Since I just told Liles about my blog, I promised I would showcase him in a post -- I know he is thrilled. Liles, if you are reading this.... Hi! This pic is actually from last August on his 20th Birthday with friends and family. That Happy Birthday sign is actually a table runner my mother likes to use as a banner. I have a feeling I will be seeing it again soon... 15 days until I turn 27. Yikes!

March brings a smile to my heart. It is the greatest month -- goodbye, February!!! Dreary days are behind us. Even if it gets cold again the promise of spring is lurking close behind. In memory of the cold, I uploaded some of the customary Alabama snow day pics. I woke up at 8:30 and saw the snow, but my front yard had already been sled-upon by the neighborhood. I had not noticed that we had the biggest hill until then! So, no pretty snow yard pics...

But these will do! If I only had a picture of John Carter when he walked in our door that morning in full ski gear including goggles. Priceless.

We spent some time in the snow earlier in February with Marg & A who took us out to Deer Valley for a long weekend. Gray and Sarah joined us as well and we had an awesome time! It snowed hard most of the time we were there too, but you can see how beautiful the view was!

February equals craziness at work and I had a Fri/Sat. class every weekend in January -which was awesome - so I am just glad to be settling in to 2009 these days. Now I'm in a Young Adult Lit class and we read wonderful books -- books you read from 7th-12th grade or maybe earlier for some of you advanced readers - The Outsiders, The Whale Rider, Number the Stars- and more current releases, most of which are being/have been made into movies -- Inkheart, Artemis Fowl, Coraline... I love having a reading list to give me some direction with what to read -- this list could take me years to finish. I will probably need to take a breather from YAL for a while after this class is over though.

I picked up Alabama Moon, written by Alabama native, Watt Key, when I went to buy my books for class. Last year I heard Key speak at a conference for English teachers and had been meaning to read this. Listening to him describe the long path to Moon's publishing was enthralling and inspiring. If you are working on having your work published -- hang in there! I think your day will come.

This book would be a perfect fit for young boys who love the outdoors, but I think girls would like it too -- I did! It tells the story of Moon Blake and his life growing up in the forests of West Alabama. If you are familiar with West Alabama at all, you will immensely enjoy the characters and settings found in the novel. Also, I am happy to report that this book, like so many others listed above, will be coming to a theater near you allegedly in 2009. I don't believe most of the release dates!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300155/