Beauty Queens, Baseball, Birthdays, and Books

Before I say anything else, I want to take a moment to talk about what today is.  October 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.  While I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a child, I know people in my real life and in the blogosphere who have had that experience.  Today, above all my normal rants and foolishness (let's call a spade a spade, people), I think of them and the children they lost.  You have my love and my prayers always.

Let me warn you right off the bat that this post is going to be all over the place.  But at least there's alliteration.

Beauty Queens

My little sister, Lu (on the right), is a retired beauty queen.  So, back on the first weekend of October, she got to relive her magic moment as they honored past queens.  Even better, the new queen (on the left) was Lu's pick!  Aren't they beautiful?  While Lu was being all queeny, I got to tutor her boyfriend, C, in the way of pageantry.  Let's just say it blew his mind.  Here's a couple pics of them from the big night... (She's singing the theme song to him in the bottom one..."I've Had The Time Of My Life" from Dirty Dancing.)

Baseball
And because I just can't resist, here's a couple more of my favorite pictures of my boys from State.  They have been so much fun, even though at least one insists he's "moved beyond that" because it's now basketball season.  (And I promise that I did take some of their adorable faces, but again, not my kids for real and this is a public blog.)

Birthday Cake
I also realize that you never saw my birthday cake.  It's a German Chocolate Upside-Down Cake.  And it's seriously good.  Like eat the whole thing in one sitting good.  But I didn't.  However, I totally had birthday cake for breakfast.  Here's a slice...

Books
And finally, books.  I really need to do a whole book post because I have read several really great books recently.  I don't even have a picture of this one yet, but I have loved it so much that I had to talk about it.  I am currently reading Love Is A Mixtape by Rob Sheffield.  If you have ever been in love or loved music, this book is like a primer course.  Sheffield's wife, Renee, died of a pulmonary embolism, and this book is like a beautiful eulogy without ever being truly depressing.  Trust me, it's worth a read.  I will work up a post on some of the other books soon.

I also have great weekend plans.  I will do my best to share them.  Perhaps now that I am halfway through the month, October will be a little kinder to my blogging!