Random Thoughts. . .

Cool Winter Fairy.
I'm using it as my FB
profile pic at the moment.

Hello Dear Readers! I hope your stories are all ending well?

I finished reading 'In Mozart's Shadow: His Sister's Story' by Carolyn Meyer.  It is about Mozart's Sister (obviously!), Maria Anna Mozart (Nannerl). It was quite good.

Today was another doctor's appointment at 9:30 in the morning(!!!!) for Emrys. My dad just got back from a three day work trip to Virginia around midnight, and then my dad, Em, and myself all got up at 6:00 in the morning, piled in the car and started off to San Fransisco. We assumed it would be better for just the three of us to go instead of bringing everyone, because it's a lot a driving and it gets hard on everyone when both little ones are crying to get out of the car, and everyone else has a headache. We assumed right.

I saw a few weird cars while we were driving. . . one was HOT pink, and one car had been in some sort of wreck, 'cause the front bumper was missing and you could see some of the car's insides.It was kind of like was a car would look like if cars could be zombies ;P (Haha)...It was kind freaky. . .

Anyway!

San Fran Zoo.
It's my favorite zoo :-)

We arrived there 10 minutes late, and had a simply marvelous time visiting with our doctors ("one lump of sugar or two doc?"). . . Not really. . .but it was pleasant enough. Anyway by the end of the meeting Em was VERY ready to leave. Dad thought it might be fun to go walk around the San Francisco Zoo, and it was.
We rode on the little steam train, and Emrys had the best time on it. His face literally 'glowed with happiness', he had so much fun! It was adorable! Then Em and Dad got some lunch at the 'Leaping Lemur Cafe'.
We walked a bit longer after that and, at Em's insistence, we got a polar bear mask for him, a tiger mask for Gwynnie, and a monkey one for Thane.
(Oh! I made some AMAZING puns tonight with those masks. . .*Cackles* {It's really hard to tell jokes over the Internet 'cause you can't hear the person trying not to laugh while they tell it, or really get how hilarious it is, but I'll have a go}
*I put on the Polar bear mask*
Me: "I can't 'bear' to stay up any longer! ((cackles))"
*everyone else rolls their eyes*
*I put on the monkey mask*
Me: "Quit 'monkeying' around! How are you 'ape'le to do that?"
*groans from Thane and dad* 
*then I put on the tiger mask*
Me:"I'm so 'tiger'ed out!"
*I, then start rolling on the bed in a fit of laughter, unable to breathe from laughing so hard. Emrys and Thane jump on me and tackle me*
Gosh that was fun-ny! ;-) 'Tiger'ed out! Instead of 'tired' out? 'ape'le instead of 'able'! Mwhahaha!! . . . *crickets* Mwheehee...*clears throat* anyway. . .)

The drive back was much easier. Emrys feel asleep leaning on my lap for almost the whole ride, Dad had a few work calls, and I read.  It was so nice to get home and I could barely feel my legs when I got out of the car! After cleaning out the car a bit I, very happily, started dinner! ;-) I love making dinner. I made my specialty, breaded/baked chicken with potatoes, and broccoli. YUM-O! it was really good!

And while I was getting dinner dished up, I finished listening to a very wonderful, fabulous, Amazing story called The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. It's one of the best stories that I have ever heard, it was amazing. Everyone should read/listen to this story (listening was really fun with this story because each character was voiced by a different person, so it really came to life!) it's really good. :-)

I finished the last Harry Potter book last week. . . It was AMAZING! I really enjoyed it! Probably one of the best series I've read so far. Mom and I are watching the movies, half a movie almost every night when everyone else is asleep. They are too scary for Thane, Em, and Gwyn to watch, so mom and I wait till they're asleep and then we've been watching them! They are really well done, and I now want to go to see the new movie coming out with mom in the theaters. We finished watching the third movie a few nights ago and I think it's my favorite so far! It was SOOOOOO cool, and I am now really scared of Dementors! Ack! ;-) It's lots of fun!

That's all I've got on my mind at the moment. Oh if anyone knows of any good resources to read about Queen Guinevere (her past and her whole story) let me know please! I've had an idea, but I would like to know more about Queen Gwen a bit more. Don't ask why. It's a secret ;-) Thanks!

Happy reading!

Peace and love,

~Rhanna.

Happy Samhain and Halloween.

My favorite witch drawing.
Isn't she cool?


Happy belated Samhain and Halloween! :)

It was a beautiful day here on Halloween. Clear, sunny and perfectly warm. Much different from where we used to live, where it almost always snowed while we were trick-or-treating. That was a fun time :D

So for this year both of my brothers were dressed as black, harmless ninjas with wooden swords and masks up high over their noses. My little sister was a VERY cute pink flower fairy, with two sets of wings and a pink tutu, who was fearless of walking straight into an oncoming crowd of adults and children. Both the boys had a fabulous time and insisted that we go again later that night. Haha!

We went to a shopping square in the afternoon, where they were holding a sort of trick-or-treating activity. It was more for the younger kids, who would be too tired later in the day, or who would be scared out of their wits by the gross, disgusting, and nightmarish zombie, vampire, blood-covered costumes that, for whatever reason, a lot of people are wearing lately. I really don't understand why people like to dress in such scary and gross costumes. What is the point of doing that? It's made my mom upset about how disturbing it is. "We're supposed to be honoring our ancestors, not making fun of them." Is what Mom said the other day and I totally agree with her. We should honor and worship the loved ones that have left us, not mock them. I think why we do it, is because we don't have any idea what happens after death, and dressing as zombies is a way to try deal with death. To cover up our scared feelings, by making it more scary and for some people entertaining. But then again I'm pretty sure that when people talk and dress like zombies, what they're doing is subconsciously addressing their fears about death. It's hard to put into words what I think.

But anyway, after all this talk about zombies, I looked up the etymology of the word Zombie and I learned this: "1871, of W. African origin (cf. Kikongo zumbi "fetish;" Kimbundu nzambi "god"), originally the name of a snake god, later with meaning "reanimated corpse" in voodoo cult. But perhaps also from Louisiana creole word meaning "phantom, ghost," from Sp. sombra "shade, ghost." Sense "slow-witted person" is recorded from 1936." From this site. Isn't that cool? Gosh I LOVE etymology!



So continuing with Halloween. . .
 


Morgana from the TV show Merlin.
My cloak looks a lot
like hers. :)

 For Halloween, my WONDERFUL Mama made an awesome dark blue cloak that flows behind me when I walk in such a magical way, it's SO cool (I'm going to wear to the super market, the fabric store, my surfing meetings, and all around the house.) I also wore a dried eucalyptus-leaf-flower crown that I bought at the Northern California Ren Faire on my birthday, and my wooden sword. I decided I was Morgan le Fay.
 
 
 
But for some reason, I didn't get the same excited, happy, feeling that I usually get that makes me feel super jumpy and excited for Halloween.
Trick-or treating lost is excitement for me.
I totally was lagging on decorations this year.
I didn't think much about costumes or candy.
It was weird and I was a little disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm for the holiday.
I know why. I feel like I've started going through a growth spurt of the mind (as well as body!). I've started thinking about things as a adult, more than I did last year. I'm starting to change and grow up.
 
I still want to celebrate that day , just differently. I want to start celebrating Halloween, not as Halloween like a little kid with candy and scary costumes and not like a lot of adults with scary movies and parties, but as Samhain. I'd like to start doing more Pagan stuff. I'd like to start celebrating all the Sabbat days, with more things to celebrate than just fairies bring gifts in the morning. I'd like to bake food for that day, go outside and celebrate the day, whatever it is, like the Celts did thousands of years ago. I'd like to read stories about the day and learn as much as I can. I want to try being more Pagan than we are now. I think it would be lots of fun for every one. :-)
 
So anyway that wraps up Halloween. It was still loads of fun and I now cannot wait for Thanksgiving! my 2nd favorite holiday (Talk Like A Pirate Day and my Birthday are on the same day, which makes it my favorite day out of the whole year ;) Hahaha!)
 
So now to my readings:
 
I'm pretty sure that nobody is very much interested in what I have been reading lately. I'm mean if you're not a big reader it's just going to seem very boring I'd guess.  But I've been using this blog to help me keep track of how many books I've read, when I read them, and what the books were. You understand? Since I read so much, it gets quite confusing to remember all that. And I like to see how long it takes me to finish a big book.
 
I'm now about a quarter way through the 6th Harry potter book, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'. It took me four days to read the 5th book, 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', which was 870 pages long. ;) It was REALLY good! (also this will explain that lack of reviews and posts. I have had my nose in the HP books non-stop for the past two weeks. Hahaha!)
 
I've been listening to Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery. There have been a few really sad scenes (one scene gave me the chills it was so sad). But the rest has been totally Anne.
The Anne of Green Gables stories get better and better with each book! They are very enjoyable and a nice change from the 'omg-they're-going-to-die-next-page Harry Potter or Percy Jackson series. Haha!
 
I received a new book from the sugar sprite (a little sprite that comes on the night of Halloween and trades our unwanted candy for a gift *wink wink wink* ). It's Adam Hart-Davis's book 'What the Past did for us'. I have only read the introduction, but even that is great! I love how Adam writes his books. It makes history exciting! :D In it I'll be learning about the history and inventions from
The Britons,
The Mesopotamians,
The Egyptians,
The Indiaians,
The Chinese,
The Greeks,
The Romans, 
The Arabs,
and The Mesoamericans.  
 
Isn't that GREAT?!? I'm so excited! It's going to be filled with the little tid-bits I love, from all over the world! *Sighs*
 
And I'm going to read The Teenage Liberation Handbook, this time from the beginning. Mom and I read about half of it last year, but not straight through.
 
That's most everything I want to say for now. I'll be back soon though, I have a feeling! Mwheehee!
~Rhanna~
xxxxxxxxx

Today's Hospital Trip.

Hello Readers. Enjoying your books? :-)

I have just finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I am now half way through the 2nd book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
They're very good :) I am enjoying them very much, and I think I will like the movies too. My mom is very excited that I have started reading these. She's a HUGE Harry Potter fan ;-D I guess the next movie is coming out next month, and she wants me finished reading all the Harry Potter books and watch the rest of the movies to we can go to the movies together. I think I can do that. I'm almost reading one book a day. It's almost like the books have a real spell on them that makes to read them very fast! Hahahahaha!

As you see below this post, I am working on the reviews for The Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce. It's interesting to think that it was only two months ago I started reading The Protector of the Small quartet, the third series in the Tamora Pierce books.
In those two months I have read: The Protector of the Small quartet, Tricksters (2 books), The Immortals quartet, The Song of the Lioness quartet (all by Tamora Pierce), The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan (It's amazing!), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, and I'm almost finished reading What the Victorian's Did for us by Adam Hart-Davis (only a few more pages left!!) and some Norse mythology.

I've asked Mom to upload The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Ovid's Metamorphous onto her Kindle, which she lets me use. I'm VERY excited to read all that. :D It will help me to learn about minor Greek gods, and some other unknown myths, which I just LOVE! Very exciting! :) I've been trying to read the Grimm's fairy tales, but somehow all these fantasy books keep overruling them. . . ;) Heehee

So today we had to go to my little brother, Emrys' hospital appointment today in San Francisco. Have I ever mentioned that I HATE hospitals?? Yes, I do not like them AT all! The whole system is totally messed up! Great Gaia it was annoying. We sat in the waiting room for over an hour and a half! Grr!
So anyway, Emrys had another seizure the other night. It was quite scary. But this trip was just a check up. It takes us about two hours to get to San Fran from where we live. So this morning we all packed up in the car and we got out around 10:00 AM. It didn't really seem like a long drive to me, because I was so immersed in my book I didn't even really hear mom and dad talking right next to me. Hahaha! When we got to the hospital we found parking easy (thanks great god of parking!) and got into the waiting room around 11:30. We made killer time on the drive! We didn't end up waiting very long in the first waiting room. a nurse called us in weighed and measured Emrys and then we went into the doctor's office at about 11:50. Then we sat, waited, fed the little ones apples, sat some more for like an hour! we were just about to leave when, finally! a nurse came in. Sadly she didn't know anything about why we were there. We answered a few questions and then she left. Then we sat and waited in that same. . .small. . .blank room for another 45 minutes. Right as we were going to leave again the doctor came in (They seem to know right when you are going to leave on them and then come in and make you stay longer. Is it some sort of scheme to pay them more or is it a test to see how long you can be bored before you start screaming with boredom? The more the patients suffer the more money the doctors and nurses make? Sounds cruel but I'm willing to believe it in this world. :P Grr!), and talked to mom and dad, but i plugged into my book and didn't hear much of what he said. ;D Hahaha! But then we lugged our tired, hungry selves down to the nearest Startbucks at around 3:00 and we all got coffee and snacks which were sorely needed. After a few wrong turns (Holy Hecate San Fran is easy to get lost in!) we got onto the highway and we were free of that awful hospital!

We stopped at a JoAnn's (Fabric Store!!! Woop!) to walk for a bit. Golly it feels nice to walk and feel the blood go to your legs after a while. ;) Turns out that this is the store that Mom has needed to get fabric for her dolls! Yay! And we bought the little ones some cute Halloween prezzies. Emrys got a flashlight that has little Halloween covers so when it shines through pumpkins and ghosts come up on the wall. Gwynnie got a C.U.T.E witch's hat that she seems to like. and Thane got a pumpkin flashlight too.

We next stopped at a BBQ place for dinner, but something is the BBQ sauce had wheat in it I know, because it made me feel yucky, so I didn't eat much. (I had a pancake and a half, the last of the jerky and some chips once we got home ;D Haha!) But Then Emrys' flashlight broke so Dad had to go find another one at Target, and with my-always-have-everything-you'll-ever-need-in-it purse I pulled out scissors to cut the flashlight out of the package and I just happened to have tape to attach the pumpkin cover onto the new flashlight. I felt very proud that me and my purse were needed so badly ;) Mwhaha! I got another chance to pull something out when mom thought dad was about to change lanes into another car. I gave her Rescue Remedy.

Now everyone is completely asleep except me, because I'm writing this, obviously. ;) I'm so glad that today it over and that we didn't stay at a hotel. Holy Hypnos are we all exhausted after today. Mom and Dad are very mad about how long we had to wait, and our next appointment is with a totally new doctor who won't know anything about Emrys which is a pain trying to retell our story to every time we go there a meet a new doctor. So We're not going to go to that hospital anymore. We want to find a doctor, for when Emrys might have another seizure that's closer by. I hope that we can find one.

Great Muses it feels good to write today out. I'll prob print this out and put it in my diary, but I want to try to really write today down with some more personal thought down. I like to write by hand, and I don’t want to get out of practice by writing on the computer all the time. I'll prob do it tomorrow. Thanks for listening to my day. there's totally a difference in writing in your diary and writing on a blog where lots of people read it. sometime's it feels good to have other people read your writing.

I'm off to go sleep. Tomorrow I'll finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, What the Victorians did for us, and the article about chocolate in mom's magazine. ;)

Good night everyone from here!

~Rhanna~

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce.

In which ten-year old Alanna sneaks of to court of Tortall, disguised as a boy named Alan. She becomes a page there and befriends other pages, the prince, and the King of Thieves. During her training she fights mean bullies, battles the sweating sickness, suspects Duke Rodger the prince's cousin and court magican, and proves herself to be as good as the boys. But when she starts her period unexpectedly she goes to George, the King of Thieves, for help. He is more than surprised to find that she is a girl, but takes her to his mother who tells Alanna about womanhood. From then on Alanna and George are best friends. She is invited to join her friends on a trip to the desert to meet some of the locals, where they hear the story of the Black City, and abandoned city with has evil magic that pulls youths to it and eats them up. Alanna wakes in the night and with the Prince they ride to the city. They meet the magical elders and fight an amazing magic battle, that ends with secrets being discovered.

I LOVE this book. I love the whole Alanna series! I think Alanna has become one of my favorite heroines ever. In the beginning Alanna secretly switches places with her twin brother Thom to be a knight while Thom goes to become a sorcerer. Alanna's relationship with all her friends is so much fun to read about it makes you laugh, smile, frown, and you feel every emtion that they are feeling. I Loved all of her friends, Coram, her loving manservant who has been with her since the beginning, Prince Jonathan, George, and Sir Myles, a elderly kinght and teacher who becomes Alanna's new loving father. Tamora Pierce is an amazing writer and I love reading all her books and her heroines are a blast to read about.

This book is in The Song of the Lioness series.

Reccommended for people who like: spunky girls, magic, battles, and amazing friendship.

The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy

In which twelve year old Joan is doubting she will like living in California, when she meets the Queen of the Foxes and her whole life changes. Fox (her real name is Sarah) and Joan become fast friends and soon are spending all their afternoons together climbing trees and becoming the wild girls. When school starts, they enter a contest to write a short story and they win. They meet a writer who likes their story and asks them to join her writing class for the summer and they agree. Joan and Sarah meet many new interesting people and learn to live more freely and ask wonderful questions. The class helps Joan and Sarah deal with the hard problems they are having with their parents and brings them closer together.


It's written in first-person from Joan's view. This story was one of the best books that I have ever read. It was so realistic that I felt very much for the characters and as I got deeper into the story I felt that it was really real and I want to jump in and join them. I LOVED Sarah and Joan's relationship. They were the best-true-friends that everyone always wishes to have. Verla Volante is fabulous! I would very much love to join her class. I loved all the questions she asks and how everyone answers them, it feels like you are almost in it yourself. It was very sad to read about Sarah and Joan's parental problems, but it was interesting to read about what it might be like to have a family that was so torn. It made me feel very blessed to have my wonderful close family and it makes me feel awful for the families in real life that have these problems. I will be suggesting this book to all my friends.
Recommended for people who like: foxes, lipstick war paint, and amazing friendship.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan.

In which it is the final battle for Percy Jackson and his friends. The prophecy of Percy’s death has been told. New York and Olympus are under attack and the gods are gone fighting a monster. It’s up to Percy, Annabeth and all the campers to save Olympus from Kronos, the evil Titan lord, who wants to destroy the world, humans, and the gods. In the final adventure Percy and his friends run into loving hellhounds, shadow traveling, visions from the past, a beef-brain minotaur, baths in the river Styx, mortals who are more important than they seem, and great battles that are so intense you can‘t look away. Will Olympus and the world be saved and will Percy live through what may be his last adventure?


This book is so serious that you can’t put it down. With the fear that any of the characters can die in the end, you are turning the pages with amazing speed. Even if you are not a big reader this book will make you one! But it is so fun to read. Clarisse is so stubborn that you can’t believe it! What happens to Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson leaves you so excited that you could scream and jump around! I was a little disappointed with the very ending because it left some stuff unanswered but Mr. Riordan says that the story will keep going but just with different characters. I hope that Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and everybody else will still be there to save the day.

This book is in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series

Recommended for people who like: sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-excitement, the river Styx, special life spots, and shadows.

Hello Readers :-)

Happy Autumn Readers! Read anything good lately?



I just wanted to drop into to say I'm sorry for not writing any reviews in a while. I've felt kind of bad for not keeping up with this blog because i really do enjoy writing reviews. I have been busy reading lots of new books (and learning how to surf! It's lots of fun.) and doing some other stuff. I've just finished a brand new book and I have some more that I've read lately that I would like to start reviewing again. So I am going to try to get better at writing more often. :) Maybe two reviews a week? I don't know, but I will get better at it. :) I will be adding more books to my list of books I want to read or review as well. I hope that you will enjoy them!

(By the way, I was not able to come up with a good review for The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan {the fourth book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series}. I tried and tried but nothing would come to me, so I gave up. :-P
But I have made one for The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, that I was hesitating to post, but I think I will now.)

But I also wanted to see if anyone thinks it might be a good idea if I started writing in here about other things than books? Like other blogs I could write about whatever I want too like unschooling, surfing, crafts, baking, my comparative mythology studies, my day-to-day-routine and other subjects I like to talk about.
I think that would be lots of fun, and much easier than starting a new blog. ;-) I doubt I would do very many other posts along with the book reviews, but maybe every once in a while. I think I'll try it a few times. :-)

Thanks you reading everyone! I'm going to try to get better at writing here, writing on the other blogs I am on, and writing Emails. :) I hope you enjoy.

~Rhanna

The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

In which Percy, Annabeth, and their new friends are attacked and they are saved my Artemis and her Huntresses, only for Annabeth to be carried away by the monster! After talking to Chiron about what happened, Grover, Zoë and Bianca (two huntresses), and Percy's new friend set out to save Annabeth,Artemis, and all of Olympus. Despite being told to stay at camp, Percy runs away from camp to join them. Along the great and dangerous adventure they face monsters in the Air and Space museum, fight freaky skeletons, slide with large pigs, visit the gods' junkyard, fight more freaky skeletons, fly with big bronze statues, and fight a dragon and a titan. Saving everybody will be tough, and their efforts should be rewarded…


This was my favorite book out of the whole series (mainly because Artemis was in it ;P). This one is the most adventurous. I loved the scene in the Air and Space museum. It was great! you'll love it! Aphrodite appears and is so funny. She thinks that Percy's "quest for true love" (finding Annabeth) is her new favorite soap opera. Percy's new friend (and NO I will not tell you her/his name! it's secret!!!) is great! I'm sure you will love this book as much as I did.

This book is in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Recommended for people who like: Artemis and the Huntresses, freaky skeleton dudes, and lots of funny adventure!

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Rordan

In which Percy is having bad dream about his friend Grover, who is being chased by a large Cyclops! He goes to Camp Half-Blood only to find that Thaila's tree (the tree that protects the camp) has been poisoned, and the camp is under attack! So Percy, Annabeth, and their new friend Tyson sneak out of camp on a quest to find the missing Grover and the Golden fleece, which will heal Thalia's tree. Along the way they bump into Monster Doughnuts, an angry Clarisse, Scylla and Charybdis, C.C.'s wicked spa, Sirens, man eating sheep, and a really dumb Cyclops. Will the heroes get away with the golden fleece?


This series is so exciting and fast! This book was so much fun to read. Annabeth and Percy are a great team as always and Tyson is so sweet. There are many references to the Odyssey, so if you have read that story some of them will be more funny than if you haven't. But it is not necessary. There are many surprises in here. I really enjoyed reading this book. I'm sure all Percy Jackson fans will enjoy it too! Happy reading!


This is in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Recommended for people who like: lots of sea travel, Greek myths, and laugh-out-loud moments!

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

In which Percy's teacher calls him out...again. But as soon as they are out of sight the teacher turns into a harpy and wants to kill him! While he is with his mom, Percy's best friend, Grover comes telling them that they are in danger. As they are running, Percy's mom is caught by a minotaur. After that he learns that all the Greek myths are real and that the gods are still out and about messing with peoples lives; and that he is the son of one of the gods. Soon news comes that Zeus' Thunderbolt has been stolen and Percy and his new friends must find it in only ten days. On their quest they meet many monsters, run into a god or two, go through a tunnel of love, get stuck in a hotel were time passes with out you knowing it, and learn that you can't trust everybody, even people they thought they were close to, to keep their word.

This is a very exciting, scary, adventurous, and hilarious book! Percy, Grover, and Annabeth make a great team. Percy, who knows hardly anything about Greek myths but has a very short temper, Grover who is always hungry and scared, and Annabeth who is very smart and sarcastic. The mix of the three will make you laugh out loud! Some of the Gods are very funny how they have modernized them selves to fit in with the modern culture. It took me a while to get past the first couple of chapters but if you can make it past them then you will absolutely will love this book and the rest of the series.

This is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Recommended for people who like: adventure, Yankee caps of invisibility, goofy gods, and monsters in disguise.