This week was supposed to be a busy productive week. I was supposed to get all the presents wrapped, the house cleaned, some of the holiday cooking done up ahead, conquer the mountain of laundry, the menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas day finalized and the grocery shopping finished so I wouldn't have to be out there in the chaos next week. This was the last week before the kids would be off for the holidays. I had so much to do.
What did I actually accomplish? Well I have washed every towel, sheet, and blanket in the house, some of them twice or even three times and the floor especially between the kids bedroom and the toilet has been mopped repeatedly, other than that I survived this week and that is quite enough. If you are a facebook friend you already know what happened, but for the rest of you what happened was the stomach bug that destroyed my week. This nasty bug swept through our household and wrecked everyone's plans.
Poor Grayson was the first victim. He came in to our room shortly after 2 Monday morning. I woke just in time to hear him announce "Mommy my tummy hurts." Then things got ugly, not to mention very very smelly. Dave scooped him up and ran to the bathroom while I scrubbed the remains of dinner from the night before out of our of the carpet. And that was that for sleep on Monday. Dave drove the Alonzo and Colin to school because there was no way I was putting a barfing 5 year old in my van. By eleven o'clock Grayson was exhausted and slept for hours. Dave had taken the day off and so we took a nap and watched a movie together.
Tuesday he was feeling better so off to school he went. I went to the farmers market to pick up some hand dipped beeswax candles and fresh veggies. I cleaned house to remove the lingering nasty smell and did lots of laundry. Also made cookies for kids Christmas parties. Thought I was back on schedule. Until about 11 that night when Alonzo showed up in our room. Since I was still awake I was able to get him pointed at the toilet before he blew. Minutes later David heard Colin upstairs. He found that both boys beds were...well nasty would cover it and Colin was in the same shape as Alonzo. About two a.m. I shoved David in to bed since he had already taken Monday off there was no way he would be taking Wednesday off. I spent the rest of the night taking care of one boy or another and washing sheets and blankets. (To my neighbors--sorry about that I wouldn't normally run the washer in the middle of the night but it was an emergency!)
Wednesday passed in a blur of unpleasant sounds and smells. I remember opening the upstairs windows only to have it start snowing. I just let it snow into the room because our apartment is concrete construction with radiators and no ventilation or fresh air circulation unless you open a window which means once a smell is in the house it stays until you open a window. Lighting a candle just wasn't going to cut it. Don't worry the boys weren't cold, they were both downstairs in sleeping bags on the floor as I had run out of clean sheets and blankets and it takes my dryer at least two cycles to dry anything so laundry is a slow process. When Dave came home I mumbled "I need to make cupcakes." and then I think I passed out. By that time I had been up over 36 hours.
Thursday I was still a little out of it but I did manage to make it to the commissary to get groceries, but sadly not the stuff for the Holiday dinners so I will back there next week. Oh well, I will just have to stop in at the book store to grab a new book and an eggnog latte, darn the luck. I also managed to make it to Grayon's holiday party at school. David had baked cupcakes the night before while I slept so I was in good shape for that, even remembered the camera. Thursday wasn't over though, Dave was the next victim. Almost a soon as he laid down in bed that night he jumped up and ran to the bathroom. As he generally wants to be left alone when he is sick I managed to get a little sleep, but I don't think he did.
Friday morning about 3 a.m. I found out I was the next victim when sharp stomach cramps woke me up. This stomach bug was getting ridiculous. Both of us sick is not a good thing. We made it through the day even got the kids to school and picked up at 1 from early dismissal but as soon as Cody made it home from school we both went to bed and Cody got stuck babysitting the kiddos.
Today we are both feeling better. My stomach is still a little tender, and I don't think I want to eat anything spicy or greasy but I am feeling much better than yesterday! Cody on the other hand will probably feel better tomorrow. If there is anything redeeming about this bug it is that it hits hard but goes away quickly. Now unless the cats start barfing we should be just about all done with it, I hope!
So what does a Texan do at Christmas time? Eat tamales! What to do if you are far away from Texas at Christmas time? Make your own tamales and invite friends over to help eat them. Which is exactly what we did. We made 12 dozen tamales, a pot of chili con carne, a pot of beans because some people like beans in their chili, bought some Big Red (God bless who ever is charge of the commissary!) and then invited everyone from Dave's office to stop by this afternoon after work. Of course some people are out of town, some people are busy, but some showed up and we ate, talked, laughed, and had a blast. I think this may be a new holiday tradition.
