My boys have become very self-sufficient in the mornings. I remember struggling with belts and tucking in and accessories in our Cub Scout days. Now they wake up and put on their slacks and polos and take care of hygeine stuff. They come downstairs and grab their belts, shoes, and backpacks from the mud room and are neatly dressed and ready for breakfast.
This morning was typical. Dressed and ready to go without any mom interference.
As I was about to send them off, I remember that Orian needed lunch money. School lunches are ridiculously expensive now (although, still cheaper than loading a lunch box with the goodies the kids want), and my boys keep blowing through their lunch accounts.
I *had* 20 bucks. I laid it on the entertainment center, with the purpose of sending it to school with Orian. We are not cash people. We have direct deposit and we use our debit card for everything. We are cutting back quite a bit, so we just don't go to the store often and we don't use ATMs. 99% of the cash we have comes from things I've sold online. So cash is kind of precious in our house. It's rare and precious.
I looked in the place where I had left the cash. It was not there. I looked on the floor around the entertainment center in case it had been knocked off. Nope. Not there. I looked all over the entertainment center. Still no twenty.
In a panic, I called Adrian to find out if maybe he had stuck it in his wallet for work. No big deal, usually, since having a twenty on you is a pretty good idea. But THIS 20 dollars had already been designated. It was NOT a wallet twenty. It was a lunch money twenty. I was starting to get upset, thinking, "Didn't he know Orian needed lunch money? Where did he think I was going to get that money from?"
The phone rang and rang and rang. When he has a meeting or something important he turns his cell off. He is teaching a class today, so I was certain his phone was off. Of course, if he had taken the cash with him, there was nothing he could do about it. I guess I just wanted to let him know that he put me in a bind. You know, share my bad mood and stress with him so it could be a family experience.
He finally answered and politely and lovingly informed me that, no, he had not taken the $20, and in fact he had laid it on my laptop.
I looked over and sure enough, there was the $20, with a note propped up against it. "Orian needs lunch money", Adrian had scrawled on the small sheet of notepad.
He wanted to make sure I would see it (laptop! Ha!) and remember that I needed to send it with Orian.
D'oh. I'm such a jerk. But I love my husband. He's a sweetie.