Lauren has moved back home, she is moving to New Your at the end of December and didn't want to waste her money on rent and food when she could eat all of my food and stay at my house for free. I honestly don't know how I ever survived without all of her parenting advice. She knows so much about raising kids, she should think about being a child psychologist. She is a natural. I can't wait until she has kids, I just know in my heart that they will be "perfect."

She worked on her paper for her last MBA class all day yesterday. She called me every hour to let me know what page she was on. When I got home from work she was sitting in my bed under the covers all snugly warm with her laptop on her lap. I think she thinks it is her room, I know she thinks it is her bathroom. Is it January yet???

Shannon read my last post and was a little upset that I didn't mention that she brought me coffee at work that day. She had called me after school and I had asked her if she wanted to swing by my office on her way home and bring me a large coffee. She said, "I will, if you buy me dinner." I decided I didn't need coffee that bad. An hour later her and Kelsey showed up on my office doorstep with a large coffee. They even called Dave to find out how much cream to put in the coffee. It really was a nice gesture but Shannon felt that I should have shared it with my blog readers. She said, "That has to be the nicest thing that anyone did for you all day, that cost me $2.00" Please forgive me, Shannon is without a doubt, the best daughter in the world!!

I leave for Kansas City on Saturday morning for a Rick Springfield concert with three of my high school friends. We have third row center, (one of the fan club perks) I am such a dork! I have been trying to figure out the best way to drop 20lbs before Saturday. I have been waiting my whole life for Rick to spot me in a crowd and ask me to run away with him. That happens in real life, doesn't it??? I wonder if he likes kids? I'm thinking that I may have to amputate a couple of limbs real quick if I want to lose 20 pounds. I plan on being the best looking torso in the audience.

Everyone was home for Thanksgiving, we actually had less fights than I anticipated. Primarily because Erin slept the whole time she was here. I am so glad she came to town for the holiday, I really enjoyed watching her sleep. When I asked her why she sleeps for 22 hours a day, she responded with, "I can't help it, this house just sucks the life out of me. I actually have a hard time breathing when I am home." Always quick on my feet I let her know that I always have a hard time breathing too,when I click the transfer button on her bank account.

I stayed up talking to my sisters until 4:30 AM the night before Thanksgiving. They didn't get to my house until after midnight. I got up early to get the turkey in the oven. I am used to doing most of the cooking but you would think that one of the perks of having 6 daughters would be having a little help in the kitchen. I made twice baked potatoes and asked Lauren if she could spoon the potatoe mixture in the shells for me? She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Why can't you do it? You already have the spoon in your hand." Its a good thing it wasn't a knife in my hand.

They did do the dishes for me so at least the day wasn't a total wash.

I received an email from Kenzie from Nordstrom letting me know that Lauren was in the store and was eyeballing some animal print boot liners that go with her new boots. She even attached a link to the boot liners so I could check them out and purchase them. I replied; Dear Kenzie, Lauren was born with a plastic spoon in her mouth......not silver. We have plenty of boot liners here at home. They are called socks. Thanks for the email!

Happy Birthday Shannon

Shannon turned 18 on Saturday. She had the choice of a gift around the $50 range or a shopping trip. She chose to go shopping and pick her own clothes. She went out on Friday and spent the night at her friends house. She got home around 10ish Saturday morning ready for her birthday shopping spree. She made sure to point out that now that she was 18 she could buy cigarettes, porn and lottery tickets....in no particular order. I let her know that she could also go to jail and if she did....I would leave her there.

Lauren showed up at the house to help Shannon celebrate her birthday......or she knew that she could tag along for a free lunch. We went to O Charley's so I could completely blow my diet, but hey ....it was for Shannon, I am the type of mother that will do anything for my child. If that entails eating a large bowl of potato cheese soup with four or five rolls then that is just a sacrifice that I am willing to make. Of course princess Lauren had a plate of leaves with some balsamic dressing on the side. (she always was a strange child)

After lunch Shannon and I headed to the mall and Lauren headed home. Shannon found a few cute things and in typical Murphy fashion went way above the allotted $50. I think she figured I wouldn't notice. She wasn't feeling well so we headed home.

In the car on the way home Shannon asked me to quit talking, she felt like she was going to throw up. Umm excuse me, how does the sound of my voice make someone ill ? (Dave if you are reading this, don't answer) We stopped to pick up her cake and she threw up in a trash can as soon as she got out of the car.

It suddenly came to me in a déjà vu type vision. Hey isn't this familiar, I remembered when Erin had to have grandma pick her up at church on her birthday weekend because she had bad "cramps." Come to find out those bad cramps turned out to actually be a bad hangover. I think she finally owned up to having just one birthday shot. "one birthday shot?" Now that is hilarious, did she think that sounded like something a mother would number 1, believe and number 2, find acceptable?

I decided to deal with Shannon and her "flu" tomorrow. I woke her up Sunday morning for church. She was burning up and had been throwing up all night. Apparently her flu was not the brown bag flu but an actual body aches, sore throat, high fever kind. Whoops, sorry Shannon!