This is the breathtaking, lovely view of my backyard. I am seriously considering having Dave start on the construction of an arc. I am really looking forward to all the lovely animals that will be left behind after the water recedes, especially the reptiles!!! Everyone was home tonight for dinner. It is always fun when the family sits together for a meal. Erin had a headache and has a hard time dealing with the sound of her baby brother's voice. They spent the entire meal screaming at each other. It was a very relaxing, peaceful dinner. I sent Ryan out in the rain to get the mail after dinner. My cell phone bill came. I had an extra $60 charge on the bill for Shannon's replacement phone that wasn't covered under warranty. She dropped hers in a parking lot a couple of months before Erin dropped hers. Maybe they have the same defective gene. (irresponsibility) We have unlimited text messaging on our plan. When Shannon got her phone I explained to her that it was not a toy and just because we have unlimited texting that she was to not abuse the privilege. Well, I guess that lecture was a waste of hot air. On this month's bill, Lauren had around 300 text messages, I had 35 (all messages sent from my lovely daughters) Erin had a little over a thousand and sweet little Shannon had 3,400. Now this could be a good reason why her algebra grade has gone down. Gods love her, I bet her poor little finger tips are sore from texting. I am going to send her teacher a little note and ask her to not be so hard on my little princess, surely she is finding it quite difficult to hold a pencil!! I called her upstairs and asked her what she was thinking. She said, the majority of the texts are incoming, not outgoing. I told her to go ahead and send everyone in her a address book a big fat message that says, STOP TEXTING ME, MY MOM IS GOING TO KILL ME!! Her take on this is, "I guess this just proves that I have more friends than Erin." Where oh where am I going wrong!!!

Shannon made her Confirmation this morning. She got to be an only child today. Considering she is our fourth child there weren't a whole heck of allot of volunteers from the Murphy family willing to watch her be confirmed. We went to lunch afterwards. Dave ran into our oldest daughter Sam while he was getting the car as we were leaving the restaurant. She said "Umm why would you go to eat "like" two seconds away from my dorm and not call me." He said "Umm why would you be "like" 10 minutes away from your sister's confirmation and not go?" While we were at the restaurant we had to do a little kid juggling via cell phone. Ryan had a 3:00 soccer game and Maggie had a party at 3:00 at a neighbor's house. It was 2:00 and we still had to drop Shannon's sponsor off and there was not enough time to get home to get Ryan, then back to the game in time for Dave to coach. Kelsey's friend's older brother was on his way to pick her up and they live towards the direction of Ryan's game. I called and asked if he could grab Ryan too and meet us at a Quick Trip in their neighborhood. I then had to have Ryan's friend that spent the night call his mom to come get him since Ryan was leaving. Lauren was home but the only car there was the van and I had the keys in my purse. Maggie was just going to have to go to her party without a gift. I was going to run by the store on my way home from the game and hopefully get back before they opened presents. I called home to make sure Ryan got picked up OK and that his friend went home. Lauren said "Maggie is going to be the prettiest one at the party." I said "Oh God, what did you do?" She said "you asked me to get her ready, she just has on a little bit of blush and mascara." That is just fabulous, my six year old shows up at the neighbors house, without a gift, looking like she is going to pop out of the cake!!! We got Ryan from the meeting place and he started crabbing that he was hungry. Shannon proceeded to say, "Oh Ryan, I am so full, we had the best lunch." I thought to myself, "Is that what being filled with the Holy Spirit does???" No wonder she flunks religion tests. We made it back to the party after the game before they opened presents. I'm so good!! The pictures above are from confirmation and of course I had to post my model of Jupiter. (I hope I get a good grade)

Ryan has a planet report due tomorrow. He has been asking me all week to take him to the library and to go by Michaels to get the supplies for the model. Of course I decided to stay with the fly by the seat of my pants moto and wait until after 7:oo pm to get the supplies. I had to drop Shannon off at practice, pick Kelsey up from practice, swing by Michaels and then head back to pick up Shannon. Dave took Ryan to the library to check out some books on Jupiter. He had to pay the $6.00 fine for his overdue books we had for the President McKinley report. Ryan had an 8:00 indoor game forty minutes away. I pulled into the parking lot to drop Shannon off and she realized that she had her soccer spikes on instead of indoor shoes. I had my crocs on so I couldn't switch with her.I called Dave and asked him to swing by with her shoes so I wasn't late picking Kelsey up. Needless to say, he was less than thrilled. Luckily her coach had a pair of his 4th grade son's shoes in his trunk. Shannon called Dave and told him not to worry about bringing her shoes. I don't think we can make it through a whole week without the wrong shoes, wrong spelling book, wrong lunch, wrong uniform, wrong day, wrong time etc,etc. I got home around 9:00 and whipped up a Jupiter model. Dave and Ryan are back home from his soccer game, they are working on finding a way to attach the Styrofoam ball to the base. I don't want a repeat of St. Anthony's head rolling down the driveway when we did our Saint project. I don't want to crawl under the van to find Jupiter in the morning, I hope Dave is better with the hot glue gun than I was.

Dave's sister gave him a cashmere sweater that was her husbands. It was brand new but it had a few moth holes in it. He dropped it off at a Tailor to have it repaired. He called me at work last Friday and asked me to pick it up on my way home. I went by the place, it was an old house turned into a business. I walked down stairs and told the scary lady that I was there to pick up the sweater. She yelled at me in broken English "I told him after 4:00." I said, "I'm sorry, he thought you said before 4:00, we will come back tomorrow." He asked me to pick the sweater up yesterday after work, I said, "are you crazy, I'm afraid that gypsy lady will kill me and turn me into delicious stew, get your own sweater." He picked it up himself, he was like a little kid, he wore it to our dance class last night. Today the dog peed on it!!!!

Lauren is doing much better, she went back to the oral surgeon to have the medicated packing changed and she has to go back again on Friday. I put a little Easter basket together for her boyfriend Mike. He ended up not coming over on Easter because Lauren was so sick. My kids started pilfering through Mike's basket after they ate all of their "good candy." Erin wanted to unwrap his Reese's Easter bunny, lick it and wrap it back up. (I told you, she she was a little twisted.) I asked her why on earth she would want to do that? She said, "it sounded fun." Maybe I should have hugged her more when she was little. Today she got the basket down and started stealing candy since hers is already gone. Mike better hurry up and come by the house if he wants any saliva free candy.

Dave went with Shannon on a field tip today to the Cathedral. This morning when he was taking the kids to school she looked at him and said "are you wearing that on the field trip?" He had on mis-matched clothes and a baseball cap. He said "yes and I plan on holding your hand when we get there." He called me at work a half hour later and asked me what he should wear. I swear that man still needs granimal tags to match his clothes.

Dave and I had dance class tonight, I think we might be getting worse. I should have skipped dance class and worked on my (Ryan's) planet report that is due on Friday. He has to write a report and make a model of a planet. We still haven't even decided which planet we are doing. Oh well, I work better under pressure. He said he got an 82 on his social studies test. The teacher gave everyone an extra six points because everyone did so bad. She also passed out extra credit, my brilliant son told her he would pass on the extra credit, he was perfectly content with the six extra points. I really wish he wouldn't be such an over achiever all the time!!!

Lauren pulled herself together this morning and went back to school to take a quiz. She went by her mailbox and ran into the guy she interviewed with for the RA position for next school year. He told her "congratulations, you have been awarded the position." He asked her to come on in his office and they could talk about it. She said, "thanks I appreciate it but I just had my wisdom teeth taken out and my family says that I stink really bad and I am afraid to talk to anyone. I will come by when I smell better." She had to go back to the oral surgeon today because she was in so much pain. She has a dry socket. Of course, if anything can go wrong, it will. Hey isn't that Murphy's law?? She called me at work around 2:00 crying. She was still in allot of pain and the pain medicine wasn't helping. I left work early and she was up in bed crying. Erin was picking up Shannon at her friends house and she got lost. She was running late for her first soccer game. She told Shannon that she was stupid and so were all of her friends because of course it was everyone else's fault that she got lost, regardless if she was the one driving. I told Lauren that I would stay at home until she fell asleep. She said "I'm fine, go ahead and go." I left for Erin's game and brought Kelsey with me. I was meeting Dave there and he was going to take Kelsey to her practice after Erin's game. Shannon called me just as I was pulling into the parking lot of the soccer game. She said "Lauren is crying really hard and she says it feels like she has a hundred needles stabbing her ear." I told her to get her a cool washcloth for her forehead and try and help her get comfortable. Lauren called five minutes later and said she called the doctor's office and they want her to come back in. I was 40 minutes away and the office would be closing soon. I called my dear sweet sister in law and she rushed right over to get her to the doctor. They repacked the dry socket and told her that the nurse packed it wrong this morning. This poor kid has spent the whole day crying in pain because some idiot packed her mouth incorrectly. She must have been one of Shannon's friends!! While we were at the game Sam called to tell us that her interview went really well. She is applying for an internship for this summer. A few minutes later she called back a little frantic. She lost the key to her car. She had it a second ago but somehow she lost it somewhere inside of the car. I don't know what she thought calling her father would do to help solve the problem. He suggested that she open the car door, get out and actually look around the car for the key. He also suggested that she unlock the doors, just in case she would lock herself out considering her only key was lost somewhere inside of the car. (and she's our smart daughter) I'm thinking she may be a friend of Shannon's!!!

My son is coming down from his Easter sugar high. He has spent the majority of his day jumping around like a jack rabbit. I have spent most of my day yelling at him to calm down. Hey, wasn't I the one that loaded his basket full of sugar? What was I thinking??? Lauren is finally feeling a bit better after getting her wisdom teeth cut out. She ate real food today. Granted it was mashed potatoes and pudding cake but it's a start. Her breath could peel the paint off the walls but we still love her!!! Erin went to blockbuster to rent a movie. Apparently she is not on the authorized list for our family. The clerk working gave her a hard time and called me at home to make sure she had permission to rent the movie. We all had a good laugh because she was renting Ratatouille. Erin has her first high school soccer game tomorrow, hopefully the fields aren't to wet so we actually get the game in.

The case of the slow draining bathtub and the stopped up toilet is now solved. The picture to the left is what my husband pulled out of the drain in the girls bathroom. Who knew it wasn't a good idea to let bobby pins and pony tail holders go down the drain? Erin insists that all of the hair belongs to Shannon because it looks more red then blond. We explained that hair doesn't stay a lovely golden blond when it is stuck in a drain pipe. Maybe having four girls with a combined length of hair somewhere over 6 feet was not such a good idea. There is a new bobby pin rule in the house, they must remove all bobby pins before they enter the bathroom. I'm sure that will last all of two days. Dave will be back upstairs equipped with a plunger and needle nose pliers in a couple of months. The pee all over the seat in Ryan's bathroom isn't looking too bad right about now!!

Lauren got her wisdom teeth cut out yesterday. She asked my to go get her an orange freeze from Steak N Shake. Ryan said, "Oh get me a strawberry shake." I said, "little boys who get detention, don't get strawberry shakes." He said, "OK, get me vanilla.

Yesterday at boot camp we had to do chest presses with a weight bar. The bar weighed 40 pounds and we had to lift it 30 times. Becky/Satan in spandex was spotting me. She told me to hold the bar around my nipple line. Well I don't know about perky little Becky but my nipple line runs somewhere between the middle of my rib cage and my belly button, and I'm pretty sure my "line" isn't facing the same direction, especially when I am laying on a weight bench!! Today I had to run my mile for my end of camp assessment. I bought an Ipod last night and loaded it with Rick Springfield songs to help me run faster. Two minutes into my run I was feeling pretty good. One of my ear buds fell out and then the other. I tried squeezing them back into my ears and then the music stopped. Somehow I jiggled the power off. I had to run the rest of my time holding my ear buds. I have no idea how people can shove those hard plastic things in their ears. Today I bought big soft ear phones covered in foam. I think they are the equivalent of wearing white tube socks to run instead of little ankle socks. Who cares, I was cool in high school that's all that matters!! I shaved 40 seconds off my mile from the first day of camp. My lungs are still burning but I am 40 seconds faster. Woo Hoo!!

Ryan came out of school today with both of his brand new shoes untied. He managed to ruin the laces on his shoes in just over a week. The little plastic things on the ends are already worn off. Hasn't he learned yet that not even attempting to tie his shoes are at least acknowledging that his laces are dragging the ground is enough to turn me into a cross between Linda Blair and Joan Crawford.

In honor of Holy week Erin rushed to a cingular store to see what could be done about her phone. She called me from the store with a dilemma. A new phone would cost her $250 with a $50 rebate. She has enough money but it would almost clean out her checking account. She will not be getting as many hours at work now that high school soccer season is here. I reminded her that we will be buying her car soon and she will have car insurance and gas to pay for. She said "fine mom, I'm done talking to you, bye,click." I sat there looking at my phone thinking, I'm sure she didn't just hang up on me. I called her back and she didn't answer. It was probably a good thing because I was ready to climb through the phone to wring her neck. When she got home she looked on cingular's website and noticed that my phone is eligible for an upgrade. If I sign another two year contract she can get her phone for $99 and put her Sim card in it and I get to keep my old crappy phone for another two years. Sounds like a great deal to me. Now she is in a good mood. The crazy train has left the station temporarily. I'm sure another train will be back this way any minute.

Lauren is having all four wisdom teeth cut out tomorrow. I took off work on Thursday to take care of her. Erin wants me to take her shopping since I am off. I explained to her that I took off to help Lauren. She said, "all she needs is a remote control, a glass of water and a bottle of Advil." I hope she remembers that when she gets her wisdom teeth out.

Sam went to Mizzou last week to visit a friend. She said they went to a karaoke bar and she sang Jesse's girl. That almost brought a tear to my eye. That gave her favorite kid status for at least a month.

Ryan got a little cabbage plant in a Dixie cup on Friday at school. He went to a friends house to play after school so he brought me the plant and asked me to take care of it because there is a national contest on who's cabbage plant grows the biggest. I am assuming the details were a little sketchy. I didn't even bother looking at the flier that came with the plant. He got home Friday night and asked me "where's my plant?" I had already forgotten about it. It was still in a cup holder in the van. He said "there goes my chance at Harvard." I told him he had a greater chance of getting to Harvard if he started studying for his spelling tests. He has taken great care of his cabbage plant since Friday. I give that plant about 10 days before it shrivels up and dies.

Ryan had a substitute on Friday. He took that opportunity to act like a complete moron. During a video in reading class he met up with a buddy in the coat room for some rough housing and horse play. He received detention for being disrespectful to the sub. They do detention on Wednesday mornings at 6:30. Dave and I will still be finishing up at boot camp. Erin gets the lucky task to bring her baby brother to detention. She suggested that he just walk to school, I am thinking she will be pretty mean to him the whole ride to school. If that is not a fabulous deterrent to behave in school, I don't know what else is. Erin/Sybil scares even me sometimes.

We went to two malls this weekend looking for a confirmation dress for Shannon. She was either too skinny, too pale or her boobs weren't big enough. She must have tried on fifty dresses. We finally found a cute one that was Conservative enough to wear in church. Her class is going on a field trip to the Cathedral next week. She told me tonight that she has nothing to wear. She doesn't have any khaki's and she can't wear jeans. I told her that I was sure she could find something in her closet. Lauren suggested that she wear the navy abercrombie pants that she has. She turned up her nose and said "those are ugly." I told her if she couldn't find anything that Maggie would be happy to lend her the Saint Margaret Mary costume. I think she is going to go ahead and go with the "ugly" pants.

We had a little catastrophe this evening. Erin/Sybil went to Michaels to get supplies to decorate a ring box for a Junior at school. It is a long standing tradition at her high school for a sophomore to decorate a box for the Juniors to put their class ring in that they get on ring day. She got home from the store and realized that she didn't have her phone. She spent $150.00 on the phone a couple of months ago with one of her first couple of pay checks. She asked me if she should get insurance and I told her probably not because the first year was pretty much covered anyway. To make a long story short she called her phone and a man answered. He found it in the parking lot and brought it inside Michael's for her. She came back home looking upset. The phone was broken. Of course it was my fault because I told her not to buy insurance. I figured I had to be to blame somehow. She's the one that dropped it in a parking lot in the rain but somehow it is my fault. She threw a temper tantrum and screamed and yelled for a while. She begged me to call customer service to see what she should do. Lauren and I explained to her that insurance does not cover water damage or a cracked face plate so it wouldn't matter if she had it or not. Now she is blaming the poor girl who's ring box she is making. During all of this lovely chaos, Dave was trying to get ready for bed. Lauren came in and asked if she could take a bath in our bathroom. Dave said "what are you doing? I am getting ready to take a shower." She said "sorry dad I have cramps I need to take a bath." He said "can't you use the bathroom upstairs?" She said, "no the toilet is backed up in that bathroom and someone pooped." Meanwhile Sybil's head was spinning around due to the tragic end of her beloved cell phone. Dave played plumber upstairs for a while and fixed the toilet. I am glad my kid has not gotten too attached to a material object and has totally embraced holy week. So far today I have one kid on track for juvenile detention and another one looks like she is headed to the loony bin. Maybe I should go to the loony bin instead, I might get some rest there.

Kelsey had an 8:00 AM soccer game at a park 40 minutes away. Dave had practice for Ryan's team so I was the lucky one who was supposed to take her. When I woke up I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. It had rained all night so Ryan's practice was canceled and Dave got to take Kelsey while I slept in. The dog had an appointment at the groomers at 9:30 so I couldn't sleep too late. I woke up around 9:00 and noticed that my hair had a strong resemblance to a cockatiel. Erin had borrowed my blow dryer and straightener last night and once again failed to return it. I tried to wet my hair down as best as I could. I didn't want to go upstairs and wake up kids looking for my stuff. I dropped the dog off and went to Pets Mart to get more of the dog pee odor remover solution. I do this at least once a month, I walk through the store filled with pet owners walking around talking to their pets like they are human. I'm just glad that no one tried to sell me a bird since my hair looked so bad.

Kelsey had her first basketball game since she got her contacts. She is so good at stealing the ball and sprinting down the court only to miss lay up after lay up. She was anxious to see how her new contacts would improve her shot. Well now we know that her eyes were not the problem, she still can't make a lay up. But in my opinion, she is the cutest little basketball player on the court!!!

Sorry I haven't posted much this week but fitness boot camp has caused me to be near death every day when the sun goes down. Every morning between 5:30 and six I am ready to either throw up or cry. Last night I was so exhausted that I went to bed at 8:30, Kelsey came in my room climbed up in my bed and asked me to help her with her social studies homework. Pre-bootcamp days I would be more than willing to help her. I said"God help you if the answers to that worksheet are right there in your social studies book, but your just too lazy to look for them." I also said "What are you doing in my bed in your soccer spikes? Maggie came home from practice with dog poop all over her shoes and she practiced on the same field that you did." She looked at me kind of funny and said "never mind, I guess I don't need help." I'm thinking my mother of the year votes may be dwindling.

Dave went into work late on Wednesday so he could go to mass and listen to Maggie read a petition. We had been practicing all weekend. She was supposed to say "We pray for our church and all it's leaders, especially Pope Benedict. The first time we practiced she said Poop Benedict, the next time she said except Pope Benedict instead of especially. By Wednesday she had it down. I am taking off of work next week when Lauren gets her wisdom teeth out so I had Dave go to mass instead of me. Dave called me around 9:00 to let me know that she wasn't reading her petition until next Wednesday but her friend Claire did an excellent job reading hers. At least I am consistently showing up a week early instead of a week late.

I took Kelsey to get glasses and contacts tonight. Her vision was 20/30 last time I had her tested. Now it is 20/80 in one eye and 20/100 in the other. It probably would have been cheaper if I would have just bought her a German shepherd, sunglasses and a cane.

My darling husband has been a tad bit on the crabby side since we started fitness boot camp.Getting up at 5:30 all week was finally taking it's toll. He had a 10:30 pm soccer game on Friday and didn't get to bed until well after midnight. Needless to say he wasn't exactly perky and chipper on Saturday.We were getting ready to leave for Kelsey's basketball game and he started snapping at me on whether or not I had the right directions to the gym. I told him he was on his own, I was not going anywhere with someone who is that short on patience. He huffed and puffed (and didn't apologize) and asked me to please go with him. I decided I would stay home and go shopping instead and buy anything that my little heart desired. That is a wonderful gift that I inherited from my mother. When she was mad at my dad she would go shopping and depending how mad she was, determined the dollar amount that she spent. I bought Easter outfits for Ryan and Maggie then I took them shoe shopping and bought them new tennis shoes and Maggie got a pair of dress shoes too. When Dave got back from the basketball game Ryan and Maggie had on their new clothes(they were modeling for grandma) I told Dave "Don't you like their new outfits? They are the consequences of your actions. You might try to be a bit nicer to me next time." He just laughed and shook his head.

Today at breakfast Erin said "Dad, can you please do something to make mom mad again? I would like a new Easter outfit too. Do something really bad so she will spend a lot of money." I love the way my sixteen year old is hoping her parent's marriage is in turmoil so she can have a killer outfit to wear to church on Easter Sunday. I am thinking that somewhere along the way she may have missed something in her religion classes. Dave told her to relax that he was pretty sure that he would do something to make me mad between now and Easter.

Erin called me crying this morning while I was driving to work. She said she was having shooting pains in her knee like she was having last week before the red line appeared. I asked her if she was feeling feverish again or if the red line was reappearing. She said no. I told her there wasn't much more we could do other than to keep taking her antibiotics and some advil. She is not supposed to be doing anything strenuous. She ran two miles yesterday with her soccer team. I told her that I couldn't call the doctor and complain about pain when she brought it on herself. She said "fine mom bye!!" I guess she won't be nominating me for mother of the year anytime soon. (so what else is new?)

Satan, the fitness instructor told me my shin splints were probably caused from having old shoes. Or could it possibly be caused from her making me jog on a treadmill with the elevation set to the highest and then just when I feel like I may die, she made me move to the elliptical and set the resistance on 20. Yeah it's probably the shoes. Maybe my sports bra is causing my arms to feel like they may fall off when I have to hold the weight bar over my head a hundred times. So far I have gained two pounds!!

We have a mystery in our house to solve. The case of the missing deodorant. My deodorant disappeared off my dresser sometime on Monday. Tuesday and today I was able to scrape enough out of the little plastic oval to keep me from smelling. Fitness boot camp starts bright and early. I am afraid that I have scraped the last of it out. I asked Erin to please throw my deodorant back down over the balcony. She insists that she doesn't have it. I asked her what she has been wearing to school all week. She replied "nothing, I couldn't find any." OK it's bad enough that the antibiotics that she is on is giving her horrible gas, let's ad body odor to that lovely aroma. She told me she farted in computer class and a girl said "Oh my God, What is that smell? Erin said "Oh that's terrible, What is that?" I hope that girl doesn't read my blog{I hope Erin doesn't either} I guess I will be going to fitness boot camp smelling like old spice. I will be stopping by Walgreen's tomorrow and stocking the house full of deodorant. Is it not bad enough that I never have tampons, conditioner,mascara or eyeliner?

I got a lovely picture of Lauren in the mail. It was a fabulous action shot of her car running a red light.You gotta love those camera's at stoplights. I can't tell you how many yellow/red lights that I have rushed through and thought,"did they catch me on camera.?" I have been lucky so far,my daughter didn't fare as well. The ticket is $100, on the bright side there are no points, so my insurance rates won't go up.

Part of my fitness boot camp is journaling my food intake. The amount of calories that Satan said I should be eating is almost double what I normally eat. Of course we have guidelines as to what types of food we can eat. So many carbs, fats, proteins etc. It is a real pain adding everything up. It will either work or I will gain 10 lbs this week from eating so much. Tonight I ate four thin mint girl scout cookies trying to get closer to my calorie/fat gram total for the day. I'm thinking there has to be something wrong if I am eating girl scout cookies so Satan doesn't yell at me for not eating enough calories. Maybe she will leave me alone tomorrow since I can't find my deodorant.

Too tired to write tonight. Fitness bootcamp is kicking my butt. Every single part of my body hurts!!!!!

Becky AKA Satan in spandex was actually pretty nice this morning. Isn't that why Eve ate the apple, Satan tricked her. I'm sure her dark side will be emerging more and more as the week unfolds. We started "boot camp" by turning in our paperwork, then she measured us with a tape measure, like measuring wasn't bad enough next she came after me with a hard plastic pincher and measured my body fat. I think giving birth is less painful then that nifty little gadget. I wonder if she can walk with that body fat measuring device up her perfectly shaped tush. I'm thinking that next time she comes near me with that she may want to run. Considering I did my mile in 10 minutes 17 seconds she could probably just jog and I wouldn't catch her.

The nurse at Erin's pediatrician's office called me at work to check on Erin. I had to text message her at school to see how she was feeling. I wonder how many mom's communicate with their highschoolers during the day like that. If I get caught I might get detention. Erin texted me again at 2:30 to tell me her calf was swollen but it didn't hurt. I called the doctor and they wanted to see her right away. My windshield wipers don't touch the windshield on the drivers side and we had a little spell of freezing rain. I had a tiny patch that was clear in between my dashboard and steering wheel. I had to duck my head down to see. My neck muscles were killing me from doing sit ups and push ups. I looked like a turtle in pain driving a big blue van. I wonder if the cars behind me on the highway wondered if anyone was in the van since my head was ducked down. Erin's doctor looked at her leg and said that the swelling was actually OK. She considered changing her antibiotic but decided against it. She said to keep in touch if any other new symptom's appear. I told Erin that if she was a horse we would have taken her out back and shot her already.

Erin's knee is a little better. The red line running up her thigh keeps fading in and out. She asked me if I thought she should try to practice at soccer tomorrow. I went into a ten minute lecture on how the antibiotics should work fairly quickly and that she will be as good as new in no time. There was no sense in her pushing herself so early in the season. It wasn't worth injuring herself more. She acted as if she was listening intently and then replied "yeah, I'm going to try and go ahead and practice tomorrow." Well at least I am consistent, no one ever listens to me when I give motherly advice.

Dave and I signed up for boot camp. I think Dave signed on after he saw how cute Becky the instructor is on her website. It is a three week fitness session Monday thru Friday from 5:30-6:30 A M. Yes I said A M. I may be crawling into work tomorrow. We walked four miles tonight and my left leg is killing me. I was walking with a bit of a limp while I was making dinner. Tomorrow I may be crawling with a limp. I will keep you posted how Becky AKA Satan in spandex treats me so early in the morning.

These pictures are the latest update in the knee injury. She went back to the doctor today. He said that it seemed to be doing OK. He bent it and felt around the joint area to make sure she still was able to move it. He had her get off the table and do a squat to make sure her joint wasn't locking up. She was able to do it without a problem. When we got home I ran to Walgreens to fill her prescription. When I got back Erin was gone. Kelsey told me that Dad had taken her to work. What, is he a complete idiot????? She can't work, she can barely walk. She got home around dinner time and her knee had bled through her bandage. She has had her leg on the kitchen table for two hours. She can no longer do a squat and is having a hard time bending it. Now I am stuck with the dilemma, Is it worse because she went to work when she should have been resting or is the infection moving to her joint? The doctor told me if it was in her joint she would be unable to do a squat like she did earlier. I am hoping the oral antibiotic will kick in and the red line on her thigh will fade again. I am supposed to call the doctor again on Monday.

Shannon is at a party that a boy in her class is having. I dropped her off around 6:30pm. She is supposed to be picked up at 11:00. Me and Dave are both exhausted, we are arguing about which one of us is going to go get her. We are seriously considering letting this family adopt her. Maybe we can have Erin go get her, she can hang her left leg out the window while she is driving. The fresh air may do it some good!!!

OK so maybe Erin's knee isn't exactly 100% better after all. We just got back from the emergency room. Thursday night Erin was at the foot of our bed crying in pain due to the throbbing in her knee. She also complained that an area along her thigh felt extremely bruised. I didn't see any bruising, and told her the throbbing was part of the healing process. Today she developed a bright red line going up her thigh in the same area that she complained about last night. Maybe this is why I went to beauty school instead of medical school. One time I had her take antibiotics I had left over in the cabinet because she looked like she was getting sick. Her face was flushed and she felt warm. She had been outside at a cold windy soccer game. Later I realized she just had a case of windburn. Anyway back to the knee, the doctor ran blood tests and did an x-ray to make sure there wasn't any fluid in her knee. The X ray came back fine but the blood work showed that her white blood cell count was high and that she has cellulitus. Cellulitus is a skin bacterial infection in the deep layers of the skin. They gave her some IV antibiotics and told us to go see her doctor tomorrow to make sure it is improving. She has a migraine , weakness and chills accompanied with her oozing knee. Never boring at the Murphy house, NEVER!!! Shannon has placement testing in the morning for high school with a parent meeting following the testing. Kelsey has a basketball game at 11 a soccer game at 1:00 and Shannon has practice at 3:00 with a soccer parent meeting at 4:30. Dave has practice for Ryan's team that he coaches in the morning . I have to throw in a doctor's appointment in the morning as well. Ryan has an indoor soccer game at 4:00 at the same place that has parts of Erin's knee embedded in their turf. I may put him in a suit of armour to play his game.