Saturday Snapshots, Blogiversary and Liebster!

Wow...I cannot believe that I have officially been blogging for a year now! I am so glad that I took the leap and joined the blogging world!  :)

I have met so many wonderful teachers, and the bonding experience I have had with students, parents, and even teachers in my building has been priceless! Thanks for reading along with me, friends!!

Today is my first time to link up with Miss Nelson at Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for Saturday Snapshots.

Here are a few random snapshots for you...

Joshua and I made it to our favorite restaurant, Kan Pai, for some yummy sushi! Loved it!

Joshua and I also made a lunch date with Josh between dental appointments. Josh works so much that getting to meet him for lunch is such a treat!

Joshua and his new baby girl! He sure loves this little lab/boxer mix...mutts are the best! That's my mom in the background...I'll see just how often she reads my blog when I get a phone call about taking this one down...she is so rarely captured on film...LOL.

Having all my kiddos together...with the hubby...and with my dad...WOW..doesn't happen very often. 

While I love all of my vines, they are truly taking over! I am waiting for a knock on the door any day now from frustrated neighbors...so beautiful but sooooo out of control!

Some of the sweet kiddos reading at one of our Summer Reading Hot Spots! Love seeing them have a love for books so early!

Here is a silly one for you...that's me with my earphones in the dark...watching the TESS videos...this little girl couldn't stand not watching with me, so she spent much time in my lap. 

Now on to the classroom....

I am so stinkin' excited that I finally have all 129 baskets in my library labeled! Such a relief!

There were no baskets to label for this Small Groups Library, but it is all organized and inventoried! This is one of my favorite shelves in the room just because of the sheer volume of books, and it just hurts my soul that by the end of the first month of school it will be covered with anchors.

This is a few days late, but I really want to thank Susan at Thoughts from Mrs. Susan for nominating our blog for the Liebster Blog Award...this is an award to recognize new blogs...Thank you so much for thinking of us Susan!

In order to accept the nomination, I must:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me

2. Nominate 5 blogs with fewer than 200 followers

3. Answer the questions posted by my nominator

4. Share 11 random facts about myself

6. Contact my nominees and let them know I nominated them...

For those of you that have been with me for a while, you know this is my second nomination, and you can check out that nomination in this post... be sure to check back to see the blogs that I nominated then!

These were my random facts...

1. Random thing number 1...I typed this entire post and when I went to publish, well...one error code and one too many back keys later, and I lost the whole post. So I really must warn you; my first post was so much witter and original and just down right hilarious. I am so sorry that it was lost out in the blog-osphere...

2. I have four wonderful children that I am so proud of that I could bust! But secretly, when I look at them, I think to myself that there is just no darn way that I am old enough to have four almost grown children ~ two in college ~ holy moly!

3. I was in the Air Force a whole separate lifetime ago. In basic training, when you get to list your "preferences" for duty, I listed Florida or California or anywhere that had a nice warm beach. They sent me to ALASKA...WHAT?!

4. I have been married to the crazy and unpredictable Mr. Dunn for 20, yes...TWENTY, years! Guess where we met?! Alaska!

5. If you had told me when I was a kid, that I would grow up to become a teacher, I might have told you that you were crazy. I was about as mediocre as they come, a true wallflower, please-don't-notice-me sort of kid, and the thought of making a life out of school - well...it never crossed my mind.

But I can promise you that, now, I could NOT imagine doing anything else!

6.Hi...my name is Tina, and I am a book hoarder. My friend, Linda, just helped me come up with that one. LOL

7.How about...my name is Tina, and I am a book sniffer! Yes, I said book sniffer, and do not sit there and pretend for one moment that the smell of a brand new book is not the most amazing smell ever! I mean the smell of new, crisp paper and glue and ink and the promise of new things to come! Can't get any better, but I must warn you. NEVER stick your nose between the pages of an old or used book; you do NOT know where it has been! (And if you are a true book sniffer, you have accidentally stuck your nose between said pages of a wrong book or two and lived to regret it.)

8. My favorite punctuation mark is the ellipsis...I tend to overuse it. My second favorite punctuation mark; however, is the completely underrated and underused semicolon. Does that make me a nerd?

9. I am a self-proclaimed nerd. Look at that...one random thought led to another random thought!

10. I love everything about flower gardens except the work it takes to maintain them. And my favorite vine is the wisteria vine, even though as I type this, it is out there right now diabolically consuming the grass garden that used to be my beautiful flower bed.

11. Oh. my. gosh...(read that really slow and drawn out for full effect please) I have had about all I can take of randomness for one night...let's see if I can spit out one more. People at work often tell me I am very organized, but if they saw me at home, they would never say that. I guess once I leave the building any organization I have (if I really have any) stays behind. 

Here are Susan's questions...

1. How do you spend your free time? Well...reading or working with books...watching House Hunters International and wondering why I can't afford one of those lovely beach side mansions...hmm maybe if I quit buying so many books....

2. What makes you laugh? Lots of things really...I love to laugh...really loud too! But I guess mostly my crazy hubby and kids!

3. How long have you been teaching? This will be my 9th year! Wow!

4. What is your favorite subject to teach? Why? Let's see...LOL...reading and writing! Why...well...duh...BOOKS! BOOKS and MORE BOOKS!

5. Where is your favorite place to vacation? Anywhere with my Flamingo Girls!

6. If you could only take one thing on a trip with you, what would it be? Well...it's between my phone/camera and a good book. I don't know which I would pick.

7. What is your favorite book? My ALL time, absolute favorite book in this whole wide world of ours is Outlander by Diana Gabaldan. Cannot wait for the series to come to Starz!

8. What do you like best about where you live? I don't know that I ever really thought about it, but now that I have, I would have to say the quiet.

9. If you could meet anyone, who would it be? Oh my...Susan these are so hard LOL....There are so many...is a fictional character a choice? ....OK...well I am going to take the safe road...Diana Gabaldan...I mean she did write my all time favorite book.

10. If you had a day to yourself, what would you do? Well, you're looking at it...read, blog, surf the web...fall into the black hole of Pinterest.

11. What is your greatest accomplishment? Without a doubt...my children and my marriage. I do neither one perfectly, but I love them all passionately! Having them and keeping them in my life is the greatest of all accomplishments!

Thanks again for thinking of us, Susan!

Don't forget to back and check out her blog to see her nominees, and my previous post to see mine.

Once again, I have left you with a crazy long post...so with that I will bid you farewell!

Happy reading my sweet friends!