2.02.2012

It's A Barf-Fest Here with the Latest FS BRU!

It always starts with a look. A cough. And then mass hysteria as we all scramble to find a bag and the baby wipes. I am so in tune with the signs, that I KNOW from the time of recognition of what’s about to happen until the time I have to take action, is less than 8 seconds.

We are a family of pukers. We can’t leave the house without a minimum of two vomit bags. We use them every-single-time we take a road trip.

No seriously. EVERY F&#@$&*! time. Don’t believe me? You can catch up on our puke-fests in Israel, India (which there are many), Thailand, Sri Lanka, and ALL over the U.S.

When preparing for this weeks FS BRU I searched through my blog to pull up a few postings on the topic, and you know what I discovered? I had nine entries with the word ‘puke’ in it, and thirty-three with the word ‘vomit’. Who in the hell writes that much about upchuck and horking?

Clearly, I’m a self-proclaimed expert.

Of course, it’s not just the kids who spew their breakfast, lunch and dinner, as I reminded my friend Digger, who a few days ago said she felt left out of this Round Up’s optional talking point because she doesn’t have any kids. Some of our most memorable vomitous moments have actually been from the dog. Remember when she hurled her dinner on our brand new rug from Jaipur? Or how she ever so sweetly retched all over the entire third row of my brand new, less than a month old Land Rover in Oman.

Ah the memories ...

Thankfully I’m not the only one who has all the fun with throw up. After a little nudging, I heard from a whopping amount of Foreign Service friends who’ve dealt with a fair amount of gagging, heaving, and barfing themselves.

I know ‘that’ smell. The tell-tale sign that all is not right in our kids rooms. Well these people know that too ...


... WIFE - MOMMY - WOMAN found out about her kids mess when she walked down the hall and did the ‘sniff’ test.

... Spectrummy Mummy had the joy of being house bound and void of all social media after dealing with two sick kids.

... Heather at The Wandering Drays is a nurse and can clean up puke all while popping snacks in her mouth. A trait not all of us have. Thankfully she doesn’t deal with it all too often either.

... The Dinoia Family has dealt with a whole heck of a lot of puke ... not only with their kids, but also with the cat.

... The Polillo-family in Tijuana could have vomited from the email they received from their school a few weeks ago.

... It’s never fun when mom’s get sick, which is exactly what happened to Nicole. Of course she got well just in time to take care of a sick munchkin.

... Andy at Travel Orders may not be puking right now, but at some point he may from the chemo. Sending only good wishes to Andy right now after his diagnosis...

... Zoe is already planning her summer travel to Walt Disney World, and her research of Universal Studios and Harry Potter World. One may even think that those destinations and vomit may be related, eh?

... Melissa from Jerusalem dealt with vomit on her recent R&R. Which frankly is a travesty in and of itself. Nobody should be allowed to barf while on such a whirlwind trip back to the States.

... Nobody amuses me quite like Shannon in Malawi does with her weekly Wednesday photos of every 8 legged creature known to man. Today she solidified why I will never own bunk beds ... or eat blueberry cobbler ever again.

... The Freelancing Researcher shows us how easy it is to get sick while taking medicine.

... And the Sherwood Family’s kids got sick on make-shift roller coasters in their own house!

... Adrian's royal tush-kicking probably made his boys vomit after their latest training for the Round the Bays run. Pride is a horrible thing...

... Sunny just spent ten minutes in Brussels talking topless to her doctor ... which frankly would make me queasy enough to ralph.

... Naoma thankfully didn’t puke on her never-ending medevac back to the States ... though she had every right to!

... Kolbi reminded us how truly amazing she is by taking the FSI Chinese exam by storm ... and ever so fantastically did NOT vomit while doing so!

I was a tad surprised that my two friends, whose kids puke almost as much as mine, opted not to participate in this week's FS BRU because they were afraid that even typing the word "hurl" would somehow jinx them. Thankfully they don't write it, so I can attach links to their previous puke fests and you can enjoy along with me ...

While searching Donna's archives, I had more than a few posts to choose from for the BRU. In fact, I think I read all of her posts and feel fairly certain that it's her middle who heaves the most. Oh how I can relate. BTW, anyone who has a post titled Vomit Part 2 is totally cool in my book!

My snarky friend Kate in Brasilia is the lucky gal who somehow attracts vomit not only from her kids, but from everyone around her. On the plane. At the mall. You name it, it's there! As far as I can tell, this is the last time someone lost their lunch at her house ... though it's only a matter of time.


Of course, barfing wasn't the only thing going on around the world in the FS these past few weeks.

... Kelly, at Well That Was Different, decided to follow in Donna's footsteps and admit to her own secret addiction.

... A Fisher Out Of Water took their latest R&R in Maui. Hello jealous!

... Michele at GlobeHoppers just made an awesome quilt out of shirts. She's also very glad to see January go as her family has unfortunately dealt with a few deaths.

... Where In The World Am I just went to the Kite Festival in Hyderabad, India. Check out the cool rangoli.

... A newcomer to the FS, Sir Winston The Intrepid has an awesome recipe to share.

... Diplomatic Mom was a busy lady with her kiddos in Dhaka while her husband was away in my old stomping grounds of Chennai.

... Lydia in Bahrain at Here, There, and Everywhere had to do the unthinkable of moving to a new house mid-tour. Argh...

... Sarah at Verdant Voyages in Moscow is keeping warm and humorous with her A to Z's of what's been cooking in her neck of the woods.

... Daniela at Tuk & Tam showed that she too is Another Foreign Service Badass

... Eve at From The Back Of Beyond has some amazing photos of a Shipwrecked Beach.

... Sadie Abroad's mom had a medical emergency recently which quickly brought Sadie back to the States. She got to experience firsthand exactly why we need this community.

... A Freckle Faced Girl came "home" on R&R from Conakry and found out the sex of their baby. It's a ...

... And last, but certainly not least ... You KNOW When You're A Foreign Service Officer When ... The comments are just as good as the post!


Whew! I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks gross-out edition of the FS BRU. I have just a few house keeping items for the future.

Please send me your links / posts for the upcoming BRU by the Monday prior to publication. This gives me a few days to write it, rather than cram it all in on a late Thursday night. Additionally, as I noted on Facebook earlier this week, I don't have the time to continually 'nag' people for links. So once you publish something that you'd like to have added, please email the link to me. There are well over 250 FS blogs out there, and I am only familiar with a small percentage. Spread the word. Self-promote. Everyone enjoys seeing their name in red with links to their published works. Don't wait for me to come after you ... because the reality is with my 3 kids, husband, house to manage (remember, I don't have GSO here), and preparing for Matt to leave on his next UT ... I won't. Reminders will be on the Facebook page once a week.

The email to reach me and send in your submissions. thefsroundup@me.com

The next FS BRU will be out on Friday, February 17th. The optional talking point? It's all about the Pictures. Send me your funniest, your most breathtaking, your wackiest, your dearest, or your "you'll never believe it until you see it" photo. It can be a link to something you've posted on your blog. Or a picture you'd like to now showcase. Make sure to include a description.

But wait? You don't take any photos but still want to participate?? ABSOLUTELY. The optional talking points are just that ... optional. Keep writing. Keep sending me your links. I'll publish whatever you send me.

Until next time ...




17 comments:

Donna said...

Dang, woman, that's a lot of links. And I can't read any of them, yet, because I'm about to make breakfast, and I fear one of them might feature pancakes...

eve said...

Impressive! Thank you so much for doing this. Obviously tons of work, but a fun way to start my day!

Adrian Pratt said...

Awesome BRU, bro, as they would say in New Zealand. I can't imagine how long it took, but there's hours of reading here. Thanks so much.

Jenny Quld said...

You are doing a wonderful job on the roundups :)

Connie said...

This looks to provide a ton of gross but entertaining reading. Thanks again for putting the roundup together. Sorry I had no interesting puke stories to share.. my family are not pukers and about the only interesting thing I have was the memory of the priceless look on my daughter's face, when she was about 4yo, and actually threw up for the first time... she was so surprised! It seemed that she didn't know whether to be shocked and upset, or proud of herself for doing something that made herself feel better! I sure hope that your kiddos grow out of their sensitive stomach issues. That must be very tough when traveling.

Kate said...

Your round-ups are so good. You put me in and even did the work of finding some of my puke stories! And we did have puke last night, and I expect more tonight as my kid is having orthodontic surgery. That was hilarious and gross. But it is helping to curb my appetite.

TulipGirl said...

Love this! Opened a few, but will have to wait until Saturday morning when internet is fast enough to read more. . . sit on the veranda with coffee and enjoy my fellow FSers stories. . .

Lisa said...

Fantastically gross round up. You did a great job tying all the links to the theme.

Sadie said...

Awesome job! These have been a lot of fun to read - thanks so much!

Jen said...

Wow, excellent and you got in all of my vomit stories! Had to re-read ...just pray I don't have to re-live anytime soon!

Kate Coveny Hood said...

I've only written about puke once. Our stomach flu horror stories are few...but memorable.

This is a HUGE undertaking Jill. Such a great idea - and another example of the wonderful community you have in the Foreign Service Bloggers.

Heather Dray said...

You totally rock. You're BRU is amazing - and there are at least 6 or so blogs here I don't follow regularly that I'm excited to start reading! Looking forward to the next BRU. I'm already working on some pics!

Heather Dray said...

And my poor grammar above shows that I am merely a lay blogger - not a professional. 'your' NOT 'you're'!

Anonymous said...

That is a lot of vomit....and a very fine BRU. Looking forward to reading them all!

Anonymous said...

Just Monday I was on lunch at work and my co teacher was in the classroom. She called and said she needed a little help as I started to walk down the hallway I knew exactly what she needed help with. The smell hit me and I was praying that I wouldn't be the next one. I took the rest of the classroom out while she made the phone calls to the parents. One little girl told me "I was putting my jacket on and all of sudden it sounded like a bunch of rocks came falling through the celing" ~sigh~ when I shared that statement with my coteacher she just said "when I heard that sound I was on my way to call you we all know exactly what that sound means" =)

A Daring Adventure said...

You. Are. AWESOME!!! This is so funny- and so fun - and YOU are fun! Thank you so much for putting all of this together and thank you so much for being YOU!

Nomads By Nature said...

Jill, you worked so hard on this -- WONDERFUL job! I have been enjoying checking out lots of new links. Thanks for such a fantastic round up! It is great to have the BRU going full steam!

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