My Favorite Books

I love reading. It's probably on of my favorite things to do. Like ever. 

I know I have a list of my favorite books/series/authors on the sidebar of my blog, but I want to expand on my list. I want to tell everyone why these are my favorite books. 

Harry Potter: I think everyone knows what this is.
Super fun story. This is actually one of the first book series I got into. And this is one I have re-read again and again. 

Schooled: Basically a hippie kid gets stuck at regular school and is voted in for the eighth grade president. 
This book is so funny and super cute. It's definitely for a younger audience, but this is one of the books that I have read multiple times, and that's something that I rarely do. All the kids in the school are fabulous in their own way, and even the bullies turn out to be alright in the end. 

Princess of the Midnight Ball: This book is a spin off of the 12 dancing princesses. (I did a web series on this one, and I'm working on the other books in the series)
It's a cute love story. Also it's just a fun story in general. I fell in love with all of the princesses and Galen. I loved how unique each princess is, even though there are 12 of them. It's hard to make them all different, yet, somehow, Jessica Day George pulled it off. Each princess has something different about them that makes them really easy to bring to life and characterize (at least from a director/actor's point of view). 

The Lynburn Legacy: Imaginary friend turns out to be real...and he can do magic.
This series is so cool. It's so intense at some parts, and it has some cute love stories thrown in there. I can't describe how much I loved these books when I read them. Just read them, they're the best thing that ever happened to me. Seriously. 

The Raven Boys: Guy is looking for a king from the 16oo's. Also, his friend is pretty cool.
Super intense, great plot. Lots of stuff you didn't see coming. And all that jazz. (But be careful, there is some vulgar language.) Super, super good book, and really well written. 

Falling Kingdoms: Evil king and lots of people conspiring against him.
Probably my very favorite book series I have picked up in a while. Super intense plot and really excellently written. A bunch of plot twists no one expected. And the author loves to kill people. Like, all the time. It's so fabulous. "Oh, you thought that person was important? Not anymore!"

Rick Riordan:
Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus: (Way better than the movie...) Son of the Sea God and all the jazz that happens.
It's a super fun story. It's so funny. Craziness happens. I'm the biggest fangirl there is. It's so great. The story is captivating at every turn. It's also excellently written. 

Trials of Apollo: God turned to mortal.
This book comes after the Heroes of Olympus series. So funny. And a lot of stuff happens no one was expecting. There is only one book out so far, but it's great, and super funny. Did I mention funny? Also, Connor Stoll. I feel so bad for him, but no spoilers. 

Magnus Chase: Dead kid's adventure in the afterlife.
Just like everything else by Riordan, this series is super funny. Magnus also has the best sword, like ever. I think Jack is my favorite character. Well, either him or Thor. It's great.  

(Before you ask, no I have not read the Kane Chronicles...but I'm going to. Probably.)

Bunnies

Yesterday, my family decided to get bunnies. 


Jess and I went to a bunny yoga class with a sister from our ward. There were a couple of little bunnies who needed a foster family for a while. Jess and I both looked at each other and then at those cute, cute little bunnies. That's when we knew.

We knew we were going to be the foster family. They were absolutely adorable. 

Guess what? We are now fostering them. 

We may only have them until June, but some time is better than no time, right?

Itsy (back) and Ivy (front)

Strawberry Pecan Muffins

May I just say, I love Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix (gluten-free, of course). 

This morning, I decided (while I was supposed to be doing my English homework) I wanted to make some muffins, so I just followed the recipe on the back of the mix. 

I was a little dubious about the recipe--it didn't even contain sugar--and I wasn't sure about the mixture of almond flour, pecans, and strawberries. Yet in the end they turned out fabulous. They were soooooo good, I even surprised myself by how yummy they were. 

I honestly thought they wouldn't turn out so fabulously. I ate two, not gonna lie. 

(This is mostly the recipe found on the back of the mix, different from the one found on the website, though)

1 1/4 c Pamela's Baking & Pancake Mix

1 egg

1/4 c water

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1/3 c honey

1/4 c chopped pecans

1/2 c strawberries

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine all ingredients and spoon the mixture into greased muffin tin until 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes. 

Yields 6 muffins

I found I liked the chopped pecans a little on the large side, otherwise they just blend into the texture of the rest of the mix. I also liked the strawberries on the smaller side, so they weren't too big. 

They taste excellent straight from the oven or cooled down. Either way, they were excellent and I was very pleased with the way they turned out. Next time, I'm going to make a double batch, that way my entire family can eat one, and I can still have two. (I didn't even have any left to take a picture of before they were devoured.)

When Life Kicks You in the Face

My day started out okay. Well...I woke up a little late, and breakfast wasn't made gluten free, so I peeled an orange and my mom fried some eggs for me. Daddy read scriptures to us at the table because we ran out of time to read them together.

Jess and I didn't get out the door until 6:35--fifteen minutes later than we were supposed to. I had to hurry and grab some snacks for lunch.

I got to seminary a little late, but in time to lead the song, as always. Seminary was good; it wasn't until later that it really started going wrong.

I had AP Lang today, and so school started out rough, as it always does when I have that class. It wasn't terrible, we just had a test. That I didn't finish. And I mean, Ms. S lets us finish our tests in I.C., but lots of people got done with their tests, but I couldn't think of enough pictures or literary characters as examples.

But in Spanish it got really bad. We started a new unit, so we got a bunch of new vocabulary, as I was expecting. We did take the unit test for the previous unit on Wednesday. But it seemed like everyone picked up on the new words so fast--and I couldn't.

The unit is on health and food and such. I was trying to explain to my teacher that I don't usually exercise a lot because I don't want to break myself. When she asked what I was breaking, I said "me," but that wasn't what she was looking for apparently. She was looking for "yoga is relaxing" or "I like stretching" or something along those lines. But it was really hard to explain to her that I have a chronic illness, so I cannot exercise--when I do, I usually end up in pain for a long time.

Also, my partner who I sit next to, who I am supposed to have lots of conversations with (in Spanish, of course), is really condescending. She is a native speaker, so she is naturally more gifted at Spanish than I am. I was trying the best I could to have a good conversation with her, but she always looks at me like she's better than I am, not just at Spanish, but as a person in general.

As I tried to converse with her with my very limited vocabulary, she kept giving off that I'm-better-than-you-let's-get-this-over-with kind of vibe. To anyone who has not had that experience, be grateful, it's not pleasant.

Basically, I was near tears at the end of Spanish class, and I actually did shed a couple tears while I was standing at my locker getting my lunch. My friends made me feel a little bit better, but it still wasn't pleasant with the Spanish class incident so fresh in my brain, burned to the front of my mind.

So just to recap. Today was horrible: it was full of feelings of inadequacy and tears.

Luckily, Mom got my text I sent her at lunch telling her to come get me. So she did. And I left school and hung out at Jo-Ann's for a little bit. I received a $20 gift card for my birthday, so I decided to use it. I bought some earring hooks and some charms to go on them. My favorite ones are the scissors. Because, why not? So now I have two pairs of scissor earrings.

My day got better, but I'm just glad I was able to some home to a loving mother. I'm glad that my grandma knows me so well, she gave me a Jo-Ann's gift card that I was able to use today to give me a pick me up.

You know what would make this day a lot better? Ice cream...

Why Not?

Why not make a blog?                 Why not have some fun? 

I like to...write. 

I probably won't write,             a lot, but just for   fu n, right?

Okay? Gre at!! I'll get ba ck to this     e ven tu al ly...