Music

So I was in the car today with my sister listening to the radio. When we're in the car, we usually don't speak at all and just listen to whatever's playing on the radio. So while we were listening to this song we both liked, we started bringing up songs we liked in general and why we liked them. Then I brought up that my favorite song depended on what my mood was, and how I was feeling. She agreed, and said she liked songs that had to do with what she wanted with her life at the current moment.
So your life can really influence your music, and your music can really influence your life. Like when I had a bad day or I was feeling down and bad about myself, I would listen to "Iris", or another song that had to do with how I was feeling. Or if I had tons of energy and was feeling imensely happy, I would listen to a fast-paced song that made me want to jump up and dance. Even when I have a long orchestra rehearsel or concert, I want to listen to classical music. Sometimes even books influence what I listen to. There have been times that I really liked a song, that completely seemed like a book's plot that I recently read. The two things I love most in the world are books and music, so when they connect it so amazing!
So that was my random thought of the day. :) Have a wonderful weekend!

Crazy Things I Did as a Kid

Tagged by Bookbutterfly and Fantasy.

Rules:
1. Follow this format
2. Copy/Paste the rules
3. State who tagged you and add a link to their blog.
4. Write 5 crazy things you did as a kid
5. Tag 5 people

Crazy things:

1. I used to be in love with the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast. I would watch it every day, print out coloring pages for it, buy the dolls, etc. Then one day my sister told me, jokingly, that I was too obsessed with Beauty and Beast, and being the sensitive person I was, I decided to put everything I owned that was remotely Beauty and the Beast in a shoe box and hid it under my bed. I don't think I even retrieved it until months later. Of course, if anyone did that to me nowdays, I'd just laugh in their face. ;)
2. I used to seriously think that different magical lands really did exist, and used to spend most my day trying and thinking of ways to get there. My friends and I tried tons of fake spells, and a million different things. Sadly, we never prevailed.
3. I used to put on and play with my grandmother's jewelery. I don't think she minded though. I see the pictures now of me with all that jewelery on, and they're hilarious.
4. My sister and I would make up songs and dances, and have concerts that my dad video recorded. Oh how we cringe when we see them now. ;)
5. Once when my cousins were visiting, we started to make a long paper chain. Extremely long. For over an hour we worked, and we hung it up through almost the entire house. Some of it was saved and is still hanging up in my grandpa's house.

Let's see, five people I apologize if you've already been tagged: Q, Hwalk, Miss Erin, Felicity, Elizabethbennett.

What I'm Doing, etc.

Right now I'm rereading The Chronicles of Narnia books. I read them for the first time two years ago, so I decided to reread them. I'm not going to post a review for every one though. Maybe just a couple of the ones I liked the most. I'm not reading them in the right order either, since I'm starting from the ones that I've read the least recently. So I'm enjoying that. By the way, I kind of gave up on Snow. But only for now. I'll finish it eventually.
Yeah, so I'll try to post about more interesting stuff later. There's plenty that I could blog about, but nothing that anyone else would be interested in. Right now I'm basically doing school stuff and trying to work out some personal issues. I'm sure that I'll find peace with what I'm worrying about eventually. So....yeah.
Have a great week!

Not the Easter I was Planning...

So today has really been an emotional roller coaster for my family and me. We were planning on going to church and doing some other activities today, but it didn't turn out as planned. My grandfather got very sick, and this morning we had to take him to the emergency room. It was very scary, and we got really worried when we found out he had to have surgery tonight. We called some of our other relatives and they were concerned also. I was at the hospital for most of the day, and it was so emotionally draining. This evening he did have surgery though, and fortunately it went well. He has to spend two more nights at the hospital, and then he should be able to come home. Today was very stressful, but my family is so glad he's all right. When we got home we found tons of Easter stuff our church leaders and neighbors left us, so it really helped us and made us feel happy. We might even get to celebrate next weekend. I'm just so grateful that everything could work out so well, and that it could still be a good holiday. Thanks for the support you guys. You're awesome. :)

Happy Easter

I hope that everyone has a lovely Easter tomorrow. I'm not really planning on doing much. But I am going to have an Easter egg hunt with my sisters at my grandparent's house. They no longer put candy in the eggs, so now it's just all money. Do you think I'll collect enough to buy a new book? ;)

Also as you may have noticed, I did some changes to the layout. I was getting really bored with the other one and I needed a change. What do you think?

Have a wonderful day tomorrow!

Beauty Sleep

The Princess Aurore has had an unusual childhood. Cursed at birth, Aurore is fated to prick her finger at age sixteen and sleep for one hundred years- until a prince awakens her with a kiss. So, to protect her, Aurore's loving parents forbid any task requiring a needle.

On her sixteenth birthday, Aurore learns that the impending curse will harm not only her, but the entire kingdom as well. Unwiling to cause suffering, she will embark on a quest to end the evil magic. The princess's bravery will be rewarded as she finds adventure, enchantment, a handsome prince, and ultimately, her destiny.

This book was a lot slower than the other ones that I've read in this series. Truthfully, I was pretty bored most of the time while reading this. It did have some very good parts that I enjoyed. And I liked the ending and how the story worked out. But overall, I didn't enjoy it as much. If anyone else has read this one, what were your opinions on it? I liked it pretty well, but was a little disappointed.

Now I'm reading Snow and I'm really liking that one. Hopefully I'll finish that one soon too.

Have a great day!

Happy St. Patty's Day

I decided to post this now while I still had time. I hope everyone has a fun St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. I am planning on wearing green, but first I have to find something that I own that is green. My wardrobe is pretty much limited to blue, and well blue. But I'm sure I'll find something. And pretty soon after that, it's going to be Easter. For me, having these two holidays in the same month is very weird. Now what do we have to celebrate in April, besides the lovely months of spring?
Well anyway, the reason I did this today is that I have to work on a big Rube Goldberg project tomorrow. If you don't know what a Rube Goldberg is, look here. Really, I don't even understand the point of doing this. Why make things more complicated than they need to be? And another question, why did I put this off until the evening before it was due? ;)
Also my sister got back from D.C. today! It's great to have you back Jessie, if you're reading this. :)
Have a wonderful week!

Leanna

Golden

Before Rapunzel's birth, her mother made a dangerous deal with the sorceress, Melisande: If she could not love newborn Rapunzel just as she appeared, she would surrender the child to Melisande. When Rapunzel was born completely bald and without hope of growing hair, her horrified mother sent her away with the sorceress to an uncertain future.

After sixteen years of raising Rapunzel as her own child, Melisande reveals that she has another daughter, Rue, that was cursed by a wizard years ago and needs Rapunzel's help. Rue and Rapunzel have exactly " two nights and the day that falls between" to break the enchantment. But bitterness and envy come between the girls, and if they fail to work together, Rue will remain cursed...forever.

I really enjoyed this book, and it definitely held my attention the entire time. I have read other books in the Once Upon a Time series, so I had high hopes for the Rapunzel one. It was very inviting, and different from the original story, which is something that I like in retellings. I loved the main character Rapunzel, and it was interesting to read about how both her and Rue's stories were worked out. * Possible Spoilers* The only thing that was strange was, it seemed that there wasn't really a proper villain and there wasn't a big part at the end where they had to defeat that villain. It was mainly the two girls trying to break the enchantment, that truthfully seemed entirely too easy. But other than that, I enjoyed it. Another great book in the series.

Book Titles Meme

Tagged by Ennagirl.

In this one, I'm supposed to write the first word in the title of the book I'm currently reading. Then I'm supposed to write a phrase for each word that describes the book. Okay, here's mine:

Good and giving sorceress
Order given by a wizard
Long, golden hair.
Daring heroine
Enchanted tower
Never ending magic

I can't think of anyone who hasn't done this yet, but if you haven't, consider yourself tagged.

Sons of Liberty

Nobody knows the American Revolution better than thirteen-year-old Rock Kindle. He can list every battlefield and weapon, each general, spy, and traitor of the war that won the colonists freedom from Great Britain. His belief that he himself could brave any combat often helps him through the bad times, when Rock's own father wages small wars on the rest of the family.

But when his best friend Liza decides to run away from home, Rock begins to question the bonds that hold his family together. He knows that he would never be a traitor to his father and would never desert his family, so why is his wish to escape his home so powerful?

I really enjoyed this book. My sister recommended this to me, after she read it a few years ago and loved it. I finished this in about one day. I really liked the story, setting, and characters the author described. I could relate with the characters a lot throught the book, and after I read the end, I was sobbing. I really understood the decisions that Rock had to make, whether to do what he knew was right, or stay with his abusive father. I really loved this book, and recommend it.

7 Random Things

Tagged by Bohae.

In this meme I'm supposed to say random things about myself. Hmm....this will be interesting.

1. I have a clone ;) Actually a fraternal twin sister that is leaving to go on a leadership forum tommorrow to Washington D.C. I'm so incredibly jealous.

2. I love to watch movies. In fact, I think that I love watching movies almost as much as I love reading books. If you're going to see a movie at the theaters, chances are that I've seen it. I think I watch one at least every other day.

3. I've met Shannon Hale three times, and have all of her books autographed. Also for the past nines months I've been a member of LRRH, I've logged on at least once a day. Obesessed, I know.

4. I cry when I read sad books and watch sad movies. I even cry during happy books and movies. Really, I'm a sap when it comes to things like that. :)

5. I really like to listen to classical music. Mainly soundtrack movies, but I love other classical too. I think it began when I started to play the violin, but I've loved it ever since.

6. I'm going to England for the first time this summer. I'm so excited, since this will be the first time I've ever been out of the United States.

7. I've never owned any pets. And believe me, I love animals. We were going to get a dog for a while when I was in fourth grade, but it never worked out. Oh, how I want a doggie. ;)

I tag Ani Isilee, Maribeth Kayla, Hwalk, Fantasy, Ennagirl, and anyone else that wants to do this. :)

Wake

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. She can't tell anybody about what she does-they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a more gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted dream. She is a partcipant...

Wake was a very quick read. It didn't take me very long and I finished it within days. Before I knew it, it was over and it took me a while to formulate an opinion on it. Overall, it was an okay book. There were some parts that were very suspenseful and had me wanting to keep reading, and some that seemed slow and unnecessary. I thought the dream aspect of it was interesting, and it was different than a lot of books I've read. The only thing that bothered me was the language, which was pretty bad throughout the entire book. But the ending satisfied me, and I'll probably buy the sequel Fade when it comes out.

My Life in Six Words

Tagged by Anilee.

So, I thought long and hard about how I should sum up my life in six words. Here's what I came up with.

I'm making my way to reality.

I'm always daydreaming about books, thinking about books, basically breathing books and never giving a thought to anything else but books. Don't worry I'll get there though. ;)

Since I can't think of anyone who hasn't been tagged already, whoever is reading this who hasn't, go ahead.

A Curse Dark As Gold

Okay, this isn't the first review for A Curse Dark as Gold. And I'm sure that you all know what it's about by now. But in case you don't...

Since her father's death, the fate of the Miller family woolen mill and Shearing village, rests on Charlotte Miller's shoulders. An unexpected and seemly insurmountable debt leads to a difficult choice for the normally pratical and level-headed miller's daughter.

Must she take the offer of the strange little man that can spin straw into gold, or can she make her own way through a maze of ill luck and deceit that seems her family's legacy?

This is a re-telling of the Rumpelstiltskin story. I had never read the original tale, but I absolutely loved this book. I have to admit, the forces were working against me to never have time to finish this book. But I couldn't stop reading for hours when I finally got to reading it. I think that the author's writing is beautiful, and I loved the romance and the characters just as well. The wonderful reputation for this book is well earned. Great fantasy read.

Partner Interviews

In Health class, we're starting our unit on social health, so we did an activity to to kind of introduce us to it. The teacher paired us with someone we did not know and we had to interview them on our following things:
Strengths
Concerns
Likes
Sorrows
Dislikes
Life Experiences
Frustrations
Guilts
Joys
Dreams
After that, you presented all the things you learned about your partner to the class. Usually I don't like doing personal stufff like this. Do you really learn about anyone in the end? I was surprised about the few people that really did open up, and answer these questions truthfully. Others used humor to escape potential embarrassing things to be revealed. Does it make it easier when someone else is talking about you, so you don't have to do it yourself? Maybe a little. Like I said, I usually get uncomfortable doing things like that, but I think it went all right in the end. Maybe people did learn some new things about me.
By the way, I saw Penelope last night at the movies. Really good. Leanna gives it five stars. :)
Also, I am still reading A Curse Dark as Gold, but it's been a really slow process. I've barely had any time lately.
Have a great weekend!