ahhh.. the Public Library

I think my favorite place to stop with my kiddos or especially without is the public library. I especially am fond of the Palmer library. Today, we made an unexpected trip to that blessed place. To make a long story short... we were headed to Palmer for Annika's 4 month checkup that has been planned on this date for 2 months, only to arrive after a 40 min. drive and find out that his office is closed today! (They called this evening to confirm my appt. for TOMORROW!)

Anyways, so we decided to head to the DMV to get my license renewed. I was excited because I've been waiting and waiting to get one of those cool new (or not so new) versions of the driver's license. So all went really well in the DMV with my 4 kiddos. I even got a compliment from a fellow family on how well I handled a "domestic dispute" as he called it. (Morgan was sad that Gavin "stole the seat she was sitting in") And our favorite DMV friend, and my best friend's husband, Ryan helped us! BUT... when we trudged across the parking lot, to get loaded back into the van, I gasped when I saw my driver's door WIDE OPEN! We were in there a good 25 minutes! Not a thing was out of place, even the mini DVD player that we had just borrowed from a friend! Phew! Disaster averted. I got in the car and exhuberantly said, "Thank you, Lord!" Drew said, "Mom, I was just about to say that!" Okay, so that wasn't really the "long story short" that I promised. It was the long story, long. I was imagining the place crawling with ex-cons (hee hee) because that building also houses the probabtion and parole office! I know, I'm a big, giant nerd. But I was SO thankful that nothing was taken! My entire diaper bag was in there too, with all of my super important Annika gear.

Okay, now on to the library. Every time we're in Palmer, we make a trip to my favorite library. Today was no exception. So after our Dr. and DMV excitement, I decided it was time to load up on some books! Thankfully, no major drama took place, and we were actually in there for like an hour and a half. Little Annika fell fast asleep in her stroller sitting straight up without so much as a wimper. What a little champ.

(Shannon, you'd like to know that I stumbled upon Ox-Cart Man! I stood there and tried to recall the title, remembered it, wondered if I'd ever find it without the help of the computer, took two steps and there it was.... the first book that caught my eye out of the gazillions in the children's section!!!! Amazing, thanks Lord for smiling on me in that way!)

Some fun kid's titles we found:
The Declaration of Independence (illustrated and beautifully penned, this one was for me but in the kid's section! I had never actually read the Declaration... me with a History Minor!)
Knuffle Bunny Too (We LOVE Knuffle Bunny! Thanks Sarah B.)
Mouse Cookies & More (The complete treasury of the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" series)
a load of books on Knights (for Drew)
2 books on soccer (for Gavin)
and dozens of other titles!



We checked out tons of kids books, Drew got his first library card (we were able to get double the books that way!), and most importantly, got this Mama a couple books! So the entire purpose of this post is to share the books I came across that I'm so excited about! They're both up for much criticism, I'm sure, by those tried and true author/series-loving folks... But I'm not picky about that kind of thing. The first is a prequel to Anne of Green Gables, called Before Green Gables written by a Canadian author. It starts with good ol' Bertha and Walter Shirley shortly before Anne arrives on the scene. And the second book I'm excited about is The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen. There are tons of "Jane Austen-y wanna be" books out there, none of which I've read... but this one looks interesting! Maybe I'll post a review when (or if) I finish them. Well, I'm off to gather myself after this long and interesting day!

How many of you also find a public library or bookstore to be a fabulous way to spend your time?


Update: I'm now 12 chapters into Before Green Gables and boy is it affecting me! I can remember maybe two other times that I teared up reading a book. (real life affects me much more that fiction) Reading this story is like knowing that my longtime friend is an orphan, but hearing the story of her parent's death for the first time. Heart-wrenching! I have to say that the author is (so far) doing a great job of capturing and imagining Anne's story! Okay, goodnight!