She Did It!

The title of this post should really be, "HE DID IT!". That's right... he did it... Kev finally gave in and quit torturing Grace by making her the only 8 year-old alive without pierced ears.

One of the highlights of Christmas morning was Grace opening her "real" earrings from Kev. She got a strange look on her face when she couldn't find the clips on the back and then finally noticed they were the real thing. She immediately started screaming and ran for the phone. If you didn't get a call, I promise you were next on her list. If you didn't hear her screams you must not live within a 50 mile radius. She couldn't wait to share the all important news with the world.

Now here is where the torture began. Earrings given on Christmas Day. Merle Norman doesn't open until 10:00 the next day. Yes, that's 24 loooonnnnnggg hours of anticipation and questions of how bad it's going to hurt.

Here's a taste:

So does it hurt worse than a flu shot? What about a bee sting? If you ranked breaking your arm as a 7 where would you rank getting your ears pierced on the scale? When I get my flu shot it hurts for about 2 minutes... will it hurt that long? Here... let me pinch your arm. Does it hurt that bad? Ok... let me try knocking you in the head with a hammer... does it hurt like that?

After awhile, I was wishing someone would knock me in the head with a hammer.

To make it worse when I was in high school my earring got caught on my boyfriend's sweater and ripped right through my ear. My ear is cut in two and it requires plastic surgery to get it fixed. To be honest if I was going to go for plastic surgery I can think of about thirty places I'd start before I went in for my ear. All that to say Grace is incredibly paranoid about her ear "ripping". She gives about a three foot distance to anything she passes by just so it doesn't "catch on ear ear and cause permanent damage." So if you see Grace and she seems a little "distant" with you... don't take it personal she's only protecting the wellbeing of those beautiful ears.

Back to the big day.

We headed off to Merle Norman the day after Christmas with 10 of us in tow to cheer Grace on while she faced the tortorous earring piercing contraption. I think we overwhelmed the poor little girl at the counter as we all descended upon her. She was wonderful though and worked her magic so quickly that Grace never had time for those tears she had anticipated. Best of all - she had great accuracy and we now have two beautiful, and more importantly, identical piercings.

We headed to Newks after for a celebratory lunch. What's a big event without food? Uncle Gene and Luke showed up for the food and celebration. I have a feeling Merle Norman wasn't really Luke's thing. Of course if he knew it involved guns, needles, blood and one of the girls screaming in pain he might have made it for the show.

Now Grace's new cause is for a cell phone. I wonder how long Kev will hold out on this one?

Grace with her big supporter, Allie.

Grace picking out "the biggest diamonds they have".

Oh, the anticipation

Oh, the pain...

Oh, the beauty!

The support crew