He Arose

So did the Norovirus……Not the Easter weekend I had really planned on having!

Our week started out nice and quiet.  Gymnastics on Tuesday and Will was supposed to have a tee ball game Tuesday night.  They ended up cancelling it because it was really cold and windy. 

Wednesday was the kids’ Easter parties at school.  They had fun at those and as of 12pm on Wednesday, they were on spring break – until April 8th when they go back.  Approximately 6 hours after spring break started, the vomit did to.  Lindy got in trouble at dinner Wed. night and was sent to time out during dinner.  She was upset and ended up throwing up.  Totally normal and par for the course for her.  Didn’t think a thing of it.  We finished dinner – well she didn’t eat anymore and was saying her belly hurt – and I was doing dishes when she came up and said she needed her throw up bucket.  I told her she didn’t need it and she pretty much immediately threw up all over the kitchen floor.  I grabbed a plastic bowl from the cabinet and she emptied her stomach.  I did find this out of the norm, but Drew thought it was just from her getting in trouble.  She acted fairly normal after that so we put her to bed like normal.  At 11pm we heard her cry out and Drew got there just in time to catch more vomit.  We knew then it was a stomach bug.  We moved her into our bed and then we proceeded to have a long night of vomiting. 

I worked from home Thursday morning and she pretty much just laid in the recliner (no sick kids on the new couch!!) all morning.  She didn’t get sick all morning so I went in to work and things went downhill again.  She tried to eat crackers and got sick a couple times that afternoon.  She tried to drink some and got sick later that evening.  She took a couple naps that day – which is totally out of character for her, too.  We let her fall asleep downstairs that night and then we put her in our bed again.  We were all sleeping peacefully until 2am – when we heard Will call out.

Yep, Will got the stomach bug Thursday night.  Drew got there in time to catch some but he had already thrown up in his bed.  About the same time Lindy woke up and randomly threw up one more time.  We moved Lindy down to the recliner and Will into our bed.  Drew slept with Lindy downstairs and I slept with Will in our bed.  I use the term ‘slept’ very loosely.  Will threw up about every 30 minutes through the night.  And he is not a good thrower-upper.  Lindy has years of practice on him.  She knows to reach for the bucket and get it in the bucket.  Will kind of freezes and doesn’t know what to do.  I would wake up to him making a weird noise and face and would get the bucket in front of him. 

I stayed home on Friday to help deal with the mass of sick kids.  Will was a little more with it but was still just laying in the recliner.  He ate a 1/4 of piece of toast and drank a cup of warm jello and all stayed down Friday morning.  He tried crackers at lunch and everything came back up.  I think he got sick a couple more times that evening but it’s all becoming a blur.

We all slept Friday night which was awesome.  I thought we braved the storm – until about 9:30am Saturday morning when Drew got it!  I knew something was wrong when I realized he hadn’t had any coffee that morning.  He went to bed and he ended up getting sick.  He only threw up twice but he slept in the bed all day long.  He said he had a pounding headache and his body ached.  I checked on him every so often but mostly left him alone.  I’m thankful to our neighbor who checked on us often and replenished our supply of Sprite.  Not knowing how long this was going to last, our supply wasn’t nearly large enough!

Thankfully the kids were definitely feeling better by Saturday.  Lindy started eating normally and Will was eating small meals and keeping them down.  In the afternoon we dyed Easter eggs and then I took the kids on a walk in the stroller because it was gorgeous outside.  We opened the windows and we aired the place out and we got some fresh air ourselves.

Somehow I’ve managed to avoid it.  So far, anyways!  I’m shocked seeing as Will coughed directly in my face a few times.  This stomach bug really ruined the holiday weekend.  My parents were supposed to come down Friday and they decided not to.  They left Saturday morning and were on the road already when Drew got sick.  They refused to come to our house so they stayed in a hotel last night.  We were supposed to have a big family Easter meal at our house after church with my parents and most of Drew’s family and that got cancelled.

We did wake up to an Easter egg hunt and Easter baskets (which I had to do all by myself last night as my other half was sick in the bed.  Yesterday was a good taste of single momhood – I didn’t like it).  The kids were very excited to find their eggs and gifts.  Thankfully I had picked up some games at a consignment sale a couple weeks ago and had ordered some books from a book order because that turned out to be Easter presents.  I had picked up just a couple pieces of candy for their baskets – more was to be bought this weekend.  Oh well.  They got what I had and they were happy. 

We made it to church and my parents did join us for church. Although a little weak and sore, Drew rebounded and led the service this morning.  We headed out to eat after church  - to a Mexican restaurant.  Nothing says Easter like Mexican food.  I kept questioning this decision and it did turn out quite badly.  Towards the end of us leaving church, Will mentioned his belly hurt.  We got to the restaurant and he started eating a chip and put it back.  Something was definitely wrong.  He said he was just tired and his belly hurt some.  Our food arrived and he said he thought he could eat some.  No sooner had he said that when he ralphed all over his cheese quesadilla.  Good times.  He and Drew ended up going home and the rest of us finished our meals.  I think my father was silently freaking out as he has mentioned 17,000 times that he does not want to get sick!  We got home to find Will acting completely fine.  I think his belly is just having to adjust to food being on it and it’s taking a little longer than normal.  My parents gave him a little lacrosse type game where you throw the ball back and forth and he played outside with it forever.  Everyone finally seems back to normal this evening.  I’ve Lysoled and Clorox wiped and washed everything I possibly can.  I followed people around with Lysol this weekend.  I washed blankets and bedspreads and mattress pads.  Everything is clean again.  

Hopefully we are over this nasty bug and now we can move on to to a more enjoyable spring break.  I thought we had escaped this mess – getting all the way until the end of March.  Guess not.  

So anyway, here our some sick pictures and some of the few Easter activities we had.  No Easter Bunny pics this year – was going to do that this weekend. 

Crazy bed head!My poor, pitiful sick girlPoor pitiful sick boyTrying shaving cream to dye Easter eggs.  Didn’t really work great for us.  Good old fashioned cups with dye were a bigger hit with the kids.They especially loved the ones where we wrote our names on them.  Warmed my heart when Will said, “How about we write Adam on one?”Easter Bunny presents.Will waiting on Lindy this morning.Eggs!She was so excited to see one on her stool.She dropped to the ground in disbelief.  I’m not joking.My beautiful Easter babes in their Easter outfits.Nana and Papa bought Will a batting helmet for Easter.And Lindy her very own pink ball glove.And this fun game that Will is loving!We bought my sister’s Barbie jeep and my parents hauled it from Missouri to Ohio and then down to NC.  Now they each have their own.  Lindy was pretending to fill it up with gas.

Easter and Tee Ball

Considering some of our past weeks have been pretty dull, this week seemed to be pretty eventful!

Tuesday the kids had gymnastics as usual.  Wednesday the kids had Wacky Wednesday at school.  Lindy was 100% on board with dressing wacky but it took a little convincing for Will.  He said, “Mom, my teacher said you could if you wanted to.”  I did eventually convince him to dress wacky. 

Friday night we were supposed to have Opening Night at Tee Ball but most of Will’s team was out of town or sick so his team didn’t end up going.  Instead we went out for dinner and had a Krispy Kreme donut for dessert. 

Saturday was one of the busiest days we’ve had all year.  We started at 10am at Reynolda Village for the 3rd Annual Winston-Salem Bomb Squad Easter Egg Hunt.  This is the hunt where they have beeping eggs for the visually impaired kids.  We bundled up (it was freezing) and headed out to hunt eggs and see Lindy’s old vision teachers.  They had a new, fun music garden this year that the kids enjoyed.  They banged and drummed and loved it.  They ran some races with a blind marathon runner, they saw Tater Tot the donkey, got balloon animals, and finally hunted eggs.  They blind folded Will so he could experience the sensation and I think it threw Lindy off.  She held his hand and helped him out.  The blind leading the blind. ha ha!  She would take him to an egg and then grab it herself and Will wouldn’t be able to find it. ha!  We finally let him take it off and hunt eggs.  We stayed there about 45 minutes and then had to head out to another Easter Egg hunt at our church.

We got to church and the kids got to plant a flower in a cup (which included getting dirt all over).  After they got the flower planted they got to do an egg hunt.  Since it was freezing outside, they did it in the sanctuary and it was great.  They had tons and tons of eggs and the kids got a ton.  I had helped them put them out and I filled up one whole corner for Lindy.  She could have seen the eggs okay I think but the other kids are just so much faster than her.  She had a grand time getting all the ones in her area.  Will was zooming around like the other kids.  He told me at one point that he was “An Easter Egg Machine.”  He had a fun time.  GrandBob showed up at the church just in time to see the kids get their eggs and he got to help them open them and get the candy out.

We loaded up from there and we headed to lunch at the Dairi-O.  We inhaled that and then headed up to the ball fields for Will’s first ever tee ball game.  He was so excited.  We changed him quickly in the back of the car and hurried down to the field, only to find out they had pushed all the games back by an hour.  ugggg.  We watched the game before us and finally it was time for Will to play.  He had a blast out there.  They play 3 innings and every kid gets to hit each inning.  They pitched 4 balls to each kid and if they didn’t hit they hit off the tee.  There were no real rules in the games, just teaching them to play.  Will ended up hitting off the tee each time but he did field some balls and throw them to first.   He was so stinking cute out there.  I know I’m biased but gosh he’s a cute little guy! 

We headed home after that to relax for just a little bit.  Drew and I straightened up the house before our friends Meredith and Duncan came over.  She is pregnant with identical twin girls and due this summer.  We imparted lots of multiples wisdom on them – ha!  We had a fun evening with them.

Today has been one cold, nasty, rainy day.  We bundled up to head to church and came home after to change into very warm clothes.  We hibernated inside all afternoon while it rained.  The sun came out for a little bit and we walked down to the neighbors so the kids could get a little Easter treat from them.  We are back home and it’s looking rainy again and there is a chance of rain/snow tonight.  What?  It’s the end of March! 

Now on to come cute pictures of our happenings!

Identical Twins for a day.  Doesn’t happen very often but Lindy wasn’t about to let Will wear his WF shirt without her!Wacky Wednesday!Heading out Sat. morning for Easter Fun!  (And someone finally got a haircut!)Playing in the music garden.McGruff the dog!Lindy’s first ever vision teacher Susan.Her second and longest vision teacher, Lesley.  Running a race!Checking out a beeping egg!Showing it to Tater Tot with Ms. Angie, a member of the bomb squad.Balloon Animals!Come on, Will, I’ll help you!Stealing his egg!Lindy’s third vision teacher, Ms. Pam.Now at church, planting flowers!Way more interested in hunting eggs than taking a picture for me.”The Easter Egg Machine!”Are you ready for some Tee Ball??!Our Texas Tech Red Raider!Pre game talk with coach AJ.Saying the pledge.He got it!  Throw it to first!Ready for the ball!Love this face!Good hit buddy!Off he goes!Fighting some girls for the ball!He actually posed for me during the game.  Perhaps he is a trained picture taking monkey!Almost got that one!At the end they lined up to slap hands and he had NO clue what to do.He was holding up the line and behind the first girl in the white raiders shirt!Heading to church today on a cold, dreary day.