Ilness and In-laws

I rarely hear of anyone getting sick during the summer months-I mean there is the occasional allergy sufferer or spring cold, but summer is when all is right with the world. But I soon realized that I traded a fast paced workweek for visits with the relatives-a visit from my parents and a visit to my husband's parents-and I guess these back-to-back visits weren’t such a good idea.

My niece’s graduation party was June 19 and my parents wanted to swing by our place for a few days on their way back from Massachusetts-um, June 16 and 17 (and we were leaving for Western PA the morning of the 18th.) And don’t forget that school let out just a few days before and my house was showing signs of neglect, but how hard could this be, right? Wrong! I was dead tired and now I had to clean my house, get ready for guests, and do laundry so we could pack for our trip, and the kids wanted to hit the pool and get together with friends-what was I thinking?

The kids were really excited about their grandparent’s visit, and as June 16 approached, my son slept less and less, getting up a few times around 5:00 AM! And getting him to go to bed and stay in bed was next to impossible.

"Mom?"
"Go to sleep."
"I forgot to go to the bathroom."
"You went to the bathroom about twenty minutes ago-I saw you. Now go to sleep."
Silence then, "Mom?"
"What now?"
"Did I ever tell you about..?"

It looked as if things would be okay, but by Friday morning (the day my parents were leaving and so were we) my son started coughing. He didn’t have any other cold symptoms and seemed in good spirits, so we passed it off to some sort of allergy thing and set out. The five-hour car ride was pretty uneventful, except for the occasional hack, sputter, gag and my daughter yelling, "Cover your mouth! Mom, tell him to cover his mouth!"

We were staying with my husband’s parents and decided to treat them to dinner out, but we sort of forgot that the kids (notably my son) were in a car for five hours, or how one of them (my son again) may be getting sick. But the kids would be with grandma and grandpa so they would be on their best behavior… Just in case, my husband and I flanked my son but it wasn’t enough-he had hit the wall and I knew it would be a fast spiral downward especially if everyone took their time to enjoy their meal! So my husband and I took turns aiding and abetting our son-maintaining control of the larger than normal glass of chocolate milk, trying to keep his spaghetti on his plate at all times, and resorting to crayons and books when all else failed and everyone else was still eating.

The grown ups had all ordered the jumbo fish platter, and although I’m not really a fish eater, a trip to Wendy’s when we were on the Interstate cured me of any beef cravings. I decided to live a little and I ordered the fish with beer batter, and I could barely eat half before I told the waitress she could take it away-it was so good I didn't even mind that some of my son's spaghetti had fallen on my shoe.

We decided to let the kids blow off a little steam and walk off some of our meals at a couple local parks, and my son seemed to perk up a bit. But I started feeling a bit strange-it was 80 degrees out and I started getting the chills. In fact, when we got back to my in-laws house, I donned a sweatshirt while everyone else was complaining about the humidity. And when my husband and I finally went to bed, I started getting stomach cramps, but since it was nearing that special time of the month, I didn’t think it was anything to worry about-I should have worried because I tossed and turned all night and by the next morning, what went in was on its way out and I was like this all day. I spent the entire Saturday ferrying between the upstairs bedroom, the living room couch, and the bathroom, and those of you who know anything about my in-laws you also know that they show Newfoundlands, and since they are kept in the area of the house where the bathroom is, I had to muscle past them each and every time I went. This is a pretty big feat considering that their one male is nearly 200 lbs! I figured out that if I could lure the drooling beasts to one room, I could make a mad dash for the bathroom. It worked nearly every time-I may have been mobbed once or twice in a few of the attempts. (There are five of them you know...)

The rest of my family attended the party (there were about 200 people), enjoying a food spread that included pigs in a blanket, fried chicken, and itty-bitty cheesecakes with a choice of five different toppings. Oh, and did I mention the pool? I was so sick I couldn’t read or watch TV, the heat in the house made me feel like I was melting, so my mind wandered as I stared at the wall and tried to sleep. My saintly husband made a few calls to see if I was still alive-I was-but by the time everyone rolled in about 8 that evening, I wanted nothing more than to go home. We were supposed to stay until Monday, but my husband and I compromised and we came home Sunday night-I was feeling a little better but not enough to want to socialize, and all I wanted to do was sleep in my own bed.

I’m not sure if I had food poisoning or a virus but I'm better but my son’s cough got worse (of course)-he has a virus similar to the one I had during school (my cough lasted almost a month!) It just has to run its course so he is taking something to help him sleep at night (the cough keeps him up) and I’m typing up this post to help me deal with him during the day-let’s just say he has had more than a few melt downs over the last few days, and his sister and I have become the enemy (he still likes his dad!)


I feel like I should end with a moral or something, so how about "That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable," or "A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn." (Funny! Okay, I’m getting tired so bear with me…) How about "Every path has it’s puddle" and maybe I’ll just "go with the flow." Uh oh, I almost forgot.  Molly over at I'm a Sleeper Baker recently passed me the "I'm Going Places" award, but it's already Friday in the AM (I started this at 11 PM Thursday!) and I need some shut eye, so I will get this together soon... Goodnight everybody!