I’ve just started a second blog called Getting Healthy. (It only has two posts so far.) I decided to create this blog because I need to make some major changes in my life. By focusing on my overall health–emotional, physical, and spiritual–I hope my life will improve. I’ve finally decided to start following my blog motto: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” JK Rowling is a wise woman and I need to do exactly that–live rather than just survive!

This blog is mostly for me to document my progress and remember the things that have inspired and helped me become healthier. But, I hope it can help anyone else who may be feeling or going through the same things I am.

Check it out if you’d like to follow my progress.

The last 1000 posts have been a whirlwind of fun! While I don’t think every post I’ve posted has been quality, I’ve tried my best to do quality over quantity. I think that’s why it’s taken me a little over four years to reach this number.

To celebrate, I’m doing a giveaway to say thank you to all those who read my blog and have helped make this achievement possible. Even though I blog for myself, I wouldn’t have continued to blog without my readers’ encouragement. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading and commenting!

What am I giving away? Take a look!

That’s right! One lucky person will win a copy of both Matched and Crossed by Ally Condie. But, that’s not all! Both books are signed by Ally.

Please Note the Following

This giveaway is being administered using the Rafflecopter entry form. Here are a few things about the form:

• There’s only one mandatory entry and other additional entry options. The mandatory entry requires you to make a very specific comment on this post. Be sure to read the full instructions.
• The name the form asks for is viewable by the public. You do not need to use your real name if you don’t want to.
• The email address the form asks for is not viewable by the public. I can only see it and this is how I’ll contact you if you win. Please use your preferred email because if you don’t respond to my email within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen! Do not put your email address in your comment.
• If you’re confused on how to use the form, please watch this!

Terms and Conditions

• To enter, fill out the form below.
• I’ll use random.org to pick a winner.
• Entrants must be 13 years old or older.
• The giveaway is open to the US only.
• The giveaway runs until 12:01 am EST on Thursday, November 24. Basically, you have until (and not including) Thanksgiving to enter.
• The winner will be announced on Saturday, November 26. The winner will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be chosen.

This award has the same requirements most blog awards do–thank and link to the person who gave you the award, list a few things about you, and pass it on to other bloggers.

Here are a few things about me that I haven’t shared on my blog before (I think):

1. I have an obsession with Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. I love him! He’s cute, funny, and mischievous, and I want to be just like him.
2. When I was little girl, I’d role play with friends that I was a member of the G-Force from the cartoon Battle of the Planets. It’s very much like Voltron–five members with secret identities that turn into superheroes; they just don’t ride in lions that turn into a giant robot. Until yesterday, I couldn’t remember what the name of this cartoon was. My coworker Sean found it on Google just by my description of it.
3. I wish 80s cartoons were as cool as I once thought they were. Now, when I watch them, they disappoint me with how cheesy they are. I’ve stopped re-watching them so that I can remember them like I did as a child, as the best shows on TV.
4. Peanut butter is my protein of choice. I’m not a vegetarian, but I’m not particularly fond of most meats (although I’ll eat them), and the meats I am fond of (fish) are not allowed in my house because Corey is severely allergic to them.
5. One of the llamas near my house is no longer in the field I drive by daily. I worry about him each time I drive by. I wonder where he is and if he’s going to come back. I also worry that the other llama is now lonely, even though he has sheep to keep him company.

I’m going to pass along the Blog on Fire award to the following blogs:

1. Ninja Girl Reads
2. Kristin Can Read
3. My Head is Full of Books
4. Library Mosaic
5. Dizzy C’s Little Book Blog

I started this meme because I believe that bloggers should celebrate each other. Sometimes as a blogger, you put your heart and soul into a post and you get no feedback or recognition.

Each week, she chooses a blog and writes three positive things about it. Today, she chose mine. I had no idea until I received a comment telling me about it. I was so surprised! And, I loved everything said in the post:

1. Super cute layout with cute cartoony characters. Plus she has a Dumbledore quote at the top. Can’t beat that.
2. She separates her personal posts from her book posts, making it easy to find what you are looking for.
3. She does a great job of recognizing other book blogs for the fun things they do.

While I think this meme is such a great idea because I’m all for sharing the blog love with my fellow bloggers, I don’t think I’ll become a regular participant. I just feel like I already participate in too many memes, and I’m still kind of trying to find my way in this book blogging world. I wanted to share this on my blog, though, to:

• Say thank you for thinking of me today. It totally made my day!
• Give others a chance to find out about this meme so they can participate if they want to. Go check it out on her blog.

What I Like About You is a tag created by Roxy of Keeping Up With Roxy’s Books that answers some questions about other bloggers to help spread the blogger love. Everybody can do it. Just answer the following questions!

1. Name the blogger who first left a comment on your blog. I started my blog so long ago that my first comments just came from friends and family members. None of them had blogs yet. I was the first out of the group.
2. Name a blogger who has the cutest button. I don’t really keep track of buttons. I don’t like to clutter my sidebar with them so I never pay attention to them.
3. Name the blogger who blogs about a lot of things other than books. Brodi Ashton blogs about the struggle she had with getting published, the joys of getting a book deal, and many more things. Her blog is a ton of fun to read because she presents things in such a unique and hilarious way. I highly recommend her blog (and book Everneath) to everyone!
4. Name the most creative blog. Brush Up On Your Reading is such a creative blog. I love that Nina and her pet monster ARGH talk about books. They often have different opinions and talk about why they think the way they do. It makes for a really fun discussion.
5. Name the blogger with the prettiest blog design. I really like Emily’s Reading Room. Her design is modern and fun, yet simple and clean. I’m all about uncluttered blogs. The more cluttered a blog is, the less likely I am to frequent it because it’s hard to read and takes forever to load.

I tag anyone who wants to do this! Let’s spread the blogger love!

I’m being featured on Mission to Read today as part of Rie’s new monthly blog feature, Great Designs. I’m really very excited for this awesome opportunity. Rie has such a great blog herself and to have my blog considered for this feature just means the world to me. Thank you so much, Rie!

Hop on over to her blog to check out the feature and learn a little more about my blog design.

The Liebster Blog Award is designed to bring additional recognition to those bloggers with less than 200 followers. If you receive the award, you should link back to the blogger that nominated you and nominate five more blogs. Also, don’t forget to let them know that you nominated them.

My Nominations

1. Jenny from Alternate Readality
2. Laura from The Shabby Rabbit
3. Ashley and Alysa from Everead
4. Sarah from Writer, Reader, Dreamer
5. Lari from Lari is Writing

1. I want to start posting more personal posts again and I know not all my readers want to read those.
2. I want to make it easier for those who want to only read my book blog posts or my personal posts.
3. I want to see how many posts of each I really do.

Because of this change, depending on what you’re interested in reading, you may want to change your  RSS feed settings (if you view my blog through an RSS feed). If you don’t read my blog through an RSS feed, just remember that you’ll have to click “Personal Posts” at the top of my blog to read my personal posts.

There are a few RSS feed options. If you don’t want my personal posts to show up in your feed, you’ll definitely want to change your RSS feed to the “Book Blog Posts Only” option. If you’re not really interested in reading my book blog posts, then you’ll want to use the “Personal Posts Only” option (this includes my Nearly Wordless Wednesday posts). If you want to read any post on my blog, you can either update your feed using the “All Topics” option or leave your RSS feed the way it is. All these options are listed in my sidebar so if you change your mind in the future, you don’t have to find this post to get the RSS feed URL.

I hope this makes it easier for everyone. If you run into any problems or have any questions, please let me know.

What do you think of this change? Do you like it, hate it, not care? Will it help you enjoy my blog more?

PS–All my posts will still post to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.