Answers

Firstly (and most importantly), here is the recipe for the homemade oreos mentioned in this post.  They're about the simplest cookies I've ever made --even rivaling the old tried-and-true chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients
1 boxed Devil's Food cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup Crisco

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix Devil's Food, eggs and Crisco until combined.  Roll dough into quarter-sized balls and place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-9 minutes.  This should make 40 individual cookies or 20 paired oreos.

I usually frost them with a cream cheese frosting (1/3 package of cream cheese, a couple tablespoons of butter and milk, and several cups of powdered sugar), but you can frost them with straight buttercream, too.

Secondly.  Like I mentioned yesterday, last week was an exciting one for us.  Blake and I both got job offers.  Flattered as we both were to get these out-of-the blue offers, after much consideration we both decided to stay where we are because, well, we really like where we are and we feel really good staying where we are. 

And if that wasn't already flattering enough, I also learned that I was getting a promotion with a fancy new title and a raise.  NEAT!  AND.  I won a staff award, which also comes with a cash prize.  There's nothing like "found money" to add a little spring to my step.  I've already spent a portion of this found money on the Matt Clark painting and am planning to spend the rest in Europe (six weeks from tomorrow!). 

As you can imagine, all of this came as quite the surprise in our quiet-little-lives.  And, though this hullabaloo has been a lot of flattery and a lot of fun, I'm rather tired and am ready to go back to that life.  I like quiet and little, and sometimes I even like boring.