Stinky kitchen

So my kitchen has been smelling bad for the past few weeks, and I knew that I'd have to tackle the fridge soon. But when one feels as ill as I have been, one does not want to expose oneself to the toxic fumes emanating from there.

Since I have been feeling much better the past few days, I started the process. Well, nothing in the fridge was really as rank as I expected, and it really wasn't a torturous undertaking as far as the cleaning went. But the kitchen still reeked. I noticed the stench most when running the dishwasher or disposal, so I've been using baking soda, vinegar, or lemon juice liberally with each run of the disposal, in an effort to eradicate the foul odor. That lasts about two hours, and then I'm forced out of the kitchen again. I've run the dishwasher empty with only baking soda, and that actually made it worse.

Nancy suggested that the culprit is a gunked-up hose in the dishwasher. That sounds likely, but that sounds like an absolutely disgusting job to clean or replace it. I'll have to take the kids out of the house while Monte works on it :)

It's really hard to prepare food in a nasty-smelling kitchen on the best of days. Throw in an already queasy stomach, and all bets are off as to whether or not it's a Taco Bell meal.

Our fun Easter weekend

Our plan was for Monte to take off from work Friday afternoon, and then we'd head over to his parents for the weekend. Saturday was Christian's birthday party, and Sunday was his parents' anniversary, so we were planning on dinner out Saturday night.

Didn't quite work out that way. Monte woke up early Friday morning vomiting. Not fun. I spent the morning tending to him. Then at around noon, as I was preparing lunch, Audrey started vomiting as well. So as I was cleaning it up, I of course felt sick, too. No lunch was eaten that afternoon. So the three of us spent the afternoon sleeping and vomiting, while poor Isaac, who was finally feeling better, was left to his own devices.

OK - so we delay going for a day. Not a huge deal. Except that what I had was more than just morning sickness, and more than just a stomach bug. Somehow the two combined are exponential in their effects. I puked 13 times in 10 hours, leading me to believe that I was seriously dehydrated. I placed a call to my doc, who sent me to the hospital for IV fluids. Supposed to have been just a couple of hours, but 13 hours later, I was finally home again.

I slept much of the time in the hospital, which was really nice, but I sure did miss my family. It didn't help that I was on the birthing floor, so I kept hearing babies crying, and the older siblings yelling for mommy.

Sunday was a day of rest for us all, and was much needed. Isaac was still a little too wired for us, but really, he's been so good through all of this.

Now it's Monday - Monte is back at work, I'm feeling much better, and I have a mountain of laundry waiting, a stack of dishes (how? we haven't eaten!), and a ton of disinfecting to do.

Pictures

I was told that I need to post more pictures here, so here they are! Just for you, Ken.

Bedtime - Audrey likes to be in Isaac's bed when we sing and pray.


Audrey thinks cleaning the toilet is funny!


Audrey getting into my scrapbooking tote - she likes my pens


Isaac and Audrey watching a video


Nice follow-through, Isaac!