Stalked by the Stork...a diary of raising 10 kids

This is the weekend of home repair hell. Seriously, I know this will be good for a laugh (just not from me quite yet) We started the weekend with the very real intention of not doing much at all but staying in and getting caught up on everything in the house. And that's a lot of stuff. We planned that other than Manny's basketball games and church, there would be no other outings, as otherwise we just keep putting things off.
So, yesterday we go to Emanuel's games. He did awesome, despite being injured in the second game. He was limping around the court, and I of course wanted to run out to him and make sure he was okay, but my husband said that if I did, I couldn't come to anymore games! Something about boys being tough and that it would embarrass him if I stopped the game to check his knee. Sure enough, though he was still trying to shake it off at halftime, he played hard and when at the half, he came over to us and we asked him about it he shrugged and said "It hurts, but no big deal." He plays really aggressive, and in fact fouled out of the game in the 4th quarter. To his defense, because he's a good defensive player, they match him against boys that are twice his size, which forces him to play more aggressive and sometimes too much contact gets made. Plus, add to that that he plays all sports with a football mentality (I mean American football Tonya, in case you're saying "Huh?")
Anyhow, we get home and notice a burning type smell in the houes. We search everyone, but can't figure out where it's comming from. When we check the laundry room, the smell intensifies so we're pretty sure thats the origin. But, there is noting we can see. Nothing sparking, nothing hot. Nothing. We finally determine that the smell is comming from the wall or the light fixture. oh joy. Then last night we decide to switch out our old fridge with the new one we bought last month that has been sitting out in the garage (we didn't buy it new, but from someone who was moving to an apartment that already had one and she needed to get rid of hers since she couldn't store it) So, we take all the food out of the old one, clean out both fridges, start to load up the new one- and notice that the new one was feeling...rather hot. Burning hot in fact. Okay, so Albert unpluggs it and we re-pack the old fridge and now have two fridges in our kitchen! Oh joy again. When we wake up first thing this morning, we discover that #1 the sink is clogged on the non-disposable side, #2 the dishwasher is clogged (the older kids loaded it after dinner and I swear they dont even bother to rinse food off the plates...they would load a Thanksgiving turkey in the dishwasher if they thought they could get by with it). And #3, the downstairs toilet wouldn't flush properly. Our family (and Debi's) have more toilet problems than I can count. I don't think we ever have 3 cosecutive days without their being some type of toilet issue. Ever.
Often its related to what toy (or whose toothbrush) Brice has attempted to flush. Or perhaps a bathroom was out of toilet tissue and instead of getting more, our little darlings just shrugged and wiped with paper towells, baby wipes, or newspaper. I have no idea. But we have LOTS of toilet problems...
So, Albert fixed the plumming issues, cleaned out the fan in the new fridge (new-to-us fridge) and so far so good. It's a lovely day outside (though windy) so cleaning has been suspended so the boys can play outside for a bit. Then its back to the pits! Hopefully at the end of the weekend (we're off tomorrow as well) we'll have a decent house again!
Today is my Mom's birthday!!! She had a party last night with several of her friends. She sounded a bit "tired" this morning! LOL. I think my sisters were taking her out to breakfast.Did I mention how it stinks to be here, away from all of them. Albert and I talk all the time about how if we won the lottery, we'd move to Tennessee to be with them. Then get a vacation house in California so we could visit Albert's Dad all the time. And a vacation house in Florida just because...oh wishful thinking. But the reality is, since we're going to have enough chidren to field a major leage ball club, we probably need to stay right here where we have a decent size house with a reasonable mortgage that we actually have a shot at having paid down by the time we retire.
Anyway, Albert is cooking ribs on the grill right now. His ribs are the best ever! Sorry Dad, your's are pretty close! Since, I'm pretty sure my Dad isn't reading this, I think I'm in the clear.
Mom, that doesn't mean for you to instruct Dad to log on now. Ha ha. For those of you who are wondering, the joke is that I called my Dad (who is only in the country a few weeks out of the year and is very busy at work) to tell him about the blog and when I told him that I updated it all the time so he would always be able to see pics and read stories about the kids he said "awww, hon, I won't have time to look at that when I'm at work...too busy" This is so typical of my Dad. Not in a bad way, just the way he is. Shall I mention that during football season he wakes up in the middle of the night and has a driver bring him to the office to watch football on his computer??? Okay, now before you all think badly, my dad is a wonderful person. He loves all of us enormously, he 's just funny with stuff like that. And sometimes he says stuff without realizing how it sounds (and my Mom and sisters and I laugh it off becuase we know its just "him).
Okay, off to go watch my boys play Wii. It sounds like they're having a blast...then we must return to CLEANING!
love,
angela