good news!

the nightmare is over.

tedwin has returned.

and not a moment too soon, for tedward and i, in our extreme despair, had begun to abandon all hope of ever seeing his sweet bear face again.

our prayers were answered late last night. a second, third, and fourth trip to the store had yielded nothing but sad substitutes for the kidnapper's demands. despite my fervent pleading with the cashier at braums, i still was unable to locate a single carton of chocolate chip chocolate ice cream.

with a freezer full of chocolate chip, vanilla bean, cappuccino chunky chocolate, brownie fudge sundae, peanut butter with snickers, rocky road, and yet another gallon of chocolate chip, i began to fear the worst. still clinging to the hope that we might eventually be able to track down any amount of chocolate chip chocolate, i typed out a passionate email to mr. braums to enlist his help in this terrible ordeal.

just as i pressed the send button, i heard the doorbell. following our usual family procedure of door answering, i held tightly to my spot on the couch in hopes that anyone else would be expecting someone or simply would get tired of hearing the doorbell. after several minutes passed, i realized that my location a room away from our front door had led to my silent nomination as the door answerer for the evening.

i stomped to the door with disgust. my emotional turmoil combined with loss of sleep and excess sugar from consuming so much rejected ice cream had left me swollen and generally angry. i threw open our front door, fully expecting yet another note with further instructions from the kidnappers.

and there he sat. plastered with several crayola band aids and nursing a rather nasty head wound, our sweet tedwin had returned.

i pulled him inside the house and joyously announced his appearance to my family, who immediately rushed to my side. mom and i took him in the kitchen for a thorough post-kidnapping exam.

despite the serious-looking nature of his wounds, he appeared to be quickly healing and generally quite healthy.

yes. he was in perfect condition, except for a distinctive horse-like aroma and a few shavings stuck in his fur. we carefully picked out the shavings, then set him on the shoe shelf of our dryer along with a few sheets of bounce to deal with his barn odor.

with tedwin both toasty warm and dryer-fresh, mom went to fetch tedward, and the two had an emotional family reunion. we gave them some time alone.

tedwin has now been safely returned to casey in norman, and he is doing much better and thankfully has very little recollection of his time with the kidnappers. i will also never, ever be allowed to baby-sit him again, under the orders of casey.

thank you so much to all of you who have helped us through this trying time.

and to everyone else, those of you with your terrible suggestions for teddy torture, you people are sick. sick!

and miss lauren. this kidnapping was sadly miscalculated. while you're back in school this week, i will be lounging around the house with nothing to do. except, of course, work out complicated plots to separate you and your dear teddy. or, dare i say it, you and your sweet stubby cat?

now i must return to our "welcome back tedwin" party. after all, we had to do *something* with all that ice cream.