Another short, but EXCITING post!!! (Well....at least for me, *grin*)

Okay last week I had my first college exam EVER!!!! No, it was not that exciting, lol! Anyway, I recieved my test back today and guess what I got on it....??????



Can I get a WOOT, WOOT *puts microphone to the crowd, hand to ear* WHAT??? I can't hear YOU!!!!

Lol....the "Mid" grade is my midterm grade too. So I am very happy with both. Room for improvement, but if that was my final grade, for example, I'd be completely content lol.

Just had to let you guys know!!
Hannah

First Book Review: Still House Pond

Still House Pond by Jan Watson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jan Watson's Still House Pond was phenomenal. It was a little tricky to get into, but part of that might have been because I started it in a loud dining hall. Lol! However, once started, she threw many twists and turns at the reader. I was always wondering what would happen next.

One part of this book that not everyone likes, I've learned from reading other reviews, is that fact that the chapters alternate between the three main female character: Copper (the mom), Lilly (Copper's daughter), and Manda (Copper's "working girl"). I, however, thought after getting the hang of it and really figuring out the characters that this was a very smart way to write this book. Each of these women are very different, so it was nice to see the different perspectives. It made it a bit confusing in the beginning, but as I said once you get a firm grip of who each of the characters are and their relationships, it makes for a very entertaining read.

I will most definitely be looking into Jan's other books. I would highly recommend this to anyone!!

Here you go!! You all wanted book reviews, so here's book review number one! Please check this out, you will absolutely not be disappointed, I guarantee it.

Hannah

Construction on Blog

Hey everyone,
So during my "free time" I'm going to try revamping up my blog. So as you can tell, I already figured out how to add a page to the top *big grin* It took a while, but I got it and am VERY pleased with the results! Soon to come will be another page with all my Blogger awards. I think it will be nice to switch them all over to one concrete place instead of taking up SO much space on this "Home" page.

I had three reasons that I wanted to put out this post.

1) To warn you!! LOL!

2) To let you know ahead of time that it might be the reason I'm not blogging as much. I want to get the blog looking great then, hopefully, dive right back into blogging more. So if you feel so inclined and haven't heard anything from me on the blog, pop in from time-to-time and see if there's anything new going on!

3) Is there anything you'd like to see on my blog?? I won't necessarily take every comment, but I will take them wholeheartedly, then figure out which ones are best for me. So please I'm all ears!!



Really! I do want to know....please....


(Awwwwwww....how can you resist that face!?)

Okay, sorry for such a short post about...not that much! I just wanted to let you know : )

And now for some good Thursday news!! I got back my personal narrative in Writing today and I got a 95% on it!!! YAY!!!


Ta-da!!

Okay talk to you later!!
Hannah
And remember....

Link to the Much Awaited AWARDS BANQUET!!!!!!

Hello everyone,
I am so thrilled to announce that the AWARDS BANQUET is officially complette!!!! It has been posted, but posted it way back when I worked on it instead of now, so I am providing the link and you can go join the party!!

Awards Banquet!

Can't wait to see you there and hear what you think!!
Hannah

Ahead of schedule....

Okay, so I'm posting this AHEAD of schedule this time ; )
Taken from Alaine's blog:

"October is one of my favourite months of the year, not only is it my birthday but it also seems to be when the publishers start to release all the must have reads prior to Christmas. I often find that prior to this time of year I have a bit of a reading lull but then suddenly the shelves are filled with must haves again.

I've been thinking for a few months of various ways I can change the comp a little bit. I have a few followers who always comment on my blog and I wanted to think of a way to thank them, I was going to do it last month but didn't get time. So this month on the last day of the month which is Halloween, whoever has their name on the left hand side bar under 'Look Who's Talking' will also be eligible to win one of the books above. So that it is fair to everyone, only comments made on posts that go up in October will be counted and only one comment per post. So that means that I will give away two books this month and who knows, if you're lucky you could win two books. Also, if you have a Kindle and would like to win your book in the Kindle version (if there is one) then put that in your comment and that's how you will get it.

Now to the hard part, selecting which book you'd like! Each month I visit Fantastic Fiction for all the 'coming soon' books and select my giveaways from their list; it's a great site, so go and check them out for all the latest news. Read the bottom of this post for how to enter and how to get extra entries.


Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts - As the public face of Vows wedding planning company, Parker Brown has an uncanny knack for fulfilling every bride's vision. She just can't see where her own life is headed. Mechanic Malcolm Kavanaugh loves figuring out how things work, and Parker is no exception. Both know that moving from minor flirtation to major hook-up is a serious step. Parker's business risks have always paid off, but now she'll have to take the chance of a lifetime with her heart.

This book is the final in the Bride Quartet and I can't wait to read it. It's due out around my birthday so hopefully it will be on the shelves in time. This has been a fun series to read and it introduced me to Nora Roberts, an author that I hadn't read much of previously.

Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead - Murder. Love. Jealousy. And the ultimate sacrifice. Now, with Rose on trial for her life and Lissa first in line for the Royal Throne, nothing will ever be the same between them.

The final book in the Vampire Academy series and I have to say that I cannot wait to read it. What is going to happen to Rose and Dimitri??? These books are not romance novels so we are certainly not guaranteed any kind of happy ending. This book will be pre-ordered for you as it's due out early December, but at least you know that you'll have it as soon as it's released. If you haven't read any books from this series and want the first book instead of book 6 then I will happily purchase that for you instead (just mention it in the comment).

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick - The sequel to the New York Times Best selling phenomenon, Hush, Hush!

Nora should have know her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with her guardian angel, Patch (who, title aside, can be described anything but angelic), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking up. Patch is starting to pull away and Nora can't figure out if it's for her best interest or if his interest has shifted to her arch-enemy Marcie Millar. Not to mention that Nora is haunted by images of her father and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him that night he left for Portland and never came home.

The farther Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, the more she comes to question if her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it as well as why she seems to be in danger more than the average girl. Since Patch isn't answering her questions and seems to be standing in her way, she has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?

Now I haven't read the first book in this series yet, but I will very soon because everyone has assured me I'll love it. I know it has many fans so I had to include it in this months giveaway.

Water Bound by Christine Feehan - The last thing Lev Prakenskii remembered was being lost in the swirling currents of a freezing black eddy off the coastal town of Sea Haven. Just as quickly, just as miraculously, he was saved—pulled ashore by a beautiful stranger. But Lev has no memory of who he is—or why he seems to possess the violent instincts of a trained killer. All he knows is that he fears for his life, and for the life of his unexpected savior.

Her name is Rikki, a sea-urchin diver in Sea Haven. She has always felt an affinity for the ocean, and for the seductive pull of the tides. And now she feels drawn in the same way to the enigmatic man she rescued. But soon they will be bound by something even stronger, and their tantalizing secrets will engulf them both in a whirlpool of dizzying passion and inescapable danger.

I'm a lover of Christine Feehan's books even though I haven't had time to read many this year. But I was very excited to discover that this is a new series, Sisters of the Heart, and available on Kindle. I've already put it on my Kindle and will read it as soon as I've finished my current read.

Here's how to enter:
Competition is only open to followers of this blog. (so if you're not a follower & you'd like to enter just click on the follow button on the right hand side of my blog)

Leave a comment, with an email address telling me which book you'd like to win or if you'd prefer the Amazon Voucher!

EXTRA ENTRIES
+2 entries post about this give-away on your blog & leave a link
+1 entry post the comp on sidebar of your blog
+1 entry post the comp on Twitter & leave a link

Competition is International. It ends October 31st and the winner will be announced on this blog. Good luck to everyone!"

Just wanted to let you know about this awesome contest!!
Hannah

REALLY late posting this!! Check it out anyway! Lol...

This is from Alaine at her Queen of Happy Endings blog. She does a competition every month, so be on the lookout for October really soon! Alaine provides awesome, truly awesome book reviews and I really encourage you to check out her lovely blog.

"There are some exciting new releases due out in the coming weeks. Of course Beautiful Creatures was a favourite book of mine so I'm very excited about the release of Beautiful Darkness early in October. I was also excited to discover the Ken Follett is doing another historical trilogy with Fall of the Giants being the first. Kate Morton is an author from my home town and I'm also looking forward to this one and have even pre ordered my own copy. So you've got a choice of 3 wonderful new books! But if for some crazy reason you don't want to read one of these books then put down for your choice an Amazon Gift Voucher and if you win you'll win a $20 voucher. So read through the synopsis for these books, select your favourite and then follow the instructions at the bottom of this post.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia (Caster Chronicles #2) - Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - Edie Burchill and her mother have never been close, but when a long lost letter arrives one Sunday afternoon with the return address of Millderhurst Castle, Kent, printed on its envelope, Edie begins to suspect that her mother's emotional distance masks an old secret. Evacuated from London as a thirteen year old girl, Edie's mother is chosen by the mysterious Juniper Blythe, and taken to live at Millderhurst Castle with the Blythe family: Juniper, her twin sisters and their father, Raymond. In the grand and glorious Millderhurst Castle, a new world opens up for Edie's mother. She discovers the joys of books and fantasy and writing, but also, ultimately, the dangers. Fifty years later, as Edie chases the answers to her mother's riddle, she, too, is drawn to Millderhurst Castle and the eccentric Sisters Blythe. Old ladies now, the three still live together, the twins nursing Juniper, whose abandonment by her fiance in 1941 plunged her into madness. Inside the decaying castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother's past. But there are other secrets hidden in the stones of Millderhurst Castle, and Edie is about to learn more than she expected. The truth of what happened in the distant hours has been waiting a long time for someone to find it...

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett - Fall of Giants is his magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in The Century Trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families-American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh-as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage.

Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man's world in the Welsh mining pits...Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House...two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution...Billy's sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German embassy in London...

These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty. As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic.

In future volumes of The Century Trilogy, subsequent generations of the same families will travel through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century, changing themselves-and the century itself. With passion and the hand of a master, Follett brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again.

Here's how to enter:
Competition is only open to followers of this blog. (so if you're not a follower & you'd like to enter just click on the follow button on the right hand side of my blog)

Leave a comment, with an email address telling me which book you'd like to win or if you'd prefer the Amazon Voucher!

EXTRA ENTRIES
+2 entries post about this give-away on your blog & leave a link
+1 entry post the comp on sidebar of your blog
+1 entry post the comp on Twitter & leave a link

Competition is International. It ends September 30th and the winner will be announced on this blog. Good luck to everyone!"

So go check it out people!!! Click on the picture on the sidebar to head over...
Will be updating you all soon (maybe later today?) about therapy yesterday : /
Hannah

A Much Needed Post - Filled with a College Update and Tour of my Campus, Medical Updates, and Some Random "Stuff"

Hello everyone who's still out there!

*crickets*

Anywho, I am SO sorry that I've been slightly neglecting my blog : ( As most of you should know, I currently started my "new life". I am now at Colby-Sawyer College.



It's a HUGE transition and I would certainly be lying if I didn't say it was. There are many adjustments to be made from the good ol' days at home consisting of high school, home, grandma's, the shopping center, the elementary school, piano, babysitting on Saturday. That was my life and I was happy with it. Now, everyday is a little different and very different from the life I used to live.

I currently have five classes: Intro to Psych, Individual and Community (Intro to Sociology), Intro to Religion, Writing 105, and Desire. They keep my days kind of full? However, there is so much free time! I'm finding it very easy to get my homework done, so don't worry about me not getting homework done : P



The picture above is Colgate Hall. It is the very front of our campus, the centermost part on the Colgate Loop out in front of the school. I would argue that it's the landmark of our school a little bit. Here's the back of it by the quad:



I currently have three classes in here. Last spring when I followed an upper classmen I was informed that since I'm a Childhood Development major, I will have lots of classes in here.



This is the Ivey Science Building where I have a class. It's one of the newest additions to campus, I believe.



I think that this is one of the coolest buildings on campus and I know you all will back me up because of the crowd I'm talking to! Anyway, this is the library! It used to be a working barn. So the entrance is (what used to be) the silo. I think it's pretty darn awesome. Hopefully you can see well enough on the picture!

I'm staying in a suite, so that means we have two bathrooms (each with a shower and toilet), two sink areas (each with two sinks), an extra storage area in the middle of the suite, a kitchen area with lots of cupboards, a sink, table with four chairs, and a TV (that no longer works : ( ). Then there are six bedrooms off of the "main" part. There are four of us freshman (including me) and then seven upper classmen. It's been difficult adjusting to the living arrangements, but it's okay. I think I'll be able to handle it, it's just not ideal (that would be home! Lol!).

So, that's kind of college life wrapped up pretty quickly, lol! Now for the medical update. A little over a week ago I visited my rheumatologist because it was time for a check-up. My wrists had been bothering, but especially my left one. So, he decided to give me a cortisone injection right about there:



Except on the left wrist, of course. It wasn't too, too terrible getting the shot, but since then I have been in a lot of pain! It's relentless. So, he wanted me to get x-rays, start taking prednisone, and go for physical therapy. The x-rays came back fine, the prednisone doesn't really seem to be helping, and I go for the therapy on Monday morning, 8 am! Yay...so there's new news, but not at the same time lol!

There's also been something else going on, nonerelated to the arthritis, but I have to go for a test on Thursday and I got some blood work done. So we're waiting to find out if the doctor's suspicions are right.

Yes, I'm still reading Wicked! I'm actually over halfway now, but it's been super difficult trying to find reading time here : ( I'm also participating in Joy's Christian Book Club, so this month we're reading Havah by Tosca Lee. You all should check it out (both the club and the book!)! I am also reading Children of the Alley by Naguib Mahfouz for my Religion class. It's actually much more interesting than it sounds : )

I'm still trying to find time to finish up the Blogger Awards Banquet. Be on the lookout for it because I feel like I'm really close to finishing it! Now I just need to make sure I remember all the awards I have to include, lol!!

Okay, once again I appreciate all of you guys for your constant support and for not giving up on me. I think that once I get into the swing of things here, I can get back to posting more regularly, but I'm not exactly sure what I will be posting! Ah well, it will be figured out soon enough : )

Thanks again! I've missed you all so, so much!!!
Hannah