Books Read in 2011

List of Books read in 2011
183 Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst

184 Bumpy Landings by Don Carey

 185 The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

186 Cross My Heart by Julie Wright

187 The Gurensey literary and Potato Peel Pie  Society by Annie Shaffer and Annie Barrows

188 Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl

189 The Aenied by Virgil 

190 Sean Griswold’s Head by Lindsey Leavitt

191 Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

192 The True Adventures  of Hector Kingsley By Kindal Debenham

193 Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet b y Jamie Ford

194 The Wretched of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler

195 Tounges Of Serpents by Naomi  Novik

196 Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming

197 Wrapped by Jennifer Bradbury

198 Witch Song by Amber Argyle

199 Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

200 The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

201 Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

202 Wolves, Boys and Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler

203 Paint me True by E.M. Tippetts

204 Badger by Kindal Debenham

Picture Books:

Eric Carle

1 A Very Hungry Catapilar

2 The Very quiet cricket

3 Will you be my friend

4 The grouchy ladybug

5 Papa, please get the moon for me

Ian Falconer

6 Olivia by Ian Falconer

7 Olivia form a band

8 Olivia goes to venice

9 Olivia helps with Christmas

Mem Fox
10 Where is the Green Sheep

11 Hattie and the Fox

12 Hunwick’s Egg

 Candace Fleming

13 Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! By Candace Fleming

14 Tippy Tippy Hide

15 Sonny Boy the Life and Times of a Tortise

16 The Hatmaker’s sign

17 This is the baby

18 Clever Jack Takes the Cake

19 Imogene’s Last Stand

20 Seven Hungry Babies

Lois Elhert

21 Waiting for Wings by Lois Elhert

22 Nuts to you by Lois Elhert

Rick Walton

23 Baby’s first year

24 6000 rats a tale of conjunctions

25 The Fox Chased the Mouse a prepositional tale

26 So many bunnies

27 How can you dance

Caralyn Buehner

28 Snowmen all year

29 Snowmen at night

30 Fanny’s Dream

31 The Queen of Fashion

Emma Dodd

32 I don’t want a cool cat

33 What pet to get

34 Just like you

35 No matter what

Trudy Harris

36 The clock struck one

37 Tally cat keeps track

38 Splitting the herd

39 20 hungry piggies

40 Jenny Found A Penny

Cambria Evans

41 Bone Soup

42 Martha Moth Makes socks

Lezlie Evans

43 The bunnies Trip

44 The Bunnies Picnic

45 Can you count Ten Toes? Count to ten in 10 different languages

46 Who loves the little lamb

 Tana Hoban

47 A children’s Zoo

48 Cubes, Cones Cylinder and Spheres

49 Shadows and reflections

50 Let’s count

51 More Fewer Less

52 Let’s Count

53 Shapes, Shapes, Shapes

54 Is it red? Is it yellow? Is it blue?

Neil Gaiman

55 Blueberry Girl

56 Crazy Hair

Mo Willems

57 Knuffle Bunny

58 Knuffle Bunny Too

59 Knuffle Bunny Free

60 Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the bus

61 Don’t let the pigeon stay up late

62 The Pigeon finds a hot dog

63 The Pigeon wants a Puppy

64 Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator

65 Time to say Please

Brandon Doorman

66 Pirates of the Sea

67 Santa’s Stowaway

Kristyn Crow

68 Middles Child Blues

69 Bedtime in the Swamp

70 Cool Daddy Rat

71 The Really Groovy Story of the Tortoise and the Hare

Sharlee Glenn

72 Just What Mama Needs

73 Keeping up with Roo

 Misc authors

74 The Night Pirates by Peter Harris

75 Mail Harry to the Moon by Robie H. Harris

 76 The Duchess of Whimsy by Randall De Seve

77 Scapegoat by Dean Hale

78 Waiting for Mama by Lee Tae-Jun

79 The Wizard by Jack Prelutsky

80 Halloween night by Majorie Dennis Murray

81 The legend of the bluebonnet by Tomie De Patola

82 Bedtime for Bear by Brent Helquist

83 Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood

84 Itsy-bitsy-babies by Margaret Wild

85 Baby Knows Best by Kathy Henderson

86 Baby Talk: a book of first words and phrases by Judy Hindley

87 City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems

89 Edwina: The dinosaur who didn’t know she was extinct

90 Absolutely Positively Alexander by Judith Viorst

91 Wild Witches Ball by Jack Prelutsky
92. Piggies by Audrey Wood

2011 was a VERY BUSY year

So, this year was kind of a huge one for me and my family. There were a lot of life altering changes.

In January I was still teaching Latin and struggling to get all my lesson plans done, my grades in on time, and expecting the small wiggling creature inside of my tummy to come forth in a few months. I thought I would go back, but ended up not going back. So, I changed my vocation to stay at home mom instead of Latin teacher.  

In March that wee little wiggling creature was born and I was immediately attached to her. She cried a lot, ate a lot, and slept a lot.  Now, holy crap, she eats cheerios on her own and crawls about to where her whimsical heart takes her. She is naughty and angelic not to mention the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. I also tell her that she has got to stop this growing thing, but she refuses to listen. She cries less, laughs more but is still absolutely exhausting. She loves to go outside, and it is nice and convenient that it is still 60 degrees in Texas this week. Her favorite toy this month is the piano. It has superseded her love of bath time.  She loves to bang on the keys and since I have a fancy electronic one that has hundreds of different instrument sound options she has learned how to change the sound from grand piano to the oboe or some other strange musical instrument I haven’t heard of before and squeals happily when the sound comes out different when she pounds away again.    

This summer my husband and I launched our own ebook business by publishing two short stories, Killer and The Missing Figurine. We went on one of our long walks together and decided to name it Wandering Leaf Publishing. You can learn more about what we are doing with the company at its website www.wanderingleafpublishing.com

Most of my current efforts have been devoted toward this endeavor. I remember breaking down crying (in my defense I was very very VERY sleep deprived) over the fact that I could not figure out how to use gimp, a free photo editing software that was recommended to us by Joe.  Whereas this month I made an original cover, did a hardcover layout for another cover, and made some cool bookmarks using this formerly foreign program. Huzzah! I had some awesome help from my friend Aneeka. We are grateful for her support and proud of how she has blossomed her own business this year at Not A VillianComic.

This October marked the year anniversary of our online writing group that we host over skype every week. These people have blessed our lives and we are so happy to have them in our lives as friends and fellow writers. Thanks Andy, Ben, Kayla, Megan, Alisa, and Joe.

This year Kindal wrote Badger, (I read it and LOVED it) Iron Angels, and The True Adventures of Hector Kingsley part II(so excited to read it!). So, he’s been kind of crazy and writing his brains out, but this is what he wants to do, and so we are going to figure out how to make this writing thing work.

I had a good writing year strangely enough. I typed out Alderik’s Quest one painful sentence at a time as I nursed Sera.  She nested in the bobby pillow as I put the laptop in my lap in those early sleep deprived days. This lead to a short story kick, and I wrote Christmas Cars, Twin Swords, Christmas Gingerbread Man, The Shoe App, and Ruby’s Piano.  I also rewrote my Sleeping Beauty and the God of Death story. I also stared a novel called Boys, Bells, and Blessings and got 20,000 words written. Not too bad for a new mom right?

November my parents left for another mission. They are currently in south England, and I had fun last night planning to visit them there next year. I am excited that might get to go back! I will get to wander around castle ruins with Kindal. Seriously people, I made this a goal when we were first married. Take Kindal to a Castle and next year we might get to do it. Better yet, we get to take the wee one with us. Kindal and Sera at a castle together with me! Huzzah! November we also lined up some cover artists. Found an Editor, Tristi Pinkston. Did the final formatting and editing to Wolfhound. 

December we published Wolfhound and Christmas Cars. We sent the True Adventures of Hector Kingsley off to an Editor. Got the Cover Art for the True Adventures of Hector Kingsley. Best of all is that we are going to be with family for Christmas! PA here we come.  We are so very much happy with all the blessings that we have received this year, especially for our little Sera. We love to see her little smile first thing every morning and love to chase her around before she goes down for the night. She is a sweet and active little soul that makes our lives more exhausting but also more interesting. We are thankful for the support of family and friends and for the opportunities that we have had to grow. We are also grateful for the Savior, who has got us through the dark days and helped us enjoy the bright ones with peaceful hearts.