Who'd have thought?!

I've spent more than a few school nights trying to scrub away various stains that have found themselves to part of my daughter. Motivated by what the teacher will think of my parenting skills, I've been more diligent with my scrubbing than Alison has liked.

I believe these moments in the tub are responsible for her latest discovery.

"Hey Mom! Guess what?!" I heard this afternoon after she'd spent some time with a fat, black Sharpie marker.

"What?"

"I discovered a way to get Sharpie off my arm," she said. "I just put some water in my mouth and then I spit it out on my arm. Who'd have thought a little saliva would take care of it?!"

So there you have it. Kelly Ripa may have her Tide pen, but Ali has spit. I wonder if I put it in a fun little squeeze bottle......


In other news, Jeff and I learned a new dice game this weekend, courtesy of our friends, Denise, Scott and Jeff. It's called "mahka" or "macca." We don't know how to spell it but they brought it back from a week in Nicaragua and it puts Bunco to shame. You roll five dice and have to get 600 points in a roll to get on the board. If you roll a "mahka" you lose all your points and have to start over. If you can get over 5,000 points, but roll a "mahka," you go back to 5,000 rather than zero. You win at 10,000 points.

There was much liquor involved and I don't think I could have kept accurate score even if I'd been sober. Luckily, Denise took care of all of that and I ended up winning.