Ugh! Ick! Gross! Blach! Ewwww!

The stomach flu has hit our house! Boo!! Last week a few of Kori's school mates were home with a stomach bug. The little girl on the bus in the seat behind Kori barfed on her seat mate. Great! That always starts the panic to rise inside me. I have emetophobia and I fear vomit. Mine. Theirs. Yours. It doesn't matter. I am non-discriminatory. It causes me great anxiety. I hate it, but it is what it is. My theory is nothing should come flying out your nose/mouth if it was once inside your stomach. Okay, enough with that.

Friday Kori woke up with some tummy issues of the bathroom nature. She burped and gagged a bit so I decided to just keep her home. It was a half-day. She hasn't missed any school yet this year, no big deal. She kept a very low profile in bed all day watching TV. She was better Saturday and we had a belated bowling party for her 8th birthday. It went great! Lots of fun! One of the little girls there, one of Kori's schoolmates, was just getting over the stomach flu. She was out of school Thursday and Friday but was better Saturday. Jason ran into their mom Sunday morning at the convenience store down the road. Apparently the older sister, who was also at the bowling party, was now sick. As well as the neighbors husband. I figured it was bound to hit. It seemed to be running ramapant.

So low and behold Sunday night about 12:30 a.m., Alexis decided to kick things off. Lots of barfing. Bathroom issues. Etc. About 4:00 p.m. Monday afternoon she perked up, ate a pop tart and was find. Cool. That wasn't too bad.

Fast forward to this morning at 3:20 a.m. I am awakened by Morgan who is claiming her "tummy is hurting". I get her settled back in her bed. Sit by it for a while until she falls back to sleep, and as an afterthought before leaving, I throw a couple old towels on the floor next to her bed. Oh you know what they say about a mother's intuition. It was dead on. I no sooner got back in bed and covered up when I heard the tell-tale coughing/crying. So here we go, round #2.

About 6:00 a.m. here comes Kamryn. I'd heard her whining and kind of moaning around 5:00 a.m., but she's a sleep talker so I didn't worry to much. Well she decided Morgan shouldn't barf alone so she joined in too. So there my husband and I sat ready to do battle. Which we did until around noon when the barfing subsided. There are still bathroom issues, but they are up and around, have proclaimed their tummies feel better and are watching Cinderella as we speak. They ate a light lunch and some dinner and so far so good. I am hoping for a barf-free remainder of the week. Hey, I'm going to aim higher, how about the rest of the year! No need to limit myself. I am hoping Jason and I are spared. I have washed my hands so much they are cracked open and bleeding. I wiped light switches, toilets, counters etc. with a water/bleach solution this evening. I've sprayed Lysol religiously. I am hoping this is the end of it and it goes away and stays away.

So that's the end of this really disgusting post. It is definitely not one of the finer points of this little thing called parenthood. But it is what it is.

Man am I tired. I think the washing machine is about to go on strike too.

Resolutions

I actually made a few this new year. I don't usually because past experience has shown me that I do not stick to them, no matter how bad I want to. Something this year "felt right", so I made a few. I resolved to not curse. I don't do it a lot, but a little is too much. It's just not lady-like, Christian-like, its yucky. So I am doing great in that area.

I also resolved to lose weight. For some reason, all of a sudden I'm tired of being overweight. It's no secret my body took a hit when I was pregnant with the girls. The added weight from the medicines I took to get pregnant, stay pregnant, etc. didn't help either. The triplet pregnancy completely wrecked my abs. My abdominal muscles are completely seperated. You can stick your fist in this. This makes me unable to do a sit-up, but there are other things I can do. So I have been trying to eat better. Heck, I do good to actually eat at all. Sometimes I'm just too busy, I forget. I used to think my mom was nuts when she said she forgot to eat...now I understand.

So I've been trying to eat breakfast and lunch and dinner and have healthy snacks. You know pretzels, apples, etc. It's going well. Probably the best I've ever done. I'm down about 4 1/2 pounds in nine days. Woo hoo! I have been doing a walking/jogging program on the treadmill. Walk for two minutes, jog for a minute. I am finding that I dread it less and can actually run the whole minute without feeling like I'm going to puke, pass up or die, generally in that order. I strap on my headphones and get to it. The 30-minutes I do for now actually goes fast. When I first started I was at about 1.3 miles. Then I was up to 1.5 miles, then 1.6 I am now up to 1.75 miles. I am increasing the speed and even ran for two whole minutes the other day at 5 mph! My husband is surprised, yet pleased and encouraging with my progress.

The girls are good about watching a movie on my bed while I do the treadmill since it is in our bedroom. The first day I got on it the little girls informed me, "That's not your treadmill, that's daddy's treadmill!" Uh sorry, not any more girls. The other night at the end of my workout, Kori informed me, "Hey you did good mom. You were running good, you didn't look like you were going to pass out or nothing". Uh, thank you????

At any rate it is January 12th and I'm still at it. I can't wait until I can actually see the results, or feel the clothes getting more roomy. Woo hoo!

Dear Winter...

I am so very much over you. The white Christmas was beautiful. Very nice! Loved it! I especially appreciated it because I did not have to go out in it. The snow over the school Christmas break was a nice touch! Kori had a ball playing in it!

Then you decided more was needed. And more. And more. And yet even more. Then to just be even more cruel you threw in some sub-zero, freeze your hiney off temperatures. Not cool!!!

So Christmas break was extended by a week. A whole week. Not to mention it was too cold to let anyone play in the beautiful snow you sent us. So I had four kids with extreme cabin fever. Definitely NOT cool!

I am now a bit concerned that I am finding the thoughts of temperatures in the 30's to actually be appealing, and thinking they actually seem warm. There is something seriously wrong with that.

If you could whoa down on the dramatics, the rest of your season will go much better and we will appreciate you a bit more.

Signed,

Me

What Happened???

So today was what I thought a pretty good day. Aside from me pulling our wooden blinds down from our bedroom window off the brackets and onto my head (oh man did that HURT! I have a knot to show for it and wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have a mild concussion), it was a pretty good day. Even though we woke up to freezing cold temperatures and 3-4 more inches of snow.

We met Jason's dad and step-mom for breakfast before they headed back to Iowa. That went good. Everyone ate well. Nobody cried, yelled, spilled, fought, hit, kicked, punched, or otherwise caused any negative attention to us. Success in my book!

We got back and Kori and Jason and I shoveled the drive and sidewalks...again. (Have I mentioned I am very much over Winter??? -- If I haven't, let it be noted that I am, very much so!)

The girls played nicely, always a bonus.

At about 2:30 Kori and I left to pick up Becky and we headed to our long-standing, eagerly anticipated, group date to see New Moon. Hey, better late than never huh? We had a nice time, no issues.

Got home and did some stuff. Wrestled in the floor. Gave the little girls a bath.

Kori came in to take her bath and I noticed she'd been crying. So I ask her what was up? I assumed that something must have happend with daddy or Alexis, because they were the only two that had been with her, Kamryn and Morgan were in the bathroom with me.

She told me, through her tears, that she feels like she isn't part of our family sometimes. HUH??? I asked her what made her feel that way. She told me that she feels like I favor Alexis and I don't make her feel like she's part of our family. It was all I could do to not burst into tears at this point, but I didn't want to discourage her from sharing her feelings with me if something is bothering her. I told her that as mothers we are gifted with the ability to love all of our kids equally, no matter how many we have, and that's how I am. I love each and every one of my girls exactly the same. No more for one than the others. I just was so shocked as to where all of this was coming from. I hadn't fussed at her or anything all day?????

I have been feeling a little "Cinderella-ish" lately as I've been the only one to do things around here. I have been doing everything, with little or no help from anyone else. I just had a conversation with Jason about this a few days ago, but it only helped for a day or so. Apparently my family thinks I'm their personal maid. I am tired of picking up after everyone, all the time. There is rarely a day I get to sit down and relax with all the laundry, housework, dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc. etc. etc. that I have to do. Every night I pick everything up that is left out, because it drives me crazy to leave it out. Surveying all the things I pick up 99% of them are NOT mine. They belong to Jason and the girls. So now on top of feeling like Cinderella, I also apparently am not being a very good mother.

Man this parenting thing is so hard sometimes. The days I try and schedule "family fun time" someone is grumpy or uncooperative and it ends up being "family not-so-fun time" and backfires on me. I try and make sure that I am loving an attentive to my kids even though I don't have a minute for myself, and that apparently is not working out so great for me either.

Feeling very much like flying the white flag of surrender right now.

Okay...pity post over now I guess.