December Woes

So much has been going on, but most of it not particularly fun, I'm afraid...


We'll start with my vacuum breaking two weeks ago.  The seminary teacher had asked me to leave the vacuum downstairs so she could do a little tidying, so I was surprised when she tapped on the door and walked into the family room.  I was sitting in front of the computer in my bathrobe with crazy, I-just-woke-up hair (NOT the kind you instagram, trust me!) and was both embarrassed and annoyed at the intrusion.  She explained that she couldn't get the brushes on the vacuum to rotate; I tried a few things to get it going, and when those didn't work, I told her I'd just have to look more closely later.  (I wasn't going to get down on the floor and start dismantling the vacuum in my bathrobe!).  I figured one of those ornament hooks was probably stuck in it, so that's an easy fix.  Later in the afternoon I actually took it apart and cleaned the brush head, but found nothing wrong.  I googled it, called the company, they walked me through a few things, decided the motor in the brush head had died and promised to send me a new one.  It's still under warranty, so everything is free at least.  And I could still use the hose attachment, which is useful for cleaning up the piles of cereal my kids spill all over the floor several times every day.  So that was fine.  Not ideal, but workable for a week or so.

On Monday the new brush head arrived and I excitedly snapped it all together... and it still didn't work.  I called the company again, and after waiting 20 minutes to talk to a person, explained what had happened.  "Must be something else wrong, then!" she said, "You'll have to bring it in."  Since there are no Dyson stores nearby, I brought it to a UPS store and they boxed it up and mailed it for me (which is AWESOME, since I absolutely HATE boxing up anything, let alone a big old vacuum!).

And now I'm just waiting.  And watching my floors get grosser and grosser and wondering if it's worth the hassle of pulling out Craig's shop vac to take care of it all.

Also, I can't imagine that I'm going to get it back before Craig's brother and family arrive next week.  So that's been worrying me.  Fortunately, my mother-in-law graciously told me she'd bring her vacuum for me to borrow, so I won't be completely embarrassed that day.  (At least, not by my floors-- there's a good chance something else will happen to embarrass me!)

Anyway, this whole not having a vacuum thing seems to kill any motivation I've ever had to clean my house.  I'll notice that the bathrooms are dirty and be like, "But I don't have a vacuum, so who cares?"  I realize that makes no sense whatsoever, but there you go.  I'm sure the cold snap is adding to my inertia, too.  {Sigh.}  It's a good thing we've got company coming, or who knows how gross I might let things get?


***

The other fun thing around here is that everyone has been getting sick.  It started the same Friday my vacuum died.  That night, Colton wouldn't settle down.  He never said anything to indicate that he wasn't feeling well, he just kept wandering into my bedroom.  I was staying up later than I should have been, reading a book, so I'd just walk him back to his room and tell him to go to sleep.  The fourth time he came in, I'd finally turned out my light, but I thought I could hear him.  He stood in the dark for a moment, and then I heard that awful splat sound of liquid hitting the carpet.  I hoped maybe he'd just managed to spill a cup of water somehow, but then more splattering and I was out of bed in a flash.  Thrown up pizza: so disgusting.  So staining your carpet.

Then the following Thursday Kendra was complaining that her tummy hurt, and a few hours later she was throwing up (mostly in the toilet-- good girl, Kendra).  And later that night Ryder followed suit.  The next day Craig came home from work early and proceeded to lie around light-headed and ill, trying not to pass out.

The ward Christmas party was Friday night and I was supposed to bring food to it AND sing, so I was hoping to go and worried that I, too, would start throwing up.  Fortunately I managed to avoid it (knock on wood), so I brought most of the kids with me (Ryder slept through it, but Kendra was feeling better, so she came).  So it was me trying to manage everything with four kids.  I'd asked a friend to sit with me and help, but she ended up being over an hour late, so that didn't work.  When she did arrive, she sat down with her one child and said, "How do you manage with all your kids?" and I told her, "Constant humiliation."

Then I had to get up and sing my musical number.  We only had half the people we'd planned, because two were also sick; and the two who came had missed the previous practice.  So we weren't very good.  And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, Colton decided to run back and forth head-butting me the entire time.

Have you ever tried to sing while a small child is hurling himself into your side?  It's not pretty.

He's revving up, here

I sat back down and thought to myself, "Yup.  Constant humiliation."


We went home.  I put all the kids to bed.  Bentley woke me up at midnight crying because his stomach hurt.  He was throwing up at 4am.  I also got woken up at 2am by Ryder yelling at me and crying because he'd missed the Christmas party.  (I was a good mommy and took him downstairs and fed him some dinner, since he'd slept through that, too.)  And Craig woke me up at 5am because he was rattling around in the bathroom and I suddenly panicked that maybe he actually had fainted and was lying on the floor helpless.  I was kind of annoyed when he was just fine, but noisy.  (He did let me sleep in the next morning.  But he let the kids eat cereal over the rug.  Which I can't vacuum.  Grrrr...)

I got out of the shower and found this

My poor boys

***

So that's been the last couple weeks.  Everyone is healthy at the moment, a fact for which I am very grateful.  I know of some people who were sick for a week-- the fact that our bug only lasted 24 hours is a huge blessing.

I think it's time to put on some Christmas music and lug the shop vac up from the basement...