Seeing my BFF

It's been since late July that I've seen my BFF.  AND I GET TO SEE HER TODAY!  We are headed to a Ladies' Bible Retreat called Sister's Inspiring Sisters.

1.  I get to see Emily!

2. We have 2 days and 1 night together!

3. I have a list of things to tell her!

4.  I'm sooooo excited!

5.  It's like we're teenagers!

Thankful Thursday-Student Reading

The first time one of our second grade classes came to the library a new student told me she couldn't check out books because she didn't know how to read.

I assured her that we'd find her a book that she could either read or at least do a picture walk with.

I started with Margaret Hillert's low level, high interest books.  The student picked two she thought she'd like and checked them out.

The following week she ran into the library to tell me she had READ the books!  And wanted to know if she could get more.  Of course!

For the last 6 weeks she has been reading her way through Hillert's books.

Then...

Yesterday her teacher texted me a video of a book, the students arms and her voice reading a book a bit above what the student has been reading.

It.  Made. My. Day.

Between the teacher teaching her heart out and me finding the student books that she could be successful reading and build her confidence, together we helped create a reader.

And that is my Why.

Wordless Wednesday-Tyler Fair

We had a great time at the fair last week!

Ladies' Bible Class

Last night I co-taught my second Ladies' Bible Class.  It's always nerve wracking to teach an adult Bible class.  I teach children's Bible class all the time but there's just something about teaching adults.

Last year we started a co-teaching set up.  I really like that because it gave me a back up teacher in case I freaked out.  Ha!  We continued with that set up this year.  I taught with the same lady as last year.

Our theme is "Prayer".  I chose Daniels prayer in Dan. 9: 1-19.  I like choosing people from the Bible who I think I already know because I've taught it to children so many times.  But I find that there's more to the story than what we teach out children.

With Daniel we focused on confession and knowing God.  Daniel was very specific about his sins in his confession.  How often do we just say "please forgive me of my sins" but don't lists those sins? Also Daniel KNEW the God he prayed too.  Do we know God as well as Daniel did?

Here's the link to our lesson in Google Docs in case you're interested in having a look.

It's Time For The Tyler Fair Again!

I love going to the fair in Tyler.  It's small enough that it's manageable but big enough to have fun!

1.  I do NOT ride the rides.  That's Jay's and his brother's job to do with the kids.

2. I eat my weight in fried food! Fried pickles! Fried snickers! Fried everything you can image!

3.  I love sausage on a stick!  Why does sausage taste better on a stick? I'll never know.

4.  I like "window shopping" the booths though I don't usually purchase anything.

5. We don't go many places as an extended family (with every one of us going) but we do always go to the fair together.

Thankful Thursday-Authors

I am so thankful for authors!  They do what I can't do.  They can make words magical.  They can transport me to another world.  They are truly amazing.

My good friend, Lara and I got to go to Houston last Saturday to hear Liane Moriarty talk and have her sign our books.  An indie bookshop, Blue Willow, hosted her.

I love listening to authors talk.  They are fascinating to me.  It's so interesting to me how they create a story from one little idea.  I also like to hear them talk about their writing process.  Moriarty talked about how she just flies by the seat of her pants.  She just dives right into a story.  She doesn't plan or make an outline or anything.

She also talked about how small moments get turned into big stories.  She shared some of her funnier moments.  Moriarty talked about windscreens... did I mention she's from Australia?  I wasn't sure what a windscreen was but from context I figured it was a windshield.  As she continued with her story she said she did not think to turn on her windscreen wipers.  Then I knew she was talking about a windshield.

I wish I had had a little more time to chat with her while she was signing my book but she was moving quick because she had to catch a flight out of Houston.  Which I completely understand!

Wordless Wednesday-Liane Moriarty

My good friend and I drove down to Houston to see author, Liane Moriarty talk and have her sign our books.  She was hosted by Blue Willow Bookshop.

PS I don't why I'm standing so ramrod straight!

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Yesterday, Sept 19 was Talk Like a Pirate Day.  So I just had to dress like a pirate!  And talk like one too.  And of course read a book in the library about pirates.

The best part was the students reaction!  In the mornings I hold the door open in the cafeteria for students to enter for Jump Start.  Instead of my normal "Good morning.", "Walk please", "Go back and walk",  I changed it to "Aye me matey", "Aargh", and "If you don't walk I'll make you walk the plank!"  They laughed at walking the plank.

It was also fun to see which students immediately jumped into character and became a pirate with me, which ones just smiled a little at me, and which ones didn't even give me a second glance.

In the library I read How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long.  It's illustrated by David Shannon. Most of my older students recognized his work or called out "Hey! He wrote No David!"

Before I read I asked students what pirates say.  I got some good ones!

Then I read the story.

In the story the little boy, Jeremy, says that pirates have green teeth so after reading I asked silly questions like "Who wants to be a pirate?" When hands would go up I cried out "Gross! You want green teeth?!"  Some actually said yes.  Ha!

Now I'm thinking how I can dress up for other books and other fun days like Talk Like a Pirate Day. The dress up and the funny speech added a whole new level to the library.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

For myself I read:

The Revenge of Seven (Lorien Legacies, #5) by Pittacus Lore, I love this YA series!  In The Revenge of Seven we learn that the Mogadorians turned one of the Loriens.  The teenagers were fools for trusting Five.  But Five might not be as bad as they think he is.  They also might not get as much help from the sanctuary as they first thought.  Ella might be more powerful they previous thought.  There's action, lots of action and a little, just a tiny bit of romance.

I read a lot for school this week.  I got my September shipment of Junior Library Guild books.  I'm getting back into the swing of things!

Me First by Robin Pulver is the first book I'm going to give a teacher when they tell me they are studying word prefixes.  Pulver has such a fun way of including prefixes in most of the words in a sentence.  It's really quite shocking!

Buddy and Earl and the Great Big Baby by Maureen Fergus is an adorable series for emergent readers.  I love the dog and the hedgehog's friendship and skewed view of the world.

Lion Lessons by Jon Agee teaches kids what is takes to be a lion.  A young and... well, scrawny boy tries seven steps to become a lion.  In the end the boy learns that looking out for your friends is the most important thing.

Douglas, You Need Glasses! by Ged Adamson is a book I'm going to read to students when our nurse does vision screening.  Douglas is a dog who keeps running into things, chewing up the wrong items and just getting into trouble because he can't see.  He needs glasses!

How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long is a book I read Monday, "Talk Like a Pirate Day".  Jeremy is on the beach with his family when he sees a pirate ship.  The pirates take him aboard their ship to help them bury their treasure.  Jeremy is having a fabulous time and wants to be a pirate forever until he find out that Pirates don't tuck you in at night or read you a story!

Groovy Joe Ice Cream and Dinosaurs by Eric Litman is a cute book about a boy sharing his ice cream with dinosaurs and what happen when he runs out of ice cream.

Are Pirates Polite by Corinne Damos teaches that even rowdy pirates say please and thank you.  This is a fun book to use to teach manners.

Wordless Wednesday

Love these Snapchat filters!!!

Crashing

I've been crashing at about 1:00 everyday.  My body and mind are just done.

How I feel everyday at 1:00.
PS I love Snapchat filters!

This is a new feeling for me.  I don't normally crash in the middle of the day.  Normally I keep on truckin' until bed time.  Then I crash.

But not this year.  I blame in on turning 40 next month.

I blame everything on turning 40.  Ha!

This is the 4th week of school and I did a little better yesterday.  Maybe I just need to get back in the swing of things??? But that doesn't seem to be happening quickly.

Yesterday I drank a cup of coffee at 1:00.  That gave me a bit of a kick to keep going.  But I kept yawning.  And I don't really want to drink coffee in the middle of the day.  Cuz I'm already hot all the time... cuz, I'm almost 40 (see, blaming 40 again).  I don't want to drink a coke (southern for soda) either.  I only drink one coke a day.  Well, a caffeine free diet Dr. Pepper, which my brother-in-law always asks me what the point of that is. Ha!

What are some thing you eat or drink to get you through the afternoon slump?  I need ideas!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

The House on Mermaid Point (Ten Beach Road, #3) by Wendy Wax is a cute beach read series I stumble upon this summer.  I really enjoy the 6 ladies and the fixer upper houses they work on.  I like reading about their relationships with each other and the things happening in their lives.

The house they remodeled in this book belongs to an old rock & roll singer set on a key off of Florida.  How cool would it be to live on your own island?!

My only "complaint" about this book was that one of the supporting characters dies.  It's a beach read.  No one is suppose to die for crying out loud!

The 6 ladies are once again up against odds with the tv network they work for.  Some of the ladies have a hard time saying no to the men in their lives.  One lady can't say yes to an amazing man. Drama unfolds over the first house they redid and sold.

All in all it's a cute book/series.



I finsihed Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide (Pottermore Presents, #3) by JK Rowling. I love diving back into the Wizarding World!  It brings back fond memories of reading the series for the first time and of sharing it for the first time with Reagan.  There's so much in that world I want to know about.  I really enjoy learning more facts about the castle, wizards and witches, and the wizarding world as a whole.

I started The Revenge of Seven (Lorien Legacies, #5) by Pittacus Lore and for a professional development book I'm reading Champs: A Proactive & Positive Approach to Classroom Management.

Wordless Wednesday-Wedding

At a friends wedding this past weekend.