In Which I Get Sick, Paint a Lot, Imitate Sleeping Beauty, and Take Care of 13 Children

On Sunday after our time together at Temple Square it was time for Russ to fly back to NC to go back to work. The big boys were going to go back to my sister's house in Genola for a few days. (This time in Genola without me is for some reason the highlight of my sons' lives. I don't get it.) The little kids and I were going to go back to Logan to stay with our friends, where I planned to paint their family room/dining area/kitchen. Then we would come down to Genola and babysit Andra's 8 kids (did you catch that? She has 8 kids!!!) while she and her husband flew to NC for her 20th class reunion.

There was just one hitch in my plans. Russ picked up some annoying cough on his way to Utah, which during his 10 day vacation had morphed into full fledged bronchitis and a sinus infection. I had done my best to be careful and not catch his plague-like disease, and it worked...until his last day in Utah. On Sunday I had a pesky little cough, and on Monday I could tell that I was truly getting sick. By Monday night I definitely sounded sick--all of the coughing had produced a voice about an octave lower than my regular voice!

Monday I spent messing with paint colors. My friend Katie had a lot of paint swatches on her walls, and none of them was the right color for her house. One popular color was too yellow, one was too dark, and another was so light it didn't even show up on her walls. I had the idea to mix some of the samples that she already had together to try to find something she liked. I would take a bit of this color and a bit of that color and mix them together, then paint them on a poster board and see how she liked the color on her wall. Eventually we ended up with 1 part Sienna Sand, 1 part Way-too-dark Brown, and 3 parts white.


On Tuesday morning we took the paint sample to the paint store and had them match our color, and then we lugged the 5 gallon bucket into the garage so that I could start painting. I could tell that my cough was getting worse and that I was running a fever, but I kept popping the ibuprofen and sucking on cough drops. I was determined to get the first coat of paint on.

When I finally finished late in the afternoon I was exhausted. I collapsed on the couch for about an hour, and when I finally managed to wake up for dinner was told I looked awful.

With friends like that a person doesn't need enemies! ;)

The night before I had taken a little Nyquil to help me sleep, but it hadn't been enough to stop the pesky cough. Now a normal dose of Nyquil is 2 Tablespoons, but I rarely take the normal dose of anything. I had taken only 1 teaspoon the night before, but decided on Tuesday night that I was going to take more because I was determined to sleep without coughing. So I decided that I would take 1.5 Tablespoons--still less than the regular dose, but much more than I'd taken the night before.I slept very, very well. Not even a cough.

I woke up in the morning around 7:30, sat at the table while the kids were eating, IM'd with Russ for a few minutes, and felt wiped out. At 8:30 my computer shut itself down and I told Katie that I was exhausted and needed a nap. (Now I am a napper, but generally not just an hour after getting up in the morning!) I took my pillow and earplugs and laid down in one of the kids rooms, figuring that I'd sleep for an hour or two and then wake up so that I could leave for Genola.

There was no clock in the bedroom, so when I woke up I figured I'd been asleep an hour or two. I wandered out into the house, trying to wake up and figure out what time it was. Finally I found a clock but I was sure it was wrong--the clock said 2:30! Sure enough, I had slept for 6 hours!

I'm sure Katie thought I was never coming out of there. And I think that's too much Nyquil for my body.

When I was finally all of the way awake it was time to drive to Genola to start the next part of my week. I could tell by this time that I'd seriously exhausted myself with all of the painting on Tuesday, and I arrived at Andra's house resolved to do nothing but sit on the couch on Thursday and Friday while babysitting her kids. Which would be a trick, since her youngest three are almost 2, 4, and 6, and wouldn't be in school.

On Thursday I organized my 5 kids into a babysitting rotation, giving each one of them 20-30 minutes at a time to be responsible for taking care of Andra's little kids.

I sat on the couch having a very bad hair day and every now and then Evan would come and cuddle with me. I had planned on doing a little blogging, but I didn't even do that. I just sat. Or napped.


On Friday I woke up and realized the sinus infection had arrived, and so I finally located an insta-care center near Provo that our insurance would pay for and took myself & the three little kids (who were also coughing now) off to see the doctor. The doctor said that the little kids were fine but gave me an antibiotic for my sinus infection.

Friday evening my sister Laila & her family arrived to take over the babysitting. Hooray for Laila! I was so tired and my babysitting rotation hadn't worked as well on Friday, so I was ready to turn the kids over to her.

My kids were excited that one of the brand new kitties opened it's eyes before we left. I couldn't believe it was so tiny!

Just in case you wanted to know what 13 kids looks like, here you go. Me with my 13 kids.

And this is what it felt like.

We went up to Bountiful and spent the night at Russ's parent's house. Josh had to fly out at 8:00 AM Saturday morning, and I knew that sick I couldn't get up early enough to take him to the airport. Russ's wonderful dad took him instead so that I could sleep in longer.

~to be continued~