taking a shot in the dark

alrighty, so only two of these are really shots in the dark, but you get the point.

madi was watching supper bake tuesday night... she got so excited when i turned the oven light on and the kitchen light off. oh, the things that make babies happy... if only the rest of life were that simple, huh?

the lit-up palm tree in our living room now has kind of a special meaning for me...
this is what i saw this morning at about 1.30 when i finally dragged myself to bed. i had left the lights unplugged all day yesterday so it threw me for a loop when i saw them all lit up.
let me start at the beginning: yesterday was nice... nothing unusual, but everyone was perky and all. late in the afternoon, less than an hour after having a snackwrap from mcdonald's for a late lunch, i started feeling pretty gross. my first though was (and still is) food poisoning- it came on SO fast, was violent and ended just as abruptly. now, it could be the same stomach bug madi got (she puked in the night wednesday night and has had some pretty nasty diapers ever since, but her appetite is normal, so that's great), but there's really no way of telling. i knew it wasn't going to be a fleeting case of nausea, so i called kelvin's parents... his dad came and got the kids and they had a sleepover at grandpa dan and grandma ruby's house.
literally.
they all camped out on mattresses.
but i digress.
it was a nasty something-or-other, confining me to the bathroom until the wee hours of the morning. at one point, i considered calling 911 because the stomach cramps were beyond anything i'd ever had before. i literally couldn't breathe enough because of the pain, so i was hyperventilating on top of everything else. anyway, i got to the point where i knew it was over and headed upstairs to bed. i saw light in the living room, which was strange, because i hadn't turned any lights on and the kids had been gone for hours. apparently, cole had plugged in the lights on the tree before he left... which, of course, made me miss him even more. it was sweet- i like to think it was his way of making sure mommy was safe.
so... after talking to an on-call nurse, it was decided that we should have plenty of pedialyte in the house for madi and cole. well... i knew i didn't have the strength to bundle both kids up, take them to the store, risk someone puking or having a super-messy diaper while we were out, so i called our wonderful neighbor to see if, by any chance, she'd be able to pick some up for us. she said "lucky you, i'm at the grocery store right now!"... we're so lucky to have some super-special people next door! and for the record, i don't make requests like that unless i have no other options. i prefer to be independent and resilient. unfortunately, that does not apply when forceful vomiting is involved.
now if you'll excuse me, i'm going to keep us on the mend...

oh, and if you haven't already done so, feel free to leave a comment on the previous post to enter the "pay it forward" gift giveaway! you have till noon on monday... good luck!