Welcome Home!

Jordan and I returned home from a week in Chicago last night about 9 pm.

(more on that later)

We were greeted with happy kids and piles of homemade gifts that they had

created with their beloved Rosanna.

Its always fun to see what things they have come up with for us.

This morning I was upstairs and Jordan came up and said, 'Come down, you aren't going to believe this one. And it is totally pay backs for when you were little.'

I knew this was not going to be good.

This is what I found.

on my kitchen wainscoting.

The wainscoting I have vowed never to paint.

It was done with a Sharpie.

I called for Sullivan.

He insisted it was not him. And he seemed genuine.

He actually seemed shocked to see it there.

So I turned to the only other possible culprit...Avery.

She denied it up and down.

I wasn't buying it.

I sent her and Sullivan to time out and said that if someone didn't fess up we would not be going to Avery's soccer game or to my mom's to see the uncles today.

Sullivan says, 'Ok, I'll tell the truth...I think Rosanna did it!'

Wow.

By this point Avery was in tears but still adamantly denying that she had any part in it.

I knew she had done it.

There is something about Avery...that girl can look me straight in the eye and lie.

Our other kids cannot even come close to this.

I hate it.

It breaks my heart and worries my brain.

I went upstairs before I lost it.

I. Cannot. Handle. Blatant. Lying.

A bit later she came up after she and Jordan had a talk about telling the truth right away and about God knows who did it. About how He is disappointed more in the lying than in the actual writing on the wall.

She came clean. With a river of tears.

At this point we basically had to run out the door to soccer.

I told her we would be dealing with all of this later and that I loved her but that I was far from happy.

Now, the really great part is that when I was Avery's age I used marker to create a HUGE mural on my parents' dining room wall. THEN, I used the marker on one of their BRAND NEW dining room chairs - on the leather seat. The letter 'B' graced one of those seats for 20 years to come.

Now tell me, WHY WOULD A SIX YEAR OLD THINK THIS IS OK?!?!?

Six is way old enough to know better.

And how do I get sharpie off wood?

And what is an appropriate punishment?

She's banned from markers and crayons - but I don't know for how long.

And I dont know if there needs to be something more...for the lying.

And why does my husband find it funny that she did this...just like I did!

(I have to add that he does not find the lying funny.)