Famous Last Words

Because I know you're all just dying to know...here's a little recounting of our Easter weekend.

It was fun and busy. We spent all day Friday with Steve's family attending Good Friday service and then spending the day at the grandparents' for Mexican Train dominoes and an amazing feast. It was a great time. Steve studied all day Saturday and my little brother and his girlfriend came over for our Shabbat dinner. The boys requested apple pie so I was busy in the kitchen all day making Challah, pie and dinner. Dinner was tons of fun and once the boys were in bed, I set to work on cinnamon rolls to pop in the oven come Easter morning. I laid everyone's clothes out, ironed and realized that I probably should do this every week as it made the morning much more smooth the next day!

But the next morning things didn't quite get off to the start I thought they might. I should've been suspicious from the get-go. I can't tell you how many times I've made these cinnamon rolls but, I made a cardinal mistake the next morning as I pre-heated the oven in my sleep (I guess if I do that, I should have seen it coming). I accidentally set the oven to 450 instead of 350 and then just about burned them to a crisp. Luckily I got them out when I did or they would've been inedible. But Christ is risen and we ate them anyway. Better luck next time. The rest of the hockey pucks were thrown away later.

We got off to church and even took some pictures beforehand. Wow. It seemed like a miracle. Church was great celebrating the resurrection and we had plans to meet my parents afterward for more Easter festivities. Before we left church, I was chatting with a friend in the snack line. She has five children. And we were doing our usual drive-by conversing while trying to still tend to our childrens' needs. Sometimes this is the only way to talk to catch up with anyone. She mentioned that they were finally all well after weeks of being sick.

And then she asked, "Have all of you been well? Is everyone healthy?"

And I responded, "Yes, we haven't had too many illnesses to speak of, just a few colds. Yes, all are well...at least for now."

And then we chatted a bit more about life and once we had gathered all our food (for it was a lot), we bid each other adieu to go run after someone's hurt knee or something like that.

Famous Last Words. Little did I know where I would be just eight hours from that innocent conversation.

Once we got to my parent's house I realized I felt a little weird. But as the snacks started getting pulled out, I realized I wasn't hungry at all-not even for a Diet Coke. For those of you who know me well, Red Flag #1 just came out. After a bit of time I began to feel the need to lay down, quickly, and knew that if I didn't I was about to be sick. Red Flag #2-I don't ever just want to go lay down in the middle of the day!! So I discreetly as possible vacated to upstairs and tried to rest and sleep off whatever was germinating in my belly.

But stomach flus don't rest-they stew and the more they do, the worse it gets. Before long, I was totally sick and Steve said we'd have to go straight home. I felt horrible. The Easter festivities came to a grinding halt just because I was sick. My parents offered to keep the kids so that we could go home and I could get some sleep. That proved to be a very strategic move.

I barely made it home and from then on was sick non-stop for many hours. When I wasn't sick, I was in immense intestinal pain so I was getting in and out of the bath tub trying to get relief. But that also caused me chills so, I really couldn't win. I began thinking that the night stretching ahead of me would be long and arduous and I didn't know how I would make it. Our neighbors were having an Easter party and I could hear people laughing, children playing and tons of merriment. All around was evidence of the risen Christ...yet I felt like I was stuck in the tomb.

My running buddy, who is a Nurse Practitioner, happened to call and see if I wanted to go for a run and Steve told her I was pretty sick. She came right over to check me out and told me I didn't look very well and that it seemed I was getting dehydrated. After checking my pulse, she told me it should be around 60-70 at rest (since I run regularly) and that it was 90. When I checked into the ER later it was at 120 which is a major sign of dehydration. She gave me some anti-nausea pills and told me that if I was still super sick in a few hours, I might need to be seen. I made it two more hours or so and then I practically begged Steve to do something.

But it's Easter and the only place open on Easter is the ER. So, in a blur, Steve passed off Elliana to our neighbors, gave them a bottle and her jammies, and we hit the road. When I got into the passenger seat, he handed me a bowl. When we arrived we joked about how the last time we showed up in the ER, I was in labor with Josh and how the time before that, I was in labor with Caleb so at least this time, I wasn't in labor. Although, I think I felt worse this time. Seriously.
I'll never forget him handing me the bowl as we got out and me saying, "Really! That's so embarrassing!" To which he responded, "We're past that now." And then he handed me back the bowl. Okay.

Lucky for me it wasn't a long wait. The funniest part about the ER though was that the doctor walked in, got all the info and then asked very discretely if I could be pregnant. Then after getting my response of "Well, yes it's possible (it's always possible I guess)..." she said, "Now you're 18 right?" Ummmm...what?!!!! I quickly responded no that I was 30 with four little children. Then she laughed and said, "They all told me out there that you were the 18 year old with the major dehydration." Awkward times. So if they really thought I was 18, who did they think my husband was? A boyfriend? Oh dear....I guess I must've looked pretty bad. She then ordered some tests to rule out some more serious ailments and then gave me some medicine.

I cannot even tell you how amazing it felt to get that IV fluid. It was as if someone was pouring my very soul back into my body. The anti-nausea medicine helped quite a bit too. I started to feel like dawn was on the horizon and that I wouldn't be stuck in this death forever...the resurrection was coming.

While we were there, we got a call from my mom that Joshy was sick too. We promised to come by as soon as we could to pick him up. So we finally made it home around midnight, tucked Joshy in close by, sent our neighbor home who was asleep on the couch, and tried to rest.

It had been a long day.

I'm not sure why the stomach flu hit me so hard. It has now gone through half of our family and I definitely had it the worst of everyone. I think it was a combination of being really busy, nursing and being a bit run-down in the first place. My reserves just must have been low.

But all in all, it was a good day. For even in my misery, I was reminded that all of my pain, all of my suffering was taken upon Christ's shoulders on the cross and it was defeated!! Victory!

Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed.

And for those of you who are wondering no...I'm not pregnant. I know that now for sure:).