Helloes and Goodbyes

Tonight I stopped by the church for a Farewell. The Jay's are moving to Arizona where a majority of their kids have settled down, with their families. Even their son who lives here is trying to move to Arizona also with his wife Beth and their 3 kids. But it is hardest seeing Brother and Sister Jay go. My Dad has been friends with Sister Jay since they were kids. So I have known them both my ENTIRE life. I have pictures where I am being held by Brother Jay, when he had a totally full head of hair and a mustache!! So not how I picture him. He has been 'stache free and has had a buzz cut for like, EVER.

Anyway, they have been fixtures of my life and are leaving CT for good on Thursday. The house they had like basically bought was suddenly bought from under them, so they will be staying with their son Jeff and his family, but I think the Jay's will love getting real quality time with the grandkids they haven't gotten to see daily, while they pick out a new house. It is sad though. They were such a part of our ward, and like I said, for my entire life. Sister Jay has been my teacher, my YW's president, my basketball coach, my Head Coach to me being her assistant coach, etc. Brother Jay has been my ride to seminary for 2 of the four years, my Bishop for a LONG time, etc. Even before he was Bishop, I could always count on a handshake every Sunday from Brother Jay. It is really sad to see them go.

Onto the hello portion. Tomorrow I am going to meet Zoey in person!! Sister H was there tonight and was like, WHY have you not stopped by yet?! I was thinking, well she was born Saturday and it is Monday, maybe parents aren't ready that fast!! But I am super-excited I will meet her when she is just a 4 day old. Unless we call Weezie tomorrow morning and she is like, uhhh I am not ready for visitors yet, ignore my Mom. I am hoping she does want us there though!! Yay!! I am so bringing the pro-like camera!! I thought I took really awesome pictures of...another baby, so I am excited!! And I want some taken of me with Zoey!! This isn't just a baby, this is my BFF Weezie's baby! A baby she said I am an Auntie to!! I will so teach her to draw and paint!! It will have to be another day, but I am so planning on buying her some supplies now so she can start as soon as her hand can grip things!! Weezie is crafty too, so I see artist in her future!! SO excited, I am jittery!! This baby is family, even if through love and friendship, she is real family. So this is an extremely important meeting!! ZOEY!!!!! I am excited...can you tell?

Pigs, Blue People and Shells

Okay so I am going to TRY and make myself briefer, as I tell you what has been going on the last 2 days. Because it is officially Christmas Eve DAY and well I want to relax and prepare myself for family time and exchanges, etc. Christmas can be the "most wonderful time of the year", but it can also be super stressful, as I experienced later this evening. So I want to tell you about Tuesday and Wednesday, but be less detailed, just for the holiday season being ON us now, okay?

Okay so on Tuesday I went and picked up Hannah, and dang, it was freaking COLD. We drove over to A.C. Moore to look for a craft. We circled the store once and found NOTHING. And we were like willing to make the lamest of projects, we just wanted ONE! And it was packed man, I have never seen it so busy before! The second time around we found these tiny piggy bank kits that came with glitter glue and paints and stickers, so we got two of those and this kids bracelet book, that came with enough for 2 bracelets, I picked up too. Then we braved the LONG lines and got back to the now frigid car.

We drove over to Tokyo Sushi and as usual, it was dead. They just are never busy. So as people who do NOT like crowds, it was perfect. I ordered my usual, chicken and vegetable tempura, I so love that. Hannah got pork dumplings and she decided to brave a new sushi roll. It is called the GODZILLA roll! I know...scary!! I took a picture, as it was very colorful and I was just in awe someone ate that and found it delicious. She loved it!

It was really fun making her GET the Japanese soda she was so hoping they had. She has tried their original flavor, which apparently tastes like melted gummi bears, but she got to try peach and she adored it. I was fascinated as she "made" it, you end up with a clear marble in the top half of the bottle which seems to cause the carbonation! So cool looking, I wish I could drink carbonated things!!

Then we went back to my house and the meeting of Max began. He was so loud and barking non-stop for 10 minutes, but because she was on his level and being nice to him and talking to him, he calmed down after that. So much so that all night long, since she smells of her dog Crusher, Maxie was trying to "make babies" with her arm. Luckily she found it hysterical and he didn't get TOO fresh. He even played fetch and gave her his belly, and he was like SCORE, I found another belly scratcher!! He was so good after the first 10 minutes...except for the occasional arm loving thing...oy. LOL. We did our crafts and they turned out so cute! Here is Hannah's pirate pig and my Indian Princess pig:

And here is a pic of parts from my bracelet and one of part of Hann's bracelet, I love the Kapow, lol!

Then after we played with Max more, we watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which Hannah had never seen before! I know! She knows! She has no idea why she had never seen it. But she really liked it and I, as always, LOVED it! Then we talked a bunch and Katie, since she was up, drove us back over to Hannah's to drop her off around 4 am. I got home, talked to my Mom for a few, Max followed and stayed with Mom, she loved that! He stayed until she woke up for work, so she was so happy with him! LOL! Then I showered and took my pills and zonked out.

On Wednesday, my Dad and I had our Daddy/Daughter Day. We went and saw Avatar! *arms flailing* It was SO good!! I knew it looked more promising as I saw better commercials, but you have no idea how good it is until you see it! It is so much more story driven than I thought it would be. It is not all attacks and battles, which there ARE, but it is so much more about the amazing story! I loved it! Will Jake Sully get his legs back by giving up all the Navi's secrets? Or will he change sides and fight for these alien creatures, on their gorgeous and so cool planet? And even if he sides with them, will they want his help? It is the story and the characters that I loved the most. And obviously, the world of Pandora, was absolutely amazing, and I am in awe of the creators! If yu had doubts about going to see this movie, stop the doubts and GO and see it!

After the movie, which was long, I love that, it made me feel the money was worth it, we went out to dinner. We went to Chili's, chattering because it was so cold, and had yummy food. I thought the salad was the best part for some reason and also had a burger bite and a south-western egg roll. My Dad picked from my plate too and we took my left overs home. We talked about stuff from the movie to the accident, etc. It was a really fun time.

Then we got home, and all of a sudden, the fact that it was 10pm, and I still had to make stuffed shells, un-tarnish my silver jewelery, take a shower, etc, made me freak. I was having stomach pains, I was so stressed out. And then I realized I had never bought the mozzerella cheese, so at 11pm at night I had to drive down to the grocery store, which was NOT fun. I am not okay driving, I don't know when I will be, and now with snow and black ice? I am terrified. And the fact that no one offered to go with me? Was like the last straw. So when I got home and found my Mom boiling the shells for me, I was quiet until she finally was like what's wrong, and then I was sobbing. Part of it probably is that I have been doing stuff non-stop since Saturday. And it just got to be too much. So she hugged me and then we made the shells together and she helped me with my jewelery. Then we sat for a bit and she told me about her BAD day at work and then I took a shower and said goodnight when I got out as she was reading in bed, and Max was with her and still IS!! He is being a Momma's boy, maybe he knows she is tired and had a bad day. He is good with that sort of thing.

So that was my last two days! And it is officially Christmas Eve Day!! Have a good one, people!!

Weezie's Baby Shower

Saturday the 21st was Weezie's baby shower for her future lil girl Zoey. I was in so much pain the day after the New Moon party I stayed home when they went out baby stuff shopping, though I made sure to mention "Remember Weezie loves green!". It was moot anyways because they decided to get what she really wanted so they bought a LOAD of stuff from her Target Registry. It was all so cute!!

The party was a brunch so look at the lay out of food!! Mmm!

There were plenty of people when we got there, including Weezie looking radiant. And then Hannah and her Mom got there and I was like Hannah!! I was psyched we got this chance to see the other again so soon! I was wondering if we would find it easy to talk again or if we'd shy up. I had my Mom and sisters ditch the table we were at so we went and sat with Hannah and Nay. Hannah really liked them too, she says she wished she had invited them to the party too. Awww. That is what they said actually. I told her I was glad it happened the way it did, or I might have used them as a crutch. So if a future party happens, I think they will be invited, but I am glad it happened as it did.

We got to hold Weezie's niece Gretchen! I could only hold her for a minute, even though she is like 8 punds and is 3 months old, it hurt to hold her, which made Sandy over the moon. And Katie. This was the first time they got to see Gretchen so they were in baby heaven!

So we had brunch and then Weezie opened her presents. She loved everything! She got things she needed. See Zak's Mom has an almost 2 year old, but he is the last so they got ALL of CJ's stuff, cribs, etc. It was clothes and everyday things like diapers, etc she needed. So we got her all clothes and botties, so cute! She got some handmade gorgeous stuff too. I got a little overwhelmed with people so I went and sat against the wall. Hannah told me I should have told her, she was feeling the same and we could have escaped. I wish I had! Mom was in pain too and was ready to leave, but Hannah and I were actually talking again so Nay said she's drop me off. So I got to stay and hang out with Hannah and Weezie and Zak, etc. Mostly Hannah. I got Sam to take two pics before they left, because I had gotten none of us together at the party!

We got to chat about the party and how we were proud of how good we both did, as shy as we are. Then we got to watch the antics of Weezie and Zak try out some of their new products on poor lil Gretchen who had been happily asleep in Nay's arms.

Don't know what this was called but it had a tray attachment too. She seemed content in it though, isn't she a cutie?!!

But then they pulled this other thing out that they were SO excited about. It is basically a baby harness thing, but I swear you need to know origami to do the different ways to hold a baby!! Zak was quite happy to be the guinea pig as you can see!

It only took like 20 minutes and 4 people to put it on him...oy vey.

Hannah and I went out to the church couches to talk and then it was time to leave. As they drove me home, Nay was really understanding too and got what I was referring to about another friend, so I was sad to see my street loom ahead. I wish we had gone and done lunch. It was fun. But I ended up laying down and was out of it all over again! So maybe it was for the best that day.

But Hannah and I want to get together soon and hang out again, so that maybe by the time Eclipse IS out, we are completely comfy around each other. So yay for fun baby-laden days and friends!

P.S. Hannah and I actually getting together Friday so Mom took me out driving again tonight. I did better on the highway but that is kind of understandable, everyone is going the same way and the headlights are far away from you. When we were on the actual roads though my heart was going crazy, fast and backwards and such. We drove two times over to the Broad Street exit, which is where Hannah lives off of, so I would know how to get over to the area near where she lives. I am not liking driving. Oy. We also went to Target after, and picked up tree lights and a star and some other stuff. I hate driving. But I know, direction wise at least, I know how to get to Hannah's exit! Bad drivers suck.

The New Moon Party

So yes indeed I did go to the New Moon Party. I woke up in agony, but had already decided I would take my pills for the pain and deal with it. I was not going to miss this chance to actually be at something, to do something normal people do. Go to a fun party. But most of all, I felt like this might be the one chance Hannah and I had, to connect in the same room, and hopefully solidy a real friendship. I had been looking forward to this for so long, sure I was nervous too, but so was Hannah! We both were excited/nervous about the party, but wanted it to be our chance to see if we could be the friends we were online, in real person. So I decided when I woke up, and sucked down a percocet, I was doing this.

There was the matter of getting there. I didn't want to drive. At all. But could I actually ask Katie if she'd mind dropping me off at 7pm and maybe not get called up until after 6 in the morning to be picked up? I was very unsure, but I went ahead at my Mom's urging and asked and she said YES!! I was so relieved, being IN the car would make me nervous enough, so not having to worry about driving relieved me of some stress. I was getting really excited and scared as it was about time to leave. I packed my percocet and energy drinks in case I got sleepy at the movie, then I stopped and sucked half a bottle down. I wanted to not seem drugged. So we left. Hannah and I were texted as we got close, about how nervous we were. Hannah is like my brain twin, as we have called it. We have similar things in common all over the place, we just have so much in common it is cool. So Kate pulled away and Hannah opened the door. I was there at 7, the party didn't start until 8-8:30pm. Hannah said it was okay for me to come early, I thought I might do better getting there before all the other people, and it would give us a chance to break the ice, you know?

So she showed me the decorations which were freaking amazing!! There was the Volturri room and the den was Bella's Birthday room. In the Birthday room, Hannah's cousin Amber had made a fake replica of the cake from the movie but covered in real fondant. And there were quotes framed and stuff all over. And oodles of candles. The Volturri room was the coolest and had the most awesome foods! Before I go on let me tell you about the decorations and the desserts, I have pics to go along. Here is Bella's birthday cake:

Oh and I musn't forget the Pin The Tail on The Jacob!!! Which Hannah and I didn't get to play! Booo!!

Noe let's get to the Volturri room!! First here are a bunch of the decorations that were just incredible!!

Vampire bites which were little red licorices, and there was even gift bags!! We got pins and trading cards and candies, it was just awesome!!

These were Type A, B and O Twizzlers for the movies!! So cool! I never got one of those, boo. LOL. Now to show some of the COOL foods. When people later got there, there were stuff like pizza rolls, olives, marinated fresh mozzerella, mozzerella sticks, tomato "jam" and bread, etc, all Italian food for the Italian Volturri! So cool and imaginative!! But this stuff was the coolest!

Here is the Type A, B and O sodas. And glasses lines with blood. Each glass had a name from the movie, so you could keep track of your drink/glass.

Here is a closer pic of the "blood".

Here is a better look at the glasses. They used corn syrup so it was like cherry lollipops dried on the cups lips. It was so good, we wanted to just stand there and suck on empty glasses. Look here is Molly, Hannah's sister, doing just that!LOL!

M & M's of the Volturri colors...me being OCD I had to have one of each color at a time...lol.

Check out the "blood" chocolate fountain. They used a mound of red dye and Ghirardelli chocolate (yuuumm) to acheive this:

And a closer look at the chocolate. Guess what they had to dip in it? Cream puffs!!! Mmm. We did not get enough time at the house, I am serious.

These are the vampire cupcakes, aren't they cute?!! The blood gel is oozing out, LOL!

And these freaking amazing creations that Hannah made are the werewolf cupcakes!! She used marshmallows to fill the snouts and the mouth is a fruit roll up.

Here is a closer look, these things were the coolest thing I have ever seen!

And these delicious cookies that look like blood too, were SO yummy! I only got one, but I want the recipe, they were scrumptious!

Okay now that you see the ambience and awesome foods that were all around me, I continue with the story! So after she showed me all the decorations and food, Hannah wanted to hear all about the accident so we went into Bella's room to talk. It was going really easy. She totally got my freaking out and everything, and "Aunt" Debbie came in.

Okay a quick rundown so you get how people are related and how I met Hannah. I have talked about Sister H or Jahoodie, before, our BFF family and like real family. Well Jahoodie has a brother (don't know him) and 3 sisters. Beth (she is Mom to Amber, Jesse and Julie), Naomi (she is Hannah's Mom and Molly and Max's) and Debbie. So I have know Hannah like HER whole life, I am like 10 years older. But between my young at heart thing and her old soul, we kind of meet up at the perfect place, lol. So my new friend is Jahoodie's niece. We just started talking one day and had so much in common. Then we lost touch and reconnected at Jahoodie's birthday party and she invited me to the party! Yay! So "Aunt" Debbie, is Hannah's real Aunt...okay, we got it?

So Debbie is a bit...odd. She had problems and has been on a LOT of meds over the years, so she isn't always there, or hasn't been in the past. She seemed coherent at the party. She was there early too. So when she walked in and sat down, I had to limit what I said to Hannah. There were things I could tell Hannah about the accident, that I am not okay telling anyone else. So that kind of limited that. Then Amber arrived, she had been upstairs, and Naomi, Hannah's mom were all there and we were all talking. Then Hannah went outside with Amber to light her Volturri bags that had candles inside. People were supposed to be arriving soon. I knew Weezie and her hubby Zak were invited but I had no idea who else was coming. I ended up alone...with Debbie. I got pure Debbie on me, asking me about the surgery AGAIN, telling me she had lost 40 pounds recently just by not spending all day in bed anymore, etc. As soon as Amber re-entered the room I took off. I told Naomi, you left me alone with Debbie!, which made her laugh.

Hannah and I were doing good though, talking about stuff. We tried out the "blood shots" as Nay made them. They were like a strawberry daquiri kind of thing. So good, I wanted a big glass of just that! Nay was like I warn you, we may all be peeing red by the end of the night! I didn't care, it was all so fun. Then Beth arrived, follwed by Jahoodie!! Yay! Weezie and Zak, and later a bunch of Amber's friends. I stayed with Hannah in the Bella room, we hung out with Jahoodie, Weezie and Zak. Weezie wasn't staying for the movie! Sad! But she is very pregnant and couldn't stay awake that long. So we chatted with them and then the quiz started. Hannah helped me with one of the questions (shhhh don't tell!) but it didn't matter, these were SO hard, I only git 7 out of 13!! One of Amber's friends won the New Moon calendar. Then it was the quotes which were from all FOUR books! We had to put either from what book or who said it. I went with who and only got THREE out of 10 right!! Sad!! There was a tie so they used Pin the Tail on the Jacob to break it. Two of Amber's friends won the book companion and the soundtrack. That sucked!

Hannah and I would be talking movies or TV and Zak kept interrupting to talk manga with her!! Grrr Zak!! Yeah you hear me, grrrr! I don't know manga!! Weezie left and then we all left to get there at 10pm. Ugh 2 hours early. We had to leave all that awesome food, barely eaten (!!!!) behind! I was so sad!! I was like I hadn't eaten that or that, etc. SO sad! I drove with Hannah, Zak, Nay and Jahoodie to the theater. They were doing things a little differently at this theater. It didn't matter what your ticket said or when you had bought it, they were letting people in NOW, and filling up one theater at a time! Which is so unfair, Nay picked these tickets up weeks ago and we got crappy seats anyway. They wanted to stuff one theater full before opening the next theater up. Unfair. But we had connections!! MOLLY!! Molly works at the theater, so she did her thang for awhile and we went from theater 5 where we would have to look straight UP to watch the movie, to theater 6 where we got decent seats. I didn't get why Molly seemed pissed off though and there was NO saving seats, the cop said if you had to pee, too bad for you!! But Molly knows him and now knowing everyone calls him Fudg, I am not scared of him. Molly was unhappy because she wanted us put in theater 7, which she got. Theater 7 was empty except for a few girls that were the daughter and friends of another employee!! Molly was my hero that night, she rocked!!

Well the theater ended up filling all the way up anyway. Molly doesn't know HOW it happened, that theater was supposed to be extra and empty basically, except for lucky people IN with employees. But our seats were PRIME, so we were happy. And yes I even peed! I was sitting next to Hannah and ....yeah you guessed it, DEBBIE!! I had fun talking with Hannah and Amber. Things got a little quiet at one point, we got shy. Then like 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start we got chatty!! Oy! But the movie theater was having trouble so it didn't start until 12:25am so we got to be chatty. The pain was back in a bad way so I took a percocet. But then I got really drowsy and had to gulp down like 2 bottles of 5 hour energy before I felt awake. The movie started and Debbie kept making gross comments to me, gross because they came from her! "He can bite me anytime", and "mmm those pecs!"...made me want to GAG. *shudders* I did NOT like the movie. Yup, THERE, I said it. The second book is NOT my fave at all, I only love the part where Alice shows up to the end, so the last 1/4 of the book. They took that part and decimated it. No plane ride, no tunnels and tunnels to the Volturri, no huge encounter WITH them, no Bells clinging to Edward because she thought this was the last time she'd hold him, no vote the way it was in the book, NO Bella realizing Edward DID love her as much as she loved him, NONE of that. They took 5 minutes and changed it completely and PUT IT IN 5 MINUTES!! So the CG is amazing and they did great, but I did NOT like it, I prefered Twilight. I really am looking forward to Eclipse because Edward is in all of that, and it is out in June!!

So Hannah knows what I though and why and gets it, but she loved it, she is Team Jacob too, s she has seen it 4 times already!! Anyway, I had to pee so bad and only Hannah waited for me. Mean people!! So it was like 3 in the morning and we were going to a diner. Amber's friends didn't follow us to theater 7 so they were gone and Molly and her dad and her boyfriend left, so it was me, Hannah, Jahoodie, Nay, Zak, Beth, Debbie and Amber. Everyone mostly had breakfast except for me. We had a lot of fun. On the way over everyone got a kick out of Debbie grossing me out. We talked about the movie and other movies and Supernatural (Hannah and I are huge fans!), etc. We had so much fun! Hannah swore my pickle juice somehow ended up on her toast, she hates pickles, so it was funny when she ate sausage dipped in syrup, now that is the gross thing. Heehee! She collected the money from everyone and put it in proper numerical order...see we fit as friends! LOL!

We drove back to Nay's house and everyone was saying goodnight. I was sad I didn't want the night to end, I was having so much fun, regardless of the pain! I was thinking I got to call Kate then, when Nay was like bye Wendy, and I froze. It was pouring and I hadn't even called Katie yet! But Hannah was like, MOM! Wendy is coming in! Thank goodness for Hannah! Hannah, Amber and I decided we wanted to watch that night's Supernatural, so I figured I'd call Kat when we were done. I hadn't heard from her since the movie was an hour from starting. Hannah showed me her room first, wow she has every inch covered with something, her posters are like wallpaper!! And she has such awesome faeries and Harry Potter and Jack Skellington stuff. It was cool, and then I saw her organized Manga and when I told her a feeling of calm washed over me, she was like, EXACTLY! You get it! It really was calming to see something in such neat order. So we went back downstairs to watch the show.

We were about halfway through, and traumatized, they ruined 2 characters!!, I heard a buzzing Amber had mentioned. That was when I thought, OH NO! I had put my phone on vibrate when the movie started and never changed it!! I had missed a call and 2 texts from Kate! I called and told her to come, the show would be over by the time she got there! I was so sorry!! We watched the show and sat there shocked at how depressed we were from it. And it won't be back until the last week of January!! We were all mad!! Kate arrived and I asked for a wolf cupcake to take with me. It was pouring out really hard now so she gave me a baggie for it and we hugged goodbye. We were both going to Weezie's baby shower on that Saturday so we'd see each other again soon.

I chatted about the night to Katie all the way home. I hadn't wanted it to end, I was having so much fun! I was like high on life. When we pulled into the driveway I suddenly deflated like a balloon. I was exhausted and in terrible pain. It was like 6:30 am. LOL. Mom listened to a short sum up and told me to forget showering, she wanted me to take all my pills and pain pills and lay down. So I did and slept for 12 hours. I was so excited for Saturday. Weezie's shower and I could see my friend Hannah again!! I was like so happy that we got along so well, I really want a friend I can hang out with, Weezie is married and having a baby. And Hann and me have so much in common and I think we are good for eachother. So I would say the party was a resounding success. The poor uneaten food though!! *sob* Hannah and I say it should have started at like 5...maybe in June, you never know!