How I Spend My Nights

I've decided tonight I would do the typical post about what I do every night. Wait, that isn't a typical post? Oh well...

Tanner is a dear and makes a point to come home for dinner every night. I cherish the hour that I am allotted and so does Mariah. So I try as hard as I can to have dinner ready when he arrives. Since I don't plan ahead very well that often means rushing to get everything done. After that wonderful hour, Tanner usually heads back up to campus to study. Apparently I'm distracting or something. Which is surprising to me because I don't even like to talk...right.

I then go through the torturous, for both Mariah and I, task of getting Mariah ready for bed. She loves bathtime. But it's all downhill after that. She's not a fan of getting lotion put on or getting dressed. So her "soothing bedtime routine" most often involves a lot of screaming. Bless her little heart, she's trying her hardest to express herself. And she usually succeeds.

After Mariah is in her crib and finally asleep, I often hear Simon and Garfunkel harmonizing most beautifully the end of one of their songs: "And whispered in the soooouuuuuunds of silence". It almost brings a tear to the eye each night.

While Mariah's night of fun is now over mine has just begun. Because I often have to "slam" meals, the kitchen usually looks more like a warzone than a kitchen. After the kitchen is cleaned I then clean the living room. After that I'm usually so beat I just read a book or watch a show on Netflix until Tanner comes home. Pretty dang exciting...

Tonight my routine was a little different. As I was washing my huge stack of dishes the doorbell rang. I had a mini heart attack because I was looking a little haggard with my frizzy hair, old Pitt sweatshirt and spaghetti sauce splatter on my jeans. Plus tonight was one of those warzone nights.

I slowly opened the door to find this:

We were doorbell ditched! I had the biggest dorkiest grin on my face as I walked into the house. Did these "friends in the ward" know that  my day had been filled with Mariah crying every time she was set down, and a disaster of a house? Did they know that when Tanner left tonight I was seriously tempted to fall to the ground, grab on to his ankle and beg him not to leave?  

I'm sure they made cookies and then decided it would be fun to doorbell ditch some people in the ward. Thats why I doorbell ditched as a child, for the rush that comes when you sneak up to someone's door.

But it really affected me, so much that I decided to blog about it. Someone was thinking about me tonight and wanted to make my night a little better. And they did. So thank you "friends in the ward". You made what was going to be an ordinary, same ol', lonely night special.

And just because I cannot blog without putting up a picture of Mariah:

She worked on that sweet mohawk all night! I think she was pretty proud of herself.