Kricket's Happy Korner: A Slice of My Life

Hello lovely readers and welcome to the first episode of Kricket's Happy Korner! This is where I share the stuff that made me grin or laugh or whatever happy response you prefer. Let's get started shall we?

To start things off, I'm grateful for long weekends where I get to have Daniel home for an extra day and we all get to play together as a family.

Ke$ha's new CD. I've been listening to it non-stop for like a week. It's a great mix of peepy and soulful songs and it just makes me grin and want to dance or sing along when I listen to it.

So You Think You Can Dance is pretty much the best competition show on TV. Who wants to watch mediocre singers stand on a stage when you can watch amazing dancers fly across one? I mean really. Also, way better than Dancing With the Stars because these dancers actually know what the hell they're doing and they're damn good at it too.

I've become addicted to this game on my Kindle Fire called Dragon Story. It's a game were you hatch, raise and breed pretty dragons. The dragon designs are great and very diverse. I find it great fun, but I'm pretty easily amused.

And now for a book review. :)

I'm giving Mockingjay 4 Stars. I really liked it, and felt it was a good ending to the series. Not a happy ending but a real one. I've read other's reviews and understand some of the negative ones but I like that this story didn't end happy for Katniss. At least not fairy tale happy. It's more real. Some reviewers wanted her to be a super hero, but she's not really, she's just a 17 year old girl trying to survive and sometimes only kind of succeeding. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the movies.

I am a big fan of Felicia Day and she just launched a new YouTube channel called Geek & Sundry Vlogs and on it is one vlogger who talks about comics. I'm kind of new to comics and Amy Dallen does a good job of introducing the world of comics to people. Also, she's kind of cute as a button. Here is the first video. You should check out the rest of the channel as well, it's nothing but geek stuff.

And that's all for now, friends! *reads over blog* Yep, that kind of sums up my life and all the things I like to do.

So tell me, what makes you happy? Is there something new you've discovered that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. *hint hint nudge nudge*

Have a happy start to your week!

Kranky Kricket: The First Scream

Welcome to the first edition of Kranky Kricket, where I whine a little and y'all get to be my sounding board. :)

Okay then, everyone ready? Deep breath in, and SCREAM!

Being sick really sucks. So does figuring out that your old favorite way to sleep is bad for your neck and is why you wake up stiff every morning. Of course this is a new development. I strained my neck somehow a week or two ago and now I wake up hardly being able to move it. It gets better after being awake for a while and moving it around, but it's back the next day.

I know I should go to the chiropractor but as it is with insurance right now, it'd cost $40 a visit. And if you've ever been to a chiropractor you know it's nearly impossible to go just once a month. They always start with at least weekly visits, if not more. I really like my chiropractor, I'm just poor at the moment since we just had to pay for new glasses for William out of pocket.

And that's a whole other issue. I was taking him to one eye doctor that prescribed bi-focals for Will. I was skeptical at first but we still tried them for a month. Will spent the whole time wearing them on the tip of his nose so he could look over them. After determining that the eye doctor was on crack I found a new one. New eye doctor is much more competent.

Alas, we have already bought one pair of glasses this year, so insurance is not going to cover a second pair for him. $387 for a pair of kids glasses. I can't even imagine how much money my parents spent on glasses for me.

In other things that made me frustrated, not having internet. I'll admit it, I'm a slave to my computer and all my devices that connect me to the internet, so when that goes away, I feel a little lost. And I don't consider my self that addicted, honest.

But then the other thing is when you call the internet provider company about it, all you get is robot answering machines and then it has the audacity to tell you what websites you can go to to find out about local outages. Well now, if I could get ON THE INTERNET I wouldn't be calling you now would I?

So there's my gripes for the week. Tell me what's been bugging you this week in the comments! It's good to get these things out so we can all enjoy the weekend a little more.

Thanks for reading and have a Happy Friday!

The New Plan

Hello Wonderful Readers! Thanks for being patient while I tinkered with my blogs, I hope you find it worth your time. :)

So, along with a slightly new look, notice the background change and a few new things on the side, there is also going to be a new line up of content that I will stick to like it's a new religion. If you really love me, and I know you do, you should be excited for a chance to hear from me 3 TIMES A WEEK! Crazy, right? Yeah, I'm crazy.

Here is the New Schedule:

MONDAY: "Kricket's Happy Korner" I'm a real believer in the power of positive thinking (think happy thoughts and you can fly Peter Pan!). Also, I'm a fan of reminding my self of all the things I have to be thankful for. Sometimes the world is full of so much crazy and negative things and you just need a pick me up. And what day do we need that most? Monday. So I'll be writing about things that make me happy and what I'm thankful for in the past week.

WEDNESDAY: "What's Up Wednesday" This will continue over on Kricket Writes. I've been doing it for about two months now and I like it. In WUW I give word count updates on my current projects and other general writing observations. I'll also be sharing an excerpt of something I wrote that week and sometimes sharing interesting/insightful writing news/advice.

FRIDAY: "Kranky Kricket" Because we can't be happy all the time and sometimes you just need to let some things go. So here I'll be purging all the things that annoyed me over the week so I can be unburdened for the weekend. You're welcome to come join me as I scream into the void just for the pleasure of hearing it echo back to us.

I'll still be doing book reviews, if I liked the book, it'll pop up on Monday, if I didn't like it, you'll see it on Friday.

And there you have it. I am very serious about sticking to this new schedule and if I slip up, you're allowed to be angry with me. So please, come along with me and leave comments, I LOVE comments! Let's remind ourselves that we're not alone in the great big thing that we call The Internet/The World.

Happy Monday!

P.S. I wrote this a few days ago and now remember that today is Memorial Day here in the USA. So thank you to all the wonderful and brave men and women who serve to protect this country and have helped to provide the freedoms that I take for granted everyday.

Special shout out to my brother who served in the Navy! :)

Work Being Done

So last night I came up with some ideas to put some life back into my blog.

I know, I'm always coming up with new schedules and swearing that I'll stick to them, but this time, I Think I've got it. :)

Thus, for the next week or so, I'll be overhauling both of my blogs. So I'll just but this sign here:

And everything should be up and running nicely next week. Have a good week!

Book Review: Catching Fire

(as usual, everything is from Amazon)

4 STARS

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

~~~

Well, like with The Hunger Games, I'm a little late in reading this. And as with the first book, the thing that got me to pick it up was the movie trailer.

I think I liked this book more than the first one. I like political intrigue and sometimes I wish we could have seen more of that in this book. It looks like the movie will show us more of that so I'm excited to see it.

I found Katniss even more believable in this book than the first one. She's still in survival mode and now she's even more torn between Peeta and Gale, as well as torn between whether or not she should be in love with anyone at all. It's nice too see a love triangle like this where the girl isn't always consumed with lovey dovey thoughts.

I'm also impressed with the characterization of the other side characters. They're fleshed out nicely and I hope we get to see more of them in Mockingjay.

Oddly enough, Catching Fire has drawn me in more than The Hunger Games did. So I'll be reading Mockingjay soon. 

Potty Training & Advice

NOTE: I apologize to any of my readers who aren't parents or who just don't care about this kind of stuff. You can always check out The Writing Blog. :)

We have made a great big step in potty training this week. William is consistently pooping in the potty and hasn't had any accidents of any kind in almost a week. Trust me, a week is a long time in Potty Training Land.

When I started potty training (and I say the rest of this as someone who's still in the thick of it, this stuff ain't over by any means) I did a ton of research about when to know your child is ready and how to go about it and all that jazz. And the one thing I saw repeated over and over is to trust your instincts.

There are some other basics to getting started. Like:

A. Be sure your child can communicate well. There's a lot of explaining that needs to be done. Your child should be able to understand you and vise-versa.

B. Persistence  Once you start, don't give up. Take breaks if you need to, if you or your toddler is just too stressed out by the whole thing. But don't give up.

C. And as I said, trust your instincts. You know your child better than anyone else. You'll know when they're ready and you'll know what strategy will work best to help them learn.

The strategy we've used for Will has been pretty straight forward. In the beginning I had (still have) a potty seat in the living room and I'd make him sit on it ever half hour or so. Every 15 minutes kind of drove me crazy. We also spent a few days running around commando so he didn't have the security of going in his pants.

Once he went in the potty properly we celebrated and rewarded him with cookies. Will loves cookies. After a while he began to understand that going potty=cookies and began to go as often as possible.

Learning to poop took a little longer. We began using a chart to mark when he went potty and when he had accidents. I think that was more for me than him, but he likes getting stars. And then I began not letting him do anything in the morning until he pooped in the potty. Again he went pantless. Will loves his TV time in the morning and was willing to do whatever it took to get his TV.

It did not take long. Within a day he got the idea and being rewarded with TWO cookies after pooping is the best!

So now, my next step is to get the potty seat from the living room to the bathroom. Will's going to miss being able to watch shows and potty at the same time, but that's what books are for!

In other kid news, Jacob now has two teeth and is this close to walking on his own. I'm kind of freaking out about having two little ones walking around. Things were easier when Jacob couldn't move much.

And that's what my life has been consumed with lately.

Thanks for reading! Happy Thursday!

Book Review: Blackbirds

Picture and information taken from Amazon

4 STARS

Miriam Black knows when you will die.

Still in her early twenties, she's foreseen hundreds of car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, suicides, and slow deaths by cancer. But when Miriam hitches a ride with truck driver Louis Darling and shakes his hand, she sees that in thirty days Louis will be gruesomely murdered while he calls her name.

Miriam has given up trying to save people; that only makes their deaths happen. But Louis will die because he met her, and she will be the next victim. No matter what she does she can't save Louis. But if she wants to stay alive, she'll have to try.

~~~

About a month ago I discovered Chuck Wendig on Twitter and through his pretty awesome blog. I really like his no nonsense writing advice. Then, a couple weeks ago, this happened:

So I took his advice and bought a copy. 

I'd like to start this review with a warning that this book is pretty much rated NC-17. It's graphic, vulgar and intense. But obviously, I still liked it.

At first, I wasn't so sure. And it wasn't the grittiness that threw me off, it was the writing style. This is written in present tense, which isn't very common in fiction (at least that I've read), so it took my a while to get into it. Also, Mirriam is a rambler when she talks, and thinks. At first the writer part of my brain was dying to pull out my Big Red Pen and start cutting this thing down to size. I mean, really, do we need five different ways to describe the same thing? I swear at one point, she uses a dozen different foul words to describe one person. It made me roll my eyes a bit.

But, as I kept reading I got used to it and realized there's a certain poetry to it. And that's what saved the book for me. As much as Wendig's style threw me off, it was so masterfully done I ended up enjoying it.

The other thing that docked this book a star was the ending. It was good, but I knew from the beginning that was how the story would end. I won't say much more for fear of spoiling it. It's just one of those things that you think, "Well of course that's how it's going to end because other wise this would be a really crappy book."

And the main character, Mirriam, is the best part of this, despite the rambling. She's well rounded, complex and intense. Being in her head is a strange joy and I believe I'll be visiting again soon.

Overall, if you like wonderful characters, an interesting story and don't mind a little foul language, sex and gore then you should like this book.