Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Easter Sunday

This year we have church from 1-4pm. That gets you weird reactions from non-member friends/family. As if spending three hours in church every Sunday isn't enough to get you labeled "Ned Flanders," the fact that you spend three hours in the afternoon certainly does the trick.

My parents and my sister's family were coming over for dinner. We wanted to eat a relatively early dinner, so we planned on 4:30. I gave my security code to my dad so they could all get in the house, as they were arriving around 2:30 or 3:00.

I rounded up the kids after church and loaded them into the car. Anne had left a few minutes earlier to go help out at home. When I got home, this is the peaceful Easter Sunday scene with which I was presented:

My brother-in-law and neices cheering on an NCAA game.

My dad, in the bathroom, re-attaching the toilet to the floor.

Ahh, yes, just another peaceful Easter.

So why, you ask, had my dad taken the toilet apart? Well, there's a story behind that one.

The previous Sunday when I got the kids from Primary, the boys were holding tongue depressors. When we got home, they were running around with the tongue depressors and I finally thought to ask... you know, what's with the sticks, guys?

The answer I got was something like this... "The whale ate Jonah! ... " (excited chatter, talking over one another) "Say 'ahhh' Mr. Whale!"

Okay, so that explains the tongue depressors. Anyway, they ran downstairs to play/continue chasing each other with tongue depressors while we got dinner ready. A few minutes later we heard the toilet flush.

And of course, it was a tongue depressor that had been flushed. And now the toilet was clogged. Which is a real bummer, because out of all the toilets in the house, this is the one that flushes properly (coincidentally, it's also the only one our builder didn't install--we had a private plumber finish this bathroom).

Now I like to fancy myself as a "Mr. Fix It", but when it comes to plumbing, and more specifically, toilets, I want nothing to do with it. Really. Plumbers are expensive, and you know what? They earn and deserve every penny they make.

So the toilet was jammed with a tongue depressor, and I figured I'd get around to finding a solution. My dad said he had a "snake" and he figured he could fix the problem. Oops, he left the snake at the beach last summer, no go.

Fine, I'll call a plumber. I just hadn't had the time to do that.

And so on Easter Sunday, my dad figured he could fix the problem while I was at church. One thing led to another, and he ended up having to unbolt the toilet from the floor. My brother-in-law, momentarily summoned from his basketball game to lend a hand, was completely grossed out.

And now I see the blessings of attending three hours of church! Just look at what I missed!

I tried paying my dad, even wrote out a check. He wouldn't take it, though he certainly earned every penny.

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