I Had This Coming!!!

I have learned that sometimes in life, you just have to wave the white flag and surrender. Today was one of those such days for me. For my 38 followers, (maybe sometime I will hit the vast number of 4o followers who actually waste their time reading these posts) you will remember my recent post where I recounted, with pride non the less, my practical joke that I played on my son Andrew. Last night, I was the recipient of a practical joke and I just had to scratch my head, laugh, and admit that I had been "had". From 1996 until 2005 I served as a youth pastor and was also a middle school teacher and coach for a large portion of that time. Needless to say, that over the years there have been numerous instances of mischief intended for my house, and I will admit that I have participated in my fair share of yard rolling, forking and other various forms of tomfoolery!

Last night, as is my usual habit, at around 10:oopm I let my dogs outside for the last time of the evening before laying down to watch Everyone Loves Raymond, which is one of my favorite shows. I turned on my floodlights for my mother-in-law because she was driving down from Murfreesboro and was suppose to arrive between 11:30 and midnight. This is not an unusual time for her to drive down since my father-in-law works 3rd shift. She will typically leave her house when he leaves for work and just drive down to our house. I am usually asleep well before she arrives so and she lets herself in with little fan fair. Our dogs (we have two dachshunds who are inside dogs) may bark or growl, but it is nothing like they normally do whenever someone knocks on our door. When this happens, they tend to go berserk running and barking. For some reason, they did this last night. I was in the middle of a dead sleep when they launched themselves into this fury. I awoke very startled and disoriented as to what time it actually was. I quickly went running to the front door not even thinking about what I would do if there was an actual intruder in my house. I soon recognized what was happening and proceeded to quiet the dogs down, but not before they had created enough noise and commotion to wake everyone up anyone within 50 yards of my house. Sherry (my mother-in-law) quickly asked me "Sean, why is there furniture in your yard?" to which I replied, "What are you talking about? There is no furniture in my yard!" in a rather agitated tone. It was around 12:15am and cold so I was not in the mood for silliness. After my reply to her question she said, "Well, there is a toilet with a lamp shade in your yard out by the road." I stepped outside into the cold to vaguely see the outline of several pieces of what looked like junk in my yard. The things were located right at the edge of where my floodlights reached so it was not clear exactly what I was seeing. I was furious. My first thought was that someone had dumped their garbage in my yard. My children and I have taken the responsibility of cleaning up our road, and for whatever reason, people like to throw trash on the side of the road. This really should not bother me, but for some reason it does. I complained about it for years and about two years ago decided to quit complaining and be a part of the solution and not just complain. At least once a week I, usually with the help of at least one child will pick up the trash on my road. I went back to bed and tried to go back to sleep but tossed and turned thinking about the idiots who thought they would be funny and throw their trash into the yard of the guy who picks up their trash. I kept playing over how I was going to handle the situation in the morning. I had full intentions of calling the police and reporting this nonsense. I also planned to look over this trash to see if I could determine whose junk this was. It took me a good 30 minutes to get back to sleep. I was up well before my alarm still fuming about it. I got ready, and proceeded to get my flashlight to begin using my Sherlock Holmes investigation skills. Of course, as soon as I turned on my flashlight it died. So I had to go find new batteries and replace them. Once I got outside, I found something completely different than what I was expecting and I just had to laugh. I quickly realized that this was not someones junk or garbage, but rather a well played practical joke in which someone had but a LOT of time and effort into pulling off. As you can see by the pictures, not only was there a toilette with a lamp shade, there was a bookshelf that had trophies, a black and white TV, and books on it with a UT pom-pom, a carpet with a table that had a phone, calculator, several books and magazines (a Better Homes and Gardens, which was a nice touch!) with a bowl full of cornflakes that also had Skittles and Mike & Ikes in them. This was a rather strange mixture, but seemingly fit right in with the other strange things that were now put together in my yard! There were also two chairs, and another cart looking table that had another lamp (with lampshade) on it. To top it off, there was a VERY used toilette that had a stuffed platypus on it that was just hilarious looking.
It did not take me long to create a suspect lists and the perpetrators were quickly identified. I knew by the creativity put into this project that girls had to be behind this! There was WAY too much preparation involved for a guy! They would have just bought toilette paper and rolled the yard. The funny thing is that ALL of them (that I currently know of) are former BBS students. I also had the privilege of working with these students when they were seniors in high school when I was interim youth pastor at Brainerd Baptist Church. I can admit that I have been had...but I am already planning my rebuttal! If any of you would like to help me by suggesting how I can get the proper revenge, I would love to hear your suggestions!


A close up view of my new man cave!

The view from my sidewalk

I thought I would strike a pose on the "throne"