Ten on the Tenth

Let's take a break from some of the heavy topics we've been discussing lately, and do something that some of my way cooler than me blogging friends do...Ten on the Tenth! As best as I can tell, Ten on the Tenth works like this...On the tenth of each month, you make a list of ten things that fit into some type of category. So, in the spirit of good blogsmanship, here's my list of Ten Things I Love.

(Notice that I said "things", not "people", so this is not meant to be a list of people I love, although there are a couple of people who are a big part of the things I love. I've also decided not to include "food" on this list, because I think I can make that a topic for the tenth of some other month....although I may have difficulty narrowing that list down to just ten things!)

Ten Things I Love (In No Particular Order):

1. My iPhone. And not because I like to talk on the phone, because I don't. There are just so many other things about my iPhone to love, like my Kindle app, my Facebook app, my FOX News app, my ESV Bible app, my Skype app, my Weather Channel app...I could go on and on. And I do enjoy texting...I'd much rather text than talk.

2. Contemporary Christian Music. You name the artist, I probably have at least one of his/her/their albums on the aforementioned iPhone. I have a very wide range of CCM interests, from TobyMac to Chris Tomlin to Casting Crowns to Switchfoot to Skillet to Stellar Kart to Brandon Heath and everything in between. I pretty much love it all. When I'm at home alone, driving in the car, walking on the treadmill...wherever I'm at...I have music playing.

3. Storms. I love a good thunderstorm. I get all excited when storms are in the forecast, and am always disappointed if they don't happen. The louder the thunder and the brighter the lightning, the better! I think I'll become a storm chaser when I grow up!

4. Pajama pants. I love the rare evening when I can come home from work and change straight from my dress pants into my pajama pants. I'm pretty tall, so I've always had problems getting pajama pants long enough...I do not love feeling a breeze on my ankles! Fortunately, my even taller sister-in-law introduced me to a company called Long Elegant Legs, which actually makes pajama pants which are too long for me. But hey, I'm not complaining! Too long is better than too short!

5. Evenings at home. The kind of evening where I can put on my pajama pants and warm socks when I get home from work and not take them off until I go to bed. The kind of evening where there is nowhere else we have to be, no responsibilities to fulfill, nothing else we have to do. A fire in the fireplace and a good book on my Kindle make these evenings even better! The rarity of these evenings during this season in our life makes me appreciate them even more.

6. Watching Bethany play basketball. If we can't be at home for the evening, the next best thing is sitting in the stands cheering the Magnet Cove Lady Panthers to victory. Actually, I'm not usually in the stands, I'm sitting at the scorer's table keeping the book, which makes it a little hard to actually cheer, but hey, I'm still loving every minute of it!

7. Bath & Body Works hand soap. B&BW makes the best-smelling hand soap there is, and I get all excited about trying the new scents when they come out. Every once in awhile, I'll decide that it's silly to spend the extra money just for soap, and I'll try something cheaper. But it's just not the same...So, I watch for coupons and B&BW sales, and stock up when I can!

8. Falling leaves and sprouting leaves. Maybe that's two things, but since they both have to do with leaves, I'm going to count them as one thing. I love watching the leaves fall in the autumn (especially when I'm walking or driving through them) and I love seeing the new leaves grow in the spring. Maybe it's really the change of seasons that I love. Yes, I think that's it. I'm glad I live in a state with four distinct seasons, because I really enjoy each one.

9. Calendars. I actually have a rather curious obsession with calendars. I get downright giddy about choosing calendars for the new year...and yes, I said "calendars" plural. I have multiple calendars in my house. Embarrassed mumbling now...I even have one in my bathroom. (Stop laughing, Mom.) I bought a new planner for 2011 at the Christian bookstore the other day, and I was ridiculously excited about it. There's just something about turning the page on an old month (or year) and starting a new one that I really like. Yes, I know I'm really a dork at heart.

10. Shopping with my Mom. I love to shop with my Mom, even though we don't usually shop "together". Oh, we go together...we love to go to Springfield or Branson, Missouri, on our shopping trips, but as soon as we get there, we split up. "Meet you at noon", we'll say, and off we go to our various favorite stores. I hit the stores that sell calendars and contemporary Christian music, and she hits the stores that sell purses. Quite often, we'll run into each other at Bath & Body Works checking out the new varieties of hand soap, but then we'll split up again. We meet for lunch, and then split up again for the afternoon. Then, on our way home, we'll stop for some sort of decadent ice cream treat. It doesn't matter how many calories they contain, because, after all, we worked hard shopping all day! (And, there are no husbands there to see us eating them, so the calories don't count, right?) When we finally get home, we show each other all our purchases and tell each other what great bargains we got. She'll exclaim over my calendars and I'll ooh and ahh over her purses, and we'll start planning our next trip.

So there are Ten Things I Love on the Tenth of November. That was actually really fun...I like this Ten on the Tenth Thing. Hmmm....What will my topic be for December.......