Locked in Lollipops- A Katie Butler Mystery

Yes, well we'll get to that in a minute. First, here are some photos from yesterday. Sundays are my favorite days to take photos because Mae is all dressed up. Here she is in nursery. I hope she's not sick of nursery by the time she is actually old enough to be in there.

Here is Shane playing around with Dan. The kids in nursery adore Shane and he adores them in return. Give him any screaming baby and in less than 5 minutes, he'll have a happy baby. He is just so amazing with kids.
It started out as a favor, working at the cutest little childrens boutique, "Lollipops" here on the Island. My friend Karin owns it and needed some help while she was out of town. She asked me back for yesterday and then this coming Wednesday and Saturday! I was so excited. I am definitely going to need those hours now to pay off all the clothes I want from there. It was a slow day and my trusty associate Myron joined me. He was my little food runner. I love the location of Lollipops, it is right downtown and in the middle of everything, including the famous for a reason, "Blackbird Bakery". Myron delivered very delicious curry cauliflower soup to me and potato dill soup to himself along with their homemade oatmeal wheat bread. Then, he ran back for some of their most amazing chocolate mousse, which we ate very slowly, as we mmm'd and aaah'd our way through it. I was a little embarrassed to return the cups to the bakery when we had licked the cups clean. What I love about this bakery is that for a cup of soup (a new soup every day ) and a full thick slice of homemade bread, it is only 2.75. The only bummer is that if you really love a soup, your probably out of luck to have it again. They make a new soup everyday. My favorite of all time was the Potato sorrel nettle. It tasted like artichoke.
So here it is. I am so excited to be working here. It is fun, quiet and nice to look at. Karin has done such a fantastic job designing this shop. I had to take some photos to show it off.
This is where I get to sit. Behind that beautiful counter.
This is the view from next to the counter, looking out towards the door.
And now.......locked in Lollipops,...sounds like a Nancy Drew mystery! It really isn't that big of a story, and Myron would kill me if he knew I was posting this, but here goes. Karin had just asked her husband John to make me a key for the store. It was sitting on the counter bright and shiny when I got there with the "Katie's keys" tag. I promptly put it on my key chain, so proud to be considered an "employee". Seriously though, I haven't worked in 11 years! I mean, i've worked, but haven't gotten paid for it. At the end of the day, after doing everything I was supposed to to close up, we were ready to head home. Why is Myron on this side of the door you ask? Good question. Well, after I was unable to lock the door on the outside, I came in to call Karin to ask if I was given the right key. In the meantime, Myron decided to mess with the lock and EUREKA! Was able to lock it. I hung up the phone and went to the door to pull the key out and finally get out of here. Well, the key wouldn't turn back the other way to unlock the door. We were stuck. Here is Myron jiggling and trying with all his might to unlock the door in between his mumbling to never ever show anyone or tell anyone what happened. Sorry, Myron, all is fair in cyber space.

After 10 minutes of trying to unlock the door, the truth sank in....we weren't gettin out alive. Okay, maybe a little dramatic, but you get the drift. I called everyone on the employee list, including myself aka my husband to explain what was going on. My husband was the only one to answer. So...here we are in this photo, contemplating the scenario. Meanwhile, people aka owners of the other shops are closing up and giving us peculiar looks as to why we are just standing near the door and not leaving when everything is obviously put away from outside and it's time to go home! My pride keeps me from writing SOS on the door or screaming help in sign language. After another 30 minutes, I start down the contact list again and finally reach Roxie who politely explains to me the secret jiggle, push, shove technique that frees me from the pink prison that I had previously decided that I would be camping out in for the night.
We made it out and arrived home to hugs and kisses from kiddos that actually missed their mama. It was a nice time and I am so glad that I got to resurrect some of my lost writing skills by exaggerating the "locked up" incident!
In the end, here is Mae in her new nightgown looking adorable as ever and yes....on top of the table. Phew! Ciao.