I'm at a lose

Missing items: one library book, one cell phone

I have been through all the places a missing library book could be. All but one; the place it is. No one else seems to care. And it's not my book that is missing. Oh, I took it out on my card, but I really don't have any interest in Scooby Doo. I laid down the laws: No dessert until the book is found. No computer time until the book is found. No TV....

Nothing seemed to ignite their spark to look, until I said, "If that book is not found, you are paying for it."

The response, "How much?" As if they are the Rockerfellers.

My answer, "Three hundred dollars. That includes my finders fee."

Then they searched a little. The truth be told, the replacement cost is four dollars. It will be two from each piggy bank. I'll head over to the library today. My head hung low while I hand over the cash and beg for eternal forgiveness.

The cell phone went missing on a field trip. The very venue that I picked up the second phone for -- a way to call when you are far from home. There was a hole in a bag...

We called the park. We went back to the park. We searched the grounds. We called School Bus Transportation. We went to the school. We looked in the locker. No phone. We terminated the service.

Maybe someone picked it up and we'll get it back today. Really, I think making the phones as small as they are, is a ploy.

Phone companies make small phones.
Phone companies sell small phones to frantic mom with teenager. (Providing long distance invisible apron strings... I'll take two, please.)
Teenager loses phone.
Mom, frantic for other reasons now, searches for phone.
At least teenager is very instrumental in search. "I ate lunch there, and then walked this way to the beach here, before running to the bus there."

In the end, in this household the final word is: Teenager pays to replace phone. When the subject was brought up, it was the teen that mentioned the cash layout, but prefaced it with, "Can I give you the money after today's field trip? I need money for lunch."