When I say things have been crazy here lately I'm not just talking mood swings and busy schedules. This past week has left my home in a state of upheaval. It began last weekend with the loss of my daughter's beloved, Sallica.

Ember went through the motions of looking for her doll but couldn't, for the life of her, recall where she might be. I have the very distinct image of Sallica sitting on our kitchen table as we left to go somewhere one morning. This is unusual because Sallica generally traveled everywhere with us. She went to preschool, doctor's appointments, grocery shopping, and playgrounds with us. I have become so accustomed to seeing Ember running from place to place dangling Sallica by a braid or her hand, that the first few nights I went into her room to pull her covers up or soothe her back to sleep, my heart sank at the perceived absence of another family member! A few days after this I allowed the kids to stay up a bit later to eat pizza when their dad came home from work. He rang the front doorbell, pizza box in hand, as all of the little ones whooped and squealed in delight while I unlocked the door. My husband laid the pizza box on the couch and I, starving, immediately swooped it up and grabbed a slice. The next morning my husband stood scratching his head and contemplating the night before. Where had he put his keys? And, if he did misplace them, why is it that after a thorough ransacking of our home we still couldn't find them? Here it is, three days later and the keys still have not turned up?! These keys were no dainty collection either. They contained our house key, both car keys, his store key, and assorted customer cards for our frequent shopping excursions. You can't just tuck them anywhere. We have been stewing for days not understanding how this could have happened. He usually leaves his keys in his ignition with the car securely hidden in our garage. On this particular evening he DID NOT pull into the garage, so there is the slight possibility that someone stealthily, without alerting our wonderful watchdog, crept down our driveway and removed the keys from the ignition.

Today we spent the day at home. I had intended on doing grocery shopping but skipped that to finish other things that needed to get done. Not one time did a car or any of our person leave this house AND guess what? Something else went missing!!! Now I'll admit, we can be careless sometimes, taking a bathroom break or reading an email while our 16 month old runs around the house. We, at first, suspect her of mischief when things go missing. We always check the trash first. Generally the other two kids are with her and we never leave them unattended for more than a minute...well, at least I don't. Plus, we were ALL home today. My son and I played badmitton in the back yard for about an hour and I spent the rest of the day needle felting. We all batted the birdie around in the living room for a while which kept the entire bunch of us engrossed for, oh, roughly, five minutes. But significantly, in this five minutes Nova had used his puppy, Chihuala's, tail to hold the second birdie while not in use. We all remember it, we all giggled about it. Now Chihuala is nowhere to be found. He's a good sized pup too, standing about a foot tall.

Where does a puppy doll like that go skittering off to? Again, we have turned this house upside down looking for, not only Chihuala, but Sallica and a set of keys. I'm not the best housekeeper in the world but it never gets so messy that things of this size could go unseen. Perhaps we should keep a vigilant watch on our cars. Maybe Sallica and Chihuala have been plotting this out for a while during our slumber. I bet their plan is to use the unrecycled diaper boxes as a booster while Sallica drives and Chihuala bears down on the gas. Where they could be headed? Your guess is as good as mine...