Saturdoom

This has been kind of a discouraging day. I was planning on watching the kids today while Joey attended a day long cub scout training in Belfast. I know she didn't really want to go, but felt like someone in the Primary should learn about cubs, and it seemed unlikely that the Primary President would be going, so that left Joey. This morning she got up on time, but said that her stomach was upset. She tried eating some breakfast, that didn't work out too well so she took a shower, which didn't seem to help either, so she went back to bed and pretty much stayed there till about 6:00 pm. I don't think she ate anything at all today.

I have learned that the kids do well if you have a plan. If there is no plan, they just snack and fight and make messes all day long, so this morning, after everyone had eaten and gotten dressed, we set up a schedule as follows:

8:00-8:45 Dishes * Zoe and Emily
8:45-9:00 Clean the House * Everbody
9:00-11:00 Free Time * Kids
9:00-11:00 Dump Trip * Dad
11:00-11:30 Clean the House * Everyone
11:30-12:15 Lunch * Everyone
12:15-1:00 Free Time * Everyone
1:00-2:00 Make Choc. Chip Cookies * Everyone
2:00-2:30 Clean up * Everyone
2:30-3:00 Computer time * Zachary
3:00-3:30 Computer time * Emily
3:30-4:30 Make corn bread for dinner * Emily and Dad
3:30-4:00 Computer time * Eleanor
4:00-4:30 Computer time * Zoe
4:30-5:00 Dinner * Everyone
5:00-5:10 Bath * Kate
5:10-5:20 Bath * Zachary
5:20-5:30 Bath * Eleanor
5:00-5:30 Clean Kitchen Floor * Zoe and Emily
5:30-5:40 Bath * Emily
5:40-5:50 Bath * Zoe
5:50-6:00 Scriptures & Prayer * Everybody
6:00-7:30 Movie * Everybody

Wow. We have a lot of kids. By and large the kids stuck with the schedule. The cookies turned out good. The cornbread was tollerated by about everybody except Eleanor (thank goodness). Everybody got half a cookie for desert.

Joey came out to watch the Movie. It is Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. It was fine, much better than the previews would lead you to believe, but that is not saying much I guess.

Of course the kids were excited to see Joey. She has been gone Tuesday to Parent Teacher Conference, Wednesday to Stake Leadership Training, Thursday to Parent Teacher Conference, and Friday to Relief Society.

After the kids and Joey went to sleep Eleanor woke up crying, so I went in to see what was going on. She was sitting up on her bed looking around.

"Squeezie," I said, "what's the matter?"

"I am throwing up all over everything!" she replied, sounding puzzled.

Sure enough, she was throwing up all over everything. She mostly got Zach's camo fleece blanket, doused his pillow, and hit the floor. Her mattress only suffered a few minor insults, and remarkably, either her blankets were unscathed or its just too dark to notice. Her hair was drenched in vomit, so into the bath she went, even though that was not on the schedule, and the bedding went into the laundry, except for Zach's pillow, which I washed in the kitchen sink, and then tossed in the dryer.

While I have been typing this the unbalanced load alarm has gone off 4 times, and Squeezie has thrown up once (in the toilet, Hurray!) and she woke up again, but didn't throw up. I am glad she didn't eat much dinner.

I remember one year working at Windridge we had a little outbreak of everybody puking all over everything. I was in a cabin with Steve Dreher and we had the 10 year old kids, probably 10 or 12 of them. Thats when I overcame my sympathetic vomiting reflex. Well, its 11:05 and Eleanor just threw up again. I don't suppose any of us will be in church tomorrow at this rate.