I' ve had...

A wonderful weekend so far! Ole Miss lost, but who cares (I mean besides the approximately 25 State fans who were very concerned with it yesterday on FB-- I mean they are more worried about our game than their own. I'm glad my life isn't so sad that I spend all my time worrying and being jealous of someone else!)-- honestly, the game hardly registered on my radar yesterday. I was way too busy enjoying the sights and sounds of the Grove-- it was good to be back. And it was even better to see everyone-- I didn't have time to mull over the game because I was enjoying seeing my sister, my family, my friends from all over the place. It was like a big reunion. I love it! I don't care what team you root for, or where you might tailgate, there is NOTHING even close to tailgating at the Grove. Its like comparing Grace Kelly to Kim Kardashian. Its spectacular. I'm super blessed to get to be a Rebel fan! The weather was absurdly gorgeous-- I'm not sure I can think of a prettier football day, ever! I really enjoyed getting to see all my friends-- I saw Karen and Jeremy, Karin and Paul, and their cute kiddos, Conner and Patrick at the game (I left after halftime, thinking it was going to be a blowout! Serves me right!) and got to see Betsy and Peter for a while at the game. I also got to spend lots of time with my other friends-- Katherine, Courtney, David, Lauren, Gregg, Nathan, Christy, and some other new friends! Unexpectedly, I also got to see some other old friends, which was wonderful. Most importantly, Parker and her Ole Miss Cheerleader outfit were a hit! I don't really have any pictures because I failed to take my camera anywhere but there is always next game!!!

This morning, Parker and I went outside for a long walk and we eventually just sat on the little stairs across from the Park, which is across from my house. She likes to sit there and watch the traffic at the red light-- she likes the soft noise of the cars going by and likes to smell the air. She could sit there all day if I'd let her. This morning we sat there for a long time and I spent some time in prayer and enjoyed the beautiful weather we've had this whole weekend.

Now, for an exciting announcement:

Katherine, at my sister blog, and I have decided that we need a challenge-- in an effort to get our lives together and continue becoming the people we want to be, we've decided to make a list of 100 books that we are going to read over the forseeable future. I LOVE to read, but I go through many periods where I don't read at all and I'm also prone to getting so caught up in a book that I cannot put it down-- I will ignore housework, actual work and anything else to read it (See previous post on The Hunger Games). But there are shockingly a TON of really great, important, influential books that I've never read! In fact, when I was in college, my friend Rebekah game me a list of 100 Books to Read Before College. I still have that list and occasionally come across it-- its still a goal to read all of them, though I am WAY past college! Its actually quite sad at how few of those books I'd read before college and how few I've read since then. I graduated from a small high school and we didn't do a whole lot of literature, but I was still shocked at how few I'd read, and even worse, some of those books I'd never even heard heard of the title at the time! Even sadder, I knew that I had read a LOT growing up (my parents punished me by taking away books!) so I knew if I hadn't read those books, then chances are that my classmates at NCA hadn't either.

Anyway, our list of 100 books doesn't have a rhyme or reason. I think we both researched a lot of book lists-- 1001 Books to Read, 100 Most Influential Books, 100 Travel Books, 100 Books I'm Ashamed to Admit I Hated, etc. But we decided to just come up with a list of our own instead of using someone else's list. Actually, this whole thing is Katherine's idea and she came up with the first 50 books on our list, and then she mentioned it to me, and I'm always up for a good idea, so I joined in. She graciously let me pick the second 50 books to make 100, and let me tell you-- it wasn't easy. She had picked a lot of good ones so some of my original list was redundant. But then it became harder and harder to find books I wanted to read. Most of Katherine's books are the good, classic books that everyone should read. Some of which one or both of us has already read. She is very classy and well-mannered and smart and her list reflects that. Mine reflects me-- a totally random mix, some old, some new, some recent classics, some books that were made into really good movies. I'm a bit all over the place and so is my list. But, just like in real life, together, Katherine and I complement each other nicely.

I'll post the list some other time, and I'd like to hear from all my readers what their opinions are. To be honest, some of these books (both mine and Katherine's picks) are going to be hard to get into. She is going to pick a book of my list and then I pick a book of her list. We will both blog about them when we finish! Isn't this exciting! I'd love for all my blog fans to join us! Her first pick (one of my books) is Love in the Time of Cholera. I'm not exactly sure how to pronounce Cholera, but since this is a blog and not stand-up comedy, I should be fine. Patrick, from our tent yesterday, talked to me a bit about it. He said its a favorite of his, that its "Very grounded". I don't think I'm nearly intellectual enough to talk about this book with him. I'm low-brow.

Okay, off to clean up the house, unpack the Grove supplies and watch NCIS. We start reading tomorrow!!!