My New Tortoise

I can finally stop grieving for my turtle that was left behind in San Diego when I moved. Actually, I guess it is officially a tortoise. He was one of my very favorite gifts that Kent bought me, mostly because we had seen it together, then I had forgotten about it, and then he surprised me with it a couple years later. Several years ago Kent and I were shopping at Simpson's Nursery for fruit trees and we saw these life-sized concrete tortoises - the kind we used to see at the zoo as kids - big slow-moving terrestrial (land) ones that we could sit on! Anyway, these concrete tortoises looked so real and I fell in love with them and thought it would be fun to have one in the backyard garden. We didn't buy one that day, but a couple of years later on my birthday I opened the mini-blinds to let in the morning sun through the kitchen window which looked out over the garden, and there it was - a tortoise! It actually startled me because for a split second I thought it was real and then I remembered the ones we had seen a couple years earlier. Anyway, my tortoise was the only thing that didn't make it in the moving van when I moved to Utah and I have never quite gotten over that. I had the perfect spot for it indoors in my new place. And when my friends, Kathy and Linda were here helping me unpack, I noticed that a good portion of my DI pile had somehow been loaded on the truck along with several other things I had not intended to bring. Everytime we unearthed one of those things, it became the joke to say: "This came?! But the turtle didn't?" Well, today while driving home from school, I passed a garden shop that had a sign out front advertising newly arrived rock turtles. I just had to stop and see them. I actually passed up the driveway and ended up in the parking lot of a used book store so I pretended to be interested in their books for a few minutes and then scurried next door to the garden shop where I found these fun rock tortoises in all sizes. Because I read an article last night in LDS Living Magazine on getting rid of clutter, I chose the smallest one. And this way, it will never be left behind again! He sits on the end table next to Kent's picture and it is the first thing I see when I walk in the door. What a sweet reminder he will be of a special gift from an amazing husband. And now I can finally "let go" of my other tortoise and allow him to get used to his new home in Kent's mother's backyard where he was taken. What can I say - I'm more sentimental than I want to admit.