Poop Trucks and Potty Talk

Today was my official last day to play with my boys.  Tomorrow I have some things to finish up in my room and need to go to the university to get my books and my classes straightened out.  It was in the upper 80's here, warm and humid and my cousin Sally had invited the boys and me to visit her at our family camp on Sebec Lake, so I packed up some food, some bathing suits and the boys and we headed out to camp.

When we got to camp, Sally mentioned that the septic system was overflowing and she had to call the septic service people to come pump the tank and help us figure out what was wrong with the system.  As we pulled into the driveway, you could smell the raw sewage.  What a lovely odor!  Not exactly the pines, cedars and wildflowers I'm used to smelling as we pull into the camp driveway.  The boys immediately identified the odor and instead of being repulsed by it, they were fascinated as to the the whereabouts of the source of the stench.  We got out of the car and they went to the side of the camp with Sally's husband Rick to investigate the hole that had been dug to reveal the overflowing septic system.  "Ewww!!" was the thought in my head.  "Cool!!!!" was what the boys were thinking.  Danny asked me what it was and I told him that it was the hole where our poop and pee went after we flushed it from the camp.  Danny then took one look at it and said,  "Mama, I really have to go.  Can I just pee right into the hole?"  I should have let him do it, but the thought of it...  I made him go in the woods behind a tree.  Not really much better, but it just seemed, well, cleanlier to me.

We got unpacked and got into our bathing suits and waited for the Honey Truck, a.k.a. the Poop Truck to pull into the driveway.  After a few hours in came the HUGE truck from the Septic Service.  I wish I could remember the logo on the side of the truck but it was something like "Can't flush...We will rush."  Out jumped the driver/poop technician who happened to share the name of my youngest son, Danny.  Danny was a very personable man, but incredibly desensitized to the environmental conditions of his job.  With his bare hands, he popped the line off his truck and plunged it into our tank.  Within a matter of seconds the already overwhelming odor was, well, pungent and powerful.  Sally and I were both very grateful that we had not eaten lunch yet.  The boys, Rick included, were fascinate.  Danny looked at me and said "I'm so glad we came here.  Poop and  big truck.  Life is great."

We watched as the elder Danny pumped our septic system out and then helped Rick identify the possible problems.   Every few minutes, we had to go back and check on the poop problem.   The issue is not solved yet, but will be in a few days.

Okay, I don't know what it is with boys and potty talk.  The septic system experience seemed to create an atmosphere conducive to potty talk for the rest of the day.  Tooting, farting, pooping and peeing became an even more popular topic of discussion than normal in our home.  As we were sitting beside the lake, Sally told a story of a friend's two year old who went into a posh restaurant and was running around calling himself "Captain Poopy Pants".  Guess what Joey declared as his superhero name for the rest of the day.  I just pray he will forget about it by the time he goes to school on Wednesday.  Joey also decided to quote from an episode of SpongeBob.  It goes like this, "If you want to make a crabby-patty, you must first understand the word POOP.  People Order Our Patties."  The conversations went on like this for several hours.

For the rest of the day, the three men of the family continued to discuss the poop issues, had a fair amount of potty talk, went fishing, built a campfire and did some "guy" things.  It was so good to see my boys being boys, enjoying life, grunting, farting (sorry Sally), burping, grilling meet over an open flame and just loving life.  I can't say that potty talk and fishing are my favorite activities, but in the car on the ride home, my boys could not stop talking about their day.  Some days, like today, I wonder why God gave me boys.  It probably will take me a while to figure that one out, but each day, I praise God for my rough, tumble, potty talking young boys.  I'm praying that I can give them the opportunities to have adventures like today and at the same time help them to turn into polite gentlemen one day.  Please pray for God to give me wisdom as to how to best raise my boys to be polite, respectful men.

Thank you Rick and Sally for having us up and for creating an exciting and adventurous day for us on our last official day of summer vacation.