August Review!

*creeps in two days late*
Hellooooo!! How are y'all doing today? (Do you get tired of me asking you that? xD)
Can you believe it's September?! August went by so super fast! And I have a feeling September will as well. I can't believe there are only four months left in this year!

-Life-

August was a very relaxed month for us, which, after the busyness of June and July, was so nice! To start off the month, we headed down to the lake for swimming and a barbecue. There was no one else at the spot where we parked, and it was so pretty and peaceful! We ended up staying there til around 9pm, meaning we didn't get home til 10. Oh well, it was fun. ;) 

--My "little" brother celebrated his 12th birthday! All my siblings are growing up. It's a lot different having half of us twelve or older. ;) 

--Our great aunt and uncle came to visit us!! And we had sooo much fun with them! They were here for three days, and I think everyday they were here we were up until after midnight playing games. (And even then we only got through phase 5 of Phase 10. ;P) Wayyyy too much talking and laughing to focus on a card game!

--I got tickets to fly to Spokane! (Yes, this totally amounts to something worth mentioning. ;)) You can read the entire post here. 

I think that was pretty much all that happened this month. Besides my siblings starting school. :) I get to teach two of my younger siblings now that that's been a lot of fun, although it involves quite a bit more work than I expected! 

Oh, and there was also this random airplane that kept flying so super close to our house! It was kinda weird, but I got a few cool pictures!

-Reading-

*heads over to Goodreads to see what I read* 

The Lady of the Vineyard by Kellyn Roth. 

The Apprentices by Sarah Brazytis 

The Homegrown Historian by Sarah Brazytis 

This Hostile Land by Willowy Whisper 

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine 

Truth by Molly Evangeline

An Album of Memories  by Tom Brokaw 

The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Shadow of His Hand by Wendy Lawton 

By the Light of a Silvery Moon by Tricia Goyer 

 The Lamb and the Fuhrer by Ravi Zacharias 

George Washington by Janet and Geoff Benge 

Fitting In by Rebekah A. Morris

War memorial by Elizabeth Grace Foley 

Letter of love by Amanda Tero

Journey of love by Amanda Tero 

The Princess and I (alpha read) by Rebekah Eddy

So I read 17 books this month. That makes me really happy!!! ^_^ My reading has been dreadfully suffering the past few months. :) 

I also added a few books to my collection . . .

The top three are review books, the others I picked up over the course of this past month. Guys, I paid a total of $3.27 for the not-review books. Not each, that's what they came to all together. I was sooo happy ! :D Thrift stores and library book sales are my favorite things EVER! 

The one I'm looking most forward to reading is Avenue of Spies. It's set in Nazi-occupied France, which is where the story I'm writing is set, so . . . yes. Very excited to read it! :) 

-Writing-

I'm actually quite pleased with myself here. I got the first 5,000 words written in A Question of Duty, Which is the book that comes directly after A Question of Honor, which my editor is currently editing! 

Now, I know, 5,000 isn't a lot, but the first couple thousand are always the hardest for me, so now that I've gotten those down, I'll hopefully be able to write quite a bit more this month! :) 

Here's a snippet from A Question of Duty. 

Micah clenched his jaw, doing his best to keep his breathing even. “Arnold, a second ago you asked if I would turn you in.” His expression changed to pleading. “I beg you, stop what you are doing. Don’t force me to make that choice.”

For a moment the night was silent as the two brothers stared at one another.

Then, Arnold gave the smallest perceptible shake of his head. “I will not stop.”

Micah felt as though someone had pushed him off the bridge and into the icy water below. He was sure that if they had, the shock of the water would be welcome compared to the pain and helplessness he was feeling now.
Arnold met his gaze, eyes that had been filled with life only a moment before were now emotionless. “There will be no compromise on this issue, Micah. Will you be loyal to your country, or to your brother, your own flesh and blood? The choice is yours.”

-Random-

I had some very weird conversations this month. This one was during a chat with two very dear friends. I used only initials, since I promised I wouldn't use names. ;) 

Keep this in mind as you read the conversation below. ;) 

Me: F! You did NOT get another story idea!

K: What, Jesseca?

F: HOW DID YOU SEE THAT THAT FAST???

Me: I am smart.

K: I know.  Your smart except for killing --- in your story.

F: No, you're not smart.  You're a stalker. Y'all aren't allowed to strangle me...Kay?

Me: I'm Not a stalker. I just like randomly checking blogs. 

F: Remember, I am the only one who really knows all of WT. You can't kill me. 

Me: Hahah, I've already started the plan, F. Too late to stop me. And . . . you've written enough of WT that hopefully after your death we can piece it together fairly well.

F: Doubt it. My notes are a mess. I don't understand half of them...

K: I might be tempted to strangle Faith all over again.

F: Tempted to what??

K: Even though she'll already be dead.

F: You're going to strangle me for dying??

Me: Oh goodness. This conversation is making no sense, and if you start at the beginning and read it, it sounds awful!! xD

K: We're rather random.

Me: Yes, we are. But at the end of the day, we're talking about killing F. I need to use this conversation for something.

K: Uh-oh...Use this conversation for what? 

F: My obituary ...

Me: Not sure yet. It's just so random it must be used for something! XD 

K: Not a blog post.

Me: I was thinking about a blog post...

K: And why a blog post, Jesseca??? 

Me: I wouldn't use names. 

K: Hmm. Are you sure you want death threats on your blog??

Me: Death threats are awesome. As long as they're only by friends. ;) 

Did that make any sense? Our conversation tend to not make sense. ;P And just to clarify, we would never kill anyone. EVER! We were teasing one another. (I hope that was clear xD) 

So yes. My month was awesome. I hope yours was as well!!! Are you excited for September??