Quarters

My dad came to visit this weekend. Which I LOVE. For two reasons: #1. Because I love my dad. He is such a calming influence and always offers great advice, and #2. Because he buys the beer. Oh and #3. Because he takes us out to eat! And since we have been watching our money, something we haven't done in a very, very long time.

We went to Dad's favorite pizza place here in Lincoln (Dino's on 84th St.) after Grant's first basketball game on Saturday. Got there early, which was a good thing, because the kids were kind of squirrelly. Mia, my 4-year old, could not sit still. Squirming all over her chair. She slid under the table and I was about to chastise her for her improper table manners in my firmest, yet loving parental tone, when she pops up beaming!

"Look what I found!" She had found a bright shiny quarter. Like one of the treasure hunters of the Titanic, she was so proud of herself. Her brothers walk around with their money jars all the time filled with change they find here, a five-dollar bill from a grandparent or a dollar they earned doing something around the house that I just can't bring myself to do (most of the time involving the dogs). She's always been jealous, because she has been too little to do a lot of the chores around the house and with the tightened economy, chores around the house don't exactly pay like they used to.

So we congratulated her on her find and proceeded with dinner. Crayons and wordfinds all over the table. Chocolate milk cups and refills and pizza and plates. The table filled quickly with our celebration.

When it came time to go, Mia looked around for her quarter. Where did it go? We looked under the wordfinds. We looked under the chocolate milk. Under plates and pizza trays. I could feel the panic/temper tantrum starting. And I could sympathize. After a moment of brilliant luck, how awful to have it all stripped away. For a few moments, Mia with her bright and shiny quarter was a winner. And now, through no fault of her own, it was gone. Yes, maybe she could have put it in her pocket. Maybe she could have given it to me to hold onto. But you don't think about that when you're on top of the world, you just think about how great you feel. You don't even consider the fact that one day, it will be over. No more quarter.

She was frantically looking everywhere and popped back under the table to see if maybe it had fallen back to its original hiding place. I put my hand in my pocket and dug through my change. All I had were some pennies, and a dime. Well, it's silver, I thought, maybe she won't notice. While she was still under the table, I said "Look Mia, I found it" and put the dime on the table.

She popped her head up, eyes full of tears, emotions on the verge of over-flowing and looked at the dime.

"Next time," she said, thankful and relieved to have her treasure back. "I want a bigger one." Don't we all sweetie.