The first two weeks of June were a little rough here at the Egbert house. Adam was out of town for 4 days on a Scout Trip the first week of June and then after being home 1.5 days he left again for another 4 days on a business trip the second week of June. And even the day and a half Adam was home he was mostly attending to his calling as Young Mens President so we didn’t get to see him much. Needless to say things got a little crazy around here.
The first week of Adam being gone went off pretty much without a hitch. The kids and I were able to do some fun things like go visit Papa, go to Seven Peaks, swim at Salem Pond, go out to eat at Brick Oven, and to a neighborhood carnival and for the most part we had a good time. We even managed to get the house all spiffy and spammy on Saturday by doing all our jobs and Daddy’s too.
However, on Saturday night when Adam got home from his 4 day scout trip and as we were trying to get the kids ready for bed Dawson decided to get into a tube of toothpaste, squish out the entire tube, and then finger paint with it all over our bathroom countertops and walls. This was after he (Dawson) took a blue crayon and wrote all over the bathroom and bedroom door too.
Adam was instantly pretty upset over this (which surprised me because usually he’s the calm one) and he put all 3 boys into time outs (even though it was completely obvious that Dawson had done the deed), but I had prayed really hard for patience that day and was able to handle the situation beautifully. I sent Brans and Harry to bed, remained calm, kept emotions out, and was able to get Dawson to clean up his mess fairly easily. Dawson even thanked me for my help afterwards and gave me a big hug. I was pretty proud of myself for handling the situation so well and thanked Heavenly Father that night for the extra help.
The second week, however, was a LOT more difficult. On Sunday Harrison ended up contracting some flu bug and threw up before church requiring Adam and I to engage in a game of switching the kids off between Church meetings so we could attend to our callings. I took Adalynn, Dawson, and Branson with me to Sacrament meeting but then realized half way through that I couldn’t watch Adalynn during my Sunday School lesson and ended up taking her home to Adam to watch. Then I went back to the church where I taught my gospel doctrine lesson, and then after that was done I hurried back home to switch Adam so he could go and attend Young Mens while I stayed home with Harry.
Adam left early Monday morning for his business trips to San Fran and Seattle, and that morning Harry’s illness emerged into a fever of 103 degrees. Then on Tuesday Branson and Adalynn both came down with the same flu bug and fevers and both ended up throwing up as well…in my room…on my carpet, requiring me to give bathes, change clothes, and clean my carpets several times.
After cleaning up one of Adalynn’s throw up messes I went to take the dirty rags and put them in the washing machine when I noticed a little something something on my hallway wall. RED MARKER. As I continued down the hallway I noticed that the red marker didn’t stop. I found it on the garage door, down the other walls in the hallway, on the walls going up the stairs, all over the banister, all over my black living room table, on two different walls in my front room, on the front door, on my tile floor, on my carpet, on our family scriptures that we read each night, and on several toys that the boys play with. Literally EVERYWHERE I turned I found red permanent marker. Dawson had completely had a hay day while I had been gagging on puke smells and wiping up throw up chunks.
I wish I could say that I calmly went and put Dawson in a time out and then laughed off the situation. I wish I could say that there had been no screaming, yelling, spanking, or gnashing of teeth on my part. But unfortunately this little incident was the straw that broke the camels back and I completely lost my cool and patience and I a full blown melt down/adult tantrum! I was so furious at Dawson for ruining my house causing me more work to do in my already completely exhausted state. I felt so overwhelmed just trying to deal with my other 3 sick kids. I was so tired of having to do everything on my own as a single parent. I was SO done with cleaning up throw up and changing stinky bums. And with all this combined I’m sad to say that I did NOT handle the situation well.
Needless to say Dawson spent a few hours in his room by himself for his own protection while I angrily scrubbed walls to calm myself down. But even after trying magic eraser, dish soap, vinegar, and baking soda I STILL could not get some of the red marker out. All in all Dawson ended up applying his art to the following:
7 walls
2 Doors
2 Wood banisters
1 Table
2 Toys
Our Tile Floor
and Living Room carpet.
Below are some pictures from both days of mischief.
This picture is AFTER I had scrubbed the wall with magic eraser – but you can still see that the line goes from one end of the wall to the other.
Again this is AFTER taking a magic eraser to the wall
Adam and I still can’t get the maker out of the banister. This marker art will require sanding down the banister and then re-staining it.
This wall is also after MANY MANY attempts at cleaning off the marker. I tried magic eraser, baking soda, vinegar, cleaning sprays, you name it. This wall will have to be repainted.
This one is hard to see – but if you look closely you can see the red marks all over my black living room table. (Sorry for the flash)
The below pictures are from Dawsons mischief on Saturday evening right after Adam got back from his first trip. Luckily this mess was MUCH easier to clean up and the magic eraser worked beautifully!
Toothpaste on counter and walls
More Door art
Sure was a crazy week!