Well friends, we made it! Another week has passed, and my, what a rough week it's been.

I worked Monday through Thursday, just like usual. Wednesday, however, started bad and ended worse. I woke up, and as I sat up in bed to shut off the alarm, I knew it was going to be a bad back day. But I don't have sick time yet, and it hurt, but I could walk and stand fine (just no bending over). So I headed off to drop the older kids off at school, then I went to work.

By the end of the day, even standing hurt. Electrical-shock-feeling pains going down into my left leg, and I was experiencing numbness down my leg as well. After work, off to the hospital I went. Diagnosed with a probable herniated disc, and loaded with a script for pain meds, I headed to the pharmacy, then home. One pain pill and 600mg of ibuprofen later, I was dizzy and falling asleep, so I hit the sack early. I went to work yesterday, but my pharmacist let me go early (there's no way I could have worked after taking a pain pill, and the ibuprofen didn't even touch the pain). I will be calling to schedule an MRI, and hopefully they'll figure out what's wrong and I can get on the road to fixing it.

Secondly, due to the number of emails and Facebook requests, I've decided to share the recipe for THE VERY BEST chocolate chip cookies ever. Please take note: this is not my original recipe, but I have no idea where I copied it from.

SOFT & CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

yield: 6 dozen

1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups firm packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 bags (12 ounces each) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Combine sugar, brown sugar, and butter; beat til light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; blend well. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt; add to wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips**. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets*. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet, the. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

*I've found that greasing the cookie sheets makes the cookie bottoms a little crispier, but mych easier to remove from the sheet. That being said, my cookie sheets are WAY embarrassingly old...so that might have something everything to do with it.

**Because this makes such a large amount of cookies, add variety by splitting the dough in half at this point in the recipe. Add one flavor chips to one half, then a different flavor to the other half.

Make these cookies. Promise me. You'll take one bite and immediately run to your recipe box and remove every other chocolate chip cookie recipe you have. Yes, they're that good.

"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15