The Quest for the Black Diamond

Pretty dramatic title right? I know. Well this post deserves the dramatic-ness title of them all. Here's how it went down. Molly's little darling made her a darling little box for Christmas. Yes I said made, he is quite talented you see, Molly has high standards. Inside this box was an assortment of high school love trinkets, one of which was a little "bead" inside a doubled taped plastic "bead box". Molly waited patiently until after her movie party guests had gone home to peek inside her special box. I was eagerly looking over her shoulder like a good big sister should do. She is taking forever. I am nosey. I see the bead box. I grab the bead box. "What's this?" I say as I'm tearing the tape away. I finally remove the tape. Molly tells me not to open the bead box. I open the bead box. Hmmm. I'm confused. I can't help myself. I try to take the bead out of the special bead box. And abra cadabra, by no fault of my own, it disappears into the great abyss. I say uh oh. Molly says I told you so. We search. We pray. We almost cry. Molly went to bed. I searched. I prayed. I almost cried. I give up and go to bed. At church the next morning I go up to Mr. Darling and say "Hey, what was in that bead box? I dropped it on the floor and can't find it" He says "Oh. It was a black diamond. But its okay". A black diamond?? Well you should really take better care when you give someone a diamond, a little warning that says don't open this, I am special. I tell Molly this. Molly reminds me that it was all taped up and she told me not to open it. Rats. Charlie and Melanie come over for dinner. Alyssa their 6 year old says a prayer. She draws a plan. She has tools. They search. For an hour. We eat dinner. Melanie and I give up. Molly gives up. Alyssa gives up. Charlie is searching. Searching carpet strand by carpet strand. Alas! He FINDS it. Charlie saved the day. Charlie was Molly's Christmas miracle.

Here is the box

Here is the bead box...minus the gigantic sponge that was in it that made the diamond dangerously close to the top and causes black diamonds to jump right out.

Here is our carpet that it fell into. Now you tell me how it's possible to find a black diamond the size of a freckle in a carpet covered in black specs also the size of a freckle? Miracle.


Found.

All is well in teenage land for the minute.

This is What I Thought was so Darling

There is something wrong with our uploader because it will not let me upload hardly any pictures so this one will have to do for now. 5 months ago I started on a sewing project that was supposed to take 3 hrs, I just finished yesterday. I made two skirts, two jam bottoms(pjs) and two of these reversible capes. I have never made clothes before and I am far from good at it but it was fun to see these things come together. My next project is way more darling that these so I cant' wait to get started. Maybe next year I will finish them!

Aren't they darling?

blogger won't let me upload any pictures. guess you will never know what i thought was so darling.

Silent Auction at Bloom!

Looking for a way to provide service this holiday season? Here is a great opportunity. Starting Thursday, December 10th, there will be a charity auction at BLOOM (www.placetobloom.blogspot.com) to benefit Claire and Benson Skinner. As explained by their parents, "Benson and Claire were born with a rare genetic disease in which their liver produces too much oxalate--called primary hyperoxaluria. Claire's condition has progressed much faster than Benson's. She has been on dialysis since she was 3 months old and is on dialysis 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. She is now on the waiting list to receive a combined kidney / liver transplant. It is expected Benson will eventually need similar transplants." You can read more about the Skinners' experience HERE. (givehopetobensonandclaire.blogspot.com) All proceeds from the auction at BLOOM will go directly to Claire's COTA (Children's Organ Transplant Association) account to help pay for her transplant. Please head over to BLOOM Thursday-Saturday for the auction!
So there you have it. If you can, blog it, tweet it, facebook it, whatever. There are over 80 fun items up for bid, too, so I hope you'll come check it out!

My friend Anne has this awesome little blog called Bloom and they are having an awesome little auction to benefit some awesome little kids. Check it out. There is too much darlingness to put into words.

Getting Ripped Day 1 (almost)

Hello friends. I will skip the excuses on why I haven't blogged lately and get to the juicy stuff. Matt and I are getting ripped. Yes that's right you heard me. Yes we are regular worker outers. Yes we know that we aren't "fat" but we eat A LOT of junk and we are bored with our work outs, so to add some awesomeness to our days we decided to get ripped. I tried training for a marathon but (and I only tell you this because we are the best of friends) due to my runners diarrhea issues I have decided to postpone...the only other option was to get ripped. Move over Madonna. We are working out twice a day(most days) yikes...and eating body for life style. It's going pretty good so far, granted its only day 2 but that counts right? Last night we had lentils and rice for dinner thanks to our healthy tally neighbs and it was delish. Who knew?

Try not to be distracted by my crazy hair, yesterdays make up, side boob or anything else in these next few pictures. Thanks.

Starting weight 136.1 lbs

Starting weight ?

Our scale broke weight coming soon. Body fat also coming soon.

Things I must blog about soon

1. my awesome mummy calzones

2. my awesome christmas decor

3. our trip to p-town

4. my new obsession with my brothers dog

5. molly's water polo adventures-or maybe just her awesome pictures

Obsessed

Last night we went to Charles and Melanie's house for a belated birthday dinner(because right after Molly's party they got-SWINE FLU-yuck) and they got me a pedometer! I have been talking about getting one for forever. I am obsessed. I'm probably going to break it because I open it to check it about every 10 steps. It's pretty rad though. I am totally going to make it to my 10,000 steps today. Woot woot.

Surprise!

I really can not believe that I have kept this a secret for a whole month! Well almost a secret...I'm sure I've told most of you...but I kept it a secret from Molly which of course was of utmost importance. Matt and I decided to have a Drive in Movie Surprise party for Molly's 15th b-day. It really was a blast. I have been planning and crafting for a month now! Thank goodness my neighbor/friend Melanie let me take over her house for the past week so I could craft it up without getting caught...and because I was working on it she "volunteered" to help me out. Thanks Mel! Matt lucked out and really didn't have to help much at all because of football.

So here's how it went down. We told Molly we were too busy to have a party this year. She threw a couple of fits. We took her out to dinner with some friends for her actual b-day, gave her some books, a gift card and a butterfinger. She wasn't too impressed and was still feeling a little sour that she couldn't have a party. In the meantime every night last week Melanie and I stayed up way too late painting, cutting, glittering...

Friday night Molly went to the football game. She was planning on spending the night with a friend. Her friend "left her necklace at our house" so they had to stop by and get it. When they did. Surprise! Melanie's husband was a trooper and was my husband for a day. He, along with my brother, hooked up all the lights, hung up the "movie screen", set up the sound system, and hung the decorations. It only took 5 hours and it was only 100 degrees outside.

Here are the pics...the lighting stinks on most of them. I should have started taking pictures earlier in the day. Bummer.

You can't see the screen very well but it looked amazing. I got a big white sheet and two small black sheets to cover the garage.

The Concession Stand

Candy Table

Popcorn Boxes that took FOREVER to cut out!

I got this awning idea from Kara's party blog...super easy and super cute!

Popcorn Cupcakes. Delish.

Wil wearing Molly's new party sweater she got from a friend. Pretty rad huh?

Charles and Melanie

Party Planners at your service

One downside to a surprise party is you might show up in your p.j.s

The boy in the blue is Molly's One True Love. His name is Bryce.

Look at all the ghosts that came to our party.

I loved planning the party so much I'm looking for an excuse to plan another one. I was thinking Halloween since I did that last year I have a lot of stuff already...hmmm...we shall see.

The end.

Birthday Time

We look Molly and a couple of her friends to Road House for her b-day dinner. She really hasn't mastered the art of posing yet. She has a lot to learn. At least she didn't hide her face like usual.

Weekend-Ness

As mentioned previously I have a lack of blogging motivation right now. This post will not contain my usual whit and charm.

Last week my gma was in town from Corvallis. We took her on all sorts of adventures. On Saturday we loaded her up in the car with lots of food, a teenager named Molly and her friend Sheralyn and drove to Jed Smith and the Beach. Our good friends the Halls were lucky enough-or crazy enough-to come along as well.

Who wouldn't want Sher for a BFF?

The End.

Just Call Me Pam

Hello Blog.
I seem to have been neglecting a lot of things these days...my blog being one of them. I have been working for a few months now and I'm still figuring out how in the world I'm going to work full time and finish my bedroom, paint my door, update my kitchen, bake a pie, make a quilt, plant a garden, and learn to sew a dress. Not to mention the easy things on my to do list such as: paint my hideous toe nails, make some bread, update my picture albums. Easy right? How can I be a Molly Mormon and work at the same time? It doesn't add up. Luckily my boss isnt Micheal Scott and I don't wear keds with my work skirts but still...office life is an adjustment.

Camping with Daddio and Fam

Reader beware: This post contains 10,000 pictures proceed at your own risk.
Last weekend my Dad and Rhonda invited us to go camping at the coast with them for a few days. Every year my dad goes fishing for 2 weeks in Gold Beach, they never invited us anywhere, so we jumped on the opportunity. My dad is a vacation alone kind of guy, so the kids usually end up left out. He hauled his huge house on wheels over to the coast a few days before us....since kids (including grown ups that are still thought of as "kids") are not allowed in the hotel bus he kindly set up some tents for us. It was a blast. We only got to stay there for 2 nights but it was great. We got to hang out with my aunt and uncle, eat a ton of food, read a lot of magazines, go on a lot of walks and just enjoy being with each other. There is really nothing to do at Gold Beach if you've never been there. Our "camp ground" was basically an R.V. park..no trees...no woods...no resemblance of camping except for our tent, so us ladies had to entertain ourselves while the boys were a fishin.

How many pictures can Wil try to ruin in one trip? How many times can my dad tell Wil to "stop being a dumb a** in one trip? One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six. I guess six is the limit.

My dad took Matt out on the ocean. It's only his second or third time fishing...he's never been out on the ocean before...he was pretty excited. He didn't even get sea sick...all my worrying for nothing.

They came home with 40 Black Snapper and 15 Crabs...my dad had caught some Salmon and Perch earlier so the next night we had a huge fish fry. It was pretty fun I must admit. I even tried all the fish...and I am not a fishy kind of gal...but it was good. Unfortunately I was up sick all night.

My cute dad...looking just like my dad looks in all my memories. He got to teach Matt a lot of stuff about fishing. Matt thought it was pretty cool.

Wil and Matt tried to fish off the Jetty...didn't turn out too good. We moved about 5 times for all sorts of reasons other than they just weren't that great of fishermen! Oh well...we can't be good at everything.

Matt looks a little scurd of the ocean to me

Fishing Fan Club

What happens when you listen to the ocean, drinking diet caffeine free coke after diet caffeine free coke, for 3 hours? You have to find a rock and hope the 500 people fishing next to you don't mind getting their feet a little wet.

Molly and Wil enjoying the quiet

Will telling Matt about his "new technique" that was going to catch a fish for sure. Matt busy listening to Wil's incessant talking...hooks a fish and then loses it.

Oh! What's this? Wil caught a fish 2 seconds later...he was SURE it was due to his new technique.

He is so excited he's almost falling off the rock into the deep and roaring ocean.

This is a day to celebrate. My dad let the boys clean the fish when they got back to camp. We were supposed to have fish tacos from our little buddy...we could maybe have a fish tacoette. I think all the meat came off with the skin. Ooops.

They even let me give it a try for half a second...then I caught some rocks and seaweed and all of a sudden it was time to go home.

Black Snapper, Perch, Salmon, Fish Tacos, Crab, Ribs...what more could a man ask for?

That's my aunt Betty and Rhonda. They didn't want their picture taken. Rhonda pretended to be MJ.

The end.