Wednesday, August 12, 2009

How to spend 3 hours alone

While running errands, talk on the phone to your sister.
Upon arriving home, pull the car into the garage, keep talking to your sister.
When your 4 year old climbs into the front seat to pretend to drive the car, figure there's no harm in letting him play while you unload items into the house and get stuff done.
Prop open door from the garage to the house. Keep talking to your sister.
Forget that there is a Sharpie in the car.
After talking to your sister and taking care of stuff in the house for a while, realize that the 4 year old is still busy in the car.
Go check on 4 year old.
Repeat in your sister's ear, "Oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh no! " because you see this...




Send 4 year old in the house with a stern reminder that we ONLY DRAW ON PAPER!
Your sister immediately Googles and starts calling out names of products and techniques to get permanent marker out of fabric.
Assemble supplies.
Thank your sister.
Hang up.
Get to work.
After about 3 hours alone, you've done all you can do.

Decide that ALL writing utensils go in the little hidden compartment on the dashboard and Sharpies live in the house!

Thankfully, all of the marks dry lighter than they appear wet and you can't even notice them now.

BONUS!!
When you get out to the car in the morning to drive kids to school, you discover that working in the car with the doors open for 3 hours totally kills your car battery!
Be grateful for early rising neighbors who eventually give your car a jump start.
Get the kids to school- late.

THE END.


12 comments:

Greg Garrick said...

That was fun. Are you catching up on your blogging?

www.snarkytheskunk.blogspot.com

Jill said...

Oh my goodness, what a crazy state of affairs!

rachel said...

That is AWESOME. Love it! I can't believe you got it all out!

Angie said...

I don't know if this is funny to you yet, but your posting about it made me laugh! We had our first lesson on writing only on paper the other day when Owen was coloring on our walls. You made me realize we will be having this discussion more than once in the next couple of years!!! I'm glad you got it all out!! Yay for your sister and google!

Sunny said...

Wow I'm impressed that you got it all out too! Impressive! We are just starting to get into the "Only draw on paper" stage. Fun Fun Fun! I let Hyrum stay in the car as I bring in the groceries too...maybe that's not such a good idea! And I probably should lock the doors too so he doesn't sneak in. He likes to do that too.

Beth Soelberg said...

Bless you! That's all I can say.

If it makes you feel better, a few months ago I was letting Helena play in the van, and she figured out how to put the keys in the ignition and start it. It was rolling backwards down our driveway, but luckily I was right there, jumped in, and slammed that baby into park.

I'm SO glad you were able to get out the marks almost completely! Three cheers for internet access!

Shannon said...

Oh Nikki! That is a lot of work! Jared did that once when he was 2 or 3 all over our couch, table, fridge, and walls. It was fantastic fun getting it out :)

Leanne said...

Oh man. I totally feel for you Nikki. This stuff happens and I bet you handled it way better than I would have! Glad the stains mostly came out. Magic Erasers work great for the vinyl, but now they need to make them for fabric and upholstery don't they?!

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness! That post was SO funny. Yet SO horrible at the same time. I felt so sorry for you! Just glad to hear you were able to get it out. But then... killing the car battery on top of it all! Oh man, that's entertaining! :)

Holly said...

I love it, and I am soo glad you documented this! :) Shocking at the time, but y ou will look back at it some day and say, "Wow! I really have a awesome sister!!" Just kidding, you will look back at it and say, "I was AMAZING at getting through all of that!" And you will be totally right! :)

Shooting a wedding on thursday and I need prayers please!! Slightly freaking out.

Tiffany said...

hahahhahahahh! That is the funniest thing ever! Ok, ok, it's really actually so sad, and very stressful. But think of how hard you will laugh about this in many years. I'm so glad you got pictures and documented it! Anyways, thank you for leaving me a comment! Your blog is amazing! wow. We will definitely eep in touch!

Dave said...

I wondered how long it would take for you to capture this event in a blog... if indeed you could ever get over it enough to do so. I could only imagine how upset you were, when I first heard about this. But then I remembered this was Nikki... patient, proper perspective, Nikki.
I think every parent who has a creative child (or sometimes not) has this kind of experience. I remember one such, of a little girl, I dearly loved (and still do), that gave me a little different experience. After, the "discussion" about "only on paper", I had the opportunity to get creative myself, by covering it with my own "hand painted" wall covering creation. What kind of a lesson did I give with that??