The Perfect Storm.

Last week, Dan went to Chicago four days, came home for fewer than 24 hours and then left on a Young Men's campout.

And June was sick.

And Gwen was sick.

And Harris was sick.

And Beck was sick.

True story.

But I was okay; I was cool. I was my usual chill self. Mwahahaha.

I have pondered how much I should share. I'm aware that many people do not enjoy barf and other-end stories, of which there have been plenty. But some of the experiences have just been too amazing to not record.

For example, the first night Dan was gone I let both girls sleep with me. This is a rare occurrence, as I'm one of those weirdos that enjoys restful slumber.

In the middle of the night, June woke up exclaiming that she was going to barf.

(I have to insert here that I'm really not a nurse type. Dan is. He will go to the store and buy you your favorite popsicles when you're sick. He'll stream your favorite show for you and bring you lots of blankets and check on you. I really am not like that. I don't want mess, and I don't want an interruption to my routine. Yes, I have a heartbeat. It's just very faint.)

So I told June to RUNNNNNNNNN to the bathroom and not to barf on my new bed.

The good news: she missed the bed.

The bad news: she didn't miss our brand new carpet.

The worse news: Beck was sick later that day, and he did not miss the bed. And so the week went, my beautiful new stuff getting Jolleyed up quicker than I could blink.

So there were a few days with everyone at home. We watched movies and read books. Luckily, there is always a lot of construction outside our front windows, so the kids really enjoy watching that.

Gwen felt better than everyone else quickly and was my helper the rest of the day she stayed home from school.

We also found the longest, pointiest egg of all time in one of our egg cartons, and we felt like that was a special moment to document.

I mean, we really know how to live around here.

One of the books we read was Berenstain Bears and the Excuse Note, where Sister Bear realizes the power of an excuse note to get out of P.E. and other activities, even beyond when she is healed from her injury. June took this to heart and tried to get out of going to school ever again. Right after we had read the book. It was very not smooth of her.

She tried negotiating with me. One month, then one week, then one day.

I reminded her that it was Dr. Seuss week at school and she was going to miss all of the fun. This
was not very smooth of me, because June hates missing stuff like that. I braced myself and prayed that she wouldn't ask the very question she did ask, which was "Which day is the day where I get to dress up like my favorite book character?"

"Well, that's today, and we had to miss it because you're sick," I replied. And then all heck broke loose. (That's right; I said HECK.)

You've never seen a 180 like that before. She went from begging to be unschooled for life to begging to be taken to school RIGHT THAT VERY INSTANT RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW YOU'RE SO MEAN MOM.

So I told her she could dress up like her book character around the house.

June received The Magic Treehouse books for Christmas, which she has since finished. Her favorite was #16 Hour of the Olympics, so she wore a toga the rest of the day.

We tried various styles.

And then it got kinda weird. This looks like when Ariel from The Little Mermaid tried to make her own dress.

By the way, we aren't huge Disney people, but we'll watch a movie. Dan DESPISES The Little Mermaid, however. He just can't stand it.

It was about this time of the week that Dan let me know he had just had the best dinner of this life (Hello--remember my meatloaf?) at Ditka's in Chicago, and I showed him where I had just had dinner.

Banana peel and all. Because I love playing the victim.

Today--you guessed it! We went to church.

We forgot to take our traditional fireplace photo, so this one will have to do.

And Dan wowed with another great lesson from Come Follow Me today.

The. End.