Well, it's official. Puke Bug has been inducted as a member of the family. We just cannot seem to get rid of him, so we are now just setting him a place at the table.
NOT!!!!!
Saturday morning, I was trying to sleep in a little, but it was not apparently meant to be. Daniel had to go take the ACT test, so Tim got up to take him. There was a small panic when Daniel could not find his wallet with his i.d. in it. We have too many little fingers in this house who like to see what is in it! At any rate, he was able to see that you could take a yearbook with a picture of you and a name in the caption for i.d. Otherwise, he would have not been able to go. We would have both been quite hacked....me, because I have to pay $26 for a stupid test, and Daniel, because he has studied and prepared for this one. The school he goes to has them take it twice to see which score comes up higher. He was supposed to take it back in February, but we had a conflict, so this was the next test date.
So, after getting the men off to the test site, I crawled back in bed. Hannah was not too happy, so we got her another bottle and tried yet again to sleep. In what seemed like just a few more minutes, Sarah woke me up and said that her tummy was hurting. I did not think much about it, because she frequently has tummy aches. She is a very "sensitive" child, which is just another way of saying she is a big baby. If she gets a scratch, she screams like her arm or leg has been cut off. But being the dutiful mother that I am, I got up yet again and accompanied her to the bathroom. The poor little thing sat atop the toilet and proceeded to erupt from both ends. Of course, I was not ready with a bucket, so I had a little cleaning up to do.
Fortunately, she had eaten lightly on Friday and just had some banana popsicles on Friday night, so I am not left with some aversion to food as I am with these things many times. The bad part was that she threw up all day and had diarrhea at the rate of once every 20 to 30 minutes. Late Saturday night, just when I thought she was winding down, she wound up again. At two-thirty in the morning, Sunday morning, I was washing her hands at the sink, and she promptly projectile-vomited right in the sink. Needless to say, I had my hands full between taking care of her and cleaning.
The poor little thing had stomach cramps so badly that she wanted to know why I was not taking her to the hospital. I told her that we have almost all been through this, and that she would live.
Meanwhile, Tim was out nearly all day tilting at windmills. He started a carpentry project in our kitchen last Saturday which has turned into a small disaster. It all began a couple of years ago when we purchased a stupid, and I do mean stupid, Golden Retriever from the pet store at the urging of the children. We brought her home, only to find out that she was the worst chewer we had ever seen. We had her tied out back, where she had a pretty good run, but she was able to get up on the deck. There, she managed to chew up the screen door and chew the weather stripping off the bottom of the back door.
Have you ever heard the expression, "For want of a nail, the battle was lost?" You know the progression----no nail in a horseshoe, so no horse, no soldier to ride the horse, no vital soldier in the battle, and finally the battle lost. Well, our progression was no weatherstripping, no protection from rain, rain comes under door during storms, rain eventually rots wood around door, whole door has to be replaced as well as wood on the floor and under it in the floor support beams.
I told Tim not to tear it out last Saturday, as I knew that he could not do it all in one day, but you know men....they always think they can do more than they can do. So, next thing I knew, he had taken out my double patio door, half my kitchen floor was gone, and the linoleum was torn to shreds.
By taking Monday off, he was able to get it back to a reasonable state, but he was fighting a cold and did not feel well, and his stomach was bothering him to boot. So, this last Saturday, he left early to find another sturdier door set to replace the one we have. He first went and rented a trailer to haul the thing home in. Then, not finding the one he wanted at our local Lowe's, he picked Daniel up from the ACT test and they went to the next town up. There, they thought that found the perfect door set, and so having purchased it, they went to load up in the trailer. The door was too big by ONE INCH!. They tried everything they could, but to no avail. It would not fit.
So, plan B was to get a refund on this door, go back to hometown and get a bigger trailer, and go find a door. Meanwhile, I am here at home holding the bucket and getting more frustrated by the minute. I had plans for the family for the last two weekends to clean house all day (which I think was the original reason dear husband tore into the door project.) He would rather do anything than clean house. He would rather move 10 day old cow carcasses all day, I do believe, than clean house.
He and Daniel went back to the trailer place, where the man is really nice, and he tried to fix them up with an open trailer. For some reason, it would not connect to our trailer hitch and have the brake lights come on. They worked and worked with it to no avail. So finally, since they knew that I was having a booger of a time here at the house with the sick, they came home.
I should mention, too, that the boys leave tomorrow for their American Christian Education convention, so they needed to be washing and packing too. Poor Sam was cleaning house for all he was worth and trying to help me manage Hannah. About as soon as Tim got home, he started complaining that his stomach was hurting, too.
I don't know how many false alarms he has had now with this stomach mess. He just cannot seem to get it out, so he suffers and suffers. He then drinks some tea with some apple cider vinegar in it and seems to get better for a while. So he tried that, but he was still hurting.
By Sunday morning, he was puking too. It was not with the violence that the girls have puked, but it was bad enough. So, we called a member of our church who lives about half way between us and the church, and he said he would come after the boys. Well, they had a full day, as they stayed with him through the afternoon, went back to evening services, and then went another 20 miles or so south for the teen Bible study that happens once a month. They did not make it in until just before midnight. Daniel and I had to make a Kroger run, then we came home and got to bed.
Then, Hannah decided that she was not sleepy in the least, and she pitched one of her famous "Hannah-Bee fits." This continued until 3 o'clock in the morning. I would have given her some Benedryl (which friend Jennifer highly recommends) but it has the opposite effect on my kids and makes them hyper! Some time after 3 a.m. when I found myself drifting in and out of consciousness, I decided enough was enough and gave her a teaspoon of cough medicine which always calms her down. I hated to do it, but I was a desperate Zombie....uh, Mommy.
Another mere three hours, and it was time to go again. I was so tired that I figured I would rouse the boys via cellphone (now is that not the heighth of laziness?) and give myself a few more minutes of sleep. Sam informed me that his and Daniel's stomachs were hurting badly.
Tim got up and took Micah to school, and later, he came up to report that Daniel was now violently upchucking downstairs. Tim emailed his boss that he would not be coming in today, and I started saying prayers that Dan and Sam would be able to leave tomorrow for convention, or else yet one more school event would be totally ruined.
Dan and Sam are both in numerous musical events, like quartets, ensembles, and duets, etc., and if they do not show, all is lost. Daniel is an integral member of the basketball team as well. I told them they may be standing there holding buckets while they sing. They HAVE to go!
So, as twilight falls this evening, tummies are a little more stable, though many are just drinking Sprite right now. Tim and Sarah are ingesting ginger snaps to deal with the nausea.
We are also nervous about the upcoming wedding
between brother Drew and Brooke this Saturday. I am going to be horrified if we are still puking by then. My brother Don is in from Germany, but I cannot see him right now, because he is the best man, and we do not need him to get sick. Hopefully, Sarah is going to be past this and get some color back in her cheeks.
Just an update on friends Alvin and Tina at church that I have told you about....both made it successfully through their surgeries and were at both services yesterday, the boys said. They also both went to the young people's Bible study last night. I personally think the two of them may be pushing it a bit, but I admire their courage. Both have ongoing treatment to eradicate remaining cancer cells. One of our elders found a doctor who is a Christian who has said he will do reconstruction if she would like it for free. That is so good, as Tina has no insurance. Tina has a long way to go with chemo, and if that turns out well, she will look at the possibility of reconstructive surgery.
It is going to be a busy week. Hair appointments, getting the boys off to convention and to the wedding on time over the weekend...it is going to be a hectic week. We have storms forecast for tonight, and tender-heart Sarah is beside herself.
Hopefully, it won't produce the 20 + tornadoes that they have spotted today in Kansas!
Have a good week, all!
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