What is THAT???

Driving around the world with my six kiddos can really take its toll on a vehicle. We clean our van out once a week and I am still amazed at the amount of stuff I find EVERY Friday. It's always an adventure of sorts, because you never know what you'll find. Sometimes I wonder if my kids just try and surprise me to get a reaction. "Let's do something really gross and watch her squirm!"

I’m not kidding, as I was cleaning it out the other day, I came across...

Some sort of rotten (I believe) fruit species… the only identifiable part was their stems (Hence the fruit analyses)
30 sheets of computer paper –some with lovely princess Martian drawings, others completely mark free but wrinkled (basically useless for the printer, now)
About 25 books, I guess to read when they get bored? As if driving with 8 people in the vehicle could ever make someone bored…
3 coats that have been missing
4 half empty various sized water bottles
5 combs
2 pairs of shoes (How they made it from the van to the house without their shoes is beyond me),
A jewelry box (Yes every girl must use driving time to properly select a beautiful accessory for the day)
3 forks (what in the-? Forks? Don’t even want to know…)
2 pairs of scissors (Who got out mom’s sewing scissors? Urgh! And just what have you been cutting?)
One small sleeve cuff off a white Church shirt, presumably cut with the forbidden scissors. (Great. It was the brand new shirt, too!)
6 of mom’s magic markers… (that explains the smell yesterday, still not sure what they wrote on…)
Fingernail polish (Heavens! Maybe that was the smell!)
2 stolen bags of chips from the cupboard (probably a week old… NICE.) now crushed and scattered all over the floor… (Eww)!
Before the cleanup was through I found several candy wrappers, school memorabilia, rocks, sea shells (I guess to keep the rocks company), DVD’s, a lone bag of groceries that had rolled under the seat (thank goodness it was canned goods!), mismatched socks, broken sunglasses and a portable CD player... But the kicker of them all was the live plant that my daughter had apparently been keeping in the minivan…

“Bailey, what is that sitting in your cup holder?”
“Oh! It’s a plant.”
“Yes, I see that… Why is it there?”
“Cause, its our Minivan Plant.”
“Oh-oh, our minivan plant… (As if every minivan had its own live plants in their cup holders) And how long has it been there?”
“Ever since we made them at school, its good for the environment…”
“Bailey, we cannot keep a plant in the van.”
“But, Mo-om, my teacher says it helps clean the air… and I thought cuz the van always smells funny, we could keep it.”
“Good argument, Bailey… the plant stays.” (Who knows, we may be onto something?)
Bet you wished you had your own Minivan Plant!