Gym Candy...

Very good boy book. You definately have to be a football fan to enjoy this one. All the play by play of every game makes you feel like you are actually watching the game. The main character, Mick has to deal with his ex- NFL football playing dad, pressure to perform, and pressure to perform to the best of his ability. When his ability falls short can he add steroids to the mix and survive.

This is a total middle school book, I have two groups that wanted to read it during their literature circle time when they come to the library, so I got some and read it ahead of them so that I could develop questions for them. Anyway, Dad builds a nuclear compound to save his family from nuclear attack. The whole place is amazing. Dad plans for almost everything that they will need to the 15 years of nuclear winter that will follow an attack. The attack happens, they run to the shelter and lock it down, only to find out that one of his twin boys and the grandma are not with them. Six years later, surviving twin Eli realizes that things are just not adding up and making sense. Some of Dad's explaination are not making sense. Is the world really gone?

More Books....

I finished Fireproof yesterday. It hit hard. It has really made me stop and think before I speak and to think about if what I'm getting ready to say really needs to be said. I think I'll see if I can get Brad to watch the movie with me.

I finished this earlier in the week. Picoult always writes controversial novels and this is another one. This one deals with the death penalty and the ability of the convict to choose to donate his organs. The catch is he wants to donate his heart to the sister of his victim.

Finished another book...

Did you know that if you have a bone marrow transplant that you now have two sets of DNA? Your bone marrow creates DNA and when it's transplanted then you create DNA from the new marrow. It matches the donors DNA. Your tissue and cells still have your original DNA. I learned something from this book.

Finally!

I finally finished my first scrapbook pages in my new room. I've been off since last Friday and it's now Wednesday evening. More than likely we will have school tomorrow, so nothing like waiting until the last minute, but those of you that know me that's nothing new. So this is what I worked on this afternoon. This is a combination of pictures from our two trips to Wrigley Field. Brad has wanted me to do an album of all the ballparks we visit. I've had this album for a few years now, and this is the first 2 page layout in the book. Of course it had to be Wrigley. This is the cover page of the book.

I'm going to use the whole song at some point throughout the album. I'm sure I'll have pictures that will go over a 2 page layout and some point and can use a line from the song to fill in. Then the last page will be the last line. These red letter are the very first thing I ever cut out with a Cricut a long time ago.

I added this picture on the inside front cover. I took it at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame last spring because I loved it's saying. It was a huge mural that has a whole team lined up for the national anthem. It says "Each spring holds the promise of another great team. The story continues..." I'm such a baseball sap. Today is the first day of Spring Training, so baseball fever has returned to our house. 15 days until the 1st Spring Training game and 47 days until Opening Day! Brad got lucky to find someone that enjoys baseball almost as much as he does.



For those of you that don't care about baseball, I didn't waste all these snow days/sick days. I did finish a book. Nicholas Sparks, The Choice, is really good. He's such a sappy, romantic writer. I always cry at the end of his books.And I went and saw 27 Dresses with Teaque last night. I keep dragging her out, trying to get that water to break, but little Corynn just isn't cooperating. Maybe tomorrow...

What She's Reading Now...

This is the book that I am now reading. I finally finished the Twilight Series and then took a break to move. So, I'm finally ready to get back to reading again. This is another Jodi Picoult book. Thank goodness she has lots of books, because I can always fall back to her when I don't know what to read. Nineteen Minutes is the story of shooting at a high school.

From the first paragraph:

In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it.
In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.

The author of this book, talked to several people affected by the school shooting in Columbine before she wrote this book and from what I've read so far, she really brings that tragedy to life and makes you feel like you were there.

I've been thinking alot lately about the affects of our actions on other people. Do we say the right things and the wrong things. Could a comment we make push someone else to the limit? I haven't gotten that far into this book, but I just finished this book because my students were all reading it. (They bought it at B&N, they didn't get it out of my library.) I think some of my students are growing up way to fast and probably shouldn't be reading this serious/emotional type of things, but I'm trying to relate to them. Anyway, it has me really thinking and trying to make a conscious effort to make sure I'm uplifting someone, not pushing them farther away.

So, if you need something to read. Pick this one up and lets talk about it.