Biding my time

School starts one week from tomorrow. Only 7 more days. The first thing on my list when Ethan is at school and Abby is napping is to "hoe" out Ethan's room. Abby's is next on the list once she starts school (August 28th). Their rooms have been driving me insane all summer, but I can't actually clean out their rooms with them helping. Ethan inherited the pack rat gene from his father and the minute he sees me throw something away he digs it out of the trash. He's learned to look in the trash can when we're cleaning to make sure I haven't sneaked something out of his room. Imagine his dismay when today I walked into his room (and by walked I mean tripped over all the toys laying on his floor) and we both heard a big "CRUNCH". Underneath his rug which was buried in toys was the Etch-A-Sketch. Lets just say you can't step on the screen of an Etch-A-Sketch and expect it to be functional. On a positive note we got to see all of the metallic powder and drawing apparatus inside the Etch-A-Sketch so now we know exactly how it used to work ("used to work" is the operative phrase here). After all the tears and fit-throwing, Ethan and I cleaned his room so we can now walk through it without inflicting fatal damage on any other unsuspecting toys. I am soooo looking forward to next week and the cleaning I'll be able to do all by myself. I have a feeling our fall garage sell will be a good one!!