Markers

Several days ago, Andrea told me that she was asked to substitute teach the 2nd grade class at the Geneva School today. That meant that I would need to watch three of our four children for the day. "No problem," I thought. "This will be fun."

The day started off nicely. The kids had Apple Jacks for breakfast. Then they played for a little while. They cleaned their bedrooms and the toy room before we sat down and had lunch together.

After lunch, I put Julia in the stroller and took her for a walk, with the boys riding behind me on their bikes. The weather couldn't be more perfect. Upper 70's with a slight breeze.

After our walk, we played catch with a football for a little while. Then we came inside and waited for Andrea and Hannah to come home.

About five minutes before Andrea came home, I got a call on my cell phone. My reception in the house wasn't so good, so I stepped outside the back door for a few minutes. As I was finishing my call, Andrea pulled up to the house and the rest of the kids walked into the doorway - trying to get my attention. Apparently, while I was on the phone, Julia decided to color her arms with a blue marker and OF COURSE she had to do that two minutes before my wife came home.

Part of me is convinced that Andrea had this pre-arranged with the kids just to make me look bad. She wants me to be 100% certain that this place will fall apart if she's gone for more than half a day. I'm pretty sure the conversation went something like this:

Andrea: "Dad is going to try to make today a nice day for you. Please feel free to work against him. If everything is going well and you can't easily mess things up, make sure you give this blue marker to your sister just before 4:00. She will know what to do."

Kids: "Yes mother. We fear your wrath so we will obey."

You know and I know that this is EXACTLY what took place.