Quietly Checking In...

Hey friends! I promise I have not totally dropped off the face of the planet... just been a little busy, both in life and craftiness.

What I've been up to:

1) Getting the house ready today for out of town guests.  I haven't seen my friend, Elisabeth, since before I was married... at least 11 years.  I also have not met her 4 children yet!  So stoked!  The house went to pot over the last month with everything going on so I've been tackling "forgotten" messes. LOL!

2)  Went to visit my family in Iowa for nearly 2 weeks for Dad's 60th bday celebration.  It was loads of fun and I took way too many photos.  

3) Came home from Iowa with a nasty case of Bronchitis, which I am STILL recovering from.  I have an inhaler for the wheezing and have been slowly trying to shake this horrid cough.  It seems to be worse at night when I lay down and try to get some rest. ERgh.

4)  Sadie had surgery to replace her CCL (which is like a human ACL) two days after we got back from Iowa.  We're not sure how she tore it, but according to the dr it was a doozy of a tear.  We think she just tore it from running and playing too hard.  I spent two weeks doing physical therapy with her and trying to keep a normally active doggy "contained/resting/still".   She still has quite a while that she has to stay calm for... argh..  Did I mention that this particular task is like trying to nail jello to a door??  I'm sure many of you who have experienced toddlers can empathize.

She is doing very well now.. we're waiting for the hair on her back left quarter to grow back.. Poor dog looks like mom started to give her a hair cut and then gave up. LOL!  Thankfully the 4" scar on her knee proves that's not the case.  Really, I'm a good furrmommy.. just taking care of my poochlet.  She had her 2 week check up last week and the vet says she's ahead of schedule on recovery... but full recovery isn't expected until at least another few months.  For now she's outside only on a leash and we can take her for short 10 min walks, which will increase to 20 -30 min walks over the next few weeks. YAY!  The poor girlie is dieing to go back out and play with her human and furr friends.  She's also doing well on her diet.. about 7 lbs lost so far which is half way to her goal. YAY!  (Now if I can keep up with her it would be GREAT!)

4)  In between everything I've been trying to work on a 12x12 baby scrapbook for my cousin.  It's monkey themed and traditional paper.  The traditional paper part has been a challenge for me because I'm in love with super fast, zero mess digi scrapping. LOL!  The book now has 24 pages and just a few more to add in so I can take photos of it and mail it this Friday.  I will be posting photos once Nikki receives it.  I don't want to spoil the surprise for her.

5)  Brent and I celebrated our 11th anniversary in July.  It was somewhat low key because I was so sick and actually totally SPACED it.  I blame the medicine and painkillers. I felt so bad.  Brent gave me the HUGEST bouquet of flowers that we took apart and put in 3 separate vases.  It was a TON of flowers.  They were so beautiful.   We went to dinner at PF Changs and enjoyed a nice, quiet evening together.   I love Brent and am so thankful that Heavenly Father gave him to me.  He's the best friend and husband a woman could ask for.

So that's it in a nutshell.  I better get back to working on the last odds n ends.

~Inky Smiles!

 Erin