Sunday, November 1, 2015

I Dare You to Top My Week: 137 Books Read, a Book Fair, Flooding, My First Grand-baby, and My Birthday

How's this for a week?

The book fair ran this week at school. That's always madness. Along with the book fair, we had Red Ribbon Week, Open House, and Book Character Day. Whew!

On Wednesday, the doctor induced my daughter-in-law and my beautiful granddaughter was born. A whopping nine pound girl and my heart is full. Annie Nance has arrived and I am Nana Nance.

If that wasn't enough, I found time in the spaces this week to read on in my quest to pick the best fiction picture books for 2015 for the Cybils. Our panel has 253 books to read before the end of the year. I've swamped my wonderful local library, the Brazoria County Library, with requests for books, and I've put holds on books at the Houston Public Library and the Harris County Library. I was up to 119 books read when I remembered that I have several more library cards and looked up books online. The Texas City Library turned out to be an amazing resource, so I drove down there Saturday morning and found 26 more books on the shelf that I had not yet read.

It had rained and poured all through the night, but I thought the worst was over. I decided to hit the Harris County Library and pick up some holds and stop by the Friendswood Library for a few more.

Mother Nature decided otherwise. I was skillfully bypassing pools of water in the street by weaving to the left and to the right when I came to a dead halt. A river of water was streaming across the one-way street I was traveling down. I'm not talking a Chocolate Bayou river of water; I'm talking Mississippi River, folks, and, like the Goin' on a Bear Hunt chant, I couldn't go over it, I couldn't go under it, I couldn't go around it...I had to go through it. A Toyota Yaris is probably not the best car to traverse the Mississippi River, so I sat there. For two hours. Waiting for the water to go down. As hundreds of other cars and trucks drove up, accessed the situation, sat there with me for a while or took the plunge. A few stalled out, which added to my resolve to wait this out.

It never went down. Cars behind me started turning around on the one-way road and going back the way they had come. Good girl that I am, I called 911. What was I to do? I asked the dispatcher. She never told me what to do (apparently the dispatchers can't do that) but she did say that extraordinary situations call for extraordinary measures sometimes. I got up my courage and drove the wrong way down a one-way road. Once I got to higher ground, I was determined to make my way home, even skipping over my planned stop at the Friendswood Library. And I did.

I brought home a total of 46 more books to bring me to a grand total of 165 books.

So, here's the short version: This was a week in which I ran a book fair with sales over $9,000 along with Open House and Red Ribbon Week and Book Character Day...welcomed my granddaughter into the world and spent lots of rocking and hugging and singing time with her...tracked down and read 137 picture books, despite torrential rains and flooding...

And today is my birthday. A day of rest. I think a restful birthday might be just what I need today.


What is the Sunday SalonImagine some university library's vast reading room. It's filled with people--students and faculty and strangers who've wandered in. They're seated at great oaken desks, books piled all around them,and they're all feverishly reading and jotting notes in their leather-bound journals as they go. Later they'll mill around the open dictionaries and compare their thoughts on the afternoon's literary intake....That's what happens at the Sunday Salon, except it's all virtual. Every Sunday the bloggers participating in that week's Salon get together--at their separate desks, in their own particular time zones--and read. And blog about their reading. And comment on one another's blogs. Think of it as an informal, weekly, mini read-a-thon, an excuse to put aside one's earthly responsibilities and fall into a good book. Click here to join the Salon.

The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimba at Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It's a chance to share news and recap the past week.

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share books that we found in our mailboxes last week.  It is now being hosted here.

Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which you can share the books you've acquired.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is now being hosted at The Book Date.



24 comments:

  1. Wow! What a week for you! First of all congratulations on your new grandbaby! Guess that's about the top of the list, right? And happy birthday to you! Rain, rain....yes, we've had a lot too and flooding and a lot of people who drove into the water. Glad to hear that you didn't. Turn around....and I'll let you quote the rest of it. LOL

    You do top the list for number of books. Glad you had all those resources. And I used to love, love, love helping my daughter's elementary librarian with the book fair. Such fun. I was her money person each year and that suited me. Always fun to see so many kids excited about taking home a new book.

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  2. WOW ... where do I even start to comment?!
    First of all... Happy Birthday and Congratulations, Nana Nance (I love the alliteration). How special that you two will share a birthday week :)

    Secondly - so glad to hear you made it home safely! I've often wondered what I would do in that same situation, and I'm sure I would sit and wait it out as well.

    Lastly - I love all this book love! Could you possibly do a blog post (or perhaps you have already and I missed it) that describes what its like to be a reader for the Cybils? I am fascinated by the process.

    Enjoy this special day!

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  3. First, happy birthday and congratulation on your granddaughter.

    Second, my wife is a 911 dispatcher and said she can't tell people what to do because she can't see what you are seeing. Also she said "Never drive through standing water." That is one thing they do say, so I'm not sure what the dispatcher was telling you about extraordinary measures, but it sounds like she was wrong. Glad you and your car made it out safely.

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  4. Happy birthday and congratulations! I'm glad that you were wise enough to turn around. Water like that is so scary!

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  5. What a crazy and mostly wonderful week for you! Enjoy that sweet little bundle of sugar and spice and have a happy birthday indeed.

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  6. What a week! Happy birthday, congratulations on your granddaughter, seriously impressed by the books read count, and Wow on the flooding! Glad you made it home safely!

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  7. Happy Birthday! Stay dry and enjoy your reading.

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  8. What a week and with the best ever news. Congrats on becoming a nana, and welcome to the world Annie ... enjoy your bundle of joy! Glad you made it home safely, flash flooding is scary. Happy Birthday and happy reading :)

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  9. A very happy birthday to you! Congratulations on the new grandbaby - 9 lbs is healthy! WOW - no way could I top that reading record. I am glad you did not drive out into the flooding waters. Better safe than sorry with all the tragedies we've seen of late.
    Hope this is a dryer, happy week for you.

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  10. There's no way to top that week or this post. Happy Birthday and Congratulations!!!

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  11. Wow! Despite the beautiful gift of your granddaughter, I'm sure that's one week you wouldn't want to relive!

    Congratulations on the birth of Annie, Nana. Being a grandparent is a blessing I'm sure you'll treasure always. :-)

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  12. Wow! That was some week....and congrats on your granddaughter, as well as happy birthday! Enjoy....and I hope you have a restful day.

    Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES

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  13. Happy for you. What a fine feeling it is to become a new grandmother. I like the name Annie. Take care and congratulations.

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  14. Hip, hip hooray for a successful book fair. 9K is astounding. Congrats on the birth of your granddaughter. Smart thinking on navigating that flooded street. We just had some deep puddles on the road with the clogging of gutters from fallen leaves.

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  15. Enough to write a novel there Nana Nance! Congrats for that and the book fair - awesome. Waiting out the water - sensible. And happy birthday. Enjoy all those picture books,

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  16. WOW! Holy toledo! You had a banner week. So...congrats Nana!, Happy Birthday, good decision making, glad you are safe!

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  17. What an amazing week! Congratulations, Nana! You certainly go to extraordinary lengths to track down books too. Rain tends to keep me indoors and off the roads though we have had no trouble with flooding. In fact, we could use more rain. Here is a summary of my week. Happy reading!

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  18. Congratulations on becoming a grandmother and for your birthday. You certainly had an eventful week! Enjoy your books.

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  19. Happy Belated Birthday!!

    Congratulations on becoming a grandmother.

    Wow on all the books.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My It's Monday, What Are You Reading

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  20. YAY NANA!!! AND Happy birthday a day late! I hope you got your day of rest.

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  21. Happy belated Birthday! When it rains it pours. & Congrats on Annie Nance! Such good news despite the floods.

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  22. Belated congratulations!!! I've always wanted to be on a judging panel for a book prize. This one sounds like a fun one to do, too,. Who will win????

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  23. Belated congratulations!!! I've always wanted to be on a judging panel for a book prize. This one sounds like a fun one to do, too,. Who will win????

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  24. Belated congratulations!!! I've always wanted to be on a judging panel for a book prize. This one sounds like a fun one to do, too,. Who will win????

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