the very hungry purse

looks like a very innocent purse, right? let me tell you a little story about this 'innocent' purse.

have you ever felt like you are losing your mind? i have (well, several times :o), but for a period of about a week-and-a-half i really thought i was losing my marbles. in those 7 or so days, i lost my keys SO MANY TIMES..thinking i locked them in the van after i drove places...etc. nate had to leave work several times to go home, get a spare van key, and bring it to me wherever i was at, because i had locked myself out of the van...somehow. it's like a bad dream where you can NOT dial 911 if you need to..or you can NOT remember something no matter how hard you try. i would drive somewhere (to the store, a meeting, etc...) and go out to the van, and my keys were just nowhere. we'd search the stores, church, wherever i was. i thought i was going crazy! and poor nate, he wasn't too pleased about the situation either.

and then the mystery was solved. the girls and i had gone to target to pick up the pictures they had taken a few week earlier. i had used the LAST spare van key to drive there, and i put it in my purse. we came out to the van (it's like 113 outside) and i could NOT find the van keys. we were all sweltering and i just kept searching my purse thinking it HAD to be in there somewhere. just the day before nate had to leave work again and get a key from our house. the girls and i went back in target and retraced every single step we took. the key was nowhere to be found. i couldn't believe it. AGAIN?! i called nate and sweet-talked an apology and asked him to bring me the spare unlocker to see if i locked them in the van. he finally came and unlocked the van. and we searched. and searched. no keys. we were totally baffled. until i reached into the deep dark corners of my purse pocket that i always keep my keys in. and my finger went right into this: (super-annoying...i have rotated and saved this picture in every position but it will only post sideways. sorry. you can crane your neck to the side and look at it if you want to :o)

a giant hole!!

i started laughing SO HARD as i started fishing around the inside of the lining of my purse, and i kept pulling out more and more things that my hungry purse had eaten. these were among the things i found:
nate cracked a smile, but he still wasn't too amused about the whole situation. as for me...i about died laughing. another ironic part: i couldn't BELIEVE how many new chapsticks i had been going through and 'losing'. no wonder! i just thought the girls were taking them and losing them. sheesh!

well, mystery solved. glad i'm not REALLY losing my marbles, and it's so nice to have my KEYS BACK!!!