Sick of Reality

We are back from our whirl-wind trip. Ugh. And John admitted as we were driving our eight hour drive home, "Gee, it does seem kind of silly to drive all this way just to spend one day, huh?" Indeed. Too bad he didn't come to this realization EARLIER. Maybe we would have actually had time to look up some family members that we DO honestly WANT to see--we just didn't have the time to fit it in.

A full-detailed account of our trip can be found at Dave's Beach Bar. I will only add that we were thrilled to see friends that we hadn't seen in a couple of years. It was about darn time, people! A good time. Too bad it was so short--and that we didn't have the time to see our family.

We got back Saturday just after 7:00 and had pb&j for dinner (classy!). Sunday John spent most of the day working outside trimming the trees and such. We also established that the sniffly nose Keith had during the trip was probably due to a slight cold instead of allergies as we feared (*I* spent the whole time we were in town in the midst of a horrible allergy attack and had to wait 14 hours for a Clariton tablet to kick in. Not breathing is NOT a good thing). So...um...anyway, we're glad that Keith may NOT have inherited my allergies--and that he didn't express much interest in the babies nor hold them!

Izzy picked up the slight cold and starting sniffling on the trip home, too. But the two kids with the slight colds was no big deal. It's what the OLDEST apparently brought home that posed a problem.

All morning Sunday Mary was not acting her normal bouncy self and exhibited no appetite. This kid is normally a grazer. She normally drives me freaking nuts with her requests for food--in tiny bits and proportions--ALL DAY. Sunday she said her tummy hurt, and didn't eat anything after her bowl of Cheerios that morning. And then--the barfing flu made its presence KNOWN.

Mary is now a veteran of the barfing flu and managed to make it to the toilet all the three times she paid her barfing flu dues that day. No puke to clean up for Mommy? A miracle!

Mary got to stay home from school yesterday, which for once bummed her out. I played day-care provider for an acquaintance whose normal situation was closed that day. So Mary was supposed to ride the bus to and from school with one of her classmates (and I also watched the four-year old little sister). The girls were disappointed, but I decided I didn't want to be the one responsible for passing on the barfing flu throughout the school system. And I no longer had to fight with John on who could stay home to take care of this sick kid (wonderful!). Anyway, I sequestered "Sicky" upstairs while the rest of us played downstairs in the den. When no more porcelain god trips occurred--and Mary started showing signs of an appetite again--I allowed her within the presence of the other kids. We had a pretty good day.

Now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Sunday night I hardly got any sleep. Any time one of the kids made a noise or even turned in their bed, I ran to check on them--fearing the spread of the barfing flu monster. SO FAR we have had no other incidents. I fear to believe we are through with this pestilence and am still on "stand-by" waiting for the school nurse to call or for Izzy to barf up her lunch all over my hideously pink living room carpet. And then when I had my own upset stomach yesterday, I just KNEW it was my turn--but it ended in nothing, and I feel better today.

I'm still waiting. There's no way we escaped so easily!