An Exciting Night at the Auction

Darcie, my bestest friend and shopping buddy, and I were each other's dates for an auction that our church was doing to help our missionaries. Rich and Nate had to go to a football conference in Grand Rapids, so the two of us girls decided to go and spend our men's money...and that we did!

So Darcie and I had never been to an auction before. We had no idea what to expect. We first walked in and received our paddles with our numbers on it. I picked 28 to go with my number. I have a hard time remembering things so I figured if my paddle was my age, I would be all set. (Look at us fun girls with our paddles! Darcie's mom took our picture when we returned. Next auction Darcie, we'll bring our cameras!)

The first part of the auction was the silent auction. There were four tables with tons of items on them from homemade cards to beautiful paintings. I saw this cute little baby sweater when I walked in that had a matching hat. I do not have kids yet, but it was too cute to pass up. I kept my eye on it and won it! Yeah! When I showed Nate his comment was, "Oh boy! Now people are really going to be talking." I also won some cinnamon rolls. I lost a lot of others things, but it was a fun time watching everyone stand by the items they wanted and go back and forth with the silent bidding. Darcie got a gift certificate for new contacts and a very nice creative memory book. Great work Darcie!

Next came the live auction. So we both really wanted the condo in Florida for a week. We knew that it was going to start out high. The bid started out at $1000. No one went for that bid so it was lowered to $500. Darcie and I looked at each other and went for it. We knew we would split it between the two of us. Well, let's just say the price quickly rose and we were out of the running. I think it went for $1200. Oh well.

The next item that we had our heart set on was a 3 night cabin at Crystal Mountain for this summer. The bidding started at $300. We were in! Well the owner announced that it was also good for the winter. It quickly went up to $700. Darcie, Nate, and I are not skiers, so we sadly let the others go at the bidding. We were so sad! We did have fun watching everyone else go back and forth with bidding. There are so many generous people in our church.

So just when we thought we were done bidding for the night, the owner of the cabin decided to throw in another 3 night cabin stay for the summer. Knowing that it was four bedrooms and there was golf available for the boys, we both looked at each other and decided to go for it once more. The bidding started at $300 again and quickly rose. Darcie and I were so nervous. Everyone said we kept giggling and looking at each other funny because we didn't know what to do. I was so excited that I even hit my head with my paddle. Well, do you think we won the cabin? We sure did! For $500, we got a lovely 4 bedroom condo right on the golf course. The Marshall's, Jackson's, and Mihalek's will be living in the good life this summer at Crystal Mountain for a couple of days. We are so excited! What a fun vacation we are going to have and it all benefits our missionaries!

After we paid for our items, Darcie and I became very nervous because we realized we would have to tell our husbands what we did. We knew that if we played the golf card really high they wouldn't have any problem with it. We were right. The boys are so excited to go! Darcie and I are such pros now at the auction thing. I think we've become addicted!