Flashback Friday: Sick

I've been trying to think of what to write about for today's flashback. Most of my flashbacks in the past few days, oddly enough, have been about times when my head has been bent over the toilet bowl. The last time I remember throwing up was, ironically, when I was pregnant with Rachel. That, again, was due to a stomach bug, not because I'm a throw-upper when I'm pregnant, because I'm not (although I'm really sorry for those who are).

The time before that was when we lived in Jordan and I was sick for about 2 months straight, which is about half the time we lived there. It wasn't throwing up as much as...other issues, also involving the toilet. Let's just say that before we moved out here we went to the doctor and loaded up on medicine for traveler's diarrhea. Oddly enough, we haven't touched it.

Then there was the time my family went on vacation right before my brother, David, left for his mission. We drove down to Mesa Verde which is in, places of all places, Montezuma County. We stopped by Arches National Park to do some hiking on our way...unless that was another trip... I remember that Josie was rather sick at Arches. We had emptied an ice cream bucket full of grapes and she was using that to throw up in.

And then I got sick for the rest of the trip. I hardly survived the hikes that I did go on, but spent most of the hiking hours cooped up in the hotel room.

The only bonus was that I got to ride shotgun on the way home, with the seat tilted back. Blech.

There was another time when we had gone up to Canada for Canadian Thanksgiving, I think. I'm pretty sure because we had a Thanksgiving dinner at Kathy and Bary's. But it could have been American Thanksgiving. We like to celebrate Thanksgivings. We're fun like that. Anyway, Josie and...someone else...got sick on the way home and I sat in the middle seat and passed the bucket back and forth between them while they alternatively puked. It was...lovely.

I've come to the conclusion that it must have been Canadian Thanksgiving because that was the year that she got her pig costume for Halloween. And she threw up on it. Also, it must have been the year Piper was born because Abra still lived next door to our old house, and I walked home from the high school willingly after visiting my friends. So it had to have been October because I don't walk anywhere willingly in November in Alberta.

When we lived in High River I got so sick during Christmas once that my siblings opened my presents for me. I had no clue what was going on.

When we lived in Calgary we all got Beaver Fever after swimming in Sikome Lake, which is weird because their water is treated. Patrick and Josie got it the worst and my mom happened to be in charge of helping plan the family reunion that year...which meant that we had to go anyway. That was fun.

I always scoffed at the fear inflicted in the Young Women at Girl's Camp. We weren't allowed to touch the pond water for fear of contracting giardia. It was a little ridiculous considering that some of the camps I went on before moving to Utah we discussed how to filter/purify water and then actually filtered/purified water to drink. We always went swimming and ran around in our bathing suits at Girl's Camp. We slept in tents, even. We were pretty rogue.

That said, Bever Fever isn't a whole lot of fun, so maybe it's best that they kept us away from the pond.

Anyway, all this thinking about times I've been sick is making me feel queasy again. My head aches and my house is a mess. Apparently having both parents sprawled across the couches (and running to the toilet every few minutes) while an almost two-year-old runs feral for two days isn't the best way to keep up a house. I'll bet she's getting pretty sick of eating crackers and soup, too.

But she started it.