Miscommunication and Mishaps

Although her expressive language skills were top notch...at times Lauren's receptive communication abilities were lacking. She didn't always understand what Ray and I were asking her to do. We even had her hearing checked as she had suffered with meningitis at age 4 and hearing loss can be a side effect. But all results were within normal limits and life went on pretty smoothly.
Most of the time a simple restatement on our part provided the clarity Lauren needed to get our gist. I remember one occasion, however, that Ray delivered a message that Lauren got completely wrong. She was about 7 or 8 at the time and we were living in Lakeland. Our house sat far back on a long lot and we had a pretty lengthy driveway. The toilet in our guest bathroom was not working properly so Ray was working on it. He had used our wet/dry shop vac which he had just cleaned thoroughly and ensured was in perfect working order prior to starting the project. He was sitting on the floor of the bathroom and needed a bit more working space so he called Lauren who was playing in her room directly across the hall. "Take the shop vac and set it by the Jeep." he instructed. We owned a refurbished 1986 Jeep CJ 7 at the time and it was parked right in front of the garage door. Ray then went about his work.
I was cleaning the kitchen when about 5 minutes later Lauren entered the house from the garage and asked Ray..."Was somebody supposed to come and get that vroom vroom thing?" "Uh...you mean the shop vac?" Ray said. "Yeah...that thing" Lauren answered. Ray was now curious and said "No...why?" Lauren sincerely explained "Well I set it by the street like you said and a van came by and picked it up." "STREET..I said to put it by the JEEP!" Ray exclaimed while rushing out the door to see if the van was still in sight. Poor Lauren. We never let her live that one down. Anytime we saw a shop vac we harassed her. Hey, that's what families are for right?
Another mishap took place when Ray's wedding ring went missing. We searched and searched everywhere. I checked the laundry area in the garage, tore apart our bedroom and even looked in the traps under the sinks. We eventually gave up and went to purchase another identical ring...although the original one was engraved on the inside. But the new one would have to do.
Months later I was giving Lauren's room a thorough Spring cleaning part of which was to completely remove everything from her closet. Sitting atop her closet shelf was a RoboParrot toy we had gotten her a few years earlier. I grabbed it by the back and pulled it down from the shelf. Low and behold but what did I find pinned in its lovely little robobeak....Ray's wedding ring! Good gravy, I thought, what am I gonna do with that kid! Love her....that's what I did.