This Week

Has been not what we expected or planned. There are no pictures. You can thank me later.

What shall we call it?

Pukefest 2010?

Merry Pukemas and a Hurly New Year?

FIVE buckets of PUKE! Sing it with me.

You get the idea. Saturday night I wrote my post about my fantastic day with Harry Potter. In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday Rob wakes me to tell me he’s been bowing down to the ivory throne – and also been on the throne (but let’s not get too graphic). I gently suggest he go back to bed in the guest room and after he does I get to work with the Lysol wipes (‘cause, Good Lord, I can feel his breath on the back of my neck while he’s telling me. Gee thanks, Hon). Yep. In my nightgown still while everyone sleeps Lysoling everything I can think of. Once morning hits I also rewash all of the handwashing he’d done the night before and reload the dishwasher with any dish I think he took out of the washer and every piece of silverware from the drawer (most of the time I love that my hubby helps in the kitchen. This was not one of those times).

Oh yeah, and our septic decided to go on the fritz so actually MOST of that work happened after the plumber came and went because I couldn’t use the clothes washer, dish washer or toilets before then. Yeah. The puke laundry and contaminated dishes were piling up and let’s not even talk about the toilet issue.

Gideon started puking right before the plumber showed up. Poor guy. He puked again while the plumber was here. I have a new appreciation for my leather loveseat. SO much easier to clean than cloth.

On Monday Rob and Gideon were on the mend. No one else was puking. I was very nearly allowing myself to relax and think that all my cleaning, washing and sanitizing had worked! Yeah right.

Tuesday about 3AM I realized that my tummy was feeling a bit rumbly. By 5AM I’d spent a great deal of time on the potty with a bucket at my feet. I actually had Rob bring me a bowl of mints and a book. I wasn’t about to leave my little camp too soon and I hate being bored.

I get to spend Tuesday in bed. Rob gets to spend it with the kids. What a great guy to stay home “sick” for me. And he took them to Costco. Anyway, I digress. I cannot recall the last time I actually got to be in bed sick when I was sick. If I hadn’t been so sick it would have been a nice break. As it was I kept my bucket close and my mints closer. I wonder if it was my constant sucking of mints that actually kept me from needing my bucket the whole time. As it was, everything that left my body exited the usual way (though definitely NOT the usual consistency – OK that’s as graphic as I’m getting).

I did get to read a few more pages of my book while in bed, watch disc 1 of The Fellowship of the Ring (I was really bummed I didn’t get to watch more) and play a game on my laptop (which Rob brought to bed for me) in between passing out and taking long naps throughout the day. Sometimes with extra blankets and sometimes with less.

Wednesday I continued to recover and Rob worked from home to help me with the kids. Thursday morning in the wee hours, yep THIS morning, you guessed it, Gabe. Hurling. Pooing. Rob got the first round. I got the second a couple of hours later.

After Rob headed to work I got up to check on Gabe and found Zion on the potty. Let me tell you what a trooper my girl is! I found her striped neked, sitting as far back as possible on the potty so she could throw up between her legs while she was still going #2. I was filled with pride and empathy all at once. I said “Good girl, Zion!” and she looked up and cheerfully said “I’m throwing up in the toilet like you said!” (I had the foresight to keep reminding the kids over the past few days of what to do if they felt like they were going to barf.)

She was so pale and drawn and yet she never gave up her chipper attitude. Gabe on the other hand was a regular ol’ Eeyore. Nearly always on the verge of tears and pathetically uttering statements like “I’m dying of starvation up here!” Sorry but I’m not giving you an all you can eat buffet. As it was I ended up cleaning up more of his vomit after he went to bed. Change of sheets, blanket, pillow, pajamas… *sigh* I knew he was trying to much too soon.

I AM going to have to get them to eat more once they are able though. Both Gabe and Zion looked like victims of starvation the minute they got sick. Skin and bones, people! Skin. And. Bones. It was instantaneous. I know those two have precious little to spare but this really brought it home. Must fatten those two up a little!

So now, here we are at the end of day FIVE of being stuck at home with the pukes. This is so not how I wanted Christmas break to go. I was so excited, SO excited, for our families first “real” Christmas break ever. Now that Gabe is in full-time school it really was going to be our first real Christmas break. When he got off the school bus on Friday he was bawling, broken-hearted that he didn’t get to go to school for two whole weeks! I got down at his level and put my hands on his shoulders and told him how much FUN we were going to have! So many things to go do and so many friends to have over to play. He was going to have a blast! We all were!

So things haven’t worked out like I dreamed. The awesomeness may have fizzled but we’re still going to do our best to eke out some real Christmas fun. We have tomorrow. Tomorrow to read all our favorites stories, watch all our favorite movies, eat all our favorite foods.

Wait. Maybe not that.

Nibble on our favorite crackers to be safe.

Tomorrow! And then on Christmas we get to go to my sister’s for Christmas.

That is, if Elias doesn’t come down with it next. Praying that he doesn’t.

Praying.

So hard.