This Might Make You Itchy

Hi friends! Happy Thursday! 

The weekend is around the corner now. 

Can I get an amen?

So I'm back with a story that I wanted to document but I do have some hesitation sharing. 

I hesitate because it's one of those things that people don't talk about.

You know, those things that seem to happen, and are totally normal, but for some reason, people associate them with shame or embarrassment, or they just don't want anyone to know that it happened to them?

Well, this is one of those things. 

And I hate those things.

I wish everyone shared those type of things so that #1, people would feel more comfortable sharing their experiences, and #2 so that we can arm each other with the knowledge of how to handle these things when they happen to you. 

So that you know you are normal, and not gross, or weird, and it is just one of those things. 

So anyway, here we go. 

Recently this last month, someone in the Hass House contracted a case of head lice.

Any guesses who it was? 

I'll give you a hint.

It wasn't the bald one. Ha!

It was this one.

(And yes her hat says Vicious Dolls. It is her softball team name and I dislike it very much, but let's move on.)

One night when I was tucking Claire into bed, she said: "My head is itchy."

{{{Insert all the bug eye emoji faces right here. }}}

Claire is not one to complain.

 Ever. 

So when she says something hurts, or itches, you better believe I take her seriously.

 I grabbed her head and immediately started looking through her hair and scalp for lice. 

I didn't see anything. 

 I got a rat tail comb from the girls' bathroom so I could really get in there, and still, I didn't see anything.

I told Mr. H and he said that she had told him the same thing and he didn't see anything either. He said it's dry out and her scalp is probably just dry. 

Nope. 

I wasn't buying it.

 I knew. 

I knew that it just wasn't like Claire to say something like that.

But I didn't see anything, so I let it go. 

The thing is, the day before at softball practice she couldn't get her helmet on correctly. The coach told her to borrow someone else's. I wasn't there to see this or I would have never let her put someone else's helmet on but she did. 

She didn't even end up using this girl's helmet either so she only had it on her head long enough to put it on and take it off.

A couple of days later, Monday morning rolls around and I had Claire sit down so I could braid her hair for school. 

That's when I saw them.

Those creepy little crawly lice on my baby girl's head! 

I know, you're already getting itchy ------- I'm sorry about that!

I hadn't ever seen lice before, and I did hair for 17 years.  A quick google search confirmed it. She had lice.

This is not a picture of Claire, of course, I had no time for that, but to give you an idea, this is what it looks like on blonde hair.

And now I'm getting itchy again.

My heart sank for her. 

Of all days for this to happen, Claire had a 4th-grade field trip planned that she had been looking forward to forever. I felt awful that I was going to have to tell her she couldn't go.

I went into my bathroom and called Mr. Hass to tell him Claire had lice. 

I was whispering because I didn't want the girls to hear me and I was afraid she was going to freak out when I told her. I mean, I was freaking out! 

My hands were shaking, my heart was thumping, and I had no idea what to do first.

After some deep breaths and a whole lot of "You can do this!" pep talks to myself, I ended up buying a lice removal kit at Wal-greens right after taking Hannah to school. I read through the steps to complete and then I saw this:

I was going to have to pick them out one by one??????????

WHAT???!!!!!

I thought there was just some special solution that you put on the hair while wearing your safety gloves and then they all die and fall out with a good shampoo and we can live happily ever after! 

Nope.

No that is not how it works. 

I honestly didn't think I had the stomach for this. I was itching all over and panicked that these were on her HEAD! 

I was also fearful that they were going to start jumping onto my head! Do they jump? Can lice jump?!!

Another quick google search told me that no, head lice do not jump or fly. So there's that. 

I was super thankful for all of the years I had sectioned people's hair off into four quadrants to apply their root color. The application process for the lice killing solution started out just like a root touch up and I started to feel like maybe I could do this.

I sat Claire down in the kitchen where I had good lighting to see all of these horrible awful things and I got to work. 

There were actually not that many lice that I pulled from her hair that looked like the first picture above. Most of what I had to remove was the nits or eggs and they are so small it is really hard to even see them if you don't know what to look for. They are about the size of a poppy seed or even smaller and a white'ish color. Some were darker and I think those were closer to being full hatched lice.

Two and a half hours later, we were done. 

And I'll tell you, it wasn't as horrible as I was anticipating.

I mean, it wasn't fun by any means, and my back was killing me from hunching over her head for that long.

I think once the solution went on her hair for 10 minutes and all of the lice were dead, I started to feel like I could breathe again and that they were no longer going to jump onto my head even though Google told me they wouldn't. 

I disinfected every brush, comb, hair clip and tool in this house. I stripped Claire's sheets, bedding, mattress pad and more. I vacuumed every surface of this house and made Mr. H thoroughly clean and vacuum the couch cushions and anywhere else her head might have touched. 

I took her softball helmet out into the backyard and doused that thing with lice-killing spray like it was on fire. 

And then I did it again just to be safe.

Claire ended up making it to her field trip for about 2 hours once her hair was back to it's normal and healthy state. She missed the bus ride so I had to bring her and pick her up. Luckily it was just down the street from home.

Fighting lice on a Monday absolutely wore me out. 

I was barely recovering by Friday that week when Claire came home from school and said her tummy felt like it did on the cruise. (She threw up on the cruise due to seasickness.) Once again, this kid doesn't usually complain and I knew what was coming.

 She went to bed and I started disinfecting the house, spraying Lysol on everything, feeding everyone else elderberry syrup, probiotics, and vitamin C, and diffusing all the essential oils in preparation to battle the stomach flu. She woke up a few hours later and got sick. 

All. Over. The. Place. 

Thank goodness Mr. H was home to help me tackle it all. 

Nobody else got sick and I am so thankful. She felt better the next day but the poor girl was 0 for 2 that week. She was a trooper though and didn't complain once. 

I hope you aren't itchy all day now. 

Just wanted to share that it happens. 

Lice is highly contagious and so common among kids. 

I am so thankful that it is also very treatable. 

Don't share helmets, my friends.

The End.

Back In The Saddle

Hello! 

It's been almost 3 years since I've blogged.

I've missed it. 

I am learning that life is flying by me at a rapid pace.

The older the girls get, the faster it goes.

So here I am. 

I am jumping back in the saddle.

Or, sitting back down at the keyboard, or whatever,  but you get my drift. So yes, back in the saddle! 

I've been waking up in the night writing full blog posts in my head. 

I got a massage a couple of weeks ago, and do you know what I did the whole time? 

Relaxed and fell asleep?

Nope. No, I wrote 4 blog posts in my head so I wouldn't forget some of the stories I want to remember. 

If that's not a sign telling me to blog again I don't know what is. 

I am jumping in today with just a quick hello and I will be back to sharing Hass House happenings and other news on the regular so get excited! 

This last summer was fun and the older I get, the more I understand that the days are long but the years are short. Summer days felt longer than they do now during the school year, but either way, the years feel way too short. 

Mr. Hass turned 40 this summer and we celebrated in Big Bear with family and friends. We also celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary in July. We went to Temecula for some wine tasting and ate dinner at Ponte. 

These two seem to have grown and changed just since the start of the school year already. Hannah will be 12 in two weeks and Claire turns 10 a week after. They used to play with legos and spend hours playing outside. Now their days are filled with school, homework, and softball practice and games. The little one wants to make slime, watch YouTube videos and spend her chore money on anything with a unicorn/glitter on it while the older one wants to play Minecraft, redecorate her room and learn how to apply makeup. 

Each week it seems like we are stepping into new and uncharted territory as parents that we aren't completely sure how to navigate. It makes me want to write. It makes me want to share my experiences and hopefully be able to connect with others through them. So that's what I plan to do. Stick around, I hope you'll join me on the journey!

And before I go today, a few pics and random things from last weekend. You know I love to write about the randoms. 

Last weekend we packed up the Prius and drove to Mesa, Arizona to visit with Diane, my mother in law. She recently moved into a new place and we went to visit and help her hang some pictures on the walls and get settled in. 

On the way there and back we listened to multiple episodes of a new to me podcast by Lewis Howes. 

He interviews some of the world's most brilliant business minds, athletes and influential people to find out what makes them great and how you can apply their lessons to your life. We just bought his book and I can't wait to read it. If you are interested, check out his 5-minute Friday podcasts, they're short sweet and to the point. After a couple of those, I was hooked! Hannah really liked this one too. 

One of the episodes we listened to was an interview with Kobe Bryant. It was super inspiring and I had no idea about his passion for storytelling. I love to read and write and I love how powerful and inspiring stories can be. He wanted to tell stories that relay important messages that he wanted to teach his kids without sounding redundant and he was inspired to come up with the podcast called The Punies with a cast of unique characters to share his stories. Each short story teaches an important lesson in a fun and entertaining way.

So, of course, I immediately subscribed to the podcast and we listened to several during our road trip. They range from about 14 - 17 minutes and they're perfect for kids! 

After discovering how much we all liked The Punies, I googled the top 10 podcasts for kids and found the Dream Big podcast by Eva Karpman. This 9-year-old little girl is so well spoken and wise for her age. She has several episodes and they are all such great life lessons that inspired all of us. We listened to lessons on learning how to go with the flow, how to deal with haters, what to do when a friend lies to you, what to do when you get angry, and a good one about the famous Zig Ziglar quote: "You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great." One of my favorites was the interview she does with Simon Sinek. Let me know if you check them out! 

This last weekend, I also learned something else that I am still in disbelief over. 

Are you ready to hear what it is?

Hannah's legs are longer than mine!

Yup.

You heard me.

My soon to be 12-year-old daughter's legs are longer than mine. 

I am 5'9 and Mr. H is 6'4, so it's no surprise that she is tall. 

I guess I just wasn't prepared for her to pass me up just yet. 

I've still got a couple inches on her, but not for long.

I just don't even know how to wrap my head around it. 

I guess I can always buy some new wedges. Haha. 

That's all I got!
Be back soon.
Xo,
Genn