Terri and I went to Chain-O-Lakes in June with the Listi clan. I can remember asking Terri on the way to the resort where her wedding ring was and if she was going to be single for the weekend because she didn’t have it on. She replied that she did not want to lose it out in the country. Well guess who returned minus one men’s platinum wedding band…… Needless to say both Terri and I were devastated. This was the ring I was married to the love of my life with; it really meant something to me. Terri even had “My heart and soul to you” inscribed on the inside. We figured I must have lost it in the swim lake by digging my fingers into the sand or when I went off of the water slide. It was a very sad time but eventually we moved on.

The next weekend Cooley, Cooley v2.0, Terri and I went back to Chain-O-Lakes with metal detectors to scan the bottom of the swim lake. I had worked from 7 in the morning to 5 am the next morning. The Cooleys and Terri picked me up from Baylor at 5:30 am and we headed out to the lake. We got there, got our gear together, got in the water and it started raining. Perfect. I did find buried treasure though; 19 cents, 7 bottle caps, 2 bread ties and 1 nail but no ring. We gave it a go for about 5 hours and then finally gave up and drove on home. We all looked and smelled like wet rats. Cooley v2.0 enjoyed it (he’s five).

The week after we returned from our August vacation I had to get some birthday shopping for Terri done. She wanted a charm for her bracelet from James Avery. While I was there I noticed the men’s wedding bands. I tried a few on and eventually decided on one and purchased it. I was going to use it as a placeholder until I saved enough money to purchase another platinum band exactly like the one I had.

I mentioned in a previous post I passed the ONT exam on Friday September 14th. That weekend Cooley and I had made plans to lay some more of the wood floors in my house. We were going to start on Saturday but Terri and I had to have the master bedroom cleaned out before then. When I returned from taking the exam on Friday Terri and I began clearing the room. We moved all of the furniture out minus the water bed. Waterbed? Yeah we have a waterbed. That sounds so seventies, like a custom van. It’s not one of the old school ones though. It looks like a real mattress with a pillow top that zips off. Inside are two bladders filled with water. There is no hard frame. Anyway, we started taking the bedding off and then we pulled the pillow top off. Next I drained the bladders and removed them. After that I removed the bottom part of the mattress. Now all that is left is the box spring and the dust ruffle (I had to ask Terri what this was called because man-code dictates that I shouldn’t know). We stood there and talked for a few minutes about life and what not while we were taking a break. I looked over at something on the floor and a glint of metal caught my eye. There was my wedding ring sitting at the foot of the bed on top of the dust ruffle and box springs. We couldn’t believe it. I figured that Terri changed the sheets when we got home from vacation and had me tuck them under. Since I had lost so much weight the ring slipped right off my finger and stayed there until it was rediscovered. I was so excited and Terri began to cry. My manliness wouldn’t allow me to though…..

What a wonderful day.

BTW The floors look awesome. I’ll post some before and after pics when we are finished.