12 on the 12th--April 2019 Edition

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1. Ferris likes to hang out in the bathroom while I get ready in the morning.
2. Ugh, icy windshield and gray skies.
3. Recording my hours on the computer at work.
4. Hilarious selfie situation with Jen, Darcie, Kramer, and Tara after our lunch at Wingers.
5. The very poorly made sign Darcie paid $45 for when a family member shnockered her into buying it. We laughed so hard about this.
6. A disturbing amount of silver hair.
7. I stopped at Marshall's on the way home from work and as always lingered on my favorite aisle.
8. The flag looked cool with that amazing sky.
9. I went to delivery a box of Crumble cookies to the San Juans and found this cute note Claire had left under their doormat (it was for the Easter Bunny).
10. Hooray for tulips and daffodils in our yard!
11. This is my current favorite quote.
12. What I'm reading.

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1. A little Trivia Crack first thing in the morning.
2. Swiping my badge to get into work.
3. Jess, Jen, Kramer and I went to HomeGoods and Chick-Fil-A for our lunch break.
4. Work still life.
5. The screen savers on my work computer are always interesting.
6. Hooray for sunshine and daylight when leaving work.
7. Our new doormat is cute, but I'm not a fan of our nubby porch under it.
8. The super cute box I bought to put Michelle's birthday presents in.
9. I'm loving these cheery flowers I bought at Trader Joes 10 days ago.
10. I bought Whitney's cap and gown for graduation!
11. Taco Tuesday made by Randy.
12. My current read.

12 on the 12th--October Edition

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1. Whitney and her friend Dallin ran errands with me, he's the only person she hugs!
2. I didn't sleep at all last night so I let myself get a big Diet Mountain Dew.
3. Michelle dropped off a plate of S'more cookies!
4. Whitney loving on Ferris...he tolerates her but secretly loves it.
5. Making No Bake Cheesecake for Randy's birthday treat.
6. I ran into my friend Holly and her daughter Abby at Segull Books.
7. I read in the car for 25 minutes while Whitney and Dallin ran into Walmart.
8. The ceiling at Bethannee P.'s wedding reception.
9. Celebrating Randy's 50th.
10. The tag I printed for his gift (another plaid shirt).
11. The drawing inside the card Whitney made.
12. I am rereading The Book of Mormon by the end of the year.

Christmas Book Club Gathering 2014

We met at Collette's house on December 12th (a busy Friday night). 

Though we usually all bring our own dinner, for our Christmas gathering we all contribute something prearranged so that we'll have a nice dinner.

Collette is an excellent hostess and sets a lovely table. This year she made a roast, I brought mashed potatoes, Michelle brought a salad, Amy brought bread, Jenn made a tasty drink, and Jana made 2 desserts!

Jenn has a gift for making festive beverages and garnishing with raspberries. This was a sparkling white grape juice concoction we all loved.

After dinner we did our book exchange. Collette gave these two books to Jana.

Jana gave to Amy.

Amy gave to Jenn.

Jenn gave to me.

I gave to Michelle.

Michelle gave to Collette.

Originally Jana made a pumpkin cake for dessert but then remembered I'm not a fan of pumpkin so she made a chocolate bundt cake too! That was guilt-inducing for me, but so kind of her. Everyone else enjoyed both desserts and I happily ate the chocolate cake.

We also exchanged gifts, this was the pile of goodness I left with!

It was late and we almost didn't take a self-portrait but I'm glad we did.

Book Club--March Edition

For our March book club we gathered at Amy's house. Poor Jana was feeling super sick (we're not sure why she made the effort to come) and ended up leaving after we ate dinner (she only had 2 sips of Diet Coke and a couple pretzels).

I brought everyone a mini daffodil plant (I'm loving these and have 4 in my kitchen window at the moment).

Amy made this cute card to wrap the $100 Mall Gift Certificate we gave Michelle for her birthday.

This book discussion was a long time coming! I read this back in October of last year and immediately suggested it for book club because I knew it would make for such a great discussion. I ended up rereading it so it would be fresh in my mind for our March discussion, and I loved it even more the 2nd time around.

For dessert Jenn made Never On Sundaes which involved these glorious chocolate chip cookies as a foundation for the ice cream and homemade caramel sauce.

This picture doesn't come close to capturing the tastiness of this dessert!

 Good times.

We discussed the book for over 2 hours (that never happens)!! Despite it's somewhat depressing subject matter we all loved it because the writing was so fantastic and real.

Bookclub Christmas--Best Gathering of the Year

We gathered at Collette's house last Friday night to celebrate Christmas together. It's been a rough year for book club gatherings because we've all gotten so busy it's hard to be together at the same time each month. This year we moved our gatherings to the 2nd Friday night of each month, which helped immensely with the late nights for Collette and I since we have to get out the door for work in the mornings and because there are less conflicts with kids' sports/church activities. But we still ran into conflicts with vacations and busyness.

This was the first time we'd all been together in several months!

Collette had the table set beautifully and a scrumptious roast cooked.

Jenn brought salad, Jana brought rolls, Amy brought baked potatoes, I brought the sparkling grape juice, and Michelle was on dessert.

This is the view from the kitchen looking into "the book club room". Usually the blue lounge chair is not there, but it is left over from Collette's husband Travis' recent kidney and pancreas transplant!! It is such a miracle that he is no longer diabetic and that he is healthy and well, this felt like a milestone for book club too!

As Jana was sitting there looking at her feet she realized she had mismatched, fuzzy red socks on.

Michelle made this fabulous oatmeal, butterscotch cookie pie thing with a caramel sauce. We devoured it of course!

We continued our traditional book exchange, isn't this book mark made by Collette cute?

  Michelle got her book from Collette.

Collette got a book from Amy.

Amy got a book from me.

Jenn got a book from Jana.

Jana got her book from Michelle.

I got 2 books from Jenn! She knows I hate paying for church-type books so she got me this Emily Freeman book and then also The Lover's Dictionary which is on my to-read list but I didn't remember putting it there but I'm thrilled to get it.

The whole book is done like this with a different work heading on each page and talks about love.

These are the unwrapped books we gave/got.

Then it was on to gifts! I ended up giving the girls this draft paper Christmas print that I got from Pinterest. I really struggled to come up with something this year, but I love this.

It was a bountiful harvest! Amy made us paper poinsettia decorations, Jana gave us a substantial roll of wrapping paper, Collette gave us an autographed book and Cadbury eggs, Michelle gave us a cute tin with candy canes and a decorative frame, and then Jenn was the big finale with the suitcases full of treat goodness AND the black wood Christmas tree decoration. We're spoiled for sure.

Book Club Birthday Lunch

For book club this month we ended up meeting for lunch at Pizzeria 712.

It was originally going to be a bonus gathering of sorts, but it ended up serving as a birthday lunch for Amy and I and our overdue discussion of The Midwife of Hope River (4 stars).

Michelle, Collette and I were the first to arrive and asked to be seated outside (surprising because of the heat, but it was in the shade and the restaurant was hot inside too, plus we thought we could be louder).

Oh sweet nectar.

The girls didn't have any trouble spotting us.

Five of us ordered the braised beef panini (delicious) but Jana ordered pizza.

Jenn brought us pineapple lip balm and macadamia nut kisses from her trip to Hawaii.

Collette gave Amy and I these darling journals with our initials on them, and the book club girls gave us $100 gift cards...Amy got a Visa gift card.

I got a TJ Maxx gift card, woohoo!

We had our waitress take a couple photos of us after lunch and she did a good job. It's always nice to get a photo of the whole group for a change.

I spent the rest of the afternoon having my longest phone appointment ever with Betsy! We hadn't had one since she visited last July (we always go to extremes like this). My family were all gone and her boys were out with their grandparents so we were free and easy...it was glorious and a most excellent birthday gift.