I am taking an independent study class and an online class starting in February. Here is a very long list of the books I will be reading. Thank goodness I have only 2 classes.

1. Peter and Wendy
2. Representations of Motherhood
3. The Runaway Bunny
4. Guji Guji
5. The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender
6. Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood
7. Are You My Mother?
8. Toning the Sweep
9. Mama, Do You Love Me?
10. A Mother for Choco
11. Sarah, Plain and Tall
12. The Desert is My Mother
13. The Magic Circle
14. Hatchet
15. The Great Gilly Hopkins
16. Monster Mama
17. Mommy?
18. Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
19. Dicey’s Song
20. Like Sisters on the Homefront
21. Chike and the River
22. The Book of Three
23. Pinocchio
24. The Chocolate War
25. The Secret of the Old Mill
26. The Wind in the Willows
27. The Man without a Face
28. Kim
29. The Giver
30. Shiloh
31. The Man from the Other Side
32. The Island on Bird street
33. Treasure Island
34. The Prince and the Pauper
35. Miracle’s Boys

This doesn’t even include the extra articles I will be reading. My eyeballs will fall out of my head probably. Good thing some of these are picture books.

Here is where I spent my six weeks in VA. The campus is beautiful.

As a part of my program, I get to attend lectures given by experts in the children’s literature field. Last Monday, Nancy Willard came to Hollins and talked about the author’s voice and the art of storytelling. While she said a lot of interesting things, I want to pass on one funny line she said.

“In fantasies and fairy tales, you can make things up, but you can’t make mistakes.” 

This declaration followed a story about a mis-drawn bird in her book Cinderella’s Dress. It was one of those ‘duh’ sentences that makes you nevertheless nod your head because it’s so true.

Here are some of Nancy Willard’s books:

Ryan and I applied to live in the family student housing (called Baity Hill) on UNC campus. Ryan really wanted to live near people who are also grad students, and he wanted to be close to the school. The best solution was to apply for a spot in Baity Hill. The apartments are really nice and most of the people living in them are going through the same type of stuff we are.

But there were no openings. 

We thought we would have to find an apartment in NC and live there for a year, then move when there was an opening at Baity Hill. It seemed like a lot of moving on top of our moving to VA, but Ryan really wanted to live there, and I agreed that there are definite advantages. Well, it really seems like we have been continuously blessed this semester. We got a call this morning that there is an opening in Baity Hill and we can move our things in starting July 1.

We are so excited and feel so lucky to be living in such a nice place. Here is the website if anyone wants to checkout where we will be living in NC. Our Virginia living situation is a whole different story…

http://housing.unc.edu/baityhill/

It is official, Ryan has been accepted to the University of North Carolina. Here are some pictures of the beautiful UNC campus in Chapel Hill, NC. 

I have been accepted to Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. Here are some pictures of the Hollins campus. 

We really can’t believe that we both got into the schools that we wanted. We are so excited to start graduate school this summer. We will be moving to Virginia this June, and then on to North Carolina in August. Ryan’s school starts pretty early (Aug. 15) for an east coast school. We will be down in the South East for the next five years (at least)! That’s almost as long as I have lived in Utah. We are really going to miss everyone here in Utah, but we are very excited to be going. 

Okay, we like school, but I we aren’t that crazy about it. Still, we are going on for more…hopefully. Ryan and I are both applying to graduate school for the fall semester of this year. That means we both graduate after the spring semester (’08). Yes! We are very excited to finish our undergraduate work so we can go on for more school. It will be a few months before we know who (if anyone) has accepted us. Ryan is applying to (listed from his top choice to last choice):

I am applying to (listed from my top choice to last):

Ryan is applying for the biostatistics programs, and I am applying for writing for children and young adults programs and creative writing (BYU doesn’t have a writing for children emphasis). Good luck to us.