Nit-Pickin

As it turns out the term, "nit-pickin," took on whole new meaning for me this past weekend. A nit is a LICE EGG, yep a lice egg, and the term nit-pickin' comes from the idea of people picking nits out of hair. (Start scratching your head right now as you read on). Basically, a few families at church have gotten lice, and because my kids have been in contact with them a bit, I've had the subject on my mind. So on Saturday, I saw something small and sticky in Lorelei's hair, and I FREAKED because I had heard these tiny lice eggs are sticky, they kind of stick to the hair follicles. I bagged it and took it to my friend's house. We both totally thought this was an egg (though it may have been marshmallow from the smores we ate the night before). I FREAKED out more, and threw it away, terrified it would hatch and infest my house. In retrospect, I should have kept it, instead of doing what I did next.

First I spent $100 on lice shampoo/treatments/etc. Then I came home and from Sat. afternoon on, I have been running my washer/dryer. Heat kills lice, so every stuffed animal, hair product, pillow, blanket, etc. has been run through my dryer. I treated all of the girls hair and then straightened all of their hair with my scorchin' hot straighter (again heat kills lice, so this seemed pretty smart to me). I almost dyed my hair, because hair dye chemicals kill lice. Basically, I've been going through everything in my house like a tasmanian devil on a mission. In gist, after hours and hours of combing through every strand of my girls' hairs, I don't think any of them actually have it, but I'm still taking precautions and going to continue checking them all week.

So the question is what have I learned from this?

1. I tried to maintain perspective, this was not a life-threatening illness, but it would be SERIOUSLY INCONVENIENT.

2. I have SOOOOO much compassion for my friend whose kids had it. The implications of having it are a HUGE PAIN, your life stops because you can't be around people, and to take all of the kids stuff and clean it takes forever.

3. Husbands are not helpful in these instances. For some reason the idea of lice sends chills down my spine, whereas Dan thinks it's no biggie. All he was worried about was the fact that I had spent $100 dollars on shampoos. He thought I was "over-reacting," as if that's possible.

4. And finally, be grateful for the boring day you may be having right now.