when it comes to the pukes!!! LOL

You just know when one starts....you have all the rest to go through before it is over!!

ds#3 started throwing up a couple of days ago....and now I cringe every time I see one of them even act like they are having a belly pain!!

I do love my family, though!

I so agree with you.

When we went home for my grandmother's funeral all the boys and dh got some type of stomach bug and I think the flu. I was the only one who didn't get sick that time. One of the men in our church would pray and he would pray that I wouldn't get sick. His wife was laughing and said we hope that your dh doesn't get upset because he wasn't really praying that he would get well, just that you wouldn't get sick. :eek:

nooo kidding - you just know it has to make all the rounds - earlier in the season I went 3 days with no sleep - a different puking kid all night for three consecutive nights :eyes: It was HORRIBLE!

oh no! hang in there!

Ditto. My oldest dd brought home chicken pox from work. We spent the entire summer dealing with it. At least all the kids got it & we are done with CP!! Did finally get DS (10) tested a few weeks ago as he never got spots. Luckily he did however get the immunity for them!!

Something that I started when we started fostering & has seemed to greatly decrease the passing on of germs (above & beyond hand-washing) is that we keep all toothbrushes seperate & each child also has their own toothpaste. I got thinking about how one person takes their germ infested toothbrush & puts it onto the toothpast tube that everyone else uses...ewwww!!

So we have had only ONE kid get sick & not the rest!! Yeah! Sometimes through general contact some will get it, but rarely do they all get it, unlike when we shared toothpaste!!

Kerri mom to:

Amanda(17), Emma(15), Maddison(13), foster dd(12),
Jonah(10), foster ds(10), Saige & Claire(7, identical twin girls), foster dd(6),
foster ds(5), my little boy Teagan(3) PLUS: 2 horses, 1 pony, 3 dogs, 2
cats, 1bunny rabbit, 4 guinea pigs, 3 rats( one is naked!), 1 teddy bear
hamster & 3 dwarf hamsters & fostering a fuzzy orange tabby
kitten

*************************************

Kerri I love your toothbrush and toothpaste idea! I think we will use it!!!! Plus, Erik likes to flush toothbrushes down the toilet:)

Most of the kids have a basket in a special spot in their room. They have their own toothbrush, toothpaste & floss (all marked with initials). That way there isn't someone grabbing a brush out of the drawer just because they are too lazy to get their own brush. I mentioned the toothpaste idea to our dentist & he was amazed with himself. He realized he had never thought about it before.

Hey maybe it could be the next "campaign" after hand-washing.

Seriously when you think about it the toothbrush of the person before is leaving germs behind in the toothpaste for the next person to pick up and so on!!

Also after they brush their teeth their germs are all over their hands (the contagious ones which the kids are now showing any signs of being ill at the time) then they grab the "family" floss and get germs all over it too.

Also this saves people from accusing others of mucking up the toothpaste container or tangling up all the floss.

:)

oooooohhhhhh.....I am loving that toothbrush idea!! See....big families can contribute to society!! LOL

(Sorry, still aggrivated with comments about how bad big families are for the world)

Yup!! We'll get the comments and say that we are raising our kids to be environmentally aware & since we make less garbage then a family with 4 people in it we are doing well. We also have our own septic tank & our own well water so we aren't taking anything from anyone else. We buy the bread that is marked down & no one else wanted either so we are saving things from being wasted. Also we aren't huge consumers in general as we aren't into "stuff". My furniture is old. We have some of our own, some of my grand-ma's & some from my parents. We free-cycle or garage sale or donate vs taking stuff to the dump, compost...etc.

Dh was out with all but the oldest 3 (I had 2 at Pony Club and the oldest was at work). He had 6 people ask him if all the kids were his. He'd say no...pause...then say the other 3 were missing...well not missing but now with him. At the grocery store people commented it must cost a fortune to feed everyone. He said, not really since we don't buy all the pre-packaged, expensive foods.

Oh well...at least we all understand eachother here!!