Friday the 13th ain't got nothin on Monday the 31st

"Friday the 13th ain't got nothin on Monday the 31st".  No joke.  Emma said this on facebook this morning, and it just fit perfectly with this post.  So, yesterday was our ward Halloween Party.  I'm not huge on Halloween parties, but I put full effort and enthusiasm into helping plan it, and was actually pretty excited for it.  Here was the game plan:

Meal: soup, salad, bread, 

and homemade rootbeer

Costume Contest

Minute-to-Win-it Games

and

Human Foosball

We planned to start setting up at 5:30 (tables, chairs, decorations) and then we would have half an hour to throw on our own costumes.  I got to the church around 4:30 with the dry-ice.  I left right after my classes, and was just crossing my fingers that they had some left in the stores.  Luckily they did, and so I just wanted it  at the church, so I didn't have to worry about it anymore. 

I rushed over to the church, because my friend Lindsey needed to get in to practice the piano.  I gathered all of my grocery sacks, the cooler, church keys and went inside.  When we got inside, there were a couple of tables set up with some decorations, and I thought "Uh-oh...somebody else thinks they have the church tonight".  Little did I know, that MY ward didn't have the church reserved, and there was also ANOTHER ward that thought this same thing.  So there were THREE wards that thought they had the gym last night.  It was crazy to say the least, and I'm so glad that I got there an hour early.  I talked with a Bishop from the ward that actually had the church reserved, and he said that they were already sharing the gym with another ward.  If we wanted to go forward with our human foosball plans, then we needed to find a gym asap.  Luckily I knew the Bishop that had the church across the street reserved, and so I called him.  His ward was going to a corn maze and coming back to the church for donuts and hot chocolate.  He said that we could use the gym.  We were SAVED!!!  So, I gathered up my stuff and went to take it to my car.

No keys.

I searched everywhere and retraced my steps 3 times.  Lindsey came and helped me search (bless her heart), and then we concluded that they must be locked in my car.  They weren't in the ignition, but I sure couldn't see them in the car.  Renee (aka my hero) had the brilliant idea to use a door stopper as a wedge, and then we could get a hanger inside.  This would have been easy...except for the fact that my unlock/lock buttons were just that: buttons.  So they had to be pushed.  There was no way that a bent hanger coming in from the top was going to push a button place vertically on the door.  But we were determined, and Renee was on top of my car for at least half an hour (by now it is 5:30).  Just when I had resorted to this...:

...the best person in the world drove up in a white van that read:

A locksmith!  He just happened to be driving by and saw Renee on my car.  He came out of his van, 

I told him it was a button, he turned around with out a word and came back with a wedge and iron bar.

He put the wedge in by the window, and then used the bar to lift up the locked door.

Said "There ya go!" and took off.  My HERO!

At this point I feel like this:

We hauled all of the stuff over to the other church and a man opened the door for us.  In a huge hurry, we set up a ton of tables and chairs, sliced up the french bread, made rootbeer, and spread the word that the party had moved.  We ended up putting up two more tables, and had about 130 people there.  Just when we thought Hooray! Everything is going good again, and nothing will go wrong...something dreadful happened.  Some of the boys were playing basketball while they waited for the food line to go down.  They had a chair by the hoop and would run and jump off of it to slam dunk the ball.  I didn't hear about it until later, but somehow one of the boys came down wrong and in the process he broke BOTH wrists.  When they called his roommates to find out how he was doing, he said that the doctors were going to put him out so that they could reset them both and then when he woke up they would send him home.  The poor boy!  I sure hope he heals fast.  In the end, the party was a success and I hope everyone had fun.  We ate, had a costume contest, ate donuts, and played human foosball.  It took a HUGE team effort, and I'm so thankful for everyone that helped.  If I learned anything through this whole ordeal, it would be this: the next time it is Monday the 31st and Halloween...I'm just gonna stay in my bed!  Hope you had a Happy Halloween!