Show Us Your Life - Books

Ahh, now here is a subject I can get into! This week, Kelly is talking about favorite books or kids books for Show Us Your Life.

When I was little, you could almost always find me with my nose in a book. I think if you ask my parents they would tell you that pretty much all I did was read. My brother would take off on his bike with his fishing pole toward the lake. My sister would take off for Kari's house. I would take off for the library. I could spend hours there.

Some of my favorites were the Babysitter's Club books, the Sweet Valley High books, anything by Roald Dahl, anything by Beverly Cleary, and anything by Judy Blume.

Right now, Tricia has found a pretty cool series of books: The Doll People, The Meanest Doll in the World, and The Runaway Dolls by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin. So far, we are about half way through the first one and it is pretty good. I have also been pretty interested in the Magic Treehouse series of books, although sadly Tricia has pretty much outgrown them already. The future teacher in me loves that many of the books have nonfiction counterparts that can really teach kids something.

While lately my life has been consumed with books like Teaching and Reading in Middle School, Math for Elementary Teachers, and Science for Elementary Teachers, I have still managed to find time in between semesters to read for pleasure.

I DEVOURED the Twilight series in about 10 minutes flat. The Harry Potter books were like an illness for me too ... I had to have each new book as it was released and then suffered from total letdown for a year while waiting for the next. When I pick up a Jodi Piccoult or James Patterson or Nicholas Sparks book, I cannot stop reading until it is done. Oh, and let's not forget anything by Dan Brown or Nora Roberts. Sometimes a good fluff book like a Jennifer Weiner is an absolute must!

I also have to mention two books that I just got ... The Simpsons in the Classroom and I Will Carry You. The Simpsons was co-written by my lovely college roommate and her friend. And, well, you all should know about Audrey's story. If you don't, please head over to Angie's website to read some of her very inspirational words.

And now, even more exciting is the fact that, just tonight, the girls and I made a very quick Sioux Falls run where I bought myself a lovely new thing. I got a NOOK! It is currently charging up so that I can get it activated and start reading! Tricia can hardly wait to get her hands on it too.

So, there you have it. Honestly, if I could spend my life reading, I would totally do it!

Project Life Tuesday

Welcome to another edition of Nissen News Project Life Tuesday! The last week was hectic and crazy! Some of these pictures are duplicates of pictures I posted this weekend so feel free to gloss over those!

Again, Project Life is the brainchild of Becky Higgins (by the way, make sure to visit her website every day this month ... photographers nationwide are giving away family portrait sessions, you can bet I am trying to win one) and Project Life Tuesday is a lovely group of ladies posting their pictures weekly and then linking back to Jessica Turner's blog, The Mom Creative. Make sure to visit both of their sites!



Monday, May 3

For the second year in a row, momma bird has built a nest right above our bedroom window. I wish I could see inside to see if there are any eggs, but it is too high.



Tuesday, May 4

I have started watching the new NBC show Parenthood after Biggest Loser on Tuesday nights. I think I like it because it is such a realistic portrait of family life with all its ups and downs.



Wednesday, May 5

X marks the spot! Okay, maybe not, but it does mark the tree that needs to be chopped down. Dave called the city to have them check out our lovely, rotting tree. We want to make sure it gets CHOPPED down before it FALLS down on our camper!



Thursday, May 6

So this is a repeat from my graduation post, but oh well. Today Dave and I made the long trek to Bemidji to begin the graduation festivities! In this picture are some of the greatest friends and fellow elementary education students around, along with a few of our professors. I can hardly believe that our journey is THIS close to being complete!



Friday, May 7

Graduation morning we awoke to snow on the ground and more falling. It was so cold! The DLiTE crew all stayed here at the Hampton, a beautiful place on the lake with a view of campus. I am sure it is lovely when the weather is nice. I did not actually get an individual picture of myself in my gown and "motor boat" as Dave lovingly called it. I'll order one from the graduation photographers and add it here as well.





Saturday, May 8

This is just one of many pictures of the day! We just had to stop at Itasca since we were so close. Who knows when, or if, we'll ever make it back up to Bemidji. Ryleigh was none too sure of being this close to such a large body of water. Tricia watched two people slip and fall into the icy water, so she decided not to brave the rocks to walk over the Mississippi River, but she did put her feet in!



Sunday, May 9

Mother's Day! Two pictures for today ... me with mom and grandma and me with my beautiful girls.




Don't forget ... it is not too late to start your own Project Life! You can jump in any time you want. Take a picture every day, select one picture that perfectly describes your week, find several pictures that tell the story of your month. That is the beauty of Project Life! It is your life, share it with the world in your own way.

Graduation Weekend / Mother's Day

What a weekend I just had! Thursday, Dave and I made the LONG TREK from Pipestone to Bemidji to start graduation weekend.

We finally made it to the hotel just in time to sneak into the DLiTE program celebration. Actually, we were 30 minutes late, but we weren't the last to show up! We shared pizza and laughs and tears with the other graduates and their families. I was a little sad that Tricia and Ryleigh were not there, but we had fun anyway. After getting the kids settled into their respective rooms, the graduates and their spouses moved over to the Green Mill for some adult beverages and conversation.

In this picture is: me, Heather B, Dr. Boyle, TC, Julie, Dr. Bridges, Melinda, and Dr. Anderson. This was after the pizza and before the drinking!


Friday morning we awoke to SNOW! Yep, May 7 and snow on the ground in Bemidji. The rest of the crew got to Bemidji just before I had to be at the track to line up. While they sat in the bleachers and killed time, my classmates and I hung out in eager anticipation. Finally it was time to head into the auditorium for the ceremony. Cohorts K and L were well-represented at graduation and we decided to shake things up and did a bit of a conga line as we marched in. After hearing the same speech (essentially) by too many people, it was finally time to take those steps across stage. I had not yet found the crew in the seats but I knew they were there.



After an entirely too long ceremony, we made our way back to the hotel where the kids got to swim in the pool for a while. Dave finally took Ry back up to the room and I let Tricia stay with me. I was there until midnight, sharing a bottle of champagne with some of my classmates.

In this picture: Karen, Jamie, Julie, Heather B., Melinda, me



Finally, Saturday morning came. The sun was shining, although it was still a little chilly. We had some breakfast down in the hotel lobby, saw many of my classmates and wished them safe travels. The four of us went back to campus to take a few pictures, then stopped to pose with Paul and Babe before heading out of town.





Thankfully, we took a wrong turn and ended up stopping at Itasca State Park so we pulled in to the Visitor's Center. As luck would have it, Jamie and her family were there at the same time and we were both so excited to have someone there to take family pictures at the headwaters of the Mississippi. And as we were watching Jamie's family cross the river, Heather's family showed up! It was so great to share that cool experience with two of the lovely women I have traveled with on this school journey. We all managed to take family pictures for each other and finally Ryleigh was running out of patience so we headed out.






We took the scenic route around the state of Minnesota and finally made our way back to Nisswa - we promised the girls we'd stop there at the little shops so that they could pick out a gift for being so patient during the long weekend. We had not had anything to eat, so we had "lupper" - lunch and supper together - at the A&W. The girls each picked out one special item, some candy at the candy store, and a couple books from the book store and we were on our way. We had one final stop to make at Aunt Diane's to pick up Reno. We finally rolled back into town at about 10:30, quickly unloaded the car, got the girls in jammies, and collapsed into bed.


Today we celebrated Mother's Day with yummy stuffed French Toast for brunch and then a trip to Dar's with Mom, Dad, and Grandma.






It was a LONG and SHORT and BORING and EXCITING weekend, all rolled together. But I don't think I'd change any of it.

Project Life Tuesday

Here we are again ... Tuesday!

Classes are done for the semester and I am waiting for graduation on Friday! So even though I won't be doing homework, I'll still be super busy trying to get everyone packed and ready for the trek up to Bemidji! Hopefully next week I will get some cleaning time in.

So if you don't know, I am taking one picture a day for the entire year as a way to tell the story of the Nissen Family. The kit was purchased from Becky Higgins and Project Life Tuesday is the brainchild of Jessica from The Mom Creative.




The other Project Life posts are being posted to Gitz Bits this week since Jessica is in the DR for a World Vision trip. Head over there to take a look!

Here is what our week looked like ...

Monday, April 26

I found this ancient planner at the office. It is from June, 2005. Dave and I had a wonderful trip to Grand View Lodge. It was a wonderful trip because it ended several years of infertility. It was a wonderful trip because several months later, Ryleigh came into the world.




Tuesday, April 27

Today was Tricia's spring concert for school! Hard to believe that the school year is almost over (well not really since there were so many snow days, they will be in school until June 9!). It was a great concert. Not many dry eyes in the house because it was Cynthia's very last school concert. She will be retiring at the end of the year after 30+ years of teaching elementary music. Her son surprised her by showing up to give her flowers. It was a very nice moment.




Wednesday, April 28

At the last minute, I was able to go to the farm with Ryleigh and her preschool class. The kids had a great time seeing baby lambs, baby cows, and a couple horses. However, for most of them, the best part of the trip to the farm was the 8 billion farm cats that they chased around and carried for the hour they were there.



Thursday, April 29

Packing for my trip to the cities this weekend. This was not even all of the stuff that I had to bring with for finals. I ended up with my school bag, a grocery bag, my computer bag, a duffel bag for clothes, and my dress clothes! The notebook on top is my list of all the assignments I needed to bring with.



Friday, April 30

No picture for today. Tonia and I had a fun ride together up to the cities. She gets to enjoy some relaxing time (and time in the hospital with Carrie's mom) while I spend the next two days in a classroom.

Saturday, May 1

Happy Anniversary to us! Even though we celebrate 11 years as man and wife, today we are 4 hours apart as I finish up my last semester of classes. We were in class from 8 am until 8 pm. Ug, what a day! We ended up at Spectator's for Science Saturday 2.0, the abbreviated version. What a great bunch of people!



Sunday, May 2

I cannot believe that we all got our student teaching placements today and that in August, we will begin our teaching careers! I also cannot believe that we will all be together as Cohort L just one more time in August. I will miss all of my classmates so much when we are finally done.



And my bonus picture for the week ... TC and all his girlfriends! I love you all!



See you all next week!

Better Late than Never!

Since we had a low-key Easter this year, I never got pictures of the girls in their dresses. So, since Tricia had her concert last night, I snapped some pictures of both girls in their pretty dresses.

Better late than never I guess!

Project Life Tuesday

It's Tuesday! You all (all three of you who read this blog) know what that means ... Project Life time again.



Monday, April 19, 2010
Remember I said I was going to do a green theme? Well how's this for green? I'm sick once again! This is my tea collection that I keep at work. I know, the sweet dreams one might seem inappropriate, but I love chamomile tea!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010
More green! This is the tree that we got when Tricia was born in 2000. It started it's life as what appeared to be a twig. Now it is a pretty good sized tree! It is just starting to get buds on it now that the weather has finally warmed up! (PS - Yes, Ryleigh got a tree too, but I think it got run over by the lawn mower ... bad mom and dad!)

Wednesday, April 23, 2010
I somehow missed uploading this picture. I'll add it later! This is a picture of my (green) cake pan. Inside is a lovely earthquake cake! Everyone at the office enjoyed a little treat this week. The cake was so yummy, I could ALMOST taste it even through my stuffy nose!

Thursday, April 22, 2010
Oops, that was the end of my green theme. Oh well, I tried! This is a typical morning for Ryleigh. Her daddy carries her out to the couch from her bed, complete with whatever pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals she can hold. She slowly wakes up and watches cartoons while enjoying a lovely cup of chocolate milk and a granola bar. But darn, this kid is even cute first thing in the morning!

Friday, April 23, 2010
I apologize in advance to Ryleigh ... this weekend was kinda all about Tricia. The two of us stopped at the KFC/A&W restaurant in Marshall on the way to Willmar tonight. Tricia ordered a kid's meal and one of the sides was corn on the cob! One of her absolute favorites!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

No green again today! Can I help it that their dance costumes are pink, blue and black? This is part of the team that competed today at the Midwest Starz dance competition in Monticello. This was their first time doing a competition. They got a Gold rating and 2nd out of two teams in their division. But just look at those smiles! They were so proud of themselves and their trophy! I see big things for these girls in the future.

Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tricia ... sacked out in the car on the way home from Willmar. I have no idea how kids can sleep like this for extended periods of time!

So there goes another week in our lives! Always busy! Remember to head over to Jessica's blog to see some more Project Life posts!