Family.

For my second offering I thought I could describe a little about my family. Oh please, I know what you are thinking - who cares about this girl's family? Well, we do have a pretty interesting story, one that of course, centers around the wonderful world of Librarians.

I have met many people who have other librarians in the family. The most common is the mother/daughter librarian combo. Well our family is a little bit different. We have 4 librarians in the family. My mother, my father, and my older sister are all in the school library field along with myself. I do have another sister, who is younger.... but she is not a librarian, and we do not speak of her.


I know what you are thinking right now- dinner parties must be a blast at that house! But really, we do behave ourselves with book talk, for the most part. I do however feel bad for significant others, because the first question that is asked when they come along usually has something to do with whether or not they have read the Harry Potter series. On a side note: Mine hasn't and yet, is somehow still around. Go figure.


The great thing about my family is that we all work at different school levels. My mother and I are both elementary, my sister is middle school and my father, who was at a high school for many years before his position was completely cut, is now working at the college level.


This really makes for an very interesting work and home environment. They really are one in the same. Friday or Saturday nights can be spent at Barnes and Noble or the public library looking for the newest books, and a quick Sunday visit to my parents ends up being a book swap and also a lesson planning session with my mother. I can honestly say that my greatest asset when it comes to collaboration is my mother. For many years it was her lessons that helped give me a foundation of what I wanted to build upon for my own curriculum. Things have changes as I have grown older, and I now look for every oppurtunity I can to "one up" my mother.


This "one upping" is something that I continue to work on every day. I want to find the best websites and the best books before she does. Finding websites is easy, but being ahead of her on books is a constant struggle. I love when I call her to tell her that a sequel to a favorite book of ours is coming out and she responds with something like, "Umm yeah, where have you been? I pre-ordered that on Amazon weeks ago. Nice try" or another doozy, "Really? I've known about that forever. Do you live under a rock?" Every time I hang up the phone with my tail between my legs, but I do know, someday I will be truimphant in my quest to "one up" my mom.


Next Up: Me Vs. My Mother - Scheduled Classes vs. Open Scheduling.