Elf Yourself!

Along with writing novels, we've been choreographing dances.

This is us doing hip-hop.

80's. (I especially like how Mark does the "ReRun Dance" on this one).

Disco.

We even went surfing.

Back to novel writing . . .

One more day . . .

We have until midnight tonight to finish our novels and verify our word count and be declared "winners!"

Please be patient with us. Over the past few days, we've gotten some phone calls and emails and texts. We're not ignoring you. We just can't answer yet. Come December 1st, we'll be back in action (albeit sleepily).

But for now, we're barely sleeping or eating. Mark and I got desperately behind and now we're playing massive catch up. The kids got their word goals a while ago.

It feels like our brains have turned to mush. This has been a challenging NaNoWriMo year for different reasons, but we learn new things every time.

Anyway, gotta run. Mark and I have thousands of words to write before tonight. We'll be back!

Overheard at Christmastime

Thing 2 was busy describing all the reasons why one of our decorative Santa Claus figures couldn't possibly be the real Santa. For example, he has a magic wand, he has no feet, and he's lined with a large plastic cone for starters.

Thing 1 then turns to me and says:

"If you were Santa, wouldn't you look in the mirror and stop eating milk and cookies? Why can't he be a skinny guy that eats carrots and water?"

Carrots and water wouldn't give him a belly that shook like a bowl full of jelly, though.

I touched Michael Bublé!

I can't seem to concentrate on anything else right now. It's like I MUST blog this, never mind that I have a Thanksgiving meal to prepare, a novel to write, a book to read for book club, and a million other things to do.

So here goes.

Yes, I touched Michael Bublé! Or rather, he touched me! I kid you not. Row 18 at the concert and he walked down the aisle, saw me, reached out while singing and looking and smiling right at me (yeah, that's right, completely and utterly intentionally AT ME!) and touched my hand. Exciting, huh? And that was just one exciting tidbit from the night, because . . .

HOLY FABULOUS, PHENOMENAL, AMAZING CONCERT!!!!!!

I really should take a class on camera settings --
a little washed out, but hey, we're happy. :)

Not washed out, but looks more like a reflection
in a Christmas ornament, but hey, we're having fun!

I don't have enough adjectives to do it justice. It was just AWESOME. Best concert we've ever been to, hands down. Simply spectacular!

The warm up act warmed up for over an hour and were incredible -- Naturally 7. They are a group of 7 guys who do incredible music sans instruments. This was one of their songs -- (sorry, can't embed it -- you'll have to click over to see it, but then come back, because I have things to tell you!) -- everything they did was amazing. They did a fabulous rendition of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and they did some Motown stuff and generally fun, fantastic stuff.

They got us PUMPED for Michael Bublé and then it was almost like an intermission while we waited and waited and people started buying popcorn and drinks and going to the bathroom and all that jazz while we all waited.

And I wondered if a break after getting SO very warmed up would kill the mood, but nope, not with the intro and stage that Michael Bublé had! WOWZERS! It blew everyone away!! I'm talking grand orchestral intros, sliding stage, and pyrotechnics. It was awesome!

I'll try to post some pictures, but of course it really just won't do it justice, because OMIGOSH, he is SUCH a fantastic performer! Mark and I went as an anniversary present to ourselves and it was SO MUCH FUN! We're still sort of floating on air!





Remember the parade scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off?




Yeah, well he referenced that (as well as all kinds of other 80's stuff -- LOVED it!) and told us that that has always been his approach with his concerts -- he wants people to feel like they've been to a party. And that's exactly how it felt! Like he was hosting a gigantic party!

He even sang "Twist and Shout" just like that scene in the movie and there were GIGANTIC bouncing balls that we were all hitting in the air to one another. I wish I'd taken pictures of that in some ways, but not really, because I was having fun playing with them!

He interacted with the WHOLE audience, including those up in the nosebleed sections. He had a stage set up in the middle of the audience and he went out there and sang just to them (after turning around and saying over his shoulder to those in the front row, "Boy, I bet you're wishing you hadn't spent so much on those tickets now!").

Look how close he is to us
even on the audience stage!

There he is making his way back to the stage --
like 2 seconds after that,
he looked at me, smiled at me, sang to me,
and touched my outstretched hand
(also pictured). Swoon!

He told us up front that this concert was a party -- you want to dance? Dance. You want to move up the aisle and get closer to the stage where the bouncers tell you not to? Do it. You want to sing? Sing. And he told us that if someone near us shushed us and got all snotty about how they were trying to hear Michael Bublé, to just give them the finger. Oh yes, he did.

He was HYSTERICAL, often cracking himself up, goofing around with the audience, messing with the band members, messing with all of us. I didn't realize that Hershey was the kick-off city for the American leg of his world tour -- BOY, was it a party! He was PUMPED!! It's his "Crazy Love" tour, but he sang SUCH awesome songs from across all of his albums.

I loved this concert!!

He did an incredible job of putting on a FABULOUS concert, hosting a REALLY FUN party (I was sweating, laughing, and hoarse by the end from dancing, singing, jumping, yelling, cheering, screaming -- it was so much fun!), and also making you feel like the concert was JUST for you (and I'm not saying that just because he touched me -- have I mentioned that Michael Bublé touched me?!?!?!).

Mark and I have both commented that we feel like we had a friend come visit and now we're missing him. You know that feeling you get after having had a GREAT time with visiting friends, the one you feel after they leave? That's how it feels post-concert with him. He was simply PHENOMENAL. (Lbs, he even mentioned "more cowbell" and I thought of you).

He sang all kinds of songs including "Home," a ton of standards, "You're Everything," and so much more. It was just AWESOME! Have I mentioned we had a great time and it was an amazing concert? We LOVED it!

He ended the concert with "Haven't Met You Yet" and everyone went wild. Confetti was flying EVERYWHERE and then we all cheered and screamed for a good five minutes or more and he came back to the stage and sang at least 4 more songs, one of which was "A Song For You" -- the trumpet solo was played back in the audience, so while we were all turned to see him, the curtains closed on the AMAZING stage and all the band members and it was just Michael Bublé in front of the curtain, and us. And then he put his finger to his lips as we cheered, pushed the microphone aside, and sang a cappella and without any mic and just BELTED out such an amazing, intimate solo. It was UNBELIEVABLE. That guy doesn't sing a single off-key note at all.

"I Just Haven't Met You Yet!"
The audience went crazy for this finale song.
SO MUCH FUN!

Awesome encores!

One of my favorite parts of the encore --
the a cappella solo.
FABULOUS!

We had a GREAT time -- I don't have words, I really don't, to describe how INCREDIBLE it was. I've used all these words so far and I'm just not even getting close to describing the fun, amazing concert we got to be a part of -- SIMPLY AMAZING!! AMAZING!!

If you ever get a chance to see him in concert, DO NOT PASS IT UP! I promise you will NOT be disappointed. And, bonus, he might touch you, too! :)

At 12:01AM on Friday . . .

Guess who's going to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter?

Me and my beautiful daughter!!
And yes, we're dressing up.
We're meeting friends there early
and playing games while we wait to get in.
OH MY GOODNESS, we are SO EXCITED!!
We are counting down every hour.
We are serious Harry Potter fans in this house.

Thing 2 is cruising through Book 7
and will finish it this weekend.
He prefers watching the movies at home
where we can warn of him of scary parts. :)

He and Mark are having a camp out
in the living room while we're at the movies.

Mark gets to see it with Thing 1
(yes, she gets to see it in theaters TWICE!)
when she goes with her BFF sometime soon.
Her BFF is Jake's sister.
Jake is the one who is battling leukemia.
There is an organization that does neat things
for families who are dealing with cancer.
They try to make things special
not only for the one going through treatment,
but also the other family members as well.
So, Thing 1's BFF got tickets from them as a gift
for both her and Thing 1 to share!

10 hours to go!!

We have a winner!

Though many got some right, Katie, of "Our Freshman Year of College" fame, guessed all four authors correctly! Nice job, Katie! As a "prize," you get to name a minor character in one of our books. Choose any name you wish and one of us will find a way to work it into our novel. My barrista still needs a name . . .

Here are the answers:

Douglas sat on a rock outside the cave, trying to figure out what cruel twist of fate brought him to this point, awaiting certain death. (Mark)

It was an unexpected reunion. (Stacy)

I woke up with a start. (Thing 2)

There is no "once upon a time" in this book. (Thing 1)

We're all busily writing away and Mark and I are already behind on our word counts, but hoping to be caught up by tonight.

Briefly . . .

Mark's novel is about an accidental hero and is in the Youth Fiction genre.

Mine is a tragic, fictional story about 4 acquaintances from high school who all find themselves in a psychiatric hospital for different reasons. They meet weekly at a local coffee house and their lives begin to intertwine . . . it will have an ambiguous and hopefully unexpected ending.

Thing 2's book is about wizards!

Thing 1's story is the TRUE story about unicorns, not all those myths most people hear.

Current approximate word count (adults must write 50k; kids set their own word count goals -- Thing 1's goal is 20K and Thing 2's goal is 2K):

Mark - over 10K
Stacy - close to 9K
Thing 1 - over 1200 words and counting . . .
Thing 2 - over 8K

First lines

Here are the first lines of our NaNoWriMo Novels for the month. Can you guess what lines belong to what authors?

Douglas sat on a rock outside the cave, trying to figure out what cruel twist of fate brought him to this point, awaiting certain death.

It was an unexpected reunion.

I woke up with a start.

There is no "once upon a time" in this book.