Charley's "Engagement" Story

It was just a typical Monday afternoon in December.  Charley had gotten off the bus and we were enjoying a snack while watching a Christmas Hallmark movie.  Craig was out of town for work, so it was just us girls for a few days.  Mid-movie Charley said, "hey...Bentley gave me a present today...wanna see?  You're probably going to be mad."  (She meant mad that a boy gave her a gift, because we constantly joke with her that she is too little for boyfriends and stuff like that.)  I agreed to see whatever she was storing in her backpack.  The first "gift" she showed me was a couple of sparkly, fake finger nails.  I was not mad about that gift...I was grossed out...and almost completely lost interest in the whole conversation.  Then she said, "he also gave me this ring."  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the ring and immediately regained my focus.  I politely asked to see the ring to get a closer look.  (TRUTH...on the outside I was trying to stay calm, on the inside I was screaming a tiny four letter word that started with S!!!)  I'm not a jeweler, but I know nice things when I see them, and this ring was most definitely from the child's mother's jewelry box.

Panic mode started to set in when I realized that I had someone's very expensive possession being treated like another "treasure" that Charley had collected in the side pocket of her backpack and it rode home on the bus, and the fact that I didn't know the child's last name or have the teacher's phone number was almost more than I could handle.  So many scenarios flew through my head as I tried to track down Charley's teacher to get contact information for Bentley's family.  THREE hours later and lots of people helping me try to get in touch with her, I received a text from the teacher asking about Charley's engagement.  I'm so glad she saw humor in the issue, because I was a nervous wreck being responsible for such an expensive item.

Long story short, the ring was the mother's engagement ring, and I personally returned it to school the next day.  I shared the story on facebook and everyone was dying to hear what the mother said about the situation.  All I can report is that the teacher did the communicating, and the mother did not accept my fb friend request...I guess she wasn't ready to be future in-laws to our "engaged" children!