Let me tell you a little story...

... about a frog.

Once upon a time, the children and I went to the store. We had just come from a local fast food taco joint to "wet our whistle" so to speak, so we had a few paper cups on hand that were headed for the trash. We also had a tired teenage boy. As we pulled into the parking lot of said store, the above mentioned tired teenage boy requested to be left in the vehicle so he could rest his eyes for a moment while the girls and I ventured inside to purchase essentials such as nail polish, lip gloss, hot glue sticks, and gum. Upon exiting the vehicle, Corrine found a frog in the parking lot. Being the animal - and amphibian - lover that she is, she decided she wanted to keep it for ever and ever. Seeing as we had the also above mentioned paper cups, she decided to salvage one from it's doom of recycle-dom and place Froggy inside it and leave him with He-Who-Loves-Sleep. Magically, somewhere in the journey from the taco stand to the store (literally 2 blocks) all the lids to all the paper drink cups disappeared. I blame the ever present and totally annoying invisible siblings; Not Me, I Don't Know, and It's Not My Fault. Needless to say, Froggy was left in the van in a cup with no lid. With a tired teenage boy.

I promise you, we were only in the store for the span of 26 minutes. OK, maybe it was more like 56 minutes, but who can blame us? We had to be sure that our nail polish colors and lip gloss colors were just right. Tell me you wouldn't do the same thing.

When we returned to the car, we found the sleeping boy next to a now completely empty cup. No frog. Just boy drool and frog slime. Immediately, we realized our mistake: never leave a wild frog you just found and want to convert into a pet in the care of an older brother who sleeps more soundly than the dead, in a car in a lidless cup. 

Heartbroken, Corrine searched and searched and searched for that pet. It was gone. Nowhere to be found. We even continued the search together once we arrived home, but to no avail. The frog was gone. Our only explanation was that he had hippity-hopped out of the car while the door was open.

Fast forward 1 year. I am unloading groceries from the back of the van when I accidentally lift the floor mat. Low and behold, there is the frog. In a sort of petrified, preserved, dry and dead state. I laughed so hard I cried. Seeing as I was alone, I snapped this picture in memoriam of the little buggar. 

Oddly enough, Corrine did not think it was as humorous as I did. 

Admittedly, I do feel a little bad about how he died. I mean, he probably suffered in all that heat and no food. (Frowny face.) 

But I guess now he's in a better place, right?