April 29, 2009

It is a rainy day here today. I was going to take the boys out to do some grocery shopping but then it really started pouring rain so I changed the plan. I was really craving a soda today, since we don't buy them anymore to keep at the house. So I rounded up the boys to run out quickly to the nearby Quick Trip so I could get a soda. I have done this before. The boys stay in the car and I run in and it only takes me a minute to get one can of soda, pay and go back out and the boys would not get wet because they would get in and out in our garage.

As I was getting out of the van at the Quick Trip, the boys were asking me to bring them something. It was now raining pretty hard. I pulled on the hood on my hoodie jacket and ran, locking the van with the key faub as I went.

I went into the small store, walked straight over to the fridge with the single cans of soda, went from there to the candy display, across from the counter where one pays, walked over to the chips display and grabbed a small bag of cheetos for the boys and went back to the counter to pay. All of this took approximately 2 to 3 minutes and very few steps, as the store is small.

There was one person in front of me so I didn't have to wait very long to pay. After paying, I started looking for my keys, which would normally be in my jacket pocket. My cell phone was there but not my keys. I didn't have a purse with me but I had a fanny pack. I searched through it and still did not find my keys. I was starting to get nervous and started praying. I dumped everything in my pockets and the fanny pack on the counter, still no keys. Now I am really panicking and praying the whole time and on the verge of tears. I retraced my steps and carefully looked on the floor and shelves, still no keys. Now I am in a full scale panic. I asked people working at the counter, they had seen my keys. I retraced my steps again, multiple times, and also searched my pockets and fanny pack again, multiple times. My keys were absolutely nowhere to be found.

At some point, in the midst of all of this, I called my husband and told him what had happened. Thankfully, he was not seeing patients so he left work right away and headed home to get the extra set of keys to the van. In the meantime, I went to the van several times and told the boys what had happened (I yelled through the window that I had lost the keys and daddy was coming to help us.) They really handled it much better than I did:).

It was lunch time when we ran out and I thought we would be right back. So I knew they were very hungry by then. Still, neither of them got upset and they pretty much just sat and watched the cars and people come and go. A small mail truck pulled up alongside our van. He backed in so the boys were sitting right next to the mailman, while he ate his lunch. I think they stared at him the whole time. They must have been locked in the van for about an hour, by the time it was all over.

After searching thoroughly multiple times and not finding anything, we concluded someone must have stolen the keys. The people who worked there also helped us look and there was just not that many places that they could have been hiding. I was wearing a zip-up sweatshirt hoodie that has lose pockets and there was a guy standing next to me while I was paying. I am wondering now if he might have lifted my keys from my pocket. Who knows but I am pretty sure someone stole them somehow.

We are going to change the locks on the house and on the van too. It will likely cost a fortune but we feel as if we have no choice.

In other news, I think I forgot to tell you that there was a fox outside our house a week or so ago. It was a Sunday and we had stayed home from church because we were sick. I happened to look out the kitchen windows and there was a fox, trotting up our driveway toward the garage. When he discovered he was fenced in, he turned around and trotted back down our driveway, took a left and trotted down the road. It was pretty incredible to see in the middle of this small city where we live. I don't know where he could have come from, as we are a ways from any area where foxes might live, as far as I know.

The other wildlife event at our house is we have a squirrel that keeps getting on top of our bird feeder and helping himself to a good dinner. It is funny to watch, as he lays across the top of it with his head and front paws hanging down and eating the food, while he holds on for dear life with his back paws and tail. I still haven't figure out how he gets on top of the feeder because it is mounted on a steel pole. The pole is in the ground and the feeder is about the height of my head so I don't think he could climb it or jump that high. I think he must be jumping off the roof of the house onto the feeder but have yet to see him do it. We saw him out there for the first time yesterday and I have already seen him there twice today.

In still other news, our quiet time is going very well. We have been doing 30 minutes a day but today we are shooting for 45 minutes. I would like to work up to one hour but may need to do it over a longer period of time. We'll see how today goes.

We have started reading our first chapter book. It is a book called Three Tales of My Father's Dragon. We have already read the first tale and are in the middle of the second one. The boys are really enjoying it and I am too, since I have never read this book before either. It is a really cute book. Nick never wants to stop reading but, after a while, Ben usually says that's enough for now. I am surprised they were into it actually. I had started it with them several times in the past and each time they were not interested. But I happened to pick it up the other day and started reading it to them while they were eating and they really took an interest in it. I will have to find some other chapter books for kids their age when we finish this one. If you know of any chapter books for the 3 to 4 year old market, let me know.

Well, we have a little under 10 minutes of quiet time left and Ben has fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. Nick is no longer looking at books but is flipping and flopping on the small couch in the library. I wish he would take a quick cat nap but I don't think it is on his agenda for today, even though I think he typically needs it more than Ben does. I better go now. Hope you are having a good day.