Life Lessons

Many times I have been given 'teaching situations' in my life. They come from friends, family, strangers and God. Some are more poignant than others and some are definitely more fun that others as well. Usually, I do *not* see them coming...even after I should certainly know better.

When my online friend, Stacey, blogged about her son doing this, I chuckled:


When this one happened to her 2 week old couch, I grimaced, but still laughed.


And when she posted this, I began to wonder if it wasn't all just a ploy for good blogging.


But when she blogged this, I nearly wet my pants, laughing myself silly. I mean, really...WHO in their right mind would give that kid MORE MARKERS???



Alas, dear sweet Stacey (who makes THE most incredible cakes, btw!), I am no longer amused.

Last week, the older three kids were awake bright and early as usual. Rose (5y) and Jade (3y) have really been enjoying coloring/drawing a lot together lately and this morning was no different. In fact, I'd gone out the night before and bought them a brand new set of *washable* Crayola markers because they were using cheap off brand markers that were in really bad shape. They were having a blast together.

The baby woke and I went upstairs to get her. As is customary, the other three trailed along right behind me, screaming their 'good mornings' at the baby until she shuddered in fear before breaking into a sobbing fit. (Geez...you'd think by now that she'd be used to that morning greeting!) I calmed her down and when I turned around, I found Jade bent over like she was picking something up off the carpet. Just happy that I didn't trip over her and fall in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, I didn't pay much attention to what she was actually doing. I start making my way down the stairs with the older two kids in tow (still trying to out-good-morning the other) and trying to calm the baby. I realize, halfway down the stairs that there are little brown spots on my carpet. Each stair had a brown spot on it. It then slowly dawned on me. I looked back at the top of the stairs just in time to see Jade starting to make the next spot. She had a brown marker in hand and apparently, each step she took, she marked it with the marker. I suppose, one could make a Hansel and Gretel connection out of it but I digress. She was told not to do it and punished accordingly.

Being the super cleaning mom in a household of 6 people, the marks were still there a couple days later. I hadn't looked up on the Crayola website yet how to clean their *washable* markers out of carpet. I probably should have asked Stacey. She might have whispered a warning of my impending doom.

On Sunday morning, I woke to find this. It's not the best picture but you get the gist. If you look closely, you can even see all the small purple dots surrounding the big purple design:

I'm just grateful that some of it went on the rug that needs to be replaced anyway.

Needless to say, I was *not* laughing. I immediately thought of Stacey and how I'd laughed "with" the poor woman.

Crayola.com does have a neat site. They have a huge database to search for getting their products out of other things. You can enter in the specific writing implement (washable markers) and the specific item destroyed (carpet). Then it gives you very specific steps on how to remove their product. My instructions were:

Stain Removal Tips
Dampen a sponge with alcohol and use a blotting motion to absorb the marker stain, changing the sponge as often as needed. Apply upholstery/rug shampoo according to the directions on the container. If stain remains, use Capture spot and soil remover according to the directions on the container.

I wonder if they have rights to Capture Spot Remover and rubbing alcohol? If my kids (and Stacey's) are any measure, we should both purchase stock in the companies right now.

I didn't have a sponge but got to work with some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. It took lots of elbow grease but it did come almost completely out. Rose was thrilled to help me clean up the mess on her floor.

A few hours later, it magically reappeared though it wasn't nearly as distinct a picture as before:


I need to attack it again with the alcohol but I have had 50,483 other messes since Sunday that required more urgent attention. At least the brown marker blended in nicely with our cream carpet with tan specks. Purple just kinda stands out, ya know??

So, I send this out tonight into the blogosphere, begging forgiveness from Stacey for laughing at her marker plight.

These 'teaching situations' never come like I really want them to.

(You can find Stacey's post about *all* of her son's hysterical antics...including MORE, yes MORE marker incidents here. Thanks, Stacey for letting me piggyback on you for a bit. :))