Not in Nauvoo

My posting has been spotty, of late, thanks to the untimely death of my sadly abused laptop. Poor baby had a traumatic life and I am pleased to let it move on to the Happy Computing Grounds. Michael is trying to convince me to let him use it for target practice. I am happy to announce the very recent arrival of Beulah, my new shiny Toshiba Satellite. I found it refurbished from Toshiba for $150 off the regular price. She's got a big ol' hard drive and 3 gigs of ram and boy is she a beaut.

Her arrival night before last was divinely orchestrated (who would have thought that Toshiba refurb is in... Louisville KY? It took less than 24 hours to arrive!) I spent all day Thursday cheerfully baking and packing in anticipation of our Family Vacation to Nauvoo. Michael is shooting a wedding there this weekend, and the family kindly invited the rest of us along to stay in the hotel with them and enjoy the wedding festivities. I don't think I can over-state how excited we are were for our getaway. Michael took an extra day off work so we could go Friday and spend the whole day in Nauvoo just as a family (which has never happened before.)

Thursday afternoon, Jed started kind of whining about how his mouth hurt and he felt sick. Whatever. (He's a bit of the Kid who Cried Wolf. Even a recently discovered discovered freckle can be grounds for near-death wails and calls for a "really big bandaid.") But then later I found out he'd been complaining to Michael, too, and that didn't bode well. When he refused the special dinner of chocolate chip pancakes I'd prepared to fete the start of the family weekend, I started to get concerned. This kid NEVER turns down chocolate chips. A bit later, he threw up. Then more barfing. We put him to bed, hoping he'd sleep it off, but about ten feet before Michael made it to our bed, he heard a strangled cry of panic upstairs... and the rest was messy, stinky, and stretched long into the night.

The next morning, he woke up cheerful and said "I feel GREAT!" We snuggled in bed for a happy hour or so and thought "Hey, maybe we can do this!" So we prayed about it and five minutes later Jed vomited violently and, well, that was our answer. So now Michael's off in Nauvoo and I get to stay home and sanitize the facilities. Boo. Having to unpack everything, after just spending the whole day packing, with no fun in between just adds insult to injury. Good thing I got to down half a batch of chocolate chip carrot muffins to console myself.

That being said, I feel grateful that so far we are 36+ hours in from First Barf, and no one else seems to be coming down with it. Did I mention that the whole house has been severely bleached? Also, yesterday was actually kind of nice for Zoe since she got lots of attention and no brotherly-tormenting as Jed wallowed in 7 hours of Bob the Builder. She stomped around with a cheery grin, getting into everything, happy to own the place for just one day. In addition, I am deeply grateful for the arrival of this computer just before Michael and his laptop left town. Jed needed the healing power of Bob. For one last thing, I also feel grateful that Michael now has time to finish his midterm, which he was pretty much going to have to sacrifice for my vacation. :) Here's hoping for A's, my dear, and maybe we'll finally get that family getaway next year.