It's around mid June 2011. Ethan has plans to go to Mobile to spend a week with Aunt Dede, Uncle George, Jessie, Sarah, Caleb and Ashlyn. The Saraland church of Christ is having their Vacation Bible School this week and Aunt Dede thought it would be a good idea to keep her two great nephews and neice for the week.

I've been harrasing Torey for the past couple of months to buy a very special ring for the ring finger on my left hand. We've been shopping so I can find what I like and he can have a good idea of what I like as well. The entire time I'm hoping this will speed up the whole process. Little did I know it was only going to be my own personal method of torture. This led to some very sad and depressing "cry myself to sleep" moments.

On Saturday while we visit various Jewelry stores I find out that Ethan's ride to Mobile has come down with some type of bed and toilet ridden virus. :-( Ew! Yep. Holly's got some kind of "bug". She's supposed to leave on Monday to take the kids for their week at Aunt Dede's. What am I going to do? I've got plans for dinner with my best friend on Monday night! And I'm hoping it's a very special dinner! Lord, not only do I want her to feel better because I don't want her to be sick, but please I've got to go to dinner Monday night. What will happen if my dinner date gets cancelled?!?! It's NEVER going to happen! I'll NEVER get engaged! (All thoughts from my mental freak out session that I shared with no one!)


I'm hoping this dinner is going to be a very special dinner because not only are we going to Outback, but we just went there a week or two ago and Outback is still a treat for us, he's planned this when Ethan was supposed to be gone so we could be alone, when I suggested we could take the kids to Mobile on Monday since Holly was sick I could tell he didn't want to go, and a few other things that had me feeling this way. Aunt Dede decided she'd wait a week and make sure no one else got the "bug" before keeping the kids, so we left him with my mom instead.


Outback was amazing (as usual) and then we head "home". I'm thinking, "yea right, we aren't going home, he's proposing to me tonight so we can't be going home." We went home! By the time we pull up at his house I'm mentally trying to come to terms with the fact that this isn't going to happen tonight and was not being very successful though I think I did a pretty good job of not letting him know what was going on in my head. As I'm walking up to the back door I see something on the door mat. I was immediately angry because I'd just swept the back patio the night before. I get closer to the door and low and behold it's three white rose petals. I glance through the windows on the back door and there are candles and rose petals EVERYWHERE! The rose petals are laid on the floor in a trail to his bedroom where I find a bed of rose petals on the bed with the prettiest brown and off white box I've ever seen in my life. In this amazing box is a 14k white gold ring with a princess cut center diamond, a halo with tons of little diamonds. Each side has three round cut diamonds going down the side. It's the prettiest ring I've ever seen!!!!

I go to the bed and go to grab for my ring, mid stride Torey snatches the ring from me and says, "Hold ON!" He gets down on one knee, says a bunch of sweet stuff that neither of us remember and asks me if I'll spend the rest of my life with him. My response was, "OF COURSE!"

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson

January's book was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson. Our meeting was at the Books A Million out at East Chase. I must confess... I didn't finish the book, not yet anyway. I just ran out of time. I waited too late into the month to start reading. I know better, being that I'm a slow reader and all, but that first chapter was just TORTURE. It's so hard to get into a book that doesn't grab me in the first sentence. I pushed through knowing it was a "mesmerizing, thrilling" read and so far I've been glad that I did.
Unlike last month's book (Fannie Flagg's newest, I don't even remember the name), I'm determined to finish reading this one. I know how this one ends so that takes some of the excitement out of it, but I'm looking forward to the details of how it all takes place. I don't think it's fair to not finish reading a book and then expect the ladies at our meetings to not discuss the end. What kind of discussion would it be if we can't even discuss the ending?!?
For next month we decided to read a "lighter" more inspirational read. We kind of agreed on the first book in a little series by Francine Rivers, the Mark of the Lion series called A Voice in the Wind. I'm looking forward to it. Hope to write more about it during the month.

Ethan...

It's been a while since I took the time to write on here so I've got a good bit of catching up to do.

Ethan turned 8 in November. He'd never been to an Auburn game before and the Homecoming game just so happened to be the same weekend as his birthday so we got the hook up with Scholarship section seating (thank you, Andy) and we took him to the game. It was very, very cold and felt like we were sitting in a wind tunnel, but we had fun anyway. Free food and Auburn football... What more could anyone want? :-)

Ethan had been practically begging me for a guitar so I did what any mother would do. I got him one, a real one. I wanted something that was good enough he could take lessons and really learn how to play if he stuck with it long enough and hopefully IF he learns how to play he'll keep this guitar forever. It's a 1/2 size guitar (also known as a travel guitar used by professionals). I got a great deal from Matt Strickland over at Tweed Music Company .

Matt also gave me the name and number of someone that could give Ethan lessons. He started guitar lessons the first week in December with Brian Roughton at Music Academy . Ethan enjoys his lessons and he's learned a lot. Brian teaches the kids how to read music, not just how to play certain songs. I'm anxious to see how long Ethan pursues guitar. I guess he'll have to learn a lot if he continues planning his band with Ashlyn, my neice.

Women's Book Club

I started a women's book club back in November and I haven't really had a chance to write about it yet. Any female that enjoys reading is invited to join us. Our November meeting was held at Starbucks out at East Chase and our book of the month was Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. In December we read I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed Redeeming Love. Matter of fact, I'm anxious to read it again as soon as I have time. Fannie Flagg left a lot to be desired and I've yet to make myself finish reading it. In December we met at the home of Patty Weatherford and we all brought a little dish/finger food. We decided that in the future only the people that make it to the meetings will be able to vote on the book for the next month.

For the month of January we're supposed to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrson. We're meeting at Books-A-Million out at East Chase on January 27th at 6:00. Please come join us. We'd love to have you.

Word of the Day - January 4, 2011

Today's word of the day is...

Exculpate - to clear from alleged fault or guilt.

(I plan to learn a new word or refresh my knowledge of old words every day this year... Let's see how long this lasts.)