A Bumper Crop of White Paint

Mrs. Alva is one of the absolute sweetest people God has ever placed on this earth. Her driveway, however, is pure evil. (see diagram)

Ellen, Anne, & I went to see Mrs. Alva the other day. Ellen drove. The visit was great despite the fact that Anne whispered to me the entire hour. :P It got time to leave so we got our Mrs. Alva hugs and left. Ellen had to move the van halfway through the visit and ended up parking here. (see diagram)

Now along this treacherous driveway is a cute little white fence. (see diagram)

Here's how things went......

Anne: ::incessant talking::

Ellen: (working on backing the van up) This isn't working. I'm about to hit the fence.

Anne:: chatter

Emily: Turn the wheel like this ::mimics rotating the wheel in the air after contemplating carefully::

Ellen: Arghhh

Anne: chatter

Emily: Anne ::full name:: no more talking till we get to the main road.

Anne: Emily ::full name:: What's the main road?

Emily: Anne

Anne: WHAT'S THE MAIN ROAD???

Ellen: Argghhh

::Bump::

::Scrape::

Ellen: Unhhh

Emily: It's ok.... just pull back up.... straighten up...

Anne: What's the main road????

Emily & Ellen: ANNE!!

So, we make it to the Pig, Ellen gets out to go in, but takes a glance at the bumper beforehand. The face says it all.

We make it home and look at the front bumper.... oh ho..... we should have taken a picture.... a huge white paint scrape from the front left of the bumper down the side of it.

We go inside. Mom's there. Ellen starts this... "everything's ok..." which just freaks Mom out more. Mom tells Ellen that Ellen is responsible for telling Dad.

Ellen & I get old towels, wet them down, and start to work on cleaning the paint off the bumper. It works quite well actually. We then make a sign for the door which reads "No farm animal zone. Thanks, The Children"

See, whenever something like this happens we state that the parent is going to have a farm animal and the child will be responsible for its care.

Dad comes home, walks through the house, finally returns to the living room where we are all awaiting the reveal. (I even got up from my nap to see this!!)

Ellen: So, how was work?

The rest except for Dad: ::snicker::

Dad: It was ok.

Ellen: Can I get you anything?

Dad: catches on that something is up

Ellen: Mountain Dew?

Dad: I had one on the way home thanks.

snickering continues

Nathan: Perhaps I could dust your head? (from Cool Runnings)

snickering increases

Emily: So we went to Mrs. Alva's today

Mom loses it

Ellen: She was doing good.

Emily: Her fence is too.

Mom continues to lose it

The situation is explained.... Dad walks out and, even though the man has been told that the paint was only on the front left bumper, he walks to the back of the van first without even looking at the front bumper. Nathan and I watch from the safety of the house. Ellen doubles over laughing or bemoaning Dad's reaction... not sure. Dad finally comes back to the front of the van and inspects.

After they get back in the "maybe this will make you more careful" "I am careful" discussion ensues.

Good times, good times.