Tiffany Crystal's Forecast for the day:

Okay, so this has been an interesting week. Remember how I said I was going to be introducing you all to my family? Yeah, well. This isn’t how I imagined doing it, but here we go anyway.

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Reference tip:
Alfred = sister/roommate
B (Batman) = Alfred’s husband
Batgirl/Koda = Niece (Alfred & B’s daughter)
Robin = Youngest nephew (Alfred & B’s son)

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So, for those of you who don’t know, I live in Texas. And, it’s April. That means severe weather, yay!

Well, Wednesday night, the forecasters were calling for 70 mph winds, baseball-sized hail, and possible tornados. For me, that means a long night up, cause I’m the one who usually ends up waking everyone up to get to shelter if the sirens go off. We finally got the “all clear” around 1am-ish. I went upstairs to get ready for bed, and find out that Robin has been throwing up. (Yay! again.)

Up until that point, I had been talking to TheBiblio. I told her what was going on, and headed to bed, cause I figured he would be staying home from school, which means I would have to be up at 9 am to take care of him. I wake up around 6:30 am, because – like the genius that I am – I forgot to turn off my alarm clock.

6:45: Alfred takes Robin to school. I was awake anyway, so I stayed up. I figured he wouldn’t be at school long, and there wasn’t any point in taking a nap.

7:45: Alfred gets a text message from B. Robin has thrown up all over himself at school. Alfred takes Koda to school and picks Robin up on the way home.

8:00: Robin comes home, takes a shower, and spends the day just laying down on the loveseat, watching television. Everything’s good, everything’s great.

9:30am: Alfred goes to work, I go on babysitting duty (ah, the joys of nannyhood).

Noon: We eat lunch and Robin takes a nap. Big mistake.

3pm: He wakes up and proceeds to throw up on the loveseat, the carpet, the bathroom floor, walls and the counters. He pretty much got it everywhere except the toilet.

I clean him up and send him off to his room to take another nap, grab a pair of gloves and the steam cleaner and get to work. Except…the steam cleaner wasn’t working. It turned on, made the loud wooshy sound that says it should be working, but it’s. not. working.

Start checking it over. The tanks are clean and loaded right. It’s obviously plugged in, so what gives? Then I look closer. The hose was torn almost completely off the machine.

Great.

Plan B. Grab a scrub brush and a bucket. Scrub brush breaks mid-scrub.

I ended up having to scrub the loveseat and the floor with a rag. Oh yeah, my day is going great. (In unrelated news: we’re getting new couches/loveseats!)

Got done with that the best I could, and went to work on the bathroom.

Now, when I say he took out the walls and floors, I mean he took them out. I scrubbed everything down with Lysol disinfectant spray. Even if it didn’t look like it was dirty, it got scrubbed. The floor mats went in the garbage. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Koda came home. Usually, I’m the one waiting for her to get off the bus, but I was mid-scrubbing, so Alfred had to do it. At that point, I was just glad the other little girl I usually take care of wasn’t with me for the day.

B got home. I told him, I cleaned up the big mess, he could take care of the laundry mess. He took care of that, and then went and picked up a new steam cleaner to clean the loveseat and floor again (better safe than sorry).

Now, the good news is, Robin was feeling much better the next day. Had a bit of a tummy ache and spent a lot of time on the toilet, but no more throwing up. Saturday, he was back to his usual self.

Cut to today.

Once again, I was up til about 2am. Woke up at 6:30ish (on purpose this time) and dozed off and on til about 9something when I heard someone come in through the back door. I figured it was Alfred. She has to run to the bank for work sometimes, and has a real gift for waking me up when she comes back (her work office is attached to the apartment). Check it out, and nope. It’s B. Dressed for work, but headed upstairs.

‘No big deal’, I think, ‘something at work probably busted, and he’s grabbing tools. Oh look, my Amazon packages have been delivered!’ Go to pick them up out of the office, and I hear voices upstairs. B is talking to someone. Then they say something back.

It’s Alfred.

And Koda.

Go upstairs, they’re all laying down in the living room. Alfred’s taken over the recliner, Batgirl has the loveseat, and B is stretched out on the couch.

Apparently it takes a couple days, but when that stomach bug hits – it hits hard. Robin is at school, but he and I are the only ones not currently puking our guts up. And I’m not sure how long that’s gonna last, either.

I’m staying away from everyone, but I’ve already had two “oh no” moments where I thought the bug had caught me, too.

I’m about halfway through Chapter 6 of “Don’t Feed the Trolls” and I’m trying to get that finished on time, but I make no promises at the moment. Also, next week, there will not be a new chapter. I have a break from school, and then it’s back into the frying pan, so I’m going to try and enjoy that one week as much as I can. Sorry in advance.