The Monster at the End of This Book

I'm in denial about it being the last weekend of summer. Do you realize what that means ahead of us? School. Halloween. My birthday (ok, not so bad). Thanksgiving. Snow. Oh -- Black Friday. Christmas shopping. Christmas. Lots and lots more snow. Being cold. More school. High utilitybills. Valentine's and New Year's. Ok, so not all bad.

This week summer adventures will come to a close, the neighborhood will go back to its routine, my eldest baby will enter 2nd grade, and all will become normal again in this household. Or will it? What's normal? ;)

Let's ignore that for now, and concentrate at the task at hand: Labor Day! With each page turning, yes, it gets closer to the monster at the end of this week, but with each day holds more adventures to blog about, right?

Diary of a Bug Killer

And we're back at it. I made several of those fun phone calls to find "the source", but no luck. Each person I talked to consoled me with great words of wisdom and an empathic voice, but really that does no good. I was really counting on someone I knew to be the source so we could be done with this once and for all. I even called church. You know, our brand new building that thousands of children visit each weekend.

This will take a miracle to contain and get rid of.

I was not encouraged by all the posts I read online last night. "Not encouraged" could better be described as "tearful". I won't go into any more gory details, but just google "head lice" for a better idea of all the information that's out there. It's really something. What did people do before the internet?

And so tonight we will begin another round of doing hair. Woohoo! (read the sarcasm because I'm really not excited about this.)

Sweet, Sweet Memories of 2008

Let's start off with good, old fashioned truth. I've avoided this topic because, well, it's ugly. It's gross. And a little embarrassing. So here it is ... this summer we've been plagued by head lice! There. It's out there. Whew.



But just by saying (or writing) the words doesn't make it go away. Let me take you through - step by step - the ordeal of having head lice in your house.



Last month, on the Fourth of July, I discovered bugs in Chloe's hair. Gross. I got chills as I realized what it was. The next morning, a Saturday, we all packed up and took us all to the doctor. I was really concerned because what if Hailey had it? She was only 12 months at the time. So the nurse drug in a huge light. I'm not talking just a little flashlight. She had to go get this monster lamp, had us each sit in a chair under the light, and "check us out." It didn't take long, and probably if she looked without a giant lamp she could have figured it out. Yes, all three of us with the majority of hair in our household had it.



That afternoon, my mom came over to "help". Having a toddler around doesn't help matters, so we did the bulk of the work when Hailey went to bed. Mike started one of the girls - shampooing, rinsing, then the combing. First, though, it takes some prep time. The kitchen needs to be cleaned. I put everything on the counters away. (yes, a project in itself) I covered the floor with a sheet. I gathered the clips and bands and combs we needed. While Mike was busy with "doing hair" I ran through the house like a mad-woman gathering up all the stuff that would need to be laundered. Sheets from every bed. Bed skirts from every bed. Mattress pads from every bed. Comforters/quilts from every bed. Blankets from the living room. Pillows from the living room. (remember the new couch? Yea, that one). Then I gathered up all the stuffed animals. From everywhere. They are still contained in 5 or 6 huge trash bags in the basement, you know, under quarantine. Then, I gathered up all the hair stuff. Hair bands, barrettes, headbands, etc. You might think we have about 12 girls in this house from the amount of hair stuff that we have (well, had). Not only were they contained where they should be, but I dug through toy bins to find even more. Everything was washed. It took an entire gallon of bleach and an entire bottle of laundry detergent (you know, the one that reads "32 loads" on the front). I lost count of how many loads of laundry it took, but it was a lot. We also sprayed the furniture, mattresses, car seats, and bike helmets with the special spray that came with the kit. Obviously, you can't throw those things in the washing machine. I'd like to try, but hey, that would just be more work.



So all of that happened 7 days before we were to leave for the road trip. Fun, eh? The follow up treatment occurred Friday night, less than 12 hours before we left on the trip. Isn't that exactly what you'd like to do before taking your family on a big trip?



So while we were ON vacation, we did "spot checks" to see how things were looking (read: dead or alive?) And we found some nits, of course. We weren't supposed to do any treatments, because well, more pesticide on our heads could probably do some damage. So we continued combing-through. While at my in-laws we used their giant lamp/magnifying glass to really see what was going on. And, boy was there things going on.

Throughout the following 4 weeks, we "spot-checked" our heads to make sure nothing was going on. Fast-forward to three nights ago. During one of our routine spot-checks, we found a couple of bugs. SIGH. Two nights ago, we started all over: the cleaning, the laundry, the shampooing, the spraying, etc.

It's not over - now we need to find the "source" and have the "source" be sure they're getting proper treatment. Doesn't that sound like tons of fun? Making numerous phone calls to each of the neighbors to retell this story, and confide in each of them our gross bug story? Everyone reassures me that they can only live in clean hair. You know, because I pride myself in such meticulous personal hygiene, I'm the one who obviously gets to reap all the benefits.

So the moral of the story is: live in a bubble, don't let your kids interact with anyone else, and above all else, never shower!