Par-tay! . . . maybe?

Alright, so... The big two-one is comin' up pretty quick here. Sept 21st, this coming Tuesday...week from today. anyways. What the heck am I going to do? Being raised with a LDS backround, 21 really isn't one of the more exciting birthdays to look forward too. I mean, it's not like a drink. Sooo really, what's the point? While other people go bar hoppin', I'm gonna be home with my kiddos probably watching a movie or something. Don't get me wrong, it's still great... but really? How do I celebrate? lol.

Just somethin' to think about. . .

Let me tell you....

I have had the longest two weeks of my life! WARNING: very very looong blog entry.

So, I'm the maid/matron of honor at a good friend's wedding this week. (I don't really like the sound of matron, sounds too old. but ya know. whatev.) And as being the M.o.H comes responsibilities... Bridal shower, Bachelorette party... and attempting to coordinate a few uncooperative bridesmaids, although there is one quite exceptional young lady. I won't say names, so she shall be named, Mandy. =)

Then of course, there is American Idol. (Trust me, this will all combine very quickly.) And with American Idol, there are auditions. It just happened that they were having them in San Francisco just recently. Which means, an impromptu trip to California...

And this is where it all comes together. While I was enduring my torturous 4 weeks of chemistry, a good friend of mine asked me to be her M.o.H. So as soon as she gave me the names of her bridesmaids, I started planning. Well, we had to push our bridal shower back once due to the inability to coordinate with everyone. So the week that was supposed to be the original bridal shower week, Shawn decided that he was going to take the family to California for the American Idol auditions. Which meant I was going to be gone for the real bridal shower.

So one week prior to the shower, I was in California. Since I had to give up my M.o.H responsibilites, I passed the shower off to Mandy. Let me tell you, she was a LIFESAVER. I was not worried at all. I could continue my plans in California with no interruptions.

While in California, I had to take my family to visit ....dun, Dun, DUN.. the in-laws. The first two nights we stayed at my mother-in-law's home. After those two nights, I told Shawn we needed to rest somewhere away from family so the kids could rest, and us two also. So we checked into a La Quinta for the night. Let me tell ya, you never really know how exhausted your kids are until they both hit the mattress and just pass out.

After that very restful night of sleep, not counting the three times Bentley woke up for food and snuggles, we were off to meet up with their Aunt Nikki and Aunt Julie. Of course, Nikki and Julie won over Layla's heart, and Bentley is easy as pie since he doesn't really care who takes care of him yet, as long as there is milk and a clean diaper involved. And that night, Benny and Layla slept over at Aunt Julie's. Well, apparently Layla is just as stubborn as mommy and cried for two straight hours upon my departure.

While she was throwing her fit, I was off to San Francisco to camp out in the FREEZING cold. Before we could camp, we had to get there. So we drove from Stockton to the Dublin bart station. From there, we got off at the San Francisco bart, and WALKED at 11pm at night, A L L. T H E. W A Y. to the Giant's Stadium. You might think San Francisco is an awesome happenin' city....until you walk a couple miles in the middle of the night. There were homeless people sleeping in doorways, dumpsters, etc... scared the poop outta me. figuratively speaking. soo half the time we were walking, I was running.... well it was a fast fast walk.

Once we got to the camp out spot/line for American idol registration, we were relieved. There were security guards surrounding everywhere. We were within the first 50-75 campers. (when I say "we", I'm referring to Shawn and I. ) So while we were freezing our tooshes off, we met some cool people, two were from St. George, UT and happened to be LDS. how cool is that?! I thought it was pretty awesome. We came across this coincidence when one of them let us defrost in their car. He was nice enough to offer to blast the heater because we were frozen down to the bone. Once that excitment was over, finally in the morning about 8am, they started moving the line towards the front of the stadium where we said "Welcome to the Golden State." So watch for me, I'm in the back of the first group. Yellow jacket. So then after that, we registered and headed back to Nikki's where the kids were now at.

When we got to Nikki's, Shawn passed out. And I went in to see the kids, psh... Layla didn't even care I was home, she was too busy playing. It was cute. Then we stayed one night there, and then the next night we went back for auditions. We camped in the car this time, and woke up at 4am to be in line at 5am. Still reasonably in the front. We got in the stadium and took our seats and were called by groups to go in groups of 4 to one of the 10 auditioning tables. Once my group got there, we all sang. When it was my turn, I sang "Power of Love" by Celine Dion, and got to sing two verses, but never got to the chorus. =( so the two judges whispered to themselves and announced that we weren't what they were looking for and to audition again next year. What the heck are they looking for?? Captain Jack Sparrow and a superhero got through though.

So after that night of excitement we decided to drive back to Idaho the following night, Thursday. I was in pain the WHOLE TIME. My tooth was screaming at me. We arrived home at 10:30am Friday morning, the day of the Bridal Shower.

Friday, Mandy and I prepared for the shower. Or should I say, Mandy prepared while I took care of the kids and attempted to stay awake. When we got to the park to set up, our group showed up and we played some pretty cool games. It was a success!

Then along came Wednesday... I went to the dentist to actually get some work done. I got two teeth extracted. SUUUUPER! And Friday came, and it was the Bachelorette Party.

Here's where a lot of the excitement comes in. Mandy and I were soooo excited and prepared for this night, it's not even funny. But no matter how prepared you are, something can always go wrong. We went to dinner, the bill was more than expected. They don't tell you that they include an 18% gratuity. I mean, REALLY? 18%?? greeeat. So we forked out a mini fortune. Along with that, our bride was having a super bad night. On the way to Boise, her car was overheating like craaaazy. So along with the festivities, we planned to go to a dance club where the bride could proceed to drink and have a good time, but apparently the dance club does open for every friday night. So we showed up, but the rest of the people didn't. We had no back up plan. I went into frantic search mode. I wanted to make it a great night for the bride. So Mandy, a few of the party girls, and I started the search on another club where our under 21 girls could go also, but there was no place. The night ended with a crash and burn. I felt sooooooooo bad. I tried so hard to make it a great night and failed. I mean, dang. It was her last weekend to be a single woman, and I ruined it. I was really down about it, and bummed. The bride finally just decided she wanted the night to end, and so we all went our seperate ways.

But, since the bride was drinking, someone had to drive her car. One of our party girls, we'll call her Samantha, volunteered to drive the bride's car. Well, as we were leaving, Samantha took off first, and by the time I pulled out of the parking lot, she was no where in site. About 15-20 mins later I got a phone call. Samantha and the bride's mother were pulled over off one of the freeway exits because the car was smoking. The exit was 20 mins behind me. So my sister-in-law called my bro-in-law and he drove an hour to meet us, and follow us to the stranded ladies. he looked at the car, offered to fix it, but was turned down. Holy cow. By this time it was about 2am. I was exhausted. So we started the car after I had a through cool down and started driving home. We didn't get home till 3:30am. It was the longest night of my life.

Now it is Wednesday and the wedding is Saturday. I am soooo excited and happy for the bride! All the hard work and efforts will all be worth it. =) and thank goodness for Mandy or else I would've lost my mind!

Hopefully I'll remember to post later. =P