An Unlikely Source of Inspiration

It's not usually tough for me to think of a topic for this blog. My life usually presents at least three possible blog topics each day. But lately, I've come up short whenever I've sat down to write something. It's not that we haven't been busy... we've actually been crazy busy. Maybe that's the problem. At any rate, I've finally been inspired to write something. If you watch any home decorating shows, you know designers always talk about their "inspiration" piece, the one thing that inspires them to decorate a whole room. It's much the same with this blog. Today, my source of inspiration is this toilet:

This, however, is no ordinary toilet. It is a right-height, elongated, comfortable toilet. Or so the box promises. The official color is bisquit, it cost way too much money and it is guaranteed to flush just about anything. I sure wish our last toilet would have had that guarantee. You see, there is a very good reason that we have this brand new toilet in the boys' bathroom. I have yet to use it, but I've heard it's very nice.

I will give you a hint. The reason behind this new state-of-the-art toilet has curls, a killer smile, and her name starts with an "L" and ends with a "izzy". Yes. We have Lizzy to thank for this toilet.

Several weeks ago Brad noticed that the toilet in the boys' bathroom wasn't flushing well. I had no idea, because I really try to avoid that bathroom at all costs. We have three bathrooms: one is mine, one is Lexi's/laundry, and the other is the boys'. The boys' bathroom is also sort of Lizzy's, because it is the only bathroom with a bathtub. Anyway, Brad is not a plumber, but he tried his very best to fix the old toilet. He spent about $75 on new plumbing tools that should have unclogged it. We even paid Jake to stick his skinny little hands down the toilet. He got a dollar just for putting his hand in there and $5 for everything he pulled out. He only managed to find a tiny little screw.

After weeks of not using the toilet (Jake made a condemned sign for the toilet to remind himself not to use it) and when the air plunger didn't work, we finally decided to buy a new toilet. Still determined to find out what was in the old one, Brad put the snake in one last time after he took it out of the bathroom. He got pieces of Ivory soap. Apparently a whole bar of soap was lodged in the toilet. You would think that would dissolve, but it never did.

So, thanks to Lizzy, who is just now getting interested in potty training, we have a brand new toilet. We have learned our lesson, and watch her like a hawk whenever she goes near the toilet. I have caught her headed toward the new toilet with toys, and fortunately have snagged them before they took a swim.

It's amazing to me though, that this has never happened before. Jake used to love to empty out the fridge (at one point I had a lock on the fridge!) and Lexi loved to sit on the toilet. But neither of them ever flushed anything down the toilet, especially not a bar of soap! I wonder if this is a sign of what the next 17 years with Lizzy will be like?