Where's all my stuff??

We have a big problem keeping track of things at our house.  Always have.  In the past month we have lost:

• 4 sweaters
• 1 coat
• 2 lunch bags
• My iPod
• Boy 2's iPod
• Boy 2's DS
• Boy 1 (the whole boy, not just his stuff)
• my running friend Leanne

That's the stuff I know about.  There's probably lots more I have yet to discover.  That also doesn't count H1's wallet and keys because they get "lost" at least once a week. (I like to tell him they aren't lost, he just can't remember where they are.  That seems to irritate him.  "How is that different?!") Last winter, Boy 2 actually lost his winter coat on our front lawn overnight.  The next morning, H1 walked by it at least 3 times without noticing while I was inside screeching, "How do you lose a winter coat?  You can't go outside without it - it's too cold!  How did you get home without a coat?"

Anyway, by yesterday, as we were leaving to catch the school bus, I realize we are down to one sweater between the two boys.  That leaves Boy 2 wearing a short sleeved t-shirt with a vest.  The temperature is 0 degrees. He insists he's not cold.  I say, "Of course you aren't, you are still indoors."  He didn't care. I let him go to school that way and told them both to check lost and found and don't come home without sweaters, jackets and lunch bags.  At 3:30, Boy 2 comes home with nothing, not even Boy 1!  Where's your brother?  "Dunno - he didn't even get on the bus."  My first thought was I guess he couldn't find his stuff so just didn't come home.  After I ran around in a panicked circle for a minute, I called the school.  Apparently he missed the bus so he toddled up the sidewalk a few minutes later with one coat.  I took them both back to the school on a search and rescue mission.  We found 4 sweaters/jackets and two lunch boxes in the lost and found, or as it has also been called, the MacFuddle Closet.  I hadn't seen Boy 2's lunch bag for at least three weeks and there was a half-eaten yogurt in there.  Boy 1 has a very delicate stomach so every time he so much as looked in the direction of the lunch he would gag.  Boy 2 thought this was great fun so he chased him around for a while, pretending to eat the yogurt (gag), pretending to rub yogurt on Boy 1 (another gag), trying to put it under Boy 1's nose (big gag- almost vomit). I told them next time they lost their lunch bags I would buy them each a nice new pink one.  Boy 1 says, "I'd just lose it."  Good point.

My iPod turned up in a load of clean clothes.  It didn't like that so it is refusing to turn on or charge.  Boy 2's iPod fell out of the dryer last night.  I admit it, I said the F word.  Good thing everyone was already asleep.  His iPod still seems to still work, though.  It probably liked being clean for a change.

My running friend Leanne took a wrong turn and we all lost track of each other on our early Thursday morning run.  She turned up right away, without us even having to do much of a search and rescue mission.  Wish the DS would be that co-operative...