You've GOT To Be Kidding!

As you all know, we had a wild, yet really fun Conference weekend with the Brocks.

I spent the Monday morning after they left washing  the dirty laundry we had generated that weekend. There was more laundry than usual, since there were more of us in the apartment than usual.

This is a staged picture. The actual laundry was piled twice as high!

The next time I went to the laundry room was this past Monday, so a week had passed since I had washed the sheets, towels, etc. from the Brock visit. On my way out of the laundry room, I glanced in the Freebie box.  (I know, I know: "What a surprise, Mom looking in the Freebie Box!")  But it was my lucky day! There appeared to be a really cute knit shirt perched on top of the pile.  Upon further inspection, I was right!  It was so darling...and just my size.  But wait!  It WAS my top! I was shocked to find it there.  But I was more shocked to think no one had taken it.  Who would pass up such an adorable top? I then uncovered one of Gary's golf shirts, one of my nightgowns, a few miscellaneous nylons, and a pair of Gary's socks!  WHAT THE....?!  How did all of this stuff get in the Freebie box?

Another staged picture. You know, a book without pictures isn't worth reading.

After a perplexing minute or two, I finally figured it out.  Having had washed so many batches of "Brock laundry"  the previous week, I had lost track of how many loads of laundry I had washed.  Therefore, the last batch had inadvertently been left in the dryer.  Someone wanted to use the dryer, so they took our clothes out of the dryer and put them in a laundry cart.

We immediately sent out an email to the missionaries, asking for a  return of anything they had picked up in the Laundry Room Freebie Box during the past week. Soon after the email was sent, three sheets mysteriously appeared at our door. Nicely folded, I might add.

Along with the sheets, I had to get the wreath in the picture, too.  It came from the Seasonal Closet.  After much doctoring, it looks quite nice, if I do say so myself.

Back to the story. According to "innocent bystanders" of the event, after being unclaimed for three days, our laundry automatically became public domain.  As one sister missionary described it:   "It was like ants finding a picnic!"  Wahoo! (In the future, NO ONE can accuse me of being the Queen of the Freebie Box.  I have been dethroned and replaced by the Sisters of Buildings Eighteen and Twenty!)

I thought all was well, that we had retrieved all our lost laundry. But on Tuesday morning back at the Temple, sister missionaries kept approaching me.

       Sister Number One: "I saw underwear in the Freebie Box last week. Did you get your underwear back?"  
       Me: "Really? Someone took my UNDERWEAR?  No, I didn't get it back! I hope the underwear was my GOOD underwear, not my ratty ones.  How embarrassing."          
       Sister Number Two: "Did Sister What's-Her-Bucket (name withheld to protect the guilty) return your   laundry bag?"          
       Me: "Are you kidding me?  My laundry bag? I didn't even know it was missing!"
       Same Sister Number Two:  "But at least she removed your nylons before she took the laundry bag."
       Me: "Or did she?"
I was laughing so hard, it was next to impossible to contain my composure as I headed into our prep meeting.

With tongue in cheek, Sister LeBrane said everyone should donate to the cause and leave stuff at my door....pots and pans, dishes, anything.

So I staged this picture, just to keep your interest.

But it happened FOR REALS.  This is what was waiting for me when I came home from the Temple tonight.

Of course I knew who the culprit was. Funny Sister LeBrane!

Anyone need some really nice used clothes?  Speak now before I put them down in the Freebie Box with a sign saying:  "THIS time, you may help yourself."

Such a lovely assortment

If you're wondering what to get me for Christmas next year, you may add underwear as well as a laundry bag to your Christmas shopping list.  I would also appreciate an odd number of white knee highs.  I found only one of my knee highs in the Freebie Box. Apparently Sister What's-Her-Bucket has just one foot.