Adopt Ethan for a year....anyone??? Just kidding...sort of.

What a wonderful morning I have had...too bad you can't hear the sarcasm. Things were going fairly well. Brian had off from school today and as the boys were eating their breakfast, I ran upstairs to get dressed and to make the bed. I went back downstairs to check on the boys, about 5 minutes later, and as I approached the kitchen, THERE IT WAS! A huge wonderful mess for me to clean but oh no, it wasn't just any kind of mess. It was an Ethan original worth as much as a new kitchen floor, white door, hardwood dining room floor and stainless steel refrigerator....not to mention the rug in the living room and small kitchen floor mat. Petty I know but still mentionable. Now I know you are asking what kind of mess this could possibly be for me to post a blog asking anyone to adopt Ethan for a year. LOL. Now, I really wouldn't do that. I do love him still however a short visit with family or friends may be considered. LOL. jk. Okay, so here is what he did. Let me put a picture here first so you can see for yourselves.

The kitchen door

A section of the kitchen floor

Dining room floor after scrubbing

Okay, so there you have it. Ethan pulled open the drawer in the kitchen where we keep our pens and opened the pencil box. He then proceeded to find the thickest black permanent marker he could find and wrote on himself. As he was doing this, he had to have thought to himself that the white kitchen door needed some work. He finished there and went on to the living room carpet with just a streak, thank heavens, and then onto the kitchen floor where he drew mazes. Was it one part of the kitchen that could be hidden under carpet? Oh no, he went the extra mile and placed his touch everywhere! I caught him at the refridgerator. Thank goodness because that one was the easiest mark to remove. I then panicked. I grabbed the 409 and started to spray everything but it wasn't working. I called Matt but there was nothing really that he could do except listen to me pant as I tried to erase the marker. I then called my mom but there was no answer. I grabbed every cleaner available to me in the house. I tried Simple Green...no luck. I tried an all purpose cleaner that was supposed to be the wonder cleaner...no luck. Then I remembered I once took permanent marker off of my dad's van when it was vandalized with some oven cleaner. So, I grabbed the oven cleaner. Spray and scrub...spray and scrub. After about an hour and a half, I gave up. The marker is faded but you can still see it. Some areas more than others. The door will need to be repainted so I will tackle that today with some primer and hopefully get it painted by tonight. On the bright side of things, I guess this means we'll be installing a new kitchen floor in the future. We'll definately have to resand the floor in the dining room and finish it. It's not terribly bad in there but it'll need to be done. So, there you have it. Are there any takers on a month with Ethan? He can create thousands of dollars worth of drawings for you in a day. Just think if he had colored markers! Okay, how about a day??? Anyone?? That's my final offer.