Starting the New Year off right.....(not really)

Well, we started off the year right. Actually, Joshua started it, and the rest of us finished it....I hope. I think we actually had the real "influenza." What a nightmare! Joshua started getting sick on Friday right before he left on an overnight campout in the snow. Matthew and I got sick on Sunday, and four more followed on Monday, with Katie as the tail-ender on Tuesday. Deep painful coughing, aching all over, shivering, feverish---and that was just the "first phase." "Second phase" included profuse sweating, runny nose, sneezing, more coughing, fever, and aches. Katie decided to make it interesting and throw up in my bed. I called Russ and told him not to come home from work (he leaves Monday at around noon and usually comes home in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesdays and goes back to work Wednesday night until Friday morning). He agreed with me, and went and stayed at his parents in Murray. Picture it---seven children (ages 2 to 17) and one mom, all draped over the couch and sofa, and on a makeshift bed on our pile of clean laundry. There was a mountain of it that needed to be folded, so we just covered the five baskets with several quilts and pillows for the kids to lie on. I know that sounds like we are just lazy, but nobody could do anything but drink herbal tea and sleep and watch Bing Crosby movies while we tossed the tissue back and forth amongst ourselves. On the upside, the whole ordeal saved money on groceries and gas because no one was eating and no one was going anywhere.
Here's Matthew next to some of the aforementioned laundry, and Joshua blowing his nose---he holds the record for how many times a person can cough in one minute, and for sustaining that rate of coughing for 72 hours. It's enough to drive a person crazy! They should try this at Guantanamo.



Matthew was so pale all week!

Here's Hannah showing off her protruding hip bones. The girl is 5'10" and today weighed in at 138, if I remember right, after hardly eating for four days. We were all comparing notes, and we collectively lost almost 35 pounds. I decided next year, for our after-the-holidays weight loss program, we'll try something else a little more pleasant!


This is the best group shot we have--Matthew on the left, Katie with the thermometer under her arm, me on the phone, Emily under the quilt, and Caleb on the other end of the couch behind the camera. Notice the piano bench serving as table with drinks and hand sanitizer on it.


Ya gotta love these pictures, but they just don't show the level of misery!! I posed for this one. No one can ever accuse me of being proud....



Here's Molly looking unrealistically chipper. Emily is on the other end of the couch taking the picture.
Today, Thursday, everyone was feeling almost human. Tea consumption has slowed. More people are asking for solid food. The laundry bed is no more. It's snowing outside, and Russ is on his way home right now, and we hope he has dodged the bullet!