Catching up

Lots and lots of updates since my last post!

WRITING

30. Become RWA Certified PRO - yes! I did this in December. What it means basically is that I have completed a novel and begun querying literary agents. It comes with some good perks, and a cool pin to wear. Next step is to become PAN, which is the Published Author Network. Soon?

31. Send at least 50 queries to literary agents (20/50). Almost halfway there! I've been busy querying my first novel. No luck yet, but I knew going in this one was a long shot. My second novel is much more mainstream, and should be ready to query in the spring.

33. Enter at least 5 writing contests (2/5). In November 2012, I entered the Gotcha Contest with my second novel. In December, I entered the Golden Heart Awards with my first novel.

PERSONAL

37. Read 101 books (14/101). This would be higher if I wasn't spending so much time writing!

             

Wow, I've been on a major Jill Shalvis kick lately! I just discovered her last year, and I loooove her work.

68. Make something handmade for Liam.


Every year for on Christmas Eve, I give Liam an ornament. This year, I used a plain wooden snowman and hand-painted it for him. It came out better than I expected! Maybe I'll try something else homemade in the future :)



ENTERTAINMENT/NEW EXPERIENCES

72. Go to the movies 5 times (1/5). I sent to see Breaking Dawn Part 2 in December with a friend. It was really good!

74. Go on a picnic (1/10). Today we had a picnic at Umstead State Park. We hiked our usual loop, then brought out the charcoal and grilled hot dogs and s'mores for supper. It was awesome, especially since it is January! :) We love this nice weather.

83. Try 20 new recipes (7/20). We have tried a lot of new recipes lately!
Beef Daub Provencal - yummy.
Slow Cooked Tuscan Pork with White Beans - just okay. A little "herby" for my taste.
Spicy Chicken Stew - yummy.
Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken - yummy.
Red Lentil Curry - yummy, and really filling for a meatless recipe!
Slow Cooker Bacon Ranch Chicken - sounded yummy, but it was too salty and just not good.

87. Try 5 new foods (2/5). We added pancetta to our pasta fagiole soup, and it was yummy! Like fancy bacon! :)

88. Take Liam on his first roller coaster ride.


We rode several roller coasters at the NC State Fair in October. That's Liam and me in the 2nd to last seat. It was so fun, and he loooved it! He is fearless on rides!

Phew! I think that's it! Lots of updates! I have to get better about blogging! :)

47. Participate in a charity run/walk.

I ran in my first 5k with my friend Marie, only we didn't pick just any 5k, we ran the Color Me Rad 5k! Basically, you run through different color stations, where they blast you with a certain color, and at the finish line it's a big color blast! It was SO much fun, and proceeds benefited the Special Olympics of NC.

Marie and me decked out and ready to run

Our official pre-race photo

Me coming out of the blue station

We found Bill and Liam during the race, and Liam joined us to cross the finish line

Liam and me crossing the finish line

The rad finish line

Having some color fun

Our official post-race photo. Liam was SO not into it, as you can tell. He really wanted to be doing the color blast!

Color blast! Marie, Liam and I are in there somewhere

Yay! So fun.

Liam modeling my rad headband and glasses on the way to the car. I can't decide if this one is hilarious or scary!

More updates

37. Read 101 books (5/101)
Since the challenge started, I've read 5 books.

89. Eat at 10 local restaurants I've never eaten at before (2/10)
For our anniversary, Bill and I went to dinner at Mandolin in Raleigh. It was really good, a little fancier than my usual taste, but really, really good!

71. Go to at least 5 concerts (2/5)

On Saturday, I flew up to NJ to visit my friend Hope and to see Madonna! We saw her at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, which was a super cool venue. She was awesome (as usual), even if she didn't come out until almost 10:30. She played until 12:30am, my latest concert ever, I think!

This is a lousy cell phone picture, but if you want to see how it would look close up, click here.

Oh, and when did Rocco get to be like 12, and dance on stage with his mom? The kid's got moves!

73. Win something

I won an Amazon gift card - woot!

http://wildelori.blogspot.com/2012/09/gift-card-winner.html

87. Try 5 new foods (1/5)

We got some muscadine grapes in our produce box last week. I was curious to try them, since I've had muscadine wine but not the grapes. They were good, and HUGE!

Look at the size of that grape!

78. Visit Great Wolf Lodge

Last weekend, we went to Great Wolf Lodge for the first time. It's an indoor water park near Charlotte that's only open to guests of the lodge, so it cuts down on crowds in the water park. Liam had an AWESOME time. I didn't bring our camera, so I only have a few cell phone pictures and videos, but suffice it to say our little boy was fearless on the big water slides and had a total blast. He was tall enough to ride on all but one slide. There was a big awesome slide that we all went down in a raft together, one that took 2 people, one where we all raced side by side through tunnels on mats, and some that we went down just by ourselves. There were also pools, a wave pool, a splash area, pretty much anything fun and water-related.

Here's Liam in front of the huge wolf statue in front of the lodge.

Liam in his awesome bunk bed in our suite. He looooved the bunk beds!

Liam with Wiley Wolf, the Great Wolf mascot. He's wearing his skeptical face because mister smarty pants has figured out all characters are people in suits, and now they're not as exciting to meet (this is sad because he used to loooove meeting characters, but he's too darn smart for his own good!)


Bill and Liam coming down one of the water slides. Sorry for the sideways video, I held up my phone normally, not realizing this would make the video sideways lol. Anyway, it's not great quality, but you can hear Liam yelling on the way down. He was having sooooo much fun! I'm sure the instant I clicked stop on this video, he said "let's go again!"

I'm sure we will be back to Great Wolf again soon!