Cold Spaghetti

After a morning in the pool, Paul goofs around with Will on the porch.

Last night, Paul, Will and I drove to Mobile for some R&R. My parents are coming for the 4th of July weekend, so I am staying here for the week and not going back with Paul Sunday night. (Now that we are a one car family, we have to rely on rides; I can’t just take a car and go anymore!)

My professor is out of town for a few days so I’m not immediately needed for face time on campus, so I am here to save money on babysitting and get some work done. Also, Emily and Skip are coming Monday for a few days, so I wanted to be here so that Will (and I!) could spend time with them helping with final wedding details. We are looking forward to having a small (surprise!) shower for Skip and Emily when they get here!! (The original plan was to do it Sunday night while Paul was here, but they unfortunately had car problems and had to postpone a day.) We’re now on Plan B and are excited about getting to see them. Will is also excited; he has been happily saying “Aunt Emily” (more like “Ah-E-Lee”) for a few days now.

10:30am this morning.

Will waits for us by the gate for our evening walk, after dinner on Friday.

Will tells us about the great dinner he’s eating!

Oh my goodness, that’s SO FUNNY!

Will made our day yesterday afternoon.

After lunch, Will and I went into the front room to play. Will climbed into my chair, and was very quiet, with a concentrated look to his face. He made a sort of grunt and cried out, then was silent and concentrated again. I walked over to him. But before I could say anything, he looked up at me and said, “Mom-mee, Poo-pee.”

“Really? You have a poopie? Let me check.”

What a happy surprise — poopie!!

“Hooray, Will! You DID make a poopie! AND you told Mommy!”

Will made a poopie, then he TOLD me about it! A seriously red-letter day in our house!

Here is the status of our side yard yesterday afternoon. (Our house is to the left; the new house being built by our future neighbors is to the right.) The pipe to the left (with the spouts connected to it) leads to the storm drain on the street. As you can see, we are also connected to it. The workmen hooked us up with the storm drain so that we, too, have a direct line. It was very nice of them and we are quite thankful. (Paul brought out cold water bottles and spent time chatting with them over the past few days; I made cookies.) Hooking us up to the storm drain is seriously helping us with potential draining problems in part caused by the construction next door, so we are happy.

The pipe to the right is a *sewer* pipe. It probably should have gone underneath the storm drain, since it needs some slope for obvious reasons. As the picture shows, once covered, it will sit only a few inches from the surface of the ground. (Watch out, landscapers!) This sewer line is for a toilet in the “cabana building” built on the back of the property, by the pool. That toilet sits on a slab of concrete, so there isn’t a lot of room for this pipe to be properly graded. And since it’s so long, it could take awhile for any problems to show up (we’re assuming some clean outs will be installed along the way.) Let’s hope it’s enough!

Will, falling asleep while waiting for bath time.