Saturday, December 31, 2016

Rachael Turns Pages Turns 4 Years Old!

And another year has past! Rachael Turns Pages is officially 4 years old! I started this blog my senior year of high school and I can't believe I have continued it for my past 4 years of college. 2016 was another year where I didn't blog as much as I have in previous years, but I blogged whenever I felt like it and I feel like I have renewed energy for the new year. As usual prepare for the wrap up posts glore in January.

It's now time for my annual life update as I review my year and share pictures. There were a lot of fun memories I had in 2016. I just finished reading my 2015 overview and I think this year can hardly compare, but has its own exciting moments.

As usual I start with the update on my little cousins. My cousin Dylan was born on my blogoaversary December 31st. He turned 4 years old this year. He is getting so big and he talks nonstop. His little siblings Cameron and Sydney (the twins) are now two years old. They are working on potty training. Syd is a social butterfly and Cam is more shy, but both of their vocabulary's are growing and they are fun to play with.

Jill's kids are Emma who is now 4 years old. She will be five in April and starting Kindergarten in 2017. She is so bossy, but she has been getting better. Allianna is 3 and will be 4 in August. She is quiet, but sneaky. She is still very petite. Beckett is the youngest and he will be 2 in April. He is still such a happy baby and a mamma's boy for sure.

January 2016 I returned to college to start my semester where I would take 21 credits. I will never recommend this to another person. It was crazy. I had to finish off my early childhood endorsement. I had to complete 150 field experience hours on my own time. I completed majority of them over Spring Break. I completed a good portion of the hours at Vermillion Headstart also. It was a fun experience to work with those kids. In January my early childhood professor, Gera Jacobs, announced that she had cancer. She originally planned to only take about half the semester off as she began treatment, but her cancer was more agressive then they originally thought. She just checked in periodically with us about our placements through video chat. She ended up passing away in early June. She lost her fight with cancer 6 months after diagnosis. She was such an inspiring person and I have never seen a person love children the way Gera does. She left such an amazing impact on the world of early childhood and I'm so thankful for her advice and support over my college years. I was so lucky to take three classes with her and I will share her joy and wisdom in my classroom.
My college town got 17 inches of snow in February
and we had our first ever college snow day.
We had a day of playing games and fun inside.
Digging my car out later wasn't fun, but the
memories were great. 

In March I got the surprise of a lifetime when my friend who was taking a road trip to California over spring break sent me a picture to announce that she had eloped in Vegas. Its cheesy, but it alivated so much family drama for her and she was glad to finally be married. After we finished our spring semester we headed down to Des Moines, Iowa to celebrate her wedding at a late wedding reception. We had a great weekend and it was so relaxing and great to spend time with my friends before we separated for the summer.

In May my sister graduated high school. After I came home from school we spent a lot of time preparing for her graduatation and everything turned out great.
My siblings and I. I'm the oldest, my sister, Renae is the middle,
and Ryan is the youngest. 









I returned to my daycare job in June and also helped out with another year of kindercamp. We had a great group of students this year. I began preparing for my upcoming year in student teaching.

June was also the month my sister and I got tickets to see Scotty Mccreery. He did a great job and he sang almost all the songs that he has on his two albums. I'm looking forward to a new album from him in the future.

I ran this 5K in April. It was fun to be a fairy.
I got some weird looks walking back to my dorm.




My sister and I Scotty Mccreery. 














In July we took our family vacation to Missouri. I finally completed my dream of seeing Laura Ingalls Wilder's house. I have loved her books forever and it was a dream come true to see where she spent most of her adult life. I have now seen Desmet, Walnut Grove, and Mansfield, so I have completed most of the Laura Ingalls Wilder destinations. We also went to Silver Dollar City. The amusement park was not that great, but the water park was fun. We also went to see Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, which is a dinner theatre and we all enjoyed that a lot. We also visited the Precious Moments Museum and Harry Truman library on our way home.


Me in front of Laura Ingalls Wilder's home.
Dolly's Coat of many colors butterfly.


My dad and I at Carrie Underwood. 
July was also the month that I found out my best friend Rachel was going to have a baby in March right around the time of her first wedding anniversary. I'm happy for her and excited for the baby to make his or her appearance in a few months.

In August I begun my student teaching journey. I started out my year with Kindergarten and then in October I moved to 5th grade. Student Teaching has been an amazing experience. I have learned so much about myself as a teacher and the way I want to run my classroom. I'm excited to put my ideas into action next year no matter what grade I end up teaching.

In October I took my dad to see Carrie Underwood. This concert was a dream come true. Her storyteller album has so far been one of my favorite albums and it was a blessing to see her preform the songs live. My favorites of the show were Dirty Laundry, Church Bells, and What I Never Knew I Always Wanted. We had a blast and she had such an amazing turn out for her concert. I don't think it was sold out, but it had to be close.

Disney on Ice during the Peter Pan segment. 






















In November my mom and I went to Disney on Ice. You could tell it was made for kids, but I'm a kid at heart and I enjoyed the show a lot. They featured Lion King, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, and Frozen. Most of those are the movies I grew up with. We got super great seats close to the stage. I forgot to get a picture with my mom at the concert.

The year as usual ended with my favorite time of year, Christmastime. My time has been spent finishing up my semester of student teaching and just a short Christmas break this year. I will have to get used to these teacher breaks instead of the student ones. I spent lots of time watching Christmas movies with my dad. The Hallmark movies that have been my favorite this year are Broadcasting Christmas, Every Christmas has a Story, and Christmas in Homestead. I also have really been enjoying the Hallmark movies and mystery movies. Finding Father Christmas has been my favorite so far.

The year ended on a sad note as we lost my Grandpa on December 22, 2016. It was hard to lose him only a couple days before Christmas, but we all knew he was not doing well. He has been on a rapid decline since June, but was admited to the hospital on December 12, 2016 where he then went into hospice care. Hospice took wonderful care of him, but he spent most of his time sleeping and he just knew that he was ready to go to heaven to be with God. He is now playing in the dirt in heaven and enjoying being able to do all the things he was unable to do here on earth. We just had the funeral on December 27. It was hard to say goodbye, but my heart knows that he is in a better place. He got the chance to see my siblings and I grow up and that has been a blessing I will always remember.

My Year in Reading Challenges 2016

Stats are Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult since I want to get this up by the end of the year. Updated 1/4/17 to include all books read in 2016

This year went a lot better for challenges. I ended up completing 14 challenges and I will be joining some of these same challenges next year. 

Stats:
Books Read: 44
Pages Read: 14,226 pages (As of December 18, 2016)
Chunksters (400 + pages): 10
In the Middle (300 to 400 pages): 15
Quick Fix (under 300 pages): 20

Authors
New: 13
Male: 6
Female: 20

Ratings:
5: 31
4: 10
3: 4

Publication Dates
1997 1
1998 1
2003 1
2006 1
2007 2
2009 3
2010 4
2011 4
2012 3
2013 7
2014 7
2015 5
2016 6

I didn't read a whole lot of 2016 releases this year, so I will play catch up next year. I'm surprised about how many 2013/2014 releases I read. Most of all I'm just going to conintue to read the books I want to read in 2017.

Hosted by James Reads Books
Goal: As Many as Possible
Read: 12
Status: Completed April 1st, 2016
Joining in 2017: Yes
The TBR Dare has a new host and its own website The TBR Dare.  I managed to read 0 2016 releases before April 1st, 2016 and I'm hoping to do the same this year. I started off 2016 with 338 books on my goodreads TBR. I had that number down to the 330 by the end of the TBR dare. As of December 17 my goodreads TBR has 380. My goal as always for 2017 will be to lower that number. 

Hosted by My Soul Called Life.
Goal: 12 books
Read: 8
Status: Did Not Complete
Joining in 2017: Yes




Hosted by Bea's Book Nook

Goal: 18 books
Read: 29
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: Yes




Goal: 13,000 pages
Read: 14,226 pages
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: No
I didn't pay much attention to this challenge. I just don't see the point of joining a page number challenge next year. 


Hosted by Literary Escapism
Goal: 15 Authors
Read: 12 Authors
Status: Did Not Complete
Joining in 2017: Yes
I would say Huntley Fitzpatrick and Jennifer E. Smith top the list as my favorite new authors this year. 
1. R.J. Palacio
2. Richelle Mead
3. Rush Limbaugh
4. Huntley Fitzpatrick
5. Jenny Hubbard
6. Paul O'Zelinsky
7. Jennifer E. Smith
8. Jojo Moyes
9. Jandy Nelson
10. Lauren Barnhodlt
11. Eric Hobbs
12. Lauren Oliver

Mount TBR Hosted by My Reader's Block, #ShelfLove Hosted by Second Run Review, Chapter Break, and Bookworm Brandee Sign Up Here, 2016 TBR Pile Hosted by Bookish Lifestyle, #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks Hosted by Estellas Revenge
Goal: 12
Read: 13
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: Yes, I plan to join shelflove and Mount TBR. I will join the other two if available. 
I purprosely joined these four challenges last year to motivate myself to read more of my own books whether that be kindle or physical. I knew if I was not able to read at least 12 of my own books within the year then I would fail not 1, but four challenges and I didn't want that to happen. All of these challenges were great and it was a great motivation for me. 


Hosted by The Daily Prophecy

Goal: 5-9
Read: 6
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: No
The Daily Prophecy will not be hosting this challenge in 2017. I will be joining a different retelling challenge although overall I have not been reading nearly as many retellings as the first year I discovered the genre. I hope to read at least a few in 2017


1. Jack and the Beanstalk by Jenni James
2. Snow White by Jenni James
3. Winter by Marissa Meyer
4. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, Brodi Ashton
5. Sinful Cinderella by Anita Valle
6. The Frog Prince by Jenni James

Goal: 30
Read: 35
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: Yes
I focused mostly on backlisted books this year and read 2016 releases as they came up as always there are still more books out there I would love to read and so my adventure with the backlist books challenge continues. 

Hosted by Books, Movies, Reviews! oh My! and (un)Convential Bookviews Sign Up Here
Goal: 1-15
Read: 6
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: Yes
1. Summer Days and Summer Nights by Various Authors
2. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton
3. Briette by Anita Valle
4. The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
5. Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber
6. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Hosted by Gone with Words and Love at First Page. Sign up Here.
Goal: 6-10
Read: 10
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: No
Just not a challenge I'm overly interested in joining next year. I read plenty of contemporary romance novel, but I think the limitations of this challenge were too much for me. 

1. My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
2. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
3. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
4. Two Way Street by Lauren Barnhodlt
5. This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
6. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
7. The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
8. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny James
9. It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny James
10. We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny James




Series Enders Hosted by Somewhere We Only Know and Words Fueled by Love, Prequel & Sequel Hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads, Finishing the Series Hosted by Bea's Book Nook.
Series Ender and Finishing the Series
Goal: 1-5
Read: 3
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: Yes to Series Enders

Prequel/Sequel
Goal: 50 pts
Points: 56 pts
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: So far this isn't available, but I would love to. 
I started many series this year, so I will hopefully have more series enders last year. I made good progress with my series. I love prequel/sequel and I would love to join that one in 2017 if available. 



Hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun. I made a B for quarter 1, C for quarter 2, B for quarter 3, and C for quarter 4. Overall I made a C or a 77% for the year. 

Goal: 12
Read: 6
Status: Did Not Complete
Joining in 2017: Yes
I love the challenge of this challenge and I will be trying again using some book from this year and some new ones. 

Hosted by Novel Heartbeat
Goal: As Many as Possible
Completed: 17 squares out of 24
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: Maybe

B
Listen to an audiobook:1105 Yakima Street by Debbie Macomber
A book with a number in the title: 92 Pacific Boulevard by Debbie Macomber
Read a dystopian: Delirium by Lauren Oliver
A book with star-crossed lovers: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
A book with more than 600 pages: Winter by Marissa Meyer
I
An author’s sophomore book:This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
A book with an animal sidekick: My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton
A book that made you cry: Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
N
A book with red on the cover: The Trouble with Christmas by Debbie Mason
An author you’ve never read: Soundless by Richelle Mead
G:
A book with a one-word title: Heidel by Anita Valle
A book with a shifter: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
A book with a male protag: Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Read a middle grade book: Rush Revere and the First Patriots
O
Read an anthology: Summer Days and Summer Nights by Stephanie Perkins
A book that’s been on your TBR for a long time: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Read a book you own:I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Goal: 20
Read: 18
Status: Did Not Complete
Joining in 2017: Maybe
The numbers beside the books represent the weeks they were supposed to be read in. That is why they are not necessarily in order. I accomplished quite a bit of this challenge without paying much attention to it. 

The 2016 List
1. A book you meant to read in 2015, but didn't: Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. A book set in a different continent: Soundless by Richelle Mead
4. A book by an author you discovered in 2015: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
5. A book with a title beginning with the 1st letter of your name: Rush Revere and the First Patriots by Rush Limbaugh
6. The highest rated on your TBR: Winter by Marissa Meyer
10. A book by an author you feel you should have read by nowMe Before You by Jojo Moyes
13. Reader’s Choice: The Frog Prince by Jenny James
14. A book with one of the five W’s -or H in the title (Who/What/Where/When/Why/How): This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
15. A book set in the past (more than 100 years ago): Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
17. A book with a beautiful cover: I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
18. A book on a summer/beach reading list: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny James
20. A book with a first name in the titleHeidel by Anita Valle
22. The first book in a new to you series Delirium by Lauren Oliver
23. The next book in a series you are reading 11o5 Yakima Street by Debbie Macomber
26. A book everyone is talking about: My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton
31. A work of young adult fiction: It's Not Summer without You by Jenny James
49. A book with a great opening line: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
52. A book published in 2016: Briette by Anita Valle

Goal: 6-10
Completed: 14
Status: Completed
Joining in 2017: Yes

1. The Triple Dog Dare Hosted by James Reads Books Finished April 1, 2016
2. I Love Library Books Hosted by Bea's Book Nook. Finished August 2, 2016
3. 2016 Pages Read Hosted by The Crafty Engineer. Finished December 31, 2016
4. Mount TBR Reading Challenge Hosted by  My Reader's Block. Finished October 9, 2016
5. #ShelfLove Hosted by Second Run Review, Chapter Break, and Bookworm Brandee Sign Up Here Finished October 9, 2016
6. 2016 TBR Pile Hosted by Bookish Lifestyle.Finished October 9, 2016
7. #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks Hosted by Estellas Revenge. Finished October 9, 2016
8. Retelling Challenge Hosted by The Daily Prophecy. Finished July 15, 2016
9. Backlist Books Hosted by Pretty Deadly Reviews. Finished December 31, 2016
10. 2016 Releases Hosted by Books, Movies, Reviews! oh My! and (un)Convential Bookviews Sign Up Here. Finished December 31, 2016
10. Contemporary Romance Hosted by Gone with Words and Love at First Page. Sign up Here.Finished September 11, 2016
11. 2016 Series Enders Hosted by Somewhere We Only Know and Words Fueled by Love. Finished August 2, 2016
12. Finishing the Series Hosted by Bea's Book Nook. Finished August 2, 2016
13. Prequel/Sequel Hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads. Finished December 31, 2016
14. Reading Bingo Hosted by Novel Heartbeat. Finished: December 31, 2016









Out with the Old & In with the New: November 2016



Hosted by Michelle @ Because Reading and Berls @ Fantasy is More Fun
This will take the place of My Year in Books since I will wrap up what I read during each month of 2016, see if I met last year's goal and make a new goal for the year. 

Out With The Old: November 2016

Books Read: 2
Favorite Book Read: Delirium
Favorite Post: Coyer Blackout Sign Up
I love this idea for COYER and I'm super excited to be participating this time around and decrease my kindle TBR.



Goal #11 My goal for last year was to decrease my goodreads TBR. I believe I started with 383 and I did manage to get it down to 367 books by the end of 2016. 

In With The New: Goal #11

My goal is to participate in COYER blackout to the fullest and really decrease my kindle books. I enjoy kindle because I can read them anywhere and everywhere, but I haven't been reading them as much lately.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Out with the Old & In with the New: October 2016


Hosted by Michelle @ Because Reading and Berls @ Fantasy is More Fun
This will take the place of My Year in Books since I will wrap up what I read during each month of 2016, see if I met last year's goal and make a new goal for the year. 

Out With The Old: October 2016

Books Read: 2
Favorite Book: 1105 Yakima Street by Debbie Macomber
Favorite Post: Dewey's Readathon Wrap Up
Goal #10: My goal was to participate in Dewey's Readathon and of course this goal was easy to complete. I read Clockwork Angel in April and Clockwork Prince in October. I will most likely finish the series in April. 

In With The New: Goal #10

My goal will remain the same to participate in Dewey's readathon. it is one of my favorite goals of the year and I immensely enjoy these days.