Missing

Christmas 2009 was almost upon us and I told Blaire that all I wanted was Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. She said she'd get it for me! I was so excited. I couldn't wait for Christmas to get here, so I could actually hold in my hands what I had been reading about for months.

Then, a few weeks later, she told me she wasn't getting it for me. She said she found something else that she thought I would really like. Uh, HELLO! I want the cookbook! But what could I do.

She knows me pretty well and she knew how much I wanted that cookbook. If she says she found something I would really like, then she must have found something I would really, really like.

A few days before Christmas I walked in the door after work and found this in my kitchen:

She had made me a new Lucy!

My Grandpa, with the help of my Gramma and my Mom, had made me the first Lucy 14 years ago. Over the years, and after one snowy Chicago winter, Lucy deteriorated, until she was unable to stand on her own anymore. She was now spending her days propped up on a work bench inside the barn. And I missed her.

Blaire, with a bit of her Daddy's help, used the first Lucy as a pattern and secretly made me an almost exact replica. I love that kid! And she was right, she had found something that I would really like better.

But I still wanted that cookbook. And was thrilled when it arrived in the mail, a gift from some great pals of mine. I was even able to send it away to PW, who graciously signed it for me and mailed it back.

Then the cookbook went missing.

A week before I noticed my treasured book was gone, Bri came to me and asked if I had seen her hairdryer. It was a valid question, since I've been known to take her fabulous hairdryer before. But I hadn't taken it this time. We looked all over the house. Several times. We asked if she had taken it to her Mom's house. We asked if she had taken it to a friends house. We searched Blaire's room. And asked Bri over and over again if it was in her room. It was nowhere to be found.

Last weekend I went to get my cookbook. And it was gone. Vanished. I searched the house and couldn't find it. We came to the conclusion that someone broke into our house and stole the hairdryer and the cookbook. That had to be it! Until we realized that if someone broke into the house, they probably would have taken TVs and video games, not a cookbook and a hairdryer.

Sarah was over that weekend and was getting ready to go back home. She needed Bri's car keys and I can't remember why she needed them, but it doesn't matter why. What matters is that when she was looking for the keys, she picked up some clothes at the end of Bri's bed and there was the hairdryer! Bri had been sleeping with it for a week and had no idea it was there. We had a good laugh over it. Then I told Sarah to find my cookbook.

But she wouldn't. And it remained missing.

Until yesterday. As I was getting Duane's golf clubs for him, I had to navigate my way around the treadmill to the spot where he keeps them. That's when I saw it. Sitting on the little plastic book holder on the treadmill. And I remembered that day, so long ago, when I was walking on the treadmill, reading all the wonderful, butter filled recipes that I wanted to make.


See all that dust?

I guess it's a good thing that it was on the treadmill that I found the cookbook, because it will make me think, every time I open that cookbook and unwrap a stick of butter, that I also need to dust off the treadmill and go for a walk.

Let's see how long that lasts!