Merry Christmas!!

     Merry Christmas everyone! :) 

     So, I'm hoping everyone has had a great Christmas and had fun with their family and friends. :) I know I have, and I'm looking forward to the New Year with a bittersweet attitude. I can feel a lot of things coming on for me, personally, in this next year that God's saving for me so he can mold me into the shape of the woman I'll be for the rest of my life. 
     This year has been an amazing Christmas for me... 
     It is rather bittersweet, considerably, because I'm 15-years-old and though I wish I still was; I'm not a little kid anymore. (I still act like it though on occasion ;) I still smiled and had a blast like every other year though, and I can't thank God enough for blessing me with family that loves me very much. The annual Christmas eve cookie party was a blast, and so was earlier this morning. I was worried it would be more dull Christmas morning than in the past, but I was wrong, it was a lot of fun and I'm so very thankful for the gifts I received. 
   And I can't even begin to describe how great it was hanging out with everyone, though I wished more people would've come to our cookie party I was happy that the people who came-came. It was fun reuniting with some old friends. :) 
     But, the thing I'm most thankful for as a gift, is Jesus' birth and his death on the cross for the world's sins. Or for me personally; my sins. I've realized that even though I know I am saved, and I believe in my heart that Jesus did die on the cross for my sins, I feel like it really hasn't sunk in very well. And I don't focus on Jesus' birth every year on Christmas time like I should, like everyone really should, especially the Christians. We all get so wrapped up in the holidays definitely, and we forget the reason for the season. 
     Makes you wonder why it's so easy to forget the reason for living. 
     Anyway, if I don't stop writing now I'm going to go into New Years resolutions, and I wanted to do a post about that on New Years Eve lol. So I'm going to stop right here, and just say how thankful I am for the greatest gift of all: Jesus, my savior. 
     I'll blog again on New Years Eve, or day, if I can so see ya later! Off to the Wii to enjoy some of my blessed gifts! lol ;D


~Jazmine

Heartland

Hey all, :) 

     So I'm like obsessed with this new TV show I found, it's Canadian, so I can't access it through the television channel website unless I live in Canada, but it's an AMAZING horse themed TV show!!! And it's gotta be one of the best TV show's I've seen in my life, the characters are so well built throughout the shows, there's great emotional impact, and I just feel like I know the characters so well that I get sad and happy when they are, you know what I mean? 
     Heartland is a fantastic show! 
     It's all about a 15-year-old girl named Amy Fleming who lives on a ranch called Heartland and has a special gift of listening to broken and abused horses and healing their scars; what any horse-crazy girl only dreams of being. ;) And best of all, it's CLEAN. Except for two cuss words that aren't extremely foul... one of them is another name for your butt. And then the other one rhymes with "ham". 
     But I just can't get enough of Heartland, it's an addictive show, but I have every reason to love it! Especially because there's a tall dark-haired handsome cowboy in it... hehe. So I just thought I'd blab about my absolute adoration for this show, I'll have to save up some money and buy all the seasons on DVD. And the books. 

Here's some videos for the trailers of season 1 and 2... 

Season 1 Trailer -

 

Season 2 Trailer - 

 

Talk to ya'll later! :) 

~Jazmine 

:: Review :: "The Gathering" by Kelley Armstrong

     " 'The Gathering' is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Maya Denaley who lives in an extremely teeny medical-research town. How small? You can't find it on the map. 
     Strange things begin happening out of the blue to this small town, first; the captain of the swim team drowns in the middle of a calm lake, then cougars start flocking around Maya's house, and won't go away. Things only make it worse when the new bad boy, Rafe, becomes very interested in her. And Maya likes him back, because he makes her feel different."




     While perusing my local library's young adult selections, I found this book, and thought it interesting at a glance. So I picked it up and took it home with me, now before I go into all the critiquing I will say that I did enjoy this book to an extent because of the originality of it. I haven't read or seen to many movies that play out like this, so it's more original than other books that I've read. 
     But I would not recommend this for anyone that steers away from books that have cussing, references to sex, drugs/alcohol, and heated make-out scenes. And for those reasons I kind of regret reading it, but thankfully its not as saturated with icky sexual content as The Twilight Saga. However, again, I say that there are a few suggestive things in there so be forewarned. 
     Now that I've got all that out of the way, onto the critiquing of the literature part of the book! 
     I will be as gentle as possible, but to put it bluntly; I was not impressed with the book. 
     In fact, I was a little ticked off that they even dared to give her the title of "Bestseller". Just goes to prove that you don't have to be very good at writing to get that title; should take the worries off my shoulders for becoming published, right? (har har) 
     Anyway, it was really hard to turn off my internal editor, and it kept screaming at me to edit the paragraphs and paragraphs of distracting-going-off-track-with-the-story paragraphs. That really tended to bug me the entire time through reading that book, don't get me wrong, it was entertaining... but I think Kelley Armstrong could use a bit of work with her writing. There were many times during reading this book that I'd come across a few paragraphs that were completely off-the-wall and had absolutely nothing to do with the story, and they would go on for too long. It bugged me beyond belief, and then there were grammar problems galore throughout it. Not as bad as Stephenie Meyer, but there were grammar things that my internal editor was squealing about. 


Other than that though, I enjoyed the originality of the story for the most part, and the chemistry between Rafe and Maya, and then between Maya and her best friend Daniel. I'm considering reading the second one, but only if I find it at the library. 


All in all I rate this book three out of five stars. 


Note: I wrote this review for my own pleasure, and I am not obligated to write a positive or negative review, only an honest one.

My Secret Life: Wynonna Judd

Hey everybody :) 

So... the deets of last night. I can't express enough of how much I enjoyed the concert I just went to last night! I never did mention it I don't think, but I actually got to see WYNONNA JUDD LIVE! :D How cool is that?!
And I must say that she was extremely... just... WOW. She was so amazing to see live.
Now I'm going to jump back a bit so I can explain an amazing point about her. :) So, a while back mom showed me this video of her singing at one of her concerts and she actually said: "You know... I'm just gonna say it because, its my show, and I'll do what I want." And everybody cheered for her, and then the next thing that came out of her mouth. "So, recently I've been going through some hard things. And I've just come to know my savior, Jesus Christ." That was so cool hearing that come out of her mouth, (note: not at the concert I went to), and I was happy to hear that she seemed to be saved. Especially after she sang "I Can Only Imagine" and tears were streaming down her face as she smiled and sang the lyrics.
And if you're with me here, you all know that 99% of musical artists, actors, everybody in Hollywood, that if they say they're Christian they're usually fibbing. I may be judging, but honestly if you're truly a Christian you need to show it through your actions. (Ex: Don't do drugs, have sex before marriage, etc. Which many young people in Hollywood musical stuff do)
 I don't really follow Wynonna in her career, but as far as I know she's doing her best to mend things with her mom Naomi Judd, and making a better life for herself period.
And sooo... I come to my point. :) At the concert I went to, she actually sang "I Can Only Imagine" at the concert. I was all "OMIGOSH! She's not lying!!! SHE'S ACTUALLY SAVED!!" She got that same look on her face she had in the video I saw, she wasn't crying, but close to it.
And before she sang it she told her audience; "So as you listen to this, just let this wash over you," And then her beautiful amazing fantabulous voice sang out to the crowd.
But um... unfortunately my county I live in is kind of anti-religion-go-with-the-flow. :-/ Not everybody, but a lot of the population is like that. Everyone was absolutely dead silent when she sang that song, compared to the songs before that people were clapping in the middle of her singing, so everyone during that song was dead silent. I felt kind bad for Wynonna, but I'm hoping she heard mom say "Hallelujah!" before everyone started clapping. I was tempted to raise my hands semi-high without bothering people by blocking the view, but I didn't, that's why I hate my shyness sometimes and I don't push it out of the way and just do what I want to do.
She is so amazingly talented though, and she honestly inspired me more than any other artist has. I'm inspired by how she's just pushing herself through the difficulties in her life and coming out a stronger and amazing woman.
So a couple cute and favorable moments and highlights of the show...
One guy during almost all the way through till about half, kept shouting things like "YEAH!" and "WOOHOO!!"
I don't exactly remember what he said that made Wynonna say "Your a guy..." and something about him not knowing squat about being a woman and the things we have to deal with. He ended up saying "REDHEADS ARE HOT!" At one point and she laughed and called him up on stage to get a picture with her lol. It was so funny.
And trust me when I say that he wasn't exactly level-headed or coherant as he could be. ;) I think he may have been high, just a little bit. He had classic long hair, and a bandana, and khaki pants. And a big bulge in his pocket on his leg. Wynonna fingered it and asked what it was, and everyone said "don't ask!" She figured it out pretty quickly. And then she asked his girlfriend if she made the guy come to her concert, and if he even knew who she was lol. She's great!
Another thing is she was saying something sad, and a guy in the audience (not the same guy) said "You need a hug!" And she actually bent over the stage and let him give her a hug, it was so cute and she was grinning ear to ear after that! She even said "That really just made my day." lol.

It was so sweet. :)
Another funny moment is when she mentioned her 15-year-old daughter Grace, and a woman in the audience said "I'm so sorry." Wynonna nodded and said; "Paybacks are hell," everyone laughed and she just smiled. In case you didn't know, Wynonna was kind of a pain-in-the-butt when she was a teenager lol.
Well really all her life, but she's always been getting under people's skin because of the way she is lol. I love her though, she's completely free-spirited and I can tell the difference between her and other musical artists. She's got a distinctive personality and shine to her songs, and she's not afraid to say things that she wants to say.
I just gotta say :) She was really amazing to see, and I'm really happy I got to go see her live. I'll have to see her again, and maybe if I'm lucky I'll meet her in person someday! *crosses fingers*

~Jazmine