Exchanging Lois' Birthday

This weekend was rather insane. But loads of fun!

First off, it was Martin Luther King Jr Day on Monday, and BYU (for some obscure reason, considering we don't even get any time off at Easter!) lets us have a 3 day weekend. Excellent. And, considering I only teach M/W/F, it means I didn't go back to work 'til Wednesday! Excellent x2!

Also this weekend is the Utah Lindy Exchange. So, there's all sorts of dancing going on all weekend, starting on Thursday!

It also happens to correspond with Lois' birthday, most years. So, since I had Monday off, Mom and Dad drove down to spend the weekend with us.

Conflict!

What do I do? Do I go swing dancing? Do I stay home and play with my family? OOOoooh such difficult dilemmas. Ok, you know me. I did both! Yep. I played with my family by day (and evening) then went to the late night dances over at ULX. And consequentially, got no sleep! How much more fun can life get?

I actually hit the dance on Thursday, too. Which was great fun. But it meant I was dragging through all my Friday classes. At the end of class Friday, I went 'home' (PG) and fell asleep. I only meant to fall asleep for an hour. 4 hours later, I woke up! Ooops. Obviously I needed it. So I got ready to go back out dancing Friday. I went to the late night. That didn't even start till 12.30! I wore this great little blue dress I bought off the clearance section of Chadwick's. Very '40s vintage feeling. And a stunning cobalt blue colour. Really like it. And so did everyone else. I could hardly move for people asking me where I'd got it. And I only sat out the dances I wanted to. It was brilliant. Both Thursday and Friday were fabulous. Maybe Thursday slightly more-so. But both nights were well worth the effort. I got 'home' (Lois') around 3.30 in the morning, and I'd left the party early. Yeah, that's an Exchange!

Saturday we hung out and played a bit around the house. Mom and Dad arrived, and we got them sorted. Dad and I took the cars off to get washed, and Lois cooked for that evening's shindig. Around 5.30 the guests/usual suspects started arriving. Stephie, Nathan, Kaydee, Ryan and Brittany, plus the 5 of us (Mom, Dad, Steve, Lois and me). We had a Murder Mystery Night for Lois' birthday party. It was great! We had 2 extra people, though, so Ryan played the 'Dead Body', and Stephie was the hostess. And, as usual, Dad was the murderer! No fair! It's amazing, he's the murderer every time! *sigh* Never mind. We had a ball joking back and forth about various things. We didn't quite solve the mystery (there was a bit of magic involved that threw us off the scent of the last step) but got very close. It was a very complicated plot, but loads of fun. The key to those things is enjoying playing the part, not being too worried about actually getting the right answer.

Sunday I went to my ward, and Dad tagged along (singles ward). Then we met Lois and Mom at Lois' house. Steve had to fly out to NYC for a week long job for work. Poor thing. We just sat around and did nothing. All day. Seriously good fun! I never do that. We watched Clue, Oscar, The Sting and a bunch of Firefly episodes. Mom and I got a bunch of knitting done, and Lois worked on her beading. Dad just sat on the sofa and fell asleep. He needed it!

Monday was Lois' actual birthday. We tried to take her out for breakfast, but by the time Stephie, Nathan, Katie and Ryan all got there, it we too late. We had other things planned. Never mind. We tried. So instead we went down to IKEA and got Lois a guest bed frame. Then over to the emergency preparedness place for some water containers for Mom and Dad. Then back home for some lunch. Then we took Lois bowling. We played 2 games. I didn't even break 100 once!! Tragic. Lois got 101 on the second game, and Dad broke 100 on both games, but Mom got the high score of the day: 112 on the first game. Poor poor me. In the evening we watched more Firefly, and polished off the end of the party food. Pretty good day, really. We were going to take Lois for ice cream at Sub Zero, but we found out they only have one in Provo. we thought they'd have one in Salt Lake, too. So I promised to take her the next day. And I did. It was amazing.