Needle in a Haystack

This weekend all the Peters were in town for Uncle Don's life celebration. It was beautiful and perfect and I was very happy that we all got to be a part of it. There was also a stained glass window dedication in honor of Dennis' grandparents at the Presbyterian church in Hollister. It was a great weekend spent with family, talking about good memories (and eating delicious food!)

We were also able to take some family pictures in the park. Thanks Tara for wielding the camera, and thanks mom for sacrificing your new boot in the frozen ditch in order to get the babies attention! We got some really great shots and I can't wait to edit the rest of them!

When we finished the shoot we were all really excited to get back into our warm cars (it was really windy and really cold!!!) but right after the last shot I realized that one of my worst fears had come true... My wedding ring was missing! I knew I had it at the beginning of the shoot, but my fingers were so numb I had no idea when it slipped off my finger. The last few shots were of us throwing leaves, so it was a good guess that it came off somewhere in that area... The only problem was that there was a lot of leaves, and we went to a couple different locations to throw them! It was also getting dark soon. I was very very skeptical, but said many prayers for help to find my ring.

Someone had the genious idea to look through the pictures to see if we could see my ring and figure out when exactly I lost it so we wouldn't have to fleece the whole park. It took some time, but we were able to figure it out! Here is the first place we threw leaves:

And there's my ring (and an awesome close up of me, I must say!):

Then we saw the big 'ole pile of leaves over there... I'm so glad Tara just kept snapping away because this is the last picture we can see my ring on my finger:

And the closeup:

 We threw more leaves...

And she kept snapping...

And... No ring on my left hand!

At least now we had a general area to look in (which happened to be a huge raked up pile of leaves. Doesn't that sound like an adventure?)

We looked for a while, and decided we weren't getting anywhere. The boys ran off to Sportsman's Warehouse to see about a metal detector, the babies hung out in Kami's car, I kept looking at pictures to try and find where I lost my ring, and the rest kept looking through leaves. We eventually sent the babies home and Mom & Tara stayed until the boys got back. I sent them home with Clara because Mom's foot was frozen from her dip in the ditch and the BSU game was on. ;-) Dennis, Teri, John & Dustin stuck around and we searched the area with the metal detector. It was very depressing to pick up a reading every foot or so. There must have been a LOT of pop tabs in the grass.

We all had a temple sealing appointment to get to and the light was fading fast. We kept on getting readings and finding nothing. It was freezing. There were SO many leaves! I was seriously doubting we would find it, and then we would've wasted $200 on a metal detector to find a few pop tabs. Ugh! I was so depressed and so mad at myself for never resizing my ring (I already did it once, but should do it again. I just always thought my fingers would swell up with pregnancy, but the cold just must balance it out because they never did.) Just as it was getting to dark to see anything Dustin picked up a reading and after John brushed away a few handfuls of leaves... Lo and behold! There it was. So sparkly and beautiful!!! I may have cried.

...And we made it to the Temple JUST in time. :) I think I need to thank Heavenly Father every day for the next year to make up for how many times I prayed to find it. I have prayed a lot to find things I've misplaced over the years, and it seems that Heavenly Father almost always helps me think of the place to look immediately after I say "amen." I was getting a little frustrated that it didn't happen so quickly this time, but in all reality I should be so grateful that we even found it at all! And also that other people had the inspiration to look through the pictures to find a more exact location, and that Tara had the inspiration to keep taking pictures, and that Dennis was inspired to get a metal detector, and that we were able to find it before dark and were able to make our Temple appointment. I think one of the things I struggle most with is just putting my full trust in the Lord and that everything will be worked out in his time. Not mine.

Life is good. I have my ring. I have an AWESOME family that sacrificed frozen fingers, frozen toes, and $200 to help me.

Now does anyone want to buy a metal detector???

*Update*

To update on my previous post... My OB doctor does think it was Gallbladder issues, but that it's not a big deal unless it turns into stones. It's just funny to me that one doctor can be 95% sure that it wasn't my Gallbladder and the other is 95% sure that it was!