Family Life with Eleven Kids!

99.9999% complete

2008-08-29T10:01:00.002-04:00

From the family room

From the kitchen closet

From the garage door

A close look at the island

Hang'm High

2008-08-11T10:16:00.005-04:00

Windows put back (thanks Steve O and Papi)

After we got the windows all situated, it was time to start hanging cabinets (thanks Eric and Papi). Below are updated pictures.

View from the family room TV

View from the garage door.

View from the entry from the living room

Paint the town....yellow?

2008-08-07T07:47:00.009-04:00

Well Christina, Jack, Andrew and I put the final coat of paint on the ceiling and the kitchen walls in preparation for installing the cabinets.

Don't be fooled by the other kids in the background...they didn't help at all that night!

Also, I had to include the picture below which Elizabeth sent me. It's a picture made by a photo booth at Chuck-E-Cheese. Stephen's smile is so funny.

Walk the walk...see the progress (updated 8/3/08)

2008-08-03T09:25:00.005-04:00

30 sec walk through on 7/21/08

30 sec walk through on 7/25/08

30 sec walk through on 8/2/08

Demolitious (update 8/6/08)

2008-07-30T22:19:00.020-04:00

July 19th, demolition day. Betty and I got up early and rented the tile buster at Home Depot then we arrived home at 8am to get set up for the big day. We had previously had a large city dumpster delivered to collect the waste we created and when I saw it I thought, "man, that's big, I don't think we'll fill that up". Well, I was wrong, we filled it. Notice the glove on the side of the dumpster in this photo, it's huge. Anyway, we finished and then started working on the remodeling. Here are a series of photo's from different locations in the house.

Picture from the Kitchen sink toward the dining room

These photo's are from the entry door from the garage.

These are pictures from the family room where the TV hangs.

These are from our master bedroom door

These are from the front door.

4 days in a wind tunnel

2008-06-21T17:13:00.010-04:00

After the second disaster, we decided it was time to call the insurance company. Thinking we wouldn't get far with the insurance company, due to the fact that my brilliance caused the wash out, we found out that we were covered and would be able to recover a lot of the cost to replace the damaged goods. The first step was to bring in Airescue. They come in and attempt to dry out your home. Two men, two high capacity blowers, two high capacity dehumidifiers and two large holes in our walls was all it would take. After preparing the area they kicked on the fans and dehumidifiers.

Has anyone ever been to MOSI in Tampa and experience the simulated hurricane winds? That's what our house sounded and felt like for over 4 days! At first, we'd try to talk to each other and then we'd be shouting and still you couldn't hear each other. We were continually tempted to turn them off but they had to run constantly. We eventually got used to the noise and proceeded with life. Betty and I actually started enjoying not being able to hear the kids screaming it the next room. And, after continuing to work on the roof, it was nice to come down and stand in front of the blower and cool off.

After allowing the roof to dry, Betty's dad, Michael, Andrew and I started replacing the roof. It started out nice in the morning, then around 10:30 it started to get hot, then it got hotter, until it was like working in molten lava. We finally got the main roof down and all that remained was the shingle line across both roofs. I decided then that I would only work up to 10:30 and then in the late afternoon when shade covered the roof. That first day, Betty's dad took off work to help out. He worked hard and was a big help but the sun got the best of him and he decided that living another day was better than helping his son-in-law. Michael, Andrew and I continued until the last shingle was paced.

A cloud with my name on it

2008-06-20T12:15:00.007-04:00

So, as you may have heard, we had a lot of damage to our home, mainly in the kitchen, due to one rain cloud that decided to stall over our house for 15 minutes. The day before the catastrophe, the kids and I removed our flat roof. Not a small task, it measures 600 square feet. We worked all day removing the asphalt material, felt, some shingles and then replaced the damaged wood.

It's amazing what you find when you start tearing apart houses. The roof had apparently been re-surfaced before and instead of replacing rotted wood, they just tried to patch it up. Well, guess where the leaks were, right, directly below the areas where they did their nasty patch work. We worked through the day and finally got the roof ready for it's new surface. We didn't see a cloud all day, as a mater of fact we were praying for clouds to give us some shade but to no avail. The chance of rain was 10% so I opted not to spend the $150 on a tarp to cover the roof, we'd get up there the next day and surface it.

Sunday we got up for Mass and I checked the radar and the sky looked clear, not active Doppler that I could see. Well, while in Mass the clouds decided to build over my house and only my house. On the way home it started to rain, and rain, and rain. Did you know that AC vents can leak 10 gallons of water per hour? And microwave ovens, connected to the roof vend, can strain water through them at even a higher rate? Did you know that lights, ceiling, and walls are not completely water proof? So I flipped the power to keep our selves from being electrocuted and we started managing water flow. While we were singing in the rain, Betty ran to Home Depot to buy tarps. She got home just after the rain stopped. We continued to clean up the mess and later that day spread out the tarp to cover the roof.

We decided to keep the roof tarped at night then pulling it back during the day to allow it to dry out. We did this Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon Betty had to take kids to Dr. appointments so they left it tarped to protect if from more rain. Well, when she returned, the wind had turned up one corner of the tarp allowing more rain to flow into our home, this time no one was home.

My Nerd Test Results

2008-05-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

Chump Change

2006-08-02T11:10:00.000-04:00

This year's vacation took us back to North Carolina just over the Georgia border. This is our regular vacation destination since the grandparents and my sister's family lives up here.

Fr. Pecchie was on vacation this year with us and he had been giving the little ones extra change from his pocket. From that point on the only question the kids wanted an answer to was "When are we going to the store?"

Therese happend to get a "Georgia" quarter in her mix of change. As Betty and Brianna drove them to the long awaited spending zone in Murphy, NC.

During the ride Lisette kept asking Brianna "Where is Murphy?"

"It's down the road about 20 minutes from here" answered Brianna.

Lisette kept asking "No where is Murphy?", Brianna continued to respond "down the road".

Lisette then clearified the question "Is Murphy in North Carolina or Georgia?"

"North Caroline" responded Brianna.

"Darn Therese" Lisette exclaimed "you won't be able to use that Georgia quarter at the Walmart in Murphy!"

ditto

2006-05-25T19:02:00.000-04:00

We've been blessed with 11 kids. The first eight alternated gender, girl, boy (twins), girl, boy, girl, boy, then girl. Then we had another girl, the first time we've had siblings next to eachother of the same gender. It's been a new experience for us, they are always together. Therese, the younger, copies everything Lisette, the older, does. Every pain Lisette has, Therese has. Everything Lisette want's to eat, Therese wants to eat. Everything Lisette says, Therese tries to say but usually messes up the words. It is so cute.

Well, the other night I was out on the back porch cooking, Lisette was going to the back yard to swing, she turns to me flapping her arms like a chicken and says

"Dad, how come the muscles in my arm pits hurt when I swing on the swing?"

I said "I'm not sure honey"

Two seconds later Therese looks at me, I could see the wheels turing in her head, trying to understand what Lisette asked so she can re-ask the same question, she turns to me and asks

"Yeah, dad, why do the nuckles in my arm pits hurt when I swing on the swing?"

I just smiled and said "I don't know why".

99¢

2006-04-11T15:13:00.000-04:00

Kids don't always understand the value of money but they quickly learn that money has value. In today's advertising world it seems that everything is $19.99 or $39.99 or any amount and 99¢.

One day driving in the van with many kids in the back, Betty and I were discussing our hopes at winning the lottery. We talked about where and how we would spend these millions of dollars we could win.

Just then, Andrew, then about 5, exclaimed "I wish I could win a million dollars ... and 99¢."

Too cute.

2006-04-09T15:00:00.000-04:00

There are many funny and cute situations that occur during everyday life in a large family.

I remember one evening in 1991 I was lying on the floor with my daughter Brianna, then 3 years old, on my lap playing. With my month wide open laughing she peered in and noticed the many fillings in my molars.

Pointing in my mouth she asked "Daddy, what's that?"
I replied "what's what?"
"Those black things in your teeth." she said.
"Those are fillings." I explained.

Thinking I said 'feelings' she tapped her heart with her hand and said "I have feelings too, right here when I cry."

Too cute!