What is amazing about the Mark family is that we always try to excel at everything. We never want to be considered slackers and so we ALWAYS make sure to take everything to the next level. Really, a trait to be admired I think. Allow me to share with you our latest escapade....
We went to Israel for Pesach. We had a lovely time. I will not pretend that it was easy and will admit, that for the first week my husband and I told anyone who asked that the flight had been the best part so far, but truly it was a lovely trip. Until... The night before we left my middle son became sick. He was burning up with fever, vomiting and had diarrhea. A few hours later, my husband began complaining of having the chills and feeling achy. By the next morning my middle seemed to be on the mend and I thought great, just a 12 hour bug although my husband still looked terrible. Like any good wife, I assumed he was just being a man and made him promise that he would be helpful on the flight home that night. When we got to the airport my oldest threw up all over the floor while we waited for the flight. Of course, I thought to myself, 12 hour bug 15 hour flight we are screwed. He proceeded to vomit a good portion of the flight but magically (and with great talent) got it all in the bag every time (great flying tip btw, way better than the airline sickness bags are the plastics that hold the airline magazines, try it next time. They are the perfect receptacle). When we got home he seemed to be getting worse. He had terrible diarrhea that every time I thought was gone came back. He was in and out of school and it just didn't seem to be getting under control. And then, I got sick. Terrible vomiting and stomach pains. I called the pediatrician and said "you have to help us" and had everyone in the family tested.
There is a virus going around called Norovirus and that is what we thought we had. The thing about us though, is that we love to do everything the best we possibly can, and so we assumed we just couldn't shake it. Turns out we were wrong, and we could do it even better. On Sunday afternoon the pediatricians office called to inform me that we had tested positive for Shigella, which is a bacterial infection. I was elated, I cried tears of joy because I thought, yay we are all going to finally go back to feeling normal because we can take anti-biotics. HALLELUJAH! In passing she mentioned to me that we may be contacted by the health department since the lab has to report Shigella to them (yes Maimonides families, that email was about us. The mystery is solved). OK I thought, no problem. WRONG!
The next thing I knew, the sh**t hit the fan (literally). Due to the fact that my son is in a class A sensitivity group (transalation: a class with special needs children) he had to be removed from school for a minimum of two weeks. So now, even though we are all finally healthy, I have him home from school indefinitely. Without going into all the details of what made yesterday insane suffice it to say I believe it is a miracle that my pediatrician has not yet fired us as patients. It was not a great day. I did quite a bit of crying and self pitying.
When I got into bed last night I was exhausted, and sorry for the fact that I had cried so much. I finally felt sick of feeling pitiful. And so, I woke up this morning with a new resolve. I will no longer be pitiful, I will be stoic. Doesn't matter what you throw my way, I am a rock and I can not be knocked down. I am stoic. I am loving this new stoicism. It is quite liberating. So today, when I noticed that my son had a tooth that looked like it was rotting and I took him to the dentist and found out that not only does the tooth have to go but that he also has no adult bottom front teeth coming in and never will, I just smiled and nodded and said of course. Of course he has no front bottom adult teeth because we are the Marks and we love to excel at everything. So we can't just have bad teeth or cavities, we have to have no teeth, STOIC. I am telling you, it is awesome.
And so, I encourage you to try it. Send something my way that you think will phase me. It won't because I am stoic and loving it.
Stay tuned for the continuation of the teeth capades. I am sure they will be equally as entertaining.
