Sunday, March 8

I'm going to try to get a little bit better about blogging. I am going to do things a little bit differently. I'm not sure that I will upload as many photos here, as it doesn't seem to be working as well. But, off to the side you will find a link to our extensive online photo galleries. My mobile pictures are uploading there fine, and this is also where I am storing photos that I am sharing from the regular cameras. Honestly, I think I will be sharing more photos by doing it this way. Also check out our family website at odnarb.com. I've made a lot of changes, and think it looks nice. I've added a Twitter status update both to this blog, and to that page, so you can see what I'm up to most of the time.

Things have been good around here. Nathan had something exciting happen. I'll just copy and paste from his blog to share...

Thank you all for your interest in the grants the Palo Alto County Libraries received through the local casino gaming license holder. Over $1.6 million in grants were given away to worth organizations in and/or serving Palo Alto County. All of the grants awarded were 25% matching grants

For my part, I was involved in the writing of six grants: two for Emmetsburg, two for Ruthven, and two for the Palo Alto County Library Association. All six of the grants were awarded. What a thrill to get to up to accept that many certificates!

At Emmetsburg, we are being funded for a Playaway startup collection. The grant is a $10,000.00 project and should buy 150-200 Playaways for adults, young adults, and children. Both fiction and non-fiction titles will be purchased.

The Friends of the Emmetsburg Library received a grant to do a Books for Babies program. The Friends will put together their own kits with custom-embroidered bibs, board books, and early literacy materials donated by the Library Service Areas. All babies born at the Palo Alto County Hospital will receive the kits. The total project was $1,523.00

At Ruthven, we had our Summer Reading Program to Remember Grant project fully funded ($2,000.00 project). With this we are looking to enhance our summer reading program by buying extra materials, hosting multiple outside programmers, and going all out in all regards for the SRP.

Also at Ruthven, we are looking to redo our children's are with new furnishings and a new shelving unit. Total project costs: $3,600.00.

The Palo Alto County Library Association is looking administer a $7,500.00 project in putting a digital multimedia projector in each library in the county. The projector can be used for in-library programs and can be checked out to bona fide community groups.

The Palo Alto County Library Association also applied for and received a grant for a membership for each of the county's five libraries in the WILBOR Audiobook Consortium, a $4,560.00 project.

Though I did not write it, my library at Emmetsburg will be positively affected by Iowa Lakes Community College receiving a $2,260.00 project to install automatic doors to the library complex.

Other libraries in Palo Alto wrote and got grants, too. Graettinger was awarded a grant for an $8,700.00 project to digitize their newspaper collection. Mallard was awarded a $2,200.00 project to use for technology upgrades. The biggest of all was the Graettinger Community Schools $36,142.00 project to update their library media center.

It was indeed a great night for the libraries in the community. The best news is that we can do this again next year at this time!

I'm very excited about all of this, and very proud of my husband!

Otherwise, things are the same as ever. Syd is getting bigger, and is about ready to start walking. I am getting tired of winter.

Today we pretty much stayed around the house. We had Papa Murphy's for supper. It was good.