Springtime Showers

I am getting married in 12 days. Holy crap. And so I've been in the thick of all sorts of pre-wedding activity lately.

The last weekend in April, I went to Iowa for the weekend. On Saturday, my sisters threw me a nice shower at the Amana church. Some high school friends were there, some college friends, some family, and Matt's mom even came from Pella. My sisters did a great job with planning and decorating. They did this game where I had to answer 25 questions about Matthew, and each one I got wrong, I had to put a piece of gum in my mouth. By the end of the game I had about 12 pieces of gum in my mouth. It was a challenge!

Me and my sisters.

With my Mount Mercy friends.

And with my high school friends.

That Sunday, then, my mom and sisters and I drove to Pella for a shower that Matt's Aunt Diane put together. It was also very nice, and was a great way for my family to be able to get to know the Van Zantes better. The game we played at this shower involved writing stories and trying to use as many phrases with consecutive words starting with M N and V (for Matt and Nicole Van Zante). An example would be "My Next Vacation will be my honeymoon..." Michelle and I kicked butt with our story.

Matt's mom Arlene, sister-in-law Michelle, and sister Kristine.

Me and Aunt Diane.

Then last Wednesday afternoon, my co-workers threw a party at work. They had put together a "Say Yes to Cooking" cookbook for me (to parody our former "Say Yes to the Arts" advocacy campaign). The cookbook is so clever and is filled with all sorts of interesting recipes. I can't wait to give them a try. Below is the picture they put on the back cover. It's a staff picture that just so happened to be taken the day before Matt asked me to date him. The best part about this already funny picture is how Marty photo-shopped in newer staff members (and one from the past who contributed to the book). It makes me laugh. I'm so blessed by my job.

Friday night was my bachelorette party. We went to Dave & Busters, which is kind of like Chuck E. Cheese's for adults. It's one of my favorite places. It was a great group- Charlotte, Beth, Jenn, Aleeta and Morgan, and my sisters and Staci Mae and Michelle (Matt's sister-in-law) all even came to town for it. I had a blast. It was great having my sisters here for part of the weekend, and it was wonderful getting to bond a little more with Michelle.


Yesterday, Charlotte hosted a beautiful shower for me here in Omaha over at Stacy's house. It's was an "around the clock" shower, which meant that each guest was assigned a different time of day. They were then asked to bring a gift that I could use during that time slot. We also had fun games, including a "Mad Libs" game based on the "How We Met" story from our website. All three teams came up with some pretty funny stories!

Me with Stacy and Charlotte.

And then somewhere in the middle of all of this (May 15, to be exact), I threw Matthew a big 30th birthday party, which also doubled as an open house since we got the hardwood floors installed earlier this month as well. Matt's whole family came out for the party, as well as many of our church friends.

Matt with his brother Ben and sister Kristine.

It was so fun having all five nieces here in Bellevue!

So, it's been a very busy month and won't be slowing down anytime soon. I've also been keeping busy with packing and moving. Charlotte moved out today. I am sad. :-( Meanwhile, Beth and Randy moved back in to the house (their house), so I'll be rooming with the Sanfords for the next week or so before heading home for the wedding.

Okay, let's face it. I'm not going to write again for awhile. The next time I do, I'll be Nicole Van Zante. I'm looking forward to seeing some of you at the wedding!

Sincerely,
Nicole Palof