The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I have been accidentally reading a lot of fiction based around World War II the last 2 years and this is the first book in that time I've read from a German's perspective. I've heard a lot about The Book Thief and I'm so happy I got it off the shelf to read at last. This book is on my To Be Read Challenge list and has been on my shelf since June 30, 2009.

The story is not told from the soldier's perspective. Instead Death tells us the story of an orphan girl living with a foster family that quietly opposes Hitler. Quietly they hide something in their basement. Quietly the Book Thief steals her treasures.

The book's emphasis is not pro-war or anti-war, but on the incredible power of words. Words are the enemy so we burn books. Words are what give Hitler his power.

This book is horrifically wonderful and horribly moving.

we're home!

This week's challenge at Scrapping the Music is to use the song Heaven When We're Home by Wailin' Jennys. I just got a scrapbook to show all the work we've done on our house since we bought it 4 years ago so this song sparked me to get the first page done. These are the pictures I took when our realtor showed it to us. It's so funny looking back at those photos and seeing someone else's furniture in our house, and all the trees are so tiny!

It was the first house she showed us! Isn't that crazy?

Happy Birthday Wall-E!

I may have to watch you again tonight to celebrate your 3rd year.

12 years ago today...

I married a smart, funny, loving, kind-hearted man.

We are going to have dinner at Outback and then we'll watch Secretariat.

P.S. Robot Love II is by Raina Gentry.

new camera!

Time for a new toy camera! I ordered a Holga because it takes vignette photos and you can also get a fish-eye lens to go with it for cheap! Today it arrived. Officially it's my anniversary present which is in a few days.

I can't wait to start taking pictures! It uses film which is kinda weird.

P.S. Holga is by Maria Diamantes.

Happy 1st Day of Summer!

The Sweetest Dream is by thedreamygiraffe.

Happy Birthday!

Someone I love very much was born 39 years ago today. He loves Legos.

P.S. I found the picture of those candles on inspire me now.

Dear Mary Murphy,

It's so nice to have you back on So You Think You Can Dance!

XOXO,
Captain Nick Sparrow

P.S. I found your cute boots picture here.

they're so cute!

I had a revelation a few months ago: I'm base.
The dogs run around like wild, chasing and tackling each other.
One jumps on my lap and takes a breather.
The other dog waits, tail wagging.
Lap dog jumps back into action.
I am base.

head over heels

This week the challenge at Scrapping the Music is to use the lyrics from "Write a Song" by Dave Matthews Band! Today is my niece's 1 year anniversary so the line "head over heels" grabbed my attention. I decided to scrap some of her wedding pictures.

And then I made a companion page:

All together now:

They are so cute!
That was 1 year ago today. Happy Anniversary Laura Beth & Clayton!

last day of school!

Today was the last day of my most challenging year teaching. I thought I'd be doing the dance of joy but I got teary-eyed as I was saying goodbye!
It is crazy being a teacher.

P.S. Complete is by shirae.

upgrade

This month at ARTastic the challenge is to use "Argenteuil" by Edouard Manet as inspiration. As an additional challenge we are to use two people in the photo, striped patterned paper (pp), and include a boat somewhere on the layout.

The painting:

My page:

When I thought about including a boat somewhere I thought of doing a pirate page with the dogs (and I may do that still), but then I remembered when we donated our Rodeo to the Sea Shepherds in 2008. The season of Whale Wars following our donation featured a new boat for the Sea Shepherds: The Ady Gil. Corey and I joked that they used the money from our car to buy it. We felt like it was a pretty good upgrade.

I printed the photo of the Ady Gil off the internet for my ship (and I added a pirate ship sticker for eco-terrorism). At first I thought there were 2 volunteers on top of the ship, but there are 3 so I lose a point there.
I positioned my striped paper horizontally just like the stripes in the man's shirt in the painting. I love using striped paper; it makes it so easy to line up pictures and stickers, and provides a good guideline for journaling.
I feel like my eyes move clockwise through the painting so I tried to duplicate that movement in my layout.

Save the whales!

P.S. Did you see the new episode of Whale Wars Friday? Gojira is pretty rad.

P.P.S. The Ady Gil picture I used in my layout came from Lifescape.