Help from (up the street)

I'm sorry - it's been a few days! On Friday, someone that I had never met commented on my blog. I think it scared me that someone NOT obliged by blood relations to read this actually read it, and left a comment!

I'm all better now, and ready to face my public.

Our weekend was NOT as busy as it should have been. We had every intention of going to my friend's baseball party. We meant to go, even though we were a little late. We planned on going...right up to the point where Teah decided she needed another nap. Now. We didn't go to the party. (Sorry!) We DID however get to go on a date that night. (Thanks, Mom, for babysitting!)

Teah can be a handful when she doesn't get every single thing that she wants when she wants it. When we arrived home, I knew that the evening had gone fairly smoothly because my mother had found time to re-arrange my kitchen furniture and tidy up my living room. My mother has a gift, a talent, for arranging things to look fantastic, and take up as little space as possible. When I was small, I would tidy my room. She would come in to check it, move half the items on my shelves, and leave. I could never figure out how she made it look better, but she always did! Now, I make sure she comes over before my mother in law visits. Neat trick, yeah?

Sunday was exciting also. My sweet little Teah is OH so reverent during church! She actually was very good. She was in the hallway for a little while with her Daddy, but she came with me to Relief Society. The President was out of town, so it was just us two Counselors sitting up front, and Teah. The other counselor then moved to sit with her daughter. As I was already sitting with my daughter, I saw no reason to move. Until the teacher actually started teaching. Teah is in the process of honing her ham-iness. When a stranger smiles at her, she smiles back, huffing and snuffling and kind of shaking with her nose stuck up in the air and her eyes squinched shut. I don't know how many people got this treatment...but I do know that she did it in the middle of the closing prayer, and when I opened my eyes to see why the baby in my lap was shaking, I wasn't the only one looking at her! Sweet baby.

Yesterday was Bread Day. Bread Day makes me happy, makes me feel like I've accomplished something. I improved on my bread from last week, cutting the baking time almost in half and raising the oven temperature 25 degrees. It gave me a thinner, softer crust. The bread is still too salty, but it does make a great piece of toast! My visiting teacher and her 4 year old daughter came over to visit in the morning. I let her daughter help me form the loaves. What fun! I'm looking forward to teaching Teah...all the things that I love about being in the kitchen. When you have the time and the inclination, and enjoy making what you are making, and the people that eat it enjoy eating it...the world just seems to be a much better place to be in! Will sometimes asks me why I don't cook the things I like to eat if I want to cook them. The answer is that half of the enjoyment of cooking something is watching people enjoy your creation, and watching it disappear. If nobody but me eats it, only half of the pleasure is possible!

Monday also marked a very special day for us - the 2 year anniversary of the day that Will proposed to me. He snuck into my house that day, and planted two dozen red roses and a binder full of clues to guide me on a scavenger hunt that would take me two hours to complete. I had been waiting for ages for him to propose, but my sister was about to have a baby and he knew that I would be in the hospital when my first niece was born. Of course, my sweet niece had to be born nearly two weeks late! Will proposed to me the day after she was born, to make sure that I wouldn't need to rush off to the hospital.

Will was waiting for me, behind the temple, at the end of the scavenger hunt. Funny man that he is, he had a little bag of gag gifts, two dozen white roses and a ring pop. Then he said, "There! Wasn't that a fun game! What do you want to do now?" I had been waiting so long for him to propose, I was just mad. I tersely said, "Well, I guess I should go home and put these flowers in some water!" He walked me to my car, and then dropped his keys on the ground and said, "Oh! I dropped my keys!" I looked at him for a moment. When he didn't move to get his keys (looking back, he was terrified of what was coming next!) I said, "Well, I'll get your keys then." I bent down to get them, and his brain kicked into gear. "Oh! Wait a minute." Then he got down on one knee, on the asphalt next to my car, and pulled out a little black velvet box. He had been intending to drop his keys as an excuse to get down on the ground and then propose to me...but I kind of beat him to the punch!

Last night, we went back to where we went during our first date (a Target run for necessities- I still remember how impressed I was on that first date that he carried my bag of hairspray and nail polish remover all over the mall!) and we got Jamba Juice. I made a nice dinner last night (lamb with gravy, homemade bread with butter and jam, and creamed spinach) and we watched a movie after we put Teah to bed. Happy Engagement Anniversary to us!

Today, is a babysitting day. Aforementioned niece came over for a few hours. She and Teah did NOT take good naps. I think they slept for about half an hour each. By the time two hours had passed, they were picking on each other, throwing things and stealing toys. When my niece ripped a few pieces out of one of Teah's books (staring me in the eye while I said, "no, no, NO, NO NO!!!!"), I kind of lost it. I took the book, and told E she had done a bad thing. I took my baby in my lap and took a few minutes for myself. After that, I went upstairs to where E had gone to hide, and I called a friend. I needed a chaperon before I chucked both girls out onto the lawn and told them to duke it out amongst themselves! So, my friend walked over with her sweet little 3-month old and we had a nice, relaxing chill on the front lawn. (Thank you!!!!)

E will be back in a few minutes so I can watch her while her parents go out. Wish me luck! Teah has been asleep for nearly two hours, so I expect everyone to be in MUCH better spirits tonight!