Ugh

I really don't even want to blog about the last 2 weeks, but the point of the blog is to document our life...so the worst winter ever is now documented.

Alright, I'll try to not be so dramatic, but this winter has been terrible.

We finally got our driveway clear of the ice, and literally 5 hours later it was covered again.

Public schools were in session for 1 day in the last 2 weeks.  Ben was on a trip the first part of the week, came home to snow and only went to work for half day for the entire week.  Ben had enough and "overnighted" a shovel...it got here several days later just in time:

That was a joke.  

However, it's supposed to snow again this week so hopefully we actually get to use it.  I thought we were the odd ones in Virginia to not have a snow shovel, until a kid showed up at our door with a garden shovel and asked if we wanted to pay him to shovel our driveway.  I tried to hide my laugh and sent him home.

Anyway, we were snowed in again.

The boys helped me do some cooking:

And somehow that ended with Colin being naked and washing dishes.  Apparently cabin fever makes you hot.  I don't care, his little tushy always puts a smile on my face.

In my attempt to keep the kids friendships flourishing, I managed to welcome in a slew of germs.  Alison's bff, Jensen came over and as her mom dropped her off, she proceeded to tell me how terribly sick they had been all week.  Lesson learned; if someone shows up at your house speaking of sickness, tell them you love them but to get out of your house immediately.

A couple days later, Alison started throwing up and was the sickest I have ever seen her.

She threw up for 3 days and about an hour after she stopped, the boys started.  This was the worst, longest bug I have ever seen.  I've never thrown away so much stuff!  Towels and clothes and bedsheets and cups and trashcans, went straight to the garbage and I'm just going to have to add a "winter recovery" colomn to our budget.
 Right after Alison started throwing up, she said "Stupid Jensen!".  It made me laugh.  She also kept yelling "I need the lysol!  I have germs I need to kill!".  My little germ-a-phobe was convinced that she could sanitize the sickness away.  I wish that was true.  This bug also confirmed that if Alison says something is wrong, something is terribly wrong.  I would ask her how she felt..."Great!" and then would barf.  Over and over again.  "I feel fine"...puke.  "No really, I'm good"...vomit.  Every time she would call for me or try to get up, she would get sick.  So finally, I gave her my old phone to text Ben when she needed something.  She sent him this picture, with "I love you".

 

It's been a full 7 days of cleaning up vomit and Praise the Lord, no one has thrown up yet today!  This was our recovery zone yesterday...Colin is snuggling with Alison and we're watching Curious George.  Thank goodness for George; he has certainly saved this winter.

Alison and Eli talked a lot about what they were going to eat when they were all better.  Alison wanted a gallon of milk, which is odd because she really hasn't been that crazy about milk lately.  Also on her list: fruit punch, sun chips, brownies and hot dogs.  Eli just wanted pizza; lots and lots of pizza.  Alison was so sad and miserable for so long that I told her we would celebrate when she was better.  This morning she woke up happy and chipper and proclaimed that she was better.  So we made brownies and drank lots of milk and celebrated!

Eli didn't feel like a brownie, so I didn't push it.  But I am celebrating today.  We survived!  I'm sure Ben and I will get it tonight, but we've survived the last few weeks and I'm celebrating!

As much as I don't want to remember all the sickness this winter, there was still some sweet moments I do want to remember.
~playing Life with Alison and watching 'Star Struck' together
~Eli's smile when I let him watch a movie in the middle of the night
~rocking Colin and hearing him say "I wove you momma"

I hope that is true for our kids too; I hope they remember the snuggles and movies and games and not the sickness.  I am tired from many sleepless nights, but what a sweet gift I got last night from Eli.  He was clearly feeling better and just kept saying over and over "I just love you too much mommy".  I tucked him into bed and he said, "You know why I love you so much?  Because you take such good care of me."  Hearing that definitely helped erase the memory of cleaning up vomit for a week.