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For the first time in several years my family finally got to celebrate Christmas in December!

As per the usual, some pictures!

Other than the tiny baking kit, the majority of the chocolate came from work and so did the tiny games.

My secret santa gave me all chocolate and then another coworker gave me chocolate (she gave gifts to all the higher ups) and two other higher ups gave me chocolate and the tiny games… and a galaxy print bag to hold everything!

I’ll post the other prezzie pics next week and hopefully update on the short story.

See ya!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Good morning!!!

A while ago I may have mentioned that I’d signed up and taken an online writing course. It was fabulous and helped me a lot in understanding story structure.

I have, of course, continued to get the promotional emails sent to me and usually ignore them because of my jobs (I wouldn’t have time anyways), but since I’m quitting my part time job I decided to read the latest email.

They are doing a short story course where they will be giving feedback for every step of the process!!

This is the news I said I was thinking about last week. I wasn’t sure if I’d go through with it because it’s $900ish, but you can get $200 off if you submit before a certain date.

For what I’d get out of the course it’s worth the money, and I’m pretty positive I’m at least an intermediate writer (you have to be intermediate or higher to get accepted) so I should be good.

My plan is to fill out the application tomorrow and pray.

I feel really good (to over use the word) about it though because it seems like a God thing for this opportunity to drop into my lap just when I’ll have the time to do it and when I’ve got my card paid down enough that it won’t be a decision between what bills to pay.

They also offer a payment plan and since my monthly payment is so much smaller than two years ago….

😁

My mother suggested a particular short story that I’d done years ago for a convention contest and I like the idea so plan on using it.

I have other plans for this coming year but I’m still working on them. I’ll let y’all know when I know.

Ciao!

I got lost watching clips of Atlantis on YouTube again and saw the one where Rodney got superpowers.

The clip itself was when he asks Ronon about the scars on his back and then heals them.

I bring this up because the character growth of Rodney between Stargate and Atlantis is wonderful and so well done. This particular moment really shows that growth.

However, it’s interesting watching it again because of what happens after he gets turned into a Wraith.

Obviously, Ronon didn’t kill everyone with the weapon, but his reaction to Rodney is pretty dang heartbreaking to begin with. Add in the fact that I’m pretty sure Rodney has saved Ronons life more than the other way around and things just seem to get worse.

I could always keep track of who saves who this time around…

Of course, I’d have to reread the books again to get an accurate account.

Oh darn.

Anyways, on to the crafty!

My family is full of geniuses (we’re obviously related to McKay) and I am working on reformatting my room with the end result being more bookshelves!

I have a loft bed because I wanted a little more space, but my book collection was big to being with and even though I’m not keeping a lot of books anymore, I still have my favorite authors.

My idea was to move my bed in front of the window. This would still leave me with sunlight so I can do crafty things. However, my mother pointed out some problems with that (mostly the lack of headspace under my bed) and so I considered moving my bed to in front of my closet instead.

I consulted with my sister (who is way more spatially aware than I) and she concurred it would work.

I am already working on the closet itself since I haven’t gone through everything in several years (quite a few clothes are heading out!), and my brother agreed to help me take the doors off when I was ready.

A nice set of curtains will separate my closet while still giving me access to it with my bed in front. Best part is I can totally have a reading nook under my bed!

I am SO excited about this. It’s probably due to the fact that I’ll actually have time to do it now that I’ve handed in my notice at my part time job. Last day is the 31st and I am stoked!

I have other tentative news, but I’m waiting until I actually decide either way. But I’m also excited about that stuff too!

Until next time!

Just got done dropping off a box of toys for Toys for Tots this year!

Big shout out and thank you to Brentwood Library in TN for being a donation drop off site!

As usual, I tend to look for toys on sale so I can make my money go further and this year I got really cool Playmobil and Barbie along with some games.

I usually try and show y’all the actual toys and take pics of them in the box, but I forgot this time. Brentwood is a 3ish hour drive away so my sister and mother decided to come along and we traded some books at McKays too.

I will neither confirm nor deny that I found an absolutely fabulous book series while there (I’m hoping to get them for Christmas!).

Back to Toys for Tots!

The cost of the toys this year would have been around $365.75 (give or take a few cents), but I ended up paying only $141.96!!!

Part of this is because my sister shops at Kohls and gives me the kohls cash (because it has to be used before she has a need to shop again), I have a B&N membership now that got me an extra 10% off toys already half off, and I intentionally look for the clearance aisle and shop throughout the year.

This gives me a chance to spend a little at a time so that it doesn’t take away from paying bills or buying gas, etc…

I did a good job this year and since I know that Brentwood’s library is a drop off site I’ll be checking them out next year and planning a little more in advance!

That’s all for this week, but don’t forget that Christmas is coming and my family is really trying this year to have Christmas in December. This means that either two small posts or a REALLY long one will be coming soon because it’s tradition at this point.

Honestly I’m hoping my mama got me more jeans this year. I was going to buy some, but it was already November and she asked for me to wait since that’s an easy present to get.

Praying y’all have a fabulous week and I’ll see you next time!!

I must confess something…

I started watching Atlantis again.

And I regret nothing. Nothing I tell you!

I’m on episode two and you’d think after watching it so many times parts would become mundane or something, but I still laughed my butt off when Shepherd pushed McKay off the balcony.

The looks on peoples faces!

The look on Weir’s face! So dang hilarious, and then for Rodney to just jump up and be like ‘sup’?

Talking of looks – episode ones moment where Shepherd and O’Neill are in the helicopter getting ready to leave and O’Neill says he’s gonna be succinct and then just looks at Shepherd?!

And Shepherd says “that’s pretty succinct”? Great acting everybody!

I love it!

I’m not necessarily doing a new run through of the show, I’m still working two jobs, but every now and then when I’m eating supper and no one else is watching TV in the living room I turn it on for a bit.

As a heads up, next week won’t be an Atlantis post because I’ll be going up to Nashville to donate toys to Toys for Tots. Per my usual, I’ll have a post ready that’s about Toys for Tots and hopefully (if I remember to take them) some pics of the toys and drop off site.

Until then, stay healthy! Eat an apple (or grapes) and do some walking. Or biking. I like biking.

Ciao!

Is bedtime now and I don’t have a post for y’all. Sorry! I’ll try and do better next week.

I was watching clips of Stargate episodes on YouTube and kept laughing over how they handle situations.

When the Prometheus is taken over and Sam is stuck inside, Jack arrives at the scene and just goes off.

Understandably so.

However! (And I can’t remember the guys name sorry!) the officer who responds and gives him what info they have is surprisingly put together considering who’s yelling at him.

It’s really funny to me cause some poor female officer has to interrupt to let them know they’re being called from the ship and she handles it quite well, but you can see on her face she does NOT want to be there even though the news isn’t necessarily bad.

It shouldn’t be so funny except that O’Neill had already said it was a bad idea and is, of course, proven right.

There’s something to be said about gut feelings.

Anyways, I could go on for quite some time because I really just kept hitting random episode scenes, but it’s time for my bed.

Y’all have a fantastic week!

Alright, this is gonna be about Newton.

Rodney’s cat, if you forgot. The one he’s not supposed to have?

Yeah.

So Sheppard goes to ask Carson something and finds him prepping syringes. They aren’t for people though, they’re for Newton. Carina isn’t going to be giving the shots since he’s allergic to cats, but he was willing to get everything set up for his friend.

It’s cute that everyone knows about Newton and obviously isn’t going to say anything. You know that kitten is wandering around the whole city getting treats and attention at every turn.

We also know that eventually a dog is probably going to find its way to Atlantis too, and other pets at this point.

If a higher up comes around, I totally see everyone having a plan in place to hide the pets.

Anyways, Carson warns Sheppard that Rodney is most likely going to rope someone into helping him give Newton his shots. He goes on about if Rodney didn’t want to do it he shouldn’t have gotten a pet.

I don’t think Rodney will have a problem finding help and he definitely won’t shirk his responsibilities when it comes to Newton. I’m not sure about Keller though.

On the one hand she’s definitely trained to give shots and isn’t allergic, but on the other hand she also walked away. Not just from Rodney but from Newton too, so….

Until next time! Enjoy the thought of various Earth and other creatures becoming pets on Atlantis!

Have we talked about the whole ‘tribute’ thing yet?

Some planets actually made deals with various Wraith so they wouldn’t be destroyed or attacked.

Essentially, they give the Wraith so many of their people and the Wraith leave them alone for however long.

Now, in some cases this deal only went for so long before things happened and the Wraith demanded more tributes. This happened as an early episode where ‘criminals’ were left for the Wraith, but then people actually stopped committing crimes and so the government randomly targeted people they wanted gone.

All the Wraith had woken up and so they needed more food and when the planet couldn’t hand over the amount demanded, they just culled the planet.

I feel like it was the truth but also that the planet had been allowed to progress to a certain technological point that other planets hadn’t been allowed. It was probably about the time the Wraith needed to drop them down a few pegs.

Having put that forward- In Unascended we find out that a planet did random lotteries and gave the Wraith so many people and were left alone for six years. This had been going on for some time I’m guessing and everyone who stayed agreed to it.

Fast forward to now and the planet took some people in and when the Wraith came these travelers killed them.

Obviously the Wraith weren’t happy about that and demanded a much higher number of tributes to make up for their dead.

The interesting thing is the planet was mad at the travelers and not the Wraith.

Some agreements worked and some didn’t. It was dependent on the people involved, but in this new galaxy they’ve created with a retrovirus that makes it possible for a Wraith to feed more than once on a human, it makes things a little muddier for Atlantis.

There are obviously people who are willing to make such deals with the Wraith but they could also be taken on board a Hive ship and fed on for a very long time so….

Just putting it out there.

I love the world that was created for Stargate! It’s never easy and brings up some very interesting situations and those involved actually have to make decisions based on what they know at the time!

Next time!