Three Days, Several Showers, Two Baths, and a Clothes Hanger...

Friday morning I sent the following e-mail to Tyler's grandparents, his great-grandparents and my sister:

Subject: looking for a giggle?

I'm pretty sure Tyler flushed the top to his Daddy's shaving cream down the toilet this morning.

He was playing with the lid. He flushed the toilet and said "bye-bye." Now I can't find the lid.

And the toilet isn't flushing quite right.

Wish us luck.

Three days — and two trips to Home Depot — later, it isn't so funny.

We had our toilet in the front yard, y'all! We were trying to flush the lid out with a garden hose. And two neighbors drove by! Humiliating.

I almost got my hand stuck inside a toilet. More than once! Mortifying.

We tried everything from a wet vac (hoping to suck the lid out) to a garden hose (hoping to flush it out with some water pressure). And yes, we tried the more obvious plunger and plumber's snake early in the process. Nothing worked. If I'd realized what a tight fit it was for the lid to flush down in there, I wouldn't have joked about the situation in the first place.



Finally, a clothes hanger did the trick. Brian ceremoniously stomped the offending object in our yard. I suggested we immediately buy toilet locks. Brian's reply? "No s***."

Two hours later, Brian finally had our bathroom back in order and we have a toilet that flushes. My hero.

And now, we're off to buy some toilet lid locks and an industrial size can of shaving cream with a lid so large it won't even fit in the toilet bowl.

I'll probably need several more showers before I feel clean.