Homeschool, Day 1

Wow. Juuuuuuuuuuust wow.

For the most part everything went really well. Matt was a stinker, go figure. But the girls did well with their work, and I never once lost patientce. Yay me.

A bit before lunch though, Bethany started complaining that her throat felt icky. In Bethspeak, that means that she'll be puking before long. It didn't click with me though, and I fed the kids macaroni and cheese with tuna for lunch. EW. She started throwing up around 1. She managed to finish her work though. LOL

So around 1:45, Matthew asked me to clean his ears. He loves having his ears cleaned, since he's got Brian's nasty ears. The cotton was long and tickled him just the wrong way and he started coughing so hard that HE threw up. Everything. All over me. Not a bit of it got on the sofa or the floor.

Did I mention that I'm a sympathetic puker?

So Matt's standing in the tub, covered in vomit, still throwing up, I'm hanging my head in the toilet and trying to take my vomit soaked clothes off at the same time. I finally managed to get all my clothes off, empty my own stomach, and get the clothes OUT of the bathroom, and Bethany came in to puke some more.

Some time in all of this I had managed to call Brian to tell him that it was a veritable puke fest here at home, and I had to leave a message. He managed to call back right when I was in the midst of trying to get into the shower wtih Matt and rub Bethany's back at the same time. He was mission planning, and couldn't get out until 4.

Once we were all finally cleaned up, Bethany said she felt better and I really needed to go run a few errands. So we went. Got done at the bank, went and got Matthew's hair cut (oh yeah, he climbed up on the bathroom counter while I was helping the girls with their morning work, and managed to start to give himself a haircut. ), and then went to the bookstore. Let the kids each pick out a book since we'd had a good but rough first day.

As we were heading to the checkout Bethany started weaving like she was drunk, and was white as a ghost. Her lips were grey. I asked her if she was going to throw up again, and told her to hurry up and go to the restroom, that I'd catch up to her in less than a minute. She's been to the restroom in that building plenty of times, so when she started heading for the managers office I knew she was bad. I dropped everything in the center of the store, grabbed her and held onto her neck at the pressure points to try to keep her from fainting, and steered her and half dragged Matthew out of the store. Poor Caitlin had no idea what was going on, and just followed. Bethany started stumbling and put her hand up to her face a few steps before we got to the exit door, and I started running. Still steering her and dragging Matt, and yelling "FAINTING GIRL COMING THROUGH!!!" We made it outside just in time, and managed to get to a corner next to a trash can and a water hose. The poor girl had nothing left to throw up.

Caitlin and Matthew were so good, and found a bench behind us and sat quietly the whole time I was taking care of Bethany.

So we started walking back to the van, but I had parked next to the bank so it was a bit of a walk. Bethany was still really pale, and I didn't think she could make the walk. Thankfully we ran into a friend, and Bethany was able to sit in front of Burger King with her so I could go get the van.

SO. Finally got all the kids home. Bethany went straight to bed to read, and Caitlin curled up on the sofa. I gave Matthew a snack and asked Catey if she wanted one.

No thank you.

She was holding her stomach. I asked her if she felt sick too, and she said her stomach really hurt. Like somebody had punched her. Which is CAITLIN's sign that she's going to throw up. Sure enough, about half an hour later she's hanging her head in the toilet.

As Catey's hanging her head in the toilet, Matthew came and tugged my hand and told me, "nigh-night." So I had to go dig his sheets out of the dryer, because of COURSE today would be the day that he wet the bed. Got him down for a nap, got Catey cleaned up, finally got all three kids settled down....

Thank God the house was quiet, I was finally able to take a nap. Because within an hour of them waking up, both girls were puking agian. Bethany didn't eat dinner at all, and hasn't kept down water. Caitlin tried eating some soup, and that came back up a short while later. I've now got both girls sleeping on the bottom bunk. I don't want Bethany waking up to throw up in the middle of the night and hurting her self trying to get down in time. There's a chum bucket next to the bed. Matthew's door is cracked, and I'm sure that he'll be next. I've got a raging headache, but I don't know if it's from stress or if I'm getting it. And Brian has a 10.5 hour flight tomorrow.

Yeah. We're skipping the field trip to the zoo tomorrow.