Sickness and Stuff

Our family hasn't all gotten sick since I was pregnant with Emma. So I guess we were due. Friday Emma through up while we were hiking at Wesselman's. Saturday night Savannah threw up. I'm glad I didn't take anyone to church because Sunday night Mark and Elizabeth both threw up within an hour of each other. As I'm sure you can imagine, this was all super fun. Kip was at work and the next morning would be going in for a surgery on his deviated septum (nose). That night, I kind of even hoped I would get sick so it would just be over with. I didn't quite get my wish, though I didn't feel normal and by Monday morning was feeling yuck. Kip came home, showered, changed, and headed off for his surgery. The kids rose from the dead, no longer puking, but tired, weak, and a bit listless. The only one feeling truly well was the 2-year-old. Which was not a perfect situation.

For breakfast, I poured cereal into bags for Emma and Savannah. Then I turned Netflix on. It stayed on pretty much the whole day. In fact, I can't remember ever having a day where the kids just constantly watched shows like the did on Monday. I was feeling worse and called our friend to ask if he could pick Kip up from the hospital after the surgery. Fortunately he could, because the rest of us were looking like a pretty pitiful group.

Kip got home in the afternoon, nose bandaged, and in pain. He laid down; I laid down; the kids watched TV. Emma started to get restless. Later Kip told me that he had thrown up at work that night too, but that he didn't tell me because he thought I would worry (I would have). This highlights a fundamental difference between Kip and me because I would have called him at the earliest opportunity to tell Kip that I was sick and hope for some deep and loving empathy. Someone one of our responses seems slightly more grown-up than the other. Hmmm. In fact, Kip proved to be the most able to help throughout the rest of the day, although neither of us was much good.

Anyway, we were a mess. I could barely walk from one room to the other because I felt so lousy. For dinner, I just poured more cereal straight onto a TV tray for whoever to eat. I thought that this must be what parents on drugs do--turn on the TV and pour out some cereal. At one point, I went to help Emma go to the bathroom and ended up lying on the floor so I didn't puke while she pooped. It was super duper fun.

But the point of all this is that I was actually sort of grateful. When Emma got sick, I thought, "Oh boy, here it comes." We have so much going on in the next several weeks and I was actually just praying that if we were going to get sick that we get it over with quickly. And we did. As lousy as Monday was, I knew that Tuesday would be better. And it was. We all sallied forth from out beds. We only watched TV all morning. I voted and returned out library movies. We ate some non-threatening food items and I found myself craving Ramen in all its salty MSG goodness as someone only can who has been deprived of salt and eletrolytes for a couple of days. I still think back on that first meal of Ramen with fondness. Ah, salt.

We've continued to improve. The kids went back to school on Wednesday and I tried to clean up our house (yikes). Somehow when you get a day or two behind, it takes a full week to catch up. Kip is still a little swollen and hurty. But Friday we had singing night with our friends and yesterday we got to go to the temple. It was really nice--some people from the ward watched kids while parents went. When I got in, I unthinkingly pulled out my temple dress and realized that it was the dress Mom had made for me when I was just 21. It was kind of special.

And now we're (hopefully) disease free and ready for the next few crazy weeks: anniversary, Thanksgiving at Katie's house, Elizabeth's birthday and baptism (it's going to be Dec. 9th at 4:30 if anyone wants to come), and Christmas. Oh boy oh boy.