Introducing... ME! (An Armchair BEA Kick-off)

Hi All!  First of all, if you were a follower before Armchair BEA, thanks!  The book blogger community has been great and I am looking forward to meeting many more of you.  If you are new to my blog, here's a bit about me...

Who are you?
You would think this would be an easy question, but being the profoundly interesting person that I am, it just so hard... :)

Let's see... I'm 34.  Married to my husband David for 13 years in June.  We have three children.  Emma will be 10 in July, and our twins, Sarah and Benjamin, are six.  I'm a stay-at-home-mom with a background in genetics (if I could go back in time, I would become a middle school librarian though).  I grew up in Upstate NY, right between Rochester and Buffalo, but I detest the cold, so as soon as I could, I headed south.  We spent four years in FL (where I realized that I needed seasons), and have been here, in Purgatory, I mean suburban Atlanta, for the past 11 years.  Eventually I would like to have a big piece if land and some horses in the country, but for now, the suburbs are best for all the things that come with child-rearing...  I'm a die-hard Yankees fan, am in love with Jude Law, and a staunch Libertarian.  I also have a love affair with shoes.

What do you like to do (besides read, of course)?
I have several obsessive hobbies, most of them very dorky, but what can I say?  I love birds and run all over the place trying to add new ones to my "life list".  Currently, I have 218 species on my list.  I'm going to Bermuda this summer, where I hope to pick up 6-8 more. Out of my love of birds came a love of photography.  I'm very amateur, but it's something that has kind of snowballed on me, and I think I'm pretty decent for someone with ZERO training (I don't even know what all the functions on my camera are for).  You can check out my stuff at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjacobstein/.  I also enjoy gardening.  I have lots of flower gardens, but my real passion is organic vegetable gardening.  There's just something great about knowing that you grew the food that your kids are eating.  We grow lettuce, peas, radishes, carrots, beans, beets, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lots of different squashes and melons, and okra.  It's a lot of work, but the rewards are worth it!  I'm a conservationist.  I love nature and want to see it endure, so I try to educate my kids and neighbors about doing things for the benefit of our ecosystem.  My yard is a NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat and we make sure to do all we can to preserve our planet and help it thrive.  I cook and bake a lot.  I also love hiking and camping.  I watch A LOT of softball since both my daughters are obsessive players.

What do you read and why do you blog?
In case the title of my blog didn't clue you in, I read almost exclusively Young Adult books.  This hasn't always been the case, but for the past several years Juvie and YA have been it.  My oldest daughter started chapter books at three, so I always had to be a couple of books ahead of her for content.  Because of my extensive knowledge of kid lit, I was drafted to be a book fair chair at her school, where I handpicked the 1000+ book inventory for the 4th-6th grade and Teen sections.  I also led a book group dedicated to finding the best of the best to highlight.  We wanted to make sure every kid left with books they would love and the feedback has been overwhelming.  They will definitely miss me when we change schools in the fall. ;-)  I blog because my friends and family are sick of listening to me talk about books and I need an outlet... I used to run the blog at Emma's school, and when that run ended, I chose to continue on my own.  I love it.  I think my husband hates it because I don't clean as much as I should and sometimes our kids go hungry when I'm reading/blogging.

Favorite book?
All of them!  There is no way I could really pinpoint it.  I could probably give you one for every genre (maybe), but one favorite? No freakin' way.  Some books I love?  Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Elsewhere, anything by Anne Rice, If I Stay, Incarceron, Animal Farm, Graceling, all of Cassandra Clare's books, The Lorax (really anything by Dr. Seuss), Zorgamazoo, 1984, The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy, anything by Neal Shusterman, and the list goes on...

Why Armchair BEA?
Ideally, I would be there, in the flesh, but this week is just too busy.  It's the last week of school for the monsters.  Add to that the beginning of swim team and All-Stars softball (both of which have practice 2+ hours a day, 6 days a week), team parties for the spring season, class parties, and trying to get my house in order before the kids come home for the summer... Basically, I can't be there because my husband, wonderful as he is, would divorce me if I abandoned him this week.  So, Armchair it is.  I think it will be almost as great as being there.

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