Vampire Academy

Since I'm done reading the Twilight Saga and the Sookie Stackhouse series, I opted to read the Vampire Academy, I finished the first two chapters thus far, but so far it leaves me a bit confused- it tells me about three kinds:
1- the Dhampir- half human and half vampire
2- the Moroi- guardian of full-blooded vampires
3- the Strigoi — the evil, undead bloodsuckers

Of course, they don't really explain that in the first two chapters, if they did, I must have missed it. I had to search for that online just to figure out what it all meant. I really don't like it when writers try to come up with their own terms for things and give no explanation or idea what they mean.

Ok, enough about that. So I'm about to start chapter three. So far it is very mediocre. I can only hope it will get much better. Have you ever notices those who read Twilight first are partial to Twilight, those who read Sookie first are partial to Sookie and none ever seem appreciative of the other books let alone like the other ones. I have to say- I loved both, while both are far different, I enjoyed them equally. I only hope that the Vampire Academy will end up on my favorites list too. I have two other series I'm dying to read- one is by J.R. Ward (the box set- all lovers but still about vampires). But I don't own this one, and for the other series, well, I'm keeping that one a secret until I read it.

Sookie Stackhouse Series

I never ever picked up a book and started reading for pleasure until just a few months ago.

Let me rewind a bit- my daughter read all of the Twilight saga, when "Twilight" came out on DVD, I watched it with her probably a dozen plus times. When MTV did their music awards not too long ago, they showed a preview for "New Moon", needless to say it had taken my breath away and immediately I picked up the book and had to read it to find out what was going on and what was going to happen. I couldn't wait for the movie to come. Anyone who knows me knows I don't read for fun. Once I finished reading New Moon, I read Eclipse, then Breaking Dawn, then I read the online alternative of what was suppose to be book 5, then I went and read Twilight. Once I was done- I felt hungry for more! I knew Stephanie Myer didn't plan to write anymore books and that had my wondering what to do next.

A friend of mine recommended the Sookie Stackhouse series, boy was I glad she did. At first, I thought the first book was a little slow, but I kept up with it. By book 2 I was hooked, by book 4 I was in love! In only 2 weeks and 2 days, I have read all 9 of the books.

I just learned book ten is due out in May 2010, and three more books will follow ending in 2014! I wish it wouldn't take so long for them to come out, but hey, I guess I will just have to wait. The books are better than the TV show "True Blood"- just a lot more detail.

My only real complaint about the entire books is:
The covers suck!!

Really- the first one was good, but the rest are very cartoonish for my likes. I anticipated she would have kept a theme going from the first cover on the first book- nope, not at all. The covers for the other books are all cheap. I'm very glad I didn't see the covers before I bought them or I probably would never have bought them. So Ms. Harris- if you read this- really reconsider your covers for the next books. I really find the covers on these ones almost child like and dull. But that is my only complaint. The stories are great! I'm looking forward to reading the future books.

Christmas Gifts

I'm about done shopping for my kids, this year we are sticking to a budget and that is helping me buy just the right gifts.

For my family (parents, in-laws, grandparents, etc), I make handmade scrapbook albums fully scrapbooked of my kids photos. This year will be great since I have lots of cool photos from our camping trips. I got all the photos sent it to be printed today and I ordered the papers for my albums.

Since it will take a few weeks for it to all come in, it will give me plenty of time to get the layouts just right.

Great Fall Weather and Clean Up

We were in the 60's this weekend, which isn't very normal here in Michigan for this time of year. But we took advantage of it and cleaned out the two storage sheds.

We had three truck loads of garbage to get rid of, plus I got rid of many storage containers, dog and cat carriers, kitchen stools, and a few extras on a freecycle list. Now my one storage shed will be used mainly to store my holiday gift decorations and all my crafts that were left over from craft shows. I have some really gorgeous wreaths out there but I just can't sell them easily online because shipping would be difficult. It isn't like I can find boxes to fit a wreath.

The other shed is now organized enough for us to get our bicycles in there, a few odds and end things like a central air unit we no longer need, a small window a/c unit, and our riding lawn mower.

I have a few items I need to list on craigslist to get rid of too.

On a good note- I sold 11 lots of books on craigslist over the weekend to one lady who works for the Detroit Public Schools. There were 272 books in all. She got a fantastic deal and it cleaned up a lot of space on our book shelves.

On a bad note- my computer was attacked by a darn virus over the weekend, I ended up losing all my files! All my precious photos I took over the summer and everything. I feel more sad about my photos than anything. They were photos of our wonderful camping trips and of my sister and my nephews visit with us. It is all gone. Needless to say- I have learned a lesson. I am buying a USB flash drive now to start saving my important files to so this never happens again.

Thoughts on the Sookie Stackhouse series

I'm done reading books 1 through 3 and just a few chapters into book 4. When I first started reading book one, I was real disappointed at first. Mainly because the very first sentence in the book talks about vampires- it left nothing to the imagination and didn't seem to have a lot of mystery to it.

After being convinced by friends to keep reading, I was glad I did. Although I don't like the way the first book started off, I do like the fact that the story keeps sucking you in the more you read.

I have to say now that I have watched all of Season 1 and Season 2 of HBO's "True Blood" (which is based off these novels), it was cool to put faces to names and helps bring the story more alive in my head as I read.

My favorite character in the book is Eric. A 1,000 plus year old viking vampire, he is very tall, blonde, blue eyes, and sexy! Book 4 is starting off with Eric being found running with no memory. I can't seem to put the book down longer than 30 minutes at a time because I find myself wondering what is going to happen next.

So all I can say is I'm glad I listened to my friends and kept reading. The story is good, far different than the story line in the "Twilight Saga", but interesting for its own story. If you haven't read any of the Sookie Stackhouse series yet- do so! You will enjoy it.

Wake up

I think American's need to wake up!!

Realize- our country see's the medical field as profit.
If you are healthy- chances are, you will not see a doctor.

But if your sick- they rather keep you sick than treat you correctly because the more your sick, the more money they will make.

We all ready know- MOST cancers are curable- but MOST people do not know that and won't get cures because physician's can NOT make money on you if your healthy.

I do believe our country is all about big business and profit. With this "swine flu" going around, it is raking in money in every direction. Keep in mind though- if you get a "h1n1 vaccine"- you are NOT eligible for compensation if you have a reaction. They have excluded this vaccine from the NVICP.

Swine Flu Stats

Here are some facts that are worth thinking about.
Below is a list of the most heavily populated countries, and the number of "swine flu" in each:

1. China- pop: 1,333,780,000 SF cases: 14,665 (1 f)
   
2. India- pop: 1,171,740,000 SF cases: 13,644 (295 f)
3. U.S.- pop: 307,807,000 SF cases: 335,756 (2,839 f)
   
4. Indonesia- pop: 229,965,000 SF cases: 1,007 (6 f)
   
5. Brazil- pop: 192,063,000 SF cases: 2,663 (921 f)
   
6. Pakistan- pop: 167,803,500 SF cases: 2 (0 f)
   
7. Bangladesh- pop: 162,221,000 SF cases: 603 (1 f)
   
8. Nigeria- pop: 154,729,000 SF cases: 0 (0 f)
   
9. Russia- pop: 141,881,000 SF cases: 1,652 (3 f)
   
10. Japan- pop: 127,560,000 SF cases: 13,416 (8 f)

*Pop: is population, SF cases= "Swine Flu cases", the # in (# f) is the # of deaths reported from "swine flu".

Now pay very close attention to those #'s being reported by the flu tracker web site. The U.S. (the third largest populated country in the world) has the most "swine flu" in all the world and the most deaths from it. That means the U.S. has 25 times MORE "swine flu" than China. Go figure!

I truly believe we are seeing one of two things here:

1. Bogus statistics being reported by the U.S.
   or
2. The over use of vaccines now biting American's in the a**.
   

You do the research and tell me what you think. I find it very hard to believe that all of a sudden we are the sickest country in the world from this "pandemic" and it is all going to be cured by some magical vaccine they just created without any testing.


Wed., July 22, 2009
WASHINGTON - The government called Wednesday for several thousand volunteers to start rolling up their sleeves for the first swine flu shots, in a race to test whether a new vaccine really will protect against the virus before its expected rebound in the fall.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32085899/ns/health-swine_flu/

But from what I found- they only tested the vaccine starting on 8/10/09 on up to 2,400 people between the ages of 18 to 65. that is several thousand. Yes, the did test it on some kids younger than that, but it was less than 600.

Now if memory serves me right, it has only been since they started testing the vaccine that this seems to be more of a "pandemic" than it was before.

I also wanted to share this link:
http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2009/10/vaccination-hell-in-oakland-county-mi.html
The man who hosts this blog participated in a long line at one of our local schools (the one in which I grew up attending). He shares videos and photos from the ridiculous lines formed to get the "new vaccine". Please visit his site and share your thoughts too.

One last thing- Canada HALTS flu vaccines because a "perplexing" Canadian study has linked the H1N1 virus to seasonal-flu shots.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/national_world/stories/2009/09/29/flu.html

Scrap Room Done

Now that I am finally finished remodeling my scrapbook room, I'm disappointed to say I must use it right away to make a sympathy card for a family who know well. They just lost their mother/grandmother to breast cancer two days ago.

I'm scrapbooking a beautiful card to send to the family, I'm putting a lot of thought to make it look elegant but to keep their spirits up as well. This is a tough time for the family.

Our prayers are with them all during these difficult times.

Poor Kid

This poor kid, he probably had NO idea how he was going to feel.

Another remodel

I'm busy working on the last bedroom in our home- it will be our scrapbook/craft room. There are only two and a half walls that need work. One wall just has new drywall on it, so we are putting the drywall compound on and will have lots of work to do on that. One wall only needs some minor repair work, and the other wall, well it is tiny and instead of buying drywall (was bare frame wall), we are reusing some paneling on it. Technically we only needed two sheets, but not even full sheets. Only one area from floor to ceiling is about 24" wide, the rest is cut out because of doors. So as you can imagine, it was very little wall to have to use paneling on. So no need to waste money on drywall.

Today, I need to bring in the plastic, hang it from the ceiling going down the center of the room so that as I do drywall work (like sanding) I don't get the dust all over my scrapbooking supplies. This room will be hard to work in as it isn't a huge space, and it is very full of things to work around. It will not be fun, but it must get done to make my home complete.