Happy Wedding Day.

I met Lauren on the first day of Kindergarten.  We were excited.  No doubt, wearing our back to school best and carrying our hard plastic Disney Princess lunchboxes with matching thermoses.  Lauren always had cheese sandwiches in her lunch.  I was jealous of those.  

To be more specific, we met on the school bus.  Front seat.  Left side.  Right behind the bus driver.  I think that I knew right then that she would be a lifelong friend.  We were inseparable.  We had secret languages, sleepovers, and played pranks on her little sisters (evil sock monkey, anyone?).  We made nasty concoctions of condiments at Burger King and ate the buy one get one free kids dinner buffet at the Hickory Hills buffet before Wednesday night church.  When I think of my childhood, I think of Lauren.  I know that her American Girl Doll was Samantha, she always kept candy in her top dresser drawer, secretly wished for years that she had a retainer, and loved dill pickles.  

Now we are all grown up.  We have jobs and grown up lives and live hundreds of miles apart.  Although the days of American Girl dolls and sock monkey pranks are gone, we have managed to keep in touch and remain friends through junior high, high school, a brief hiatus in college, and now marriages.

You see, Lauren is getting married on Saturday!  Regretfully I won't be able to make the trip to Virginia to be with her on this amazing day, but I will be thinking about her as she walks down the aisle and begins her life as a Mrs.  And I know that whatever changes happen in our lives, we will always be friends.  And hate sock monkeys.  And wish we had retainers.  :)

July.

The month of July has been good to me.

Pool parties, campfires, cookouts, and plenty of time with My Love.

The highlight of the month may have been the premiere of the last Harry Potter movie.  Yes, my mother and I went all out.  Yes, we looked like complete nerds.  Yes, we had a blast.  I've been trying to live every moment to the fullest.  Not to miss out on anything and to make it a point to really make "The Simple Things" matter.  So, dressing in my Harry Potter shirt and glasses, buying a wand, and drawing a lightning bolt on my head was the way to go.  When else am I going to have that opportunity... okay, well maybe Halloween, but thats beside the point.

It has been a month of Farmer's Markets.  And Friends.

And a month of good 'ol American fun.  Caleb was less than thrilled when I told him I wanted to go to the rodeo at the fair and he told me that this last picture of him represented his feelings about being there, but he hung in there.  You can't read it, but one flag said, "Rodeo.  The True American Sport."  It was only about a million degrees that day... I think the heat index was 115.  The poor horses must have been miserable.  I know that I had sweat dripping from every inch of my being.  The highlight was definitely when the cowgirls participated in barrel racing.  I was yelling and cheering and Caleb was looking at me like I was crazy!

We rode the ferris wheel at the fair.  Caleb kissed me at the top cause thats what people in love do.  They kiss at the top of the ferris wheel.  We also ate fried food and drank drinks made from pure sugar mixed with more sugar mixed with sugar.  I love the fair.  I like the smell of the animals mixed with the fair food and grease from the rides.  I like the dusty dirty pathways between rides and the carnival workers yelling obscenities.  I do.  I love it.

I can't forget to mention the fact that I went to Harry Potter a second time and dressed equally dorky for round two.  While I'm making confessions I guess I should admit that I also went a third time... within four days of the first time... my dorkiness knows no bounds.

This guy has been having a good month too.  He's done a little relaxing.

There have been some sad moments too.  Like the fact that these two (in the upper left corner) moved away.  Sad, I tell you, sad.  Val has really challenged me to care more for this wonderful world in which we live and I look forward to many years of friendship.  

I get to see them again this weekend.

I closed out the month with a bang.  More like with a  buggy and a bonnet.  An Amish buggy and bonnet that is...

My mother-in-law (who is the best mother in law, by the way), my sister-in-law, and I went to Amish Acres in Napannee, IN for a mini vacation.  Obviously we had a blast.  I think we laughed non-stop the whole trip.  It was just what I needed! 

We ate Amish church lunch and the famous Thresher Dinner.  YUM!

There were these rabbits running around outside and they were all surprisingly tame... That was may favorite part so I saved the picture for last.  :)

Thanks Kim for a wonderful weekend!

That just about sums up my month of July.  Its been busy, but amazing.  I can't wait to see what August has in store!