Upon Nichole's Request

So Nichole wanted to see the craft project that I was doing as people were walking through the door. As you can see it's nothing big. Just took everyone's picture with Holly and then had them printed before we got done with dinner so I could put them on the front of the card/frame so I could give one to everyone before they left. Holly got the one with the group photo.

*UPDATE* - So I spoke too soon about my Ipod. It has miraculously started working again! After two days of being dead as a doornail, it came back to life! :-)

Holly's Bachelorette Party

So Holly's bachelorette party was last night. Why do I always leave everything until the last minute?! However, I'm very productive in those final hours, as Denise calls it "Speedy Gonzalez" mode! :-) So my day went something like this..........I got up, showered, and cleaned my room by about 8:30am. Holly text about then and said she was up and ready whenever I was. I leave the house, ran to Dollar Tree(my new favorite store, did you know EVERYTHING in there is $1.00?! It's awesome! :-))for plates and cups and headed out to Tim's house to meet Holly. We were decorating the house because that's where the wedding is going to be. So we have two lamps to put together which of course couldn't be any more of a pain in the butt than need be. They are like standing lamps and have shelves and some of the legs wouldn't fit right, it was ridiculous. After decorating the house, Holly and I split ways and I run errands for the party.

I had to go to Hobby Lobby for napkins and some other wedding stuff, Von Maur to get Holly's gift wrapped, Kroger for groceries and then home. But noooooooo, I couldn't keep it simple! :-)

Ash and I had discussed multiple times that we didn't want to spend tons of money on the bachelorette party because of all the other outgoing costs of wedding. Dress, hair, gifts, etc. So we said, dinner out(everyone pays for themselves), dessert at our place, and then drinks at The Loft(everyone buys their own drinks). We figured since people would have drinks at dinner and then also at The Loft, we didn't need to provide them with alcohol at our house. They could survive with coffee. So we left it with that we would each make a dessert, have coffee and water and then split the cups, plates and napkins.

Well I've finally realized that I can't do anything simple. I've always got to just take it one step further to make it over the top! This doesn't apply to just road trips in my life! :-) So as I'm wandering around Hobby Lobby, I think it would be fun to get everyone t-shirts with an iron-on that says "Dudie" because Holly calls EVERYONE that. That way they have something to take away from the party. Well that seemed like too much hassle and really expensive to buy 12-15 t-shirts and not having a clue what their sizes are or really the time to make them. Next best thing.......picture frames with a picture of them and Holly from the party. Well 15 picture frames was going to be expensive too, so I made my own. The theme of the party was zebra print with red edging, so I took some zebra print paper, backed it with black card stock and added a red ribbon across the top and folded it over so it would stand up. Cute idea right? Well this cute idea had me wandering around Hobby Lobby trying to find all the stuff I needed without a cart mind you, so everytime I turn around, I'm dropping something. Always get a cart! I don't know why I don't learn my lesson! So now that I have all the craft stuff, I need the photo paper to print it on to so I can use my photo printer. Best Buy of course does not carry the photo paper I need, nor do they carry my photo printer at all, but assure me that Office Depot does. THEY DON'T!

About that time Ash calls totally annoyed because the underwear that she bought for Holly she had just ruined(we were playing the game that everyone brings a pair of underwear for Holly that represents them and she had to guess who they were from). Ash had bought some and was going to iron-on "Dude" on the butt but she somehow ironed over a letter twice and then got one stuck to the iron and it was all downhill from there. So she decided to have them screen printed, went a bought another pair of underwear from Target and took them downtown Normal. Because they were spandex the guy couldn't print onto them because they would melt. So she calls me frustrated because she has to be home by 1:30pm so Luke can go somewhere. I volunteer to get some new underwear and Target and run them downtown for her because I was conveniently already close to Target. Have you ever tried to find 100% cotton underwear for girls? Well it's about impossible! Everything has lycra or spandex not to mention the fact that Holly is like a toothpick so you need like 3X Small! So I finally find a pair, run them downtown and had to use a sentence that I don't think I've ever had to say before: "My friend was in here earlier with some underwear that you couldn't print DUDE on the butt of them because they would melt, so I brought some new underwear!" I sat around downtown for about 20 minutes waiting on these underwear and then finally headed home which by this point it was close to 3pm and I was hoping to be home by 2pm.

I walk in to the house and scramble into "Speedy Gonzalez" mode because I had to finish cleaning, make my dessert, get ready, finish one of the games and find time for my craft project before everyone showed up at 6pm. I forgot to mention that I added a game where whoever knew Holly the best got a prize, which was a $25 gift certificate to Nordstrom. Ash was real excited about that as far as keeping it cheap and simple! :-) I start making the dessert and I'm whipping my cream and cutting the strawberries in the meantime. I forgot about the cream for a second and turn around to find that it is totally curdled. That is a very odd texture when you're eating whip cream, so I had to scratch it! Off to the store I go, where now I'm buying candy for the candy bowls, and pop. Again, both things not on our list for keeping it simple! :-)

I finish up my dessert in plenty of time and now have to get ready and clean. Ash shows up at 5pm so she can help me and we wanted to run through the video tape that she brought. We videotaped Tim asking him a bunch of questions and then had Holly answer based on how she thought Tim would respond. First she can't find the videotape, so she is scurrying around trying to find where in the world she put it. Not in the camera, not in the bag, not in her car, not at her house still. It was under her coat on my bed! :-) Then she says, "I don't know how to hook this up to the TV". I said there should be some AV cords that you can hook it up with. They're not in her bag and it takes a special cord to hook it up to her camera. Back to her house she goes to look for the cord. Can't find it! But our friend from high school says he can put it onto a DVD for us. Perfect! But she needs the cord to hook it up to the computer, which is back here sitting on my bed! She comes all the way back to my house to grab the cord, only to get to Paul's to find out that it's a standard USB cord and he has like 12 of them! She leaves it with him and she heads back here. He calls and can't download it without a special cord. $37 dollars later at Best Buy and we have have a DVD for our stupid game! :-)

So back to my photo paper that doesn't exist. The next best thing.......take everyone's picture before we leave for dinner, upload them to Walgreens and pick them up on our way home from dinner. However, the two girls that didn't meet us at the house made it a little tricky. I had to leave dinner a little early and go to Walgreens to have them printed quick with the rest. It asked me if I wanted a photo CD for all my pictures on my camera which any other day of the week it would have been fine, but not tonight, not when I have 15 people coming to my house, not when I have to finish my craft project before they get there! You guessed, I hit yes not thinking about and sat there for 20 minutes while that stupid CD decided to process!

The evening ended well though. We had a great time and Holly really seemed to enjoy herself. She got a lot of great gifts and even better A LOT of gift cards! :-) So my overachiever mentality did me in again but everyone loved the pictures, the extra game, the pop and all the candy so it made it worth it!

Holly and Denise. There was discussion of how to pose. We ended up with this so Holly could display her ring!

Holly and Ash. Ash was still smiling after driving all over God's creation to get the video set up!

Denise has rubbed off on Ash with the sequins. Next thing you know, Ash will have a whole closet full of lacy tank tops!

Holly and Liz. Liz gave us a great tip that when you travel, you can have your groceries delivered to your place so you don't have to go to the store once you get there. She doesn't realize that that's a bad tip to give a over organized anal planner! :-)

Holly and Sara. So Sara calls Holly "Bible Spice" because Holly thought that alabaster was one of the three "spices" that the wisemen brought to Jesus. I just love seasoning my food with a little gold and alabaster!

Holly and Hope. Hope enlightened us all at dinner by saying that if slaughter houses had glass walls, you'd never eat meet again. Ash said, well you eat fish! What's the difference? Hope said, because fish don't scream! Yum! That made me excited for my food!

Anne works with the boy scouts and said she is around a lot of guys that she could set me up with. Just what I've always wanted. A guy who wears a little brown shorts uniform with knee high socks. If that's what I was looking for, I'd marry a UPS driver! :-) But shoot, if I needed to create a fire with a rock and a stick, he'd be my guy!

Holly has a tendency to make everyone look pale.

So Holly called Deanna, DZ when her last name is Pederson and everyone else was a dog licker! Yes, your guess is as good as mine!

Lauren seemed to enjoy being at the bachelorette party. I'm sure talk of the wedding night was a smidge weird for her though. She's 11!

I learned two things from this picture. I need a tan before the wedding and I need to lose about 10 pounds in the next two weeks. I totally look like I'm packing nuts for the winter in my cheeks!

So for the underwear game, Julie bought Holly a small thong because she said her husband says she's "up tight"!

Holly trying to explain what she thinks Tim said her biggest pet peeve is.

Sara and Hope making up answers for the game of how well you know Holly.

This was the comfy lingerie. The other ones I left out! This is a kid friendly blog! :-)

Lauren was getting ready to leave. Our house isn't that cold!

So I asked Ash to take a close up picture of us after this one but it was further away than even this one was, so I went with the "closer" one! :-)

There was a loss!

So my Ipod has decided to freeze and crash since the accident. Of course insurance will not cover it under my auto policy and my deductible is $500 for my rental insurance policy, and when the Ipod is $300, I'm pretty much out $300! So now I have a lovely coaster in the shape of Ipod! Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful to be alive! Just wish I was alive and had my 6,000 song as well! :-)

Green Bay

So I got to go to Green Bay again yesterday. Holly and Tim couldn't use their tickets and Tim asked if I knew of anyone that would want tickets to the Bears/Packers game at Lambeau. Um, yeah! ME!!! So in a last minute planning, I hooked up with Keith and some of his friends that were already going to the game and we took his younger brother Alex as well. We left at 4:30am and got home around 9pm and aside from my panic attack on the way home because we hit some "snowy" weather, it was a great trip! Flashbacks from last weekend set in and I had a death grip on the console and the passenger's side door for the last hour and a half. My poor chiropractor this morning! :-)

Alex actually studied on the way up to the game. I think this may have lasted another 5 minutes after the picture was taken!

Um seriously.......why do I even try these stupid faces?! Here I think I'm being all cute and instead I just look retarded, and I promise I'm wearing a bra even though this picture makes it look like they are sitting on my knees!

The boys admiring Lambeau field. We had a lot of smack talk on the way up. If you don't get it, just look at the jerseys in the picture!

So this would be Keith refusing to smile because I made an innocent remark that he should stand on his tiptoes so he'd look taller in the picture. Some people are so senstive! :-)

Ashley and Ellen. These two made the ride up and back very interesting. They had two different choice phrases for every person's name that came up in conversation. Even the 7 year old in the bathroom that talked smack to Ellen about the Bears losing got a name!

Alex and Keith, Alex is 6'2" and Keith is 5'10". Either I'm blind or someone is lying about their height! :-)

Keith showing off his oh so cool hairdo and his support for the Packers with his ear warmer. He taught me a lot this weekend, like the freezing point of water is 32 degrees and not 36! Who knew?! He said, did you mean in farenheit or Kelvin? I was like, what the heck is Kelvin? He said, doesn't matter, either way you're wrong! :-)

My gametime buddy! I watched him as we walked into the stadium. His eyes were huge and he was grinning from ear to ear! It's always neat to see someone experience something like that for the first time.

This makes it look like we were sitting closer than we actually were, but the seats were still great. However the people in front of us were not. They were pretty well wasted by the time we sat down. You seem to either have slurring their word drunks or obnoxious drunks. This guy was just hyper and thought that spiking their sodas with a flask that look like binoculars was hilarious! I seriously think I heard him say 50 times throughout the game, did you see Brian with a K down there?! Supposedly someone they worked with. There was also Jessie with an M and some scuttlebut over the 4th member of their group leaving early. Something about his wife not being happy with how much he'd had to drink!

So the part of the flag that is sagging on the left hand side was a guy that literally got caught up in the flag. Every step he took was just a little bit further into the flag to the point that three people had to help him out of it. Apparently it was Florida that was giving him some trouble! :-)

They inducted new national guard recruits in that day and also had someone singing one of the new country songs about the war. Then they pulled out this flag in the shape of the U.S. If that wasn't enough to get your choked up, they had an eagle fly in over our heads and come down and land on this guy's arm. Then they proceeded to thank all the past/present/future service men and women. Tyler had called while we were on our way to the game. Made it that much more emotional during halftime.

Alex sat with me at the game. Keith told him they would switch at halftime, but Alex liked where we were sitting so much that he didn't "hear" his phone ring when Keith called SIX TIMES! :-) So Alex and I had fun together. At one point he turned to me and said, "this is freakin' awesome!

Sad day to be a Bears fan. They just literally didn't show up to play!

So maybe the damage was worse than I thought!

So I talked to the towing company today and they were kind enough to send me these pictures. I was curious to see my car in daylight and just to see how bad the damage actually was. Apparently worse than I thought, especially the roof. The insurance company hasn't said for sure if they will total it out yet or not, but the chances of them not are slim.

The Longest Trek Home!!!!

So we went to Grand Rapids for my cousin Philip's wedding. It may go down in history as the longest day of my life. First the pics, then the story!

I've kind of got a thing for centerpieces with planning Holly's wedding. Just trying to get ideas.

Will looked so gentleman like in his vest and bow tie. He thought he could blow out the candles on the table from Jarod's arms 10 feet away!


So the second attempt was much better than this one but I accidentally deleted it. Can you tell we had been up since 4am?!


You know he's up to some mischief!

Jarod was explaining to Tami how big Will's head was. I think he was exaggerating a bit!

Clearly stabbing cheese with a toothpick was the highlight of Will's day!

The centerpiece on our table.

So the first picture we took, I was towering over her, so this is me slouching!

I took Will out to give Heidi and Jarod a break and we found this "tropical forest" that Will thought was awesome! I believe this is him saying onward and forward!

He was very intrigued by all the trees and I think surprised that I was letting him run around in all of them.

However I had to step in when he started to climb into the exhibit!

Oooohhhhh, wet and cold window!

Aria's showing off her cute little boo-tay!

Faye is like a carbon copy of her brother and has the cutest, softest, squeezable cheeks!

The candid

The Hubers have all kinds of reasons to get together with all the impending weddings and showers. It's been great! Rachel and Jason have just a month before their big day.

This is Will actually getting to blow out the candles

Phil and Step and Steph showing how great her strawberry was!

Aunt Jacki and Uncle Brian, Aunt Jacki is going to be racking up those mother of the bride dresses these days.

One last picture before we headed out.

Now for the rest of our evening:

The plan was to leave around 4:30 our time, but that didn't seem to happen. Instead.......

4:30pm - starting to say goodbyes and round up all the kids

5:00pm - actually walk to our cars and drive over to Matt and Rebekah's van

5-5:15pm - packing up all the kids and getting everyone situated. Jarod and Matt had Aria, Josh and Will, and I had Tami up front with me, Darci behind me, Beks in the middle and Heidi behind Tami

5:15pm - Rebekah asks if we can stop and get some formula for Aria on our way home. I say sure as were looking for Interstate 196 which we were told was right in front of you as you turn out of the reception.....it was not! Only 96 was.

5:15-5:20pm - Drive a little ways to find a grocery store and 196 and decide to turn around and get on 96

5:30pm - Get off on an exit that looks like it would have some life. Drive into a town that has no fast food places even though it advertised 6 and drove around looking for something that might have formula.

5:40pm - Finally found a Target. Drop Rebekah off for formula. Run to McDonald's thinking we can grab some food and be back before Rebekah got out. Not so. She was waiting on us in the cold. Again, sorry about that Bek.

5:40-5:42pm - Waited for Jarod to notice that we had pulled out of the Target parking lot!

5:42-5:50pm - Had to fill up with gas. Now it's time to find our on ramp, which the one closest to us is conveniently closed and had a detour which we weren't sure we wanted to chance. We decide to go back they way we came.

5:50pm - No marking for 196W, so we get on 196E only to find that 196W was there if you had gotten in the correct turn lane which was NOT marked. Oh well, we'll go up an exit and turn around, right? WRONG!!

5:50-5:55pm - Got off on an exit ramp that has to be the longest one I've even been on to take us into a town that I was sure we'd get killed on, but who knew it wouldn't be the town that almost killed us.......keep reading!

5:55-6pm - Stop to consult Jarod's advice. We decide to go into the town to find an on ramp for 196 W which never existed. So went through the drive thru of a ghetto Taco Bell and it was as if it was abandoned because no one came to our need even after I honked. Imagine that, when you're not a paying customer they don't care much! Jarod ran in, got directions and off we went again.

6-6:15pm - The directions took us north out of our way to get back to the road we were originally on before the wild goose chase began. So finally after saying adios to our exit that started all of this, we were on our way.

6:45-7:00pm - Jarod had just called to make sure I was ok to drive. It was flurrying, but nothing horrible and the roads weren't slick. We had just seen a car in the ditch so I slowed down realizing that maybe they were more slick than what it seemed. Heidi was still talking to Jarod on the phone when we went over a bridge where my car immediately fishtailed. I tried to correct the car, which then made us fishtail hard to the left and then again to the right. The next thing we know, we are flying down a huge, deep embankment at a rapid rate and still seem to be kind of going sideways a little. Everyone is screaming while Jarod is listening to it on the other end. Rebekah was yelling for Darci, Heidi was yelling for Rebekah and I'm not sure what I was yelling(Tami thinks it was something like oh my word, oh my word! I'm surprised it didn't have any explitives involved!), and we had woken Tami up to our screaming. The embankment was deep enough that I honestly thought we'd just get to the bottom and have to figure out how to drive out of it, but we started turning as we were going down the hill and had enough speed that we started to tip. I just remember gripping the wheel and thinking, this is the way I'm going to die! I'm going to watch it all happen and I'm going to take Inoues all down with me. After what happened to their mom years ago, it was horrifying to me that I was going to kill them the same way.

All of sudden, we rolled, passenger side, roof, driver and then finally stopped on the passenger's side. As we were rolling, things were flying everywhere! Purses were flying, bags of food being tossed about and more screaming. I kept expecting something to hurt. I kept waiting for the blow. I kept thinking, when is the dying part going to kick in? Am I really going to die and be awake for all of it? That rolling was all a blur. I thought we rolled slowly. Tami informed me that we DID NOT roll slow or softly but that we rolled hard and fast! :-) I think it was just all in slow motion in my head! Darci and I were hanging from our seatbelts and Beks didn't have hers on, but crazily enough not a one of us walked away with a scratch on us besides some sore muscles. I'm sure the sight of seeing me hanging sideways was pretty comical as it looked funny to look down and see all the rest of them from up above. They looked like little mice in a hole peeking up at me. They looked so little as I seemed gargantuan hanging from what at that time was the ceiling. My first thoughts after I knew we were ok was, "well I guess this means a new car! Yeah! Oh wait, I'll be upside down in my car and have a huge payoff! Oh crap! I hope it's not totaled! Where's my Ipod! I hope it didn't get smashed! I hope Tami's new dress isn't ruined. I wonder what Darci is thinking. Where are everyone's shoes? Do you think I can get my full tank of gas back? How am I going to climb out of this car in a dress? There's where my ice scrapers went to! The cops are going to think I'm nuts that I have a huge garbage can in the back of my car. I won't be wearing this outfit any time soon! Vain I know! I'm also pretty sure I ruined the shoes I had on after trudging through the median in ankle deep water. I made sure everyone was ok before I worried about all the stupid stuff, I promise! :-)

After we all made sure we were ok,Heidi called Jarod back and let him know we were fine but that we had rolled. The embankment was so deep that Jarod and Matt didn't see us roll which is probably for the best. It was scary enough to be a part of it, let alone watch it happen. Because we had rolled on every side, getting out was a challenge and the doors didn't want to open real easy. Jarod got my door open with the help of my foot kicking it open. He made sure we were all ok, I spouted off something sarcastic, we all busted up laughing and Jarod was like "ok, I will let you guys have a minute in there since you're apparently all ok!" A college kid name Scott that was on his way back to school saw the whole thing and stopped and helped us all out as well.

I'm pretty sure we all flashed Scott at some point since we were all in skirts and dresses from the wedding. Jarod said the guy probably couldn't believe his good fortune to help out four stranded ladies! :-) I was the most difficult seeing that I was still strapped in and no real good way to unlatch me and slide out without crashing to the side of the car. We hadn't thought I should move for fear that too much movement might roll the car more. Scott had to hold me while I unlatched and then I slid out, but he definitely had to touch my butt in the process. At one point, he was like, just don't worry about the awkwardness. Well let's see. I'm wearing a skirt, and a lower cut shirt, a stranger is touching my butt and I'm pretty sure I'm giving him a full view while trying to climb out of this car. Yeah, that's easy to let go of the awkwardness!

7:15-8:15pm - We waited about 15 minutes for the cops to get there and another 20-30 min for wrecker to show up and then sat there again for a really long time for the cop to take the police report and the wrecker to pull my car out of the ditch.

8:15-8:30pm - We met Aaron and Bekah back at the last exit and they drove, me, Tami and Aria to Michigan City to meet Denny and Bonnie who had been waiting for hours since the accident happened so they could drive home. They could have been home by the time we actually got there.

10:00pm - We got in Denny and Bonnie's car again with Aria and headed home.

12:45-1:00am - We then transferred again to Heidi and Jarod's car who drove us back to my house to drop me off and get Tami's car.

Tami and I had gotten up about 4am and had left for Michigan that morning at 6am, so it truly felt like the day that never ended and the trip home that took forever to start and then ended shortly once it begun. It's weird in those moments how many things you think about while it's going on, right after, and then when you have more time to think about it all. We were just so thankful that no one got hurt and we all lived to tell about it. My car on the otherhand......not so much! :-) Here are some other things that were amazing.

1. The amazing thing is only one window busted and it was the side we landed on.
2. There was a glass bowl in the back trunk area that broke and didn't hit anyone.
3. Rebekah wasn't belted in and was fine besides a bump to the head.
4. I had a bunch of stuff(cords, storage locks, Ipod, Itrip, etc) in my console that could have hit Tami in the head when we flipped and didn't.
5. No major cuts or scratches on any of us.
6. The frame of the car stayed in tact so it didn't crunch in on us at all.

We had a good laugh after the fact about what I had in the back of my car. There was an air mattress, a garbage can, a new weedwacker, a glass salad bowl, and two 24 packs of bottled water. Kind of a crazy assortment, but no worries, the weedwacker was saved! :-)

Here are pics while they were pulling my car out!

On the bright side, I'm glad I didn't spend the money to get my bumper fixed just recently! :-)