JENNIFER IS ENGAGED!!!- Jan's Banana Bread

What???   Jennifer is engaged!!!!

I can tell by the looks on your faces that Jennifer has done it again!  This girl is full of surprises and has kept us delighted for years!  Next summer she will be a married woman!  She is the first of your close childhood friends to get married and I feel a little like George Banks who looks across the table and sees a little girl instead of the beautiful young lady she has grown up to be.

 So, I thought this would be the perfect time to take a look back at our friend Jennifer Dwight.  I've had a tough time choosing which photos to use, there are so many good ones. Have fun enjoying Jen!

 Jennifer was one of the first friends the two of you made when we moved to Northbrook.  She came to Tyler's 3rd birthday party a few weeks after we arrived.  Then Jen and Emily started kindergarten together that fall and became part of  "one big family" at Westscott.  Together you two girls took on the world; school, play dates, softball, church, sleepovers, birthday parties, camp, band, Maple Jr high, choir, Springfield, cheer leading, confirmation, Washington DC,  Glenbrook North High School and CHIC.  You name it- you did it together.

    As a family we enjoyed spending time with Jennifer.  She would come over to play and keep us all entertained.  We will always remember the night she brought a whoopee cushion and kept us laughing for hours!  We all enjoyed our 2 mission trips to Ecuador.  Is that when Jen began saying "Hola Ty-Ty"? Some fun Ecuador memories with Jen include; watching "The Flintstones" in Spanish,  playing word games with Pastor Craig in the back of the bus, potty stops in sketchy places, Jen eating "snot fruit", sifting dirt, the local church kids serenading us, picking rocks in the river, leading VBS, riding in the crazy little cart to cross the river and begging for Pizza Hut.

 Spending time with Jennifer was always a trip.  The three of you got along so well, the girls always included Ty so it was like you had two sisters.  At one point Jen and Em began calling Tyler Cheats Quimby.  For a while this drove Ty crazy but somehow it just became funny.  Another name from Jen is Ishbu, an imaginary personality she made up on a Jr high mission trip to Minneapolis.  She had everyone in the van laughing all the way home!

 Jennifer has a great sense of humor and she she loves to dress up.  She showed up at a Halloween party dressed as Elmo, even her face was red!  But her favorite go-to costume is an old lady,  wearing one of her grandma's dresses, with powdered hair and large fake boobs,  she works her way through the room making everyone smile.  This past Halloween you two girls dressed as a Jr. high couple, she showed up as the boy, her boxers hanging out, with a note for you, "Emily, would you be my girlfriend?"

We look forward to lots more fun with our friend Jennifer.  She is going to keep life interesting for Bob. I'm sure she will take her sense of humor with her, hopefully she will take her mom's recipe for banana bread.  It's easy to make and always brings a smile.  Just like Jen!

Jan's Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups oil

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons soda

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup milk

4 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients together and, alternating with the milk, add to sugar/oil mixture.  Mix well.  Add mashed bananas.  Bake in greased, floured loaf pans for 45 to 60 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

* This makes a lot of batter.  Makes good muffins if too much for your pans.  

* You can add 1 cup mini chocolate chips for yummy chocolate banana bread.