catching up

Definitely a little behind in my blogging as of late. I'll now make a feeble attempt to reach back into my memory (this seems to get harder all the time) and catch you up on some highlights of the past month in the Smith household:

- Anyone remember doing Awana as a kid? Well, some lucky first graders (aka: Sparkies) at College Park have gotten Mr. Brian and Ms. Emily as their leaders this year. Most of the other leaders use their last names, going by such as Mr. Jones or Mrs. White. We simply aren't there yet. Does anyone else feel SO weird when kids call you by your last name? I don't know that I'll ever get used to it. We just completed our third night and slowly seem to be getting the hang of it. While 160 6-year olds in the same room is completely insane, it's also pretty hilarious. Lots of yelling, laughing, nosepicking and strange smells.

- I have logged nearly 20 dozen cupcakes out of my 30+ year old oven. Break it down, that's almost 240 (all frosted). Will provide more details on the reason behind this baking spree very soon. :)

- We've hosted two sets of overnight guests. One was a gal who works with my dad. She and her husband traveled all the way here from Wichita to pick up a puppy from Annabelle's breeder. So we got to hang out with them, and adorable little Toby, a few weekends ago. What a blast we had together! I forget how fun 8-week old puppies are.

- I completed three fairly large custom paper projects, all in the span of 10 days.

- 275 wedding invitations with 7 different layers and 2 rhinestones each.

- 160 wedding invitations with 4 layers each.

- 275 reception menus with 2 layers and 1 rhinestone each.

Each project was unrelated to the others, just happened to all be due at the same time!

I literally lived and breathed these pieces for a week straight! I averaged 3-4 hrs of sleep a night for more than a week until I shipped the last project out. I got so tired I was literally nauseous.

- Speaking of nauseous, we survived our first (and hopefully last) pregnancy scare with Annabelle.

From these two innocent creatures? Don't worry, she isn't. But she threw up for four straight mornings, and on the fourth, the unthinkable occurred to me. Could it be puppies? Frantic googling revealed that yes, mother dogs do in fact get morning sickness just like humans. After a trip to the vet, we were quite relieved to find it was just a bad case of reflux. Whew!

- I got a culinary torch! And I used it to make one of my new favorite recipes EVER, courtesy of the brilliant Smitten Kitchen. It's super easy. All you need is berries, Greek yogurt and brown sugar. If you don't have a torch, just stick it under the broiler. Hurry, before the last berries of the summer disappear!

- I completed these and several other baby knitting projects I have been working on for quite some time. If you've had a baby in the past 6 months and have not received a gift from me, please know that it should hopefully be arriving sometime soon!

Ok, that's all I can remember for now, and I'm sure that's all you want to read. This next month shouldn't be quite as crazy, so I will do my best to get back in the swing of posting!