Dealing with stomach viruses

Yes, it's that time of year once again, and I have been given a brutal introduction.... Thursday morning dawned very early for me. About 1:30am to be exact, with a tentative knock on my bedroom door. I sleepily opened it to find Nick in tears, saying, "I just wanted to let you know that I accidentally threw up on my bed." I moaned in a way that all mothers are familiar with, and went to survey the damage. After stripping the bed, washing the pillow, and spraying the mattress, I set him up on big garbage bags on the couch, thinking that we probably wouldn't need them, that it was probably just something he ate that disagreed with his stomach. Three hours later, there was another knock on the door. This time Nick was telling me that he only threw up on the garbage bag and just got a little bit on the couch. Sighing, I set to cleaning up that mess, when Mercy barged out of her room and ran, gagging, into the bathroom. I finally put Nick on a sleeping bag on the kitchen tile and told him to stay there. I did the same for Mercy, then stripped her bed, washed her pillow, and sprayed her mattress. I laid down on the clean couch, and slept for about an hour and a half, then woke up to two screaming babies. When I went to get them up, one of them had vomit strung from one end of the crib to the other and was covered from head to toe. It was at this moment that my worst fears were realized: STOMACH VIRUS! I stumbled through my tears to tell my husband what was going on. He was in the bathroom, also throwing up. When I went back out to the living area, all the other kids were awake. I was telling them what was going on when I heard the all-too-familiar "plop"; Savannah, my three year old, had just thrown up on the kitchen floor.
And thus went our day for the next eight hours. Mercy, Nick and Savannah traded off time in front of the trash can that I put in the kitchen for the purpose, and we just cleaned up after the baby as best we could. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day. The next day was okay, but then Saturday morning, when I got the babies up, Camrie had explosive diarrhea (once again all over the bed), so we put her on a plastic mat on the floor to begin cleaning her up. Lexy was not too far away getting her diaper changed when suddenly, she began gushing vomit all over my teenager and my carpet. Then Savannah joined in later on, all over her plate and the table at lunchtime, and again at dinner. Then today, my teenager started it, and we're missing church right now.
I just wonder, why are there always stragglers? Why can't it just hit everyone and then we can be done with it? I guess it's just one of those "badges of honor" that mothers wear eventually, when they hear their own kids start talking about how "hard" it is to be a parent or whatever. I don't know.... but this too shall pass, and Mom is trying to convince me that one day, all too soon, it will be over, and I will wish for these days back. I'm actually starting to believe her...