Oink, Oink.

A little piggy has invaded my house, a piggy called Swine Flu. Did I ask for this unwelcome company, of course not. But it arrived none the less. It began with Mark...about 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, (depending on how you view time, to me it was still Wednesday night because I had not gone to bed yet), I was on my computer just finishing up some email when I heard Mark crying. He had been sleeping in my bed. I arrived upstairs to discover that Mark had regurgitated a significant quality of stuff, and had apparently eaten more chocolate earlier in the evening than I was aware of. I stood him up, stripped his clothes off, and marched him to the bathtub, and of course on the way to the tub, more hurling occurred.

Once Mark was safely in the tub, I proceeded to strip all bedding off my bed and head for the laundry room, to start what would be one of three loads of laundry. Next it was the carpet cleaners turn to make an appearance in my bathroom. Carpet successfully cleaned, and by this time Mark had soaked off the majority of his damage. One clean boy later he requested a drink. I offered water but he wanted Sprite, which I did not have, so I offered Dr. Pepper, (hey its what I crave when I am sick... so in the moment it sounded good.) I told Mark that he would need to sleep in his bed since the sheets were being washed on mine. I tucked him and and returned to my computer to finish the last of my work.

Within 20 minutes I heard Mark crying, and head back up stairs only to find a substance once classified as Dr. Pepper all over the cream carpet in Mark's room, and Mark informing me he threw up. I took Mark down stairs and secured him on the couch with a large bowl and returned upstairs with the carpet cleaner. (FYI, Dr. Pepper and chocolate very hard stains to remove from carpet... still some residual left. Mark was so thoughtful as to throw up in the corner of the room where I could not reach the stain with my carpet cleaner, now it just looks like I have a mold problem.)

Back down stairs, changed out one load of laundry, and attended to Mark who was demanding a drink again. Having learned my lesson, I limited his drinking to water, which stayed down about 60 seconds. Mark who had not completely figured out the purpose of the large bowl I gave him, elected to bypass the bowl and upchuck all over the floor and couch. Yes, out came the carpet cleaner again....., and we had a chat about the purpose of the large bowl.

Next Mark said he needed to use the bathroom, where it was on to diarrhea. He made it to the bathroom twice and had four accidents over the course of the next two hours. I will spare you the details, as well as the smell, but lets just say I tolerated the smell from the upper end much better than the smell from the lower end....

Finally about 4:00 a.m. he fell asleep on the couch. By this time I had completed three loads of laundry, and practically steamed cleaned all the carpet in my house. I left him asleep on the couch and headed up stairs to sleep in my bed. I was awakened an hour and a half later at 5:30 a.m. by Mark who was still suffering the effects of an upset stomach.

He spent the next three days in and out of being conscience, while I tried to keep medication and liquid down. Finally on Sunday he started to feel better.

Mark, taking up residence on my couch.

Then it was on to Katie....not to be outdone by her older brother, Katie decided that she needed to have the Swine Flu too. Hers began about 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, with, you guessed it, throwing up in her bed. Off came the clothes, stripped were the sheets, one bath was run, and a load of laundry was started. (By now I was a pro at this.)

Katie wondered around in a haze on Saturday and I limited her food, and restricted her liquids to clear items. Lots of medicine, and by Sunday she was able to keep food down, but man was she CRANKY. I got yelled at a lot for no good reason.

I hope that we are on the mend and our bout with pigs and swine is over....