Things that made me happy today....
- pretzels and coke
- my son
- Chlorox and Lysol
I made the mistake of saying "this day could not get any worse!" and (laughing right now) honestly thought from that moment forward it could only get better. Well boy oh boy was I wrong. So today I say "Let the good times roll!"
From the beginning:
After spending hours emailing my husband back and forth on Monday, his official orders came through, and on February 16th, he was to report to Kandahar Afghanistan. I still know nothing about this place, but I was awfully happy to hear that my husband felt it necessary to do this for his family. We laughed alot and wrote each other for quite some time, which put me in a good mood.
I decided to bake a cake for my husbands birthday as if he were home with us. I wanted us to celebrate his birthday as if nothing was different. I wanted to send him a ton of pictures. The kids were having fun, and made me light the candle over and over again, while they sang "Happy Birthday to you". However, when it came time to eat the cake, Olivia got very cranky, and wanted to go to bed. No cake. Very unlike a 2-yr old and very unlike my daughter. So off we went, and she fell asleep. In the meantime, my tummy was not feeling so good, and before I could finish my thought, Olivia was screaming in her room. I rushed in wondering what was wrong, and she would not tell me. Before I knew it, she was throwing up all over the front of my favorite Norwegian sweater. It was then that I realized that I too was on the verge of getting very sick. I stayed up all night with her, as she fell asleep, and awoke over and over again. I did as much laundry as I could until the wee morning hours. Then at 3am I awoke, because the stomach bug had taken over. I finally fell asleep around 5:30am only to be woken up by my son, who wanted to go school. I asked him to stay home because both Olivia and I were sick all night. I asked him to be a big boy, and watch the house and his family like Daddy would if he was here, and so he did. I went back to sleep and awoke again around 10am. I could barely lift my head off the pillow. All my muscles were sore. Hunched over I strolled through the house, looking for the kids, scared of what I would find. They were watching tv with a bag of Froot Loops. Did they need anything? No mommy. I went back to bed. I awoke again at 1pm. This time my body was screaming in pain, the smell of food, and the sight of the birthday cake just sent a horrible sensation down my body. I fell in bed again. I cried. What kind of mom leaves her children unattended because of the stomach flu. I feel sicker. I call out to the kids. Nicolas comes running. I ask him how they are? Are they hungry? Thirsty? Do they need me? No mommy. Everything is ok. We are fine. Again I sleep.
Finally I stumble out of bed at 5pm and call a neighbor. I ask her for some coke. Olivia is obviously feeling much better, which is good news, because it means that I too would get back on my feet soon. Amazing how fast the coke gave me some energy, and although the nausea was still there, I was able to put the children to bed at exactly 7pm. I am back in bed minutes later, only to awake by my sons alarm clock the next morning. What a day. What a night. Thank goodness it is over. I missed my husbands birthday. Thank goodness he was not here.
So needless to say, today was full of cleaning. Six loads of laundry. Chloroxing two bathrooms. Running the dishwasher twice. Changing three beds, and no food whatsoever. Tomorrow will definitely be a better day. No doubt.
