Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Kristina thinks that now she has a baby to care for and love, she can let go of the old addiction. But she finds herself searching for Robyn, her old contact for the "street crank". While over at her house she meets a boy named Trey and starts to crave for people to look like they want or need her. Once she gets home, she begins to work at a 7-Eleven to get the money to buy more crank. The manager there is a porn dealer and offers her a job as a prostitute, but she declines.

After learning that her father is coming to her mother's home to be at the christening of her new baby, Hunter Seth, she begs her mother to let him come and she agrees, on the condition that Kristina has to be the one to tell her older sister. Once her father comes, he takes her to casinos for her eighteenth birthday party and they snort some lines while there. This causes Kristina to be almost late for Hunter's christening, but she manages to make it on time. Meanwhile, Kristina has started dating Trey and began smoking "glass", which is much more harmful than smoking crank because it is pure meth in rock size quantities. Kristina begins to smoke it every day, becoming skinnier and crashing more often. After crashing one day, her mother kicks her out of the house because she didn't even try to wake to save Hunter, who had rolled himself under a chair and couldn't get out.

Kristina then moves in with Brad, Trey's cousin, while serving as the babysitter of Brad's two young daughters, Devon and LeTreya. She quits working at 7-Eleven by using blackmail and gets a call from Robyn. After finding out that Robyn now works at a "whorehouse", Kristina goes over and is able to sell the girls ice, instead of street crank, which was the only meth they'd had access to. Trey leaves for college and Kristina soon finds herself becoming attracted to Brad. After Trey comes home, she asks him why he hadn't been answering the phone and he responds with that he had been seeing a girl for sex only and that he still loved Kristina. She passes out and finds him gone. This saddens Kristina and she begins to have sex with Brad. When Trey comes home, he finds Kristina sleeping in the same bed as Brad but instead of getting mad at her, he starts having sex with her while Brad is sleeping. Brad's estranged wife Angela comes back because she wants another try to be together with Brad. So, Brad kicks Kristina out.

Thus, Kristina is forced to move out and into a motel nearby. She is also able to meet the man that gives Brad the crystal meth, Cesar. Once Trey comes back, he confesses to Kristina that the girl he had been sleeping with was Angela until she came back to Brad. So, he was also forced to move out. She agrees to him moving in and they soon begin to live together. They then move to an apartment together. Kristina asks her mother if she can bring Hunter over to her apartment so Hunter could stay with his mother and stepfather. But Kristina gives him back when she finds Hunter on the ground after having fallen from his high chair. She realizes that her mother was right and that she is not ready to raise Hunter.

Kristina, desperate for some money, steals most of her mother's jewelry and check books. When Kristina gets a court order because her mother thinks that Kristina is an unfit mother, she and Trey decide to make a run for it after a picture of her is put in the newspaper asking for people to turn her in. They soon arrive in California with only a few pairs of clothes, all their meth, and money. They fall asleep in the car after a meal at McDonalds and are awakened by a cop. He asks them to step outside and he finds the half pound of crystal meth. They are arrested and taken to jail. They have to stay the entire weekend and during this time Kristina detoxes from the meth. Because Kristina had a history in Nevada, she and Trey are put behind homestate bars. They are offered the chance of ratting on Cesar to shorten their jail sentence to six months which they agree to. During her checkup, Kristina finds out that she is pregnant with Trey's baby and hopes the baby is a girl so that Kristina will be able to love the baby like she should have done with Hunter. She hopes she can stay in touch with Trey and if not she knows she will with Quade. The novel ends with Kristina hoping that things will get better in her life even though she has no reason to be hopeful.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Kristina, a gifted, quiet, well-behaved girl high school junior goes to Albuquerque, New Mexico to see her father. When she goes, the first night she meets a boy named Adam. They are instantly attracted to each other. Kristina releases a new side of herself, Bree, which is the wild crazy and daring side of her that has always been there, under the surface. One night, Adam shows Kristina or "Bree" crank, the monster. She has never felt this amazing in her life. She and Adam begin a romance until she has to go back to Nevada to be with her mother, stepfather, lesbian sister, and brother. However, she brings the addiction with her. She meets Brendan, a boy who she trusts, but he is also on meth and ends up raping her; Chase, someone she has an actual relationship with because he understands and cares for her; and Robyn who gives her a passageway to more and more meth, and her life starts spiraling out of control. Eventually, she becomes pregnant. At first she thinks the baby is Chase's, but when she counts back the weeks, she figures out the baby is actually caused by Brendan's rape. At the end of the book she struggles with raising her new son and her addiction. Which she still cannot control.

A friend of mine recommended this book to me and it was a very good book to read. The author Ellen Hopkins wrote this book about her own struggles with her daughter. This book is indeed fiction but she used her own experiences to help her with this story. This book can be found under the teen section at the bookstore. 

Mike Tompkins is an extremely talented person. Every musical instrument you hear is all his voice. There are no actual instruments. A friend of mine showed me this guy and he truly is amazing. This video here is Dynamite by Tao Cruz.

Teenage Dream & Just the Way You Are:

Firework by Katy Perry:

He does many others. Check him out on You ube!

Pembroke Welsh Corgi

The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is an awesome family dog. They are great with kids, very playful, and obedient. They are not big dogs and they usually weigh anywhere from 24 to 30 pounds depending on the sex of the dog. From the top of their shoulders to their feet they are 10 to 12 inches tall. They are originally used as a herding breed that originated in Prembrokeshire, Whales. These dogs have been favored by British royalty for over seventy years. They all have short tails and it is very unusual to see one with a tail.

This one here in the picture is Sophie. She is very affectionate and loves to play fetch. She is not aggressive at all and in fact she will definitely lick you to death. Sophie is my buddy and loves laying down watching tv with you although she does take up the whole bed. She so badly wants to think she is a lap dog even though she isnt. When I first brought home my son from the hospital she wasn't sure if she liked him or not but after being around him more and more she loves him. She is very protective of my son and licks him every chance she gets.

If you are unsure what kind of dog to get when you are looking, the Pembroke Welsh Corgi is always a good choice.

My Heart and Soul :)

This little man is my whole world. He keeps me smiling everyday and gives me the best job in the world, being his mother.

What to do when your Newborn is Grunting more than usual

When my son was about a month old I had taken him to the pediatrician because he was grunting all the time which was more than the average newborn. The doctor told me it was stomach discomfort and said to give him Gripe Water. Of course I had never heard of it so I called my mother to ask her about it and she had never heard of it either. I called my boyfriend and he looked it up. Gripe Water is a home remedy for infants, usually meant for colic babies. It helps with gastrointestinal discomfort, teething pain, reflux, and other stomach ailments. It comes in a 4 ounce bottle that can be found at Walgreens. Only give your child the amount it says on the label. You can give it straight to your baby without mixing it but I found it easier to put a little bit in my sons bottle for it is like an oil and he choked on it straight up. It helped him with his grunting and no longer grunts more than the average infant. Mommy's Bliss makes it in a blue label bottle but it is a 12.00 bottle. I found that the cheaper brand worked just as well. Keep in mind that it does not help your child go, but it helps ease the discomfort of the tummy. It is not an everyday necessity but you can give it to your child as needed but no more than the label calls for.

Rewards For Mothers & Babies

Pampers is an awesome product that kind of pays you back. On every Pampers product they have a 15 digit code that you can enter on pampers.com to earn points. These points accumulate to get you awesome rewards that you pick out. Its called Gifts to Grow and all you have to do is join pampers.com with no cost to you and start logging in those codes. They have tons of rewards to choose from such as gifts for mothers such as spa certificates, magazines, detergent, coupons, and so much more. They also have great things for your baby like toys, free photos from Shutterfly, etc. They have new rewards all the time. Ive redeemed some points already and have gotten photos of my baby when he was born that I only had to pay 3.00 on shipping. Its a great way to get back for being a great mother!

Words From my Child

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My 5 month old son loves the keyboard now thanks to his father. If you are near a computer with him he tries to take over. lol

Baby Food: When to Start it?

As a first time mother there are a lot of things that can be uncertain when raising your child. There is advice from your parents, other parents, doctors,the internet, and many other places that can be helpful but how do you know that your doing your job well? If your baby is happy and healthy you'll know it.

Introducing your baby to solid foods really all depends on your baby. Not every baby is the same so to go by the book may not be for your child. The doctors told me that my baby shouldn't be eating baby cereal until he hit 5 months. My son started eating baby cereal at 2 months and baby food at 3 months. Is my child obese? Definitely not. My son was born 3 weeks prematurely and I can understand my doctors concern with not wanting to feed my child food at such an early age but my child was hungry. You as a mother know whats best for your child. If you are unsure if feeding your child cereal or food is right, test it out. Start with feeding your child a little bit of cereal in the formula or breast milk. You want to start with the rice cereal because no one is allergic to rice.If your baby eats it without spitting it up he or she is ready for it. When you are ready to try out solid foods start by mixing a little bit of the formula or breast milk into the cereal and spoon feed it to your baby with a soft spoon. If they don't take it well you can always try again later. That is to help your baby with the consistency of the food for the later testing of baby food. When your baby does well with the cereal, it may be time to try out the baby food. Start with the 1st foods like bananas, carrots, apples, peas, etc. 1st foods will be labeled on the jar. Make sure you still give your baby formula for that is where they get their iron. If your baby breaks out immediately on any of the foods or cereals, do not continue feeding the baby that particular food for it may mean your baby is either allergic to it or not ready for it at that age. I hope this tips have helped all you first time mothers out there. We all learn as we go along and we also learn from each other.