A series of unfortunate events...

I am writing this as I rally from a serious case of the stomach flu. Ick. Let me back up... last Saturday, I was woken up by my cell phone ringing. It was my dad (my parents are out of town) asking me to turn the sprinklers on in the back. Surprisingly, I've never turned the sprinklers on or off... I finally figured out how to turn them on. A little while later, I went out to turn them off. You'd think that they'd turn off oppositely of how they turned on. Well, I'll spare you the details... after several minutes, I had them off- but, without a dry spot on my body. Shortly after coming inside, Deanna (who was here) got a phone call from Allison, wondering if I could come up to her house in Cedar Hills to babysit her kids while she takes Cam to the Emergency Room, because he had had a bad fall mountain biking. Well, I also had Tracy's kids here that I was baby-sitting (Deanna, Allison, and Tracy are my sisters). After some decision-making, I agreed to meet Allison at the Orem hospital, trade her cars, and bring her kids back here to the house. Deanna abandoned me. I had 7 kids here, and one of them (Erica) had the stomach flu. The day was completely chaotic. As it neared lunch time, the kids started complaining that they were hungry. I began making grilled cheese sandwiches (ew, the thought of any kind of food right now is seriously messing with me). I put Anna (age 8) in charge of Leah (age 11 months)... with the charge to not let her fall down any stairs, or put anything in her mouth. Leah climbed over to one of the stools, so Anna put her on it, but was still holding on to her. I don't know exactly how it happened, but Leah toppled off the stool, and started screaming. Anna felt badly about letting it happen, and as I'm trying to console the two of them, all 6 of the grilled cheese sandwiches got burned. During the whole debacle, the older kids were playing Rock Band at full volume (in the family area of the kitchen), and someone was screaming at Chase (age 3) at full volume. Meanwhile, I have Emma (age 5) telling me all the things I'm doing wrong. And on cue... Erica throws up in the living room. 

Allison and Cam got home in the evening, with the lovely news that Cam has SERIOUSLY messed up his shoulder... something that will take multiple surgeries and months to fully recover from (if it does, in fact, fully recover).  Our family has a big vacation planned to go camping at Bear Lake, and Al and Cam bought a new, fancy, camping trailer to take up there... and now, Cam can't drive it up there, so Allison, who weighs probably 100 pounds, will have to be in charge of this HUGE camper, if they go. And, to add insult to injury... Cam is also recovering from the stomach flu. Luckily, Tracy and Daryl are in town, now... and last night we had Anna and Brooklyn (the twins), Emma and Erica (Al's girls), and Amber (Marty's daughter) all sleeping here. 

Last night, I got in bed, feeling fine-- but, just a few minutes later, felt really sick to my stomach. I emptied ALL contents of my body between 3 and 7:30 this morning, and fell asleep for about an hour. Now, I have alternated from sleeping, and making an emergency trip to the bathroom all day. I ate 2 popsicles earlier, that quite promptly came back up, but about an hour ago, I ate 2 more, and so far, so good. So, I hope I'm pulling out of this. Oh, and just a little while ago, Emma was walking through the living room, turned her head, and threw up all over my mom's leather chair. Tracy sprung into action, cleaned it up, but cleaned it a little too well... the cleanser she used on it changed the color of the chair... so, it's pretty much ruined. Maybe, when I'm feeling well enough, I'll go take a picture of it, because it's pretty bad. 

Also, a few days ago, Ronnie decided to give Petie (our dog) a haircut... with scissors. It was embarrassing to be in the same room with the poor dog... so, Tracy went and bought clippers last night. I held him down, and Daryl tried to fix the haircut. Petie was NOT happy about that, at all. He's not above snapping at people, so it was a little scary holding him down. It was also scary, because the poor dog's epileptic, so I was worried we were going to put him into a seizure. I was covered in dog hair, and still feel like I have it down my throat. I'm sure I don't, because I was throwing up so violently, that I was afraid of throwing up the little hanger-down in the back of my throat (uvula??)... sorry. Too much information, huh?

Oh, and Travis is bringing his girlfriend home from Colorado, whom I've never met. They'll be here in just a couple of hours. And do you think I've washed my hair in like four days? No. I'm a mess. 

I hope my parents had a good time on their vacation.