Germs run amok!

Just so I can prove that our lives are completely not-normal...here is the timeline from one week ago:

Wednesday pm: We have Awana at our church, where I shepherd 65 2nd graders around for 2 hours. Hectic and worthwhile. Of course there are plenty of germs to go around. 10pm, after we are home, #3 starts complaining of stomach pain and begins vomiting--yea!

Thursday am: I stay home from my amazing lunch lady job to keep #3. She barfs throughout the morning, going through 3 sets of sheets. Somehow she can't get it to the trashcan, or the bathtowel on her bed.

Thursday pm: after washing umpteen sets of pukey sheets, things seem to have settled down and I got the kitchen CLEAN, just like they taught me at work. :) I take #1 across the street after school to keep the little boy who usually comes to our house on Thursdays, trying to save his family from any contamination. She gets to watch 2+ hours of Kipper and some scottish claymation show with funny dialogue she recites for the next 36 hours.

Friday am: I take #3 to her Grandma's for the morning, until Handyman comes home around noonish. (Oh, yeah, he was out of town, of course.) She hasn't barfed since yesterday morning and no fever. She just wants to sleep. My mom is flying in from FL on Saturday night, for an out-patient surgery. Tonight we are supposed to get together with cousins at MIL's house for my SIL b'day.

Handyman picks up #3 after lunch and takes her home. She seems okay. So we take her back to Grandma's and we all have a terrific supper. Fried chicken, homemade slaw, mashed potatoes with horseradish and green beans with bacon. Mmm, mmm, good. (This is important. It'll be the last meal I have for several days.) ;)

Saturday am: I cannot lift my head off the pillow. Somehow, miraculously, I do not barf my brains out. I drink honey water and pepto bismol tablets and never leave my bed, really, for about 8 hours.

Handyman heads to the airport to pick up my mom, and take her to HIS mom's house (where we had dinner last night). The two moms can hang out together and avoid the Bubonic plague that is reproducing in our home.

Sometime late Saturday pm: I learn later that this is when #1, #2 and MIL start barfing their brains out. I am blissfully sleeping through it, while Handyman cringes on the far side of the bed, facing away from me, clutching a Lysol can.
My mom is immersing herself in hand sanitizer, while her hostess is heaving in the next room.

Sunday afternoon: I am able to sit up and watch a little tv. I hear that girls have stopped barfing, but I do not venture downstairs until the later playoff game. Handyman doesn't really want me to sit by him, I can tell. I see rolled up sheets by the washer. I'm sure he'll get those washed for me. Mom is not barfing yet.

Sunday pm: #1 and #2 are grey with blue lips. I think they can stay home tomorrow. #3 is back to normal. Mom makes a batch of Cracker Barrel chicken and dumplings and sends them up with Handyman. They are awesome. I eat two entire spoonfuls!

Monday am: #1 and #2 stay home. I go to work. #3 goes to school. MIL is reputedly recovering. Mom still not barfing, which is good. She has to be at surgery at 7 am tomorrow.

Monday pm: #1 and #2 have regained their color and have watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy all day. #2 is with me that the battle scenes are too epic, too long and too boring. Everyone will be heading back to school tomorrow. I discover rolled up icky sheets still by the washer and take them directly to the trashcan.

Tuesday 5:40 a.m. I wake up to that familiar sound: "Bwaaaaaah!" It's Handyman, in the bathroom! Ack! Quick call to Mom, who says MIL is up and going already and she can take Mom to surgery and bring her home. Good thing--Handyman isn't leaving the bedroom. I cover all the chores, dogs, chickens, horses, cats, kids and head back to work while my head starts getting snotty.

Tuesday pm: Surgery goes well and Mom arrives back at Base Camp #2. Girls take out trash cans and Handyman remains completely out of commission. I continue to do all chores and make a new batch of laundry soap.

Wednesday: Another Wednesday, here already?! Off to Awana again. Handyman rises from his sickbed in the late afternoon. I still haven't seen my mother, who came into town last Saturday.

Thursday: We seem to be over it and I got a jump start on losing those 5 lbs. I gained over Christmas. I get to see Mom, who is leaving on Monday. We laugh (not at all) about the amazing-ness of bacteria.

Happy New Year!

I gotta tell you that Handyman made the most amazing dinner for New Year's Day. Usually my mom would put on the feast of pork roast and sauerkraut; but with her absence, I did not want to even attempt that, knowing anything I did would pale by comparison.

So, as usual for inspiration, I went to Pioneer Woman and saw the picture in the sidebar of filet au poivre.


Handyman has made steak au poivre many times, so it wasn't going to be a stretch. And being the tightwads that we are, he pulled out several older t-bones from the freezer and just cut them into beautiful little "filets". But he added some boxed calamari from Costco, which was good--even though we weren't able to quickly come up with the Carraba's hot pepper sauce. And then he made blackened scallops, which have been on our favorites list since way back when we were first married and had them in Lexington--our second favorite small city.

Not sure it could've been better--well maybe when the new kitchen is in--BY SUMMER! Next year's New Year's dinner will not involve particle board backsplashes, leaky can lights, a smoky oven and floors so cold we can keep raw meat out. Next year's dinner will not have a dog kennel stacked with laundry in the same room. Next year, we might even have our Christmas tree in the back room. We'll have to stop calling it the back room.

Handyman was off work all this past week, while I was back at the sandwich counter, bringing in the big adult dollars. He finished off the dormer drywall over the front door and it is beautiful. I can't believe how much it adds to the house, dust that is. I'll try to post a picture this week, from the front of the house. The dormers have really made us love the look of the whole place. It looks homier, and more stylish. We roofed the dormers with standing-seam metal all the way to the peak--very striking. He still has to trim out the new window and re-hang the chandelier, but it's almost done. And like a good carpenter, he is finishing here before he starts something else!

I told him we HAVE to put another dormer on the opposite side of the house, at the back of the stairway, looking to the north where we can see the creek and the park. He, of course, rolls his eyes and says I am crazy, but every now and then, he knows--I AM RIGHT. :)