Canoeing and grandma's day with the little angels

During our family get-together in Missouri over Memorial Day, we decided to take Missi and Kathi canoeing, along with my cousin Nate and his wife Mendy.  My mom volunteered to watch Lindsay and their daughter Trisha, who was 6 weeks younger than Lindsay.

We went to Bennett Springs State Park, where the girls wanted to go every time we were in Missouri.  They loved to feed the fish at the trout hatchery.  So we headed out, rented a couple of canoes and had a great afternoon on the river.

Not wanting to take too much advantage of mom, we didn't stay out all day.  What did we come home to find?  The babies were playing quietly, and mom was vacuuming.... Vacuuming up all the dirt from the planter they had pulled over... you know, the one mom sat there watching them, saying 'they can't pull that planter off'.  Everyone/thing was fine - except the plant.  But it didn't stop mom from watching our kids many more times in the future.  She was great like that!

It wasn't me, really........

Who? Us? Cause trouble??

Food poisoning

The days quickly fell into a routine.  Up, sitter's, work, sitter's, home, dinner, play, bed.  Repeat.  Every other weekend with Missi and Kathi, and always church on Sundays and then dinner with Kent's folks.

When I went back to work, we splurged and hired a housecleaner for three hours a week.  Shirley came on Monday afternoons.  We always left the money for her on the table, but unless we were running late she was usually still there when we got home.

So we got home and Kent went out to mow the yard while Shirley and I visited and played with Lindsay.  After I few minutes Shirley left, and then I thought 'I don't feel so well'.  I put Lindsay in the playpen (yes, I know, I'm an evil person, using a playpen) and hurried to the bathroom, where I was violently sick.  From fine to "dying" - all in a matter of minutes.  I can't get to the door, so I'm pounding on the window, hoping Kent will hear me over the mower.

I continued to be sick all evening.  At some point, Missi and Kathi's (who had been with us over the weekend) mom called and said they were both extremely sick, to the point of broken blood vessels under their eyes from throwing up.  (And she's not happy with us.)

I finally made it upstairs to bed and actually slept.  Around 2:00, Kent got up and, feeling fine, went downstairs - and had to basically crawl back up.  He got sick that fast.  Knowing Lindsay was likely to wake at any time, and knowing neither one of us could care for her, he called his folks, who came out and got her.  They had to drive back out again a few hours later to take her to the babysitter's, then back again after work to get her and check on us.  And they repeated it all the next day, until we were better.

Turns out, we had all gotten food poisoning from a local restaurant over the weekend.  NEVER want to go through that again!  We were so thankful to have Kent's folks close enough, and willing, to help out.  And we got our chance, with a middle-of-the-night call years later, to help with a daughter/son-in-law/granddaughter in need (only they were 300+ miles away, but worth every mile!)