I got to school today with a bit of a sore throat. No, it was not because I was breathing in cold air on a nice fall morning, it was because I was screaming my fool head off at my son this morning. I looked like a graduate of the Alec Baldwin school of parenting. My gas light came on last night so I knew I had to leave early to get gas. We scampered around like we do every morning (while Dave slept) and headed out the door. In the driveway I noticed Ryan didn't even attempt to tie his shoes. I think he thinks they are slippers. That in and of itself is a sure fire way to set me off. As I was backing out of the driveway I noticed he was sitting on his backpack as if it were a booster seat. He also didn't put forth the effort to fasten his seat belt. As I was yelling at him for his minor offenses I made the mistake of asking him if he brushed his teeth. He responded "umm I forgot." I believe it was at that moment that my head started to spin and I was spewing green vomit all over the van. I dug through my purse, gave him a few breath mints and instructed him to brush his teeth 15 times when he got home as penance.

I put about 40 soccer miles on the van tonight, it was a light day. We had a confirmation meeting at church for Shannon. Our priest was talking about different rituals in different cultures. One was where when a boy reaches a certain age they take them deep into the woods and tie them to a tree and leave them there all night. In the morning the boy sees that his father was actually there all night watching over him in silence. I believe there was a spiritual message that he was trying to give but I couldn't help but think I sure wish I could tie Ryan to a tree. Later in the homily he had us close our eyes and try to imagine our children back in their infancy and how it felt to hold them close. I wonder if I was the only one in church who was remembering a little baby with fire engine red hair with a temper to match. Shannon screamed 12 hours a day for the first three months of her life. I shared my thoughts with Dave as we were leaving the meeting. He laughed and said "I don't remember ever holding Shannon."

Dave is on his way to pick up the Erin and Shannon from where there car pools for soccer drop them off. Erin called and said "Will you call dad and tell him not to be so crabby, before I get in the car." He was mad at her for not calling sooner for him to pick her up. She is supposed to call when she is 15 minutes away from the meeting place. I laughed and explained to her that she was on her own. Ten minutes later she called to ask if I had an insurance card in the van. She said " Dad got pulled over because we are missing our front license plate." The license plate got ripped off our bumper by a big tire tread on the highway on the way back from Florida three years ago. Dave has been planning on replacing it but he figured he would wait until the other one falls off. I think I may pretend to be asleep when all my little rays of sunshine arrive home.