This Little Piggy stayed home...

So much for good intentions. All week long I had been planning this really great Halloween blog about traditions, chili, photos of costumes past and present,etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But then I got sick with the H1N1 (Swine) flu which hit me within minutes. After a relatively mild case, I got hit with a REALLY miserable cold--it was bad enough that I had to postpone my flight to Utah to see Paul & our new little baby Lilly for a couple of days. I was supposed to fly out Friday morning; I even went to the store Thursday and bought some face masks to wear on the plane but as the evening waxed on, I was just too miserable and couldn't stop coughing. So, for the sake of all those people who would have been sitting next to me, I'm sitting at home blogging instead whilst Steve is preparing for an overnight campout with his 11 year old Scouts.

It's now a couple of days later because I suddenly developed an eye infection while I was typing this blog. Went immediately to the doctor because I need to get well so I can hug those grandkids. Turns out I now have bronchitis and conjunctivitis with a cold on top of it all. I am on heavy duty antibiotics and am doing much better. I flew into Salt Lake Sunday morning. We had dinner at Grandma Spencer's last night with Mark, Raylyn, little Paul, our beautiful new granddaughter Lilly, Jeff and Becca, Amy and Spencer, the Fazio's with the most amazing homemade lasagna, the Spencer's with to-die-for breadsticks and salad, Grandma who made her mom's Date Cake recipe, and lots of the nephews & nieces. I couldn't touch little Lilly yet, because of the cold, so I could only gaze and admire her from afar. She is truly gorgeous and seems to have such a sweet temperament. Paul is darling, his hair is so blonde now and he has grown so tall! His busy-ness and running around remind me very much of his daddy, Mark as a little guy. Constant motion! Oh, I've missed seeing them! It was so great to see most of our family and hug on our kids. We missed Tuck & Steve being there. Steve drove up to Maine to duck hunt with Murray Joy.

So,I've had LOTS of time to reminisce about being sick. I guess I have always had a weak stomach. I don't remember being sick much as a kid, but when I did I always seemed to throw up and get dehydrated. There was at least once in Ohio, once in Germany, and once while we were camping at Lake Garda, Italy (where I must have consumed some bad water). I was raised with a very strict interpretation of the Word of Wisdom which means that we would never drink caffeinated drinks, or in other words, the evil liquid Coke. Trouble is, when I got so violently ill in Italy that i couldn't keep anything down, my mom would try to give me Coke to settle my stomach. I learned quickly that my conscience was much stronger than my stomach and as soon as I sipped the flat Coke, I immediately threw it back up. So that didn't work. Okay, here's the weird thing, on that occasion and the other times my dad would bring IV bottles and setups home and would hook me up to an IV on our living room couch (or in our Scamper). He would pump me full of fluids until I could get my electrolytes back in balance. I don't think any of the other kids ever had to have home IV therapy! That either makes me really special or....

Paragoric! Need I say more or are you shivering at the very mention of that nasty, horrible medicine? It was used as the cure all for anything stomach. The cure was worse than the illness. It is the the nastiest, grossest tasting stuff I have ever had to choke down. And I remember having to take it alot!

Suppositories!! What's a family trip without them? GROSS! When we were little kids we had a Rambler station wagon for years. (I don't remember our other cars.) When we took our cross-country trips from wherever we were stationed to visit our grandparents in Utah, we would make a bed in the back of the Rambler. Mind you, this was pre-seatbelt days. We had a some kind of mattress (or foam) thing that we could lay on and take naps. Dad was the kind of guy who liked to drive straight through--never staying overnight in a hotel. He was also the kind of driver who did not tolerate noise. So, in order to traumatize all 5 of us kids into being quiet and controlled, he would put a pack of suppositores into the cooler and threaten us with them if we became unruly. I personally don't remember ever getting one--do you???

In our family we have 2 types of personalities that emerge when people get sick. We have the ones who become sweet, loving, kind, and appreciative. Then we have the ones who get cranky, don't want to be bothered, want to be left alone. Guess which ones are more fun for Mom to take care of?

When the kids were little I remember when they got a pretty significant bump, bruise, or cut, they would cry and cry and cry. But afterwards they would always take the BEST nap. It was like the silver-lining on a cloud!

Enough, already. I am so grateful that I am recovering and that I have been able to help Mark and Raylyn out with Baby Lilly and Paul. They are the absolute cutest kids on the planet and Grandma loves them to pieces!