Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Slime in the Ceiling

So, Dalan's birthday was this month. He got the coolest present ever! It was red slime that came in a blood donation bag. How awesomely gross!  9 year-old boys are easy to please; just give them something that grosses everyone else out and they love it.
All is well until he and his sister (who loves gross things too) are dissecting it at the kitchen table and mom steps out of the room for 1 minute. ONE minute!

I hear banging around in the kitchen and run back in. Low and behold, Dalan is attempting to mop the ceiling?! What?

"Aunalee threw her slime on the ceiling and I was trying to get it off." comes the half-story from Dalan.
"You did it too, Dalan!" comes the rebuttal from Aunalee, ensuring the blame is shared. She walks over to the stairway and points to the ceiling. "That is what Dalan did."
"Yeah, but mine came off, mostly."

I look and sure enough, there are some nice red rings on the ceiling where his slime had been splattered.
Aunalee's mess was much worse as Dalan's frightful attempt to clean it was actually smearing it everywhere.
In my jaw clenched, kind voice, "I don't know why when mom leaves the room you think all of the rules are void and that you can trash my house. . .lecture . . . lecture . . .lecture . . . "                     
Summary of the discipline, they are too short to clean up the mess and I am not patient enough to wait until they are tall enough. Slime goes in the garbage and they clean up what is on the floor and table. I have to attempt what is on the ceiling.

Sweet, creative Aunalee replies, "We could just paint the ceiling red. That would be cool."
This is a comment where my heart is laughing and my demeanor stays firm. This is extremely difficult to master, so I am told. I'm still working on it.

As for the ceiling, magic eraser only spreads the mess and turns everything pink. It would have worked if I had bought 4 more boxes. The scrub brush only made my arm hurt. Simple Green along with whatever other cleaners I had in the cupboard didn't do a thing either except make the area smell nice and chemically.

My super-heroin friend, Jen came to the rescue. She brought over a gallon of blue windshield washer fluid. This combined with the magic eraser worked, um, magic! It got the slime off without spreading the mess! Yea for super-heroes!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Katelyn's Dream (as told by Katelyn)

Mom, I had a scary dream last Tuesday and a snake came up to me and you smacked him!

Sunday, March 07, 2010

I was on my way out the door to go to the grocery store tonight.
Kate called out a reminder, "Get me some juice."
"And look at the fishies."

If you have ever taken kids to Walmart, you will know why I was laughing out loud on my way out the door.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Quick! Mom's not looking!

This morning was going so well too. . .We had breakfast, reading time, got dressed, the kids were actually motivated to get their schooling done, it was great.
Since Aunalee was ready to start her Phonics course (shocker!) I did not clear the table after breakfast.
Big mistake!
Let me say that again. . .BIG mistake!
We had waffles with all the fixings (peanut butter and syrup, yum!) and yogurt. Apparently we had toast because the toaster was on the table. I didn't fix toast, did I? Lack of sleep getting to me here.

I went with Aunalee to my room (the place she chose to do her work today) and started on Phonics.
Dalan started reading, Kate (3) and Landon (16 mon.) were in the kitchen playing with the Fridge Phonics.

The sounds of the morning were pleasant. The kids were laughing and playing nicely while I was left with Aunalee to do work.
Moments later I hear the sounds of spoons and fingers scooping out yogurt and eating it (moms have this sense of knowing exactly who, what and how noises are created, oh, and no noise means mischief).
I called down the hall, "Kate, what are you and Landon doing?"
"Eating yogurt." comes the reply.
"Are you both ok?"
"Yes."

I trusted that, that cute little three-year-old! That was BIG mistake #2!
Five minutes later Kate comes waltzing into my room and asks me to open her bathroom door (child proofed).
From her finger tips, up her arms, to her mouth. . .peanut butter, yogurt, and something else sticky (syrup maybe)!
AHH! Kate!
"I need to wash my hands."
No kidding! Do I laugh? cry? yell?
None of the above is what I actually did.
I opened the bathroom door and had her wash herself up whilst I checked on the other goober.

Covered from head to toe, literally, in yougurt, peanut butter, and syrup, standing on the table, was Landon, smiling and hands straight up in the air as if to say, "I did it! Where is my praise?"
After stripping and hosing him down I decided to clear the table. Which I should have done in the first place!
The peanut butter. . . chucked it.
Yogurt. . .chucked it.  They were so mixed together I was not sure which was which.
As for the toaster. . .I put it in the sink and sprayed it down, inside and out. It may be broken after doing that, but how was I supposed to clean the yogurt/peanut butter concoction out?

This is not the end. . .(sorry, no "making a long story short")

As I was cleaning the toaster I heard noise (not the good kind) coming from the bathroom.

I ran into the bathroom and Kate and Landon had combs, a mirror, and the bottle of gel, doing  each others' hair.
Out you two!
I cleaned up that mess, now back to the toaster.
Oh, no! Where were those two now?!!!
I found them in my bathroom with the door closed getting into hair stuff again!
What a morning!
Too bad I'm out of duct tape! Nap time for the little ones. So what that it's only 9:30am.

Got to love em!