Book Review: The Hunger Games Series

I just finished reading the 3-book series of the Hunger Games. Knowing the book series is geared toward teens, I originally only purchased the first book for my Nook not knowing if I'd like it.

I finished the first book in two nights and quickly purchased the other two and had all three read in less than a week.

I enjoyed the series and it was a quick read that kept you interested, I'm a little surprised that the books are geared toward teens though. Some of the content if you really sit and think about it is a little disturbing. I think the ending in book 3 was a tad bit rushed but all-in-all a good purchase and I recommend reading them!

Looking forward to the first movie, coming out on March 23rd! I assume there will be 3 movies to mimic the book series.

On to other news, I'm going to make an honest attempt to start blogging at least one a week. Progress on the house has been slow, but I'm meeting with a contractor this week to talk about the remodel! Super excited for that and once it gets going I think it'll kick me in high gear about getting a few more things accomplished. The living room as been on total hold waiting for the remodel which is driving me nuts. I did purchase some furniture and a wall hanging for in there.

The master & guest bathrooms are the almost complete. Still need to get the crown molding hung, the hardwood floors sanded and re-stained, floor molding installed and get pictures/wall decorations purchased and hung. As for the rest of the house, well..... In my own defense, I haven't been twiddling my thumbs since my last post (when ever that was). My photography business has picked up, YAY!! This is both good news and bad - I still work my full-time job so my spare time/house time has been drastically cut or you could say non-existent which is also what I'm going to blame my lack of blog posts on too :)

I've pretty much stopped decorating weddings - takes up too much time. I have 3 scheduled for this year which are pretty much just for family. I'll photograph weddings but don't think I'll be decorating any more if I can avoid it.

This past weekend I did a fund raiser for our local Relay for Life. I shoot 20 minute mini photo sessions with the proceeds of the session cost going to the American Cancer Society. The Relay for Life team set up all the appointments. We had 50 sessions! I was pooped Sunday night when we finally finished. I'm not use to standing on concrete for 10 hours a day. I enjoyed the weekend and look forward to getting the edits done.

Basketball overview (2010-2011 Junior High Season)

I'm really late with this post - I thought I'd done it already actually. These are from Johnathon's 8th grade year (last year - oops, he's a Freshman now with only a few weeks of school left - hey, I said it was really late!). At the end of the season, I did storyboards for all the 8th grade boys and an album for the coach.  Above is Johnathon's storyboard - it was printed on as a 16x16.  The storyboards were given to the boys at their last home game (8th grade night) by their parents.  The parents selected the pictures and size of the storyboards, they all did the standout mounting so they could hang them as is on the wall without needing frames.

Now for the album for the coach, the opening page:

I did a 2-page spread for each of the 8th graders (8 of them).  Below are a few examples of the pages.

After the individual players pages, I did a 2-page spreads of all the kids on the Varsity team - just a mixture of the boys as the season went on.

There were 18 2-page spreads in total along with the cover & back page.  I had a signature page in the middle of the book for all of them to write a special message to the coach.  I took the book to the game before their last and let the boys and all the parents look at the book.  I wasn't sure I was going to get it back - the boys looked at it at least 20 times each that night.  Then they presented it to the coach at the the banquet after their last home game.  It was funny watching them watch him look at the book, they each had to show him and explain the pictures on their page.

They were a great 8th grade team, they won regionals at Pinckneyville and got a chance to play in State.  Unfortunately their first game at State didn't go as we'd hoped but we were all very proud of them.  It was a great season with a great group of boys!

Looking back at these pictures I can't believe how young they look and how much they've changed in just one year.  Looking forward to watching them over the next few years. 

Hoping we have a repeat to State before they graduate!