Christmas Eve was great. Although Justin, Sarah and Parker were gone to Arkansas and Ryan and Allison were in Texas, I had half of my family with me; I was happy that both of the "Little Babies" would get to spend their first Christmas at my house. And so, the guys went over to a friend's house during the day and later we all began to prepare for the Christmas Eve Service at our church. This service is so special to us because our family has been going to it since our children were small. We listened to the Christmas story being read, sang some wonderful traditional Christmas hymns and then each family moved to the front of the church to light a candle. Afterward, as always, our family posed in front of the huge tree in the church foyer for a photograph before heading home. Once home, we ate and played with the babies before their bedtime and then settled down for a nice night's rest before the chaos of Christmas morning began the next day. Little did we know what chaos awaited us...
So, you see, everything looks joyful and festive and we are all ready for the next morning when Santa will have arrived with all of his goodies. HOWEVER...when we got up and started moving around, we found out that Kevin had been throwing up since 3 a.m. (Ugh...). At first, he thought perhaps he had eaten something that either just didn't settle well with him (our spicy southern food) or possibly even had food poisoning. He came out to join us for only a few minutes and then was so sick he returned to bed. It wasn't long before David decided that he needed some medicine to get him through this; it wasn't getting any better. Next, we located some IV bags and Kevin started an IV on himself (Ummm...yes, true story and yes, that freaked me out just a little bit!). After a few hours, he appeared to be feeling better and actually came to the couch (with his IV bag...) that afternoon. We were not eating dinner until late that day at Robby's mother's house. Of course, Kevin stayed home as we left to go eat.
Robby's sister and some of her family arrived and just as it was time to gather around and fix our plates, I felt this strange sensation in my tummy. I mentioned it to Robby, who quickly said, "It's just your imagination. If you don't think about it, the feeling will go away." Hmmm...OK. But I NEVER get a sick stomach. Could this just be me "thinking" about Kevin being sick all day? I decided to go ahead and fix my plate; perhaps my stomach was just empty from not eating much all day. As I sat down and took a couple of bites, I felt that same feeling in my stomach. I excused myself and went to the other room and sat on the staircase for a few minutes and then returned to the table. I did this several times and things just didn't seem to be getting any better for me. When Caitlin came looking for me the last time, I was sitting on the bathroom floor and told her, "Go get your dad...I need to go home NOW!"
Robby drove me home (where Kevin was still laying on the couch...) and I told him to go back over and finish dinner and visit with his family. I then proceeded to get the WORST STOMACH VIRUS I have ever had! Thank goodness, David had called in all that medicine because I also had to start taking it. Around midnight, Caitlin came running to our room (I couldn't move because I was so sick...) saying that Holli had started throwing up. At 1 a.m., Robby was on his way to the pharmacy to pick medicine up for her.
The next morning found all of us washed out, with Robby and Caitlin stripping all the bed linens and spraying Lysol everywhere, in hopes that no one else would get that dreaded virus. But get it, they did. In the following days and weeks, Codi's dad got it, a pregnant niece got it, Justin and Parker got it. And as of last week, I was still suffering from symptoms from it. And so, you see, this is in part why I haven't been able to post lately. But I am finally feeling better and able to eat again, my house is clean and the laundry pile is shrinking and RIGHT NOW...all is well in my little world. I hope that you all had a much less eventful holiday and are off to a wonderful start for the new year! Now, let's bring on that next season...MARDI GRAS!
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