Book club, June 8, chapters 5-8

I've had several people mention this book to me in the last week. If you are reading along with us, please post your answers to the questions. It's so interesting to read each other's answers. 

Favorite parts from chapters 5-8.

I love the reference to Shipley's donuts in chapter 5. The taste of my childhood. My older brother took me to school in 6th & 7th grades - Tommy is 7 years older than I am, and would drop me off on his way to class at LSUA. Anyway, every once in awhile he would swing by Shipley's and get us donuts on the way. As a 12 year old, being driven to school by my older brother, who drove a royal blue beetle bug AND blared Huey Lewis and the News and the Dazz Band from the stereo AND throw in Shipley's --- could it get much better? I certainly didn't think so at the time. 

Moving on...

"Then there's old love. Old love is the comfortable shoe of relationships. You know each other. Each of you as a little more worn and not as pretty and new as used to be." Isn't that the truth?

The Possums. Enough said. 

Chapter 7 "We Make Dave Ramsey Sad."  I laughed out loud when I read this chapter title. 

I loved reading about when Melanie decided to paint the back house. "'You still have a lot of work to do!' Thanks for pointing out the obvious. You must be related to my husband. Have a nice day.'

"In a lot of ways home improvement is like marriage. It's not glamorous. It can take a lot of hard work and effort. Their days it feels like it might be easier to burn the whole thing to the ground and start all over again. Then you remember how much you love the house or your husband and you recommit yourself to what it takes to see the whole thing through.... You have the satisfaction of knowing you've made something beautiful."

1.  Have you ever made a list of qualities you want in your future spouse? What things did you include that ended up not being as important as you originally thought? I did make a list of qualities I hoped for in a future spouse. I was hoping for a man who was taller than me, weighed more than I did, was a people person and a great listener, had a great sense of humor and loved Jesus more than he loved me. Girls, I got everything on my list. And so much more. 

2. What are some things in your life that you feel like you’re waiting on right now? Do you agree that we’re all waiting on something, no matter where we are in life? When I first read this, I thought, "I am not waiting on anything right now." And then I noticed a topic they keeps coming back to my mind - where will Katie go to college? Nearby? Far away? And even though it's not waiting on specifically something for me, it will be a significant change in my life. And after just being away from her for nearly two weeks, I confess, I am not looking forward to it. And yes, I agree, that we are all waiting on something, regardless of the phase of life. 

3. In Chapter 4, Melanie mentions a list of celebrities she’d be friends with if they ever met. Do you have a list? I think I could be friends with Elizabeth Hasselback, Patricia Heaton, Julia Stiles, Jennifer Garner and Nate Berkus. 

Book club June 1, chapters 1-4

Ok, friends, here we go!

Disclaimer - I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing here, but I think it will be fun and interesting, so here goes. 

 I'm going to mention my favorite parts of the first four chapters and then post suggested questions from Melanie. 

Page 6, (referring to the registration process when you pick out all the things you think you need before you get married) "...you're selecting things for the life you think you are going to live, when in reality there is no way to know what life will really entail." Amen to that, Sister! 

Page 26, "My other talent is committing to things that seem like a great idea at the time and regretting it later." Oh, yes, I have learned a few lessons with this one. 

Pages 32-33, when she writes about Perry coming back to the car with a plastic grocery sack, and the next day "he made the walk of shame in his wrinkled rented tuxedo." I laugh every single time I read this. 

1. In Chapter 1, Melanie mentions that she’d always envisioned a Christmas wedding but ended up getting married in August. How did your own wedding day differ from what you thought it might be?  To tell you the truth, I don't remember spending a lot of time imagining my wedding. I do know that I wanted it to be different than everyone else's. I saw pictures of a wedding with cream colored bridesmaids dresses and I knew I wanted mine like that, too. That was not something I had seen before where we lived and people (including my mother) thought that was a crazy idea. I also wanted our wedding to be personal but didn't really know what that would look like. Our pre-marital counselor suggested we each write a letter to our parents and have them read as part of our ceremony. We took his advice and it added a beautiful element to our wedding day. 

2. Have you seen ways in your own life that marriage tends to amplify whatever insecurities you have? Have you looked for your husband or job or anything to complete you in some way? I learned the hard way that Jay is not meant to completely fulfill me. Jesus Christ alone can do that. I had expectations of Jay making me happy all the time. I set myself up for disappointment and I set him up for defeat. Thankfully, through great counsel, we weathered that storm and came out on the other side stronger than before. 

3. Do you remember the first time you met your spouse? What stands out in your mind? The first time I saw Jay, he was playing volleyball with my brother, Tommy. Jay had on purple shorts. I remember that he had braces on his teeth, he was a great volleyball player and he had great legs. Basically I thought, "He. Is. Hot." But out of my league. 

Post your answers in the comments. It will be interesting to see all our different answers.