The End of an Era.

It's been almost a week! I've reverted to my old ways now that the 30 day challenge is over! Let me tell you what has been taking up a lot of my time the last few days:

On Tuesday night, I was singing with a group at the Relief Society dinner. I got George ready, got myself ready, and started to head for the door. My keys were not on the ring.... or in the diaper bag... or on the kitchen counter (the usual places). I turned the house up-side down looking for them! At this point, I was already late for our last rehearsal and I was afraid that I wasn't going to make it for the dinner. Then I thought, "that's a dumb thought... just call Jenn." So I called my friend Jenn and she saved the day and picked us up on her way to the church.

Fast forward to after the dinner... still no keys. I re-checked the diaper bag, and everywhere else I could check. I couldn't see them inside the car from the outside. Steve came home and checked the inside of the car and all over the apartment again. Still no keys!

Wednesday morning, Steve made phone calls to everywhere we've been in the last 2 days. No luck. Before work, he scoured the mall parking lot. I continued to look as I tried to straighten up the apartment. I spent the whole day here worried that I had left the keys in the door and someone had snatched them. I figured that they couldn't rob our apartment if I was inside with the 2nd deadbolt locked. Steve called on his way home from work and we started to brainstorm. Then he said the magic phrase, "you wouldn't have left them on top of the car for any reason, would you?"

I had a flashback to Monday night. We went to dinner and got dessert with one of Steve's friends who was in town on a lay-over. In the middle of dessert, George started screaming. He wasn't due for a feeding, but he was crying the way that he only does when he's hungry. We packed up our water-ice and headed to the car so that I could try to feed George. I unlocked the car and set my water-ice and keys on top of the car while I got George out of his car seat and changed his diaper. I opened the door to get my stuff and Steve said, "I have your water-ice right here." I said, "oh, ok." and fed George. About half-way to the hotel to drop off Steve's friend, we heard this loud clank against the side of the car. I said, "what was that?!?!" and Steve said, "hmm. We must have hit some rocks."

Nope. Not rocks. Those were my keys... and they're now laying somewhere in the middle of a busy highway.

I've had that key chain for almost 7 years! It was my favorite. I've thought that I lost it before... but it always turned up. It's really gone this time. So, since I'm obviously not replacing my expensive key chain at this time, I'm on the hunt for a new, cheaper one. Let me know if you see any cute, simple ones while you're out and about. I need suggestions!