I kept Shannon home from school yesterday, she has had a really bad cough for almost two weeks. We went out to lunch afterwards. As soon as we sat down to eat Erin called me frantic. She wanted to know where we were, she had called the house phone, Shannon's phone and mine a few times before I finally answered. School let out at noon and she was afraid that we would go out to lunch without her. I don't know why she would think that. I told her to relax that I would give her money to go get something when she got home. I gave her $34 to pick up Shannon's prescription and some over the counter mucinex and lunch. Of course I had to ask for my change hours later. She gave me a ten dollar bill. I said "what a coincidence, the change was $10 exactly." Her prescription was less than $2 with our insurance and the mucinex was $10. Through further questioning I learned that the money I got out of the bank to use all week went to further little Sybil's golden tan. Lunch OK but tanning, was that really necessary???

Tonight was a bit crazy, Ryan had practice at 6:00, Maggie had a game at 5:30, Kelsey had practice at 6:00, Shannon was cheering at 6:30 and Erin had practice at 5:45. We also had a mandatory parent meeting for parents of second graders for Reconciliation at 7:00. Grandma is out of town visiting her favorite grand kids so I had to figure out how I was going to juggle everything. I got a ride for Ryan, Erin can drive herself, I was going to take Maggie to her game and head to Shannon's cheering after her game(I would be about 40 minutes late) Dave was going to drop Kelsey at practice and I arranged for her to get a ride home and then he would head over to the reconciliation meeting. If all went as planned Ryan would get dropped off around the same time as Kelsey. I brought Maggie's spelling words along with us so we could go over them at the volleyball game that Shannon was cheering. Good thing we did, she got 9 of the fifteen wrong. A couple of them she just confused d'd with b's but the rest were way off. I had her re write them five times each and quizzed her the whole way home. It will be a miracle if we pull off a C- this week. I was stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the way home, Erin called me crying that she couldn't find a gas station and her gas light was on and her brakes don't work and she hates dad. I asked "where are you?" She said "at a gas station." I thought to myself, I thought you couldn't find a gas station but your at a gas station????? I told her that I was stuck in traffic that I would send dad to come and get her. She said "don't send him, I hate him." I called home and Ryan and Kelsey both answered. It is always a treat to talk to both of them, I said "put dad on the phone." They both argued for five minutes about which one would go get him. He was in the dark cutting the grass. He finally got on the phone and I told him to call Erin. He said "she called me earlier asking me to help her find a gas station and she was screaming at me." I said "well now she said her brakes don't work, you need to go get her and drive her car back and she can take yours." Of course he finished cutting that last strip of grass before he went for his stranded daughter. He didn't want to let the grass down. They finally returned and Dave said that the car was fine and that the brakes were not bad. Erin said "I am not driving that car, I don't care what you say." She is taking a few honors courses and they are starting to take their toll. Between work, school and soccer she is a bit stressed.

On a good note, I bought Seamus his doggie diaper. He actually left it on. I think I like him better now that he can't pee on my vacuum cleaner every time he walks past it. His diaper is in the washing machine because it is wet. Tomorrow I am going to go back for the liners, I didn't want to spend the extra money before I knew whether or not he would keep it on. I am a mother of seven children, I changed diapers for over twelve years without a break. Now I am changing diapers for my dog. Fabulous!!!