I made it home from work yesterday just in time to see my only son ready to walk out the door for a birthday party with a hot pink gift bag. I left a blank check on the counter for Erin to run to Target to pick up a gift and assumed that she would take care of the wrapping as well. When I walked in the door he looked at me with a pleading look in his eyes as if he was saying "mom, please save me from these crazy people." I had five minutes before I had to meet the rest of Shannon's carpool, to which I was just informed that it was our turn to drive. I received a call at work at 4:45 that we had to meet the carpool at the gas station at 5:20. I walked in my door around 5:10. The problem that I faced was that I had to take a major poop and find gift wrap that wouldn't scar my son for life in only five minutes. I sprinted down to the storage room only to find princess gift bags and then I found some lime green tissue paper. There was a God. Now all I needed was tape, tape, tape, oh where in the hell do we keep the tape. Finally I wrapped the gift hap hazardly and sent him out the door with grandma for the party. Now I had three minutes left to poop. All I needed was toilet paper, toilet paper, oh where in the hell is the toilet paper. Finally on the fourth bathroom that I tried I found a roll of toilet paper. Did anyone use the bathroom today???? And if so, with the exception of Ryan how????

The transmission place that has my van called today and said, "Mrs. Murphy, do you have a few minutes to talk?" I thought to myself, this can't be good. He then proceeded to tell me that this was the worst transmission that he has seen in all of his fifteen years of working on transmissions. He asked me if by chance I had a teenager that was driving it rough due to the condition of my transmission. Considering that my kids are too afraid to even back the blue beast out of the driveway, I must be the culprit. There were only three parts of the transmission that were not completely destroyed. Fabulous!!! Of course this little repair is now going to cost an additional $500 from the original quote. I am planning on bringing Ryan's guitar to work tomorrow to play in the lobby at lunch to pick up a little extra cash. Maybe I will bring Maggie along, mess up her hair, smear some dirt on her, and have her sit on one leg so she looks like she is missing a limb!!!

Today was the day of our staycation. A bunch of our friends went to Gulf Shores Alabama this week and invited us along. We decided against it because the complex that they were staying at only had condo's that slept six. Our family doesn't get along well enough for such cramped quarters. We decided to save money and stay home. Dave was on vacation this week so I took a vacation day and planned a day at Grants Farm. The nice thing about Grants Farm is that it is free, you pay $10 to park and the rest is free. The plan was pick Shannon up at Cheereleading practice at 10:30 and head to Grants Farm. Of Course we overslept and had to hit the ground running, Maggie had to take a quick bath because she had a party at 5:00 and I knew there wouldn't be time after our family outing. It was pouring down rain when we headed out. When we picked up Shannon we noticed something was a little off. She had a swollen top lip. She got punched in the face by accident when she was coming down from a cheerleading stunt. It didn't help when my darling husband so eloquently stated "Shannon, you look like a duck billed platypus!!" We headed to Schnucks to get doughnuts for my five starving children. (the oldest two were too cool for the family outing) We came out of schnucks in the pouring down rain with the doughnuts to find that we locked the keys in the car. Lucky for us, we know how to slide open the tiny side windows and push Maggie in sideways to unlock the door. We decided that the weather was not going to let up so we should pick another destination. We decided on The City Museum. We got there and it was $12 a piece to get in. It was going to cost $84. I looked at Dave and said "do you want to stay??" He said, "we have to now, we can't take the kids to a fun place and just walk in the door and tease them." The kids had a fun time, it really is a pretty cool place, not $84 cool but still pretty cool. On the way home, daddy took the scenic route we got to see lots of spray painted buildings that said bloods or crypts. A little educational gang activity is always fun. We headed for home and stopped by Wendy's for lunch. We were running out of time and decided to swing by Target to pick up a gift for Maggie's party. Erin was throwing a fit, she had to work at five and she needed time to straighten her hair so she didn't look like a wet dog. Shannon was throwing a fit because I was going to Target instead of WalMart because WalMart was giving away free 3D glasses for the Hannah Montona movie that will be on TV on Saturday. We were in the turning lane going in to Target when we heard a loud bang that sounded like the van engine dropping to the ground. Dave tried to step on the gas and nothing, the van wouldn't move. We sat there for a while trying to figure out what to do. Some man stopped to help but there was no way they could push the van off the road because it is too heavy. Erin and I decided to run across HWY K to the auto garage to see if they could tow it. Erin and I were sprinting across the four lane road in our flip flops in the rain and I said "see, I told you that today would be more fun than going to Florida." The people at the garage were really nice, they even had an employee with a Yukon drive me and the kids home while Dave rode with the tow truck driver. I called the mother of the little girl that was having the party and said "Maggie will be there on time but she is coming empty handed. I was going to drop her off, get a gift and come back, hopefully before they open gifts." We got in the car to go and I heard Maggie screaming. I turned around and she had smashed her thumb in the door. She got it out and I ran inside and got her a baggie full of ice. I'm hoping that this day was a bad dream and I will wake up in Gulf Shores or Florida on a real vacation!!!!

11 doughnuts at Schnucks $8.00

admission at City Museum $84

Tow truck $75

Ice for Maggie's thumb and Shannon's lip $1

Van Repair TBD

Family Fun!!!!! PRICELESS!!!!

Life is good at the Murphy house tonight!! Dave finally got his bucket of chicken. I was in Chicago this weekend with Erin on a soccer tournament. My sister in law left me a message that she was at KFC and wanted to invite her baby brother because she read my blog last week. She also called his phone and left him the same message. He was out of town at Lake of the Ozarks with his boss and some of the other managers/supervisors. I talked to him several times while I was in Chicago. Dave really enjoys fishing as long as he catches the biggest fish out of everyone that he is fishing with. Unfortunately for him, he fished for eight hours and only caught four little fish. The last time I talked to him I could tell that his ego was a tad bruised.

I got home from Chicago around 3:00, Dave was already home. Shannon called around 5:00 and needed a ride home from cheer leading practice. Dave asked if I would ride with him to pick her up so we could swing by KFC on the way home. I said "are you serious, you still can't order a bucket of chicken." I told him that I wasn't going, I had just gotten out of the shower, I didn't feel like putting a bra on and God knows he won't let me go through the drive thru. He picked Shannon up and started to cut the grass. I was starting to feel a little guilty, after all he wasn't the best fisherman on the lake this weekend, chicken just may pull him out of his deep depression. I went to KFC and surprised him, I think I actually heard him singing while he was eating his chicken.