Happy 10th work anniversary to Bob!

A special Happy 10th work anniversary to Bob!

We miss Kayla and Marisa!!!!  And we aren’t sure if Tyler lives here anymore?  I haven't seen him for days…

This is Kayla with some of her roommates?

We love when we get to Skype!

Tyler had yet another busy week.  Yesterday was the LM marching band festival where they did the final number but didn’t compete- then boarded a bus to go compete in the Marion Marching Competition where they took 1st place in the 4A division!  He looked so awesome out there!

(He is 2nd from the right)

We are slowly working on our house.  The recent project has been the downstairs bathroom.  I need to find a before picture so you can appreciate how awesome this is- all done by Bob: new wall color, stained wood, and new fixtures. Its gorgeous!

Yesterday, Bob, Alayna, and I had a fun day going to Newbo market (saw some of the Czechtober festival), went our for ice cream, saw Tyler’s performance, looked at homedepot for new flooring options, went to a book sale, did all the grocery shopping, and then watched Gorillas in the Mist (since I am talking about Dian Fossey and her beautiful gorillas in my booktalks.)  It was a great movie, but I cried.  Sometimes its hard to swallow what humans can do to some of Gods creations.

Rosie and Lily wanted to say hi!

(My fav pic of Rosie)

Well, I had an interesting week at work….

At the middle school I had the following happen:

1. Teacher/Dad walks into the library this morning: So, Mrs. Hart….I don’t know what kind of magical book voodoo you use to when you talk to kids. I have tried for years to talk kids into books and they never take it. Then, you bookktalk, and all of the sudden they are all on hold for the book. Last night, my son came home and told me he joined the battle of the books after you talked about it. I dropped my stuff, literally, ran over to check his head. I even went to the ER to have him checked because something must be really wrong. My kid has never wanted to do anything like this and he is reading like he never has before.

2. Teacher walks into the library this morning: Hey, do you know if our district participates in nominating Teachers of the Year?
Me: No clue
Teacher: Well, I was planning to nominate you.
MADE MY DAY

3.  I am up to 40 Battle teams!!!  I can’t even believe it- we only had 2 last year!  Bob helped me find a way to do a computerized bracket so I can organize it.  So exciting!

4.  I finally got my costume for Book Character dress up day.  I hope it will be as Epic as it is in my head!  Lots of kids super excited for it.

At the high school the following happened:

1. I set up my “Murder, mystery, and Mayhem” display.  Some kids came in and asked where the body outline was that I did last year.  I didn’t know anyone noticed I did that.  So some girls came in to help me do it.

2. A teen boy saw me carrying a huge pile of books and raced to help carry them to my car for me.  Then went on to tell me how he just loves what I have done to the library and that it is so inviting and comfortable now.

3. I am working hard to find activities that appeal to difficult HS students.  I decided to try an Edible Book Contest on Teen Reads Week.  I am surprised at the responses: one English teacher is having her class create one on the book they have been studying, the FCS teacher brought her whole class in-they are divided into groups and have to research and make an edible children's book that day.  Then I have had students coming in to show me pictures of what they are going to make.  I am so excited!!!

Bad:

1. Principal decided to move 6 more computers in.  So she brought in 2 mix matched tables and then hideous dirty chairs from Rockwell.  Now it looks crappy.  Not much I could say to protest.

2.  Then Friday she told me she cut all my funding- and it wasn’t done nicely.  I was devastated.  I already had to fight for $5000 for the middle school.  Now I have to go present to the foundation and beg for the high school.  I do, in a way, understand the rationale…

Apparently we are moving to the band room next year.  When I mentioned new carpet, she said, “Who is going to fund that”.  I wanted to say, DUDE YOU!  It’s a 40 year old carpet FULL of 40 year old band spit!!!  Then I asked about new shelving- same response “who is going to fund that”?  I explained that the shelves I have now are part of the original school from 60 years ago and bolted to the wall.  So she cut my entire budget to try and get funding to replace the shelves and carpet.  I get that.  but you NEVER cut the book funding!!!  Word got out to the kids and they are devastated.  “Just when we started getting used to awesome new books”!   So I am going to fight with everything I've got for more funding.  Its exhausting.

Lots and lots of good stuff!

Alayna started volleyball.  In her 1st game she made 2 points!

Tyler had a game and was busy with the play.  Btw- he auditioned and got one of the lead parts in the school play!  Way to go Ty!

(Hes turning the corner)

We had fun making carmeled apples last night using the honeycrisp apples from our tree.  They were messy but awfully delicious!!

We went searching for my teen dress up week costume and still no luck.  I am getting discouraged, but we had fun!

So, things at work have been great!  I would just like to say for the record that I am the master of presenting and motivating middle school students. Last year, we started a Battle of the Book club. I put up fliers, but we only got 10 kids to sign up, the boys tried to get out of it, but the principal wouldn’t let them quit. This year, I got my superawesome hubby to use my pics and music to make a slideshow. So, I showed the classes the slideshow and then performed my magic and told them how awesome it will be. Now I have 22 teams and I have only talked to half the school. Master? Yep!

THEN, I offered a READ & FEED time for Flex this week and had 4 periods FULL of kids reading.  I told them they could bring treats, blankets, pillows, and read anywhere they want.  They thought that was amazing- here are some of the places they chose:

(Can you see the kid behind the chair?)

I made the paper again- I actually took the picture:

And here is a summary of August on my wall- almost done with Sept.  We are kinda rockin it…

A week full of great things!

1. Kayla is off like Bilbo Baggins, excited for her new adventure  to BYU-I!  It was so hard to see her go.  I thought it would be easier when the 2nd kid leaves, but it isnt.  BUT, I am excited to see how this semester goes, what exciting people she will meet, and what classes she will like.  But Kayla, we miss you!!!

Here she is in her new apartment with her new décor! A special thank you to the Ribera's for driving her up and getting her all settled.  We are extremely grateful!!

2. Alayn won her 1st volleyball game!  Ill get pics of her next game tomorrow.

3.  Tyler auditioned for and made a lead part in the school play!  We are excited for him, but I don’t know how he will do it all!

4.  As I said in the previous blog post, we had a wonderful day with Mike Ritland. I went home sick (as my body cant take the stress) and after taking a sick day and sleeping 26 hours in 2 days, I could finally face the world again.  I do love good weeks!

5. We finally got to see Captain America: winter soldier, and as you can guess, it totally kicked butt!! Plus, our family is now hooked on the series “Once Upon a Time”.  What a fabulous family series. 

6. We also canned more pasta sauce, deep cleaned the house from top to bottom, did all the yard work, whew!  We also Mr. Tomatoes pants…

A message to Kayla from Rosie and Lily “We miss you!!”

“It’s a high price to pay for freedom, but it’s worth the fight”

What an incredible experience we had this week.  I worked all summer with Mike Ritland to set up an assembly for our students as a reward for doubling our summer reading goal (which in itself was huge).

Mike is absolutely amazing.  Here is a quick snippet about him:

Mike Ritland joined the Navy at age 17 in 1996, after being inspired by his grandfathers—both of whom had served in World War II. He graduated with BUD/S class 215 and became a member of SEAL Team 3.

In April 2003, Ritland’s 16-member SEAL Team was deployed to Iraq along with the First Marine Division, and they were tasked with taking the city of Tikrit. During one clearing operation, he observed a group of Marines approaching a cave-like structure in a rural area outside the city. After searching thousands of buildings and similar structures without issue, they were tempted to assume that all was clear, but the platoon was alerted to danger by an explosive-detector dog. Ritland learned later that a grenade booby trap had been set in the doorway and would certainly have killed the first marines to enter. He knew instantly that he wanted to work with dogs such as the one he’d seen, and learn to harness their remarkable abilities to defeat the tools of modern warfare.

After 12 years of active duty as a U.S. Navy SEAL, Ritland became a BUD/S instructor and started his own company, Trikos International, to train dogs for the SEAL teams. Today he continues to supply working and protection dogs to a host of clients, including to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs, Border Patrol, TSA and the Department of Defense. He has trained hundreds of working dogs, and has over 15 years of experience in importing, breeding, raising, and training multiple breeds of working dogs. He also started the Warrior Dog Foundation to help retired Special Operations dogs live long and happy lives after their service.

He GRACIOUSLY agreed to come speak to the kids about being a SEAL, being an author, and all about his dogs.  Not only that, but he came for free!  Most authors cost anywhere from $500-$2000, which we could never afford as all library funding was cut.  I was nervous sick about the whole thing but it was a huge success!  The school has never had anyone like this come visit!  We had kids lining up the walkway with their books to just catch a glimpse of him arriving.

After the assembly, he came to the library and signed autographs for over 2 hours! Almost every kid wanted an autograph (so he signed about 500-600!)  he signed books (we sold out of the 50 we got for the assembly), hats, papers, planners, hands, and even foreheads. 

This guy served in Iraq at the same time Mike was there, so he got his books signed and had mike take a pic with his family.  It was really cool.

He didn’t just sign books, he asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up and wrote personal messages to every kid!!!

His dog, Tigo, was beautiful!  He let every kid pet him and even take selfies with him. 

The kids were in heaven.  The COOLEST thing was that Tigo autographed hard cover books!!  If a kid had a hard cover, then Mike would stand up, Tigo would jump up and grab onto the book with his teeth, they would wrestle, then Mike would give the command to let go and the kid would get the book back with slobber and bite marks and they became the envy of the school!!

After hours of signing, he and I were talking before he left (he was heading to Purdue for 2 speaking engagements there).  A 7th grade student came into the library, his eyes were all teary.  He said, “Sir, it would be an honor for me to shake your hand. My family donated $40 to your Warrior Dog Foundation and I just wanted to thank you for your service and let you know you are my hero”.  He left in tears and I started to cry.  Clearly, Mike affected the kids in a deep manner.

His theme and most important thought he left them with was “I have seen things I hope you will NEVER have to see.  But if you remember anything from this presentation, remember this…Freedom is a high price to pay, but it’s worth the fight.”  It was an incredibly  powerful message. (I did tape the presentation and Ill try to post)

We made the paper (although I was super ticked at the article, long story)

THANK YOU MIKE RITLAND!!!

Feeling jealous, but so blessed!

There are times when I can really count on my brothers  (AKA superbrothers) and Comic-Con is one of them.  Anyone who knows me knows I am a Superfan of Arrow (and the new Flash, hint hint).  Jonathan painted an amazing painting for me to hang in my library, but wanted to show it at the SLC Comic Con.  Then, we found out Stephen Amell, who plays Arrow, would be at the Comic-Con!  I had a a dream.  A dream that he would actually sign my painting.  I assigned my brothers the task knowing that if anyone could do this impossible task, it would be them.  I never dreamed in a million years it would actually happen and guess what??….

Now I just have to pray Jonathan wont want to keep it (fingers crossed)

Jonathan showed up to Comic-Con as Batman and I have to share this picture because of its adorableness…

THEN, super brother Joe got in line to meet Brandon Sanderson- one of our favorite authors of ALL time and even got him to sign a book for me.  Oh the happiness!!!

I must go next year.  I just must!!!

We had a super busy week again.  Alayna is in volleyball on Team A.  Her games start this week.  Kayla is ready to get out of here!  She can’t wait to get to college, get to Idaho and get settled. 

Tyler was in the swamp fox parade and also had his 1st game this week.

Tyler is right behind the directors head

Bob, still rocking it, installed a beautiful new fan over the kitchen table- we got rid f the hanging chandelier that everyone bangs their heads on!  And it makes it so much cooler to sit there.  He also finished the mantle downstairs and started on the bathroom.  It is all looking so gorgeous!'

Another crazy one ahead.  Our big assembly with Mike Ritland is on Tuesday.  Im so nervous I havent been sleeping.  Its probably a good thing I didn’t become an event planner.  Kayla is coming as my photographer and it is being covered by the newspaper.  Wish us all luck!