I have. Last week.

At first I wasn’t even sure I was going to share this story on my blog. Although I’m a pretty open person and almost everything in my life is fair game for my blog (hee hee) I wasn’t planning on sharing this particular story.

It showcases my stupidity and absentmindedness to it’s fullest. But God took this little happening in my life and pretty much did an all out miracle for me. I see God’s hand all over the story I’m about to share with you.

Yes, yes….I’m getting to it already!!

So….last Monday, 4th Of July to be exact, we went to the zoo. (Pictures to come!! I’m so back logged right now….)

Mike had the day off and we thought it would be a great day to get out as a family and go to a zoo in the area we’d never been to.

Over the weekend we had been working on and updating our budget spreadsheet  ( via Financial Peace University) and had noticed a few mistakes miscommunications  on my part on the spreadsheet that needed fixing. Due to this fact, we had no “extra” money in our checking account. On my way out the door to leave for the zoo I thought “What if we have some sort of emergency while we’re an hour away from home? And we can’t use our debit card?? “  Remember my good intentions as you read the rest of this story…

So, I remembered that I still had the envelope with our vacation money sitting in my desk that I hadn’t deposited yet. I thought ” Let me grab this and throw it in my purse. Just in case.”

It was a lot of money.  Over one thousand dollars of a lot of money. Way more than I should have  ever been carrying around in an envelope.

Many of you are probably cringing, knowing what’s probably coming.

And you would be right.

Anyway back to my story.  We arrived at the zoo and started enjoying our time there. I had envelopes with the girls zoo spending money, our zoo spending money along with the vacation envelope. I had envelopes all over the place!  We bought stuff in one gift shop on our way out and then stopped at a Brazilian restaurant for some delicious dinner.

We got home late, hot, and exhausted but happy. Everyone threw their stuff on the dining room table and went off to wash up and go to bed (the kids) and watch t.v ( mommy and daddy).

Tuesday morning we got up and I rushed Katelyn off to her first day of Super Summer at church and ran errands after I dropped her off. Everything that had been dumped on the dining room table had not been looked at or dealt with until Tuesday night.

Tuesday night I thought to myself that I needed to clear off the table and that that vacation envelope should go back to the drawer I had it in and then deposit it. I did a quick glance in my purse and didn’t see the envelope. I felt a slight troubling twinge but figured I’d do a better search in the morning.

Wednesday  morning I got up and looked through my purse for the envelope again.

It wasn’t there. All the other empty ones were there but the BIG one wasn’t. My heart started pounding a bit but I thought that it probably fell out of my purse onto the mess that was the dining room table. After looking through and clearing off the dining room table, I found that the envelope wasn’t on the dining room table either.

Now, at this point, I’m starting to sweat just a little.

Ok, seriously. Ahem. It’s time to find this thing. Time to come out envelope, ol’ buddy, o’l pal with my lots -of -vacation- money in it!!

Aha! I must have put it on my desk with other papers I just put there. Whew. Dodged that one!

After tearing apart my desk and office I found that the envelope wasn’t there either!!!! The envelope was not in any of the “logical” places it should have been.

At this point I am starting to P-A-N-I-C. Oh God!! No really. Not taking the Lord’s name in vain here. Oh, God help  me!!!

What idiot loses a thousand dollars in an envelope and has no clue how it happened???

Me , apparently!!

At this point you must also know that I hadn’t told my husband about it yet. I hadn’t even told him I had taken the envelope to begin with. It was such a passing thing it didn’t even cross my mind to tell him I’d done it.

Think. Think.Think.

Target. I went to Target yesterday. It must have fallen out of my purse at Target. Pretty sure I saw it in my purse at Target.

Maybe.

Called Target. Sorry, they don’t have it.

CRAP! Besides, if it had fallen out at Target WHO would pass up an envelope with that much cash in it?? No one, most likely, this day and age.

I called the Brazilian restaurant we ate at. They didn’t have it.

I spent all of Wednesday SICK and with my stomach twisted in knots. I couldn’t focus on anything. I couldn’t eat. I was worried sick. And trying to figure out how to tell Mike that I had managed to lose our hard earned vacation money. The whole time I’m praying, praying, praying.

Lord, please don’t let this happen to me. I had good intentions!!

Please help some kind person to have found that envelope if I dropped it somewhere and turned it in.

Please let it be in the house somewhere and guide me to it!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

All day Wednesday I prayed and all day I kept hearing the name of the gift shop we bought souvenirs at at the zoo in my head. I kept thinking “ Nah. I couldn’t have left it there. I’m almost positive I saw it once we got home!“. But that name kept coming up in my head.

So, I told myself I’d call the gift shop the next morning and if they didn’t have it I would HAVE to tell Mike what had been going on and tell him that I had lost our vacation money.

So I went to bed with lead in my stomach but feeling slightly hopeful. We got up Thursday, I dropped Katelyn off at Super Summer and waited impatiently for 10 am to come. At the time I was at the library waiting for one of the kids programs to start for Maddy. I ran outside,  made the phone call and gave the manager all my info. She said she’d look and call me if they found anything.

With a heavy heart I hung up and went inside to finish out the childrens activity and then go pick up Katelyn from Super Summer. When I got home my answering machine was beeping.

Heart pounding, I pressed the play button and heard ” Hello, this is Eric from XYZ zoo and you had called about a lost envelope with money in it. Well, we found your envelope.... Please call  Tina at this number so we can get this back to you.”

I burst into tears of relief! I couldn’t believe it!!

I couldn’t dial the number fast enough. They told me I had left it on the counter on Monday and they had put it in their safe. I could come whenever I wanted to pick it up. I told them I’d be leaving within the  next half hour. I packed the kids back in the van, grabbed some lunch for them and dropped the oldest two off at my inlaws after explaining the whole story to them. Then Jocy and I drove an hour there to pick up the envelope. I wasn’t going to be completely calm until I had that thing in my hand!!

As I drove I kept thinking- What if it’s not my envelope? What if it doesn’t have all the money in it?

Then I kept telling myself that 1. God wouldn’t have brought me this far to have that envelope not me mine and 2. What other idiot would have accidentally left an envelope of money there on Monday?

Alas, this story has a great ending. It WAS my envelope and ALL of the money was there! I told “Tina” I could kiss all of them for being so honest and returning my envelope.

But, God also deserves a lot of praise. He was watching over that envelope and he was the one protecting it. It could have easily been snatched up but He allowed it to be returned. And He kept telling me all day on Wednesday to call the gift shop!! I was just too dumb to listen.

If only…right? I could have had that envelope a couple of days sooner!

That’s why I’m sharing this story. To show you how amazing God is. I’m so thankful to him for relieving me of that burden. God’s hand was completely at work all of last week.

I guess you’re wondering what Mike thought of all this?

Well, at first I wasn’t going to tell him. I thought why create needless distress for him when it all worked out. But we’re a team. We tell each other everything. As much as I wanted to keep that little foible to myself I knew I should tell him about it. And face whatever music there may be. He had the right to be upset. That was A LOT of money to almost lose!  Everyone else in our families knew due to me asking for major prayer so it was only right that he know too.

And you know what? I’m glad I told him Sunday afternoon.

His reaction was completely none emotional. He closed his eyes and groaned (probably like you did) when he saw where my story was going. But then he said  ” It’s just money. Mistakes happen all the time.”

He’s cool like that.

God is good!! Our vacation money is recovered and where it should be. Just a week ago today I was sick with worry. Today I’m carefree as a bird.

Thank you, Lord!

Yesterday feels like a black hole of time to me. From about 1:30 am Sunday morning Madelyn started vomiting every hour and half to two hours.  Seems she caught the stomach virus that’s been going around. She went through all of her clean sheets and several pairs of  pajamas. I thought an explosively puking child was bad. Turns out an explosively puking child in the middle of the night is worse. She couldn’t sleep because she was miserable and every time she did go to sleep, starting to throw up would wake  her. That is not a pleasant way to wake up. Since the girls share a room Katelyn woke up every time Madelyn threw up and started crying.

None of us got much sleep that night. Finally by 6 am Madelyn came crying into my room and asked if she could get in bed with us. I’m usually very strict about not letting my children sleep in my bed but the poor thing was miserable so I let her snuggle in. Of course, I was worried about her throwing up in my bed too, but I figured I have many more sets of sheets than she does and it was 6 am already. Almost time to get up. A few minutes later I heard the pitter patter of little feet and Katelyn asked if she could get in bed with us too.

The more the merrier!!

Madelyn did throw up twice more but thankfully I had a large bowl for one of the explosions. The other time I wasn’t so lucky.

We all got up after that and decided none of us would be going to church yesterday. Mike started feeling a little sick himself. Thankfully he didn’t get much worse than that.

We rested the rest of the day and Madelyn threw up many more times. Finally by the afternoon she was able to sleep restfully in Mike’s lap on the couch. She was exhausted and pitiful.

I dozed on and off the recliner in between bouts of  Maddy’s vomiting and having to get Mike and Madelyn stuff they needed. ( As Madelyn would not get out of Mike’s lap). Let’s just say I couldn’t wait for the girls to go to bed that night so I could go to bed!

During this whole ordeal yesterday Katelyn was having a hard time with all of the attention Madelyn was getting. She was getting into trouble left and right. Wouldn’t leave Madelyn alone. She kept wishing she was sick too. Was pestering us, complaining and misbehaving.  Mike finally sent her to her room. She went stomping up the stairs, making quite a nasty face.

After a while we noticed we hadn’t heard any noise from upstairs. Since I had to go the bathroom (again!!) I went up to check on her. This is what I saw when I rounded the corner….

“What the …??”  I thought. Katelyn had decided to put her pillow in the hallway and lay on the floor. She fell asleep this way. She did not want to be removed from us in her room so she thought the next best thing was laying in the hallway!

That kid….

She is definitely a piece of work sometimes!

Thankfully, Madelyn is feeling better today. And Katelyn is ….well….being Katelyn!

“The secret to good makeup is not over doing it” says Madelyn to herself while applying her “makeup” the other day.

Those wise words were apparently spoken by Ruby of “Max and Ruby” fame.

Truer words (in regards to makeup) have never been spoken.

“I have a wonderful make-up crew. They’re the same people restoring the Statue of Liberty.” ~Bob Hope

“I will not retire while I’ve still got my legs and my make-up box.” ~Bette Davis

“Use a make-up table with everything close at hand and don’t rush; otherwise you’ll look like a patchwork quilt.” ~Lucille Ball

“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.” ~Albert Einstein

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

This post is linked up to Wordful Wednesday over at Seven Clown Circus.

*Quotes taken from BrainyQuotes.com

Okay, first of all, this girl needs to stop growing. She looks fourteen in this picture. See the shorter hair that is framing her face? Yep, that’s what she added herself. It was all one length before. She apparently was going for a “Rachel” hair cut.

Here she decides to start having fun with the fact that I’m taking pictures of her misbehavior. But, if I didn’t do that what kind of mommy blogger would I be?

Think she’s sorry???

Don’t answer that!

Here’s some shots of Madelyn’s hair. Who couldn’t be bothered with us while watching t.v. Or, she may have been sitting on her little potty at the time and didn’t like the fact that I was taking her picture.

But…whatever, right?

She seemed to only have chopped a little chunk of her hair. Her hair has various layers in it since it’s still growing out so this chunk blends in a little better than Katelyn’s layers do.

You can see the chopped layer where it ends right beneath her ear.

Do you think they have futures as hair stylists?

I wanted to share with you some of the funny stuff the girls have been saying recently.

Madelyn insists on being called “Diego”. If you call her “Madelyn” she will calmly say ” My name is Diego.” If Katelyn refuses to call her that she’ll burst into tears and go into hysterics over it.

The other thing Madelyn is going around doing these days is stopping and shouting  at me (or whoever else is near by) “ You’re out of  the herd!!!

She gets this line from ” Ice Age” which both of the girls adore. She’ll only say it on her terms though. If we stand on our head, bribe and beg her to yell ” You’re out of the herd!!” she refuses to say it.

Madelyn, who is usually my quiet and shy child, found herself quite fascinated by another little girl at dance class the other day. The little girl was playing a hand held video game and her bangs kept falling in to her eyes. Madelyn kept reaching over and wiping her bangs out of her eyes. The little girl just ignored her and kept playing her game. Finally Madelyn looked at me and said ” Does she talk?”

Katelyn has been obsessed with death here lately. She keeps asking me when she’s going to die. Then she’ll say she doesn’t want to die and that she just wants Jesus to take her to Heaven. I’m seriously running out of ideas to get her mind off the subject. I keep telling her she doesn’t have to worry about that right now because it’s not going to happen any time soon. But she’s the type that wants answers now.

Katelyn walked around the grocery store with four fingers in the air the other day. When I asked her what she was doing she said she wanted everyone to know how old she was.

She seriously embarrassed me with a comment at church a few weeks ago. We had been ooohhing and aahing over this tiny newborn girl. She was super dainty and adorable. We then walked over to talk to another acquaintance that has a baby boy who’s about six months old. He’s big and chubby and super cute. As we were walking away she said very loudly ” Mama, I want a cute baby. Not like that one”. I wanted the floor to swallow me up. I don’t know if the mom heard her or not because I just kept walking. I know what Katelyn was trying to say and it wasn’t that she didn’t think the little boy was cute. What she meant was that she wants a newborn, tiny baby. She doesn’t want a big, older baby. I also explained to her that she can’t say things like that because it will hurt people’s feelings.I  don’t know if she gets that yet.

I’m still walking around on a pregnancy high. I think it’s too early for me to really start feeling any pregnancy symptoms. I have been very tired but that’s it. I didn’t have morning sickness with either of my two girls so I have my fingers crossed that I won’t get it this time around either. I’m planning to post all about the day I found out I was pregnant.

For now I need to go to bed!

Anyhoo, as you may remember I enjoy writing some of the weird search terms that have led people to my blog. Sometimes they’re scary, sometimes they’re funny and sometimes they’re…”who searches for stuff like that??!!”

Here are my favorites for the past several weeks:

*Children’s shows  I can’t remember*

I don’t think Google will be much help there!

*How many cry during the Star Spangled Banner*

Me!! I’m one. I know exactly how they landed here on that one. I mentioned in a Top Ten post that our national anthem chokes me up every time.

*MckMama Drama/Anti MckMama blogs/MckMama hate/MckMama hate blogs*

I still get  many of those hits on my blog because I mentioned MckMama before. My cousin told me that she did that search and my blog was one of the top ones that came up! I like MckMama and you won’t find any MckMama bashing here! For the record. Great, now my blog will still come up in those searches since I mentioned all of those terms here again.

*Good reads blog button*

I hope my blog qualifies as a good read AND I have a blog button too! They came to the right place.

*Why does my best friend make me cry?*

Ok, I thought this one was funny. Maybe they should ask they’re best friend? Just a thought.

*Family prayer on giving to others*

Awww, this is a nice one.

*Top 10 boys favorites*

*Top 10 things kids hate to do*

Clean up. Go to bed. Share. Eat veggies. Go to the doctor. There’s five.

* Cry without teas song*

Ummm.. did they mean “cry without tears song?”  Never heard of it!

*Layla Grace suffered so much*

This one made me sad. Obviously someone was searching for blogs mentioning Layla Grace and how much she suffered in her short life.

*Flooding her boots*

Haha! I would love to find out why this person was using this particular search term. If your boots are flooded take them off! Duh!

And my favorite this time around:

*Mel smells of poo*

Who and why are you searching for that? Did someone actually write a blog post about a Mel smelling like poo?

What are some funny Google searches that have landed people on your blog? I’d love to hear them!

Oh, and I’m having  a hard time coming up with a clever title to these Google search posts. If you can think of one and I’d like to share it with me please do!

and smearing it all over her face will remind her that she has a big sister who would also likes to smear apply lip gloss. So she’ll probably ask for lip gloss for her big sister…

And once big sister applies lip gloss to her face it will remind her that she needs practice applying it  to other people’s faces…

so she’ll ask daddy to be her model.

And once daddy agrees to be her model, mommy will thank God for having such a wonderful husband and father of her children…

……and remember that she has a blog where she loves to post about her husband and lip gloss loving girls

….. and then she’ll remember she has a camera and that this is a blog worthy moment

…And take pictures. Lots pictures.

……And post it on her blog. And when her little girls see the pictures on her blog, it will remind them that they love make-up.

So they’ll probably ask mommy for some lip gloss.

**100 Simply Mel  points if you recognize the children’s book that this post is {trying to} reference

Can’t see it? How about a closer view….

See it? Here, let me roll down my window for an even better view…

Meet Herbie. This is the deer (buck??) Mike shot many moons ago and that now usually hangs  in our dining room. A couple of weeks ago (when we had moving plans) we decided that Herbie should have a temporary home at my inlaws’ house to make our dining room more stream lined. So I loaded Herbie in our front seat and drove Katelyn to school.

Now, remember this…

…..is what others could see. The parents dropping their sweet  children off at school didn’t have the advantage of seeing this….

….like you and I do. Oh, and neither did the children for that matter. So, I get out of the car with Katelyn and Madelyn and one of the moms comes up to me and asks   ” Is that a real deer??” and I replied “Well, yes”. Thinking  ” it’s not a fake deer. It used to be real once”. And the mom looked amazed and said          “Wow!”. And it suddenly dawned on me to answer the question a little more clearly so I said ” Well, it used to be real. My husband shot it and had it stuffed and it now hangs in our dining room”. And the mom said  ” Ooooh. Ok.” and to her daughter said ” It’s like what uncle so and so has in his house. It’s dead.”

Did she really think I had a live  DEER in my front seat?? One that was just hanging out in my front seat  not thrashing around and kicking  me to death while I was driving? Really?  This was a total  here’s-your-sign moment in my opinion. But then I remembered that I’ve had many of those moments where I’ve asked a really dumb and really obvious question. So I just laughed it off and thought  “What great blog fodder!”

Herbie is still at my inlaws’ house. I guess we should get him back at some point since he can now resume his place in our dining room. It should be fun driving him back.

In my front seat!

I found Mr. Ken Doll hanging out like this in the playroom the other day. Barbie was nowhere in sight.

Hmm…..

What do YOU think he’s doing? Make this Wordless Wednesday not so wordless!!!

Well, I guess the “wordless” part is already shot to you-know-where…

Anyway…

Wow. It’s been, like, forever since I’ve done one of these!  If you’ve been in mommy  blogging world for any length of time then you’ve heard about MckMama’s “Not Me! Monday”.

Since I haven’t participated in NMM in a while my list of ” not me’s” are from the past couple of months.

*In the past two months I have NOT managed to fall down the stairs in my home twice and get banged up pretty bad. And would you believe, that both of those times I didn’t fall down the stairs ( Because, if you know me, that is so…*cough*… NOT something I do. A lot.) I didn’t just happen to be holding/ walking with Madelyn? Yup, Madelyn did NOT just happen to fall down the stairs with me both times. It’s a good thing she didn’t get banged up herself. ( No really, she reeeaaally, didn’t get banged up at all!)

In the past couple of months I have NOT had to say one of the following:

“Is that pee or juice on the floor???!!!”

“Katelyn give Madelyn her imaginary camera back!!!”

“No, you cannot walk around naked all day”

” I’m sorry sweetie, but we just can’t go to the hospital and get a new baby. They aren’t handing them out. And, no, if I go to the hospital God is not just going to put a baby in my belly so they can take it out while I”m there.”

“Yes, you absolutely have to wear clothes on your bottom while sitting on the couch”

“Yes, Katelyn, since Jesus won’t personally be at his birthday party this Christmas we can eat his cake for him. Don’t you worry!”

Katelyn did NOT yell out in Taco Bell to her papa ” Papa, do you know what these things on your chest are called? NIPPLES!!!!”

Said above daughter did NOT also announce in a public bathroom while trying to “go”- ” Mom, my poop won’t wake up! It needs to wake up”

I did NOT walk in on a woman using tghe restroom in a one toilet bathroom in a restaurant. Then we did NOT proceed to have a discussion at length, once she came out, about how the lock on the door didn’t work and if I hadn’t pushed the door so hard it wouldn’t have opened and blah blah blah only to find out she just didn’t lock to the door appropriately. But, of course, that didn’t happen.

I did NOT take many opportunities to snap pictures of my potty training toddler because I think she looks so cute.

NOT this one….

Or this one….

And certainly NOT these…. ( a girls gotta stay warm while doing her business on those cold mornings, right?)

And what kind of mom would make it a family photo opp? Certainly NOT me!!

And you? What have you NOT done recently that you’d like to share? Join MckMama’s “Not Me! Monday” meme and check out some other funny stories!

* I wanted to give a few more details about my falls! The first time I fell I was holding Maddy’s hand. The carpet on one of the steps was loose and I stepped on it just right, lost my footing and fell headlong down the stairs. As I had been holding Madelyn’s hand I pulled her a long with me. I banged up my knees really bad and had to long scrapes on my shins that bled pretty badly. I also hurt my elbow and scraped up my arms. Thankfully Madelyn came away from that with a few scratches on her forehead! She came rolling after me and after I landed at the bottom it took her a few minutes to land on top of me. The second time I fell it was going to the basement and I was actually carrying Maddy this time. I didn’t even make it past the first step. I tripped over my own foot and fell headlong (yep, AGAIN!) down the first flight of  (6 ) steps into the door at the bottom of those steps. I twisted around on my down because I didn’t want to land on top of Madelyn so I landed on my back and slammed my head pretty hard on the door.(I literally saw stars!)  Maddy landed sort of on top of me but also on her side. I was in a crumpled heap with my head still resting on the door and my legs propped up on the bottom of the steps. We both lay there crying. I was crying more from anger than anything. I couldn’t believe I had done that AGAIN!!! Thankfully, after looking and feeling Madelyn over she had no bumps or bruises. I, on the other hand, had some huge bumps on the back of my head and I think I sprained by big toe on my left foot and the muscles on the top of my foot. Mike came running and yelling ” Hun? HUUUN??”  Both Mike and Katelyn stood at the top stairs staring at us in concern as we lay at the bottom of the stairs. Katelyn said  very gravely and seriously to Mike ” Daddy ,you bring up Madelyn. I’ll get Mama!”

“Sweetie, I don’t know. God will give you someone to marry when you get older.”

” Can I  marry daddy?”

“No, you can’t marry daddy. I’m married to daddy”

“But when you’re done with daddy can I marry him?”

” Uh.No”

“How about Papa. Can I marry him?”

“Nope. Papa is married to Nana. And… He’s your Papa”

“Can Garrett (her cousin) marry me?”

“Sweetie, no, you have to marry someone who isn’t in your family”

“Ok, how about Eddie?” (He’s a boy in her class and also the son/grandson of longtime friends of ours and Mike’s family”

“Well…. that’s a possibility I guess!”

(These were taken a couple of weeks ago after school had let out. They had both sit (sat?) down to chat and we snapped a few quick photos)

Will we be showing these pictures at her wedding in the future I wonder?

So weird to even ponder…