And I own the book pictured above and it is great!!!
Yep, really. This song was supposedly written by to help the Detroit zoo get a hippo, which they did, back in 1953. Random. And they still play the song every Christmas...and probably always will. Interesting little fact. And in fact, the hippo was presented to the little girl, Gayla Peevey, who sang the song and she gave it over to the zoo. Seriously guys? What did you think she was gonna do with it? Ride it to school every morning?
And who doesn't want to be serenaded by a man with a monkey head, come one...
AN EDIBLE FRUIT BOUQUET!!!!
Oh my goodness, you think it looks good?
I think I'll keep him around for awhile...a good long while actually :)
Had a wedding shower for Krista a few weeks ago (before the wedding, OF COURSE!) and got to see our gaggle of high school girlies that I miss so much! (Krista, Me, Rachel, Steph, Lisa). I would like to add, I am the only one not married. Go me!
Awe, I love us.
Oh, I miss these boys being around the office all the time. I hate summer and I hate graduation. Okay, maybe not. ;)
Sam, Rachel, Me, and Grant. :)
I got to hang out with my other friend Jenn (I seriously have a lot of fabulous Jenns in my life, it's ridiculous!) whom I haven't connected with in FOREVER!! Love her!!!
I so love this picture of me and the boys (Grant on the left and Sam leaning on me from the right). This was awhile back when I tagged along on the Deuel family outing and I just had to put it up cause it makes me happy to look at. :)
This summer, Student Ministries decided to take a different approach to their normal "5-day Club" program that they have been doing for years and try something called "Kids In The Park." They went to three different parks for three days and rounded up the kids and played games, told stories, made wordless bracelets, had bbq's and candy, sang songs...all in all, it was a pretty sweet deal and each club had 50+ kids show up, which is awesome!
Sara, me and Kayla...I love these girls. Such sweethearts who have sweet hearts for the students. Doesn't get any better, right?
Got to spend lots of time with these two lovely life-long friends (Rach and Steph). I should mention that this is Sunday morning at the butt crack of dawn after something like 4 hours of sleep.
Got to see this wonderful lady friend (former co-worker at the church) who has been living in the "wonderful" state of OK for awhile now...and whom we all love and miss dearly!
It was a very lovely wedding and she made a VERY beautifully calm bride. And Jason was pretty cool too! ;)
Rachel and I were bridesmaids together, talk about super fun times!
Saw some old friends who made college living SO MUCH more enjoyable! (pictured: Tabbers, Autumn, Krista, Rachel, and Lauren).
Awe, Stephanie, I love you. She is the best right hand gal you can have helping in a wedding.
I like my finger prints. Yep, it's a true statement from me to you.
And yes, I did actually take a few moments (while stopped at a stop light, mind you) to inspect them the other day and decided I am rather happy my unique set of swirls.
The average woman consumes (as in eats) 4-6 pounds of lipstick during her lifetime.
gross!!!
The Sister gettin' her grill on.
The mom/baby girl duo
The daughter/dad team
The sisters at the end of the day...
You are a great mom, truly. I know we drive each other crazy at times but you have always been there for me and I am so thankful for you...not near as much as I should be, but I'm learning. :)
Remember Thumper? From Bambi? A cutie right? Oh most definitely! But not only a cutie, a smart little baby bunny as well. Something that has been popping into my head a lot lately is Thumpers best phrase from the movie. If you know it, say it with me now... "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
My baby tree's one last time in their little green pot they called home for three (plus) weeks.
Filling their new home with brand new dirt (or top soil, whatever) bought just for them.
Their new home. It's so huge! They can finally stretch their roots a bit, that should feel nice. :)
Mom and I working together to plant the little greenies just right.
Me and my greenies in their new red-cracking paint home. :)
Their new home and my parents house by the pretty pink bush...much more exciting than my desk and office, I must admit. 
This little guy will watch over my little greenies for me...I hope. He looks pretty stoik, I think I can trust him.
My mom got a little excited about all the planting we were doing that she had to go work on her own garden. Here she is planting some cherry tomato plants. Oh, I cannot wait for those to grow!! My mouth is watering just thinkin' about it.
She has made some pretty fabulous things including a very some fabulous pulled pork taco's and a very tasty veggie pizza (she was even sweet enough to bring a piece of the pizza to work for me to taste...and it was GOOD!).
So...I decided that since we have so much fun with this little meal planning of ours, we needed to blog about it. I have finally gotten some pictures from her from the most recent Thursday night dinner and hopefully we can keep this trend going and we can share Linda's great culinary skills and the recipe's she makes with you all out there in blogger land. :) Hope you enjoy it as much as I do! :)
Here Linda has just pulled out from under the broiler her famous bacon wrapped scallops. Yum!
I tell ya, she pampers these people. Here is her other appetizer plate of crackers and brie with a jalepeno relish on top.
And the dinner, foccacia bread, a nice italian dressed salad, garlic orzo, and porketta. The recipe attached is not the one she used but it will work very nicely for you. :) I have never heard of porketta but it sure does look good and she said the gang LOVED it! Oh, and she put her pork shoulder (I think that is what she used?) in the slow cooker all day and said the meat was just pull apart tender.
Okay, this is the first installment. Hopefully next week we'll have another one with this Thursday's dinner for you to try. :)
(oh, I should also mention to you that I just walked Linda through her first order of Vitalicious vitatops. Yep, I have another convert. :) Kristin, that means you're next!) ;)
