Some well deserved spousal praise

I would like to take a moment to publicly acknowledge Richard's awesomeness. And no, this isn't for his birthday, or father's day, or our anniversary...

it is because he didn't thrash me when I lost my wedding rings.

Now, I have misplaced my rings before. I have found them in the washing machine, and in pants pockets, and in the bottom of the laundry basket. But only once have I absolutely lost them without the faintest idea of where they could be. I found myself in that position a couple of weeks ago. I had checked all the usual places. I take my rings off to cook, clean, exercise, and sleep, and they have always been in logical places. Occasionally I go a day or two without wearing them, but I realized one day that it had been several days since I had seen them...and the scary part was that I couldn't remember when I last had them on, or what I was doing when I apparently took them off.

Richard often kids me about my poor memory. I can't seem to remember anything prior to 1998, and even more recent memories seem to vaporize like smoke within a couple of months, but my memory has never put anything of real value in danger (I always remember where I put Anna, for instance).

But I had really lost my rings. I searched in the logical places. I searched in the illogical places (like our compost bags, and the rest of the garbage...yuck, yuck, and double yuck!!). I practically crawled throughout our entire house, checking every place three or four times. And I prayed...REALLY prayed to find them. But as each day passed, the hope of finding them seemed to get smaller and smaller.

Eventually, I had to tell Richard. He was the one that bought them for me, after all. And their value was much more than just sentimental.... I miserably thought that Richard would never buy me another piece of jewelry again that was not from Wal-Mart or out of a Cracker Jack box! I felt that I deserved to wear plastic for the rest of my life.

Richard would have been justified in being VERY mad at me, or at least in being very very moody for a week.

But when I told him, all he said was "well, what could you do next time to make sure this doesn't happen again?"

and we brainstormed different ways I could be more meticulous about keeping track of my rings. (my mom's advice was to never take them off-- "a dirty ring is better than no ring"-- kind of sounds like Poor Richard's almanac)

I was really proud of him. He could have thrashed me. He could have berated me. He could have blamed me and vowed to never spend money on me again, but instead he acted thoughtfully and with compassion.

I DID find my rings!

They were in the sink drain of our bathroom. I had not thought to look there because we have hair traps over all the drains. As I was getting ready to both head out to Utah and throw in the towel as regards the ring, I thought to remove the trap and take a peek. There I saw two silver bands halfway down the drain, caught on an orthodontic toothbrush that had fallen into the drain months ago that I had never retrieved. I never would have seen them otherwise. I was able to get them out in just a minute or two.

Prayers work!

So, while this post is the story of how I lost and found my rings, what I really want to emphasize is how awesome my husband is. Way to go Richard. YOu could have justifiably put me in the stocks and made me wear ring pops for the rest of my life. But you didn't!