And then there were two... I hope!

I had a very interesting Easter Weekend, but in order to really get a feel for what happened, I am going to have to ask my beautiful counterpart to tell the story from her view-point. I might have some extra little details to add later, but for now, she will have to fill you in...

...It had the makings of an excellent Easter weekend. "Extended", actually, because I had these long-term plans with three of my high school best friends to go to Chicago and spend the night Tuesday and Wednesday. My sister called from Michigan earlier in the week to ask us if we would be able to all assemble at my parents house on Friday for one last gathering before our big move. (A collective *sigh* is heard by several Faith students...) We agreed and headed out Friday with pies and snacks and enjoyed a day with my five other siblings minus Travis my baby brother who floated in for about 30 minutes to say "hi" and leave to go to a sale barn to buy chickens. Yep, chickens. I was raised on a farm and believe it or not the purchase of the chickens was a HUGE point of conversation most of the day. So, the plan was to go our separate ways on Saturday and then re-assemble on Sunday for church and a big Easter dinner. Saturday, I was awakened with the news that my brother and his niece has arrived home with the chickens and a little, shall I say, "tummy trouble". My sister went into hysterics that Trav had held her new baby and we made an unofficial, official "law" that anyone having thrown up in the past 24 hours was disbanded from any partying with us for the rest of the weekend. They humbly agreed and could have cared less since they were dead on the bathroom floor when the decree went forth. I spent the day shopping and fixing the meal for the next day and retired into bed around 11:00 p.m.

Then it happened. I was awakened about 2 a.m. with a sick feeling coming from the general direction of my stomach and intestines. I thought it was probably my hypochondriac tendencies and tried to push myself back into sleep but failed miserably. I decided that I should at least attempt to make it to the downstairs bathroom since it may become necessary but impossible with much delay. I was able to descend the steps but when I reached the bottom, I dropped to my knees and began to crawl to the bathroom. Now, understand that my parents house is approximately 3,000 square feet, so it was a LONG crawl and a pathetic one at that. I found my way to the bathroom floor which is where my dad discovered me on his way to throw up, himself. Neither one of us admitted sickness to each other out of fear that we would also be thrown from the house by my hysterical sister...who was at that very same time beginning to be sick in the upstairs bathroom. We all made it through the night and feigned some sort of "mysterious" non-contagious illness until each realized that they were not alone.

Then...all "flu-hell" broke loose. This is the order that people began to fall ill:

Travis
Morgan...who was shipped off to her grandmother
Morgan's grandmother
Charity
Dad
Julie
Eddie...who had to be hospitalized for dehydration
Amanda
Jared
Josiah...who so sweetly "waited" to throw up until his daddy picked him up!
Mom
Lori...who had to leave her sub job at school early because she became sick only to be called back in the next day due to several other teachers who had suddenly come down with the flu...she declined the second time!
Bill
Larry...Julie's stepdad from the Saturday visit
Mitchel
Samuel... he took the record at throwing up more than 17 times and passing out!

We thought we were home free with Samuel who didn't officially get sick until 10 hours before I was suppose to leave on my trip! He seemed to bounce back brilliantly which caused me to investigate into a later train that would get me to Chicago just 6 hours after the girls and he threw up 15 minutes before I walked out the door. My hubby had to call the girls and cancel AGAIN while I cried in the bathroom....not a place I wanted to stay for long.

So, we're home now and we are trying to put the whole ordeal behind us. The only people in the house who didn't get sick were Matt (Mr. Harmless) and Jeff...my sister's husband. They have a theory that the illness was contained to those inhabiting some sort of "Lathrop" blood, but I'm not putting any stock in it. I think God just knew that there had to be somebody to eat up all that Easter food and Matt and Jeff were the most qualified for the job....both hungry and too scared of my sister to get sick themselves.

My dad is having t-shirts printed for all of us saying "I survived Easter 2004". He plans on giving them to us for Christmas....shipping them, that is. I doubt many of us will be ready to gather again that soon!