30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 14

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

I could make this post about a lot of people, and almost all of them are family, but I'm choosing to make it about my Aunt Renee and my cousin, Annah. 

Annah and I absolutely HATED each other about 95% of the time growing up. She hated me because I had my mom for a mother - or as she said, HER Aunt Kay - and I resented her for having MY Aunt Renee as a mom. During the 5% of the time when we weren't having screaming matches with each other or trying to manipulate our moms into saying which one of us they loved the most, we were really close. In fact, one of my fondest memories of my childhood is having a slumber party at her old house and watching the Sailor Moon movie all night long.

My Aunt Renee has always been my hero; I can't describe why, but suffice it to say that she's always just been one of my favorite people for no one reason that I can pinpoint. The only thing I can remotely say that comes close enough to what I feel for her is that I love her.

On April 20th of last year, I came very close to losing both of them in a horrible car crash. They were hit by a semi while they were trying to turn left and they both almost died. Annah fractured her pelvis in multiple places, broke almost every bone in one of her feet, had bleeds on her brain and liver...the list goes on, as she took the brunt of the impact. She's perfectly fine now, amazingly. Renee had trouble with her heart after the crash but is now doing fine as well. 


There were so many "coincidences" that were involved in their crash that it's hard to believe. (Ie: one of the police officers said that one of the wheels on the SUV shouldn't have still been attached to the car and that it was a miracle it still was because if it had separated from the car, the car would have sank lower to the ground and the semi would pretty much have drove over them.) I thank God every day for keeping them safe.


It just hit me that day how much I would miss them if, God forbid, something ever did happen to them. I absolutely cannot imagine my life without either of them and I'm actually tearing up just thinking about it to write this.


If you guys read this, I love you both. <3

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 13

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist.

Love me some Goo Goo Dolls.

The Cab can always turn my frown upside down.

And I will forever love B. Spears.

And that folks, is just the tip of the ice burg. I love music and it was hard to just pick three artists/bands to showcase.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 12

Day 12 - A picture of something you love.

Of COURSE this post has to be about penguins. I freaking LOVE penguins. Absolutely, positively, really, really, realllllllly, l-o-v-e LOVE them. 

You can not be anything but happy around a penguin, seriously. Try it sometime.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 11

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate.

(Google image.)

I realllllly, really, REALLY, hate tornadoes. I think I was scarred for life when my parents took me to see Twister when it came out (I was like 6 or 7) and it was storming so bad that the power went off in the theater a couple times - so scary! But it got worse: we barely made it home, we were in my great-grandpa's old SUV and I remember my mom had to keep wiping the inside of the windshield so my dad could see. The rain was so heavy that when we finally got home, the moment we stepped out of the car we were drenched. Yup, I think that traumatic little event is what struck the fear of tornadoes in me. Ha.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 10

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with.

My friend Khrista, hands down. 95% of the "messed" (the original word used for this day is a *bit* less appropriate) up things I've done have been with her. She's been my partner in crime since we met in 7th grade.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 9

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

My mommy, of course! I love her, plain and simple.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 8

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh.

This photo was taken of our dog, Lexi, for my mom's art project - she's working towards her Master's degree. Every time I see it, and I see it a lot because it's the background image of my nook, it makes me chuckle. She just sat there like a champ while we took picture after picture after picture. I love her.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 7

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item.

I don't really have one treasured item but if I had to pick something, I'd choose all the old photos and home movies we have laying around our house. They're the first things I'd save in a fire other than my family and our pets, so that has to mean something - right?

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 6

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

Kate Middleton is the only person who sprang to mind for this post. Who doesn't want to be a Princess for a day? Plus, Prince William is kind of a hottie.

Yes, I know I'm behind in posting this. I'm a crap blogger.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 5

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory.

Britney Spears' Circus concert - Touring the stage with my friend Khrista.

My first visit to Niagara Falls with my family for my Uncle's wedding.

Boating on our family vacation to NC.

My drama class field trip to Chicago for a weekend during my junior year of HS.

My BFF Jenny during a night babysitting for my Uncle.

Jenny and I on my 17th birthday.

Blowfishing for a picture after our appearance for Senior Homecoming court.

Josiah and I before our opening performance of The Importance of Being Earnest. 

(My Senior year - I was Gwendolyn, he was Jack.)

Babysitting weekend with my friend Rebecca.

Senior lunches in my old Honda with my two best friends.

All 4 Senior girls and our dates at our prom.

My friend Rebecca and I at our Senior prom.

My first concert (SPICE GIRLS!!) with my madre.

During my first cruise (to the Bahamas) with our waiter, that I had a biiiiig crush on.

My grandma and I after something for my Girl Scout troop.

This is how I will always remember her.

First trip to Las Vegas with my Aunt and Uncle when I was 14.

True Blood Fan Event with my mommy. Yes, we made shirts haha.

It was too hard to just pick one memory. Sorry this was such a long post! And sorry again that they aren't in chronological order... I'm too lazy to fix it.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 4

Day 04 - A picture of your night.


I didn't actually take a picture of my night so here are some Google images that will have to suffice.

Movies on Netflix, nachos, and Halls strawberry cough drops. If you can't tell from that unusual combo, I'm sick tonight and stayed in.

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 3

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show.


This is a bit of a longer post - I like a lot of shows. Thank God for DVR haha.

Bones will always have the biggest part of my heart. Booth and Brennan <3

Not a great cast photo but...Eureeeeeka! Love me some Carter.

Gotta include Grey's, obvi.

Modern Family!! So funny.

And this post would sooo not be complete without my favorite little crazies from True Blood. <3

30 Day Photo Challenge - Day 2

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been close with for awhile.

Jenny and I posing with my Uncle's "pimp cup" in the summer of '07.

This is Jenny. She's been my best friend since the very first day of our Freshman year in 2004. We were both new kids at our high school and quickly banded together since we shared every class except for one, she took Spanish while I took French. I've spent some of the best and worst nights of my life with this girl and while we've had our ups and downs as friends, nothing has been able to tear us apart. She currently lives in VA and just gave birth to her daughter, Audrey, and I can't wait to go down there in 16 days(!) to see her and meet my goddaughter for the first time.

Long time, no blog!

It's been exactly two months since my last post (yikes!) and sadly, there will be no super awesome post today - just an explanation for why I've been gone. December was a rough month; I was busy with my new job and then, on the 28th, my grandmother passed away. It was a huge shock to all of us, even though she'd been sick for almost four years. January wasn't much better, either; it was hard just to do normal things for a while and then once I did, I just wanted to drown myself in work and books. So, needless to say, I haven't really been in a mood to blog and even if I had, I haven't had the time because of work.

Anyway, when I finally get around to book blogging you'll have tons of reviews to look forward to. (Including Across the Universe, If I Stay, Before I Fall, Revolution, The Hunger Games series and many more.) To get myself back into the swing of blogging I'm going to start doing a cute little challenge I've seen floating around on Facebook! It, admittedly, doesn't have much to do with book blogging but oh well, I just need to get back into the swing of posting.

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with fifteen facts.

Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been close with for awhile.

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show.

Day 04 - A picture of your night.

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory.

Day 06 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item.

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh.

Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most messed up things with.

Day 11 - A picture of something you hate.

Day 12 - A picture of something you love.

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist.

Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die.

Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you.

Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity.

Day 19 - A picture of you when you were little.

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget.

Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at.

Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book.

Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change.

Day 25 - A picture of your day.

Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you.

Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member.

Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of.

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile.

Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss.

So, here's the picture and 15 facts for tonight's post:

1: My name is Chanel and that ^ is me.

2: I have five sisters and one brother; I'm the middle child of 7. My older siblings and I are only half siblings while my younger siblings were adopted when I was 16. 

3: I'm an English major in college but I'm currently taking a quarter (or more) off from school to decide if that's really what I want.

4: I love animals! Penguins are my favorite and I've seriously contemplated breaking into the zoo and bringing one home with me.

5: I'm having a hard time figuring out what to say about myself.

6: My graduating class consisted of 10 boys and 4 girls, including myself. I hated high school while I was going through it but now that I'm a few years older I really miss it. I realize now that it was one of the best times of my life, just like people said it would be.

7: I want to travel the world.

8: I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis three months before I turned 18.

9: I love board games, card games, etc.

10: I live in the middle of nowhere aka a small town in Ohio. I long to live in a big city but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't last a day in one if I moved there.

11: I recently discovered that I have Celiac disease, which is an intolerance/allergy to gluten. Gluten is wheat and it's derivatives. I've been (mostly) gluten free for a couple months. It's hard but I feel SO much better since I've eliminated it from my diet.

12: I converted to a Macbook from an HP in January of '09 and I love it. I'm now a firm believer that once you go Mac, you'll never go back. ;-)

13: I've had a bit of an obsession with vampires since I was a little kid. My mom does too, so it must be genetic haha.

14: I drive a 2008 VW Bug convertible. Her name is Lola and she's beautiful.

15: My family means the world to me. This should probably be higher up on the list because they are, literally, the most important things in my life but I'm too lazy to change it. :-)

There we go! My first post in two months which will, hopefully, get me back into the swing of things!

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

First of all, HAPPY 1st of DECEMBER!! It was definitely a great first day here in OH as we've seen snow all day! :-) Not enough to really accumulate but it's enough to get me excited about winter. Although, I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune once we're still having snowfalls in April. Ha! Now, onto today's post!!

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

This sounds soooo good to me! I don't normally like sci-fi-ish stuff but I feel like it's something that I'll probably enjoy. I'm also a sucker for a good romance so hopefully Amy and Elder's love story rocks. And of course, it's a gorgeous cover! I know, I know - it's so tacky, etc. to judge a book by it's cover but whatever you know you do it, too! ;-)

Across The Universe will be available in book stores everywhere on January 11, 2011.

I feel like WoW are the only posts I've done (ha) but I promise that that will be changing soon! I've got a couple reviews I'm getting ready to post in the next few days, so that's something to look forward to. Also, I'm putting together a giveaway/contest to help get my blog "out there" and to gain more followers. So stay tuned for that as well! ;-)


EDIT: Also, I can't figure out how to format the stupid huge space out of my post - I've tried everything I can think of... Sorry :-(

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. WOW spotlights forthcoming titles that we absolutely can't wait to read.

Vixen by Jillian Larkin
Jazz . . . Booze . . . Boys . . . It’s a dangerous combination.

Every girl wants what she can’t have. Seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody wants the flapper lifestyle—and the bobbed hair, cigarettes, and music-filled nights that go with it. Now that she’s engaged to Sebastian Grey, scion of one of Chicago’s most powerful families, Gloria’s party days are over before they’ve even begun ... or are they?
 
Clara Knowles, Gloria’s goody-two-shoes cousin, has arrived to make sure the high-society wedding comes off without a hitch—but Clara isn’t as lily-white as she appears. Seems she has some dirty little secrets of her own that she’ll do anything to keep hidden.... 
 
Lorraine Dyer, Gloria’s social-climbing best friend, is tired of living in Gloria’s shadow. When Lorraine’s envy spills over into desperate spite, no one is safe. And someone’s going to be very sorry.... 
 
From debut author Jillian Larkin, VIXEN is the first novel in the sexy, dangerous, and ridiculously romantic new series set in the Roaring Twenties ... when anything goes.

***

I just found out about this novel by searching for upcoming titles on B&N.com in hopes of finding one to blog about today. I've always been fascinated by the 20's; the flappers, prohibition, Al Capone, the suffrage movement... So many incredible (whether good or bad) things happened during that time. I'm looking forward to seeing - er, reading - about this author's take on that time period and how she'll navigate it. 

Vixen hits shelves near you on December 14 of this year!

Review: Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Synopsis: Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.  

But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.  

So much for normal.

Review: 
*sigh* Where do I even start?? Oh, I know! How about with the fact that I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep, give or take a few minutes, since I stayed up until 3AM finishing this book? I just could. NOT. put. it. down! I'll try to leave you relatively spoiler free in my review but if a few happen to slip out, I apologize in advance.

Evelyn (or, as she's mainly referred to in the book, Evie) is a sixteen year old girl who can see through the glamours of any and all paranormal creatures - vamps, faeries, werewolves, etc. This is such a rare skill - she's the ONLY person who is able to do this - that when she was found by, the now defunct, APCA (American Paranormal Containment Agency) she was the reason for the forming of IPCA (International Paranormal Containment Agency).

She lives in the main IPCA center and when not out performing her normal "bag and tag" (with the help of her trusted pink taser, Tasey) on paranormals, she's daydreaming of being a normal teenage girl; one that has a locker, a driver's license, and yes, parents. See, Evie was found wandering around at three years old and before APCA/IPCA found her (and her skill) when she was eight, she had been passed around from foster home to foster home. At the Center she fills her time with visiting her best friend (who just happens to be a mermaid) Lish, interpreting the Center's head hauncho Raquel's different sighs, trying to avoid he ex-boyfriend (who is also a faerie) Reth, and shopping online.

That all changes one night when there's a situation at the Center and a secretive shape-shifting paranormal, later known as Lend, shows up in Raquel's office (looking exactly like Raquel) rifling through her things. Soon, paranormals start mysteriously dying and no one can figure out who - or what - is causing their untimely ends.

As the novel progresses, the need to find whoever is murdering the paranormals grows more urgent as more and more are showing up dead and as Evie starts dreaming of and hearing haunting lines of a poem she doesn't know, that seem to describe her. This is also a romance so predictably, although most definitely not in a boring way, Lend and Evie's relationship grows from a friendship into something more - but not without some interference from the ever so hot (and really bad tempered) Reth. And that's all I'm going to say about the plot as I don't trust myself not to say something horribly spoilery and ruin it for all of you!

On the character front: I really connected with Evie. She's just one of those characters that you want to hug or have a sleepover with or something - you want to be her best friend. I don't really know how to explain why I had the compassion that I did for her throughout the novel; maybe it's because I can relate to the feeling of not quite fitting in or because she never had a chance at a "normal" life and that made me sad for her. I'm not sure what it was but it pulled on my heartstrings and I loved every minute I "spent" with her in her world.


Finally, if you choose to pick up this book, be prepared to laugh out loud, tear up a bit (or even cry), fall in love and enjoy the crazy ride Kiersten White has provided. It's a fantastic book and I'm definitely going to pick up the planned sequel that I've read will his shelves next Autumn. :-)

Rating:

5 out of 5 C's!

The end was a bit rushed, in my opinion, and there is a cute little cliff-hanger that makes you long for the next book. However, I fell in love with the characters and the plot was intriguing and kept me on my toes, so it deserves my highest rating!

Favorite Quotes:
He smiled. "Besides, how could I ever be afraid of someone who wears so much pink?" - Lend

"Evelyn, my love. Finally we dance." - Reth

"Bleep stupid bleep bleep faeries and their bleep bleep bleep obsessions. He had better stop bleep bleep bleep the bleep bleep rules or I will bleep bleep bleep the little bleeeeeeep." - Lish

I might not have been dead, but if anything had happened to that dress, someone was going to be. - Evie

In My Mailbox (1)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

In my mailbox this week (well, technically LAST week since I'm behind in posting this... Shh!), there was only one book - one that I WON in an awesome giveaway over at The Unread Reader! (Look here to see how I won, since I didn't technically "win", if you're interested!) 

(Me, with my new book! Heh.)

Missie, the legen*pause*dary blogger behind TUR, is doing a giveaway for reaching 600 Followers on her blog. In this giveaway, she is choosing one winner each Sunday of November who will, in turn, then choose one book from her own personal library that that person would like to read. 

And let me tell you, it was a HARD decision to make because Missie has excellent taste in books! I saw many that I already own and many that I'm itching to read! After careful consideration, I finally chose what book I wanted - Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice - and notified Missie of my choice. And that was it! My book was on its way. :-)

Now, the reason behind this (seemingly) random pick is simple - I've NEVER read it! Honestly, I don't know how I can call myself a true vamp lover since I've never read this iconic novel... But I swear, I am! I have been since I was a wee child and yes, I know how weird that sounds. ;-) I'm so looking forward to finally sinking my teeth into this book now that I finally own it, thanks to Missie, and then, of course, blogging about it!

That's all that was in my physical mailbox this week - but I bought a couple new NOOKbooks that I'm anxious to blog about once I'm finished with them, so look forward to that!