The Stamping of the Walls

On the Thursday before Christmas, Justin decided to redecorate his room. I was in the office searching (and digging) for a receipt I needed. With the dog by my side, I instructed Justin to go play in his room. Now, Justin has played in his room several times before without incident. However, that was about to change. About 10 minutes pass and I hear my husband come home (and I'm still searching for the receipt). As soon as he walks in the door, I hear in the most stern yelling voice, "JUSTIN!!!!" I got up, ran into the living room and saw what had been done. Shaking my head in disbelief, I looked over to my son and said the all-famous words of a parent "Did you do this?" "Yyyyyyyes," he said, as he started to sob, eyes welling up with tears. This boy knew what he had done was really, really bad. This devilish child thought it would be fun to take a red stamp (like the kind teachers use on grading papers) and run it along the carpet, in the living room and down the hallway. Most appropriately, this was a frowny :-( face, not a smiley face stamp. Not only did he have to make a trail map through my house, but apparently, he thought the walls in his room needed a make-over too.

Now, this is not just any ordinary kids room. My husband and I paid a lot of money to a local artist to paint a mural of the solar system on his walls. We knew that having a child that there might be some destruction of this mural, but we took a chance. It's a really cool mural! But the stamping didn't stop at the walls, either. The furniture and ceiling got the mark of evil too. He got up on top of his bunk bed to reach the ceiling and his fan....the little stinker!

So, in my panic-stricken mood, I frantically tried getting the stamps off. I grabbed the Magic Eraser and, without thinking, climbed atop of the bunk bed to reach the stamps on the ceiling. Little did I forget about the weight requirement for the top bunk! Not but 20 seconds passed by after I got on top, that I fell through the bunk bed. Yes, I broke it...permanently. At that point, both Justin and I were crying!


His punishment for this little deed was to write a letter to Santa Claus. With it being only 1 week until Christmas, I took advantage of the "time of year" to teach him a lesson on being good!

His apology letter read:

Dear Santa,
I am sorry for stamping the floor, ceiling, walls, furniture and my fan. I am very, very, very sorry for that. I hope I don't get coal in my stocking now.
Love, Justin

Mr. and Mrs. Claus pondered about what to do next. Coal or presents? And at the last minute, they decided to go ahead and keep this boy on Santa's "Good List" this year. However, he is keeping a very watchful eye on this creative child!

So the morals of the story are:

1. Check your child(s) backpack as soon as they get home. You never know what they might have brought home (like stamps from the teacher's desk)!
2. As comfortable as you may feel about your 8 year old child playing alone in his/her room, check on him/her more than every 5-10 minutes.
3. Never pay more than you are willing to lose to decorate your house.
4. Don't waste time using a Magic Eraser on any kind of ink stain. It doesn't work.
5. And lastly, if you're over 75lbs, do not climb on top of a bunk bed.

Put Me in the Zoo

Well, you'd think that my husband and I would have learned our lesson about child(ren) with permanent markers 4 years ago. For those of you who don't know (or don't recall), when Justin was 3, we were moving into our home in Jacksonville, when Justin got a hold of a black permanent marker and proceeded to decorate the walls with several circles, all in a row down the long hallway...and in the office room! Yes, we took the blame, because we turned our heads for only a minute (ok...maybe 2).

Now...fast forward to this past Friday evening (the 10th). While I was still at work, away from home, Chad decided it was time for Justin to decorate his bucket for cubscouts. This bucket is (and will be) used for the "Den's" camp fire tonight (Saturday 11th). The scouts are to put things in the bucket to be able to use (flashlight, bug spray, marshmallow roaster skewer, etc.) and to decorate the bucket, as instructed by their Den Leader.

So, in the midst of Justin decorating his bucket, Chad (the only parent in the house at the time), turned his head for a minute (or 10) and proceeded to finish his "honey-do" list, which was to put away the clean clothes before Sarah got home from work. Well, as you could probably guess, Justin, during this unattended time alone with permanent markers and the dog faithfully by his side, decided that dog looked plain and needed some color too!

Minutes later, I get a call at work from Chad (who is laughing hysterically) telling me to rush home! When I ask why, he told me about Justin decorating his bucket and then asked me if I remembered the book "Put Me in the Zoo!"....a book we read as kids and of course, read to our colorful son when he was a bit younger. "Of course!" I said. "Well," he said, "Our dog now looks like the leopard in the story who wants to be put in the zoo!"


Lucky for her, whether she realizes or not, or wants it or not....she's already at the zoo....my house! (And I think Dad will agree!)

After attempting to bathe the dog, Chad called me again and explained that the marker simply won't come off. He begged me not to laugh when I got home and to make sure that I reiterated to Justin how coloring the dog was not appropriate.

"That poor dog!" is all I could think of while driving home. However, needless to say, when I did get home and saw the dog, I couldn't keep a straight face. Poor puppy!



So, what can I say, I had to share the story of "Put Me in the Zoo" at Sarah's house. I hope you enjoy the laugh! Don't worry, the dog wasn't harmed or mentally scarred (at least I don't think so). She's acting normal and seems just fine. But if you know of any other way (besides bathing or licking) to get the permanent marker off, please let me know. Otherwise, I think we're just going to have to let her fur grow out.