Some of you may have heard me whisper under my breath "month" recently.

Well... now it be here.

To start off the new year, I'm planning on taking the entire month of January off to do a number of things from spending time with family, Bible study, prayer, paperwork, to writing. It is going to be a busy time.

It's going to be a refreshing and reinvigorating month for me, but I will miss seeing y'all for so long. Make sure you be good whilst I'm gone... I have eyes everywhere...

I've tried to ensure that I've notified everyone in charge of all the pies I happen to have fingers in, but if I'm needed for something I haven't thought of, please let me know so I can help sort it out before this goes into effect.

So! Final instructions: Don't miss me too much, be good whilst I'm gone, and make sure you keep an eye on things because I'm going to want to hear all about it when I get back!

See y'all soon! Stay awesome, and God bless!

I hope your time away goes well. I'll be praying for you.

To help make up for this, you better come back with a lot of writing.

I hope you enjoy this time you have set aside, Bushy. Of course we will miss you, but we'll look forward to your return. Take care!

Thankyou Jonathan. *chuckles* I'll do my best, won't I?


Thankyou, Elanor! *hugs* I'll be praying for you whilst I'm gone.

I'm sure you will.

*sniffs and hugs Bushy* See you in February. We shall very much miss you, but we'll wait to blow the forum up until you get back.

Nooooooo!

*disobeys by missing Bushy already*

To be good and serious though, I am proud of you for doing this, and hope it will be a valuable time for you. Time off, even from good things, can be needed and a blessing at times. I'll be praying that all goes well for you.

*is bad again* A whole... month. *sniffles*

Thanks, I'll be praying for you too. *Hugs back*

Have a good and blessed time, BushMaid. We'll miss you.
God bless,
Joel ><>.

*hugs her Elly* Thankyou, my Elly! And yes, I'd be supremely grateful if you wait for me before you do that.


Tsk! Tut-tut, my Grace! Can't you even follow a simple instruction? Dry those tears, promptly now!

And now for me to be good and serious, thankyou Gracie. You have no idea what a blessing it is knowing that you understand why I'm doing it. Taking a break from a good thing just makes the good thing even better when you return! Thankyou for your prayers.


Thankyou, Elanor.


*smiles* Thankyou, Smashy. Don't miss me too much now, will you? Y'all cant go making me feel bad.

Noooo! We are going to miss you, Bushy! Have a good time away, and be productive!

Good for you, Aussie love! You do just that. We shall miss you though. It was silly to tell us not to much. How could we possibly not?!?!?!

Exactly.

*Snuffles a little more* Yes, you are too special not to miss.

For those of you who still remember me...

I'm back.

Some of you know that my month wasn't entirely internet free. However I managed to stay just about completely away from HW, and I don't know how I did it! I must say, though I'm rather proud of myself, I'm very excited to be back.

During my month away, I did loads of stuff. It was an awesome time. To summarize everything that happened in a few short sentences: we survived a new year (we're still here!), we had family members visit, we had two birthdays and one birthday party, and got to know some new friends better. That's the short version. This is the long version of short sentences:

I went camping with my brothers at a friend's place, battled nature, almost fell down a mountain, witnessed a stabbing, lit a firework (whilst holding it), slid down a homemade water slide, was a witness to a mud/grass fight, watched a sunrise, hung an immeasurable amount of washing, did housecleaning and officework, went for a drive in a mini cooper without a windshield and brakes, played table tennis very competitively (and won), learned how to crack two stockwhips at once, played handball, went swimming, fell off multiple objects (with and without help), was targeted in a water fight, watched the maiden voyage of a homemade rocket, found out that not all in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books was true , was dragged/thrown into a muddy dam, visited friends, played guitar at church four times, fellowshipped with awesome people, did techy things with my brother on his new ipod, watched Jacob clean up my computer (with much nail-biting), video chatted with Bek , played with my dog Buddy, conquered writer's block, did a lot of writing, listened to new music, watched new movies, spent time with God and family, found peace after a study, lived, laughed, and loved.

And that's just a few sentences. Feel free to pick my brain about anything I did; there may to be more to them then it seems...

Being back is going to be a little different. I want to be an active board member, not just an active chatter. I will be spending more time replying to threads than replying to chats, although you will see me in the chatroom now and then! If I get too scarce for your liking, remember you can always drop me an email or PM.

So! Now that I've got y'all up to date on me, please inform me!! What HW events have I missed??

You're back!! *Glomps* I got so excited when I saw 'BushMaid is online'.

Wow, you did have an awesome time! Sounds like you had tons and tons of fun! Two things I would like to point out though: Holding a firework whilst lighting it is not...advisable, and also almost falling off a mountain is also...not advisable. *Chuckles*

Witnessed a stabbing! That must have been scary!


Really?



*Wants to see this!*



Sounds perfect!

It's lovely to have you back, Bushy! Can't wait to see more of you, we have missed you! Welcome back!

Edit: Things you have missed:

Where is... We no longer have Annoucements or Q&A, the thread I linked into this has the reasons why etc and what has replaced them.

Published Works... has moved, see thread to see where to, etc.

We have had a Winter's Writing War

Airi's colouring contest is currently on.

Holy Worlds Poetry Book! is published!

Introductions and Promotions has been renamed to Introductions and Celebrations.

Our new HRM's are AzlynRose and Aemi.

BUSHY!!!!!!!!

*grabs Bushy and ties her firmly to a chair so she can't escape, then drags her own chair close and settles down in it*

How ever did I live without you for a month? I wouldn't have thought it possible! And now... you're back and... *faints from happiness*

Excellent. Welcome back! I see that you stayed awesome.


Actually, it was one long sentence.

Welcome back, BushMaid! Wow, what an amazing month!

Elanor!! *hugs tight* So good to see you! :D :D I can't wait to catch up with you in chat sometime soon!

Yes not all of the things I did were... advisable. ;)

The stabbing however was not quite as scary as you think. :D It was more an accident... ;)


How am I supposed to hug you when I'm tied to a chair? o.O GRACIE!!!!!!!!!! It's SO good to be back, and to see you! I'm going to track you down for a nice long chat sometime very soon! :D


*grins* I'm glad to see you remembered me Jonathan, and stayed awesome, too. ;) :D And quite right, it was a long sentence, just full of little lines. :D

I'm so happy you're back!!!

Yay!!! Welcome back!
God bless,
Joel ><>.

*Hugs back* I know, I saw you on this morning, but I didn't have time to come into the chatroom. It will be great to catch up!

*beams* Thankyou my lovelies!! It's so good to see you all again!

And you, too, Miss!

Aussie!!! *hugs her girl * I missed you!!! I'm so glad you are back!!!

*hugs you again *

I'm so glad you had fun. Sounds like your time away was a great encouragement.

Other new things are: we now have 400 members,
Airi has 9000 posts,
We have at least four new active members,
Jay is in Florida,
and we missed you!

*chuckles *

I'll add to your list, Aleena.

The Sword and Pen has been published in e-book format!!!

*hugs Airi tight* I missed you too!! So much! I'm going to drag you out of the depths of whatever your doing sometime soon for a nice long chat.


Wow! So many new things I've missed! Thankyou so much for letting me know those things, Aleena!


Yay!!!!! How exciting!!!

You go right ahead and do that, my beautiful girly!