What could be worse?

Let me first preface this post by saying that you should be glad that I didn't include pictures.

Last night I thought I might die. Hands down, I'm pretty sure it was the worst night of my life! It all started yesterday morning...I got the kids all ready for church and got there before the meeting started, impressive for me, but then during the opening prayer Izzy let loose a whole belly of chunder all over the pew! My sweet neighbor Chad was sitting behind me and jumped forward to help (I'm guessing he's the puke cleaner of his household, Brett usually performs this duty, however he's backpacking for a few days and really missed out). I wiped up what chunks I could, then gathered my litter of children and headed out while Chad helped clean the bench for me-I totally owe him but I'm not sure how to pay someone back for helping with a thing like that.

Anyway, upon returning home Izzy yacked a few more times so I bathed her and cuddled her on my lap. When she fell asleep I laid her on a blanket on the tiled floor, then she proceeded to barf a few more times all while lying in a vegetative state. The poor girl was so sick which is hard enough for a mother's heart, but my poor nose-my whole house still has a slight chunder scent, could be that mountain of laundry sitting around that I'm still working on.

Well, after a day of spot cleaning, baby washing, nursing Max, and tending the older kiddos I put everyone in bed around 7:30...then my stomach started lurching. The stomach bug hit me from two directions and as I sat on the toilet clutching the trash can I wondered, "what could be worse than this?" What could be worse: getting my period, mastitis, and a bladder infection along with the flu, someone breaking a bone and having to take all 4 kids to the hospital with barf buckets in tow, or Brett having the same thorough digestive tract cleansing while out in the cold dark mountains of Wyoming-I'm pretty sure the guy would run out of toilet paper in that case, now what could be worse than that? Well, there's always being eaten by a bear, that would probably be the worst. Or would it be having a police officer come to my door to report that my husband had been eaten by a bear??? Yeah, I could go on and on but I won't.

Anyway, after a day like yesterday I'm appreciating the little things: Izzy's up and smiling again today, Anna had a terrific first day of first grade, Quinn and Addie held hands while we walked to school to get the girls, the kids cleaned up and went to bed tonight without complaining or throwing tantrums, we found popsicles at a local ice cream shop with character faces and gumball eyes just like the ones I had as a kid (no pink panther ones however), and I just had a good talk with my brother without any torture chamber-like screaming as background noise. Also, I have a 5lb. tub of cookie dough I found in the freezer which I don't want to let take up too much space for too long!

Life is getting back to normal. Now if only I could get rid of the lingering chunder smell around here...