Now for the family stuff. If you have a weak stomach, just skip on down to the political post below or check back tomorrow.

As many of you know, there is a very contagious and nasty stomach bug currently going around our area. I had to pick up Bryant from preschool on Tuesday because he had thrown up. He threw up again on the way home, fell sound asleep and woke up fine. He had a few runny diapers on Thursday and Friday, but basically all was well.

Friday night, Jeff came down with it. He was sick all night long, and being the faithful and loving wife that I am, I slept through the whole thing. I seriously had no idea this was going on, and I feel pretty guilty about it. He was still sick yesterday for a great portion of the day, and although the nauseau passed, he was completely wiped out and had a killer headache.

As we were going to bed last night, Bailey mentioned that she didn't feel well. Fearing the worst, we put a trash can by her bed and a towel by her head, hoping that if she got sick we'd be able to contain the mess. Sadly, it didn't play out quite as we'd hoped.

At 10:45, I heard Bailey go into the bathroom coughing. I jumped up (apparently my mommy sensors are much more sharply tuned than my wifely ones.) When I got to the bathroom I discovered a scene out of the Exorcist. In my almost 9 years of parenting and dealing with vomit and various other nasty things, this was the worst.

I will spare you the most disgusting details, but let's just say that it looked as if an evil clown had smashed her in the face with vomit pie. My sweet darling had throw-up in her eyes, ears all over her clothes and deeply entwined in her curly hair. It was enough to make me call on Jesus to please come back right away.

The only thing I could do was put her in the shower while I tried to deal with the crime scene. She ended up taking a pretty long shower, because there was much that had to be cleaned up. I didn't have the heart to wake Jeff up due to the circumstances of his past 24 hours, so it took me a while.

I finally got her back in bed and was able to lay down at the foot of her bed with her around midnight. A few minutes later she sat up and threw up again. This time she hit the bucket, so not much was required other than TLC. I laid down on her bed with her until about 1:00, when I snuck off to my room.

Of course I couldn't go to sleep for a while, but I finally dozed into semi-consciousness somewhere around 2:00, when my precious came in and woke me up so I could come back and lay in her room. I told her I needed to be able to stretch out, but assured her that if she needed me I would be there. About 45 minutes later she came in asking for water. So I still hadn't had a chance to slip back into slumber.

At 4:30 a.m., I hear Bradley run for the bathroom. I jump up, hardly able to believe what is happening. Now, Brad didn't throw up in his sleep, and tried very hard to hold it all in with his hand. He made it almost all the way to his door. So instead of cleaning up all his bedding and him, there were carpet issues.

At this point the sensitive wife was replaced by the utterly-exhausted-out-of-her-mind wife. So Jeff was politely asked to get up and help me. I gave Bradley the miracle drug Zofran (Bailey had received it as well) and he actually didn't throw up again until he woke up this morning around 7:30. That's been it for him. Thank you, Lord.

But the silver lining to this dark and thoroughly disgusting black cloud is the fact that the Lord answered my prayer last night. Before we went to bed, I was starting to feel seriously queasy. I knew that my time was coming. I earnestly prayed that God would spare me, because I knew in my heart that Bailey was going to be getting sick very soon.

I've prayed to not get sick before, but never with such passion and faith that God would answer. Obviously He is more powerful than any stomach bug. So I called on Him to take it away from me so I could be helpful to those who need me the most. Plus I was scheduled to teach Sunday school this morning.

The Lord was faithful and answered this prayer for me. I was able to get to church and teach. As of right now, I've been nauseous most of the day, but so far that's been the extent of it. I think some of mine comes from having been up all night and not having a nap. But I truly believe that God just gave me some extra favor this weekend, and I wanted to give Him the glory for it.

So instead of having a Super Bowl party like we'd planned, we've all just been sitting around all day. For some reason, pizza and buffalo shrimp didn't seem like an appropriate menu. So we're watching the game with scrambled eggs and toast. It's not too bad.

Stay well out there!