Woolty Mantis

When I was a little girl, my family didn't have cable. I'm pretty sure I can attribute my awesome childhood, of playing outside, to this. Anyway, we had rabbit ears on top of our t.v. set, and channels 3, 5, and 8 were about all that came in. We also only owned about two or three movies on VHS. One of those movies was The Secret Garden. I remember this movie so well, because it was my favorite, and I had probably watched it about thirty-five times. Well, in that movie,there was a little girl named Mary Lennox. In the beginning of the movie, Mary is throwing a tantrum in her mother's bedroom. She ends up throwing her mother's ivory elephant on the ground, breaking the trunk. Suddenly, she hears her mother returning to her bedroom for her purse, so Mary hides underneath the bed. At this moment, an earthquake strikes, and her mother passes away. Later in the movie, Mary learns that her mother had a twin sister, who owned a matching ivory elephant. Okay, so there are many other important parts to this movie, but I am mentioning the importance of the ivory elephant, because it goes with my story. Please bear with me ;)

Fast foward several years... When I was about fifteen or so, my mom, who bought and sold antiques,ended up with an ivory elephant. It looked exactly like the one in the movie. I asked her if I could have it, and though she probably thought that was an odd thing to ask for, she gave it to me.

The little girl in me has always loved that little elephant, and when I moved into the house that we are currently living in, I placed it on top of my dresser next to my jewelry box. That is where it has remained for the past six years... that is, until a few days ago when I decided to put it on top of the box, instead of next to it. Well, Evan sleeps in our room now, and while he was in bed a few nights ago, I decided to sneak in the room to put my earrings away. in doing so, I forgot that the elephant was on top of my jewelry box, and when I opened up the lid to the box, my elephant slid off of it, and ended up smashing against the wall. The entire trunk broke off. :/

After it happened, I brought the elephant downstairs to show Jason, and told him about it with a sad voice. Ally was around, and she came running over, very concerned, when she heard the news. She knows how important the elephant is to me, because I always tell her not to play with it. So after she heard it had broke, she said, "Mama, it's okay. I'll make a new one out of clay for you."

A few days had passed, and I pretty much fogot about my broken elephant. Last night I took Evan with me to go get an oil change, and Ally stayed home with Jason. I came home from that oil change to a beautiful surprise! Ally remembred her promise, and decided (all on her own) that she wanted to make me a new elephant. So, she did, and she did it without any help from anyone. She was so proud to give that elephant to me, and I was even more proud...

For some reason, she says it's not an elephant, but a wooly mammoth. Even better, she forgets how to say wooly mammoth, so she says, "Woolty Mantis" And I just love my "Woolty Mantis." I'm pretty sure it's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. I love her sweet little soul.