My day started with waking up at 5:00 to meet at a nearby park to run hills with my boot camp class. My tired worn out body is still recovering from Monday's substitute instructor, who I think may have tried to kill me. It was pretty chilly this morning so I was less than thrilled to be outside. My darling fit as a fiddle husband is still in stellar shape so I would pass him running down the hill as he was going back up. He would wink or smile every time he would pass.By about the 10th time we passed his little signs of affection were getting old. All I could think was, "listen you SOB, I am running this stupid blankety blank hill because you got me pregnant 400 times and ruined my body and you are chugging along acting like Rocky!!"I finally lost it when he gave me a little love tap the last time we passed. I blurted out a few words that were not very nice and I think he may have learned his lesson to not give his wife any more love taps while he was lapping her.

Tuesday's are always our busiest day of the week. Dave and I both have school, Shannon, Kelsey and Maggie all have practice and Erin and Ryan both had games. Grandma dropped Maggie, Kelsey and Shannon off at the park where they all practice. I met them there after school. Kelsey had hot pink finger nail polish stains all over her yellow practice jersey. That is pretty typical of Kelsey, I noticed she had white out all over the palm of her hand. I asked her why and she said "I looked on our team website to see what color practice jersey we were wearing today, I wrote it on my hand so I wouldn't forget." I then asked her why she would write white jersey on her hand and wear the yellow one." Maybe next time she should actually look at her human post it note BEFORE she gets dressed.

Maggie had a little bike accident on Saturday. I was sitting in the kitchen and I heard a loud crash followed by laughter followed by screaming. Maggie and Ryan were racing their bikes up the driveway when Maggie crashed in the garage. She thought it was pretty funny until she noticed the gushing blood on her big toe. The Murphy family has a lovely trait of sacrificing their safety all in the name of winning, my youngest Murphy is no exception. I asked her what she ran into and she said "everything." If you could see the state of our garage you would understand that when she said everything that she was not exaggerating. Of course we are out of band aids so I had to go next door to borrow one from the neighbor. When Maggie calmed down I asked her why she didn't stop. She said that her bike doesn't have any brakes. Kelsey said "great mom, you give her a bike without brakes." I told her that she was riding the bike the kid down the street gave her. Kelsey asked, "didn't you check it out before you let her ride it?" Thanks Kels, like I don't feel bad enough. The bike does have brakes but they are hand brakes and they are hard to operate. I am thinking of returning the "death trap" back to the kid down the street and telling her thanks but no thanks. Maybe if everything in my house wasn't turned into a competition we would be OK.

Erin came home from school today and told me that she wanted to go on a mission trip. They had a missionary come to school today and speak at an assembly. Erin was very inspired. She said that she brought pictures and showed a slide show. She was a little concerned that the lady didn't wear make up on her trip. Erin said that if she goes that she would bring her make-up. I have visions of Erin walking around Honduras wearing a string bikini with spiked heels and a full face of make-up. Maybe she could spread the gift of vanity in a third world country!!! She would be the first missionary asked to never return.

Kelsey woke up this morning and could barely open her eyes. She fell asleep in her contacts two nights in a row. I told her to try and go to school, her eyes should feel better soon since she took her contacts out. I got a call from the school nurse around 9:30. She said "I have Kelsey in my office, she has pink eye." I explained to her that she slept in her contacts, she said "OH she didn't tell me that." She probably thought, what is wrong with this mother. This kids eyes are swollen shut, did she even look at her kid this morning. I hope she didn't notice Ryan at recess today without a coat when it was only 40 degrees or Maggie with a half carton of chocolate milk down the front of her shirt. On the bright side, Shannon looked fine today. Speaking of Shannon, she had a cheerleading end of year party after school. I picked her up at 4:15. She was really excited and said "mom, look what I got." She unzipped her pencil case and pulled out a wilted green thing that looked like a leaf. I said, "what is that?" She said, "we dissected frogs today in science and I cut off my frogs foot and put it in my pencil case to bring it home. Isn't it cool!!!" OK I think that this is proof that every one of our children are a little off. I used to think that she was one of the last remaining normal ones but the stolen body part from the science lab has me a bit nervous!!!

Cheer leading try outs went really well. We had to rush back to school for the talent show after tryouts on Thursday. Shannon got to go first for final evaluations so she could leave early to get to the talent show. She was pretty nervous but thought that she did OK. She was standing against the wall at the talent show and her boyfriend (did I say boyfriend?) was standing next to her. He wasn't even that close to her, probably at least a foot a way but I couldn't help but think to myself that I wanted to scream "get away from her, who do you think you are standing next to my baby?" Instead I just stood there and accepted the fact that she is growing up and said a quick prayer of thanks that this kid didn't have any tattoos or piercings. We got an email on Friday that Shannon made the Varsity cheerleading squad. Woo Hoo, that was pretty exciting!!! She had three days to accept the spot on the squad and I think something like five days to turn in the big fat check. I thought about trying out for cheerleading when I was her age but was afraid because I couldn't do the splits. Turns out, you don't have to do the splits, who knew??? I sure wish I could do high school over, I might even study this time.

I took Shannon shopping today to get her eighth grade graduation dress. We found a couple that we liked. We ended up buying a bright aqua blue dress. It looks really pretty on her with her red hair. When we got home from shopping Dave looked like he had just woken up. Today is his 39th birthday. He spent most of his day napping. I was a tad aggravated when I came home to a messy house and starving children. I don't have a problem with a messy house when we have a zillion soccer games on the weekend, but a day of laying around, tends to make me a little crazy. Ryan came in the kitchen and asked "do you think you and dad have a good relationship?" I was a little concerned, I thought he may have picked up on the tension in the house as a result of his father's Rip Van Winkle day. I explained to him how much his parents loved each other and what a great relationship we had. He said "Oh, OK I was just asking because he is in the other room watching girls in bikini's play volleyball."