Barefoot Suzie

~It has been a busy week. My Mom and Grandma were here the first of the week. Then Wednesday morning I left for Indy to attend a 3 day 911 conference. For the most part, the conference was good but I was anxious to get home by Friday afternoon. I pre-wrote a couple of posts last weekend, which is a good thing because I feel a little brain fried. So read a little post about Suzie from last weekend. I will stop by and catch up on your blog sometime this weekend (maybe even today)

Last Friday night, the boys were with their dad, so Chuck and I took the girls out to eat.... holy cow, that is like the 5th time in 2 months. We don't normally eat out 5 times in a single year...

Chuck has been trying to sell his truck so we can get a newer one with a crew cab, so after dinner we checked out a few dealerships in town. Not finding anything he liked, we headed for home, the looooong way.

Starting at the north end of the county, we hit several used dealerships between two different towns. During our drive, Suzie pulled off her shoes and socks, hitting Gracie in the head with one of her shoes.... Suzie can't ride in a car without taking off her shoes and socks...

After our last stop in town #3, we hit the Dairy Queen for a little treat. Chuck took Gracie in to use the bathroom while I got Suzie's socks and shoes on. One problem. I could only find one shoe.... these are her new Stride Rite shoes that I just bought....

I carried Suzie in, in her stocking feet. Chuck suggested maybe her shoe was tucked under her seat or something. But I knew better. Gracie had gotten out of the van a few times with Chuck to look at trucks. I just knew that Suzie's shoe was accidentally knocked out of the van. But where??

Once we got home, Chuck helped me search the van over, but no luck. No Suzie shoe. Grrrrr, her brand new shoe....

I sighed.... such is life.... and made plans to call all the dealerships we visited to see if they found a little pink and white shoe in their lots, near the diesel trucks.

We had stopped at a few lots in the town I work in. I set my alarm a few minutes early and planned to drive by those lots in the morning on my way to work.... I thought about calling up here and asking one of the officers to check out the lots for me, in case it rained over night. But I would have felt stupid asking such a thing....

The next morning...

Entering the city limits, still dark outside, I head straight for lot #1. I positioned my van so the headlights would shine where we parked the night before. No luck. No Suzie shoe. I pulled back out on the highway... I half expected the cops to show up after they received a call about a strange van pulling in and out of car lots...

I spied lot #2. From the highway, I could see a little white blob brightly shining on the dark black top..... yessss, let it be a Suzie shoe.... I steered into the lot, close to the white blob. Yes! It was Suzie's shoe, sitting undisturbed all night in a sea of black top.

It's funny cuz I pictured Suzie's poor little shoe, lost and alone, sitting in the dark. Someone finding it and wondering how a little girls shoe came to be in that spot.... Have you ever seen a shoe, shirt or some other article of clothing laying along side the road and wondered what the story was behind it? Well, I have...

Anyway, I found Suzie's shoe.... but I left her blanket at the sitters the other day and Suzie hasn't slept well the last two nights. Maybe I'd better go get it.