Scorching the World

While everyone was here from Thursday through Sunday, our sewer system got backed up. Too much load, I guess. It was pretty inconvenient, but at least Marc's lake house is just around the corner, so we were able to go there to use the bathroom and shower. Still, there's only one bathroom there, and at times there were 28 people here. Usually a parent would gather  up all his/her children and load them in the car instead of walking through the cold, to go there use the facilities. It was a little inconvenient, but better than asking some neighbor if all 28 of us can use their toilets and showers! Some of the kids commented that they would not give our accommodations five stars this time! Anyway, Sunday Tom called a plumber and he said he'd be there by 1pm. Unfortunately, he didn't show up, so Tom called and they promised to send someone on Monday morning. Fortunately, he was right on time, but unfortunately he hadn't understood that Tom said it was the main sewer ...

12/27/15           Tanya and family slept at Marc’s house even though Marc and Alissa left Saturday for home because they planned to go to Tahoe on Sunday. Trina had stayed with us, along with the McGill kids. Tami and Phil had gone home so they could work on their rental on Sunday. We did manage to get everyone dressed and fed and out of the house by shortly after 8am – which is pretty amazing, especially considering we couldn’t use the bathrooms! Church was really good, and I was so happy to have to of our kids and their families with us. After church we hurried home because the plumber was due. We fed the kids a snack to hold them over till dinner was ready, then we made turkey enchiladas. It took a long time, but Tanya and Trina helped. We made 3 cookie sheets full, and they were delicious! They all got eaten in record time! Tanya and family left in the evening, and settled down to watch a few programs on tv that Trina ha...

12/26                Everyone but Ryan and Anitta spent the night on Christmas night and Saturday night, so we basically partied all weekend.   Saturday morning we made a big breakfast for everyone, and I had planned snacks and goodies for all the in-between meal time. Unfortunately, I underestimated how much the kids would eat, so I was glad Trina and Alissa had brought food to share, too.  There was only one problem   - our sewer system got backed up, so we had to go to Marc’s house, which is just around the corner, to use the bathroom. That was pretty inconvenient, but we were sure glad we had a solution to what might have been a way worse problem. Tom   called a plumber, but nobody could come till Sunday afternoon. Still, we passed the day playing, talking, doing music, and I don’t know what else, but the day flew by. Ryan called in the afternoon and said they were coming up, so ...

We spent the night at Trina’s so we got to watch them unwrap their gifts. Trina had also included a stocking for us, so that was a fun surprise. They really got the kids some fun things that Tom and I didn’t even know existed. Actually Ravenna and Spencer had bought really fun things for the kids that we didn’t know existed. Trina mostly bought clothes, so I’m sure the kids love having older siblings who have jobs and don’ t mind spending their money on presents. It was fun. When it was done, we had breakfast, and then Tom and I started trying to assemble the trampoline, with Chris and Spencer helping. It took more than a couple of hours, but they were really happy to have it and jumped for a while. It was our intention to give them something to get them out of the house and away from the computers and I think we were successful. As fast as we could after that we headed home and got there before others started arriving – around 4pm. That’s when we gave all our kids our prese...

12/24                Marc and Alissa left on Tuesday so Marc could go to work Wednesday, but they had scheduled a carpet installer to come to their lake house between 8am and 11am. We agreed to wait to leave long enough to let them in. We waited till about 9:30, which is about how long it took us to load the car and get ready. When they hadn’t come yet, Alissa called and said maybe we could just leave the front door unlocked, and she would advise the installers to just lock it when they left. So we took off and went to Trina’s for our Christmas Eve activities. We had bought Trina’s family a used trampoline for Christmas, so we had Draven, who we had picked up on the way, to help us carry it all the pieces of it quietly to their back yard where they wouldn’t see it until Christmas, then we went in and started helping Trina get ready for all the family that was coming. We cooked and cleaned and by the time peop...

12/23                We accidentally left the light on in my Miata because the light in the garage was turned on, so we didn’t notice it. The next time we tried to drive it, on Sunday morning when we’re trying to hurry, the battery was completely dead. We decided to worry about it later and took another car to church. On Monday Tom looked for jumper cables, and realized ours are in our storage in Madera. Ugg! So on Tuesday when Marc and Alissa came to visit, we borrowed theirs. SO, on Wednesday when Tom needed to drive a good enough distance to really re-charge the battery, we went out to try to jump it.  Unfortunately, you have to turn on the motor before you can take the car out of ‘park’, and with the car in the garage all the way, there was no way to get to the front of the car to be able to jump it. Ugg! So Tom went to work and we decided to work on it later. In the late afternoon when he go...