Receiving Stolen Property

Today James got a haircut in Cedarville. I had just filled out my graduate scholarship form and decided to drop it by the campus and save a stamp. It isn't a warm day today, but it is sunny and James and the girls had a good time running all over the grass and sidewalks. I decided since everyone was in a good mood and we were already there to see what books my course required and if maybe I could check them out of the library and save myself a hundred dollars or so. (Do you see a theme of thriftiness on my part?) The elevator at the library was a big hit, and I was glad the building was mostly empty as the three children I had in tow were not especially conscious of those studying. James had a great time running around the shelves, Erin practiced shelving and reshelving material, and Riley hurried to tell me every misdeed that was happening as I desperatly searched for the books I needed. We finally got out of there and I swear the librarians breathed a sigh of relief. At the public library the kids are usually really good, but this was a whole new place with quite a bit of room to explore. Anyway, back to the stolen property. I had parked right next to the back of the library so that we didn't have any parking lot to cross, even though it gave us a little bit of a walk to the front door. This gave the kids the opportunity to have some freedom and not have to hold hands, be in a stroller, etc. Riley and Erin went straight to the van, but James was lagging way behind us. I decided to keep an eye on his progress but to go ahead and get the girls in, it was getting really close to nap time. (Besides, Cedarville campus is one of the only public places I'm pretty comfortable letting my kids walk without holding hands). I could see James walking kinda funny with his arms crossed over his chest and took it as a sign he was getting tired and wasn't enjoying the trip quite as much as a few minutes earlier. As he got up to the van I could see he was carrying something. He had two large stones hidden in his shirt he was trying to carry. I took a picture of them next to my shoe to show you he didn't just pick up a couple of pebbles. These are nice sized landscaping rocks. Proudly he dumped them on the ground and said "ook! ocks!". I told him firmly that it wasn't nice to steal from the college. I looked around to see where we could return them, but they were from where we had first exited the library and the girls were already strapped in the van. I thought about putting them in the grass, but felt bad for the poor guy mowing, and if you hit them with your car in the parking lot, you'd know it. So I stuck them in the van and silently chastized myself for receiving stolen property. I will take them back in June when I start my class, I promise!