Petunia had a loose tooth for a long time. This one tooth just did not want to leave her mouth, so it hung on and on, no matter how much she worked on it. In fact, this particular tooth kind of became its own character in our family, it stayed around so long.

"Is he still there?" "Yep." "You working on it some more?" "Yes, but it gets looser and then tightens up again."

These were our conversations about The Tooth That Wouldn't Leave.

So imagine our surprise when we're eating lunch in a little pizza place in the village of Watkins Glen and Petunia comes back from the bathroom with bleeding gums and tooth in hand! We all celebrated!!

After being admired, the tooth got set down on a napkin as we finished up. Ok, let's be real...that pretty much made us want to finish up anyway. Here the details get a bit fuzzy, but I believe the general consensus is I am the one at fault for scooping up the tooth-holding napkin along with the others and throwing them into the trash. We walked out to our car, everyone thinking someone else had the tooth.

Fortunately, before we even got in the car, Petunia asked to see her tooth. After a short round of "Who's on first?" we realized what must have happened. This was unfortunate because Petunia really wanted to keep this tooth. In fact, she had already decided she was going to write the Tooth Fairy asking if there was any way that she could keep this one instead of giving it up because she had worked so long and hard on it.

Mark said we had to at least know we had done everything we possibly could to recover the missing tooth. So, we marched back inside. I was not feeling extremely enthusiastic right about this point, if you're wondering.

Knowing we had just left, we tried to do a cursory, nonchalant glance inside the top of the trashcan.

Just writing that sentence makes me laugh out loud. Better than crying, I guess.

Much to our chagrin, that wasn't going to cut it. We spoke to some employees and got permission to take the trash bag outside for a full inspection. They even volunteered gloves! Bless you, pizza employees with hearts!

So, we started The Search.

Might not go down as my favorite memory of the whole year.

Fortunately this was a delicious eatery and people pretty much cleaned their plates! We were removing lots of empty plates and pizza boxes. It could have been much worse.