I Have No Words

Ok, actually I do.

Yesterday morning I went to the mall.  I told the cashier at Stride Rite that the only sure-fire way to find something you've lost is to buy a replacement, and as I did, she slid the identical white and blue size 1 sneakers into the sack. The very same ones I bought three months ago, the exact double of the single that went "missing" last week.

While I did say those words, and I knew that Murphy's law could actually come into effect, I cannot explain my surprise when at home, later that same afternoon, Ava opened this ornamental lantern that sits in the formal living room, to find, the shoe.

It is understood, though not always observed, that this particular lantern is off limits to grubby children's hands.  So why then, should it have come as a shock to find it working so well for treasure stashing?

The mercy of it all, is that the new shoes hadn't made it out of the box yet, and the receipt still waits in the bag. If Ava had run them through the mud prior to the discovery, let's just say Max's Christmas would have been severely compromised.