NOT One in the Morning!

Brett sent this picture with the caption,

"Here is how our drive down to Key West is going"

Man, what a week they have had! Brett was involved in a 3 car crash in Miami. Huge traffic jam resulted. Brett was the first car. They were completely stopped on the highway when they got rear ended. Not fun at all.

Stockton got his flight info today! He is flying to Arizona on Monday. I will be in Idaho. I guess that is a good thing. Then I won't be tempted to drive to the airport or try and ride Trax to get a glimpse of him. Ha! His flight leaves at 8:20 am and he has to check out of the MTC at 5:00 in the morning. There are 13 in his travel group, so that's great that he won't be going down there by himself. I think there are 11 girls and 2 boys, but I'm not sure. I hope he loves Arizona!

We have been planning a Smith family trip to the cabin over Presidents Day! We found out that Lisa will be flying in from California to come! Yay!!! So excited about that! I miss having them live nearby.

I spent most of the day working on The Amazing Race. Mike and I ordered these secret agent pens. They write in invisible ink and have a light to shine on them to show the ink. Mike has boiled eggs and written a combination on the egg with the ink. We put the clue and a pen like this in the envelopes. We were kind of annoyed that the pen said, "secret agent pen" right on it. So, I spent a lot of time with sugar cubes! I rubbed the sugar cubes on the words until I was able to get them off of the pen. I guess I should have taken an after picture....oh well...

When Jorja left for school today I asked her if she had her money to buy the Sweethearts tickets. She did. A few hours later I saw her wallet on the counter. Whoops. I ended up bringing her Jamba Juice and her wallet. That girl! She's going to lose her mind one day. Jorja's been a little stressed about the Amazing Race. She isn't helping us put it together, we haven't shared anything with her. What is stressing her out is some of the girls think $20 is too much to spend on the activity. One girl keeps asking what their money is going towards. Jorja can't tell them exactly, but the girl just doesn't get it. She told Jorja that $200 seems like a lot to spend on an activity that will just be around town. Oh boy. Mike and I have spent a lot more than $200 on this. We told Jorja she could drop it down to $15/couple and we keep promising her that everyone will have fun. She's stressed because she is the youngest and she doesn't want to ruin the day date activity for the seniors. The girls have also given her a hard time about driving separately. Mike and I have been pushing hard for that to happen. They want to be in teams of four. We think it will be a lot more fun in teams of two. It has been kind of embarrassing for Jorja to push for that. We tried to figure out ways we could make it work, but it would make the race not nearly as fun as it could be.

Maggie's mom came over and I was able to give her the puzzle clues that she is going to be doing at her house. I am so glad she is able to help! It would be dumb if too many of the stations were at our house. Kassie's mom is going to meet me at the mall to help with the mall challenge. The kids are either going to do a photo booth or ride the animal riders. I will need help to get the animals to the right location. Jordyn is going to meet us here too after she finishes at the library. This is the picture I'm sending to the kids after I get their puzzle text.

My friend Megan agreed to do karaoke at her house. I was finalizing everything with her tonight. I needed to run the clues and sign over to her. Originally we were planning on having the kids hand her their phone and she would take a video on it. They would then need to send the video to us to receive their next clue. We started worrying that someone might not have enough storage or their video wouldn't send. I asked Megan if they would be able to video all of them and send them to us. I told her we were planning on putting a video together for them to watch at the after party. This was the rest of our conversation. 

Megan: There is an after party after 1am? (The time you said they could be here.) 

Me: NOOOO!!!! One in the afternoon! Would that work? You are the absolute best for agreeing to do it after midnight! 

Megan: Oh.. I thought it was at night!! I am so glad I asked. We'll shift things around..... let me make it work. I seriously wouldn't have even been home. I'm so glad you clarified!! You totally said afternoon... I was thinking after dance" 

Me: Ahhhh! I'm sooooo sorry! Let me know if it doesn't work. I have a cousin helping that could video if you don't mind a stranger coming into your home! 

Megan: We will make it work. It will be fine. I think it is going to be so fun. I'll have David here to help. 

Me: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You are seriously amazing!!! Agreeing to have all these crazy kids singing in the middle of the night and you didn't bat an eye! I love you! 

Megan: You know I love all those kids! David and Tyson (tech guru) will be here helping.. we have a movie screen we can project the karaoke on--it will be so fun. 

Me: Awesome!!!!! Thank you so so so so much! I thought you would have fun since you know a lot of the kids. Jorja's group is all the girls in student government, so it should be fun and I don't think they'll be shy.

Anyway, Megan cracks me up. I can't believe she said she would do this right away when she thought it was at midnight. Also funny that it would have been easier for her to pull off if it had been at midnight! Man, I have some good friends.

I also have some good family. I stopped by Jordyn's house to give her everything she will need for the library challenge. She helped me come up with this puzzle. Actually Chad put the original puzzle together when he did a Parry Family Scavenger Hunt over the 4th of July one year. We weren't there though, but it sounded like a lot of fun! It was the first time I have been to Jordyn's new place. I love how close it is to my house! It is in a perfect location for her.

Jorja also got asked to prom tonight. Stockton's friend, Gavin, asked her. He sent me a message asking me to call him. I was thinking it was something about Stockton. Gavin asked me if it would be okay if he asked Jorja to prom and was also wondering if she had already been asked. I said, "Wait, are people asking this early?" He said that he felt that people would start asking on Sunday. Anyway, when Gavin was at the cabin with us a few weeks ago, Jorja went on and on and on about how much she loved garlic bread. This is what was dropped off at our door.

 Jorja

Hailey and Emily were over when Gavin dropped this off, so that was fun for her. It took her forever to find out where Gavin had hidden his name. They opened the garlic bread and even looked inside it. Gavin had circled the letters of his name on the back of the box. Jorja was nervous for awhile that she would have no idea who asked her and she didn't know what to do about that. She also wasn't sure if she should post the picture because it was so early. Hailey and Emily convinced her that she needed to post it. I remember Finn got asked to the Halloween dance before Homecoming happened. He was embarrassed that it was that early, so he didn't post about it. He was waiting until after Homecoming. Then he got asked twice the day after Homecoming. Anyway, Jorja and Gavin are good friends and she is excited to go with him. She was worried she wouldn't be asked and she really wanted to go. She will have a great time with Gavin.