My son brought in the mail yesterday and here's how the conversation went..."Mom, you've got a package in the mail today and it says you've got some FREE gifts inside - aren't you curious about the free stuff?" "Thanks sweetie, but nothing in this life is free", I said. "That's not true", my oldest girl standing nearby said. "You told me that you got that oven mitt for free". I smiled. Ahh, yes, the oven mitt...I haven't thought about that story in a long time.
You see, my husband and I have been married for 17 years. We were very young when we got married and had little to no money. One day my husband noticed on the back of one of those Martha White muffin mixes a "get an oven mitt for free" offer. Of course in the fine print was the fact that you had to send in 24 proof of purchases from the back. "We can do this", he said. "Honey, it's 24 packages...24. That's an awful lot of muffins." Still he was undeterred.
Weeks and weeks went by and we ate muffins..lots and lots of muffins. All for the love of an oven mitt. By the time we hit the 15 mark, I thought I'd turn into a muffin. "We're too far into it to stop now", my husband claimed. So the muffin eating continued. By golly, we ate so many muffin mixes I started to think that oven mitt better be something great - because by now, I was hating muffins...Martha White in particular.
On the day of the last package I think I heard the Hallelujah chorus of angels singing. That day we finally sent off all 24 proof of purchases (probably the only people on the planet to do so) and waited for the "gold plated diamond encrusted"(whatever kind of) oven mitt to arrive. Weeks went by and finally it came. My husband had never been so proud. "See, don't ever say I don't get you anything", he said with a smile. I am crazy about my husband...but I was never again going to eat another muffin mix.
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