2. Wednesday was leap day. And we had 2 leap day miracles:

a. I got to go to Target TWICE in one day!

b. This:

This is an excerpt from Max's Math book. And it was from his lesson ON leap day! caaaaraazy

3. Just going to remind you a little teeny bit about my wattpad account. If you like my grammar, the way I put quotation marks around dialogue, or ya know, the story please vote. And comment. I like comments.

4. Is this a cry for help?

Sam? Sam!

5. THE HUNGER GAMES!

6. If you haven’t read The Hunger Games, you absolutely positively must finish reading this blog post and then read it.

7. I haven’t read a book in like 2 weeks. I knew I was feeling an empty hole in my life.

8. I’m supposed to be reading Oliver Twist. My dad is reading it too. Rather, he’s most likely finished with it and I am just slacking!

9. number nine, number nine, number nine

10. One of my children thinks Yoko Ono can’t sing. But he wants to go to Yoko’s Donuts on his birthday. He couldn’t explain the thought process behind this. I have to add that he’s never been there before so he has no idea if it’s good or bad.

11. This same child thinks ’80′s music is terrible. I. am. ashamed.

12. A Treasure Trove

13. Spring?

Look very closely you can see a little bird in the tree. Not my son, an actual bird. This is getting confusing.

Spring! (Ok, I know it’s not official, but it will be in 18 short days–and also, did you see the blooming tree?)

14. I wrote most of this post on Wednesday, thinking it was Thursday and I was getting a jump on it. This was the least procrastonaty I think I’ve ever been. And it was a mistake.

15.

Do you think he minds me going through his wallet?

1. In case you didn’t already know it, I LOVE alliteration. In fact, I would be okay with this as my epitaph:

Jennifer Leigh Weadon Parker * November 18,1975 – November 18, 2075

Mommy, Grandmommy, Great-grandmommy and Astonishing Advocate of Abominable use of Alliteration

I know it’s a lot of letters and that will probably cost a lot of moolah, but for goodness’ sake I lived a hundred years and died on my birthday, aren’t I worth it?

2. kids…. ahh… just kids.

3. Writing sarcasm is easier than it sounds. (See what I mean, you couldn’t tell I was being sarcastic could you?)

4. Finished Devil’s Kiss by Sarwat Chadda last night. I really liked it! You should read it. I wrote Devil’s Kill first and took a minute to notice the mistake. Hmmm…

5. Mexican food rocks. Not sure I would feel right eating tamales on Christmas though.

6. My son read a book I recommended! SCORE!

7. Me likey Chucky.

8. Totally, completely, utterly frustrated with Joomla! (I did not add the !)

9. My ultimate Christmas wish: A maid once a week for a year. Must do windows.

10. Who came up with FIFTEEN? That’s way too many random ideas to come up with in one sitting.

11. Yeah, yeah, I know I did.

12. It was because I was afraid that five just wouldn’t be enough. I guess fourteen didn’t seem round enough.

13. Which is weird because fourteen is an even number and fifteen is not.

14. I’ve always thought that even=round. But now that I think about it, that’s not necessarily the case.

15. Rambling OUT. (Like Seacrest out…wow, that’s old. Oh well.)

‘kay.

catching fire

On my fifteen last Friday I mentioned that I read Catching Fire. That wasn’t a lie. I did, and I loved it. It left me hanging more than The Hunger Games did, so now I’m angry  with Suzanne Collins until the next book comes out. BTW, READ THIS BOOK. But make sure you read The Hunger Games first, of course.

writing stuff

This is really cool – MIT’s (that’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology) FREE online writing course. No grades, but you get the syllabus, assignments and course materials (downloadable).

This is where I got that link. There are also free courses offered by Purdue University, UCLA, and the University of Utah to name a handful (minus two fingers).

I learned a lot about writing this weekend thanks to my pal Jenny Martin. She is the librarian who guest blogged for me last week, remember? I learned that one of those courses mentioned above would be a great idea for me. Passive voice, who knew! (It seems like everyone I know knew. ugh.) Also, this one space between sentences is going to take some getting used to. It was the only thing that stuck from 7th grade typing class.  There!  I did it again. oy.

Yeah, I know World Without End is not YA, but it makes a really good bookend

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I read a lot of books.  A LOT.  For me to say that The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the best book I’ve read in the last year…well, it is a big deal.  And it is, the best book I’ve read in AT LEAST the last year.  Lots of caps I know, but it’s worth it.  Think Lord of the Flies meets 1984 meets Survivor, yes, I said Survivor and I do mean the television show.

It is a heart-pounding, edge of your seat post-apocalyptic LOVE story.  Not strictly the kind of love between a man and a woman either.  All kinds of love.

I can’t wait to read Catching Fire, the second in Collins’ trilogy (the third book won’t be released for quite a while-boo).

For those who have read it, I vote for Peeta all the way.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Katniss and Gale are related (don’t hold me to it though).