Have you ever...

....seen a single shoe on the highway and wondered how it got there?

Me too.

And while I don't have the answer to that, we do have a missing shoe mystery of our own around here.

The long version (hey, why not?):

We had plans to go out to eat for our 9th wedding anniversary last night (thank you, thank you, very much). We've had a gift card for Cheddar's since Christmas and it was definitely time to use it!

Got a late start leaving because the internet guy came by at 5:00 to fix our connection here. Yay! So nice to finally have internet at the "other" house again. It was definitely worth the delay.

Meanwhile, Alan put on his sandals "all by myself". They were on the wrong feet and not that loosely fastened, but that is ok for a guy just learning, right? Besides, I knew we'd fix them when we got to the restaurant.

As the boys were climbing in the van I realized that in addition to our gift card we would need cash for a tip, so I ran back inside to get a few dollars. On my way back to the van, POW! out of nowhere a wasp attacked me from behind and stung the back of my arm. Not only did it hurt like the dickens, I was incensed because I WASN'T DOING ANYTHING TO HIM!!

So... more delay.

Finally all buckled in and beyond ready to go, we set out.

And when we arrived, Alan was only wearing one shoe.

We searched the van high and low and couldn't find it. By this point it was already an hour later than we'd planned to eat, so we took him in with one shoe. That way, it at least looked like we'd tried. ;)

(Completely random side note... and I'll go with the short version on this one: While we were eating, an ambulance was called for a young woman at a table around the corner from ours. Not sure what the problem was, but we decided any night out that the ambulance is not called on your behalf is a good night!)

As far as the shoe goes, we felt it must have fallen out of the van during the distraction of the wasp sting. Alan was standing in front of his seat playing with the seatbelt and an open door.
Sadly, the shoe has not shown up, even in daylight today. Best guess is one of the dogs has carried it off somewhere. We can only hope it shows up, and not too chewed up when it does!

But if you happen to see us at church Sunday and Alan is wearing only one shoe, you'll know why. ;)