Check it out: My new Children's Book!! It's finally here!!! Here is how it all came about.... About 4 years ago, my friend, Jen, worked at Tate Publishing. She was an illustrator/cover designer there. We sat down one evening and talked about how she is illustrates all of these books, but doesn't have one to call her own. She had great ideas of a couple of story lines for books, but never really thought it would actually be put together for a book. We talked how "someday" it would be neat to have a book together. I totally took it seriously and went home that night and thought about the story line that she mentioned to me about Ms. Bostrich. I woke up the next morning and just started writing. Being a Kindergarten teacher, I read children's books daily to my class, and of course being a mom, I come home and read books to my daughter. So when writing, I had in mind some of my favorite books. I wanted to make the lines flow together and rhyme so when you are reading it, it would be like the Dr. Seuss book--How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I kept thinking...."All the Whos down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot, but the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did not." So, I wanted a sweet little town like Whoville...so I came up with "Hickabee". I changed Ms. Bostrich to Ms. McBostrich to make it flow better too. Then I wanted the people to be super nice like Whoville...and then something that the town was known for...so I thought about the "roast beef" in the feast on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but instead I made it "beef stew". Anyways, after sitting down for about 3 hours, I had the entire book written. I gave Jen a call and read it to her. She couldn't believe I put her idea all together into book form. She loved the things I added and how I made it rhyme. Later we met together and she sketched some characters and it was exactly how I pictured the characters and town to look like--very whimsical and fun!! She really made the characters come to life!!! Anyways, after she finished the illustrations, we had to go through editing and got to look at proofs and pick out someone to be the voice in the download-able audio and THEN here we are 4 years later and the book is now PUBLISHED!! We are thrilled!! We placed an order and got 100 hard backs and 20 soft backs and split everything last Thursday. And now it is Tuesday and we are almost completely out of books!! My librarian at my school got permission from my principal to do an author signing day for me and Jen and we have some other things booked--I am speaking and reading at a Rotary Club and Jen's superintendent has her speaking this Friday. Whew! and that is before we did any work and got out there and marketed!! So we are super pumped and hoping this could actually get big! I would eventually like to talk to some libraries and book stores about doing some book signings as well. So, if you are reading this and are interested, I am ordering more books and they should be here in less than a month--hard backs are $14 and soft backs are $11. Soft back books are being sold on Tatepublishing.com but it is listed just under Jen Fisher. I think they could only put one author name on there. We should have a debut at other websites in October. Here is a little about the book:
In the friendly town of Hickabee, the quirky and selfish Ms. McBostrich decides to take away the beauty of an animal only to please herself. Although Ms. McBostrich originally thinks she is satisfied with her decisions, the events of the story force her to learn a most unforgettable lesson.
If you wanna find out what happens....you gotta buy the book! :)
This page is for playing with/braiding/or putting bows or pony tail holders in the girl's hair. There are bows and pony tail holders in the pocket. 
This one above is matching shapes on the gumball machine. 
We recently had a photo shoot with the wonderful Valerie Vaughn from withunmindphotography.com I had her daughter in my class this last year and as a gift during Teacher Appreciation Week, we were able to do a photo shoot. There were SO many pictures we loved from this shoot...but I had to eliminate it down.... :) We had so much fun taking pictures. 
Afterward, Kaitlyn got to toot the horn! 
It was too windy to blow out a candle so we pretended. :) ha. 
Kaitlyn got lots of great presents!! 
Kaitlyn was the lucky child who had the winning ticket on the train to get a free cotton candy! She must've inherited me and Bill's good luck! :) 
