Maggie has always had a hard time with spelling. We start on Monday by writing out the words at least five times each. Although she has a hard time, she has an even harder time with remembering to bring her word list home. Last night she pulled her list out of the trash can from Tuesday night. Sometimes her word lists have words that aren't even words and we have to call someone to find out what the actual word is. Last night was no exception, Ryan was sitting at the table with her doing his homework. She said, "Ryan, what does, R-A-P-E spell? He said, "Umm, you better ask mom, she said "Mommy what does R-A-P-E spell?" I said "Maggie, that spells Rape." She looked at me with a confused look and said, "OH, I think I may have written my word down wrong." You Think!!!! We figure it out by the sentence. It said something about tying a knot in the rape or rope, Whatever! Tomato, Tamoto.


Ryan brought home a test that he got a 95 on. HE was mad because his teacher took 5 point off for not putting his last name or the date. I said to Dave, "did you see his test?, that's a tough break, he'll probably never do that again." Dave laughed and said, "Have you met Ryan? It won't matter, he will probably forget his first and last name next time." Good point, I stand corrected. Maybe if she starts hitting him over the head with a brick, he might remember.



A couple of weeks ago, I had just gotten out of the shower and I was standing in the kitchen in a towel. Dave walked in the room ready to go for a run. None of his clothes matched. Of course I couldn't let him go out like that without gently telling him. (OK not so gently) I said, "Did you get dressed in the dark Murphy?" Me and Erin were laughing at him. He responded with, you guys think your so funny. He pushed me out on the deck, stole my towel and closed and locked the door. Erin's jaw dropped to the floor and Dave said "Oh, who's laughing now?" He wasn't brave enough to leave me out there in all my glory for long." When I came back inside he said, Punkin, we are still playful isn't that great?" Yeah great, my neighbors will never look at me the same way again. Playful?? He is lucky I didn't kill him.

We had a tragedy at our house this weekend. It was our semi annual garage sale, Maggie spent the night with a friend the night before so I didn't have my little helper. Grandma brought a storage bin of toys upstairs for the garage sale. I didn't even look at them, I assumed Maggie gave them to grandma. Her best friend down the street came to our garage sale with her little coin purse. She was standing at the end of the driveway with two barbies in her hand, I said "Oh honey just take those, I don't want any money." Again, I didn't look at them.


Maggie got home later in the afternoon, the garage sale was over, she went down the street to play. She came home and went upstairs, I thought I heard sobbing coming from upstairs. I called to her and asked what was wrong. She said, "grandma gave Alaina, Sharpay and Gabrielle and I think someone else must have gotten Troy!!" My heart sank, it was me that gave away her high school musical barbies, the same barbies I spent $30 on. I asked her if she wanted me to try and call her friend's mother and explain the mistake. She said, she didn't want her friend to be mad at her. I offered to buy her a new toy instead. I only made 60 dollars at the garage sale due to cold weather and small crowds. I spent $18 on a new toy at Walmart to replace the high school musical barbies. It looks like I made a whopping $42 to stand in the garage freezing at the crack of dawn and give away $3000 worth of Abercrombie clothes for $42.

Shannon was gone all weekend, I spent two hours on Friday night driving all over St. Charles County dropping one kid here and another kid there. I checked the online grading system on Sunday night. Had I checked it Friday, little Miss Shannon would have stayed home with her mother all weekend. She has a C in every subject except Art and Dance. Dave thinks she may have a future as a dancing artist. I think I will spend the remainder of the week, deleting The OC and One Tree Hill from the DVR. I guarantee if she was given a test on those shows, she would pass with flying colors.


Dave and Ryan were in Kansas for a soccer tournament. I had a 40th birthday party for an old high school friend. The limo was picking us up and taking us to a spa for facials and massages. We were supposed to end our evening at a wine bar next door to the spa. The problem was I wouldn't have a ride home since the limo dropped us off. Dave was in Kansas so I asked my darling daughters if they could pick me up. I felt like the little Red Hen, Not I said Lauren, Not I said Erin, then I will do it myself!! I bummed a ride with a group at the party that lived fairly close to home. Erin did call me that night and asked if I needed a ride home, of course I was already en route. I guess that Catholic mother guilt trip I gave her the night before actually worked. I will have to work a little harder next time with Lauren.

I woke up to one of my favorite sounds of fall. Little Sybil on the rampage!! I believe the direct quote was "Shannon, I hate you, you are lazy and worthless and you need to start finding your own ride to school because you are not riding with me." Dave was in the bathroom shaving with the water running and didn't get to hear this lovely exchange of words transpiring in the next room. I rubbed my eyes stumbled in to the next room and said, "What is going on." Erin/ Sybil responded with, "she is not riding with me." I said, "I'm not taking her, so I guess she is." I looked at Shannon and said, "I suggest you sit in the back seat for your own safety as well as the safety of the rest of the drivers on the road today." We want to make sure little Sybil doesn't have a bad case or road rage. After I put out that fire, on to the next one.

We only had one little Debbie Snack cake left, there were three empty little Debbie boxes in the pantry but only one snack cake to split three ways between, Ryan, Maggie and Kelsey. I said "forget it, I will give you a check for lunch money." Last time I gave Maggie the check, she left it in the back seat and I had to leave work to bring it up to school. We normally wait until their balance is zero before we send in more money. If your lunch card has a zero balance they give you a cheese sandwich and a white milk. My kids would rather starve than eat that. When I got home from work Ryan was complaining that Maggie turned the check in and put all the money towards her own lunch card, she had a $60 balance and Ryan and Kelsey had 32 cents. Maggie then said, "no, I lost the check in my backpack and found it later in reading class, it got stuck in my reading book. Needless to say, Maggie has been stripped of her lunch money check responsibilities. It probably would have been easier had I let them fight it out over the snack cake!!