what is that awful smell?

It started mid-week......a "just a little off smell. I thought it was the small bag of potatoes that we brought from Savannah. Somehow they got out of the bag and were rolling all around the van. Bubba retrieved them Thursday afternoon to make mashed potatoes to go with our roast.

By this morning the smell had gotten unbearable, especially in the back around Eli's seat. When we reached our destination I told Amanda that we had to empty the van and find the source of our constenation.......we couldn't take it any more.

We decided it must be either a forgotten dirty diaper or a random rotten potato. So we searched under the seats and in all of the nooks and crannies to find absolutely nothing.

Bubba had bought Amanda a small, flat-topped ice chest to sit on between the two back seats to feed Eli and take care of the boys on our long trips. She teeters quite a bit, but it gets the job done.

When we left Savannah a week ago Friday Amanda had put some of Jake's fresh chicken in the ice chest with a cold pack. This morning we both remembered it at the same time........"it's the chicken."

I told Amanda to get the chest but not to open it in the van. She opened it anyway and slammed it shut at the speed of light. Then she started gagging in the parking lot. She came very close to vomiting right then and there.

I grabbed the chest and walked to the nearest trash can to dispose of the wretchedness that had produced the awful smell. When I returned to the van Amanda was still reeling from the encounter with the chicken and the babies were oblivious to the whole awful scene.

When we got home, Bubba was working with the garbage disposal. After lunch he cleaned the kitchen and put the remains of his meal in the machine to be ground up into oblivion. The thing was chugging at low speed barely able to function.

He turned it off and put his hand in to see what the problem was.......one baby washcloth and three lemon quarters were gumming up the works.

We have all lost it.....we have gone over the edge.

Bubba will leave on Monday morning to take Amanda, Jake, and Eli back to Louisville. I will stay here to make plans to enter rehab. Bubba may join me when he returns.