Addendum

I know two posts in one day is kind of excessive, but I am so exhausted right now that doing anything which requires verticality is simply out of the question. This is the craziest week I have had in a long time! First, I went to Springfield and back in about 26 hours. When I got home, I discovered a wedding picture surrounded by sticky notes with Abe's favorite memories of our time together on the coffee table (I love my husband!):

My grandma is moving, and I came back from Springfield laden with many of her unwanted items. My favorite is one of the very first pieces of baby furniture I have acquired thus far: a time out chair. (My poor baby. I haven't even bought so much as a diaper, but instead am welcoming him/her into a world rife with opportunities to earn time outs.) The chair is  black and looks rather Puritanical in cut. I might, with time, mellow out and paint the chair a less scary color. Or who knows? If my kids get really bad, I might go the other way and ask an artistic friend to paint some flames licking the legs of the chair.

 In any case, I should probably buy some diapers too.

Speaking of scary stuff, I also acquired some new witches for my witch collection. I started collecting witches in Rome's Piazza Navona at Christmastime. In Italy, the Christmas witch is known as "La Befana," "La Vecchia," or "La Strega," and she gives gifts to children on Epiphany Eve. Here are some of my witches:


Aren't they fun?

Today and tomorrow I will be cleaning and cooking like a madwoman to prepare for the arrival of my dear friend, Kristin, and her lovely family. I am also dog-sitting, so I woke at 3:30am to walk the dog in order to be on time to support my mom at a going-away breakfast some of her friends had for her. Tomorrow after I teach piano, my mom gets officially set apart as a missionary, and then on Thursday, after picking Kristin up from the airport and giving her a speedy tour of our neighborhood and home, I will depart for Utah with my mom and brother to drop my mom off at the MTC (Missionary Training Center). So much excitement for one little week! But the most exciting thing is that I think I just heard Abe's car--and that means I now have someone home to help me clean. Yay!