Celebration Saturday

 

 

     I'm so happy that Ruth Ayres started a Celebrate Link-Up on her blog!!!  I will be joining the celebration every Saturday!!

 

Here are my celebrations this week:

 

1.  I had a nice interview in the local paper on Sunday:

http://www.todayspulse.com/news/lifestyles/holly-mueller-kings-gifted-teacher/nbJTP/ and a good write-up about our Walk for Water in another paper: http://local.cincinnati.com/share/story/209495

 

2.  This parent e-mail came on Monday:

 

Thank you for your weekly updates!  _____ sure loves your class!  He has enjoyed reading all kinds of new books, and he loves to know that he has borrowed them from you! J  The walk to water project has been great too.  He has taken the raising money and drinking water very seriously.  I appreciate the awareness you have awakened in him.  J

 

3.  A student gave a book talk on Tuesday on the Among the Hidden series which was fabulous and came complete with individual loaves of banana bread for everyone in the class!!  She and her mother copied the ingredients of every product that went into the baking of the bread in case there were food allergies in the class, and since we have a student with egg allergies, she substituted eggs with bananas and applesauce!!  I didn't even know you could do that!!  They were delicious, and I thought the whole thing was awesome!!

 

4.  I want to celebrate my fun colleague, Susan Green, across the hall!  She and her students put together this wall display of books they're reading.  I just loved it, so I asked for a picture!  Here are the creators:

 

 

 

5. My oldest daughter was offered an internship at Smucker's for this summer, and she accepted it. She'll be doing brand marketing.  Exciting! 

 

6.  We celebrated Kate DiCamillo at our Mock Newbery Club meeting this week because I finished Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures and LOVED it!  After book talking it, we watched this video and all enjoyed it:

 

 

Since I loved that video so much, I looked for other interviews on YouTube with Kate, and found this one:

 

After watching it, I decided I needed to purchase the Katherine Paterson book she mentioned as an inspiration for writing!  It arrived this week - I can't wait to read it!

 

 

7.  Since I celebrated my dog on a previous Saturday Celebration post, I have to celebrate my cat.  Her name is Faith, but now that we know her better, we wish we had named her Luna from the Harry Potter books.  Here's why:

 

"She had straggly, waist-length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. Harry knew at once why Neville had chosen to pass this compartment by. The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of Butterbeer caps, or that she was reading a magazine upside down."

—Description of Luna Lovegood when Harry Potter first meets her

 



The protuberant eyes and aura of distinct dottiness definitely describes Faith!  I took a picture of her sound asleep on my lap this week, though, so you can't see her eyes in this picture. :-)

 

 

8.  I am the Nerdy Book Club guest blogger today!  Nerdy Book Club is always worth celebrating!  Check out my post on Top Ten Middle Grade Books about Mice! 

 

9.  This freshman at Kings High School is worth celebrating!  I love Little Free Libraries! 

 

 

10.  I saved the best for last....on Thursday, I came home late after having dinner with friend and writing partner, Megan Ginther (another thing to celebrate - we always have fun writing, collaborating, talking, and laughing) to find a mystery package on the kitchen counter from my mother-in-law.  I opened it up to find an amazing gift!  She's a scrapbooker and has made beautiful scrapbooks for each of her granddaughters as high school graduation gifts and scrapbooks about family history that she gave to each of her children.  I got to be the recipient of her creativity this week!  I was so touched by the time and thoughtfulness she put in to this gift.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get clear photos up close, so these are a little blurry, but you get the idea!

 



 

 



It's all about teaching and books - she knows how much I love both.  Isn't that SO sweet?!  I'm lucky to have a mother-in-law who does extra things like this for people. 

 

WOW - so many wonderful things to celebrate.  I'm blessed.  Can't wait to head on over to Ruth's blog to read about other celebrations!!