"no guts no glory"

This quote comes from many places, but I am referencing it's presence on Patrick's favorite show... "Gold Rush:  Alaska".  Apparently the oldest of the gold miners on this show says this, and it got stuck in Pat's head (lucky me) and he said it the whole 1.5 hour trip we took this weekend to Boone, NC.

Boone is actually really far away from us, but it is close to my parents house, and since we were there this weekend, we decided to trek up there and try our luck at some gem mining!  My mom and dad came along with us and we had so much fun!  We sat out in the gorgeous 65 degree weather with our 5 gallon bucket and we scooped dirt and panned it in a flume and picked out our little (and sometimes not so little) gemmies! And we learned a lot too.  Who knew that North Carolina was the gemstone capital of North America?

Well, in all my infinite wisdom (aka excitement) I forgot our camera to take pictures of the actual mining.  Bummer!  But here's what we came home with:

Bags full of lots of quartz, garnets, topaz and more!

 

The small stone is my little baby emerald, and the bigger one is one of my sapphires!  

Jack was very interested in my chunk of rose quartz

And it wouldn't be mining without a little fool's gold :)

My big piece of tourmaline

We also found some more that is currently being made into jewelry for me and my mom!  In just 2 weeks I will be the proud owner of a dalmation jasper, 2 sparkling sapphires, 1 red ruby and a big old aquamarine all of which will be cleaned, polished and cut and ready to be set in something pretty!  My mom chose a giant piece of red jasper my dad found, her big emerald rock, an amethyst and a ruby too!  Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Now all we need is a rock tumbler so we can get our pieces at home shining like the real gems they are... 

i've got some big news...

the bank finally came through...

and I'm holding the keys to...

a brand new Chevrolet!

I'd like to thank Mr. Brad Paisley for the use of his lyrics to announce the biggest of happenings at our house, a new car!  (In case you didn't know, those were lyrics to "Mud on the Tires").  Anywho, we have been searching and searching for the perfect Tahoe for a loooooooooooong time.  Like since before-we-were-married long time.  Finally, finally, finally, we found one!  We picked her up yesterday, and so far so good!  It has a ton of features we didn't even know about and I'm keeping myself busy by reading the owners manual today.

That of course means one other thing.  We ( I ) had to say goodbye to a dear old friend simultaneously.  That would be my cabrio.  I will forever miss my little car.  We had some good times together in those 66040 miles (exactly) that we shared.  She got me where I needed to go (most of the time), even for this one final voyage to Carmax in Fayetteville a quick and short 2 and a half hours away.

Thanks for the many years, cabby.  I hope whoever buys you at auction will love you just as much as I did!

super sunday

We had a relatively quiet Super Bowl Sunday around these parts...  Quiet in that it was the 4 of us, not so quiet in that we were both yelling at the tv quite a bit.  And surprisingly for the same team!  That rarely ever happens.

This is how we do the Super Bowl in the McCreary household.  A ridiculous amount of appetizers, the majority of which made their way to tupperwear in the fridge.

My 3 men watching the game :)

happenings...

I know, I know... it's been a while.  I've been pretty lazy when it comes to this 'blog stuff'.  But here's a little update of what I've been busy with...

Jack 'helping' me make my flowers.

This past weekend we decided to sort our 3 gigantic jars of change, which we deposited in the bank... a whopping $297!  Then we ran out of coin rolls, so we still have one jar (of mostly pennies) left.

My Win snuggled up like a little lamb.  Love the way he tucks in his big old paws.

So, see?  SUPER busy around here.  Ha!  But big things are coming... stay tuned!