I’ve been told I needed to write a blog post. It’s been WAY too long! I got so caught up in everything going on around me {hello wedding & baby shower season!} that I haven’t even had time to write until now. Jarrett took Remi to my inlaws for the day. J is fixing fences and gardening…just being the country boy that I love. Remi is spending time with his grandmother, great grandmother, and aunt. Being spoiled, no doubt! When J asked me what I was going to do today I just looked at him. Number one, I hadn’t had my coffee yet and I only had one eye open. Number two, I never know where the day will take me when I’m kid-free. Typically to Walmart. Exciting, huh?! It drives my husband crazy that I don’t plan out every minute of my life but I cannot live like that. I need down time. I need time to cuddle with Remi. I need quiet time with God. Some people need to stay busy. They thrive on it. That is so not me. I’m like the tortoise…slow and steady. Sometimes it’s good for me to stay busy. I enjoy a change of pace every now and then, but lately:
I’ve been going, going, going to the point where I just felt gone.
Things got busy around the beginning of last week. I had a house to clean and decorate for my friend’s bachelorette party. Thanks to my awesome husband who knows how stressed I get and how big of a deal it is for me to have company, the house cleaning went pretty smoothly. We even did “crazy” spring cleaning things like washing the outside of the windows and vacuuming the baseboards. OK, maybe it’s not so crazy, but if you know me you know I prefer to spend my time doing other things. As the week progressed I got to spend time with my girlfriends. These girls are my fellow bridesmaids {and Bride} and biffles BFFAEAEAE partners-in-crime since body glitter and the Backstreet Boys were cool. We’ve had some fun times, us four. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of embarrassing pictures of us. We started calling ourselves “MELK” around eighth or ninth grade {Megan, Emily, Layna, Kelsey} and it stuck.
It really is a rare, but special occurrence for all of us to be together now. In preparation for Megan’s party {Meg is the shorty with dark hair} we shopped, laughed, ate, shopped, decorated, planned, cooked, shopped and celebrated. One thing that was so special about this week {besides everything} was getting to hang out with Emily. Emily and I have been friends since the first grade.
circa 1997
There’s a funny little story behind that, but I basically forced her to be my “best friend forever” and I think she was too scared to say no! I have been so blessed by her friendship in my life and I’m glad she didn’t go running for the hills when she first met me! Although our lives have taken us worlds apart {I’m being dramatic–she lives in New Hampshire & I live in Texas} we can always pick up where we left off. Emily is my sweet, free-spirited little hippie girl. Everyone that knows her can’t help but love her.
I could go on and on about these girls…that will have to be another blog post! Enough about the sappy stuff—let’s get to the good stuff—the bachelorette party! We played around with a few ideas for themes and couldn’t come up with anything that really stuck, so we decided on a “Megan’s Favorites” theme. After a few weeks of Layna, the other bridesmaids, and I corresponding through text, Facebook, and the occasional face to face meeting, we basically just threw a bunch of random decorations together with some food. {Kidding} We had fun recalling her favorite snacks and remembering all the memories to go along with them. Is it weird that we actually have memories tied to food? Maybe.
Somehow we failed to get pictures of all the food and decorations after we set up. This is the only picture I snapped before we got everything ready and got ourselves ready to PAR-TAY! The food was set up on the {vintage} vanity in front of the window & on the shelves of the hutch. It was so cute! We had {Megan’s favorite} chocolate covered strawberries, people puppy chow, Velveeta dip, cupcakes from Bake, and various other snacks. Not your typical Bachelorette party food, but so “Megan!” Of course, no party would be complete without displaying embarrassing pictures of the guest of honor because that’s how we roll! {Contact Layna if you ever need funny pics of Meg! She has the motherload!} We also set up a photo backdrop on one of the living room walls so we could take “photo booth” pictures. Our backdrop was just a bed sheet and .99 cent streamers hung vertically. Definitely a must for any party—so easy and so much fun!
Isn’t Megan’s fanny pack fabulous? We thought so too!
the banner we painted “Bling Bling Meg’s got the ring”
We went out for a little bit of dancing and painting the town, then came back to the house to play games and let Megan open her gifts. {Side note: If you’ve never heard of the Kleenex box/ping pong ball game, look it up. It’s hilarious.} We secretly conspired with the groom to embarrass Megan with a game of Groom Trivia. We’re sweet. We asked Megan’s fiancé to answer a series of questions earlier in the week and recorded his answers. We then had Megan see if she knew his answers. For every wrong answer she had to chew a piece of bubble gum. Let’s just say we lost count of how many pieces of gum she had in her mouth. It was one of my favorite parts of the night!
Warning: disgustingly large piece of chewed bubble gum in the next picture!
Overall, we had a blast, stayed up way too late, and had to be up bright and early for Meg’s Bridal shower the next morning! I definitely can’t hang like I used to. It took me a good three days to recuperate. I was so tired and I definitely missed Remi during the week, but it was so nice to spend time with all the girls! Thanks again, Whitney for coming to celebrate us! I hope we didn’t scare you away!
Meg & her bridesmaids…Surprisingly, no dark circles under our eyes!
Congratulations to Megan and Ryan! Less than a month until the big day!
Until next time,
Kelsey
porch + pine 