Over the past few days, the Carpenter Family has been away in Maine. We gathered with a bunch of friends, several of whom are missionaries, to reconnect as families. Most of us met in college when we were single, and this was the first time we were all together with our spouses and children! While the majority of the time was fun, the ending of our little vacation was MISERABLE. There were sixteen people (including kids ranging in age from four months to five years old) and, to date, fourteen of us got a horrible virus that spread like wildfire throughout the house! I got sick the night of my birthday (isn't there some sort of rule against bad things happening on your birthday...?) which meant Tim and I were unable to attend the concert for which he'd bought me tickets; I can't really put into words how disappointed I feel about missing the concert, because it's something we were looking forward to so much. This morning, finally at home, we got up and our heat wasn't working - by the way, it is COLD in New Hampshire in January. Thankfully, we were able to get someone out to our house for service and $200 later we have a new ignitor for our furnace. Man, when it rains, it pours, right?
On a more positive note, I have lived through one of my worst nightmares - that Tim, Stella, and I would all get sick at the same time - and I survived. [Random Fact About My Husband: Before this vacation, the last time Tim threw up he was seven years old...sadly, he broke his 27 year streak on January 5, 2011.] The only good thing about being violently ill, living with fifteen other people, away from home, on your birthday is that all of us weren't sick at the same time. Our friends were able to watch Stella for a while in between times when Tim and I were both out of commission. Also, when Stella threw up for the first time in her life we had other parents around (one of whom was a nurse) to coach us through the experience and let us know everything was going to be alright. There isn't much in this world that is worse than seeing your child suffer - especially when they are too young to find the words to tell you what they are really feeling. Stella was a champ; she held up 1,000 times better than either Tim or I did. Plus, if you ever want to see something hilarious, give a baby some Pedialyte (oops, my bad...) and watch the fun begin - it's the equivalent of a shot of "Five Hour Energy" for a nine month old. As the old adage goes, breastmilk is best - even when they are sick!
Here are some "pre-bug" highlights from our trip:
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