The BSC, Thanksgiving and Adoption

First off, I hope everyone in the US has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We're actually not having Thanksgiving dinner until Sunday because my stepmother works tomorrow (well, today actually I'm still up and haven't gone to bed even though it's almost 4:30 in the morning.) Why we're waiting an extra three days I'll get back to in a bit.

The BSC Thanksgiving books have to be some of my favorite "holiday" books in the series, mainly for the mention of the food. I know I'm not the only one in the BSC fandom that loves the description of the food and whose mouth waters at the very mention of some of them. (I can't as well be the only one who wonders how two pizzas can be split up between 7 or 8 11 and 13 year old girls). Since I'm not actually going to be eating Thanksgiving dinner tonight (unless my dad does something), I think I might have to read some of my favorite BSC Thanksgiving books... Get Well Soon, Mallory (I also like the illness books!), Claudia and the First Thanksgiving and Karen's Turkey Day. (I'm sure there are more but at 4:30 those are the only ones that come to mind at the moment.) Thanksgiving is just about the only day out of the year that I eat turkey. I know i'm going to be longing for my mother's homemade pumpkin cheesecake tomorrow, but oh well. (I had a ton of it last year, though!)

What are (or were depending on when you read this) everyone's Thanksgiving plans? My sister Jessica is flying in tomorrow evening from Austin. My other sister Tonja is coming back from Chicago Saturday night with her boyfriend, and we're having a special guest come flying in on Saturday as well... my 18 year old niece that Jessica gave up for adoption when she was born. (It was an open adoption and I was there when she was handed over to her adoptive parents. We'd gotten a few pictures as time went on, but it had been several years since we last received any.)

It's going to be an emotional reunion for sure. My niece Naomi is bringing her boyfriend with her for emotional support. I'm nervous but excited.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving again to all in the US. I hope it's wonderful! :)

Stoneybrook... small town?

In the BSC we're always reminded (particularly by city girl Stacey) how small Stoneybrook is. But really, just how small is it?
It has two middle schools...both of which seem to be of adequate size, private schools, at least one public elementary school,(It seems that Kelsey Middle School is a public school in the area where Kristy lives...but everyone on her street goes to private schools. Where do the kids going into Kelsey come from? Karen goes to a private school.) and Stoneybrook High School, which is stated in the final book of the series, Graduation Day, as having over 1000 students. (I believe it also states that kids from other towns go there.)

It also seems that it has a nice sized downtown. Bellair's sounds awfully big. Come on... it has different departments and has an ESCALATOR, not to mention numerous restaurants, a movie theater, parks, etc.

I would also mention that they have a university, but then again i live in and go to school in a very small town with a private university (less than 2000 undergrads but still), so I know it's possible.

When I think of a small town, I basically think of the town where I'm living at. It has 4000 people (It seems so much fewer though.) Charles Dickens himself visted here twice in the 1800's and mentioned it in one of his books, American Notes.http://charlesdickenspage.com/minor_works.html#american_notes (chapter 8). The town doesn't even have a regular stop light... it has a blinking stoplight. There are a couple of main roads that come through, but that's about it. The mainstreet is two blocks long (or so), and is lined with antique shops, a small coffee house, a couple of small restaurants (including a place that serves up the best ice cream i've ever had), a tiny community theatre, (named after the Looking Glass Prairie, which Dickens mentions), an even tinier library, and ... well you get the picture.
Tehre are a couple of fast food places and a dollar general and a hardware store on the main road coming in, but that's about it.
I live a block north of the high school. The elementary/middle/high school is basically all in one building, with the high school wing on the very end. (I think the high school has a 100 students...tops) It has everything I think a small town should have... a fireman's picnic and parade in the summer, a fall festival with crafts where they shut down the entire two blocks of the "main street" (actually called st. Louis street). Everyone lines up for hte homecoming parade on the sidewalk to get candy. (I'm assuming they do for the high school, they did for McKendree's.) Plus various other activites, including a haunted tour of the town, and a Witches Night Out in October.


Does anyone else think Stoneybrook isn't as small as they think it is?

1461 views???????

I was looking at the little thing on the left hand side where it says all the visitors to this age come from. Now, I realize some of those numbers are not all different people...
But a few countries jumped out at me.
Bahrain? Iran? Lebanon? Saudi Arabia? Iran? Hong Kong ?(I didn't know Hong Kong qualified as a separate country. Shows how much world geography I know.) Plus other countries that I didn't catch.

How the heck are these people coming across my little corner of the internets?



I hope to post something more substantial within the next week. What, I haven't figured out yet. To keep you occupied, here's my BSC fanvid for the week

Yet another youtube vid...

You guys know I love Stacey...
but this one made me laugh :)

Ah, Fall (Good old random Off topicness)

I seriously love this time of year. Living in Texas for six years, I really missed the simple things like trees changing color and them falling to the ground. A friend of mine that lives in Texas went to Pennsylvania this pass week to check out a school (I think, Lol) and it was the first time she had seen fall.

Anyway, with fall means Halloween, my birthday (this Tuesday...gifts are accepted, as well as cash), Thanksgiving, my sister's birthday, and then of course Christmas.

I don't really have any big plans for Halloween. My college is 7-1 and if we win Saturday's game we're absolutely going to Playoffs (although we're pretty much a shoo in anyway). I think I'm going to go to the first half of the game (good thing about going to a really small school is students get in for free unlike at the bigger universities...well... at least Texas A&M I know they have to pay), and then leaving to go to my dad's house. This will be the first time in 7 years that I will have a chance to pass out candy. I live in a very small apartment that's in a basement with a door code. No trick or treaters are coming HERE, so I'm going to dad's house which is four blocks away. That's it... but we did get a LOT of candy, so there should be plenty left over!

Anyway, tonight I went up to the school and they were having a haunted tour of the campus. I go to McKendree University, which is the oldest school in the state of Illinois having been founded in 1828. There are a ton of ghost stories that float around, some I don't know if they're legit or not, but with a school that's over 180 years old some are bound to pop up. (It was named the most haunted place in the Metro East)

For instance: Bothwell Chapel was built in 1858. I was looking around on the internet to see if there's any ghost stories, and I stumbled upon an article that said that the bell in the bell tower is from 8th century Spain. (FOR REAL?) There's a story that's actually in the McKendree Archives, that when black students first attended here, one went up to the Bell Tower (I'm not sure why) and he was struck by lightning and died. There's also the crazy stories from Eisenmayer which used to be the old theatre and music building. It still has practice rooms, and music majors like myself go there late at night to practice, and there have been crazy stories about music coming from practice rooms where there's noone in there, ghostly apparitions and footsteps in the hallway. I haven't been there late at night yet, but you can bet I'm going to do so soon!

I guess I have a bit of Dawn Schafer in me.


Has anyone had any ghostly encounters? Any big plans for Halloween?

It's Shannon!! (The puppy not the human)

Someone posted this picture of a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy on baaaaabyanimals on livejournal.

I just went d'awwwwww. :)

Did you know...

That AMM is on the list of best selling authors of all time with between 172-180 million books sold? Right behind Charles Dickens.

Who does she outsell?
Beatrix Potter, Michael Crichton, James Patterson, Anne Rice, and Robin Cook just to name a few.

AND...
The Baby-sitters club is #10 on the Best Selling Book Series of all time.

Was watching Twilight Sucks videos on youtube out of boredom and was amused when it was stated that the BSC outsold Twilight. (of course it's been around longer but you get the idea. ;) )