Elly, the family comedian

These days I find myself running around Lowes and Home Depot, phone pinched between my chin and shoulder, taking orders from the BOSS! I lost Elly last week on one of my 3 hour sprees at Home Depot. The HD worker and I had only looked for her for 20 seconds when she called in a CODE ADAM!!! All of the sudden every orange-aproned person stopped what they were doing and began looking for MY child. As embarrassed as I was, their reaction time was quite impressive. I wasn't really worried about her safety in the abduction sort of way. I knew she had probably found a fork lift and was cruising around the lumber yard. As they were announcing over the scanner, "2 years old, 2 pig tails, purple sweater, answers to the name Elly", I heard a shout, "FOUND HER!" Do I know my child well or what . . . she was testing out the riding lawn mowers! Apparently 5 orange-aproned associates descended on her at once, I'm sure all wanting claim to the million dollar reward I was offering. Her face, as she came around the corner, said it all, "WHAT THE HECK, can't a kid test drive these days?" Anyway, she is now quite well know in that store not only for her disappearance but also for her unique smell that she always seems to produce after long period of time in hardware stores. I think it’s her defense mechanism. Come to think of it, I’d use it too if it got me out of a hardware store!