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.