What I'm Reading

not really. but i do love to read. i might say i have an almost unnatural love for reading. i think it's somewhere between the fact that i love history and factual knowledge and that, as a child, i would live in my own imaginary world. therefore, i get excited about reading historical/non-fiction books while still taking time to read novels (where i still usually pick out a character and read the book as if i am that person). i have my dad to thank for my love of books and reading.

this year, i decided to take on a challenge that i have long thought about and that is to read all the books on modern library's best novels list. mostly because there are a lot of older books that i have been wanting to read. and i thought this would help me get started. now, there isn't any tolstoy, kerouac, dostoyevsky, or a ton of other authors i want to read. but it is a jumping off point. 

but before i can even crack that list i have to finish the current book i'm

 working on king leopold's ghost by adam hochschild. it is the amazing historical account of the attrocities that took place in the congo during colonization by belgium. a colony that was held as personal property by a king obsessed with an empire for his tiny country. you should really just read it yourself. 

then i have to read my friend jarrett stevens' book the deity formerly known as God. i'm really excited

 about this one. getting to explore 6 misconceptions of God - 3 positive and 3 negative - and how they affect the way we view God. super stoked. and its always cool 

to read something by someone you see everyday. 

and lasty, the book on everyone's must read list this year, same kind of different as me. from what everyone (and i do mean everyone) has told me this book is uh-mazing. so i'm pretty excited to get going on that one as well. 

well, this having been posted, i'm am going to forego my normal friday morning routine of catching up on tv shows on hulu.com and instead try to finish up lepold's ghost. this book really gets my veins burning with compassion and the desire for justice. ahhhhh!

St. Pete

sorry for the sabbatical. things have been a little crazy busy around here lately. anyway, we just got back from a fun weekend in st. pete, fl. we went with liz and charlie to visit david's grandma. it was good times. nice to get out of atlanta on a vacation type trip. however i am looking forward to staying in atlanta the next couple of weekends and letting people come to me. anyway, here are some pictures of the weekend.

p.s. i accidentally left all my hair product in atlanta which turned out to be detrimental for me AND david.

My Dad's a Chief!

i love my dad. obviously. just read the birthday post. but i really am so proud to be his daugher and i have him to thank for much of who i am today.

one of the greatest things he has taught me is what it is to be a hard worker. he actually spent the time teaching me this as i was growing up, but he has also been an even greater example. anyone who knows my dad, knows that he was a firefighter for the greater part of his career. a teacher at our school actually called him once to help get a cat out of a tree. he got to light the bonfire at the homecoming pep rally. he was once serenaded with a song about a fireman by a friend of ours an auburn football game.

we loved what he did, because we thought it was cool to visit the station and play cards with the other firemen. although, there was the one traumatic night that my mom let us watch "backdraft" on tv while my dad was at work and we freaked out and had to call him immediately. the best part was that we had 2 out of every 3 days with him.

then later, he moved on to become a fire investegator. he was a city employee as well as a stint as a private arson investegator. then he applied for fire marshal. you have to pass police academy to have authority to arrest so at 55 years old, dad not only graduated but was vice president of his class. it was as fm that he was able to arrest 2 of the 3 arsonists in the church fire case in 2006. i remember the phone call when it was all over and he was so happy to get to stay home with mom for the first time in a long time.

well, all that to say that he's done it again. he called me the other night to tell me that he made fire chief. that's a big deal. he's the top dog now. it's one of those things that i don't expect anybody else to find as great as i do. i just wanted everyone to know. so yeah, that's my dad. i like him.

Happy Birthday Momma and Daddy!

this weekend we went to the 'ham. my entire family lives in one place. i am really blessed by that. however, i am the only one who doesn't live there. anyway, this weekend we made the trip to celebrate 3 birthdays in 2 days.

my mom and dad's birthdays are exactly a week apart. it's kinda weird actually. all the married couples in my immediate family have birthdays that are within a month of each other...everyone accept david and me. so we usually do joint birthday parties. i won't tell how old my parents are. not that they would care but just in case. but its just fun to get together and do something for your parents. it wasn't fancy or outrageous. just some homemade bbq and some awesome sides with, of course, 2 birthday desserts. but it's just nice to let them know that you appreciate all that they do for you. not like a rum cake can adequately convey that, but you get my point. 

i've been pretty blessed in the parents department. birth and in-law. i love that i grew up in a house where kids weren't just to be seen but to be played with and talked to. i thank the Lord that my parents were not afraid to spank me and my siblings. i'm so glad that i know without the slightest shadow of a doubt that my parents LOVE me. i love that our family is so gloriously imperfect but that we wouldn't have it any other way. 

so dad, thanks for reading leather bound "whinnie the pooh" books to me and amassing a small library of dr. seuss for us. and for letting us play at your workbench. and for taking us to the zoo and mcdonald's - a lot. and for making sure we loved to travel and learn about the world outside our own. and mom, thanks for working so hard to give us everything we needed. and always being the best example of what it is to be a wife and a mother that puts her family first. 

the other birthday we got to celebrate was my grandaddy. this past tuesday he had his 87th birthday. i can't even imagine what that must be like. but he is one of the greatest men i've ever known. he is a man who was born to be outside, so growing up we were always taking rides on "big red" (the 4 wheeler) or going to the lake. i'll never forget the day i got stung by a bee and he took his tobacco out of his mouth and put it on my arm as i stood there, horrified, until the pain miraculously went away. apparently, i acted a lot like he did as a child - which i understand to mean i was a troublemaker. but i think that has always been our bond. anyway, he's a pretty cool guy. i wish you all could know him.