Friday Favorites, 4.7.23.

 

Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea and Erika for today's favorite blog post. I feel like I have to play catch up, because I've been forgetting to mention some things here. I'll jump right in with my favorites from the last couple of weeks.  Buckle up, this may be a long one!

Getting pictures like this from my husband is my favorite. Doesn't he look incredible?! This was from two weeks ago while he was out of town for some training with our local government. If you're new around here, Todd has lost about 65 pounds in the last year. He's been working so hard, and I am so proud of him. He has inspired me and our sons to all do the same. I love that he feels confident in pictures now, because he feels so much better. 

These plants that you see above are some of my favorite and are super hearty. We pretty much put them in this spot at the end of the warm season each year and then forget about them until the spring, and every single year, they come right back to life. Isn't that amazing? One of these plants is green onions or chives, and the other two are a succulent of some sort that my stepdad gave to us a few years ago. 

Anytime we get to celebrate a birthday, it's a favorite. These pictures above were when one of my coworkers had a birthday that Friday. She came in to work to find balloons, this orchid, and her favorite drink for lunch. We wrote messages to her on our dry erase boards, and pretty much went overboard all day long so that she would feel dearly loved and treasured. 

A couple of weeks ago while I was out with my mom and sister, I stopped by my friend Angie's business and ordered my first ever nutritional tea. This one was called The Jimmy Buffet and was considered a meal replacement because of the 20 grams of protein it contained. I was definitely not hungry after drinking this! I decided to drink my lunch on this day because we were eating an early dinner to celebrate my father-in-love's surprise 80th birthday.

These pictures are some that I got from his party. All of this occurred on the day that my sister died, so I was having all the emotions on this day and was pretty much a wreck all day long. We arranged for Todd's brother Tim and his family to come here and surprise Wiley and Phyllis for Wiley's birthday. I had to enlist the help of their best friends Paul and Neta for this, but we pulled it off, and to say they were both surprised is the understatement of the year. 

This is my dad's house, which is the home I was raised in. Isn't it pretty? It's a modest one story ranch style house, and when I walk into it, it feels like home. I took this while I was there one day in the days after Terri died, on one of the visits I made there that week. My brother Paul was in town during that time, so we were able to spend lots of days together, thanks to my principal for insisting that I take some time off from work. I'm glad she was persistent about that, because if not for her urging me to do so, I don't know that I would have taken off those three days. 

On a much lighter note, I've gotten a couple of new dresses lately! This one to replace a black dress that I love but that has faded, and this beautiful bright green one I picked out for Easter. I'll wear the green one with neutral colored wedges that I have from a few summers ago, and I'm hoping to get a pedicure sometime on Saturday after I get my hair done. I'm going in for a good trim and highlights, which is always a favorite. 

Reading outside lately has been my favorite. 

Look how sweet my daddy is when we celebrated his 92nd birthday on Wednesday. It was such a fun night!

This movie was a favorite that I watched last weekend! Have you read the book or watched this? It was so good, and once again, Tom Hanks did a phenomenal job of playing the part of Otto (Ove). 

And last, but not least, was this picture from yesterday. On Thursday, our school district arranged for all of us on staff to have a free lunch from a taco food truck. This was so good, but what was the BEST was not having to pack my lunch for a day! This made the day go by so quickly, and it gave us something to smile about as we waited in the rain. 

Did you catch my other blog posts this week? I'll post them below.

Monday I wrote a post that I titled Catching Up. It was all about my family and what we've all been up to recently. I like to do this a few times a year.

Wednesday was the Currently link party that I've taken over. You should read some of the entries! A bunch of you joined us, for which I am grateful.

Thursday I picked back up with my Thankful Thursday post, but I didn't host a link up this time. 

Thanks for reading my blog, friends! I hope you have the best weekend and that you're able to celebrate with family. Love to all!