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! :-)