As it happens...I CAN keep a secret.

You probably wondered why I went 'dark' last week.  I mean, I've tried to stay in the habit of blogging on Wednesday-ish.  Last week, I intentionally skipped it altogether - which was tough, because I had a lot to say. 

Sadly, most of what I needed to say last week would have spoiled a BIG surprise for one of my BFF's...Amy.  See, last November, Amy decided to abandon our quest to become crazy cat ladies and got herself engaged.  I know what you're thinking - no worries, I'm fine.

Sometime in March, the plans began for her Bridal Shower - date picked: May 22nd.  Immediately, there were two worlds going - one in which Amy believed that her shower would not include myself or her other BFF, Denise (from California).  And the other world - where Denise and I were in cahoots with Jenn, Amy's sister...indeed, planning on coming to the shower in a top secret mission.

This has been very similar to the final episodes of Lost what with all the trickery, secrets and mystery.

And it's not that I can't keep a secret at all - it's that I tend to let things slip that I think aren't relevant at all to anything.  So, I have to go into full-avoidance mode fairly early in the game. 

I arrived in Pennsylvania Thursday night. Denise arrived Friday morning. This left us ALL day Friday to get excited for the surprise. Jenn had planned a big cookout with her parents, her husband and John and Amy.

Starting at 5pm.

Note to anyone trying to surprise Amy:  Make sure you keep John out of the loop as well. 

There will be more stories from the weekend ~ today's is just a short one. In a true sign of a great weekend - I could literally place my head on my desk right now and fall asleep...so trying to explain anything would be quite dangerous.

That's Denise and I - wearing these super cute t-shirts that have a Bride, a Groom and the word "Surprise!!" on them.  This was one of those good ideas that went totally awry the first time I tried to make them.  Take two was a win.  Even if we only got a few hours of use out of them. 

And here we are working on pages for the Scrapbook Project that I volunteered myself for.  Here are my thoughts on scrap booking after this experience:  Scrap booking is stupid.  Any craft that devotes six aisles to itself at Michael's is way to cocky.  People in the Scrapbook aisles are not quite right.  The great news is - our pages came out perfectly. 

You can just imagine the building excitement as 3pm went by...then 4pm...then 4.30pm...then a text from Amy saying not to expect them until 6ish-pm...then...what?!?!?!  Operation Surprise came to a screeching halt.

It was about this time that we started showing our hands...in our effort to 'encourage' Amy to come right over, we may have seemed a bit overly anxious.  This was the only hitch that got Amy thinking, "Hmmmmm"

Which was a bummer, because we pretty much had clear sailing.  But we were getting bored...and maybe a little buzzed.  

But it all worked out.  Denise and I (very logically) hid under the pool table inside (there was really no need to be under the pool table, but that didn't seem relevant).  And, one-by-one, we came out to surprise Amy. 

Okay, so more to come this week - we've still got to talk about the actual shower...and of course...my disdain for airports. 

In the meantime, I've got to lay my head back down on my desk and pretend I'm deep in prayer.