Great weekend!

We had a great weekend of OU football, family, and relaxation. Saturday we went to Nana and Grandad's house, where we got to see Dani, Luke, and baby Molly! It was so fun!

Dani Rose and I and two friends of ours started an online book club on Yahoo! Groups. We started with Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the wildly addictive Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you've probably heard of it, since the third book bumped Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the Number 1 spot on the bestseller list, the fourth book caused a media frenzy, and a movie version of the first book is coming out in November. Anyway, the Twilight series was what got all of us talking about books and recommending books to each other and stuff, so we decided to start a book club to do it in a more organized fashion. Now we've made the somewhat drastic leap to Pride and Prejudice, but actually, believe it or not (which I actually don't), Stephenie Meyer says P&P actually influenced parts of Twilight. A modern-day, teenage vampire love story and P&P? Not seeing it! Regardless, Dani and I both LOVE Jane Austen, so we're having so much fun talking about it as we read.

Anyway, since we started the book club, every time Dani and I see each other, we end up talking about our book club book and getting way ahead of our online discussion. We're going to begin watching the six-hour BBC version of the book this weekend, maybe--Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy! Swoon!

One of the reasons I love fall is OU football, and not because I'm particularly a football fan, but because my family is! That means most Saturdays, there's some kind of family gathering in Coleman for the game, which for me, means family and food more than it means football! I'm so excited for OU/Texas this weekend, when Pannells from Blanchard, Kansas, and Indiana will be gathering to watch the game!

Claire is learning so much lately! Just this weekend, she started recognizing and saying orange ("orush") and horse ("orse"). I watched Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (a series I'm reading along with the book club books!) the other night, and she actually sat still for any part with a horse onscreen, pointing and saying "orse"! Also in church this morning, she pointed over to a good friend of our family, Ike Miller, saying "Ike"! He was on the other side of church, too! We are working on getting her to be quiet during prayers; she seems to think this is her time to shout one of our names at the top of her lungs.

She is developing a very strong will, and starting to throw some full-fledged temper tantrums! I had to take her out of church the other day b/c she was trying to walk outside the pew, and I pulled her back (gently!) by her arm. You would have thought I snatched candy away from her or something!

Anyway, we love watching her grow and change, and we know this push and pull of our wills is totally normal. It's just a little embarrassing when it directs an entire congregation's eyes to you!

I better hit the sack b/c I'm supposed to be in Calera at 8 a.m. to head down to a pumpkin patch in Texas with Kim Mauck #1 and her sister. Yikes!