Charge of the Lice Brigade!

So far so good! The girls were with Tulip on Sunday and that's the day her mom found the lice on her. No sightings here yet and I'm checking daily, sometimes twice daily. It can take up to a week for nits to appear but I'm hoping my Tea Tree Oil trick saves my butt! In the meantime I'm sending the Braidy Bunch to school every day. It means getting up 20 minutes earlier and listening to a lot of whining as I braid their heads within an inch of their lives. Twenty minutes of that beats the pants off what Tulip's mom described to me on the phone last night though! She said it takes her about 2½ hours to go over Tulip's head, picking and pulling and Tulip cries the whole time, it hurts so much. She's also done 40-50 loads of laundry since Sunday night. Oy vey! I don't see us surviving that if it hits here.

But that's not our biggest concern at the moment. Murphy seems much worse this week. He's refusing to eat most of the time. We have been able to get one small meal into him each day, some DentaStix and he can't get enough snow lately. Weird. Last night he was out in the cold til 10pm and only came in because I went and dragged him in. Today he wanted back out early this morning and when I brought him in shivering around mid morning to get him warmed up, he turned around and wanted back out. I made him stay in for a couple of hours but by then it was sunny out so I let him go out til Murray got home from supper. He has no energy, and just lies on the floor or couch all day. Today he didn't even thump his tail whenever we came in to the room. When he's lying still, I have to look closely to see if he's even still breathing. I'm afraid it's not looking good. We're taking him to the vet tomorrow afternoon to get him looked at but we doubt this is a "fixable" situation. He seems so sad and listless. We hate seeing our Murphy baby like this and are trying to brace for the worst.

Wicked Hannah

As with most famous youngsters, there comes a time when they take a turn for the worse! Hannah Montana used to be good fun and the girls loved everything about her. They've recently taken a distinct disliking to many of the shows/toys/activities that they thought were the bomb a couple years ago. One such casualty to their aging process has been Ms. Montana.

They dug out some HM accessories, made a couple changes and Presto! Bye Bye Montana & the new alter ego was born. H

I bet you didn't know that Hannah Montana has a dark side! We now know her as Wicked Hannah. As you can see, when you turn her belt buckle upside down, it's very obvious! Thank goodness the two roving reporters were onsite to fully document this discovery and share it with the world!

Ski a Little, Cry a Little.

We headed out to the trail on our way to Grammie & Grandad's on the weekend but as usual, not everyone stayed happy!

All started off ok, Honey took the lead and was trucking along at her own pace and we all followed. Her speed wasn't quite fast enough for Lovey & Sweetie and during one of Honey's lulls, they made their move. Faster than you can say 'Angry Birds', those two ahead and passed her. Nothing infuriates her more than getting passed by! Unfortunately her fury takes the form of a tantrum and she threw herself to the ground and cried her heart out. and then refused to budge for 45 minutes. I'd had very little sleep the night before and had already had a blow up with Honey and her whining at breakfast. I decided not to tangle with her at that point and followed the other two, you know for safety! and let Murray get her up and moving (not realizing she wasn't going to move!) Eventually the three of us turned back and met back up with Honey & Murray, roughly 100m from where we left them.

Oh the happy memories of these fun filled loving family activities!!!

Above & Beyond The Call

I got a call tonight from Tulip's mom. Tulip has lice. Tulip had the girls over to play at her house earlier this week and came to church with us today. Oooh boy. I've always known it's just a matter of time before we get hit but man I am still dreading it like you wouldn't believe. I did a quick comb through on two of the girls who were still awake but I didn't see anything. Somehow I don't feel completely reassured!

Then the phone rang again. Tulip's mom wanted to know if I could do her a favour. "sure! As long as it doesn't involve coming to your house!" I said and laughed. "oh it does, I wondered if you could come check me? Tulip & I share a hairbrush." Oh dear heaven. Ok. I told her I'd go when Murray got back from his run.

I went and didn't find anything. While I was there, she showed me Tulip's hair and what it looks like and what to check for. So I know better what I'm scanning for now.

And don't worry, I took proper precautions before I went: