Another read and review: The Hunger Games

I told you I had book ADD. This book snuck to the front of my reading since I borrowed it from a friend.

The Hunger Games sort of reminded me of The Giver and Fahrenheit 451, which also takes place in the future about a civilization living under strict government rules. It is the first of a series of three books.

This book is about a civilization called Panem in the future on the North American continent. The US, Canada, and Mexico cease to exist after all but destroying themselves by war.

Panem is divided into 12 districts surrounding the Capitol. Each district has a certain industry, such as factories, gem mining, agriculture, etc. Actually there were 13, but the 13th district disobeyed strict rules made by the government and was destroyed. The main character, Katniss is from district 12, one of the poorest districts, whose industry is coal mining. When her father is killed in a mining accident she is able to help her family survive by sneaking out of the district boundaries to go hunting and gathering.

To remind the remaining districts the dire consequences of war, they introduced the Hunger Games. A boy and a girl called tributes are chosen once a year from each district, 24 in all to fight each other to the death until only one is remaining and named the winner. All of this is televised for the whole civilization to watch.

Tributes from the wealthier districts are actually trained for this event, and it is a great pride for the families to have their child selected. For the poor districts, this is an immediate death sentence. The winner and his/her family is rewarded with a life of luxury.

For a week before the Hunger Games, all the tributes are waited upon hand and foot, given the best food, clothing and training. At the beginning, there are opening ceremonies glamorizing the tributes. In a way it reminded me of the Olympics ceremonies.

Katniss and her teammate Peeta are overwhelmed by being so spoiled by rich food and attendants at their beck and call. But there is still an overwhelming nervousness of what is to come. They have an advisor, you could call him, who was a previous winner of the games from district 12. He is all but useless to Katniss and Peeta, since he is bitter and drunk all the time.

Somehow, he manages to give them useful tidbits from time to time before they are released into a huge "arena" which seems more like a giant stretch of wild land. Cameras watch their every move and announcements can be made for all the players to hear. Each night the pictures of the fallen players are displayed on a large screen over the arena. Each district has "sponsors" who can send supplies to the players need during the game.

Katniss is able to survive with a few supplies provided, and goes as far away from the starting point as she can get. She is very good at hunting and gathering from her experiences before the games, and is able to use a bow and arrow and climb trees exceedingly well.

She is able to avoid much of the violence at the beginning of the games, by running and hiding. After a brief alliance with another player ends when that player is killed, there is an announcement that if the final two players from a district remain, they will both be named the winner. Katniss and Peeta eventually team up and against the odds, become the final two players. They are waiting to be released when the announcement is made that only one can be the winner. When they outsmart the game, they are both declared the winners, but the Capitol is not happy that they have been tricked. Stay tuned for book two: Catching Fire.

This book is about survival, and the relationship she has with Peeta, and the other players. I would give it a 5 out of 5, and would read it again. Can't wait for book 2!

Review for True Colors

First of all, doesn't this title just automatically make you think of the song "True Colors" by Phil Collins? Or am I the only one.

I would give this book a 4 out of 5. I'm a tough critic.

True Colors is about 3 sisters: the oldest, Aurora, the middle, Winona and the youngest, Vivi Ann.

When this book begins, the girls' mother dies. Vivi Ann is much too young to understand why their mother isn't coming back. Their father is inconsolable, and never pulls out of it.

Skip to 10 years later. Aurora is married with two kids, Winona is a successful lawyer in the small town they live in, and Vivi Ann is living with their dad on their ranch that is barely keeping above water.

Although Winona is successful in her career, she struggles with several things. She is overweight, and has never been in love. She is jealous of Vivi Ann who is the town belle, beautiful and vibrant and charming. I felt Winona's jealousy and disliked Vivi Ann myself for being so charmed never with a care in the world.

Vivi Ann is the only one who seems to be able to obtain their father's approval. She takes care of him and helps with the ranch and teaches 4-H. She meets every week with her two sisters at their favorite bar to talk and catch up.

Everything changes when Dallas Raintree moves to town. Winona has taken over the responsibility of hiring a decent ranch hand after Vivi Ann proves to be unable to hire one who will stick around, much less do any work. Winona interviews Dallas, and although he scares her, he seems to know how to work so she hires him as the new ranch hand.

Meanwhile, Winona's childhood friend/lifelong crush Luke comes back to town. To Winona's disappointment, he falls madly in love with Vivi Ann. Winona is too self-loathing and stubborn to admit to Vivi Ann (who goes through men every 5 minutes) her feelings for Luke. Instead, her jealousy festers, driving a wedge between them. Aurora, who takes a back seat in this story, tries to keep the peace, but all Winona can see is Aurora taking Vivi Ann's side.

When Winona discovers that Vivi Ann, although engaged to Luke, has been having a secret affair with Dallas, she cannot wait to get the cat out of the bag. She immediately tells Luke, and her father. Both are devastated. Their family has quite a history in this small town, and there is nothing that their father cares about more than appearances.

Vivi Ann and Luke break up, and despite the disapproval of the whole town, she marries Dallas, and they have a son. Dallas and Vivi Ann are madly in love, continue working on the ranch, and make it successful with riding events on the weekends.

Winona and Vivi Ann have been split completely apart by the betrayal, and when Dallas is accused of murdering a woman in town, Winona refuses to be Dallas' lawyer. Every one in town thinks Dallas did it, including Winona and their father. We come to find out that Dallas had a long criminal history, and he doesn't deny being involved. He feels like the system is so against him, that anything he does or says will only he held against him.

So Dallas goes to jail, and Vivi Ann is beyond heart broken. The final nail in the coffin for any remaining relationship between Winona and Vivi Ann. Aurora also all but disowns Winona for refusing to help Dallas in his trial. Appeal after appeal after appeal are put in for the release of Dallas, but to no avail. Each denied appeal crushes a little more of Vivi Ann's spirit. Dallas can't stand to see this happening to Vivi Ann, refusing to see her and finally divorces her, thinking she will move on.

Another 10 years later, Aurora is divorced, Winona is running for mayor, and Vivi Ann is preoccupied with running the ranch and raising her son, Noah, who never knew his father. Noah is often getting in fights with the other kids who make fun of his Native American heritage and put him down for his murderer father.

Despite the odds against them, Winona and Noah develop a friendship while he is working for her during the summer. One afternoon they are invited to go boating with Winona's neighbor and his daughter. Noah falls for the neighbor's daughter Cissy over the summer and begins to pull out of his teen angst. He eventually asks for Winona's help to release his father from jail.

The story ends after one more dissappointing appeal, when Winona is able to identify the true killer and Dallas is finally set free. The three sisters are reunited, as well as Vivi Ann's broken family.

Though I think the story was dragged out a little too long, I could appreciate the ups and downs that made it relatable to the ups and downs in life. I was plesantly surprised by the way the author was able to conclude the story with a realistic happy ending that lead to a closer family.

I like to ride my BIKE!

Meet my bike. My dirtbike. My KTM dirtbike. My 2009 KTM 105 dirtbike.

(Hear "Eye of the Tiger" playing in the background? I thought so.)


"It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger"



Yeah! That's me in those tough looking boots and helmet! Recently I have gone mad. Stark raving mad!! It was time to do something only a crazy woman would do. I'm going to learn how to dirtbike. YUP. Heaven help us all.

Today, I learned how to start it. Big deal, I know. I haven't gotten the rest of my protective gear yet, so I gotta stay stationary in the garage. Soon, I'll be riding through the open dirt road! Yee-haw!

Top 5 Reasons I Like to Run Races

5. Getting cool T-shirts
4. Guilt-free carb load-up the night before
3. Runner's high
2. Good feeling of soreness
1. Running with awesome friends!!

Wonders of a Woman's Purse

The Purse. Every woman has one. Whether she uses it or not may be another story, but for most of us, it's a necessity.

For me, BUYING one is no joy. I personally think some purses look so weird, that it just makes me want to run to the shoe store for comfort. (I guess that goes to show where my priorities are!) So I will waste no time giving advice I don't have about purchasing a purse.

I like to call mine the black hole. Since I refuse to spend more than $50 for a purse (and even then, I'm not sure I've spent THAT much), mine is basically a single compartment that I throw everything into, not like this expensive cotton candy colored Juicy Couture bag above. Like my contrasting picture of a black hole and cute purse?

One day, I'll learn how to integrate pictures into my blog instead of just sticking them at the top. There's a lot of things I'll do one day, right?

Anyways, my purse the black hole. I'm sure everyone can relate to how impressive it is how much stuff we can cram in there. The older we get, the bigger our purse gets. Until it practically (or literally!) turns into a diaper bag, or perhaps a picnic basket.

Since I like making lists, I decided to do this one about the contents of my purse. I was googling to find a picture of a purse, and came across article upon article about what every woman should have in her purse. Some of them were sort of lame and forgettable, but this one seemed to be a little humorous and relatable.

Ok, onto the contents of MY purse:

(in no particular order)

-Sunglasses: hard to believe about 2 years ago, I hated the things. It bugged me feeling something on the bridge of my nose.

-Gum: sometimes I carry a few flavors for variety. My favorites are Trident Peppermint, Extra Strawberry Banana, and 5 Solstice.

-Hand Sanitizer: I don't consider myself an extreme germaphobe, but there isn't much I dislike more than feeling like my hands are dirty.

-Kleenex: This one makes me feel like I'm turning into my mother (hi mom!) because she always carries these packs around. No wonder! You always need a kleenex at the most inopportune times.

-Orange pen: Life is too short to write everything down in black or blue. Sometimes I have a black pen, if I know I'm going to be writing a check.

-Chapstick/Lip gloss: How is it that I end up with 8 different kinds in there?

-Tide pen: I am that messy eater that is lucky to make it all day without spilling something on myself. These things work great, even on grease.

-Tanning goggles: Before you judge me! I do occasionally go to tanning beds, but the majority of the time, I stick to the mystic tans. Shout out to Planet Beach!

-Ocean Spray or Crystal Light individual drink mix packets: Annoyingly enough, I just learned that a serving size is half a packet as if storing an opened packet in my purse isn't going to end badly. Luckily, I carry a...

-32 oz. water bottle: Compliments of Nalgene. No seriously, there are perks to working at a packaging company.

-Assortment of Drugs: Hah. No, I don't sell, nor carry around illegal drugs. Just a few tablets of ibuprofen, allergy medicine, heartburn medicine (for my poor honey) to get by in a pinch.

-Hair band/bobby pin: You never know when you'll need them.

-Tampons: Every woman's necessity. Nothing wrong with a woman's cycle, you prudes!

-Floss/Toothpicks: I actually didn't know they were in here, until I took inventory. Another thing you only need if you don't have on hand!

That was actually a pretty short list compared to some days, but there you go, a peek into my life via purse.

Finding My Own Confidence

Body image, body image, body image! Some people blame the media, the modeling industry, fast food, soda, boredom, working too hard, working too little. There's always an excuse, and always 5 pounds to lose.

People say that women dress for eachother. How true. I know I am not alone when observing other women's bodies, clothes, hair, shoes (OH SHOES!!), pants sizes.... The list goes on and on and on. We are constantly comparing ourselves to other women, strangers and friends alike.

In a recent Newsweek article titled Is That Fat Girl Me? this constant comparison between women is discussed. A study done by a neuroscientist shows 9 men and 10 women pictures of overwight people in swimsuits. The women showed a change in the part of their brain involved in self-reflection. This is same change common in brains of bullimics. What calls to some to extreme action scientists think might be an abnormal development of the brain which controls impulive behavior. It truly is an interesting combination of nature vs. nurture and I highly recommend reading the entire article

In today's media messages, a healthy hefty man is acceptable, while the female standard seems only achieveable through airbrushing, or plastic surgery. "The result is a culture in which women are afraid of even a little fat" so it's no wonder that from a young age, we learn to hate our bodies.

For me, I have always been at a healthy weight. When I gained a few pounds, it would depress me. I would work out really hard one day, and then be tired for a week, and be dissappointed when I saw no results. I simply gave up before I ever gave myself a fair chance. I would feel hopeless, like I would never lose it (even though it was never hard), people didn't like me as much. Can you believe that? All that over 5-10 pounds?

I have to say that watching The Biggest Loser was kind of an eye opener. While I think the rigarous exercise may not be the healthiest way for the contestants, I realized how good I have it. Just listening to the contestants psychological problems, thinking they could never do it then seeing them transform really was inspiring. Each day is an opportunity to take care of your body, and the better you take care of it, the better you feel.

It also made me realize that I needed to relax about my own issues and fears, to just work every day to be healthy, and not worry so much about a number on a scale. My mom always taught me how to eat healthy, so I wasn't worrying about breaking an addiction to fast food or anything really unhealthy. My weakness is that I have an enormous sweet tooth, which is where I know I have to be careful, but learning that all bites taste the same has helped me realize that I can have my cake, and I don't need a huge piece to be satisfied.

Each year I do the M'lis Detox under the supervision of my friend who is a trained distributor of the product. I know that there are a lot of dangerous detoxes out there, so when doing a detox, you definitely need to know what you are getting into. They may not be for everyone, but the reason I do it, is it feels good to kind of recharge and get in tune with my body. I re-learn to pay attention to my body signals, when I'm hungry, when I'm bored, when I'm thirsty, as well as being more conscious about eating healthy whole foods. The more that you cut out excess sodium and sugar, the less you miss and crave it. That is a great place to be.

All my life I've been fairly active, my favorites being dance and pilates.
My favorite at-home workouts are the 10 Minute Solution Pilates Series, and both of the Jackie Warner (from Workout! on Bravo) weight training DVD's.

When I married my husband, he taught me the importance of weight training. Oh yes, he is a drill sergant when it comes to weight training me! No mercy! But he has taught me to believe in myself, and push a little more to gain that strength.

I have always kind of been into running, but having short legs I never could run very fast. Last year, I trained for my first 5k which was the Women's Fitness Celebration. After running a whole 3.1 miles I realized... I CAN do this! I went on to running most of a 10k that October. I'm getting ready to run the Race for the Cure 5k this Saturday. Thanks to my faithful Pearl Izumi running shoes, I'll be shin splint free!

More than ever, I am learning that my worth or success can't be based on what anyone else may be doing. As long as I'm progressing on my own path, that is what makes me happy.

No matter what, there will always be someone taller, skinnier, bustier, prettier, whatever. No one is perfect, no matter how they may seem.

Organic worth it?

I hope all of this rambling makes some sense in my decision to support organic milk.

Ok, so to be completely honest, I'm not huge on most organic products. I'm just not. There, I said it. Most of the time, I just want to be cheap and save some money.

A 2009 article from the TODAY show Organic food: Is it worth the money? brought up some interesting points.

-Basically, it was a compromise to buying organic. Things that you take off the peel are ok to go non-organic: such as kiwi, oranges, mangoes, corn, onions and peas to name a few.

-If you're eating the skin, apples, cherries, strawberries, spinach, then you might want to think about organic. Reason being the the pesticides are right there on the skin, which means right into your body.

Well, if the FDA says it's ok, it can't be that bad, right. This is a pretty controversial issue. There are a lot of things that aren't illegal that aren't necessarily good for you. Fast food, junk food (I always think Twinkies which would last through a nuclear disaster), soda, alcohol, coffee, cigarettes, you get the idea.

You know how many organic fruits and vegetables I have in my fridge: zero. I wouldn't say I'm proud of that fact. For me, there's a higher priority that I find it is worth spending the extra on.

According the article, there's the foods worth considering: milk, beef, poultry. Now that is a little more important to me. While produce is treated with pesticides, the afore mentioned is often treated with hormones. Somehow, that seems a little more scary.

Let me introduce you to Monsanto Company. They are an agricultural biotechnology corporation. Maybe you've heard of them, but maybe not.

More likely, you've heard of rBGH. It is a growth hormone that increases the milk production.

Claims of this hormone causing cancer have yet to be proven. Anytime you add something unnatural to food, which then passes into your body probably isn't necessarily good for you. It is known that rBGH mimics effects of estrogen which can cause females to enter puberty earlier, and lower sperm count in males.

(Side note: you CAN purchase non-organic milk without rBGH, however it doesn't take into consideration treatment or use of pesticides.)

Depending on who you ask, who is sponsoring the survey, you'll get two opposite answers. The weird thing is, unless you are asking a large dairy company or Monsanto themselves, pretty much anyone else completely disagrees.

What I think rBGH boils down to is money. More milk = more money. I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist. However, it's been shown time and time again that large corporations aren't doing anything that doesn't benefit themselves. These large dairy companies, not to mention Monsanto is making millions of dollars off of shortcuts that aren't healthy for the cows, or humans.

It gets better. Hormones can contribute to mastitis, which is an infection of the udder. In order to avoid losing milk (read: $$$), they just keep right on milking the infected cows. Nice. Plus, what comes with infection? PUS. Say it with me: EEEWWW!!!

If you think that's scary, now we're going to talk antibiotics. Antibiotics? Good for making sick people (and animals) better. Bad when they are given to animals, which are then unnecessarily transferred into humans. An overload of unnecissary hormones can cause our bodies to be immune to them, which could mean trouble when we get sick.

On the Organic Valley Website you can read about the 6 reasons to buy organic milk.

So all these things about organic milk sound great! Where do I go buy some? Until you get to the grocery store and realize it is twice as much. Forget it! Right? Wait just a minute.

Here are some reasons why it costs more:

The more you produce, the less you have to charge right?

-Without growth hormones, the cows don't produce as much milk.

-All of the feed and grazing areas have to be organic, which means no pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

-Organic farms are often smaller, family owned establishments, instead of massive "factories".

I don't know about you, but I'm willing to support the family man versus a large corporation.