Yes, I'm a Children's Librarian

It's almost Christmas! (And, yes, I'm starting to panic because Mr. B seems to have nothing under our tree.) To celebrate I'm gifting all of you with another post featuring what I do all day as a Youth Services Librarian.

You can read previous posts here, here, and here.

11:30- 1:30 p.m. Upon arrival, again, I'm busy answering emails, organizing my day (and desk), checking voice mails...all the fun stuff required to start my day. On this day I had to send out a quick email to the teen librarian at the main library asking her to immediately put the life-size Jenga set in inter-department deliveries. My yoga program is the next evening and if I don't have "Yoga Jenga" the kids might not come back. Also, since it was a Monday my inbox included a weekly department update, program information for the week, and reminders consisting of my change of location on Saturday, that we have our youth services department's Christmas lunch on Thursday (yay), and the deadline for Spring programming is quickly approaching. What?! I'm still in Christmas mode, but I have less than a month to decide what programs I plan to have through May 2014. (Wow, 2014...)

A few other co-workers and I were selected to take an online Early Literacy and Books course which begins in January. However, this course requires prep work (Intro to Moodle) that must be done before then, so I spent some time finishing the week's readings and assignments. Also, last week I attended a 2014 Summer Reading Program workshop at Kent State University (this summer we're all about Fizz, Boom, Read!) and I needed to fill out the appropriate evaluations.

And even though my story times and toddler tales are on a three-week break (a little longer than usual due to the holiday season) I still have to plan the ones for January. Those themes include Royal Readers, Winter White, Arctic Animal Friends, and Teeny Tiny Things, and I have the first three. I'm all about winter, penguins, and polar bears right now. I can't wait to share with the kids The Reader by Amy Hest. It's all about finding the perfect place to share a book in winter. Love it.

1:30-3:00 p.m. I spent the next few hours organizing the office, creating some space to breathe. We finished up quite a few programs over the last couple of weeks, including my Grinch movie program, story times, and craft night, and the office is quite crowded. I cleaned off some carts and packed away the unused Christmas decor and Grinch materials.

Then I began prepping for my Yogi Kids program, which is tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. My routine, games, and craft were all planned, I just needed to get it all together...and provide a craft sample. Tomorrow night's craft is a gingerbread man (or woman), so I set out finding some paper, making a few gingerbread people as templates for the kids to trace onto paper, and cutting it out and gluing it to a background. I ran to the basement, a.k.a. craft storage heaven, grabbed some fun materials (including sprinkles and ground cinnamon so the gingerbread person would smell nice), and finished off my little guy.

I'm ready to go!

Update: On Tuesday, every single parent, but one (out of 10), called to say their kid was sick and wouldn't make yoga. Sadly, I had to call that lone parent and cancel the program. I was sad but I am still healthy.

3:00-4:00 p.m. I allowed myself one hour to peruse some of the new books cluttering my desk, included were a few Halloween books that didn't quite make it in on time. Tsk.

4:00-5:00 p.m. Now that I have a little bit of downtime, which I don't but I have to squeeze this in somewhere, I'm weeding through my juvenile fiction collection. For the past six months my circulation staff complained about the lack of space on the shelves and the constant need for shifting the books (to try and create more space, which we don't have). I'm fully aware of the space issue in the "J" books. I'm fully aware of the space issue concerning the music CDs, the audio books, and the picture books...which I weeded 10 months ago. I'm aware that I need more space for everything!

To start the weeding process, I have to go into our catalog database, Sierra, and create a weeding list. After narrowing it down, this list consists of every single "J" book at my location and listing for each item: author, title, bar code, call number, date created, last circulation date, total number of circulations, and total number of circulations this year. Then I export the list into Microsoft Excel, where I tidy it up and make it pretty for minimal printing. (This is also where I bug ask Amanda about Excel questions before she hurries out the door for the day.)

I have well over 200 pages of books to weed through.

5:00-5:30 p.m.

Before the weeding begins, I take my lunch, enjoying my tasty Potato, Broccoli and Coriander Soup (leftover from Sunday's Baking Extravaganza...details soon). Also, I have no idea why I brought in a platter of cookies...clearly our patrons have the whole homemade cookie thing under control. Yikes, looks like I'll be enjoying my lunch in my office over the next few days, that way I'm not in constant view of these goodies. Good thing I'm not a huge cookie fan...now brownies are a whole other thing.

5:30-7:30 p.m.

Before the fun weeding, a patron who borrowed some of our Life-Size Candy Land pieces returned them and I had to put them back in their proper place in the basement. We will be needing these come January when we have Candy Land at another branch. Thankfully, it's not here this year. It gets crazy.

Ahhh, weeding.

Making a list and checking it twice, withdrawing the unloved and damaged.

Actually, I LOVE weeding through collections. It gives me a chance to view what is going and not going out on my shelves, which says a lot about the community I serve. It allows me to do some shelf-reading (making sure the books are in order so we can find them), tidying up, and finding areas to spend money on replacements. Plus, my-OCD-A-type-personality kicks in. It soothes me.

Weeding a collection also requires a lot more of an analysis per say. I have quite a few details to consider before withdrawing a book from my shelves. The most obvious ones are circulation and condition. Has the book left my shelf within two years? (For "J" books the shelf-life is around two to three years, but since I need the space I'm weeding aggressively and narrowing it to two years.) Is the book in decent shape or is it damaged in some way? If yes to both I'm pulling it.

However, if it's only damaged I have to look at the circulation and how long it's been with the library to see if I need to replace the book with a newer edition. Is it damaged because it's so well-loved? And if I'm pulling it because it hasn't circulated in two years, is it because the cover or topic is outdated? Can I/ Do I need to replace it with something else? Is it an award winner or honor and I have to keep it on my shelf?

Now I have to pay attention to all of the other books....the ones that aren't a definite "yes" to my obvious criteria. Are any of these books some-what damaged? Are they circulating but still look outdated? Are there more current versions of the classics? Take for instance the award-winning Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. I have two copies on the shelf, both are damaged enough I want to weed them; both have circulated this year. This is a classic and decently popular title. It has to stay on the shelf. So, I'm weeding the most damaged one, while leaving the other on the shelf until I can replace it with a recent edition. But then there are the series, the dreaded smaller populated series. What if all six books in the series have circulated this year, except two? Do I weed those books for space? Do any of the other library locations have this series in case a kid wants the one I weeded? And if a book is not on my shelf, is it because it's currently circulating, in the wrong place, or missing? Do I need to replace it? Why are there books on my shelf that aren't on my list? And, yes, the questions and considerations go on and on....but this isn't library school.

While it's sad to pitch the books (most will go into the library's book sale), I dislike giving children battered and outdated books, and look at all the space I'm making for our new book friends! :)

Speaking of sad, I came across a few titles that have never left the shelves. The one above was purchased in 2007 and has never been outside the library. :(

Into the book sale she goes, and hopefully to a good home.

I had about two hours for weeding, and managed to make it through A and B authors. I had a lot of kids coming in working on last minute school assignments since this Wednesday is their last day until the new year...a couple of grammar and animal questions, and a ton of biography inquiries.

7:30-8:00 p.m. I try, try to spend this last half hour cleaning up the children's department. This means I clear all the books off the tables (and try to re-shelve them if there's time), clean up the play area, do a final walk-through to make sure the shelves look decent...no books randomly stacked on an endcap, etc..., and sometimes I help at the circulation desk, you know, when it's five 'til and all the regulars can't believe they forgot we close at 8 p.m. and are rushing to check out. More often than not, I'm rushing to clean up my program mess and am flying through the department doing a rough once-over. Kind of like when you have company coming over and you throw everything in a closet, telling yourself you'll get to it later. My desk is my closet at the end of the night. My later is tomorrow morning.

That was my Monday in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed!

Starting with the "C" authors tomorrow.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

ALA Chicago

Holy frijoles. It's been a while. And while I've been away, I'm feeling extremely blessed, well rested and a tad spoiled.

I have a wonderful job. THE best. This year I was one of the four librarians my library sent to the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago. And I networked, learned a few new things, pushed programming a little farther, enjoyed great food, picked up a bunch of free swag, and talked with some amazing children's authors and illustrators.

My co-worker, Amanda, and I took the Amtrak into Chicago, which traveled at night. Two Fridays ago we boarded the train at 1:49 in the morning. It was my first time on a train, and within 20 minutes we were delayed. That delay lasted about two hours because, as we were told so by the conductor, the freight train in front of us "ran somebody over." And that was all we knew. It was never clarified if the train hit somebody in a car, or if a person was actually on the tracks...or what. Hmmm. Yet, I did enjoy myself. I liked that I had plenty of leg room, and the bags didn't have to be kept overhead. I liked that there were more bathrooms and a dining car (there was a sleeper car but we didn't purchase that option). I really liked the fact that we didn't have to go through security, our bags weren't checked, and I could have as many as I wanted without an extra fee. This is also kind of scary when you think about it....

You know what else is scary? Cab drivers. Chicago also brought me that first experience. An eyes-closed-with-a-death-grip-on-the-seat kind of experience. But the hotel, the Hilton in Chicago, was extremely nice. I had two beds, two bathrooms, and a "Welcome Brindi" sign flashing across the computer screen when I walked in all to myself. Not too shabby, my friends.

Friday night was the grand opening program, or as Mr. B called it, The Opening Ceremonies, suggesting a bunch of librarians should be running around with lighted books. Ummm, babe, have you not read Fahrenheit 451? That night was also the opening of the exhibit hall, where hundreds of vendors were out at full force, basically handing out free stuff. The photo below is a shot of the exhibit hall from the second level of the McCormick Convention Center. It was insane, and I'm not sure why Amanda and I decided to head over the first night. Yeah, we're first-timers.

While at the conference, I attended a plethora of sessions targeted at Youth Librarians, including a few on programming for children and tweens, understanding the leveling system (which I think you need a degree in math for, by the way), early childhood literacy, childhood commercialism, and a few on the many uses of a Caldecott. (The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published the previous year, and the Newbery Medal is awarded annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children...just wanted to clear that up because I'll be using those words throughout the rest of this post. They're kind of a big deal.) I was able to hear a few children's and young adult authors/illustrators speak as well.

A little librarian program humor to keep us entertained. :)

We had many opportunities to grace the exhibit hall to pick up a bunch of swag, including a dozen ARCs (Advanced Readers Copies, read: free books not yet published!), pens, bags, food/candy, posters, program tips, buttons, etc. and etc. The first night I picked up this cute Scaredy Squirrel bag and some delicious wine. (LOVE Scaredy Squirrel!) And they had Scaredy's stuffed animal to purchase, and if I had children of my own, I'd have spent way more money than Mr. B would have liked.

If you aren't familiar with Scaredy Squirrel, you need to be!

There were many ARCs for everyone to grab, but I tried to keep it minimal (I had to carry these things around the train station...).

But the absolute best part of the entire conference was the Caldecott-Newbery Award Banquet on Sunday night. It was $94 a plate and, although the library didn't pay for this, it was the 75th Caldecott anniversary so there was no way I was going to miss out on this experience. It was lovely. Phenomenal. Entertaining. Sociable. And delicious.

My co-worker and I at the Caldecott-Newbery Award Banquet.

My adviser/professor during library school is the current Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) president, so I was excited to see her there heading up the banquet. It was so cool seeing all of the medal and honor winners receiving their awards: Newbery winner Katherine Applegate for The One and Only Ivan, Wilder winner Katherine Paterson for her overall lasting contribution to children's literature, and, of course, Caldecott winner Jon Klassen for This Is Not My Hat. Every speech was just wonderful, full of emotion and quite hilarious, especially Klassen's. He's such a sweetheart.

And the food was spectacular. But, you know, the dessert was the best part of the meal. I particularly enjoyed the special Caldecott cookie favor. Oh, and I did try The Gold cocktail, made just for the night's banquet. If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you know I don't drink except for the occasional glass of wine. But this cocktail had rum, and ginger, and citrus stuff, and it was an award banquet. Yes, it was quite strong, and yes, it took me the entire night to finish. And, yes, the elderly lady beside me informed me that I am a slow drinker.

Oh, but she was a gem. She's a retired children's educator who tagged along with her husband, who is the director (I think) of Penn State's library. Her whole group was extremely nice and charming and, honestly, I wanted her to be my grandmother. We had an instant connection. AND she invited Amanda and I out to Penn State to attend a poetry/children's program. We exchanged emails and I know I made a life-long [email] friend and, the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I may take her up on that offer. She was just precious. AND her husband is good friends with Kevin Henkes (one of my all-time favorite children's authors), who just so happened to be in attendance (and a previous Caldecott-winner), and he introduced us. I'll admit, it was the first time I couldn't find my words. Fangirl completely. Sadly, I didn't get to tell him how much I enjoyed and connected with his children's book, Chrysanthemum.

My second favorite moment: meeting Caldecott-winner Jon Klassen.

This man = Sweetheart

And, to my excitement, while he was signing my book, we got on the subject of yoga (particularly for your hands) and I was able to explain how I use his and other picture books as part of my yoga story times. He was intrigued and told me to make sure I took stickers back to the kids. I'm not sure if he really meant stickers for all of my kiddos, so I just settled for one :)

ALA madness

I learned so much, met many wonderful people, and I will take every opportunity I have to get back. I felt very blessed to share in this experience with so many passionate, knowledgeable, and creative librarians.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Yes, I'm a Children's Librarian

I've been a Children's Librarian for eight months now and I still get asked by family and friends if I just sit around and read books all day.

It's okay. I have no problem explaining what I do. I LOVE my job. And I LOVE even more that every day is different. Yes, I might have Preschool Story Time (PSST) every Tuesday night, but each program is different, the crafts are different and the entire day before the program is different than last Tuesday or the Tuesday before. LOVE IT.

I remember when I told Daddy I was going to grad school to become a children's librarian he laughed and said, "You mean you're going to pay all that money just to tell people 'Shhhh'?" Daddy was joking with me, but there are so many people out there who think that is all librarians do. The books magically appear on the shelves, the programs just happen and all the while my nose is in a book...except when I have to tell people to "Hush, you're in a library." (FYI...you don't really have to "hush" because libraries aren't what they used to be...grant it, you can't go screaming, running and answering your phone...please be respectful of others...but you are allowed to talk in the library....GASP.)

So, to answer a few (repeated) questions, I decided to blog about my life as a Children's Librarian.

Here's a little peek into what my yesterday looked like:

The day didn't start off as well as I had planned. When it's pitch black out, it's hard to get out of bed, and of course I hit the snooze a few too many times leaving me barely enough time to get dressed and out the door...forget about breakfast or coffee. But I did take my OJ and a protein bar on the road. On Thursdays I have to be to work by 8:30, and since I have a decent drive ahead of me I need to leave the house by 7:40 at the latest.

8:30-9:00 a.m. First thing when I get to work I check my email and phone messages. I also check to see what programs I have going on that day, and what my co-workers have going on at their branches.

Then I get started on a to-do list for the day...I am all about making lists. If not, I don't know what I'm doing or where I am. This helps me prepare for my upcoming programs and such.

Since yesterday was Thursday, I had Toddler Tales.

Toddler Tales is a program I give every Thursday for children (19-35 months) and their caregivers. And since it's in high demand, I offer the program at 10:00 and again at 11:00 (both fill up and I usually have a waiting list).

After I figured out what I was doing for the day, I had to ready the cart for the programs...making sure I had the right CD, book, puppets, props, registration sheet, script, etc.

9:00-10:00 a.m. The library opens at 9 am, so once the doors are unlocked I open my office door (if I'm going to be working in the back for a bit) or I start-up the computer at my desk out on the floor (in the children's department). Out on the floor is where I need to be, but occasionally I'll have work that I need to do in the back office...I'm often running back and forth.

On Thursdays I immediately head out to the floor because my toddlers will be in soon and it gets busy.

I don't need to start setting up the room until about 9:15, so I take 15 minutes to tidy up the children's department. I did not close the day before and knowing the teen librarian wasn't there either, I'm sure a lot happened between 5 and 8 p.m.

While tidying up I pull a few presidential-themed books because I'm planning to replace the Banned Book display with a Voting display.

Here's a snapshot of my office desk. Allow me to give you a tour.

Starting on the left top shelf I have a huge bag full of corks. Last month I needed corks for Crafty Kids and the library staff collected a ton for me. Next are various picture books, CDs, and props I pulled for upcoming Preschool Story Times (PSST) that fit into our chosen themes ("It's a Colorful World," "Just Say Boo!," and "Let's Celebrate Me"). Next I have a few crafts I'm working on for the Halloween program later this month, more books, and binders with past programs.

Starting on the actual desktop (clockwise) and right behind my coffee are a few DVDs, audio books, and random books that I need to replace in the upcoming book orders. There is a cigar box full of crayons that need to be de-labeled for a crayon program I'm giving in early November. Behind that box is a stack of juvenile lit I'm trying to make time to read. (Contrary to what people believe, librarians don't just sit around and read books all day. I wish. We actually have to read them on our own time, so give your librarian a break next time when she admits she hasn't read every book in the collection.) On top of those are my snacks for the day (grape tomatoes and a banana).

Next are some pamphlets with selected book lists that come in handy when parents or kids come in looking for Harry Potter read-alikes, or books on bullying or princesses. I have a couple copies of a book for my Turning Pages program that is in a few Mondays from now, a stack of CDs I use frequently in programs, a few shelves of important papers, and a binder full of past toddler programs. That is what I love about this field, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. Just find and pull things you like from everywhere to create your own. That red box up there is the making of a "Monster Box" craft for next week's Crafty Kids.


And now back to the work day. Once 9:15 hits I begin to set up the room for Toddler Tales. Because the space isn't that big, I can only fit 10 toddlers and their caregivers comfortably (some usually bring extra siblings and parents...it can get tight), which is why I have to limit registration. I also set up a table in the children's department which has the kids' name tags on it. They gather out there first (it's nice to let the toddlers socialize a little before we start), then I ring a bell or beat a drum and the kids march into the room.

This week's Toddler Tales theme was "Sounds and More!" Because it is Fire Safety Week and instead of PSST we did fire station visits, I wanted to tie-in fire stations with the toddler program.

10:00-10:30 a.m. Toddler Tales #1

We start with our two "good morning" songs and then I read Wheels on the Bus...a classic story full of sounds. Next we did a couple nursery rhymes, then I got out a box of hats and we made sounds to go with them. After, I did a "Five Firefighters" finger play, followed by a few rhymes and songs with bells. Next came "I'm a Little Teapot" and then it's "Musical Notes," where the kids grab a bunch of instruments and we make music while a song plays. Then it's "Parachute Time!" and, lastly, our good-bye song.

The entire program lasts about 25 minutes.

10:30-11:00 a.m. I spend the next half hour re-organizing and tidying the set-up, marking down statistics, shredding registration forms, making more copies of the program script, setting out the next group's name tags....

and bell cleaning. These end up in their mouths so I try to keep the germs to a minimum. On this particular day I also took a few calls from parents wanting to sign-up their child for Friday's fire station visit, and answered a few questions about another branch's Baby Time program.

11:00-11:30 a.m. Toddler Tales #2

I do the entire program all over again for the next group.

11:30-12:30 p.m. I record more stats, shred more forms (because of personal information), handle more sign-ups for next week's program, clean up the room and clear off my cart for whatever program I have next. I spend the remainder of that time cleaning the bells (again) and all of the musical instruments. After, I go through the department and tidy it up again because there was a lot of playing and socializing. (I'm also still answering emails and patrons' questions throughout the entire day.)

Once I finished cleaning, I went through our new books and pulled the ones marked with "4-12." New books can stay in the "new book" section for six months, which means all of the April books get pulled this month and placed onto the regular shelves. I do this once at the beginning of the month, and again half-way through (which was this day's pulling). Any that were checked out on the days I pulled, I catch when I start pulling next month's from the shelves.

12:30-12:50 p.m. 20-minute break. My break and lunch are never a specified time. I take them when I find the time. Some days I'm so busy I don't take a break and a few times I've eaten at my desk while working. But on this day I took an early break because I had a meeting/lunch with my co-workers later that day.

I snacked on a banana and some peanut butter( I cannot believe how sweet peanut butter is! I'm so used to my nut butter.) I finished off my morning Americano while reading this month's book club read, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I made cookies for the meeting, but the batch made so many I was able to share with the entire staff. You can find that recipe here...Warning: I halved the sugar and they were still quite sweet. But soooooo addicting.

12:50-1:30 p.m. On my way back to the desk I picked up the day's deliveries. I got the new SLJ and some bread tags from a co-worker at another branch. I'm using the bread tags for a craft in my Snowman Workshop in December, and all of the youth services librarians pass around the SLJ, which gives us annotations on new books we might want to purchase. Once we go through it, we cross off our name and pass it along.

Knowing I'd be gone for the rest of the day, I tried to get as much done as possible. After going through the deliveries (which, shockingly, I didn't receive a single new book), I began working on the layout for next week's PSST.

Our PSST's (at the branches) are six-week sessions with a week or two break in between. This session, at my branch, the teen librarian and I decided to use one book in each story time. That way the kids are hearing at least one repetition each week (I do every Tuesday night PSST and we rotate Friday PSSTs.) This session we're doing Good Night Moon. I've tried to find different ways to share this story, and my plan for next week is to tell it through flannel board, using felt pieces. And the final week I'm using the DVD version of the story. I think that will be a fun treat for the kiddos.

Next, I grabbed some of the books off my top shelf and decided which books I would read and which ones I would set-up so the parents could check out. Next week's theme is "It's a Colorful World" and I think I'm going to read Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett and I Know a Wee Piggy by Kim Norman.

During this time I took a call from a parent wanting to sign up her son for this Saturday's Super Science Saturday program. (I'm off this Saturday so it's my co-workers program...her theme is color. Next month it's my turn...my theme is space.)

I was in the middle of planning this PSST program when Jill, the Children's Librarian at two of the library's other branches, arrived to give me a tour of The Butler.

Once a month The Butler Institute of American Art and my library collaborate on an art program for kids ages 5-10. We share two stories coinciding with whatever art happens to be on display at that time and then they do a craft. Jill had been doing this program for a few years now, but since my branch is literally a minute down the road from the museum, it was decided I should take it over.

1:30-2:00 p.m. Jill gives me a tour of The Butler and I introduce myself to the staff....Tom, a very talkative, nice, older gentleman. The art for the next few months is landscaping, and the program is next Saturday, so over the next few days I will be in search of some coordinating picture books.

2:00-2:30 p.m. Lunch with the other branches Children's Librarians at Pizza Works. The best part of our meetings (wink-wink).

I had a garden calzone. yum.

2:30-4:30 p.m.Youth Services Branch Meeting.

Here is where we coordinate the themes for our PSSTs. Our themes are different than the library's main (Warren) location....that way we're not all fighting over the same books. At this meeting we planned our themes through December, and also discussed any additional programs we plan to do through February. (It can be difficult to decide what you want to do in February when it's still October, but we have to plan early because we need to get fliers and PR out on each program.) I'm planning some more Crafty Kids, giving Turning Pages one more try, showing some movies, and working on a waffle program.....among others. Among other topics discussed were programs that worked and what didn't, struggles and positives, next year's Summer Reading Program, and we planned our next meeting (in a few weeks...we like to get together) to coordinate the PSST themes through February.

Let me just say we have some awesome programming coming up at my library's branches!

4:30-5:00 p.m. We all headed back to my branch (since it's the closest to Pizza Works) to finish out the day, which was spent digging through supplies in the basement for our upcoming programs. I acquired some google eyes, paint, and a bunch of scrap paper. The other girls left with paintbrushes, cardboard, bulletin board supplies, and puppets.

And that was Thursday in a nutshell. (Sorry for such a long post.)

I hope to share more of my days with you all!

And to leave you with a smile:

Found on Pinterest

And I NEED this mug!

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Sunday Sweets

1. In case you haven't heard yet...... we bought a house!

2. We're still waiting on the inspection....but if it goes well, we will be official homeowners.

3. Anyhoo, check out my kitchen :) That pantry on the left-hand side there is huuuuuge!

4. Needless to say, we're overwhelmed and excited.

5. For work, I brought in these fabulous brownies to share. No one knew my secret. (I'll be reviewing these brownies in a post later on this month.) These are my new go-to brownies. Definitely genius.

6. Dinner tonight, for me at least, consists of tortilla chips and guacamole.

6.1 There are chops marinating in the fridge for Mr. B...so those of you who think I'm failing in my wifely duties, don't you worry. I'm all over it.

7. It's my best friend's 27th birthday today!!! Everyone shout, "Happy Birthday, Jessica!"

8. I've been on a granita ( a similar version of Italian Ice...sort of) kick lately. It's so easy to make and perfect on hot, summer days. I recently made Strawberry-Lemon. Even Mr. B said it wasn't bad.


9. When Mama and Daddy were up visiting yesterday (to see the new house), I turned Daddy into an espresso-drinking man. Daddy, you are so welcome. :P

10. My first preschool story time is this week. The theme is "Dad's Day." I'm a little nervous.....


With Love and God Bless,
Brindi