The Yearling

I finally finished The Yearling the other day, for my summer reading. It was a really great book, and very interesting if you love the outdoors. One of my plans over the summer was to become more attached to nature, and this definitely helped. It was an amazing book that was based on the beautiful scenery of central Florida and a little boy's views on all parts of life and his journey towards manhood. One of my favorite parts was when Jody and his dad Penny were hunting and happened to be at the perfect time and place to watch the whooping cranes dance right as the sun was going down. It tells about how they caught the beautiful birds doing what's natural to them, and they felt very honored to witness such things. Here's some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Women ran in breeds, like dogs. Two women could say the same words and the meaning would not be the same, as the bark of two dogs, one menacing and the other friendly." (When Jody was around a very nice lady, very different from his mother.)

"Women were alright when the cooked good things to eat. The rest of the time they did nothing but make trouble." (I totally agree with this, but I wish I could tell Jody that he will quickly get over it, and the girls his age would quickly change to very nice people.)

Who'll Stop the Rain?

Recently, I've been spending a good deal of time at Nanny's house. Never a boring place, always plenty to eat, you never have to be invited, I just show up whenever I want. But anyhoo, today [Tasty Tuesday] we ate the most delicious okra and tomatoes, honey cornbread, shelled peas, and red velvet cake. It's the best cooking I ever have, at Nanny's. Afterward, Randi and Rhett and I played hide and go seek [on Rhett's request] which is also a great deal of fun. But, one of the even bigger highlights of today: I found the following albums while plundering through Daddy's desk in his old room. 

[The Rollings Stones album was Stinky Fingers, but there's no need to post the album art here.]

To say the least, I was overjoyed by these findings. I respect Dad a little bit more, knowing that he listened to great music. And I have more perspective when listening to this music, I can think how this is what he jammed to in his car with his friends or on the tailgate in a crowd of "cool guy" kind of people. And it's great to see him nod and say "that was my junior year, right there" whenever I listen to Bad Moon Rising. 

Wausau, FL

Today was Wausau's world-famous Possum Festival. Pretty epic and rather interesting, if I must say so. Kacey and I ran the 5K this morning. It was smoldering hot and the road was very hilly, but I finished first place in my age group and got a tiny trophy! Woo! 5Ks are just great and really fun, everyone should try them out! Also, along with the race, I've been seeing this ad in a lot of places, and it's a very big motivator for me. Man, working out is so great...


Here's a good jam for ya! [And you'll be fine if you don't watch the video, it's pretty odd...]

My Lovely Randi Jolene

Yesterday was my wonderful niece, Randi's 5th birthday. She happens to be my favorite 5-year-old niece. It being her birthday, I'd like to make another list on why I love her [like I did with Kacey and Alyssa]. I have absolutely no idea why I can't find a decent picture of her, seeing that all of our pictures consist of kids.

I love Randi Jo because:

• Randi is VERY silly
• Randi helps out with her mom around the house
• Randi loves to cook with me
• Randi loves her family so much, and lets them know she does on a regular basis
• Randi is very smart
• Randi is a grateful person
• Randi doesn't judge, she accepts you for who you are
• Randi and I have so much fun together, no matter what we're doing
• Randi has very creative names to call people [for example: poo poo dunder head]
• Randi loves discovering
• Randi wants to know more and more, and asks as much questions as she can
• Randi draws pictures for me
• Randi is very kind to everyone
• Randi thinks her and I are twin sisters and wants it to be like that for forever
• Randi likes to read
• Randi enjoys nature
• Randi will play in the rain
• Randi has good taste in music [at an early age, she likes Coldplay and the Beatles]
• Randi plays the piano
• Randi is a pretty good dancer
• Randi isn't prissy
• Randi loves all animals
• Randi will pick up gross things, such as bugs and lizards
• Randi always makes me feel great
• Randi appreciates the smallest and simplest things
• Randi always wants to tell me about her life
• Randi has given my betta fish the coolest name in the world: Poopchuck
• Randi wants to help with everything
• Randi loves to entertain
• Randi loves having her entire family together
• Randi is the coolest little girl I know, and I wont ever be able to list every sigle thing I like about her, she's just the greatest