Almost Better

We are on the mend. Yipee!

A friend from church left me an e-mail saying her sweet daughter had the crud, too, so we're both certain our church is just sharing the love right now. We're missing Awanas tonight, but not out of fear of catching it again. Well, not entirely, anyway.

Spencer has always taken stomach bugs very hard. He's the child I spent a night in a hospital bed with when he was 18 months old because he got dehydrated after a stomach virus. He's just so doggone skinny that he has no calories to spare. He eats better than my other two, but burns it off as fast as lightning. I know that's not news to anyone who has seen him in action. And he hates vomiting so much that when an episode hits, it takes forever to convince him he's over it. He'll get himself so riled up, he literally makes himself vomit again. Pitiful! Anyway, he's still a bit puny.

Allison and I have bounced back better. She slept in today and then took a long nap this afternoon. Other than that and having less of an appetite than usual, she's back to herself.

I've been cleaning all day. First, the kids both got a good scrubbing. And, my bathroom's had been defiled; I needed them back in order. A stomach bug will kick me out of procrastinating a cleaning spree faster than anything. It's that whole "ick" factor.

Here's the lowlights of my 24-hour bug. Other than the obvious, which I will not go into detail about because that would not be nice.

1. If there's any way to foresee the stomach bug, do not pick the day beforehand to start running again. At church Sunday I saw the same friend I mentioned above (This means you, Miss Tracie). I haven't seen her in a bit, because I'm clear over across the street, teaching in the youth building. In any case, I'd heard she was running, but on Sunday I saw that she'd been running. She has crossed over into Hot Mama territory. I felt inspired. So on Monday morning, I hopped on my dusty treadmill and ran for 30 minutes. Well, okay, actually it was just 20 minutes. And truth be told, it was more like two minutes of walking for every minute of running. But I did it. And when the stomach bug hit, I regretted it. I just couldn't tell what part of my body hurt from exercise and what part hurt from heaving. Yes, I'm sadly out of shape, but don't kick a girl when she's down!

2. What really stinks... what really chaps my hide... what really just makes me mad... that stupid scale of mine didn't even have the decency to budge one stinkin' pound after my 24-hour ordeal. That's just not right!

3. Just because I called Bruce to come to my aid, and he left work early enough to pick up our third pitiful child from school does not make him some Sir Galahad. He made himself and Clay scarce the rest of the day. They hung out outside, fiddling with the camper, until supper time. Bruce did slap together a PB & J sandwich for Clay before sending him with my in-laws to his baseball scrimmage. And then he ran like a scared girly-man to lead the Financial Peace class at church. I washed Allison's bed yesterday, in between sleeping sessions, but he did make it. But this morning when I came down to the kitchen, it was a disaster. Not that it was his fault. It was a mess before I got sick, and I had big plans to clean it before everything hit.

Okay, because I know I'll feel bad for blogging anything negative about my Bruce, I'll say this: I don't hold it against him. Under normal circumstances, he would have not only taken out the trash but also loaded the dishwasher and maybe even the washing machine if I asked very nicely. But he had to pack for his business trip. And I know he didn't want to touch anything that might contaminate himself before he boarded that plane and spent a night in a hotel room.

So he still gets to be my knight in shining armor. This time. But I'm telling you, he's walking a fine line!

Have I mentioned how much I miss him already? He's been gone for only 12 hours. Twelve more to go, too.

Not that I'm counting or anything. Gosh, I wouldn't want to look easy!