Teenager in the House!

Marcus turned thirteen!  It's about time, is all I can say.  This boy looks more like he's fifteen and acts like it too so it's nice that his teenage years are now official.  We didn't get much time to celebrate him because he took off early that morning with Randy and the scouts to camp in snow caves at Mt. Rainier.  I bought a big cake for Randy to surprise him with on their trip and we opened his presents when he got back the next day when he was stinky and sleep deprived.  St. Patrick's Day was not as fun without our leprechaun!  Oh well.

While Randy and Marcus were snow cave camping I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to surprise Marcus by painting and redecorating his bedroom.  {My mom, the rock star of all moms, did this for my 16th birthday by completely wallpapering my room while I was at school and I still remember how shocked I was when I saw it}  As soon as Marcus left I got to work, shoving all his furniture to the middle of the room, taping, and putting down drop cloths.  I was making good time and had almost the entire trim and first coat done before noon before I had to pick up Parker from preschool and join some friends for lunch.  As I stepped down from the ladder I knocked the can of paint over, spilling paint all over the carpet.  I yelled and began scooping up the pain with my hands mumbling "no, no, no,"as the panic set in.  I didn't have time to do anything else but change my clothes, scrub my hands, and head out the door.  To make a long story much shorter, I miraculously returned to the spill two hours later and the  carpet was still wet so there was a chance it could be saved.  I poured bucket after bucket of water on the carpet, soaked it up with a sponge and wrung it out into another bucket.  I did this for an hour, all the while praying for a miracle and my prayers were answered!  The stain is gone, although the carpet is a little crunchy, but it looks fine.  I got the room finished, cleaned and decorated at midnight that night and collapsed into bed feeling really silly for thinking I could pull of something like that just because my mom could.  Stupid me!

Here's a pic of this labor of love.  Of course I didn't take a before picture but imagine blank, dirty walls and you'll get the idea.

Opening presents that were all clothes.  And he was ok with that.

 Here he is digging away at his snow cave

Here's the finished product.  They stayed toasty warm in their sleeping bags and watched movies on their Kindles to pass the time because there was nothing to do after it got dark.  So glad I had nothing to do with this!

They built shelves for their stuff and slept on top of vinyl table clothes to keep their sleeping bags dry.  Very clever!

Blowing out his one emergency candle because Randy couldn't find the pack of candles I sent him with

 Marcus is great despite the fact that he's growing up too fast for my liking.  He is skilled in every sport, self-motivated (in sports, not school), smart, responsible, hard working, a great leader, and has some serious piano playing ability as well.  He's loved by all the ladies and adored by his younger brothers (when he doesn't make them cry).  Marcus and I spend a lot of one-on-one time together as I chauffeur him to school and sports and sometimes I can even get him to open up and actually talk to me in complete sentences instead of monosyllabic mumbles and grunts which gets me all excited.  But then he'll promptly snuff out my enthusiasm by saying, "Mom, I'm not a girl!  I'm not going to talk anymore! Sheesh!" I've already told him if he wants to do less talking he's just going to have to marry a girl who will love me and talk my ear off.  Problem solved.