Just WHAT Is That In My Washer??

I did laundry today....4 loads. In an average week I do around 8 loads of laundry. I refuse to add up how many loads I've done in the past 11 years since the kids have come along (especially since DD spit up so much as a baby that I did at least 2 loads a day for about 4 months!). It never ceases to amaze me the things I will find in the washing machine as I'm doing the laundry. No matter how many times I remind everyone to check their pockets as they sort their laundry, there's almost always something that makes it through.

I've found more rocks than I care to count (both DS & DD have at different times "collected" them), enough coins to buy any entire vending machine's worth of snacks, lip balm (thankfully found before it made its way to the dryer), a few crayons (also found before the dryer), fruit snacks (unfortunately NOT found before the dryer.....putty knife works well to remove these from the dryer drum after it's cooled), assorted candy wrappers, a handful of uneaten candy, loads of tissues (always in the dark load when they appear), rubber bands, toy jewelry, a few rubber snakes, and more things that I'm sure I've forgotten.

There are three things that are even more amusing than the rest. One time I had a wet, furry toy mouse come flying out of the washer at me as I pulled clothes out.....this was only amusing after I realized that it was one of the cat toys and not a real mouse! Last year I heard something clunking loudly in the washer. When I went to see what it was when the spin cycle finished, I found.......two full-sized screwdrivers....yes, TWO! (It was later determined that these came from DH's pockets, not the kids'!!) Today I added to the list of amusing washing machine discoveries. This is what I found:
Yes, two orange disposable ear plugs.....which at first I thought were cheese puffs (not thinking at the time about the fact that had they indeed been cheese puffs, they would have completely dissolved in the wash water). Where did these come from? My son's pockets......where most of the strange things that have shown up in my washer originated. Over the years I've determined that you just never know what strange things will be found lurking in the washing machine.