The Stuff of Legends (or nightmares!)

"It was a dark and stormy night and she lay there trembling under the covers, her eyes growing wider and wider as the terrifying sound grew louder and more menacing. What could it be? Where could she hide? Why in the heck won't Brian quit snoring!!!" (What? Snoring? Brian? Hey, this is no dark and stormy night at all. I want a refund for this story!).

Alright, the truth... it was 5:00 am on New Year's day. The alarm had gone off, Brian was awake (the snoring part is totally true), Jenny was awake, and I... was not! You see, I hadn't really been to bed for very long - and I sure didn't want to get up now. I had been up all night packing (after all, we are pro-cras-ti-nators), but regardless of my lack of sleep, it was time to load the car and head to Missouri.

I plopped into the front seat with a pillow and blanket, intent on catching some sleep as Brian drove out of town. Reality check: sleeping in a laid back position in the passenger seat is NOT comfortable anymore, so my "sleep" occurred in random, small, and restless chunks of time along the road (unlike my seester who sure was sprawled out across the backseat - ugh!).

It was a little more than nine hours later (after all, bathroom stops are imperative), we arrived at our hotel, dumped our luggage, and headed to my brother's house. We were the last of the family to arrive for this special weekend.

The reason we were all there... my nephew's baptism!

There we were: Brian, Kirsten, Mike, Danielle, Maddy, Jenny, Mom, Dad, Bobby, Debbie, their kiddos, and Debbie's parents (in from California) chatting, playing, watching movies, and having a good time. The weekend was off to a nice start (except we were missing Chris, Kira, and Ella, who weren't able to come).

How unaware we were that in a few mere hours our lives would be drastically changed for the rest of our stay. Oh, if we would have known! (Well, I'm not sure what we would have done, but Oh, if we would have known!).

The attack began in the early hours of a beautiful, crisp Saturday morning. Michael and Maddy were the first to fall as some stomach bug laid waste to our family. This was not just any stomach bug, however, this was a gut-wrenching, head-pounding, eye-crying, rib-squeezing stomach bug that left you wondering if you were coming or going. How do I know? Later that night I went down. And then I was followed by Brian, Jenny, Dad, and Mom.

As Saturday became Sunday, things were so bad that Brian and I had to extend our hotel stay (there was no way we could make the nine hour drive back as we planned). We laid in the beds, we laid on the little couch in our room, we sat in the chair, we slept, we moaned, we groaned, we were in agony, we broke our fevers, and then on Monday... we headed home.

The ride home was less eventful than we anticipated, but still very uncomfortable, quite exhausting, and it seemed incredibly long! And although things were less eventful than they had been, our stomach bug enemy, though less agressive, was still present and had left us feeling queasy and dizzy all night into Monday (which I think is today).

It seems that most of us in the family have begun the road to recovery, some needing more time than others. Unfortunately, it also seems that Danielle has been targeted by this stomach bug which swooped into our family weekend with the intent of destroying our time together.

However, we still had the upper-hand over this bug. For even though we have been physically sick, miserable, and puny, we enjoyed every minute we had with our nieces and nephews and each other. Something that stupid stomach bug can't take away (though I do wish it had taken a few more pounds from my waist!).

So, the stuff of legends (or really nightmares!) was my reality this weekend. I'm just glad to be home and glad to know that the experiences that create a legend (or a nightmare) eventually fade into the background and I won't remember how sick I have been or how puny I felt these past few days!