Book List

I actually have a personalized and autographed copy of the book as I listened to and met Goodwin at the Atlanta History Center a few years ago. She was also a member of my sorority - Tri Delta.

Some of you may have noticed a new tab towards the top of  my blog called "Book List." My goal is to keep track of and review every book I read (this year or maybe forever?) . I also sat down for a few hours (during a really boring conference call) and made a list of all of the books I read in 2010 - it turns out that I read a lot more than I thought! This month I've already read four books, although Team of Rivals has been patiently wanting for me to finish with my fiction-kick and move on to something a little more thought provoking. I know that it will not be a weekend-read!

Weekend read? I think not.

Currently it is about 5 degrees outside with a mean windchill, which is why I am inside cooking, reading and relaxing in my pjs nice and toasty thanks to the passive solar our house is receiving. I kept a heat lamp on for my chickens last night and now they are outside the coop enjoying some veggie scraps and fresh straw that Tyler put out for them. Tonight will be the really cold night with lows expected somewhere between -30 and -40. I'll turn the heat lamp on around 4 this afternoon and keep it on until Tuesday morning. My rooster is showing signs of frostbite on his huge waddle, but he got that last week and from what I have read there really isn't much I can do about it. That's what you get with large waddles I guess.

I have been planning my 15-year class reunion for this summer, but came to the conclusion yesterday that it is going to be real laid back and informal. When I did the 10-year reunion social networking wasn't as prevalent and so I hired a company to help me find people and plan. It was a fun reunion but expensive, especially when you consider the price of airline tickets for out-of-town classmates. This time around it was easy to find just about every member of the class of '96 on Facebook. I wanted to rent a pavilion for a picnic but Parks and Recreation insists that I must come in person to fill out paperwork and then pay a rental fee,  a deposit and purchase an insurance policy. Instead I've sent out an event invite on Facebook asking all my classmates to just show up to a local bar and restaurant Friday night for Happy Hour and then to pack up their family and a picnic  and come to the beach on Saturday afternoon. I'm thinking I'll have some sort of signage at the beach to designate a "Rockledge High School" section and then people can just mingle and play at the beach. Easy, easy.

I purchased my plane ticket to go home July 13-19. Allegiant Air has had some good deals and I didn't want to miss out. I'll fly in late Wednesday night and leave the following Tuesday afternoon. The reunion will be Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but I'll have plenty of time to play with baby Andrew (he'll be 4-5 months by then)  and Emma and Jas. Rebecca's daughter Camille will be around 4 months old then too and I plan to spend some time visiting them on the West Coast of FL. Since we will have all the new chickens and the garden Tyler probably isn't going to come this time; he would like to go on a canoe trip though so we are planning to overlap trips so that Fred, chicks and garden are not neglected. Man, am I ever looking forward to summer!

Tomorrow we have the day off of school because of the cold weather. In addition to staying warm, I will be driving to Richmond later in the afternoon to stay with Susie,  Dennis and Brody. Looking forward to seeing them as it seems like it's been a while. Tuesday I have the PATH conference in Burlington. This year I was talked into taking on the role as our school's PATH to Wellness contact. As part of my job I have to attend two health and wellness conferences each year; I've heard that they are really interesting and fun so I am looking forward to it, but I've missed so much school due to the writing class I am taking and the PBiS/RTI training that I doing with my principal that I hate leaving my kids with a sub yet again. This Thursday I am supposed to miss another day for the social studies textbook adoption meeting. A problem with small schools and small districts is that there are not enough people to spread around all the jobs that need to be done, so we all end up doing everything and being pulled out of the classroom way too much.

My sister is on bed rest right now as she is having some difficulties with this big baby in her belly (she is 33 weeks). My fingers are crossed that by tomorrow she is well and that the doctor allows her to go back to work for a few more weeks until her due date. I can't imagine what it must be like to have to lay in bed and not be able to play with Emma as usual. At least she can shower and go to the bathroom - another friend of mine had to do her bed rest in a hospital and couldn't move at all!

I hope everyone in Vermont stays warm tomorrow, and everyone in Florida thinks warm thoughts for us!