the sprinkler.

we have a neighbor who puts his yard waste on our sprinkler head. i have asked him to stop. clif has asked him to stop. we have both asked him to stop, multiple times. he puts his yard waste on top of the sprinkler head, anyway. in his defense, it is VERY hard to see, and on the property line...but still, those things are a pain to replace, not to mention expensive. so about a month ago, i drive home and what do i see? a LARGE bag of grass, where?! on the sprinkler head!

it had been a challenging day, and it was the straw that broker this camel's back. i pulled up in the car, got out and heaved the bag way into the middle of his yard. i was MAD! aaargh....but then....as i pulled into the garage and took a big deep breath i remembered i was somebody's mother. and furthermore, those somebodies were all in the backseat watching my ugly behavior. uh-oh...this made me sad.

i unbuckled all three sweaty, tired kids (at this point it was still over 100 outside) and said, "mommy acted ugly, and i need to go make it right." so we all hauled ourselves up the hill to ring the neighbor's doorbell.
as i stood on the porch, holding frances in my arms and vivian by the hand, i thought of what i would say (i decided on the nice\innocent\happy approach). finally, he came to the door and i said, "hello. i'm sorry to bother you, but i think your yard waste is on our sprinkler head. it is right on the line and VERY hard to see." he replied, "really? why haven't you mentioned it before? (what?!) would you show it to me?" i said, "sure."

so i put on my happy face and started walking toward the spot to show him (again), i hear vivian, "ohhhhh BAUER!" i turn, and what do i see? my son. pants around his ankles. underwear around his ankles. peeing all over the neighbor's front porch and flower bed. a different kind of sprinkler problem altogether!
seriously. words cannot describe.

"bauer!! sir, i am so sorry, he is recently potty trained! bauer, bauer..."
to which my beautiful son replies, "what?! when you gotta go....you gotta go!"
want to make a bet that man remembers we had a conversation about the sprinkler?! ;)