My kids have a hard time keeping track of their things. All of their things - hats, mittens, boots, gym shoes, lunch boxes, snack cases and the most recent thing - Spencer's gym shorts. His gym shorts are lost. How you might ask? As far as I can tell the shorts are either on his body or locked up in his basket in the gym cages. I guess there is the small window of time when they leave his body and go on the locker room bench or floor while he puts his pants back on. Apparently in that time someone decided they wanted his stinky gym shorts or Spencer forgot to put them back in his basket and they wound up who knows where. Stuff like this drives me INSANE!
That turned into quite a tangent from the story I was going to tell. So my kids lose things. Lots of things. Because they lose things is part of the reason I try not to spend lots of money on items that they take out of my sight. This year I decided that I was going to spend decent money on getting them all a pair of good gloves. I got the boys each a pair on clearance last year that didn't even make it through the season and Hailey has been stuck wearing those dollar store stretchy knit things. So when she loses them, I am only out a dollar.
I happened to be in Target back in late October or early November when they had an outerwear accessory sale going on. I know that Target is no outdoor outfitter store and these gloves I was looking to purchase were not going to keep them warm to twenty below or anything, but spending fifteen dollars on a twenty dollar pair of gloves is kind of a big deal when you are buying three pairs and spending fourteen dollars more a pair then you usually pay. Does that make sense? In re-reading it kind of sounds like an intense math story problem.
So I purchased the gloves and in late November while playing outside in our first snowfall, the kids could not have been happier. The next morning when the were getting all their gear on for school, Hailey could only find one of her gloves. We looked all over the house with no luck and then she finally fessed up that she had taken it off and set it on the bumper of Dad's car -the car that had already taken off for school an hour before. We looked all around outside and down the street hoping it had fallen off - the glove was gone. Her brand new gloves had made it about a half a day in her care. Back to the dollar gloves for her.
Spencer lost his gloves sometime in January. They might have been left on the bus. He might have left them in the hallway at school. I don't have access to the middle school lost and found on a weekly basis like I do with the little ones. Another pair bites the dust. I am thrilled to report that Evan still has his gloves. The are starting to rip out a bit which I guess after a winter like we have had a fairly cheap pair of gloves is bound to do.
Now that spring is hopefully here, I was thinking the other day that I need to go through all the hat and mitten bins and weed out and throw away. We have so many ripped gloves and unmatched pairs that just need to go away. I was actually kind of excited about the purge. The only thing that stuck in my mind was the one glove of Hailey's. A brand spanking new hot pink glove hanging out in her cubby all winter long because it's mate was lost after it's first official wearing. It just seemed like such a waste to throw it out, but what would I ever do with it? The match was long gone. The fact that we still even had the glove after we knew what happened to the mate was part hoarder. Maybe just sending it to Goodwill would make me feel all right with getting rid of it. Just let them throw it away.
A few days ago - Good Friday - it was a beautiful afternoon. Trent rented a power rake and was "mowing" the lawn with it. I was pulling weeds and getting leaves out of the flower beds. Our neighbor on the hill was working in his yard and then walked over and said to me "This must be Hailey's. I just found it over there in the rocks" and held out his hand and gave me a wet, dirty, hot pink glove.
I about fainted! That darn glove had been right under our noses all along. I guess I never realized that after that first snowfall, the snow never really melted and then just kept on coming.
The glove is now reunited with its mate. Hailey will have a practically brand new pair all ready for next year - at least for a day or two.
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