Hard Work Shattered.

Once upon a time, I was 21 years old and became engaged to a young 23 year old fellow named Aaron. We planned our wedding for a year, and within that year I went to a Pampered Chef party my sister hosted. At this Pampered Chef party, I bought several items for our kitchen that would help me become that wonderful cook I thought I would be for my future husband. My favorite item purchased was a rectangular stone.

This is a stone that gets better and more seasoned over time. It starts off with a clean appearance and turns darker brown and black over time. The darker the better. My mother and my mother-in-law both have a dark, well used stone. For me, that showed they have cooked many meals for their family. Having a dark stone is like receiving a gold medal.

This stone has to be hand washed. You're not supposed to wash it with soap, so excess food should be removed with the scrapper that it comes with. Being realistic, I knew only being allowed to hand wash this would be hard for me, but I convinced myself to abide by the rules so that one day I would have my perfect, well seasoned stone just like my mother and my mother-in-law. I was going to be a great cook, take the extra time to hand wash my stone, and one day I would have a seasoned stone too!

Then we got married. We only had a dog named Barney to care for. We ate out all the time. I didn't cook much.

One night a few years ago, my sister came over to our house and we cooked something. When she pulled out my stone (You know....that stone that I had great intentions of using) she said "Wow, your stone is so white." I translated that to, "Wow Kelli, you sure don't cook much."

Over time I started cooking more and more. When becoming a stay at home mom, I started cooking almost every night. I now enjoy cooking.

A few weeks ago I started noticing how dark and seasoned my stone was becoming. It wasn't yet at gold medal status, but I would give it a silver medal. I actually mentioned my stone to my mom a few weeks ago and how dark it was becoming!

This June will be our 5 year wedding anniversary. Seeing my dark, well seasoned stone is a little pat on my back that maybe I am a good little wife after all. I can't wait to see my stone on our 10 year anniversary.

Then..............today.

(For those that have this stone, yes I have the handle thing you can sit the stone in. However, Jackson loves to pretend like the handle is a car. He cries when I put his car into the hot oven, therefore, I normally use the stone without the handle) As I was carrying the stone to the kitchen table, I DROPPED it. It SHATTERED on the kitchen tile. It was extremely loud which only made my heart drop deeper into my stomach.

All of my hard work is gone. I feel like my silver medal was taken away and I am left with a purple "Thanks for Participating" ribbon we were awarded when we lost a race on Play Day.

Such sadness.

RIP my first 5 years of marriage stone. It was good while it lasted....