More Liberty photos

This is the old Liberty gym.  I have a lot of memories from this place.  There are so many others that feel the same way.  I think it was the high school gym many years ago.

My husband's old home place

The kiddos at Liberty Elementary

Liberty Elementary

This is the most awesome thing ever! The people in the picture were researched and their names are included on the mural. This is  a work in progress and being done by a local lady. As I understand, she's been working for a couple of years on it. There are liberty bells hidden through out the mural. I could not believe how beautiful!

My next stop was Liberty Elementary.  This school has be around forever!  My husband actually attended this school and lived across the street.  They have added onto the building, but what I saw had not changed too much.  The gym was used as a central location for all the county elementary schools basketball games.  Believe it or not, I was a cheerleader for Garrett Elementary and my husband was a basketball player for Liberty Elementary. It was a known fact that every other school despised Liberty! My first encounter with my husband was at a basketball game where he acted on a dare and came down the court and knocked me on my behind! Good thing I didn't know who he was or things might have turned out differently! Ok, so I got off track here going down memory lane.  Now back to business.

Me with Mrs. Spears

 Mrs. Tammy Spears in the library was instrumental in setting up the school visits county wide. I cannot thank her enough! She really went out of her way to make it all come together and run smoothly! I felt bad with my constant emails, but when we were 700 miles apart, email is a wonderful thing to have.  Liberty Elementary kids were awesome.  I got to see some of my relatives. My niece, Kylee and a second cousin, David, that I had never met, but one look and I instantly knew who he was.  There were some great questions asked by the students. I even had some adults that came for the presentation.  How nice is that? So 33 years later, I can say I don't hate Liberty Elementary anymore...it's actually a pretty cool place!

Jones Park Elementary

A year ago, I could never have imagined this happening!

I visited Jones Park Elementary last Monday afternoon.  Whoo wee! What a busy day since I had visited Walnut Hill in the morning. This was my first ever visit to this school and it is a beautiful place as was Walnut Hill.  Growing up in Casey County, we had 6-8 elementary schools, and now it's consolidated to only 3 large elementaries.  I ran into many familiar faces and they actually seemed happy I was there! Of course, the kids were great.  Everyone was so kind and gracious and I would be happy to visit there again...maybe when I get another book published! Thank you Mrs. Luttrell, the teachers and staff for helping pull this off!

Facebook

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More from Walnut Hill Elementary. Next stop...Jones Park

Lots of children.  I had 2 groups at WHE

This is the blanket I received at the school. Isn't this beautiful?

School Visits

The sign says:  Thank you Author Sandra Byrd Lawson 

The first school I visited was Walnut Hill Elementary. Wow! I don't know how many children, but I can safely say, it was a lot! Everyone was super nice!  The children seemed to enjoy my visit, but I guess anything that gets you out of class is high on their priority list.  The fifth graders did a story writing contest. I will cover that in a later post.  When I drove out of the parking lot, I noticed they had my name on the sign out front.  Talk about feeling special!  Thank you, Mrs. Pennington, the office staff and everyone at the school.  Oh yes, thank you for the embroidered blanket (it had a cupcake on it...very appropriate for The Best Baker in the World.)  I am grateful and will treasure that gift!

My visit to Kentucky

Our library. What a wonderful investment Casey County made here.  I can remember when this was built!

Jan Banks and my mother

Update on Geese!

I got the word yesterday that Edna and Edgar's eggs have hatched and we now have 5 baby geese.  This is an annual thing at our house and we are very excited "grandparents".  I'm sorry I have missed it all since I've been out doing book promotions.  I will post photos and more details next week.  My internet is very limited here.  I will also have lots of photos from the schools I've been visiting. The kiddos and staff have been absolutely amazing!

Oklahoma life...

Last night was the perfect evening...great temperature, no wind, no rain, etc. We enjoyed time on our patio just visiting and listening to the beautiful songs of the birds in our backyard.  We have a mocking bird that is our all time favorite.  We have to smile when we listen to the clever things he come up with.  And then the other sounds...the neighbor has three or four roosters that were evidently in a crowing contest. It was one after the other, each rooster trying to drown out the other.  It was quite comical to listen. The longer we listened the funnier it was. And then, there's Edgar the goose. That goose is always looking for us.  I suppose he associates us with food because we are always feeding him.  He's going to get so fat, he won't be able to get airborne! Hopefully, Edna's eggs will hatch soon and we'll have another group of geese to fuss over for a little while.

Moving on...slowly!

So my book has been released, I've done a lot of book signings and promotional things, but then the hard question.  How do I get bookstores to carry my book? I have several online sources, but not much in the actual bookstores.  I will start making some contacts next week to independent bookstores, but my contract prohibits me from marketing to the big chains.  I am at my wits end! A marketing guy I met this weekend at a conference, advised me to have everyone I know (who is willing!) to call the bookstores and make a request for the book.  Ok, so everyone who is willing, please call Barnes and Noble, Hastings, Books a Million, etc.     The online resources that I am aware of now carrying my book are: Tate Publishing, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, and Indiebound.org.