Dumpster Diving

Last week was a very busy week for us, not that there was anything huge going on...just lots of little stuff. Lots of places to be and people to see. Honestly I like things better that way, I thrive on a full schedhule and tend to feel depressed or useless if I don't have SOMETHING going on...but it is still always a challenge to keep life balanced.
Anyhow, on Tuesday in the midst of this busy week I had an experience I have never had before and hope that I will never have again! Tuesday's are a preschool day and of course we were all up early getting ready to go. I am fairly organized at this routine by now and was just about ready to head out the door, children in tow, at 8:20 a.m. when I realized that I couldn't find my keys anywhere. I had looked all the usual places but nothing turned up. I really started pancking at this point and started ripping through piles of laundry and toy bins etc but still nothing. At this point I was almost late for work so I called into the program director to let her know what the situation was and she was very understanding, but I really stress out about lateness and stuff like that and was about to lose my mind.
So I started back tracking in my mind to what the last time I had seen the keys was. I realized it had been the previous afternoon when I had just come home from a walk with the boys. I had let Asher play with the keys while he was in the stroller to keep him content and when I took them away from him to open the door he got upset, because I was rushing to get dinner ready I just gave them back to him to keep him happy. And that was the last. Asher had been hovering around the trash quite a bit lately and I realized he had probably thrown them out. I also realized that Bevan had taken the garbage out that morning to the dumpster in our apartment parking lot. So I put on a brave face and out we went to the dumpster. I looked in and saw that it must have been emptied the day before because there were only three bags in there, and ours had spilled open on top. I immediately saw our copy of "Growing Up With Winnie The Pooh", so the odds were pretty high that Asher had been up to no good. I thought about climbing into the dumpster but realized I probably wouldn't be able to get out even if I got in. So I went back to the apartment and got a broom and then started poking around at the pile of trash, sure enough the key ring came skidding out. So I swept them into an open grocery bag (also full of trash) and then hooked the bag on the end of the broom and fished them out. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever done and the keys were covered on black sludge. So home we went and washed off the keys and headed out to work only and hour late.