My Best Prank

 We are a family that prank each other. Nothing big, really. Just stupid things. Like wrapping birthday presents in multiple boxes (or with zip ties), putting googly eyed dinosaur stickers on things in the house, turning pictures upside down when you come to visit, etc. 

Dumb things.

One of the biggest pranks pulled to date was the yearly birthday balloons when I was growing up. I hate balloons (no I will not go more in depth) and so my parents would fill my room with balloons or otherwise try to surprise me with a bunch of balloons on my birthday. 

One year, my parents set up a very OBVIOUS drop of balloons and I found it before it got me. I was loudly lording it over them at my birthday breakfast and my mom just goes, "Yeah, you caught us. Grab the syrup from the pantry, would you?" And when I opened the pantry it was FILLED TO THE CEILING with balloons that fell down all over me. 

"Good one, Mom."

I've never gotten them back for it.

UNTIL TODAY.

My dad and I have this running joke that he gives my cats a secret phone so he can text them to act up. If I complain the cats are being crazy, it's because he told them to do it. He will send me texts telling Cat Benatar to demand more treats and then say, "Oops! That was meant for Cat!" It's silly.

He even went so far as to send me one of his old flip phones labeled for Cat. Then I started using my Google Voice account to text dad from "Cat Benatar's" phone (so it's a different phone number... it's funny, ok?).

I took the flip phone to a friend's house and complained to dad that Cat was using it to text a BOY (Maddie's cat, Neville). So now Cat gets her phone taken away for video chatting too much with her boyfriend.

I swear. The backstory is important.

In, like, January I saw this ad for a "joker meow." It's a card that you hide, pull the tab, and then it plays intermittent cat noises for over 8 hours. A plan started to form and I knew I wanted to get it - nay, I was morally OBLIGATED to get it.

I bought the card, managed to keep track of it through our move to Beaverton, brought it with me to Idaho when I helped my dad move his baby car, and then hid it in the downstairs bathroom for my accomplice.

Earlier this week, Cat Benatar texted dad that she was fed up with living with her sister, Ebony, and was coming to live with them in Idaho. Dad told her to pack her treats and food bowl and hitch hike, that they'll be waiting for her.

Enter Jesi, my partner in crime.

She does house cleaning for my parents in return for them babysitting her kiddos. She went today, retrieved the card, taped it to the underside of a cabinet in the den/storage room at my parents' rental house, activated the card, and then left.

Unfortunately my dad was at the store when she needed to leave and mom was left alone with the cat noises. She hears it and starts to search for the cat and because she is deaf in one ear she is having a really hard time locating the source of the noise. She texts in the group text asking if anyone left a door open and might have let in a cat. Luckily, I'm on that group chat because it's too annoying for mom to set up a new group chat with just my dad and Jesi.

In order to make sure she didn't ruin the joke, we had to bring her in on it which ended up being PERFECT.

Dad gets home and the cat noise goes off. At first he thinks it's a smoke alarm chirping. But then it goes again and he starts frantically searching the house, checking the vents, scouring the garage, even sitting on the front porch trying to see if it was kids in the neighborhood playing around. 

And the whole time, mom is keeping me updated via text.

I'm living for this.

Then dad calls the landlord to get him to send someone out because he thinks the cat might have crawled up in the vents. At that point, Mom decides we need to end it and tells me to give her three minutes and then call to come clean.

She pretended she was texting her aunt while talking with my dad in the den/storage room so she could video (yes, she literally does hold her phone up in front of her like that so it totally wouldn't have been suspicious). 

Please enjoy the video of my dad looking for the cat and then talking with me on the phone.

I think we are even now for the balloons. What do you think?

Cat Benatar is back home, safe and sound from her Idaho adventure.

If you want your own awesome joke card, you can get it (and other fun joke card things) here.

Wedding! (Only... 11 months later)

All right! I'm FINALLY sitting down to write the wedding post. First I waiting for the photos to get to us, and by then school had started, and then it just felt overwhelming to write, it just seemed like so much! But, now the school year is all wrapped up and I am finally taking the time to write this up.

Get ready for a bajillion photos.

I spent the night at the hotel we would stay at for the wedding night so that me and my wedding party could get dressed and ready there. It was a fun place; very Portland. There was this weird picture of people dressed as frogs sitting on top of one another in with a background that made it look like the hallway extended beyond them. It was weird.

But the room was nice and it came with complimentary breakfast. Yay!

The day of, Maddie (my maid of honor) showed up early and we hung out, got our hair done, and started getting ready. The rest of the party showed up and we hung out, took pictures, and got ready.

Mandy and her party got ready at the venue. I had gotten a couple of little gifts for Mandy and had her mom and sister give them to her as she got ready.

Then it was time to head over to the venue to put on the dress and get bridal party pictures.

My mom was so cute. She came in while I was getting into my dress (an event in and of itself) and tried to give me this cute, heartfelt speech about how much she loved me and how proud she was, but she kept crying and couldn't finish.

It was precious.

Then we headed next door to this little garden place and we got our first look at one another.

Mandy looked so pretty. We were a total mess.

We took some pretty pictures in the garden together with just us.

Then we did pictures with our bridal party. Seriously. Our parties were great. I love my people. <3

Of course, we had to nerd out. Mandy got her bridal party all replica Star Wars weapons for their gift (neeeerrrrrddd).

I did take a Sailor Moon picture (because, why not?). And I'm feeling the Princess Serenity vibes with this white dress.

Then it was time for the photos with out families. Mandy's family:

My family was, maybe, a little less decorous than the DuPriest's....

We later got photos with Mandy's birth mother and uncle.

Then it was just a little wait until the actual wedding. Lilia (our flower girl) and my nephew, Luke, had a fun time playing and hanging out together. It was pretty dang cute.

Then it was time for the main event. Mandy had both her mom and dad walk her down the aisle.

I walked down the aisle with my dad.

Kelsey, Mandy's sister, read a poem and then the choir from First Unitarian, directed by our friend, Jason, sang a song of the poem.

Our flower girl, Jason and Jen's daughter, stole the show. A minute or two before walking down the aisle, she decided that she was DONE and had to be carried down the aisle. She then proceeded to walk around during the song and vows. It was precious and probably one of my favorite parts of the ceremony (aside from the actual getting married part).

We decided to do what is called a "handfasting" where you take a ribbon and wrap the hand of the couple for the vows. Elizabeth did an amazing job officiating.

And it was a good choice on our part to say nothing besides "I do" because we were both crying messes by the end.

We went back inside to rest, eat some tasty food (which Mandy immediately managed to drop tomatoes down the front of her shirt... but I brought a Tide pen so we were good). We signed our marriage certificate, and we were officially Mrs. and Mrs. DuPriest!

While we were hanging out, the catering people were switching out for dinner and our guests were talking and enjoying those same tasty appetizers.

Presenting to the world (or at least the people we invited): Mrs. and Mrs. DuPriest!

Tasty dinner, and then some cake!

People gave toasts and everyone cried.

We tried to talk to everyone but it went so fast!

Time to boogy! Took some time to dance (including the chicken dance in honor of Grandma and Grandpa Olson).

Time to leave. We had to do it twice for pics.

And, of course, because we have to make things fun, my car battery had died, so we had to come back and get a jump. Lol! Someone said something to the effect that it's not a lesbian wedding without someone fixing a car! (It wasn't a lesbian wedding... Mandy is bi... but we'll take it.)

Overall, it was an exhausting and fun day. I wish we had had more time to talk to everyone. They took great pictures, but the photographer definitely did not do a great job helping us plan the timing aspect, lol!

And, to wrap it up, my absolute FAVORITE picture from the entire thing: Lilia running away from us crying.