Fall Into Reading Challenge

I have a pile of books sitting on a bench in my apartment that I have been wanting to read ALL SUMMER! Well, summer is over so I better open the books and finally get to the reading! Today I saw that there is a Fall Into Reading Challenge popping up in the blogworld so I thought I would join! Maybe it will be encouragement for me to turn the tv off (except for Thursday night when Grey's Anatomy and The Office finally returns!!!) and dive into a world beyond my own outlined on the pages of these chosen books:

*The Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
*Suite Francaise by Viene Nemirovsky
*Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Last Days Of Dogtown by Anita Diamant
The Audicity Of Hope by Barack Obama
Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

*Books I'm in the middle of reading. I'm one of those who read multiple books at one time!

Ending The Week On The Right Foot!

Wow, what a LONG week this has been! When my alarm went off this morning I immediately turned it off and got mad at myself for setting it for the weekend...then reality hit, it is only Friday...grrr, so up I got and off to work I went :( But, as my title mentions, the week ended "on the right foot!" I finally went and purchased the last pair of Dasko Mary Jane's I have been dying to get! One year ago I bought my first pair and now I am the proud owner of four...yipee! Two have been presents (thanks mom and sissy!), one I found brand new at a consignment store, and this last pair was a purchase totally justified in my mind as a reward for all my extra hours at work lately! Aren't they adorable!!!And the other exciting thing that happened to end the week on the "right foot" was that I got my Sisters Swap Package from Jane in Australia! It has been great getting to know Jane via emails/blogs this past month and let me tell you, this gal hit her package out of the ballpark! Just look at all the goodness she sent my way...
I love the Japanese dragonfly bag she made that holds everything! Jane, I LOVE bags so thank you, thank you, thank you! Inside was some yummy Australian choc/caramel candy (my favorite combo!), a cool picture of Puffing Billy (a famous train/destination in their part of Australia), cute sticky notes from a local charity of hers, a cool card for me as well as my friend Carrie and her sister Monica who hosted the swap, and an AWESOME CD by an Australian artist named Missy Higgens...wow, what did I do to deserve all of this?