The Sickness Saga...

As said in previous post (which you probably haven't read yet), this holiday season was one to be remembered in the Brown household.

It all started on Monday the 28th of December with the expected arrival home of Caleb from his mission. Mom wanted there to be a grand welcoming home party, but since he got home on a Monday and everyone is pretty scattered and couldn't take off work, Mom did the best she could and brought home as many of the grandkids from Arkansas as she could. Thank goodness Amberly decided to abandon her husband and accompany her kids to help with chaos control! So Caleb arrived home Monday night to the empty (and I mean EMPTY) Tupelo Airport. (Hey, how were we supposed to know his flight was 30 minutes early?) So Tuesday as is customary, he had to meet with the Stake President to be released, well a month ago that would have been pretty easy, as it was our Dad, but the new Stake President is my brother's father-in-law and they live 2 hours away. So my dad and Caleb head to Florence, Alabama to get him released and naturally stop in on my brother's family to see them... AND HERE'S WHERE IT STARTS....

My brother's son Evan, had the stomach virus the day before that he got from his mom's side of the family (it should also be mentioned that Evan is my mom's favorite grandchild, and his presence in our house is sought out every chance they can get (I will also note this is no fault of Evan or his mom, his dad also happens to be my mom's favorite child)). So of course Evan comes home with Dad and Caleb to play with the cousins. I'll be honest and say I was not pleased with this decision (nothing against Evan personally, just viruses) and decided to keep Betsy in our apartment as much as possible for the rest of the week despite my parents' reassurances that he was "better". So "mysteriously" Wednesday night Caleb gets sick, with symptoms an awful lot like, you guessed it, the stomach virus. Thursday (the day EVERYONE is supposed to arrive for Brown Christmas) Johanna, Evan's mom, comes down with it and decides to postpone their trip over until Friday. Let me take the time to inform anyone who doesn't know, when all together and accounted for there are 35 people in the Harry Brown family. So Friday afternoon, Andrew and Johanna arrive and yep, Friday night Andrew is sick. Saturday morning goes pretty well, all the guys are making preparations to watch the Arkansas football game, and all the ladies are trying to figure out what to do with 19 kids to keep them out of the guys' way during the game... well mid-game Carson starts feeling not well, quickly followed by Edyn, Peyton, and Ryan. During an after puke shower for Edyn, her mom discovers HEAD LICE! So a quick trip to Wal-Mart is made to buy out all Lice Killing products and they are quickly distributed out and kids are immediately treated. During treatments 3 more kids get sick... and so the night continued.... by 3am Sunday morning there are a reported 24 cases of the stomach virus in the Brown family AT ONE TIME!! That was no night for the weak, I'll tell ya that! Betsy and I both got it that night, but miraculously Eric was able to dodge it and take care of Betsy for me. He was a LIFESAVER! Needless to say, no Brown attended church on Sunday and each family headed home as soon as they felt well ENOUGH to travel... I do not envy those road trips. I will also throw out there was a case of Thrush in the mix as well... it was one HECK of a weekend! There are talks of shirts being made, "I survived Brown Christmas 2o09".