool and pretty and confident and all other good things, but now that I'm here, I just feel like...well, myself. Which is good because if I woke up on my b-day and found out that I looked/acted like a totally different person, I would freak out. xD

16 sounds old, but I don't feel any different. I guess that's with all birthdays, though, but when you look back, you can see how you've changed and matured.

One of the best gifts I received was a nutcracker mug from my parents!

Isn't it so elegant, yet cute? You know how much I love nutcrackers from my collection post last year (has it really been a year already??).

The same day I went to two Christmas parties, one at my youth group and one with my friends (Anna, Hannah, Celia, and their families.) We recorded a youtube vid and it's up now on our channel! It was so fun to make, along with another video that's in the making that's even crazier, partly because of sugar...also we are crazy together to begin with.

So yes, that day was very busy, but very fun!

Um...what happened these past two days...Gah, I can't remember...I'm tired, probably because I stayed up till 12:30 last night reading an awesome book and I couldn't put it down... #booknerd 

Well, one of our cats are gonna go into labor any day now! So exciting! :D =(^.^)=

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT THERE IS LESS THAN A WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS??? THAT'S SO CRAZY I CAN'T COMPREHEND IT. MY LIFE IS GOING SO FAST, I WANT IT TO SLOW DOWN. AAAAHHHHHHH!

Ahem, anyway, I realize I forgot to do the QOTW, but I will post it Tuesday, since this week is almost over anyway. Oh, and about the photo contest, I will host that after Christmas because it's so busy right now.

I'm gonna go read now... see ya later!

QOTW / Cake Decorating!

~*~

Soooo sorry this is late...again! UGH, Life has been crazy busy for me. 

As I've told you in the below post, I went to a decorating class with my mom and our friends this past weekend! It was super fun!

The first day, we learned about different decorating frosting tips and tips on decorating with frosting (heh). We practiced on some cupcakes:

Aren't they so cute?

The next day we decorated cakes! For some odd reason, my cake was fluffier than my mom's and could make three layers instead of two, which is totally fine with me! :P

First we frosted with white...and since my cake was chocolate, there are crumbs showing, but 'twas fine 'cause it'd be eaten!

We also learned about more frosting tips and stuff. We ran out of time, so we decorated our cakes at home.

Before my mom decorated.

Before I decorated.

Random shots of dying the frosting:

 Tessa slept next to my new beanie while we decorated.

Oh! There's a cool frosting thing that you can do!

If you paint lines of dye on the bags, then put the frosting in, it'll have strips of dye mixed with the frosting! Here's some pics:

And how it looks after I made a flower with it! So pretty!

Part-way done with my cake.

Mom's almost done with hers!

My finished cake:

Mom's finished cake:

 Yum! We ate my cake and gave away Mom's! :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and so sorry again this was late!

Pics of my youth group's annual costume party coming soon!

My costume was a modern Disney Princess and I wore that red beanie that my cat was sleeping next to...

Try to guess who I was!