Lost and Found

Lost: simple, thick wedding/anniversary band.  Given to me on our 10th wedding anniversary by the Bionic Man.  It is tungsten, which means it is shiny, almost black, and extremely cool.  Tungsten is the strongest metal known to man, which means it doesn't scratch.  Perfect anniversary gift.  Discovered it was missing at a rest stop in Franklin, Tennessee.  Don't remember taking it off.  (I never take it off!)  I'm distraught.  Praying I will find it in my luggage.

Found:  the sweater I didn't think I had packed.  In the luggage.  There is hope for the ring, isn't there?

Lost:  the horrible chest cold I had when we left on our spring break vacation.  It is almost completely gone, poof!

Found:  the cure for the common cold!  The medicinal properties of lying on a beach have not been sufficiently studied.  I tell you, all it took was a day lying in the warm sun on a Florida beach for me to feel like a new woman.  Stuffy nose and cough, gone.  {snaps fingers}  Like that!  Next time I get sick, I'm ditching the Mucinex and going to the beach, instead.



Lost:  the pure-as-the-driven-snow white skin I've been sporting since, oh, about October of 2010.

Found:  actual skin pigment.  Saying I have a tan is stretching the truth, but I am sporting a lovely, warm shade of pale beige, now.

Lost:  the belief that we can take a vacation without the family dog and everything will be just fine.  Everything was not fine, as you will read below, and due to my extreme guilt, Hunter the Dog will be coming on all future family vacations.

Found:  a nasty pile of dog diarrhea this morning as I entered the girls' room, barefoot.  Not a great way to start the morning.  In poor Hunter the Dog's defense, he tried to tell me he wasn't feeling well.  Apparently, being boarded away from the family for a week stresses Hunter the Dog.  We are going to the vet in a few minutes.  We may have to explore his abandonment issues in therapy.  I'm almost feeling like the worst dog-mother in the world, but not quite, because I single-handedly cleaned up the dog diarrhea, and still felt sorry for Hunter.  That has to give me some points, right?

Lost:  so much stress and anxiety about all the big decisions and potential changes we have coming down the pipe around here.

Found:  a renewed confirmation that stuff is just stuff.  Our little family is a family no matter where we are or where we are going or where we have been or what we are taking along with us.  I loved just being with my family, watching my children have fun with each other, and all those incredibly side-splitting moments when we were "stuck" in a car together.  It made me so happy to roast marshmallows with the Bionic Man over the campfire after the children went to bed.  Memories can be kept, stuff can't be.

Lost:  Spring Break 2011.  It's officially over.

Found:  my sanity.