Good morning! Happy Sunday! I had an AMAZING Saturday! We went motorcycling with friends for the entire day, we left the house around 10 am and returned around 6:30pm. It was GORGEOUS out!
Left: Our friends Key and Dan fueling up their motorcycles. Right: My hubby Al fueling up ours. (No, I do not drive my own. Yet. 😉 )One of our stops on a restaurant by a lake.
After we came home we sat and talked on our back deck until about 8:30 pm. If you know Al and I, we have very few days like this where Al (hubby) and I just get to hang out together. It was nice.
I am getting ready now for move day today. I will be directing the office move from our current space and my partner in crime co-worker will be at the new building directing as it comes in. Should be an exciting afternoon!
After that I have some shopping to do for New York, some planning for Al’s dinners while I am away and doing as much of all that today so tomorrow I can relax and do final prep for “go time!” on Tuesday. 😀
Saturday the 24th! Egads…. in three days I will be on a plane for New York. I feel like I have so much to do yet… shopping for me, shopping for the hubby, pedicure…..
If you have been following what has been happening here lately you know that tomorrow we are moving out of our current office space into a building we purchased. YAY about our first building!!! But…. if I were honest, I am a little sad too to leave the space I have worked in for the past 10 years. My focus today for Saturday Snapshot is my office, as it looked this morning when I popped in.
This (above) is my desk. Our office was in an old school, we officed out of the school library. I find that poetic. 😉 As you can see my computer is gone, my phone is gone and the shelves are bare.
Here is the other side of my desk. My chair has a label on it saying it goes with my desk. Every box is labeled “Sheila’s Desk”, Dawn’s Desk”, Office storage”, etc…
This is the rest of the library space in the “throws” of being packed up.
Empty shelves have always bothered me….. 😉
This is the center space where all the Pastoral staff worked. This is the cubicles that will be taken down tomorrow afternoon and moved to the new space.
This is the desk across from mine, my co-workers desk. This is the original Librarians desk with a new front on it to match my desk that was built and placed in that space.
My job is a Family Life Administrator. I work with the Children’s and Student (Teen’s) Pastor as well as the Connections Pastor. What does that mean? I keep track of classes, run all paper work for the three of them, contact people and keep on-line groups of people interested in studies, marriage classes, child dedication, baptism, membership. I am also the Special Events Coordinator and I plan out events like a Fall Kick Off Party, summer picnic… I really enjoy what I do.
Add your pics to the Saturday Snapshot meme by clicking on the link and going to West Metro Mommy’s blog. You can also see what others are taking pictures of around the world.
I… am now heading outside to finish mowing. In about an hour friends are coming over and we are going motor cycle riding with them this afternoon. As busy as I am now, the break and hanging with friends is a welcome one. 🙂
Stay safe everyone this Memorial weekend. Any fun plans?
Good morning! What a week! I have been packing up my office which is moving this weekend to a new home that I will not be working in until June 9th. That kind of blows me away to write that. I guess, in a way – I am already on vacation… well in a way. I am still helping with some packing, and on Sunday I will be in that packed up office helping to direct the movers of what is going and what needs to be done…
Its exciting and exhausting and a little scary to step into this new space but I know it will be amazing.
And Tuesday… in the wee hours of the morning I will drive the 3 hours to Minneapolis to catch my plane at 9:30 am heading to New York for the Book Expo.
SQQQUUEEEE!
If you are unfamiliar with the Book Expo, here is a little taste:
BEA (Book Expo America) is authors and publishing houses and bloggers, and bookish things to do, and open houses, and invites to events, and books….
Did I mention the books?
Its a time when I step out of the reality of my life and walk into this world that is fast paced and CRAZY fun. I will be reporting here on what is happening… and I will be reporting live for Armchair BEA.
I have chatted about this before – but I am going to mention it again. For those who are not attending BEA, the incredible Armchair BEA awaits you. So .. what is Armchair BEA?
Have you ever been in a simulator? Like a car that gives you the feeling that you are on a race track? That is what Armchair BEA is. It gives you a chance to enjoy some of the BEA experience from the comfort of your homes… no plane, house sitter, or even luggage – required. Shoot… you can even stay in your pajamas!
Armchair BEA is free, so make sure you register and join the HUNDREDS of other bloggers and authors who will be participating. There are daily topics, giveaways, but dont listen to me jabber on…. please, go check it out for yourself!
There has been a hard working team behind the scenes that has been chatting and making this an incredible year for Armchair BEA. Myself, and three others are on the on site team:
Be sure to watch for our tweets, and we will be posting at the Armchair BEA site giving you a feel of what is happening form New York!
Anyway – that’s more than a morning post…. that’ s a LOT of info for this early but I hope if you are not attending BEA you will take a look at Armchair BEA.
Good morning happiest of sun shiny days to you! I have been up for hours and have procrastinated on getting ready for work like you would not believe.
Or…
maybe you would.
Instead of writing this post like I meant to right away this morning… I boiled eggs. I made coffee. I text my husband. I wrote out questions for next weeks panel at BEA, I erased those questions and wrote them again, I sold an air hockey table on a Facebook garage sale site…
and now….
I write.
Breakfast!!!!
Yesterday I had a meeting regarding Camp Benedict which will be in Mid June this year. I assisted in laying out the plans of the week and brain stormed some fun things to do to engage our “campers” as this is the 20th year of camp.
When I left the meeting I drove through town to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. As I walked into the grocery store I went to put my sunglasses on top of my head, only to realize I already had a pair of sunglasses on my head.
Oh good grief.
I laughed with the lady who witnessed this, and made some offhand comment about you know you are busy when you are wearing two pairs of sunglasses at the same time. Later, I thought about how odd I must have looked driving through town with a pair of sun glasses on top of my head and another over my eyes….
you know..
you can never have too many pairs of sunglasses.
😀
Ok – I need to get ready for work. I have nothing really bookish to report other than I am buried in glorious audio and I am not complaining. I have not been reading much, but I am in prep mode for the book expo which I will share more on perhaps tomorrow morning between the coffee and the eggs…..
Good morning. Or I guess afternoon, or evening.. depending on where you are and when you read this. 🙂
For me… it is blurry eyes, longing for a second cup of coffee morning.
I think…
sometimes I think too much.
It is Tuesday. A week from today I will board a plane heading for New York to hang out with my roommate Candace (Beth Fish Reads), and see some amazing bookish friends, Alison (Alison’s Book Marks), Kathy (Bermuda Onion) and Julie (Booking Mama) – just to name a few…. there are so many more I am excited to see! Honestly, seeing these book relationships are half the fun of the expo.
But…
before next Tuesday I will pack up my office and prep it to move this weekend to a new office that I will come back to after the expo.
Yup. Life is crazy like that. 😛
SO back to the expo…
Last night I was sorting through invites and lining up and synchronizing my schedule for once I am there. I am not that person that has it all planned out as to which publishing house I want to be at and what time… no… I kind of wish I was, but I also just like the freedom of wandering around.
A couple of fun things happening..
I will be helping out with on site Armchair BEA – which means I will be sending in video and posts to the Armchair BEA site to go up for those participating. I hope to have some fun things happening with that. 🙂 If you are not signed up to participate in Armchair BEA and not attending the New York BEA, I highly recommend you do sign up…. it is going to be fun… and there are prizes. 😀
I am speaking on one of the panels at the Blogger Convention on bringing your writing to the next level. EEP. That one will be exciting!
So anyhoo…. that’s what is happening here. I need to pack my office…. and pack my suitcase.
Happy Sunday! It looks like it will be a BEAUTIFUL day here in central Minnesota. Oh…. did I inadvertently mention BEA?
I know… I know… I have used this before for the Book Expo Of America (BEA) but… it’s “punny”. I have too. 😉
The book expo will put me in New York a week from Tuesday and I am super excited! This will be my 5th year attending. It is always exciting to meet up with some of the other book bloggers, authors, and publishing houses. As usual I feel utterly disorganized.. I have not even started planning out my week…
I will talk more about the Expo as the week goes on…
In bookish news… here is what entered my home this week:
This is two weeks worth of books as last weekend we were at College Sons graduation. Looks like I have some good reading ahead… and quite possible in the sun this afternoon!
What are you doing with your Sunday? Any books today?
Happy Saturday! Really! The sun is shining in central Minnesota and I think I will actually be able to mow today which I LOVE! (Mowing = audio time) 😀
If you read my morning post yesterday I listed some bookish things I was doing with my day. My friend Gail and I went to help out a struggling lending library that was lacking books. It was a fun little road trip with coffee and scones (thanks Gail!) The owner had put out an s.o.s. on Facebook and he said the post received over 4,000 hits! Our community passed the word and he said books had been coming in. Between Gail and I, I believe we brought them another 40-50 books.
The books I gave to the lending library
This is on the side of the lending library that sits outside Zaiser’s in NIsswa.
Then yesterday afternoon The Friends Of The Brainerd Public Library were part of a Literacy Award for our Community College where the author Jon Hassler, once taught. Jon wrote many books from adult fiction and non fiction to children’s stories. He is most known for Staggerford, which was also Jon’s first book, about a week in the life of a teacher in a fictional small town in Minnesota. His books have been said to be filled with a lot of action or major happenings, but more like the Mittford series by Jan Karon or the Debbie MaComber series.
The friends handled the reception of the event with trays of goodies and cake and coffee
This is the 5th Literary Landmark for Minnesota – YAY! The others are:
Boyhood home of Sinclair Lewis, Sauk Centre, Minn. Harry Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) spent his formative years in this home. He was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright who became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values, as well as for their strong characterizations of working women. Partners: Minnesota Association of Library Friends, Sinclair Lewis Foundation. Dedicated July 16, 2013.
Betsy’s House, Mankato, Minn. The childhood home of Maud Hart Lovelace was dedicated along with the childhood home of her best friend, Frances “Bick” Kenney. Lovelace’s series of Betsy-Tacy books was based on her and Bick’s adventures growing up in Mankato. Dedicated May 20, 2010. Partner: Betsy-Tacy Society.
Tacy’s House, Mankato, Minn. The childhood home of Frances “Bick” Kenney was dedicated along with the childhood home of her best friend, Maud Hart Lovelace. Lovelace’s series of Betsy-Tacy books was based on her and Bick’s adventures growing up in Mankato. Dedicated May 20, 2010. Partner: Betsy-Tacy Society.
481 Laurel Avenue, the birthplace on September 24, 1896 of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is internationally renowned for such works as The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and This Side of Paradise. Saint Paul, MN. Dedicated September 24, 2004. Partner: The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library
It was awesome to be a part of this event. I was there along with a few hard-working Friends of Our Library – Gail, Laura, and Jolene from our Library in Brainerd.
I have posted this to Saturday Snapshots. Pop over and see what other photos are being posted around the world today 🙂
Good morning bookish people! Whaz up? It is Friday! FRIDAY! I feel there should be dancing in the streets – not only is it Friday… but it is a fairly low-key weekend which is awesome… I don’t see another one of those for a while 🙂
This morning my friend and fellow Library Advocate are road tripping to Nisswa Minnesota to support a Lending Library; about a 20 minute drive. Zaiser’s is a shoe store in Nisswa that has put a lending library outside of the store. It is a cool one too, made out of a hundred year old tree that had fallen. Their opportunity is that the books are going out faster than they are coming in. They put a little blurb on Facebook about this (brilliant idea!) and now Gail and I are taking books there this morning and then having coffee to celebrate.
So what books did I pull off my shelves for them?
I chose an assortment of books for kids and adults. I picked a few favorites I have duplicates of as well as a few that would make good summer reading or hopefully cause a person to want to read more by a certain author. As you may see in the middle, there is a copy of Summer House and Return to Summer House by Jude Deveroux, two books that speak to me (especially Summer House).
Later today is the Jon Hassler event at the Brainerd College… it is going to be a bookish day 😀
Good morning! Cup number two of coffee here…. deserved though… yesterday was pretty great. 😀
I had yesterday off work to catch up on my house which lacked some attention in the past few weeks. Then I spent the late afternoon preparing for book club which was to be at my home… Hawaiian Style after reading Moloka’i. Bookies – true to form brought this book to the next level with food like Chocolate Mochi, Hawaiian roast, Sweet Potato Casserole, seafood salad, pineapple… more on that later. 😉
As I mentioned yesterday I was going to try my hand at Poi; and I did. It was not purple like I seen in the pictures on-line (still have not figured out why). Warm, it tasted a little like a sticky potato product. One of the girls said they heard it was better for you than potatoes.
It was not super hard to make but of course I did not sit in the lawn in a grass skirt and pound it with a rock and a board… no, I used my handy blender. Aloha!
Then the real test was the thickness. There is one finger, two finger three finger poi, depending on how many fingers it takes for you to scoop it up. I am proud to say that I made a one finger poi.
So that’s my night. I need to get ready for work but watch for the Bookies thoughts on Molokai coming up later today. 😀
Any Poi makers out there? Why was mine not purple?
Good morning! Happiest of Tuesdays to you! So much AWESOME is going on right now I hardly know where to begin. 😀
Let’s see… the Her Voice Magazine came out this morning and my report on my friends Sky Diving Experience made the cover. SQUEEEEE!!!!
And yesterday afternoon I was offered to speak on a panel at this years Book Expo in New York at the end of this month on “Engaging your Readers, Taking Your Writing To The Next Level”, a subject I am passionate about so I am SUPER Excited!
On Friday of this week our Friends Of The Library group will be a part of a ceremony dedicating a plaque to a Minnesota author Jon Hassler who passed away in 2008, and left an incredible legacy to Central Minnesota. This plaque will be one of 4 that are in the state of Minnesota so this is quite an honor and we are thrilled to be a part of it. I will have pictures of the event on this weekends Saturday Snapshot post.
And then…. tonight is Book Club! YAY!!! We are reviewing Molokai by Alan Brennert which is a fictional story set in Hawaii in the 1890’s and the leprosy outbreak including our main protagonist, an 8-year-old girl. Our theme of course is Hawaii and I am making a side dish of Hawaiian sweet potato casserole and poi. Yes… I am trying my hand at poi.
I will probably not look like this….
the resulting product should look like this:
Yes I think it looks nasty… this is more for the “yeah we have had poi” experience then my hopes of it tasting good. I have my bag of taro root and I will be boiling them later today. Yes, I will document the process. 😀
I took the day off of work today. After the big garage sale two weeks ago now and this last weekends graduation of our son I have been running like crazy. Today I will work on loving on my house and prepping for tonight with a little audio in between 😀
Book Journey 