The Quest for $100

A few days ago I opened an envelope to find $100. What a nice surprise. A dear family member wanted to send us a little something for baby McGehee. I was incredibly grateful and set the $100 aside to deposit later. Now, to fully understand this story, you'll need a little context to our banking system. My husband and I bank with a local credit union that offers great rates to military families. We've been happy with their service. The drawback by having a wonderful military-dedicated bank such as USAA, is that you have to mail deposits since there are very few actual branch locations. Now, we are currently fortunate to have a branch location near my husbands job. This is a cool 45-minute commute, without traffic! Couple that with the fact that my husbands work hours exceeds normal banking hours. Needless to say, bank errands are infrequent. If we have deposits to make, which we often do, we let them pile up for a week or two then take them to the bank. (My husband will usually leave work early or take a trip over on a lunch break.) I happen to have 3 other checks to deposit in addition to the $100 so I set them all together...or so I thought.

Fast forward to 9 p.m. as dear wifey, ME, tidies up the house for a bit before hopping in bed with a bowl of cereal, a cute Marine man, and a few good books. I decide to double check the pile of checks to deposit in case dear husband decides tomorrow is the day he's going to swing by the bank. Well...well...well, the $100 is NOT THERE! Now, had this been a check, we'd simply get it cancelled and that'd be a simple fix. But, a LOST $100 in the house is inexcusable. We HAVE to find it. So I look in all the obvious places. I retrace my steps from opening the check envelope to setting it down. I cannot figure this out. Why wouldn't it be with the other checks?! Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's because your absent-minded dear friend Jessica operates on auto-pilot doing a million things at once while committing her brain to about 20% of the processes. My husband wanders in and wonders why I'm removing couch pillows and looking under vases. He's perplexed. He asks what I'm looking for and I share. He says, "do you think you threw it away by mistake?" After all, yesterday I did go through a paper purge session, cleaning out my wallet, throwing away old receipts, mail, et cetera. Maybe just maybe. "It's possible, but unlikely," I responded. Secretly I thought to myself that if I truly threw away $100 I'll never never never live this down. Perhaps God is telling me to SLOW DOWN and pay attention. It just CAN'T be in the trash.

I began to think threw the things that I threw away recently...left over crushed tomatoes, a rotten onion, old pasta w/ ground beef and melted cheese, lots of junk mail, and paper towels. "Ummm, I'm not looking in the trash honey. It's full of bacteria and gross stuff. I'd need a tetanus shot after going through it!" He smiled and responded "I'll do it." I held open a fresh garbage bag and tried hard not to puke as my husband pulled out item by item of slimy stinky garbage out of the trash to put into my bag. We found all sorts of stuff that began to help me picture my previous evening of paper purging. I knew that at the very least we should find the envelope the $100 came in because I know I threw that away. So, he kept going, we're nearing the bottom. All that's left is spoiled pasta bake. My husband looked at me, then at the mushy pasta covered in sauce, cheese, and ground beef, and looked back at me. He scrunched up his nose and dug his hands all through the pasta feeling for a piece of paper.

What do you know, folded in half between several pieces of bowtie pasta, $100.

Tisk Tisk.