Favorites- Animal

I realize that my posting has been a little infrequent, and I apologize. I'm in the middle of writing a post about the adoption of my baby brother, and that's not something you can write in one sitting. So, I have decided to start a "Favorites" photo thingy... Baically, I'll take a picture of my favorite animal, color, food or something and share it with you guys :)

I'll start it with my favorite animal :)

I've been through my fair share of liking different animals, and going back and forth between koalas, horses, and sea turtles for awhile. What draws me to penguins, is not only their gorgeous and fluent swimming abilities (I could watch them swim for HOURS), but it is also the only animal that I can think of, that is more beautiful as an adult animal than it is as a baby. Everyone "oohs" and "ahhs" over baby animals, but the baby penguin is actually a little ugly. But, when it loses those down feathers, it turns into one of the most majestic animals in creation.
And that's why it's my favorite animal.
*I took this photo at the Aquarium in Pigeon Forge, and to this day, it is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken.

Gale or Peeta?

**MAJOR SPOILERS, PLEASE DO NOT READ, IF YOU HAVE NOT READ ALL THREE OF THE BOOKS FIRST**

So, at first the whole "team" thing really got on my nerves. This isn't Twilight people, this is a book that will get you thinking, not a sappy love story.

However, as I found myself rereading the books, I did find I was rooting for one of the boys. And it's not the one most people root for.

I'm on Team Gale.

Stop freaking out, PLEASE, all you Peeta fans. I love Peeta just as much as the next person, but I have evidence to back up my Team Gale decision.

From the beginning, we see that Katniss has known Gale for over 7 years. They've hunted together, talked together. She even says she's only herself when she's around Gale. She isn't even totally herself around Prim.

She finds herself questioning Peeta's decisions, and comparing him to Gale.

Some people say Gale is selfish and self centered and they're wrong. Gale was the first to volunteer to rescue Peeta, even though he knew doing so he would potentially lose the girl he loved.

And this brings me to another point. He loved her. A lot. He took care of her family. Told her how to survive.

Peeta on the other hand, just showered her with kisses, and compliments. And while those are nice, that's not what love is all about. You shouldn't choose to marry someone because they love you. You should choose to marry them because you love them.

Another thing that caught my attention, was the unfair hijacking of Peeta. If Peeta and Gale had been hijacked, I think the story would have had a different ending. Katniss loved them both. What pushed her over the edge was when one stopped loving her. Gale had no say in that.

In the end, she knew Gale. She didn't know Peeta. Gale showed her he loved her through the things he didn't say. Peeta showed her he loved her through the things he did say. And in the end, she fought for the one she loved. But, you have to wonder, if she would have fought for him, if Gale had finished his, "Katniss, always remember, I-"

I know he would have told her he loved her. And that, might have changed the game.

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When Crickets Cry

One of my favorite authors of all time is Charles Martin. He wrote The Mountain Between Us, The Dead Don't Dance, Where The River Ends, and my forever favorite: When Crickets Cry. I asked for it for Christmas two years ago, after the one at my library began to fall apart from my reading it so many times. It now rests on my bookcase, and has been read multiple times. He writes really deep, sorrowful, and complicated books, which is the type of books I love to read. I love being really confused the whole book, and then when he divulges whatever secret information he's been keeping from you the whole book, you have that "Aha!" moment. And then you get to go back and see how, when you have that one last piece of the puzzle, everything magically fits into place.

Depending on which book of his you're reading, the reader age differs. When Crickets Cry, I would say, probably 13 and up. 15 and up if you can't handle sadness well. There's barely any bad language in the book, and there's no violence at all. I'm saying 13 and up, because it's extremely sad.

The subtitle to the book it "A Novel of the Heart". Which is very literal, actually. The book centers around a man by the name of Reese. He meets this little girl (8 or 9) who has a hole in her heart. Her name is Annie, and she needs an operation on her heart to keep her alive, but she knows that the operation will be her last, alive or not, and she is waiting to find the best doctor. She and her aunt Cindy, have heard of this spectacular doctor, but he became a recluse years ago, and stopped talking to virtually everyone. Only a few people know why he went into hiding, and try as they might to bring him out into the world, to help people again, they couldn't. He had lost hope in himself. This man knew this little girl needed him to help her, but he was scared he would mess up. He was no longer confident in his abilities.

The name of the book (When Crickets Cry), comes from a scene in the book, where Annie tells Reese that the crickets (she sells crickets to help pay for her operation), are crying for her. Reese is confused, and tells her so. She looked at him, and says, "Only if you listen closely, and with your heart, can you hear when crickets cry." Reese turns his head towards the noise, and Annie shook her head. "No, you don't hear them with your ears, you hear them with your heart." 
 And that's the premise of the book.

I honestly love everything about this book. Which is saying something, because even my favorite book of ALL time (coming later!) I have issues with. This book isn't my very favorite, because it is full of sorrow, and it's not a book you can just read over and over again. You have to wait for the sadness to leave, and then you can read it again. ;)

I love this book, because you come to love the characters. You weep and laugh with them, you feel sorrow when something happens to them. Another thing I love about it, is that it's written in first person, which added to it, and there are also multiple flashbacks. It's a beautifully written book, and the flashbacks and real time are seamlessly woven together into this novel that will steal your heart, and leave you breathless.

One of my very favorite accesories are rings. Big huge butterfly, flower, gecko rings. But, I only wear the huge ones on occasion. I wear two rings all the time, and a third that I wear a lot, but it's a little small, so it gets worn a little less than the other two.

The ring I wear on my ring finger on my left hand is my promise ring. My daddy got it for me last year, and I never take it off.

The ring I wear on my pointer finger on my right hand, is my Faith ring. It says "Faith" on the outside, and on the inside it says, "Live by faith, not by sight."

The ring I wear on my ring finger on my right hand is one of my great grandmother's rings. She had tiny fingers, and so I don't wear it as much, as it kinda cuts off the circulation on that finger.

All of these rings have a special meaning to me. My Faith ring reminds me, that even though I have no idea what God's plan is, I need to trust that His plan is better than mine could ever be. My Promise ring reminds me that God already has the perfect boy picked out for me, and again, I have to trust that He has things in control. And my great- grandmother's ring reminds me of her. She passed away 2 years ago, and I miss her a lot. But, I know she's in heaven with Jesus, and that makes me happy.

Hunger Games Book Review

As I posted yesterday, I recently read the Hunger Games trilogy. I fully realize I didn't do the books justice; therefore, I am doing a book review on it right now.

The Hunger Games is written by Suzanne Collins. The movie is premiering on March 23rd.

**This book review does contain spoilers(plot spoilers mainly), although I tried to keep them to a minimum**
The Hunger Games occur anually in the world of Panem, which is what America becomes, after years and years of wars, and starvation. There aren't that many people left, but there are enough to form 12 districts, plus the Capitol. At one point there were 13 districts; but the 13th district rebeled against the Capitol(the goverment, which makes all the decisions for Panem). The Capitol was stronger, with more numbers, and more weapons, and took out the 13th district leaving only 12. As a way to remind the people of the 13th districts rebellion, and ultimate destruction, they formed the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games, happen annually, and each district must provide a girl "tribute" and boy "tribute" between the ages of 12 and 18, making 24 teenagers in all. The 24 tributes are put into an arena, and are forced to kill one another off, until only one remains.The whole world of Panem is forced to watch, and make a celebration of the whole thing.When only one tribute remains, he or she, is then the "victor" and is allowed to return to his or her district.

This book centers around Katniss( who is 16), whose younger sister is picked as the girl tribute for district 12. She volunteers to go in her place knowing that Prim (who is only 12) would never survive.Katniss ends up knowing the boy tribute, who gave her and her family food when they were starving.
In the rest of the first book, they are thrown into the arena, must decide to help each other or not (keeping in mind that there can only be one victor), and try not to be killed.

That is the summary of the plot, without giving away the ending.

My take on the book is that the age group seems to be aimed towards pre-teens and teens (as far as the simplicity of the writing in the book goes), and you will find on many websites that it is geared towards 10-18 year olds.

The problem is, the plot isn't really geared for 10 and 11 year olds. There is a lot of violence I(not gory, and not in great detail, but there's 24 teenagers trying to kill each other, so you're gonna get some violence), that I think would haunt some kid's nightmares. For instance, there is a 12 year old's death that had me in tears, not because it was gory, or nasty, but because she was 12, and that's where the author's "moral" comes into play. That forcing teenagers, especially 12 year olds, to kill each other is wrong. But everyone in Panem is too chicken to do anything about it. Because of what happened to District 13.

I thought the plot was really good, but I had some issues with a few deaths I thought could have been left out, and a few things I don't know that Suzanne Collins totally thought through.

As I said before, the fact that in Mockingjay(the seconfd book in the trilogy), everyone but Katniss and Peeta seemed to know about the escape out of the arena, but they all seemed genuinely shocked when Katniss figured out that the arena was a "clock". Since they had a gamemaker on their "side", it seems like he would have given all those people that hint. It just didn't seem right to me. But, that's just my opinion.

The book also didn't end in the way I would have liked, but I'm in the minority there, as everyone else seemed to have loved the ending. It wasn't how I would have chosen to end the trilogy though.

Overall, I think it's definitely worth your time to read it. And if you're planning to go see the movie and not read the books beforehand, I would like to take this moment to tell you that you HAVE to read the books first. It should be a law, I think it's so important. ;) But, seriously, you really do have to read the books before you see the movie, I think it will make the movie 5 thousand times better.

I just recently finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy. I started it and finished it, within a 48 hour time period. Which is quick, even for me, who devours books, and brings home 40 million books from the library and ends up owing monstrous overdue fees(but my disorganaztion is another conversation. ANYWAY... I had heard I needed to read the books from several people, and so I began reading them. They are nothing short of amazing. Although the ending was a bit different than I was hoping for, I thought it was really good. I had some technical issues with it( like all the tributes seemed really surprised when Katniss figured out the clock thing in Mockingjay, but they were supposedly in on the whole thing... so shouldn't they have know about it?), though. And I thought one of the deaths was utterly uneccasary, but I won't reveal who I thought it was, for those of you that haven't read the books yet. I'm going to see the movie premiere (March 23rd!! Eepp!Can't waittt!!) with my bestest friend, and 2 other awesome people! I'm already deciding what to wear, how to do my hair, and working on perfecting my Mockingjay symblol to draw on me and my best friend's arms.

See?

These are some pictures I took of my three siblings :) I went on a photo shoot with each of them, and I picked my favorite picture or two to share.

People get this crazy idea, that they have to "fit in", that they have to embrace the "status quo". Uniqueness, and creativity has become all but extinct. It's going to be thrown in the pile with the dinosaur, and dodo bird if we don't do something about it. This blog is a way for me to express my creativity. My writing, photography, recipes and culinary tips, and fashion ideas.

But what IS creativity?
Creativity-the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination.

It's all about expressing who you are.In fact, I believe Dr. Seuss said it best: "Today you are You, that is truer than True, For there's no one alive, that is Youer than You."