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.