Lost and Found - A Tale of the missing coffee mug

 Please Read entire story:

Many years ago back in 1998 (the year my dad passed away) I received a coffee mug from a "Secret Pal" from the women's group at the church I belonged to at the time.  - I loved said cup,  It was black with a red heart rimmed in gold.  A very (artsy) type heart.

One day the cup went missing and I searched and searched for it.  I thought I might have taken it to the Bowling alley and left it but they said no such cup had been found.  I thought maybe my Granddaughter had used it and it was somewhere buried in all the stuff in her old bedroom. - She use to take coffee cups up to her room which is why I thought she had taken it. - It became a long standing "joke" that whenever she was looking for something in her room I'd ask her if she found my coffee mug.  This went on for about the last 8-10 years and she would get very annoyed with me when I'd ask her about finding my cup.

Mike had even said that he thought he had seen the mug somewhere but just couldn't remember where it was. He thought maybe it might have been one that had gotten mold in it up in her room and been thrown away.  She thought it had gotten broken and thrown out.

Sometime last month I was looking for something on E-bay and saw a photo of my mug for sale.  I made a bid and and got the cup.  Then I decided to play a trick on Jupiter by putting the cup in a box in her old room and calling her over to say that I had found my cup at long last (I know, pretty mean) and she fell for it until I started laughing.

Then I had to tell her that it really wasn't my long lost mug that I had just found one just like it and bought it. She had a good laugh about my prank on her.

Flash forward to today...I was out in hubby's office trying to help him find the dog shampoo and happened to look over on his desk.

Do you know where this is leading....

I look over on his desk and see this...I'm thinking why is my coffee mug on his desk.  Then the light bulb comes on and I realize this is the exact cup that I have been trying to find for the last 5-6 years! The gold around the rim and bottom of the cup is gone because it got washed so much in the dishwasher.  Will hand wash the new one now to prevent that.

I don't know how many times I've been out in his office and never once noticed that the cup was on his desk.  Needless to say I felt pretty stupid.  Had to call my granddaughter over and show her.  Then I apologized to her for accusing her all these years of having my cup and losing it.

All's well that ends well I guess.  Both coffee mugs will remain now where they are.

Ducky Derby 2023

 Welcome.

 

Another May event:  The annual Ducky Derby.  This was held Mother's Day weekend as well.  In fact that weekend 4 different events were held here.  You could attend all of them or pick and choose which you want to attend as they were all at different places and times throughout the weekend.

 

This year I don't have as many photos of different things from the Ducky Derby as it was way to HOT outside for me so I spent most of my time sitting in the shade.  Coleen/Jupiter took her little sister, Joelle (aka JoJo) around to do all the fun kids stuff.

 

                   The two sisters in front of the Big Duck

Izzy the Camel - JoJo did reach out to pet him.  Just didn't get a good picture as there were too many people in the way.

JoJo got a duck painted on her cheek.  She looks like she's about to cry here but she wasn't. - Her cheeks were already getting pretty rosy from the sun.

                           Waiting for the ducks to be released.

                                            And they are off!

The official photographer for the paper taking pictures of the ducks.

                A sea of ducks racing toward the finish line.

                Up and down they go on their merry way.

                                  Ducks and more Ducks

I always like to find one lone duck in a shot with a bunch of others ahead of it.  That's this years shot.

 

Normally I would have pictures of the ducks at the finish line but by then I was so hot I needed to just go home where it was much cooler so we didn't even stay to see the end of the race. 

 

 Once again none of my 5 ducks won but I'll try again next year.

 

Time Passages

And just like that they grow up and move on.  Coleen/Jupiter Graduation.

Kindergarten Graduation 2011

Lincoln High School Graduation 2023

With her Kindergarten Teacher

 

 One of her High School Teachers.   Each student had a teacher that gave a little speech about them during the ceremony.

 

More photos from the Graduation...

 

 It was a long journey for her with many twists, turns and uncertainties but she made it.  We are proud of her.