Y'all Won't believe This !

It has been a day so far... an unusual day!
First, my dear Australian friend Mary Ellen called me bright and early (EARLY..LOL!) I met her on a teacher sight. We have been friends for a decade. She is my daughter Lisa's age...but I digress.....

Got right to the point,she did. She told me to go to our local grocery store and get my present.

Present? (Now I'm thinking that they have a photo pickup there, 'cuz I 've been asking for a recent picture.So I diddy-bop up to the store and she has surprised me with the means to go buy THIS:

 I have been wanting a convection toaster oven.HERE it is! This one also has a rotisserie.I was going to get my oil changed today, so I went to get the oven while I waited. Lucky me...only one left. YES!! What a nice gift, Mary Ellen! I'm so touched, you are SO sweet.It will surely save on my electric bill!

My son Mike also called, right after Mary Ellen and I hung up. I haven't talked to him in a month, because his phone does not work out on the Gulf. So I was just feeling like..."could this day get any better?......It is just a lovely day outside,too." Then it happened.

Before I left for town,  I lost my poor Mama! See,I  went to her house next door to tell her something and she was gone.That was okay, until I saw that her purse,keys, cell phone still there, doors open,lights on, and shrimp thawing on the counter. But she...SHE was gone.

 Thinking she might have fallen, I even searched the property and sheds.She was..... nowhere.After 40 minutes. I called my fellow worry wart.(My relatives know who she is.) Fellow worrier is now worried as well,thanks to me. But in our defense..(notice how I pulled her in to this...?) my mother is very methodical when she leaves. Purse?Check.Keys? Check.Cell phone? Check. Door locked? Check. She obviously didn't have time...did someone come and tell her something so horrible that she just ran with them, got in their car and LEFT? (Oh, yeah..that is how my mind works...sad....but true!)

So I called my sister-in-law that lives just a few miles away, but certainly not walking distance. I asked her had there been an emergency. "No", she said. "Why?" So I started telling her about finding Mama gone( told her about the shrimp,the purse....yada,yada,ya)...predictable Mama gone. So she went through the "did you look..."thing, to which I assured her I had.

Now that I had her good and worried, my sweet lil' ole Mama walks in. Turns out, a neice of hers drove by, and they went joy riding.That's right. Mama went without her essentials.(You would just have to know how she is..)

She saw me with the phone in my hand, and said.....,"uh-oh....were you looking for me?" I was so relieved I almost cried.
Well,none of this woulda' happened if Mama isn't always so predictable.
S, I had to backtrack and call off the troops!
I think I'm going to rest a while now...yep.........Tonight, I'm going to bake some chicken and brown rice in my new oven and raise my (sweet tea )glass to Mary Ellen!