The Case of the Missing Coupons (a.k.a "I Must be Losing My Mind")

Yesterday, in a very rare moment, I found approximately one extra minute of time in the mad rush to get J ready for school and out the door. So, in the interest of efficiency, I thought I would do a tiny bit of planning ahead and set aside the coupons I would need for my morning trip to Target. I went to grab my coupon file out of my purse and, lo and behold, it wasn't there. I looked around for a bit and it was no where to be found...not in my purse, not in the car, not in the hall closet where I hang my purse up.

By now, the one minute (along with a few others) is long gone and we're suddenly behind schedule, so I commence barking orders at the girls to get us going as soon as possible. I will admit, I threw a mini-tantrum in frustration over the missing coupons. As I'm yelling at the girls to get their shoes on and get in the car, what's really going through my head is "Why on earth can I not keep track of my stuff" or (even worse) "Why, oh why can't other people leave my stuff alone?"

I didn't find the coupons, we were late getting to school, and it was raining so I decided not to go to Target anyway. Grrrr.

Today, still no sign of them, and I am running out of places to look. I figure any of the following scenarios are possible:

-I left them at a store.

-I took them out of my purse to add a coupon, and forgot to put them back.

-The girls got them out and were playing with them.

-Craig saw them laying around somewhere and put them in a "safe" place for me.

-On my way to putting them away, I set them down in some random place which I can neither remember nor locate at this time.

Sadly, none of these scenarios is unlikely, which makes it all the more difficult to narrow them down to one or two possibilities.

After today's trip to Target (in which, couponless, I spent about $6 more than I should have had to) I re-started the search. In exasperation, I said out loud, "where are those coupons?"

Then Savanna gave me a nibble. "Julia put them in her bed." Seriously? "She had them in your room?" I asked. "Yes, she had them in her bed. Then she put them under my bed." I was a little skeptical, but what the heck. "If you help me find them," I told her, "I'll give you a dollar." A thorough search revealed that the coupons were not in Julia's bed, nor under Savanna's bed, nor anywhere in their room. By the time Savanna started suggesting that Alexa hid them, or a monster had taken them, I started figuring out that, cute and helpful though she is, she is not a reliable witness. "Do I get my dollar now?" Uh, negatory.

Just like the blanket saga, as much as I wish this story had a happy ending, the coupons remain at large. I figure by the time I get around to buying a new file and get stocked up on coupons again, they will show up somewhere like the garage freezer or under the bathroom sink (as of now, two of the only places that I haven't looked).

And for those of you out there in blog-land, if you happen to know where my coupons are, I'll give you a dollar for their safe return. Either that or your choice of 3 coupons totaling no more than $1.50. The choice is yours.