Thanksgiving.... he he he...

Ahh, It is about time that I sat down to post. We have been busy at our house lately. So let's start with a great story.
My parents came in for Thanksgiving. We were so excited to have them. And the day before they got here, I had a brilliant idea to fix the toilet downstairs that was making a horrible noise and spraying out the back and down the wall/back of the tank. I looked up how fix it on eHow... (a great resource), bought my toilet innards, and went to work. I unhooked a bunch of things, took the tank off, shut off water, replaced the parts that needed replacing, put everything back together, turned the water on, and voila... the toilet did all that it was supposed to do. Except it was leaking from the two bolts that attach the tank to the bowl. I decided that they must not be on there tight enough (I know all of you plumbing geniuses out there are cringing now... I am cringing too!!). I got out my trusty wrench and started tightening those bolts. I tightened and tightened and tightened until I heard a CRACK.... Oh yes, I managed to crack the toilet tank... Drat...

Enter me being SUPER apologetic to Mike. I thought that I could practically be a plumber, and I failed miserably. Mike decided to call a neighbour and have him help with the toilet in the morning (the day that my parents were coming in, and the day that Mike had his last Notre Dame football game...) Mike ran to a local Home Depot type store to get a new tank/and or toilet. (our fixtures are all almond colored, which also complicates things A LOT). He came back with a big box, and brought it in. We noticed that the box only said BOWL. He had brought home the bottom part of the toilet. AAHHHH!!!!

Just before the neighbour got here, we decided that we would use the tank from our upstairs toilet for the basement (it was too hard to match bolts, and colors etc.) and then replace the upstairs toilet because it was needing it badly anyways.
Enter dear neighbour. He helped Mike with the toilet upstairs, since we were replacing the whole thing, they took it off of it's spot, only to find that the flange was completely corroded, Metal that was as crumbly as sand. We could not install the new toilet up there until we got something new to bolt the tank down to... Mike is supposed to be at the game in like two hours at this point, so they shoved a rag in the hole, and I made an appointment with the plumbers. Now we have NO working toilets in our house. The girls were quite concerned about this fact, what happens when nature calls? I think Mike must have made some very funny wilderness comment, and we went on our merry way. Only to find out later that the girls had made themselves a "secret potty" outside in a cardboard box... I am really hoping that it is disintigrated by the time that winter is over... I am a little frightened of what I will find in there... EEWWW!!!

They decided to take the tank off of the upstairs toilet, only to find that the bolts had corroded, and basically fused the whole thing together. In order to have at least one toilet that worked while my parents were here, Mike and the neighbour made one more trip to the store, bought the matching tank to the bowl Mike had bought that morning, and another toilet to go upstairs when we had something to bolt it to.

Literally when Mike had to be out the door, they got the downstairs toilet installed, and working like a charm. So for the first couple of days that my parents were here, we had just one working toilet. It was not until my dad helped Mike on Monday that we got the one upstairs installed. Thank you Dad.. You are brilliant. It was so wonderful to be a two toilet family again. Oh, and did I mention that the Thursday before my family came I took my van in to get a tune up and ready for winter, and they found a couple of things that needed to be taken care of, and I did not have a vehicle until Monday afternoon.

One more funny toilet story. My mom and I ran to the store to get some things ( remember I did not have a van for a couple of days before they got here, and that was what I was planning on doing...) On the way home I gave Colton one of those cheese and breadstick handy pack cracker things, and he enjoyed them immensely. We got Colton out of the car, and were letting him run around the garage while we unloaded our stuff. Colton spys the OLD toilets in the garage and notices that they have just a bit of leftover water in the bowls... He takes his nifty breadsticks, which are designed for dipping, and allows them to fulfill the measure of their creation. And the look of horror on my poor mom's face when she sees him munching on the now soggy breadstick was priceless.. I will have you all know though, my kids almost NEVER get sick... We build immunity.

The rest of the visit was wonderful. We had a such a good time. The kids and Grandpa went to Happy Hours at Sonic everyday for slushies. Grandpa was amused at how well Colton could drain his. We went up to Warren Dunes to the beach, and had a lovely time until I managed to skip a rock into Maddie's head. (It was a small one... and I fired myself from rock skipping, just like I fired myself from plumbing). We played Rock Band... I mean, we watch Madison sing while everyone else played Rock Band. We had two of my darling sisters here and one of my wonderful brother-in-laws. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner complete with the most "unique" gravy I think that I have ever had. (it had noodles in it.... he he he -Mom, I still love you!!! And what a great memory) Played some games, watched some chic flicks and football. Mike injected my dad again, and took him to a couple of Notre Dame basketball games and a hockey game. And we even attempted a Black Friday shopping trip at the outlet malls... HOLY PEOPLE. It was insane, and we ended up not buying anything... Except we stopped on the way home and got a pumpkin pie, and some bullion for new gravy.

We miss everyone, and now life has settled into the chaos that is December. We are excited for Christmas, when my sister and brother-in-law come to visit us again. It is fun to have family at holidays.. Hopefully we can continue that in the future.