Summer Recap

Today was the first day of school. Say what?!? Summer is gone already?? Before it gets too far away, I wanted to do a quick recap/photo dump. Life seems to have been a whirlwind the past few weeks with little time to slow down and blog.

Hold on...here we go!

Camp ended well. Andy subbed for us the whole last week. This was Dress for Success spirit day. 

This sweet puppy dog stopped by to visit one day!

Allyson and I got slimed by the 2nd and 3rd graders who raised the most money for Allyson's move to Haiti...the sliming happened to turn into a full out war that involved Andy. All I have to say is he started it!

We had fun taking the junior counselors out for their appreciation dinner and getting in a mini family photo op!

We also enjoyed a fun staff trip to the beach! The guys stayed in a super sketchy hotel, which they were not thrilled about, but everyone had a good time!

Our hot water heater busted the other night. It caused lots of excitement that included 4 fire trucks. We were very clear that there were no flames, just a burning smell and that they did not need lights or sirens. No worries...5 minutes later they came blaring in with lights and sirens. I was so embarrassed. The fire fighter told me later that our apartment complex is a high risk area since there are a lot of older folks who live here. They actually had 8 trucks on the way. E.I.G.H.T. What?!? They got everything checked out and our maintenance guy showed up a few minutes later. He drained, removed, and replaced our hot water heater at 10pm. Talk about excellent customer service!

Allyson's spaghetti dinner was a HUGE success! She raised over $7000!! It took a lot of work, but we could not have been more thankful or impressed or blessed by the outpouring of support. We could not have pulled it off without everyone who helped!

We had the priviledge of dog and cat sitting quite a bit this summer. We spent a whole week with these cute puppies, Travis and Raley.

I got into a good habit of getting up early and running three times a week until I started seeing this sketchy guy drive around. Then, I got a little freaked out. Even though Stephen got me mace to run with, I was still too scared to run. Then, things got crazy with camp ending and school starting. I'm planning on getting back into running this week. With this nicer, cooler weather, it shouldn't be too tough to do.

Speaking of the weather...can we talk about how nice these fall days have felt in August?? Amazing!

We spent a lot of time in the photo booth this summer, which is always fun

 We got a few date nights in!

Bowling with our small group

At a friend's wedding

Dinner on Ninth St at International Delights

Overall it was a very fast, but fun summer! I will say I had a bit of college nostalgia going on...most of our counselors are in college. Two of them are in Boone. Hearing them talk about moving back to Boone into an apartment made me miss my college days so much. I might just have to make a trip to Boone soon (You okay with that, Steph?? :))

We only tried two new recipes this summer.
First up was creme cheese filled brownies (made from scratch). Stephen wanted something sweet a few weeks ago. So, around 9pm we headed to the grocery store to get the ingredients. The good thing about this recipe is the ingredients are common, everyday things. We only had to buy the creme cheese. They were easy to make and tasted good! Next time I might try it with a box mix of brownies. We'd give them an 8 out of 10. (click pic for full recipe)

Then, we tried bacon in the oven. I have to be honest, I may have been a little very skeptical about this one (my skeptimism may have been shown by throwing a fit like a 2 year out of fear of ruined bacon). One Saturday morning, we slept in and I asked Stephen to get up and make breakfast. He was sweet enough to do so. When he told me it was ready, I came down the hall to find he had baked it. The first piece I touched felt really rubbery. So, I was not so sure his master plan had worked. However, he convinced me to try it and I have to admit it was really good and a lot less messy. It was still greasy, so don't think it's some healthy way to make bacon. It tasted just like he had fried it on the stove. It got some grease in the oven, but he said it was worth not getting popped with grease while trying to fry it. We'll probably make bacon like this from now on. The trick is to heat the oven to 400 degrees and then bake the bacon for 12-13 minutes. I like mine a little crunchier so I like it baked just a minute or two longer. This has to get a 10 out of 10 despite my initial doubts.

I dove head first back into school last week. We had a lot of meetings with little time to get planning and classroom set up down. I've had a million and one things running through my head to get done. I think I'm close to being back into my routine of things. My to do list was out of control for most of last week, but hopefully I'll get back to blogging on a regular basis. I'm trying to get everything planned and copied for next week so I can fully enjoy my three day weekend at Grandma and Pa's!

My first quote of the year:
While filling out their student information sheets, a young man raised his hand and asked, "What should I put if I don't know my mom and dad's real name?"