When Kelsey called me this weekend from Indiana I asked her if Erin was mean to her in the car when she dropped her off. She said "yeah, when we finally got to my coaches house she said "great, now I have to walk you to the door and pretend like I like you because mom said I had to." Lauren asked Ryan if he thought that she was a nice sister? He said "compared to Erin, you are great." I am getting the feeling that little Sybil needs a project this summer to get rid of her mean energy. She is not getting many hours at her job this summer so she has applied at the tanning salon that she goes to every day with her dads quarters. Considering the employees know that she is the kid that steals quarters off her dad's dresser to pay for her daily tans, if they hire her they may watch her like a hawk.

My back is feeling much better. I went to physical therapy again today. The first part of my therapy is to lay there with heated pads on my back. While I was laying there trying to relax my purse was vibrating across the room because my phone kept ringing. When my fifteen minutes of heat pads was up I had to do all my exercises. My purse kept "ringing" the whole time that I was there. I had Erin drive Shannon's carpool to cheer leading practice so that I could go to therapy. By the time I got out of there I was so aggravated with my phone ringing non stop that I was considering going to mental therapy so I didn't kill whichever one of my lovely offspring that was calling me. I called my best friend in the world to catch up, we hadn't talked in a few days. I was sitting in the driveway talking to her when I got home. Lauren opened the front door and did sign language that she was hungry. It turns out that she was the one calling me because she was hungry. How dare me come home as late as 5:30 without making sure that my 20 year old was fed. Ryan left today to go on a float trip with his friends family. He had to borrow a sleeping bag from Lauren's boyfriend. I felt if I sent him with the Barbie or Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bag that it may scar him for life. It's bad enough that he had to keep his frog in a Playtex tampon box.

My friend that lives in the next subdivision over walked down to my house for a Murphy update. She said that my blog was full of cob webs. I decided to dust them off and update my week. My back has still been bothering me this week, I went back to the doctor on Thursday. They put me on prednisone and told me that I had to go to physical therapy. They had suggested that last week but I told them I didn't have the time. This week, I was still in so much pain that I would do anything. I was aggravated with Dave for being less than helpful this week when I could barely move. I was kind of hoping that my physical therapist would be a gorgeous muscle man named Sven from Sweden that liked overweight, middle aged mother's of seven and he would sweep me off my feet and take me away with him.

Kelsey left for Indiana yesterday for a regional soccer tournament. I sent her with her coach, with the gas price so high and a hotel room expense we decided to just send her instead of going along. Her team travels all over the place, we just couldn't afford this trip. Shannon is leaving for Florida soon and I need to save money to send with her, the flight is already paid for but she only has eight dollars saved for spending money. Unless she eats bowls of rice like the starving children of Ethiopia she may need to come up with a little more cash. I had to work Friday so I had Erin drop Kelsey off at her coach's house. I got up early and did a map quest for Erin, I was on my laptop so I emailed it to myself and told Erin to go downstairs on the other computer and pull up my email so that she could print off the directions. She told me that Kelsey already printed her directions the night before. I thought, "wow, I am raising such responsible young ladies, I am impressed at her independence. She looked up the address all by herself." Erin called me at work frantic that Kelsey's map quest took her to a trailer park in the middle of Chesterfield. Her ending place wasn't even an address. I got on the Internet at work (which I am not supposed to do) and gave her the correct directions. Her phone was ready to go dead and little "Sybil" was in a very dark, scary mood. She told me she would call me back when she was back on the right road for further instruction. I was on the phone with a patient when she called. I called her right back and of course she passed up the street because I didn't answer quick enough. She finally found it and we ended our pleasant mother daughter chat. When I got home I asked her if she felt that she sent her sister off with a proper goodbye. I asked "How would you like to be screamed at for 20 minutes before you head out of town?" Her response was "it's not my fault that your kids are stupid, besides when I walked her to the door, I smiled and was all sunshiny for the mom, I put up a good front!

I went to therapy after work and my therapist was Brian, not Sven and I could probably be his mother or his much older sister. So much for that little fantasy. When Dave got home I decided to take out all of my Erin frustration out on him. I told him that I was a little tired of him not driving carpools and watching the soccer channel or the discovery channel every second that he is home. I asked him, If my mom wouldn't have made dinner tonight, how would you have fed the kids?? He said, "you would be proud of me, I actually had a plan. When I picked up dog food on my way home (you mean the dog food that you were supposed to pick up yesterday???)I picked up two frozen pizza's. I asked him, "do you know how to cook a frozen pizza? He said "I guess you just put them in the oven. I asked "do you know how to turn the oven on?" He said, "I guess you could probably show me." I guess I could probably show him where the cookie sheets are and tell him when it was done, and show him where I keep the pizza cutter. Wow, how could I ever survive without him??? Sven, where in the hell are you!!!!!

I woke up Monday and I couldn't stand up straight. My back felt like it was breaking in two. I left work around 10:00 and went to urgent care. They tested my reflexes and gave me pain medicine. I spent my day at work on Tuesday trying to stay awake from all the medicine that I was on. Wednesday I got to work and turned around and went home because I could barely walk. Thursday was a little better and Friday I decided to go see my primary care doctor. They ran some tests. To make a long story short, I am falling apart. I have been hobbling around like Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett show for five days. Hopefully this is only temporary because I am getting extremely bored.

Dave was out of town this week. He is in this group called leadership Missouri, they meet once a month in different parts of Missouri. His work is paying for it and it is a good experience to meet state senators and business leaders in our state. My darling husband has been the biggest stick in the mud since the day that I married him. I love him dearly but he is always antisocial and would prefer to stay home. He is the farthest thing from a party animal. Imagine my surprise Friday morning when he called to tell me that he rode a mechanical bull on Thursday night. I am thinking, "let me get this straight, I am hobbling around like an eighty year old woman, driving carpools to cheer leading and soccer camp and you are out riding a mechanical bull?" Oh he is so lucky he bought me Rick Springfield concert tickets.

OK, I know I make fun of my husband a ton on my blog but today I am turning over a new leaf. My anniversary is tomorrow and we don't normally exchange gifts. We finally found a little car for Erin and it pretty much wiped out our checking and savings accounts. Unfortunately for her there wasn't much there, so she got a car that was the same age as Ryan. A nine year old Corolla. Every once in a while Dave will surprise me and get me something even though we agreed that we were not exchanging gifts. I knew he wouldn't this year since we bought the car. I was very pleasantly surprised when he handed me an envelope this evening. As soon as I saw it, I knew what was inside. Rick Springfield is coming to town in October. I checked out the ticket price the day I heard that he was coming and decided that it would be selfish for me to spend $70 a ticket to chase an adolescent crush when I am paying tuition next year for two in high school and three in grade school. Lucky for me, my wonderful husband felt that I deserved it and got me two eighth row floor seat tickets. He will even suffer through and go with me. The concert is in October, I can't wait.

Shannon starts cheer leading camp this week. She has to turn in her cookie sale order form and money tomorrow. It was cute she was totalling all of her money up and figuring out how much we owed. It was nice to see her do some of the work since Dave and I sold the majority of the cookies. She did go to four houses so she put a little effort into selling. I think it is safe to say that sales would not be a good career choice for her. We ended up owing $250 dollars that we either didn't get the check ahead of time or we spent the cash. This is why I hate fund raisers. I always feel like I owe more than we benefit. I bought one box of $15 cookies and I am turning in a $250 dollar check. I think it is safe to say a career in finance would not be for Dave or I. Heck, we even suck at Monopoly!!!

Last night I had my 25th grade school reunion. It was so nice to see everyone and go down memory lane. It was especially neat for me since Shannon graduated from eighth grade this year. My hope is that my children are able to keep their special bond with their classmates as I have. I feel so blessed to be back in touch with so many of my old friends. We laughed and laughed all night telling old stories. What an amazing group of people.

Kelsey had a few girls spend the night the other day. She was telling her dad that her friends were walking with her up the sidewalk when Kelsey cut through are lawn to get to the front door. One of the girls told her that she was afraid to walk on our lawn because the grass looks so perfect. She decided to share this story with her father. She knew it would make him so proud to receive such a wonderful compliment about his cherished lawn. Instead he said "Kelsey why were you walking on my grass?" He was kidding of course. I think???

Erin and Lauren are absolutely dying of boredom this summer. Correction, boredom and hunger. Lauren called me at 9:00 tonight while I was at Kelsey's game to see when I was coming home because she was hungry. When I got home Erin asked me to cook something, she said she didn't care if it tasted like air, she just wanted something. I offered to throw a few hamburger patties on the grill. She said "Oh God, anything but that, your burgers always taste horrible." Well then, flattery will get you everywhere. Dave was talking to me on the phone while he was driving home from Erin's game and he was hungry too. He decided to go to Taco Bell and once again be the Knight in Shining Armor to his starving daughters.

Shannon is selling cookie dough for her cheer leading squad. She has to sell 30 boxes. I told her that I would sell them at work but she needed to put a little effort into going door to door to sell some herself. She looked at me like I had two heads. She said "what if I get kidnapped?" I told her to bring one of her siblings along and to only go to the neighbors that she knows. The ones that know her certainly won't kidnap her. Especially the ones who have heard her sing high school musical songs. When I got home tonight I saw that she sold one box. 29 more to go, I really wish she wasn't such an over achiever all the time.

Shannon's cell phone broke this weekend. She had me call ATT to try and get it replaced. They had me take the battery off the back to make sure their was not any liquid damage. When I put the phone back together the screen was solid blue. From then on, she was unable to see her text messages. I think she would have preferred a natural disaster. By Sunday evening I was growing tired of the sighs and eye rolls. I switched phone's with her until she got her new one. I got up early and made it in to work 30 minutes earlier than normal. Now that I only have myself to get ready in the morning it was much easier. Monday's are always really crazy for me at work. I checked my new blue screen cell phone. The outside screen showed that I had two missed calls. I went to the break room to see if one of the kids called. I dialed my home number and hit the green button. Nothing!!! Apparently Shannon's phone is different than mine. I couldn't see anything on the inside screen. How hard could it possibly be to dial a number?? I gave up and used the land line. Maggie answered, I asked her if anyone called me. She said, "I don't think so, I am the only one awake." It was 11:00. I stayed late at work today and got home around five. Imagine my surprise when I found the breakfast dishes still on the table and no one bothered to fix Maggie lunch. Erin was gone tanning when I got home. Shannon's new phone arrived today so she was happy for the moment. Between text messaging and facebook, what else could a girl want?? Lauren and Erin went running together today. Erin was a little aggravated with Lauren because she wore pink cheer leading shorts with a pink sports bra to match with a white tank top over it and she was wearing her diamond necklace. Erin said she had to run way ahead so no one would think they were together. Erin goes to an all girls school so showering is a rarity, much less being fashionable while exercising. Sam moved in to her apartment this weekend. Friends of our gave us a huge TV when they bought a new one. We have a big cut out in the wall for a TV upstairs in our loft area. It was about two inches to small for the TV to fit. Dave was going to fix the drywall so the TV could fit. That was in February. The TV was still sitting in the middle of the room. I dusted it off and told Sam happy house warming. I don't know what I was thinking, how could he ever find the time for extra projects when his thousands of green children need him so. Every single blade of grass on our property has an extra special place in his heart. Friday I set the smelly bags of lawn clippings out by the curb. Our trash day was pushed back a day due to Memorial day. As a result there are three brown spots on the lawn where I set the lawn bags. It makes me chuckle every time I pull in the drive way and see the brown spots. Poor Dave, some day he may get a little respect.

2008 Missouri Class 2 Soccer Champs

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