A Weekend at the Lake

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The trip began around 1:45 pm on Friday afternoon. We had already started with a little drama because my dear father decided he wanted to take his truck on a nine-hour trek to Texas, rather than take the comfy Envoy.

This did not put him in any sort of distress because him and my mom would be the ones that had the nice leg room and seats that reclined in the front, while my poor sister and I were cramped in the back seats, trying to find a way to make it nine hours in a backseat the size of an ottoman.

About five minutes into the trip, we were all yelling at each other (yelling in a very funny way, not really a mad yell!), mainly because my dad drives at the pace of a turtle! And when you have a super long ride ahead of you, you want someone behind the wheel that wants to put the pedal to the metal!

The ride went pretty smoothly once we were 10 minutes away from Sedan (except my mom forgot the directions to the lakehouse in Austin - only a slight importance!) and 10 hours later, we walked into my aunt and uncle's lakehouse.

When we arrived, the only ones up were Meg, aunt Sherron and beautiful baby Stella! But then out came Seth and uncle Steve and cutie patootie baby luke was asleep in his crib in the family room. (Sidenote: Luke can sleep through anything! Its like he knew what kind of family he was being born into and came out with earplugs!)My mom immediately took over Stella, while the rest of us unpacked the car (surprise, surprise!).

The rest of the weekend was spent holding babies, being entertained by my 2-year-old cousin Annie (she loves to dance so friends, we will definitely have to bring out the dance party at my wedding for her!), holding babies, swimming, feeding babies, wakeboarding, breaking the boat, watching others change babies, and eating and drinking (and holding babies).

The 2-year-old and under crowd (and their parents!) left by Sunday evening, which left the 50-year-old and older crowd (plus Lauren and I) at the lake... it got alot more quiet, but it was definitely not a bore as my uncle Steve is a great story teller. Our dinner on Monday night consisted of listening to him and aunt Sherron talk about their kids - Seth and his challenge with directions; Meg and her challenge with keeping her cars in tact! :) God love em' both!

I know I say this quite alot, but I don't think it can ever really be said enough: I am the luckiest gal in the world. Not many people in this world have the type of relationship that my family (immediate and extended) has together. A laugh, a smile and a hug are always right around the corner when we're all together and many times I sit around and think that life can't get much better than this! I can't wait for Matt to become a legal part of this clan and someday, have and raise kids to be as happy and loving as my cousins are!

We take off tomorrow morning and then I'm back to Wichita tomorrow night - Matt just got back from his bachelor party in Vegas this afternoon, but takes off for a work trip on Wednesday. He had a good time on his trip... but I was very disappointed in the lack of text messages and voicemails declaring his undying love and devotion to me! All I got from him was "This club is tight...". Who cares! I want to know that you can't to marry me! :)

This weekend I'm off to Lincoln for my final wedding of the summer before my own - I love five-hour car rides by myself! Matt is staying back to work on the house... one can only hope that he has a fence put up, weeds pulled, the landscaping looking pristine and dinner cooked for me when I get home.

I think I might be asking for too much... :)

Picture 1: Annie sharing her friends, Plum and Blue Dog, with Stella - see her?!
Picture 2: The precious crew - Stella, Luke and Annie!
Picture 3: Me feeding Stella Rose!
Picture 4: Me attempting wakeboarding!
Picture 5: Lauren, Nate, Meg, Dad, Mom, Me and uncle Steve, in Luckenbach, Texas

Surprise, Surprise

And I ask... why, again, do I love this show???


Latest Bachelor Returns to, Well, Bachelorhood
By Natalie Finn
Thu Jul 24, 1:46 PM PDT

We...are...shocked!

Former Bachelor Matt Grant and the recipient of his most important rose, actress Shayne Lamas, have broken off their engagement after publicly pretending that they were meant to be for two whole months, People reports.

"We tried hard to make it work but we realized that we were both heading in different directions," the duo said in a statement. "We truly care about each other and will remain close friends."

The pair had been plagued by reports of trouble in paradise ever since Grant chose Lamas over Chelsea Wanstrath on the season finale of The Bachelor's 12th season, but each continued to deny that the fact that they were no longer living together or that they were never seen in the same place meant that they weren't still planning to tie the knot.

"This stuff makes us stronger," Grant, 27, said last month.

No word yet on whether Lamas, 22, returned the 2.85-carat sparkler her British beau used to seal the deal in May.

Anyway, that makes 10 out of 11 Bachelors (not including the not-ready-for-a-relationship Brad Womack) who have opted out of the matches they made during their stints on the ABC series.

What to do...

I am asked quite frequently where Matt and I will be going for our honeymoon. Upon my response (of London), the next question that follows is "what do you have planned when you are there?". I wish that I had all of the correct answers for this question, but usually my response is, "Well, I'm not quite sure."

Though it's not completely true, I am still a bit unsure of what we will be doing, which I am OK with. I know that our first order of business will be to hop on a double-decker tour bus to kind of figure out our surroundings! We will for sure take in a show and we will be making a train trip to Paris for a day-trip.

Other than that, we are up in the air! So, if you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!

On another note, I think I'm in a rut. When I moved to Wichita almost a month ago, I was very gung-ho about getting things done. A month later, I've gotten alot done, but don't have alot of motivation to do anything else. I stare at my wedding programs every day, knowing that I need to work on them, but that's about as far as I get -- other than thinking to myself, "I'll work on those tomorrow."

I'm hoping that this rut ends soon... I mean, I realize I have a wedding coming up soon (can I just say that I wish the day was here already!) but I have a very small list of things to get done... which includes finishing the programs!

Anywho, I'm off to Austin this weekend with my mom, sister and dad (Jord will be in Vegas celebrating Matt's bachelorness!) to visit my family and beautiful baby cousins! I can't wait!

Maybe when I get back next Tuesday, the rut will be over...

One can only hope!

My Bachelorette Party...

was pretty fantastic! If I could describe it in just one word, I would say that word would be 'me'. I have never been one to jump at the chance to go to the bars or be the one to get totally plastered, so this weekend was right up my alley (no pun intended)!

First, I must give major kudo's to Jenna and Nicole for planning this great weekend. The Doty's lake house was wonderful as well as their boat that we spent much of Saturday on!

We arrived the lake house on Friday evening and the first thing we see is an unsightly and LARGE picture of me in the window - this was suppose to be the clue to all that this was the Doty's lake house! Scary! The rest of the crew arrived shortly after us and after getting situated and a brief tour, we immediately busted out the brew and began a fun night of games... or basically Allyson telling embarrassing stories about her and Matt.

We were interrupted by some visitors a few different times - first visitor was Paul Buck (please see above picture). He was as close to a stripper as we got all weekend! :) The second visitor was his father and one of his buddies... let's just say, "Like father, like son!" By 1:30 a.m., we were all a bit tired and were just drunk enough to hit the hay.

Everyone was up pretty early on Saturday morning. A handful of girls went out on the boat early to ski and wakeboard while the rest of us hung back at the pool. Chelsi was the last of the party crew to arrive that morning, and after the boaters returned and grabbed some lunch, we all jumped back on the boat with our skipper for afternoon - the lovely Trey Doty - and found a nice little cove where we parked and stayed the entire afternoon!

I must say that I did many things on this trip that I have never done before -- the first was to bong a beer... the second was to bong a beer via a noodle (see above picture). It was ... interesting to say the least. And though I know it is not something to brag about, I will brag that my 25-year-OLD self defeated my 19-year-old sister, who is in college and probably does this regularly! She couldn't hack it when it came to bonging against her sibling! :)

After three hours and many deep discussions about who knows what, we trekked back to the Doty's to drop off some girls to start getting ready for the evening part of our party. Though I was tired and in desperate need of a shower, I decided to stay on the boat... and then decided I would make an attempt at wakeboarding.

I have tried to ski in the past and usually after about 10 attempts of trying to get up on the ski's, I throw in the towel and call it a day. But not this time. I'd say it took me about six attempts to get up on the wakeboard... and once I did, I screamed -- partially because I had no idea what to do next and partially because I couldn't believe I had actually gotten up! I made myself get up twice before ending my run and I had to say I was pretty proud of my self! I must thank all of the boat riders that had to sit through the agony of waiting for me to get up, but also thanks for the encouragement! They all might have been more excited about me getting up on the wakeboard than I was! :) (Sidenote: my body is in complete agony STILL two days after wakeboarding - I think I used muscles I never knew existed!)

We finally made it back to land around 6:45, quickly took showers and were back on the road to eat dinner in Shell Knob. We closed the restaurant down (surprise, surprise!) and headed back to the lake house to open gifts. Can I just say that my plan of always buying my friends comfy PJs for their bachelorette parties in hopes that they would return the favor some day really worked! I received only one piece of langerie and many sets of boxers and T's... woohoo! :) We had a fun time opening up everything and then, though we were all exhausted, a dance party ensued.

As you can see from the above pictures, my back was really starting to kill me (all from wakeboarding!) so I look like a 95-year-old woman trying to hold my back, hold my beer and dance all at the same time! :) Somehow we lasted until 1 a.m. but decided to throw in the towel and hit the sack.

Everyone was back on the road by noon on Sunday, but not before a group photo in front of the house with our lovely t-shirts that Jenna had made specially for the weekend!

It was a pretty wonderful bachelorette party and I wouldn't have had it any other way! Though we were missing a few of my fabulous friends, I am so appreciative of everyone that made the trek to Table Rock for the weekend -- I am lucky to have such great people in my life that took time out of their busy schedules to spend a weekend celebrating my bacheloretteness!

This weekend, Matt and company travel to Vegas for his bachelor party. I told him yesterday that it will really hit him this weekend that we are getting married... and getting married soon! He's pretty excited, as he should be! I will be hitting the lake in Austin, Texas and visiting my family! I can't wait!

Here's to all the bachelorettes and former bachelorettes... Drink a beer in honor of your single life! :)

PS. More pics to come...

Presh...

Two posts in one day, I know... crazy! But I had to post new pictures of my beautiful babies! I get to see Stella, Luke & Annie next weekend (I heard they are all super excited to see me !) and get to see Addison in less than a month! I can't wait!

Picture 1: Luke & Annie
Picture 2: Addison
Picture 3: Stella

One Month from Today...

I'll be Mrs. Allyson Clark ... and I'll have to say it without laughing afterwards!

But isn't that strange? You go 25 years having the same name and within an hour, you have a different last name.

I was definitely in 'crying my eyes out' mode on the ride home from Sedan to Wichita today thinking about this (this is why I enjoy car rides by myself -- I could never have hysterical crying fits with someone else in the car!)! And I wasn't crying my eyes out because I'm not happy or not proud about being a Clark -- its a pretty great family and I'm very excited to be apart of it!

It just seems a bit surreal to me. And I guess a bit scary.

I have loved being Allyson Jane Hills. I mean, I can't really see myself with any other name -- my parents had pondered Amber. My uncle Blish said he'd pay for my college education if my parents named me Blish (poor guy didn't want to be a loner the rest of his life!). But they stuck me with Allyson - and only with a 'y' because my dad spelled it wrong on the birth certificate. Go figure! :)

Since my freshman year in college, my nickname became my last name -- it started with Matt's basketball teammates not understanding that there was an 's' at the end of my name. To try to get it through their very thick skulls that it was "Hills", I told them it was 'Hills... like with a z at the end." So I was "Hills with a Z" for awhile... Then Matt started calling me Hills. Then the rest of his buddies started calling me Hills. Then my friends started calling me Hills. It's just kind of stuck...

I think the biggest thing with me is that I hate change. I like things the way they are and really try to keep them the same as possible at all costs. The name change is a pretty drastic leap, though! When my cousin-in-law (heard of that one before?!) got married to my cousin Seth, she went from a Jozwiak to a Barnes... that's quite a change! Rumor has it the first time she had to sign her name Barnes, she cried. Though I find being a Barnes a pretty delightful thought, I completely understand where she is coming from now!

A name is just a name. It does not define who you are, this I know. But I will always be a Hills... And hope that, if anything, my nickname doesn't change!

Wedding No. 2 and Shower No. 3

This weekend was little Lenny's turn to get married! Matt and I treked up to KC on Saturday afternoon, dumped our stuff at our landlords (Steph and Aaron) house and went on to the wedding. It was a beautiful church and a beautiful ceremony!

Lenny looked absolutely stunning as did the entire bridal party (P's hair was awesome - pictures to come!). Her colors were black, white and a very pretty green color. Her flowers were beautiful green hydrangeas - I loved them!

After the wedding, we made a stop at Steph's for me to pick up the wedding gift, which I left sitting on top of the car. I got back in to Steph's house, realized what I had done and ran back out to get it. We then were leaving for the reception and I realized I had left the gift sitting in Steph's house. Went back to get it... then we finally get to the reception. We get almost inside when I realized I had left the gift in the car. I was almost slapped by 3 different people... and ready to get that gift out of my hands! :)

The reception was at the Webster House, a very cool, old two-story building that is now an antique shop with a restaurant upstairs. The rooms are split up upstairs so the party overtook the entire second story! We all congregated in one of the rooms and had two big tables -- someone later pointed out that it was a 320 table and a Houston table and that we ALWAYS do that! I guess we'll never get away from it either!

We all really had a good time though... one of my favorite parts of the night was when we went to sing to Lenny. While we were waiting on two other girls, Lenny says that we should sing "Little Girl"! Holy cow! First, its hysterical that she asked. Secondly, its hysterical that we did it. And thirdly, its hysterical that we REMEMBERED it! I mean, how could we not since we probably sang it more than 100 times in four years! But still... it was a very special moment when we finished and were so proud of ourselves! :)

After the DJ said the party was over and everyone had left, Lenny's dad comes to the back and asks us if we all need rides... which is when we realized that we were the only ones left and still just chatting away! Oops... So off we went to the Power and Light District, my first time! I really liked it! Until I woke up Sunday and felt like complete ass. That was fun.

Which leads me to my last wedding shower. It was at Beverly Aiken's house -- there were about 8 of us and we had a good time! Good food, a game that I almost won, and gifts (and money!). Plus we got to look at pictures of Edwin (PS. Congrats on your engagement!) from birth to now. :)

Anywho, we are off to my bachelorette party at Table Rock this weekend, which is followed by a weekend in Austin with Stella and Luke (and Seth, Michelle, Nate and Mg!).

I.

Can't.

Wait!!!

WTF

I give up.

I really do.

I devote hours (three just last night) to this show and it basically sucker punches me every season.

Last night on the finale of The Bachelorette, the entire show, everyone gushed over Jason and how he was the one that Deanna should choose. He is more her type. He is already a great father. He made her feel safe. She took him to swim with SHARKS for goodness sakes (that should have been my tipping off point!).

But no.. in the end, she picks the 'other guy'. Don't get me wrong, the 'other guy' is a great guy, but NOT the one I tuned in every week to watch. And most of the time, not the one that DeAnna was exclaiming about.

They always throw a curve ball at you in the end. Always. Every season. I basically knew that because they were talking such great thing about Jason that he wasn't going to get picked because that's what they do -- they think they are throwing us off by doing that.

NEWSFLASH ABC: You aren't! We get it! We get that you like the element of surprise, but I'm thinking your element of surprise is now bullshit.

So... though I'm not sure I can handle it, I am wanting to boycott the next edition of this show that I have not NOT watched since Trista and Ryan. I understand that my one boycott will not do anything, but maybe it will give me time to cool my jets! :)

PS. Getting married in 38 days. Woah.

My Addiction

It started way back when I was wee one at Kappa. I didn't watch the very first one, but I have been a devoted fan since then.

Yes, people. I am talking about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

I do believe that part of my love for this show is that it was a weekly ritual with my Kappa sisters that we would all meet in one room in the house, everyone would cozy up for one great hour of bonding... and staring at beautiful men aka Ryan on The Bachelorette (Trista and Ryan).

Ever since then, I have made it a priority to sit down and watch the show with every new season. After every season, I declare that it was good, but not as good as Trista and Ryan.

But this season, I do believe, comes in at possibly a tie with Trista and Ryan.

I could not stand DeAnna when she was on The Bachelor two season ago -- she was a bit rude and just rubbed me the wrong way.

It is a different story now... I think I like her because I truly believe that she is just being herself on the show. She was on once before, got dumped by dumb Brad, and is really wanting to fall in love. And yes, I am one of those that believes that it can happen!

My favorite guy, Jason, is still in the running -- the finale is next Monday and I have a feeling I will be at Patty Clark's watching (unless we miraculously get TV by then, but I doubt it).

I hate to admit this but I have been checking the message boards on the ABC website alot lately... I am dying to know if anyone knows what happens BEFORE the show airs. Yes, I'm one of those... I would search through our entire basement as a child to look for Christmas presents, I check my registries online to see what I have gotten, and I want to know if DeAnna picks Jason - sue me! :)

Anywho, if you are bored on Monday nights at 8 pm, tune in. It'll be a doozy, I promise!