Domestic Terrorist Strike

As I mentioned in my previous post, I encountered a very unpleasant situation during the day of Caleb's party.

It had been a peaceful day. We had a nice breakfast of french toast, sausage and eggs. The Party Boys were all having fun with ropes, trees, the fort, and the football. Titus was being the resident prisoner and watching it all from the safety of "the jail" (the lower level of the fort) As I was sitting at my desk doing some work, Titus came up to my side and said "Mama, the water's coming out of the dream." (That's Titus lingo for "drain). I looked up quickly and with a face of dread, said "What did you say??" He repeated it with a guilty quiver in his voice. That immediately sent a quiver of fear through my mind and body. I asked him to show me what he was talking about because he came from outside when he told me this. In a state of dread and wonder, he pulled me by the hand to our downstairs bathroom. As I opened the door I heard the same sound as I heard outside the garden center at Lowe's. I heard the Water Feature display. dread, terror The sound of water! Not running water in a toilet bowl or from a faucet that was left on, but the sound of splashing water into other water below it. The toilet bowl was not just brimming with water, it was flowing, cascading, falling, pouring out onto the already wet, soaked, puddled carpet. The dream (drain), was my nightmare. I immediately got down and tried to shut off the water valve to the toilet, which was stuck. Upon kneeling down, I soaked my skirt in the shallow waters of our newly installed water feature. It was joyous, there was shouting. (ahem) After sending Titus to await my review of his actions in my room, I wildly called for the plunger, towels, buckets and help!! (Oh! and another special part of all this was that Brian also just happened to be at work. Such a blessing.) Having recently visited Niagara Falls, kept this in perspective. It was only a small waterfall, but the downstairs carpeted bathroom is not the sight where you want to keep a water feature!

In this picture of our bathroom garbage you will see an arrangement of freshly soaked toilet paper. Hmm, I wonder where that came from? After plunging, and plunging, and plunging, I finally harvested the equivalent of an entire roll of toilet paper AND as a bonus, the cardboard roll from the middle was still intact! Now that the carpet, pad, and me were thoroughly soaked, I had to pull it all up so that I could attempt to dry it out. After releasing much aggression over the situation, I managed to pull up the carpet and the padding along with many lovely and wickedly sharp tack thingys (and I have scars to prove how I found those). I went to the garage to get our wet/dry vac and began sucking up the puddle that was resting on my bathroom floor. Usually, when you vacuum its a bad thing when you start smelling smoke. This time was no different because as I was using the precious wet/dry vac the very motor was smoldering and burning. As I saw a small plume of smoke arise to go along with the suspicious smell, I hurriedly turned off and unplugged the machine. Some day's the blessings just never end, and let me tell you, to say that my cup runneth over, was becoming more and more dear to me!

Through the aid of several friends who brought over another wet/dry vac and an additional fan to try and dry out the carpet, it has now calmed down and looks almost normal in the bathroom.

On Tuesday morning, I went in the bathroom to put everything back in order. After I replaced the padding and carpet I went to turn on the valve for the toilet. I gave it a good old flush and to my surprise it began to overflow again! So, I quickly closed off the valve again and reached for my trusty companion yet again. The plunger. After several enthusiastic plunges I saw something slightly sticking out of the outflow part of the bowl. Bravely, I reached down and pulled the "thing" out. It was none other than Sophia's wind up flashlight! After I pulled that out the toilet flushed normally! Amazing how much better a toilet can flush after you pull an entire roll of toilet paper and a 5 inch flashlight out!

Thinking things were going to be okay, I went to talk with Titus about what I had just found and decided I was on a fast from that room for a while. However, today I went in the bathroom to make sure it had been properly cleaned when something caught my eye in the toilet bowl! Could there really be more? There down in the little hole that puts clean water in the bowl there was something black. In fact, it was black and a little shiny. Knowing that nothing yucky ever shines, I flushed the toilet, closed the valve so it wouldn't refill before I did my investigation of the "thing". It happened to be a small toy army gun from one of the boys army figures! Once again, I met with Titus to inquire about how the toy gun might have gotten lodged in the toilet. Of course, as any good soldier, he pled silence for the safety of his comrades. I'm hoping this will be the last thing that we find in that toilet, but I've said that from the beginning. Who knew that you could stuff so many things into a toilet?! If only money would start coming out of our commode like everything else has!! Needless to say, Titus is NOT allowed to use that bathroom anymore and is on parole for bathroom usage. He has to report to his parole officer (me) before going in the bathroom and upon leaving. He's supposed to be out within 3 minutes (or I invade) unless he tells me he needs to do some length business. So far he's done well and I think it has been impressed upon him that he should not EVER do these sorts of things EVER again.

Believe it or not in the midst of all of this chaos I've been able to can applesauce and apple butter! On days like this I'm reminded of how there are several things that I never imagined encountering as a parent. As a little girl playing house did you ever tell your doll "Get off your brothers head, you can't sit there!!" or "If you're going to stick your finger in her mouth, OF COURSE she's going to bite you!! I've had children use too much toilet paper in their early years (and some later) of toilet use, but NEVER have we encountered such a grandiose dilemma. I've asked myself, was I not paying attention? How fast could he have done that? Did he premeditate the items and stealthily gather them before going into the bathroom or did he just find the flashlight on the counter, the gun in his pocket? Who knows and Titus certainly isn't going to come clean. Trying to get the whole story from a three year old is not usually very effective.

sigh. We've always said we'd like to take the carpet out of that bathroom. :)