We took our friends Dave and Heidi out for dinner
last week because they'll be leaving for France in a week.
They are on staff with Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ)
At Heidi's mom's suggestion, we went to Pizzeria Lola.
Aaron and Dave were instrumental in picking out pizzas.
Look at those delicious pizzas!

We're going to miss Dave and Heidi very much but
we're excited to hear about Baby Onken in December!
And we recommend Pizzeria Lola!

You'd normally see this post in mid-December but 3 of the
originators of the cookie extravaganza were back in the Twin Cities
this summer. Before they returned to Chicago and Paris, we
decided to have a mid-summer cookie decorating party.
Much like the last one, it came about a week after surgery...
(what's that about by the way???)

Heidi and I watched the boys cut out some cookies and roll dough.

Aaron is showing off the most creative cookie cutter we found.
It's an airplane!

Here's Diddy and a Bill Clinton silhouette cookie.
The Onkens found this cookie cutter while in Arkansas.

Diddy made it his mission to get as much flour on Aaron
without Aaron knowing it.

Let the decorating begin...

so many, many choices...

the boys being creative... and you can see my Minnesota cookie

This is Aaron's depiction of 'land animals vs sea animals'

My MN, gaudy church, Mr. Sparklypants and girl ninja cookies

Good guy friends.

The Chuck Norris cookie and Michael Jackson cookie!

our most famous cookies of the night!

We had a vote for best cookie. These are the finalists; 3 are Aaron's.

My version of the Village People :)

Friends about to part ways... sad

I bet I made you want to decorate
and/or play with goofy cookie cutters! Go to it!

After months of appointments/scans, I had surgery to
remove my gallbladder and biopsy two spots on my liver.
Kim sent me this lovely assortment to get well... thanks Kim!

When Jamie and Rachel came a couple weeks ago, she brought me
a bag of goodies. What's seen below is a remnant of the awesomeness
included in her care package... thanks, Rach!

My sister, mom and grandparents sent these beautiful flowers!

My dad was at the hospital with Aaron
while I recovered from surgery.
Then he went home to get me a step-stool to help getting in/out of
bed and brought me these flowers... lovely.

On Saturday (4 days post-surgery), the Swingers stayed
overnight at our place. They brought delicious sweet corn with them!

I wasn't too social but I did come out of my cave for dinner.
The corn was worth being out of bed.

Hopefully life without a gallbladder will help me feel better.