Life With Lice.....

Recently our family encountered our own personal apocalypse, its something I had feared for a long time. When I was a girl I contracted this terrible thing several times, and each time I hated it. My heart fell into the bottom of my stomach because I felt like a total leper. Our school had a lady come once a week to specifically check for kids with L.I.C.E...yes lice. The worst fate ever. I know I sound really dramatic but you have to understand what kind of situation I am dealing with, check out this picture of my family.

..Yeah they look cute and adorable, but look at ALL that hair!!! So I am sorry but people who get lice and have mostly boys can't totally relate to my sheer panic and total terror of catching this terrible thing. 

So the purpose of my blog today is to inform you who ever you may be that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and if you find out your home has been compromised by these disgusting little creatures then you will have a reference point to go from and you will know where to start. Googling and youtubing these things while under pressure could lead to bad results. 

So our family found out on a Friday that one of our girls had come down with lice. The first step is to collect your kid. Mine was in Prineville and the other two girls and I had awesome library plans. So drop the plans get some coffee and get yourself to your infested kid. 

Step two, get supplies! 

Here are the supplies we used. First and Foremost you must get the KIT

Now many people may be totally against the terrible products in the RID KIT, but it contains the comb, the shampoo and most importantly the spray. The spray kills all lice on mattresses and cars, places you can't really clean. Now for our family of hair we had to get 4 boxes which can be expensive, so if you can find another way to get all the extra products from the kit and kill lice more naturally then do it. 

Once you "treat" the hair it kills all live lice which is your biggest concern. Once the hair is treated, keep the clean hair away from anything that might be contaminated, you will need time to get everything cleaned. I kept my girls in the kitchen occupied with a movie while I attacked their bedroom and the rest of my house, I waited until after all rooms were done to treat my youngest because she is more difficult to keep in one spot. 

Bag ALL stuffed animals, I did barbies and ponies just to be extra safe..you never know. Take the bags and throw them in your garage. Get ALL hair accessories and brushes and throw them in a designated spot in your freezer, its easier then having gross chemicals all over your hair stuff. The cold kills the lice and any eggs. 

Get rid off all bedding, clothes from floor, everything than may have been affected. My girls have been in sleeping bags for the past week, because every day I can throw it all in the dryer for 40 min while I spray their matresses down. That way nothing has a chance to hatch or live where they sleep. I also got rid off all carpets in their room and my bathrooms once they were washed I kept them in a safe place until our home was completely lice free ( actually we will keep them away for about two weeks because of the life cycle of lice) 

Once you vacuum, spray, and basically attack every place lice may have hit then you can allow your kids back into those places. 

Every day going forward you will have to diligently comb through the hair, see my above photo of all supplies. What we did each morning was had our girls confined to the kitchen just in case any new lice hatched over night, that way our living room and things weren't affected. Then one by one I would use the blue spray bottle filled with apple cider vinegar ( I tried regular and it didn't work) a friend thankfully shared her awesomness and told me to use APPLE CIDER vinegar. Then what I did to make my life easier, is fill the small white bucket with HOT soapy water, I alternated between two combs but layer by layer of hair I would spray the vinegar and then comb any eggs out, wipe off the eggs onto a paper towel or baby wipe as you go. Throwing the comb into the soapy water every few minuets really helps clean it and keep you sane. 

Once all the girls have been checked and you have made sure they have NO live lice then you can allow them to shower if you want, I allowed my girls heads to be dirty because lice hate dirty heads, but if you do then put tea tree oil in with your shampoo it help repel lice. 

One thing we did do that made all of our lives a little easier was cut every one's hair, except the baby who just wouldn't allow that kind of drama in her life. 

I did keep her hair up out of the way though, the shorter hair really really helped us check. My husband cut their hair so in this picture it doesn't exactly look even but I have plans of fixing that don't worry. I even went through it. 

Again I have plans on fixing it ... having Jose cut my hair was kind of a low point for me, but when your desperate, your desperate. 

Our family really got hit, on top of the lice our eldest contracted pink eye...super fun. So we had to get creative to prevent her from touching her eyes and spreading it. 

She's adorable and when she is older she may take me to court over this photo...but I had to share it. 

So staying on top of cleaning and disinfecting was crucial, every toy, bathrooms, every place hands touch...it was exhausting but worth it. Only one of our kids got pink eye thankfully. 

So for a week straight we did the process of checking heads, on some days I would do it three times. Also every other day I would apply mayonnaise to everyone's heads and in one case everyone had to sleep in in it... 

It wasn't easy or fun and it smelled really bad, but getting them adorably cute shower caps made it a little easier. Also letting them watch an insane amount of Netflix will help anything. After you apply the mayo make sure you use saran wrap to secure it then put on the shower cap. 

After showering make sure you blow dry your hair on the hottest setting if you can handle it and then straighten the crap out of your hair, we did this often! 

Ok so I think that covers all of our steps, this was our week. But I am happy to report that we are lice and egg free.  

One thing that will be really hard, is being under quarantine and not going anywhere public. We even had to skip thanksgiving and spend it at home alone. The girls were really upset but we made the best out of a tough situation. 

After you make it past your hairpocolypse make sure you take time to celebrate. You must make sure ALL eggs are gone though other wise you do risk spreading it ( although its unlikely) its not easy for eggs to fall but they could potentially hatch while your out. 

 Our girls had a blast hitting up Mcdonalds and Penguins of Madagascar, it has been a really tough week but we are incredibly thankful to be over it...although we understand there is a small chance some how some way they could relapse, I am not afraid of that happening any more. Its not the end of the world, its juts a long very very long week.

Hope this helps.

Blessings Friends.

Ashley

Naive November....

It is mid November and it is around this time each month I like to update you; my readers as to what is happening in my life, or at the very least what is happening in my brain. So for your enjoyment and hopefully your concern for my life's goings on, here is my latest blog.  But First.....

Who ever read my last blog about the mice you will be happy to hear that we are mice free, or at least we have been for at least two weeks. We used a ton of glue traps and spoke trash about the mice really loudly every where we went, so I think they got the hint and just left or got stuck and had no choice. 

Anyway, as of late our lives have been a little crazy.... even for us. The girls for some reason have half the month of November off it seems, and then add in a few snow days and basically my kids have two thanksgiving breaks. I always seem to exaggerate these things but I am really not kidding this time...(insert serious face here) Also a few weeks ago we agreed to take in our fourteen year old nephew for a while, during some of his own life transitional things. We had been made aware of his need for a place a little while ago, we prayed about it and felt it clear to take him in so we cleared out Naomi's room. Putting three girls in one room can have its awesome moments, like only one room to clean, and all the laundry is basically going in one room but it also has a few downfalls like having three girls in one room.... We love our family and we both decided a long time ago that our door would always be open if the need were to ever arise. So we in no way regret the decision we have made, its just taking a bit more adjusting than I think we originally thought it would. I mean we are only twenty seven and we have a teenager now in our care, We are both humbled and terrified, we have had a lot of moments just looking at each other and saying " what are we doing"... we don't want to pretend to have this whole thing figured out, because after a few events it is very clear that we don't. However, we are committed to trying and doing our best to make this whole difficult and ugly transition work. We recently admitted to our nephew that we need grace just as much as he may need it, that we will need to give it to each other because we are all in this place of trying to figure it out. There are days that I just stare outside unsure of how we became parental figures to not three but four children one of them being a TEENAGER, the dreaded T word. Jose and I transitioned out of youth ministry a few months ago, so we didn't expect to be working with teenagers again for a little while. Either way its in our life now that dreaded T word and it isn't going anywhere so we better just put on our big kid pants and deal. One HUGE blessing in this whole thing is how close it has brought Jose and I, we have always been close but this whole thing has just made us so much more thankful and reliant on each other for strength and prayer.
 I am just going to be really real with you guys, this whole parenting thing looks so much better with younger kids, it is ugly and painful with teenagers. Our nephew got in trouble the other day and because I felt so bad I bought him over twenty dollars worth of junk food, also he doesn't have a winter coat but is in that whole "I'm too cool for a coat phase" So I went to the store and bought him a coat feeling all awesome and cool because it was a nice jacket that the cool kids would totally approve of, only to find out that I got the wrong size..... (insert crying face here) Also did you know that sometimes teenagers don't eat? My brothers always ate so much we had to ration their food out before just to have some for the rest of us, but my nephew doesn't eat ..like ever and it stresses me out to the MAX as a mom I want my kids to eat, so when he doesn't eat it hits my mom button and makes me go to crazy emotional town, which I visit silently and to where no one knows I am actually there. But I am telling you guys, I am there, I am setting up like a summer vacation home in crazy, stressed out town. See...No idea what I am doing ... I need a live in nanny, just to give me teenager advice although she better be able to live in her umbrella or something because I have no more space for anyone.

One thing I really need grace in is my tendency to get easily irritated by clutter and messes that I can't control, this whole experience has taken me way out of my comfort zone, our house has very little storage so clutter is happening all around me. Little messes, clutter zones, and dishes are just living in my house on a regular basis and I've exhausted myself trying to keep up with it all. So here I sit with my coffee at 2 in the afternoon, I have kicked everyone out of my house except the two year old who takes naps. I am sitting on a bed full of clean clothes my two eldest girls didn't fold and my floor is covered in items from an old purse that Naomi got into, to think just yesterday my bedroom was sparkling clean. I am making like Elsa and just letting it go..for now, actually part of me kicking out my whole family is for the purpose of doing some deep cleaning but first I will have my blogging and coffee!  Well there you have it, naturally I had planned on all of this sounding better but it didn't come out that way. So you get what you get, this emotionally exhausted mama is out. 

Blessings Friends 

P.S.... If you haven't gotten the clue yet, please pray for me. Also please don't be all weird and talk to my nephew about this stuff that would just embarrass him and this whole thing is awkward enough