"I FOUND IT!!!"

On April Fool's Day, I made a joke blog post. Actually, it was more of a "story blog post." With me as the star. Ta-da! I was going to do a fib blog post. Just to get that "Oh my gosh! Are you serious??!!" kinda reaction from anyone reading it. Something like "I just found out I'm adopted!" or "My parents are suing me for slander!" Or even "I just found out I'm pregnant!" (Ha! My husband doesn't read this blog, but even HE would know that's not true because that is JUST. NOT. POSSIBLE.)

But I couldn't lie on the blog. Not even as a prank. Gots to keep them there blog posts HONEST! Gots to TELL THE TRUTH!

I KNOW I was doing an April Fool's thing. But I just couldn't lie on the blog. In person, facial expressions and body language that people pick up on would get it that the person telling the joke is telling a REAL joke. But on a blog, that's different.

So, a fib was out. Maybe a story would go over better. My conscience was clean in making up a story for April Fool's Day. Yay!

So, that's what I did. Now the only thing TRUE about that story is this: We have indeed lost the case for a DVD we borrowed from the library. They really did freeze Jennifer's library card until we find it. And Jennifer really was upset about it.

It's been missing for 3 weeks. I have NOT been happy. Neither has the downtown Eugene Public Library.

I have been looking for it here and there as we have been doing the de-cluttering of the house and Spring cleaning. So far, no luck. I looked for it in Jennifer's room twice. I looked under her bed, behind it and on the side. I even looked under the mattress! I searched all of her drawers, her bookcase and even behind it, and her closet. Zilch.

But I was so convinced that it HAD to be in there somewhere. Because the last time I saw it, her dad gave it to her and told her to put it in her room. (ARGH! Why not where we USUALLY put the movie stuff at? WHY??!!!!) But we turned that room upside down looking for it.

It. Was. Not. In. There!

And just as I started to suspect that maybe Jesse accidentally flushed it down the toilet (though that's highly unlikely) or that some aliens beamed it up to their ship, I realized I was starting to get all bent out of shape about this. Every day I was looking for it. Every day I was drilling Jennifer about it. And her dad, too, on if he'd seen it. I was starting to crack!

It is important to me that we return what we borrow. And it's important that we get the freeze off of Jennifer's library card. It's her first library card, after all! But not at the risk of me losing it.

So I started to relax a little. Just try to calm down and rest assured that it WILL turn up. It couldn't have disappeared!

You can probably guess what happened after that. Yep, I found it. They say when you stop looking for something, you'll find it. And that's what happened for me! Yay!

I was doing the cleaning today while Jesse was napping. I was on my knees, dusting off a lower shelf on the entertainment center, when I saw something sticking out from behind it. I reached back and pulled out an empty M&M's wrapper. I shook my head and sighed. As many times as I tell Jennifer DO NOT THROW YOUR TRASH ON THE FLOOR, she still has been known to do that a time or two.

Still shaking my head, I crawled under there, wondering what else I was going to find. I poked my head behind the thing and peered into the dark area under the TV set. Hm, there's something back there, I thought. I also thought, what IS that black thing??

Cringing, I reached my hand back there under the TV set (God knows what's hiding under there!) and, thankfully, I was able to grab a hold of the mysterious thing.

Which actually felt like a DVD movie case.

Holding my breath, I started to pull it out from behind there, all the while reminding myself it could be for another DVD movie. (We actually have one other case missing. Yes, I know, we're terrible with that!) But, nope. It was for THE VERY SAME movie that we borrowed from the library! HOORAY!!!

I started to cheer and do a happy dance. I wanted to happily exclaim "I FOUND IT!!!" but the baby was sleeping, so that might've been a bad idea.

Still, I was excited!

And kinda annoyed, too. I've looked behind that entertainment center many times but never saw it back there. Not at all! I even moved it away from the wall just a bit -- but only a little, because it's HEAVY! I didn't see it then, either. But no wonder we didn't see it. It was UNDER the big fat part of the TV set sticking out of the entertainment center! It was under the TV's butt! Gah!

Well, I'm glad I FINALLY found it. And Jennifer is glad, too. Yay!

And I know that when we return it tomorrow, the library will also be glad.

After this, though, maybe we should go back to having one shelf of our many bookcases devoted ONLY to library stuff, and keep library stuff on that shelf when we're done with them. That way, when it's time to take them back, we'll know where to look.