Wedding Weekend!

I have been MIA for a while...it has been crazy around here...but I am hoping to do several posts back to back either today or in the next few days...so, here is the first.

My best friend, Cherish, invited Griffin and I to go to to wedding In Bloomington, IN last weekend that here little girl Starr was a flower girl in. I thought about it for about 2 minutes and said "Of course!!!!!" So last Friday we hopped in Shane's car (it gets the best gas mileage of all the cars between the 2 of us) and took off for Bloomington. I did notice as we were leaving that there was mouse poop on the floor of the car. So we stopped and vacuumed it up. Icky! Then as we were in the drive up at her bank we kicked the air off and heard...well...scurrying in the dash. But what could we do...so we just said a little prayer and then went on our way. A few minutes later the fan started thumping. We could run it on low or medium but we could NOT turnit up to high. It sounded something like rapid gun fire when we did that.

So when we got to Terre Haute we stopped to shop at Kohl's for a while. I found a new swimming suit and we got some other little things. When we went out to the car...it stunk like you can't even believe. So in order to "fix" the problem we bought an air freshener. It didn't help a whole lot but we just kept using it and hoping for the best.

So we make it to the hotel and get ready to head to the rehearsal. We had to follow someone because we didn't know where we were going. There were 3 cars...the red car was leading, then a tan car, then us. I hate being in back when following someone who is following someone...and this is why!!! The lead car would go through a light...then it would turn yellow. The tan car would pause and think about it...then go. That left me stuck in a red...so I ran THREE red lights! They had just turned so I wasn't putting us in danger....I just hope there wasn't a camera on the lights.

The rehearsal went well and we went back to the hotel to get the kids in bed at a decent hour. But then the storms started coming. I don't remember what time but I would guess about 9-ish the tornado sirens started. We called the hotel desk to see what we were supposed to do and the girl just wasn't sure. If SHE deemed it necessary she would notify all the rooms...or maybe there was a PA system...or BLAH BLAH BLAH. Basically, she didn't have a clue and she thought she had a better idea than the emergency personel sounding the tornado sirens. Cherish finally just hung up on her and we went to the basement and hung out in a meeting room with several other families till 11. So much for an early night...but wait...it gets better.

At 12:30 in the morning, Cherish's cell phone rings and it is someone from campus (she works at Oblong Children's Christian Home) telling her that the water is coming into Lamark's truck and it could possibly be able to wash it away. Cherish reminds her that we are in Indiana and to call Lamark. But wait...there's more....

At 2:30 some *************************** idiot (you fill in your choice of bad words) decides it would be funny to pull the fire alarm at the hotel. If you have never heard a hotel fire alarm it is AWFUL! It could be used to torture people. It woke us from a sound sleep and I was SO confused. I looked out the window for a tornado...but nothing...Cherish says...ITS A FIRE!! So we grab the children, the kids "blankys", a blanket to cover the kids heads with, our cell phones and I grab a room key. And we run down four flights of stairs to get outside...into the POURING DOWN RAIN!!!! We wait for a few minutes...probably 5 but it seems like forever when the employee comes out and says it is a false alarm. The alarm in the lobby is off. So we head back up to our rooms...what she didn't mention is that the alarms in the rooms are still sounding. So we go back downstairs. We waited a while longer and then went back up and to bed. It took till after 4 to get Starr asleep again. As we were laying there trying to go back to sleep it occured to us that when you leave a hotel in a fire it would be good to have some ID, money, credit cards and your car keys. Had the hotel actually been on fire we had none of those things and the room key would not have been much good!

We decided to have a "low key" kind of day on Saturday. The wedding was outside (and it was muddy) so we had to go buy some shoes without heels. Teh stench in the car is getting really bad by now but I don't know how to fix it. Other than that we just went to the wedding. It was so hot that we didn't even stay for the reception. The kids were wilting and I was so hot. Cherish is 6 or 7 months pregnant and was way overheated. We went to Steak n Shake and then hit the pool in the hotel....until some hooligans (we think the same ones who set the fire alarm) came in and ruined the fun splashing and carrying on and scaring the kids.

On Sunday we got up and decided to get the heck out of there before more rain hit or the water traveled too far south. We already knew we had to take a MUCH longer route home. Cherish took her stuff down to the car...only to find 2 dead baby mice on the floor boards. She came and up and told me. So I went down to assess the situation and decide how to get rid of them...they were NOT dead. So I caught them with a party favor from the wedding and got them out. It was SOOOOO gross and I screamed. Some guy in the parking lot just stared. Thanks buddy for the help.

We did get the car loaded and head for home through Vincennes. The stench of dead mouse is nearly unbearable now. Cherish looks at the air freshener we bought on Friday and realizes....we need to take the lid off. Yes, the lid was still on. Yes, we are not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. Yes, you can laugh WITH us! It took us twice as long to get home...but we made it and boy do we have a story.

If you've read this far...these are the lessons I learned.

1. Mice stink in a car air conditioner fan.

2. Take the lid off an air freshener for best results.

3. Know where your purse is when you go to sleep at a hotel...if the fire alarm sounds you will need it to grab on your way out the door.

4. I am not a good luck charm when traveling.

5. Cherish is a great friend...we survived without arguing...and she got in the car with me to come home when there were baby mice in it!!!

6. Take my car...I know there aren't mice in it!!!

If you want to read Cherish's version of the weekend...check out her blog. The link is on the left hand side of the page...she won't be able to post till the end of this week though.