Clip.....Ouch

So, yesterday I was sitting at work when two of my children, Becky and David, show up. They had been bored at home and walked to see me.

We visited for a few minutes. Becky then said, "Mom, I have a hang nail. Do you have any nail clippers here?"

I pull out the pair of nail clippers that I keep safely tucked in my desk drawer and hold them up in the air, as if holding Excalibur......at this point.......a heavenly light shines upon them and heavenly music begins to play.

Becky is thrilled and pleads for me to gently hand them to her....and David runs over and begs for them following Becky's turn.

Okay, it's time to shed a little light on the history of the nail clippers. My oldest daughter, Katie, has some kind of weird nail clipper fetish....which causes any nail clippers that I buy for our home to magically disappear anytime Katie has used them. She ALWAYS claims that she has put them back where they belong, but this is what I know.....one minute they are in their designated place and the next minute I hear Katie using them.....and then, "Poof," they are gone. So, my solution, after sacrificing 35 nail clippers to the nail clipper fiend in our home, was to buy a pair and leave them at work. Good solution for me....not such a good one for Becky and David.

Back to yesterday at work, Becky spends 15 minutes giving herself a pedicure and a manicure...I hear, "Clip, ouch........clip, ouch............clip, ouch. Man those little buggers could put my eye out." This is what happens when you can't find clippers at home....Becky's nails were monstrously long, and the cutting of them was causing those long buggers to fly up and hit her in the face....nearly putting out an eye.

Next it was David's turn. Again, finger nails flying.....then the shoes came off and the toe nails started to fly.

When they finished, they each breathed a sigh of relief......"Oh, that feels so good."

So, today I'm sitting at my desk.....when my co-worker comes in and stops short of coming near my desk. "Tammy, what is that?" she asks. I look....there on the edge of my desk is one BIG toe nail....a gift from my son. I laugh and look around me.....they have left me gifts of themselves....I am sitting in the midst of toe and finger nail shards.......totally surround by them.

I love my kids.....all the way down to their little toes!