Rosie Atkins

So there I was planning a trip to St. Louis and reminiscing about how I had joked about kidnapping Emily Atkins and taking her on a roadtrip to see her sister Rosie in Independence, Missouri. Then I realized that Independence is on the way to St. Louis and that I could go see Rosie myself! Genius. We made plans to take her out to lunch on Monday. She was excited and said her birthday is on Wednesday and it's perfect timing for a lunch treat.

Then people at church heard I was going to see Sister Atkins Junior and said I have to prank her because that's what Emily wanted to do. So with 24 hours' notice and already being on the road from my house, this is what we came up with.  We bought 2 packs of gum, Sour Patch and mint, and swapped the sticks. Then I got a bottle of sour spray candy and peeled the label off. Shad said to rub hand sanitizer on it to remove the sticky residue. Perfect. We told Rosie it was breath spray. I bought a few other things to complete a fun birthday gift basket--bubbles, sidewalk chalk, nail polish, glow sticks--and put the sour spray and gum in with everything. Oh, and I bought a window paint marker and stashed it in my glove compartment.

We met Rosie and her companion at the LDS visitors' center, then drove to The Happy Greek for lunch. After ordering, I made an excuse to go out to the van to find something for Samson to eat, but grabbed the window marker and decorated their car.



I returned, saying I had a hard time finding his food buried under other things in our packed car, and no one suspected anything.

We said goodbye after eating, snapped a few pictures, then I casually started a video on my phone and followed Rosie to her car.

Now a week later, I haven't heard anything about the gum or breath spray. I sent her a text today asking if she's had the chance to enjoy them yet. I'll update when I hear back!