Working Toward a Better Me ... I Think...

Over the past year, my stress load has been extremely high, with our 2 moves, kids’ school, my workload, the holidays, etc. I've had to take my pain killers more often & my eating & sleeping habits have gotten pretty bad.

In talking with a couple of friends, and their coercion to get myself better, I took on a bit of a challenge. Well, I suppose I’ve made it a challenge, perhaps because just the right person who for some strange reason, I feel competitive toward (you know who you are *wink*), suggested I workout with her. Her idea was to workout with our Wiis together… except, since the move, I can’t find my Wii. Trust me, I’m still looking. However, until then, my friend suggested that I walk instead. She said, “You only need 20-30 minutes to start.” Since I already knew this, I figured, in my tiny little brain, that she was still challenging me and that the excuse of not finding my Wii wasn’t going to work. Damn! Ok, fine, you win my friend. I accept your challenge!

Today marks my first day of walking for 20-30 minutes before I begin my day. I'm skeptical about this commitment. It means I have to exercise! Ugh! I hate exercise… but admittedly, I hate feeling like a slug, being overweight, and being in pain even more.

So, what then do I write? Should I share where I walked? Or how far I walked? Or perhaps, how miserable or thrilled I was to walk? How about why am I choosing to do something I loathe so much? Hmm… there are some possibilities.

As stated, I’m not one to exercise. If a walk takes me to a destination, like from my truck to the store door, then fine, I'll walk; but to walk just because? I don't do 'just because'... I have too much on my plate to take time out to walk. Or do I?

First off, I've learned something… You are the one that makes your own schedule. No one else can. I’m not very good at this, I'm what you would call, 'organizationally challenged'. Yeah, that’s it! I’ll probably find that either family, friends, or even clients may become upset that I have trouble juggling my time. However, I have that problem already and the only way to correct this problem is to figure out another way to organize myself. The only way to learn to better one’s self, is to try. So, this is me trying.

Here are some goals I have:

1. Create a more positive me
2. Lose weight
3. Get out of pain
4. Relieve stress
5. Unpack my home
6. Get lots of work done & get caught up

My list seems short, but it isn't really. Each point has sub points that I won't bore you with, yet. Nevertheless, in order to accomplish these goals, I have to create a schedule that works. I used to have one and somehow, I became derailed. I let other things get me distracted. Well, here's me putting my derailed self back on track.

Let's begin with a schedule. This schedule is not yet in stone, so there's no reason to become upset at myself if I fall off course. I tell myself this, but in reality, I get very negative and upset with myself if I don't keep up. There is a way around this negative part, but first, here's my schedule.

1. Get up by 8 a.m.
2. Walk 20-30 minutes in the morning.
3. Hit the shower! Eat! Get coffee! (The 3-musts to get my brain functioning.)
   
4. Take time for me. (This is my quiet time for my devotions.)
5. Make sure boys are on track for their school. (By now, they should have had breakfast and should be ready to conquer their day. (This could take all of 10 minutes or a couple hours, depending on what they need.)
6. Begin with work.

Well, so far today, I am off schedule.

1. I woke THIS morning at 10 a.m.
2. However, the first thing I did once up was go for my walk. I walked 45 minutes, not 30.
3. I did hit the shower, I ate & I consumed coffee.
4. My 'me' time wasn't what I wanted it to be, however, I used it to write this post which I felt, was important to help me with my goal of creating a more positive me.
5. I checked in with my boys and found they had their social studies underway and they were writing their required assignments.

Therefore, I am currently at a juncture. Now, I must focus on work. So, for now, I will finish this post so that I might begin to organize my work routine.

I'm not much with challenges, but if you would like to work with me and challenge yourself to get into shape, or perhaps you just want to encourage me, post a comment.

I'll post again with my progress later.

Here's to good health!

Life As I Know It

October marked the time when life, my life that is, turned upside down. Well, o.k. not really upside down, but it sounded good in my head. Can't you hear the symphony in the background? Music is swelling... *looks around* You can't? Oh dear... Well, turn your volume up! ... still can't hear it... er... it must be in my head then. Oh GAWD!

Ok, actually let's step back in time just a little tiny bit more. We had a BIG, MONSTROUS move back in December of 2008. We moved, or were moved, from Idaho to Arizona by my husband's new company. I must admit the move package was awesome! They packed us, moved us, and unpacked some of us. We figured the home we were renting would be very temporary so we only unpacked what we thought to be essential.

There are pros and cons to this method of moving. First, if you don't unpack everything, then when its time to move again, you don't have so much to pack. However, if you don't unpack, you end up either buying what you need, even though you know that somewhere in one of the hundreds of boxes, you own said item, OR you end up digging through said boxes trying to find that one item... and then another item... and another. Ok, I think you get the point.

A 6-month rental turned into more & more. Finally, in September of 2009, our house in Idaho sold! Yay! We lost money overall in that sale, but we were able to pay the loan off with enough money to buy a cup of coffee when all was said & done. Ok, ok... Coffee is not that expensive! However, the amount of change we received was not enough to put a down payment on another house. So, I tucked it away for another day.

Now, we roll into October 2009. My Realtor here in Arizona takes me through about 5 different homes to chose from here, encouraging me every step of the way... assuring me that she is confident that even though we have NO DOWN PAYMENT, we can still buy a home. *Yeah, right* What are you smokin' Wendy?! Ha!

I found 2 homes I thought were nice enough & inexpensive enough, so I showed my husband. He felt the same way ... but he looked anyway. He liked my choices & after a very short articulation between the two of us *the amount of time that it takes to fall asleep* we'd made our decision. The following morning, my Realtor got the ball rolling to purchase a house.

Everything went so smoothly. The sellers were desperate to sell so they agreed to EVERYTHING, including repairing every little thing we asked to be fixed. I have NEVER had a deal go so fast & without SNAFUs from the seller (or buyer). This must be a gift from God, right?

My Realtor contacts the lender & tells him about our serious lack of finances. He in turn says, "HEY, NO PROBLEM! In fact, they'll end up getting change back when all is said & done." *oh boy, oh boy!*

Lender sets us up with a "Rural" loan & sends our paperwork to the underwriter of the first investor. We get turned down. Wanna know why? The company's move package put us earning too much! Yeah... I'm deflated now. My lender pats us on the shoulder & assures us that he will continue to press because he feels they are considering the package as continual income when it is only a one time thing. We press on.

In very short order, the lender sends our paperwork to a second investor. Again, the extra finances are the issue and were turned down again. At this point, we're doing the *Midas shrug*... Two down, what's left? Our lender informs us that come the first of December, his company will be licensed to do this kind of loan & he's certain he can work miracles for us at that time.

So, we all agreed, sellers & buyers, let's see what happens. So we wait for Thanksgiving to pass. December rolls in...The paperwork is processed... Yep, you guessed it... income is again the issue. But this time, the underwriter listens to my lender and agrees that the said move package should not be included. Yay! But wait... my husband just received TONS of OT at work and hey look, he's also received a bonus from his company for spending more time at work than at home.

Our lender sat in the underwriter's office explaining every penny of our "added" income. The underwriter finally agreed with my lender so, my lender sent all files to underwriter to sign. Ok... so WTH was she still not signing? WTH did we miss our closing date? Apparently, closing dates don't mean anything here. We missed our closing date! Yep... So the lender contacted seller to let them know more of what's going on! Seller, although I'm sure very uptight at this point, agrees to hang just a bit longer. I mean, what are they going to do, put the house on the market again? Sheesh!

The day before Christmas Eve, we receive an email! The underwriter has signed off, now we send to the Rural loan people to get your money! Yay?!?! Can they still reject us? Yes, they can!

Christmas was very stressful. Not only are we waiting to finalize our house, but my parents were here the whole week before Christmas. So we were trying to be hospitable as well. We waited to hear, but we were told we wouldn't hear until after Christmas. *obviously*

On December 28, 2009, we were contacted at 3 pm in the afternoon. "Get your butts up to the title company! If you sign today it will record tomorrow..." Both my husband & I take off from our separate locations to race to the title company before they close. It took 45 minutes to drive there, but of course, I'm out of gas... Ugh! I finally arrive shortly after hubby, its now about 4:15 pm... But we get in, & find they are waiting for us. Even the receptionist looks at us & says, "You must be the ..." we nod, sheepishly!

Rural loans have a lot of extra paperwork that you have to go through. It took an hour to sign all papers.

You'd think that the "recording" part would be fast... right? Maybe we'd get the keys by noon?? HELL NO! We almost didn't get the keys that next day. But my Realtor & our Lender both did a lot of pushing! By 3 pm, December 29th, my Realtor calls me... "Are you home?"

"Yes..." are respond, "of course where else would I be... I want my keys."

"I've been knocking at your door & you're not answering," she says.

OH CRIPES! I run downstairs & she's standing at the door holding my house keys up in front of me with a giant grin on her face!

We are now proud owners of this beautiful home!

4-Bedroom, 3-Full Bathrooms, about 2300 sq ft!

We are so excited to FINALLY be done with this very stressful chapter of our lives. However, this has imposed other stressors too. My business has had to take a back burner because so much was unknown. We weren't sure when we would be moving. All projects had to be delayed. So, my clients are not too happy for those delays. Thank you! Now my clients are all thrilled that I now have a new house... but they wish the move would hurry up so we can focus. I can't blame them! So, I want to thank all who have been patiently waiting on my life to settle down. We're almost there!

"Tempted" from House of Night Series **SPOILERS**

I was so excited to get to the bookstore to buy the next book in the House of Night series, written by P.C. Cast & her daughter Kristen Cast. Let me just start by saying these two women are a great writing team overall. I have enjoyed the whole series... the ups, the downs, even the teenage angst...which is saying a lot.

As I was saying, I couldn't wait to get my teeth into this book! As a kind of recap, Zoey Redbird is the main character, the heroine in this series. She has come from normal run-of-the-mill teen high school human to now, fledgling vampyre priestess. She was chosen by the goddess Nyx to be a vessel for her to get rid of evil and bring back her children to her. Each time something big occurs and Zoey saves her friends, or for that matter, the world, she gains these beautiful tattoos all over her body. The goddess Nyx gives these tattoos to identify her touch or her choosing of a fledgling. The more markings a fledgling receives, the closer they are to becoming a vampyre or priest/priestess.

The series left us with Zoey Redbird and her circle of friends, chasing off the immortal Kalona and the evil priestess Nefret. The last battle she faced almost killed her grandmother and her boy friend of interest, Stark.

In "Tempted”, we get to see more of Stevie Rae, now a red vampyre, and her red fledglings. We see a lot of Zoey POV and Stevie Rae POV. In this book, it is Stevie Rae's turn to keep secrets from Zoey.

Stevie Rae, having a new take on life, finds a Raven Mocker and realizes that he is part human. Therefore, she attempts to save his life and keep him from all her friends.

While all recover from the battle with Kalona, Zoey learns more of the location of Kalona and Neferet. Her pursuit takes her and her circle to Italy where Zoey must appear before the Vampyre council. While there, something happens to Zoey that was very disconcerting to me. Major cliffhanger!! I need the next book now because I am worried about Zoey & Stevie Rae!

Overall, I the book read quickly. Too quickly. I felt like this was a Part 1 to a multi-part book. I hate to have things left hanging.

...I'm watching for the next book!

Seeing Twilight Saga New Moon **SPOILER ALERT**

Most who follow me on Twitter, or even here on my blog, know that I flew up to Idaho to visit my bff @Needsntrvention. We took the weekend to see New Moon.

I believe it was either Tuesday or Wednesday of last week that I was told my by @Needsntrvention that she was able to get tickets to see the first movie, "Twilight" just before the midnight show of New Moon! I was excited on more than one level. First, that meant we wouldn't have to stand out in the cold waiting to see New Moon and second, there'd be a little bit of a reminder to what was sure to come in New Moon... Not that Twilight was that good of a movie...but my imagination understood where it was going.

I flew in on Thursday and anxiously awaited the shows. We went to the liquor store to buy booze for AFTER the movies cuz I really didn't want to be blerry eyed for NM... HOWEVER, I did buy one small bottle of Stoli just for my soda in the theater. I should have had two... Who knew.

My bff & I shared my soda w Stoli during Twilight... It was good but not enough... Hence I remembered I didn't want to be drunk...

We were surprised to see that there were not as many teens in the theater but a lot of 20 + adults. Amazingly too, there were a lot of men in there... I suppose they were trying to earn their "Chick Flick" points! Haha!

When scenes of naked flesh shown brightly on the screen you could hear the screaming... I think I flushed when jailbait removed his shirt to wipe the blood from Bella's head. Holy cow that took my breath away!

Ok, here are SOME of my thoughts on the movie. There is no particular order of fascination... yet!

1. First and foremost this was the best fucking movie! I loved just about everything about it! I felt it followed the book very well and I also think that director Chris Weitz captured the feeling of the characters that was written in the book. Thank you Chris Weitz. *in case you Google yourself* (I do... why shouldn't you! JS)
2. I loved the SFX with the vampires. They moved much more cleanly and it looked more realistic for vampire speed. I really loved the blur effect during the fight scenes!
3. I really loved the transformation of the wolves! SFX there were phenomenal! I have to say that I've seen enough werewolf slow mo transformations to last a lifetime, so to just see the wolves POOF become wolves was excellent! Watching their clothes just shred... can I say... I wouldn't mind seeing more of that! GAH!
4. I felt that Kristen Stewart *in case you Google yourself too* did an exceptional job as well. In the first movie I felt she stuttered way too much and was limited in her emotional acting, but in this one she seemed more real to me and not brain damaged. I loved the way she looked overall. That's probably how I would dress given that I am more tomboy than lady... LOL JS
5. I really truly loved the seeing the nomad vampire Victoria (played by Rachelle LeFevre). She was sexier than ever... her hair was more red than I've ever seen it... It portrayed the Victoria I envisioned from the books much better. Seeing her running from wolves and leaping into the ocean made my breath hitch... I am really glad they put the scene of Victoria swimming toward Bella too.
6. Bella's cliff jump was very well mastered. Seeing her there with Edward along side was an Awww moment. I really felt for Bella as she took off her jacket and bracelets to jump in when she began talking to Edward who wasn't really there.
7. I felt so sorry for Jacob. Every fucking time he tried to kiss Bella he got cock blocked! Never got a kiss in once! Poor puppy.
8. The notorious kissing scene next to the truck did NOTHING for me! I was so disappointed. There was NO TONGUE! Like @Needsntrvention said, you can only watch then roll their lips together so much ... there was just nothing but lip rolling and moans... albeit the moans were nice... they just made me wanting so much more! YES, I know the rating was PG-13...
9. Of course there is the scene of the race to Volturi ... I would have loved to have seen more to that part of the movie... In the book, Alice had a few visions that lead her to the outcome. It also gave Alice and Bella more time to get to know each other. I would have preferred to see Alice choosing her car to steal too.. That was a minor point, but I think it would have added to some of the angst to getting there.
10. Seeing Bella race to the Clock tower and finally pushing Edward out of the sunlight was the most spectacular I think. The kiss in that scene was the most touching and promising! I saw some tongue in that scene. Of course, not enough...but it was a good scene. It got me all tingly... js!
11. The last scene...I'm not EVEN saying it... but I melted in my seat and have already made plans for June 30th 2010!

On Saturday, we went a second time! This time we went to the "Digital" viewing of the show and we took teenagers with us. The teens really did an excellent job of containing themselves. They did MUCH better than I did! I was probably not the best example. However, when Jacob took his shirt off, I peeked at the teens.. Yep they melted and swooned and gasped and bounced in their chairs... LMAO!

I am going again with MY teenager boys this week and hubs prolly next week... Very excited for that! However, I hope to be careful not to embarrass myself in front of them all.

Just Hours Away...

I'm just hours away from flying to Idaho for a visit to @Needsntrvention for the New Moon opening night. I know I am really excited to go, just hope she's as excited to have me visit. In real life she's the busiest damned woman I have ever known... That's saying a lot cuz I know quite a few who do football, baseball, Scouts, etc..but they pale next to her.

Today, she surprised the hell out of me and told me that the theater there is also playing "Twilight" before New Moon & would I be interested? HELL TO THE YEAH I told her! She told me that she got the tickets & we were going!!! I am really excited about that because that means we won't have to wait in the fuckin' cold to get in... HOWEVER, she's got mom duties before Twilight so we MIGHT be late... I don't really care about that... I'm cool. I'm like a lost puppy with her... hang out, do whatever while she gets shit done. Sometimes I think its helpful cuz I try to buffer the kids a bit. But I am sure that most of the time, I'm a lump in the proverbial road to accomplishing stuff. *grin*

My flight leaves at 9:10 am from Tucson, takes 1 hr 5 mins to get to Phoenix (takes 1 hr 30 mins by car). There is like a 45 min layover in Phoenix & then off to Idaho!

Cheers all! Enjoy your Edward, Jacob, Bella face time, in theaters beginning Friday, November 20th at midnight. To me, that's tomorrow night *Thursday's night*!!!

One Week To Go Until New Moon Opening Night

The anticipation of making me wait to see New Moon is so very frustrating! Twitterdom is a flurry with people feeling the same as me. All the publicity of Rob Pattinson,  Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner... (Why do I struggle to remember their names... I just want to call them Edward, Bella & Jacob.) Pictures are floating everywhere... videos go up... blogs are a flurry as well.

I am so inundated with stuff to do... my head is spinning. (Yes, I looked for an animated pic of Linda Blair with her head spinning... Yuck!) It's now Sunday & I fly out on Thursday to be with my best friend for opening night up in Idaho. I am so excited to go. However, there is a TON of shit that needs to happen before I go.

Since I home school the chillin's, I have to make sure they have work to do... Hubs is taking days off so that's good.. then I have to make sure everyone's got clean clothes cuz we know men just don't understand washing machines. Well, let's just say they don't know to put reds with darks and white underwear with whites. *grin* At least my boys know how to do their only clothes...

Then I have to make sure there is food for the beasts .... don't want them eating chips, popcorn, and ice cream the whole time. Or eating pizza and fast food every meal...YUCK!

I finally bought my luggage... I had luggage, but it's falling apart & also doesn't have wheels. It's a bitch hauling my ass across the terminals with a suitcase, backpack, and laptop... NO WHEELS... I told my hubs that I needed new luggage. So I just got a 5-pc set WITH wheels.

So, now I get to go fishing in my clothes basket for stuff to take... Yes, I said fish... I hardly EVER put clean clothes away. It's actually pretty funny when I do decide to put things away, hubs gets so lost. "Where's my clothes!" he'll holler at 6 in the morning while I'm trying to get my beauty rest.  "Did you try the closet." I respond... *thinking now shut the fuck up*

Ahh... I need music...

Obviously... I'm so distracted... I can't finish this post. I've sat here for hours Tweeting (yes, I'm addicted. Aren't you?), playing music, and trying to remember what the hell I thought was so damned important to put in my blog... *midas shrug*

I've never seen my twitter stream so busy as it was tonight. But I'm better now... Whew!

My best friend has arranged for us to see the 12:02am show on Nov 20th.. (apparently the 12:00am show was sold out). I am very excited not only to see the movie, but also to see my bff. It's been about a 1 1/2 years since the last time...and even though I speak to her everyday, I still miss her.

After that, we're hoping to have a nice visit with some wine drinking, tweeting, an pure randomness. We'll see. She's got a house full so we'll just have to play by ear. Maybe I'll get drunk & she'll be the responsible one... I hope not. No fun drinking alone.

I come back home on Sunday, hopefully not too hungover... I face the "music" with my boys after that... one of them is mad that he can't come to see the movie with me. So I'll probably take them the following week.

Well, I am signing off this thing for the night... need to get back to my shit load of stuff to do.

First Experiences

Over the past couple months I have stepped into a lot of first experiences. Over the past couple of weeks I've wanted to put together a fan made video of Eric Northman from True Blood. I love the Sookie Stackhouse series as well as the HBO True Blood series. I had several people encourage me to give it a try, @truebldtwilight being the biggest...er... instigator... and @80slovertiff not far behind... There are others too.. you know who you are!

Anyway, using every excuse I could think of, I dragged my feet until finally I took a deep breath and decided to make this video for myself. I hate not finishing something... Also, I am trying to encourage another to write fanfiction *wink* and had to prove my own advice.

So without further ado, here it is... Please comment.

Are You Addicted to Twitter?

This evening, I was flipping through Google looking for various things, you know, the usual stuff... pictures of Rob Pattinson, or Alex Skarsgard (both my very favorite vampires). Of course, at this point in time there are NO NEW pics. So, I cruise over to YouTube to find something smutty or endearing...anything. Each time I find something I send a little tweet... You KNOW what that is, otherwise you wouldn't be here. You send a micro blog (140 characters) of whatever piece of information that you feel is important. Of course, you're like most of us, we just KNOW there are people out there who really want to see this stuff...yeah, right.

OK, so I began to wonder, do I have a Twitter addiction? So I started searching the Internet to find out if I have an addiction to Twitter... I know I have many obsessions... but is Twitter one? Well, here are some things I found. These are in no particular order. And yes, I'm addicted to Twitter. I will tweet that this blog post is up.

1. You're obsessed with how many followers you have or don't have and possess a master plan for getting your numbers up.

2. You've got regular Twitter, Tweet Deck, and Twitter Mobile for complete uninterrupted professional tweeting.

3. You’ve learned how to ration out your rate limit.

   You have 10-calls left to the API & it doesn't reset for another 45 minutes...yeah. You know what you have to do here but you’re jumpy. Edgy. You need to know what people are tweeting. You hate feeling left out. Boom. You blow your twitter load. See you in 45 minutes, Dumbass.

4. You’ve used the phrase "I Should Tweet That."

   In real life, you’ve told someone or made a mental note to yourself that you should tweet about something. Worse, you’ve pulled out your phone and tweeted it while talking to someone.

5. You Judge People On Their Following/Follower Count.

   [Some Wannabe] follows you.
   You don’t know anything about [Some Wannabe].
   You take a look at their image.
   They look nice enough.
   You take a look at their bio.
   Look! [Some Wannabe] likes "Vampire" books. Very Cool!
   Then you look at [Some Wannabe’s] following/follower count.
   1,237 following, 15 followers.
   Fuck [Some Wannabe], geez.
   Meanwhile, [Some Wannabe's] a nice person who just doesn’t know Twitter convention. Yet hundreds of people have told him to f-off in their minds.
   Am I right?
   That’s why [Some Wannabe's] reading books or some other shit and crying all over themselves right now.

6. When Twitter Goes Down You Spiral Emotionally.

   The strongest sign of Twitter addiction is when it’s taken away from you. Like, first thing in the morning, every weekday, you log on and nothing happens. And when you see the Fail Whale, what do you do? You start thinking of what you’re going to tweet.
   
   OMG people! #twitterfail! fail fail.
   
   ~ OR ~
   
   Twitter's being a whore #twitterfail #fail
   
   Yeah.
   
   For sure, Twitter fixed itself, adjusting to the dynamically growing, near impossible need for bandwidth just so you can drop that tweet. Yeah, your special.
   
   That nectar of intellect.
   
   Because that’s what we needed.

7. You wake at 3am & wonder which of your "friends" (*whispers* friends you've never really met) is on Twitter.

8. You find yourself thinking in 140 characters or less, even at dinner when you’re listening how to shorten down someones sentences that may be funny to others.

9. You are a walking thesaurus of Twitter acronyms - HT’s, RT’s, WTF’,s FTW!

10. Refer to people in public as "@their_name" regularly and don't correct it.

11. You find yourself pitching Twitter any chance you get, to friends, family …anyone that will listen.

12. You get all excited that someone added you to #FollowFriday or #FF.

13. You #FollowFriday or #FF everyone you follow even if it takes all Friday to do it because you want those you follow to know you love them.

14. You retweet constantly. In fact, you'll probably retweet this post.

I found these Twitter videos for fun...

Drop me a comment of other ways you can tell your addicted to Twitter... Better yet, tweet me!

Special Service Announcement #beatcancer

We all know that cancer is a very deadly disease... and sorrowfully, it's taken loved ones from our lives. I have lost a grandfather to cancer and I have an aunt and cousin who have had to deal with breast cancer. There are others in my family that have battled it as well.

It is important that we take this seriously!

#BeatCancer has taken on a huge effort/experiment with the Social Media and Everywhere, a social media communications and content company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Their idea was to take a 24-hr period of time, starting Friday, October 16th at 9 am (PDT) and lasting until Saturday, October 17th at 9am (PDT) people all over the internet stratosphere will be asked to send tweets and Facebook status updates and to blog using #BeatCancer in their posts. Ebay/Paypal and MillerCoors Brewing Company would donate a penny ($0.01)* for every Twitter message, Facebook update or blog post that includes the phrase #BeatCancer.

Now, I've heard that Ebay/Paypal and MillerCoors Brewing Company are attempt a Guinness Book of World records...Well, I hope they make it... and I hope they end up donating a lot toward the cause... It's important for all of us!

I'm helping to raise funds to
#beatcancer, by blogging, tweeting
and posting Facebook status
updates.

Click here to join me!

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

I finished book #4, "Blood Promise," in the Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy series. Yay!

I started this series only a few months ago after reading through other Vampire series books. It was difficult at first to delve into this series only because it is a Young Adult series. If you read anything on this blog, you will know that I don't really get into the teen angst crap. However, this had it's place.

In this series, the world as we know it has Moroi Vampires (living vampires who wield powers from air, earth, water, fire, and spirit, who still require blood in their diets, and for the most part are peaceful), Dhampirs (offspring of one Vampire and one human or Dhampir parent), and Strigoi (dead Vampires, created by either a Moroi who killed or by another Strigoi and can no longer wield their earthly powers). Of course there are humans that have no clue of any of these others.

The Moroi and Dhampirs are sent to academies for they school lives. The Moroi are trained in their earthly power whereas the Dhampirs are trained to protect and defend the Moroi. They are so strong that they are trained to be bodyguards to the Moroi, against the Strigoi. They are both trained in the same academies together. But they are trained on two different tracks.

This whole series centers around Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and her very close friend Moroi Princess Vasilisa (Lissa) Dragomir, the last of her line of royalty. Rose is this feisty, teenager who always gets into trouble and tends to draw Lissa into that trouble. Actually, trouble follows her everywhere.

We find out that Lissa's has a special gift or power. It is not the same as other Moroi. In fact, there are very few Moroi that have this gift of Spirit. With this gift, Lissa was able to bring Rose back from death in a very tragic traffic accident. However, if this has it's interesting effects between them. Now, Rose and Lissa are bonded together and Rose can feel all of Lissa's emotions and can slip into her thoughts without wanting to. This can be a problem when Lissa falls in love a with fellow student and royal, Christian.

During the first 3 books, Rose becomes entangled in a forbidden romance with her instructor & fellow bodyguard, Dimitri. Of course, she doesn't want to tell her best friend of this romance because she fears it will cause Lissa problems. So, she keeps it all a secret until one day, St Vladamir Academy is attacked by Strigoi where Rose is the first to sense the attack. She informs Dimitri, this godlike bodyguard, of the attack. During this battle, Dimitri is captured by Strigoi and then turned. Rose hopes that Lissa can save him, but Lissa refuses for several reasons... 1. He's now Strigoi, and 2. Rose never confided in her about her romance. Her feelings were hurt (teenage angst)... So now there's a riff between the two girls and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa – the one she has sworn to protect no matter what – and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make.

In "Blood Promise," Rose sets out to find Dimitri and kill him... again.

You have to understand that for Rose to take on this feat, she must not only find, but kill Dimitri. Dimitri has always been stronger than her and now he's Strigoi, which means, now he's even stronger. Rose is so friggin in love with Dimitri that she is uncertain of herself.

The setting of "Blood Promise" is in Dimitri's home country, Siberia. Rose goes to his home town, meets his family and inadvertently ends up telling his family that he was overtaken by Strigoi. Rose is accepted by his family as family, but Rose realizes this is not the place for her. She recaptures her goal to find Dimitri and put him at peace. In her journey she does find other Strigoi, which she quickly kills... she also finds other Dhampirs like herself who are not blood promised and whose goal is only to kill Strigoi... Finally she finds Dimitri....

Now, I have a tendency to prattle on and on about books I read...thus giving away too much. I am not going to do that here. You'll have to read this series yourself.

I will say this...I found these books exciting to read and got myself hooked enough to want to keep going. However, if I were to rate this series against all the others I've read, I would rate this 3 1/2 stars out of 5.