Traditions?

We've picked up a few family traditions over the years. The Nutcracker ballet, the Trans Siberian Orchestra... the Nutcracker... okay maybe we've only got 2 but it's a start. Oh wait... the Prescott Santa Claus parade makes 3. And I've always wanted to make venturing into the woods to cut down our own Christmas tree a family tradition so eventually we'll have 4. This year I couldn't help but buy a tropical indoor evergreen tree from Canadian Tire that we decorated on the weekend. It's small but it's cool. It'll definitely do the job.... and the kids even like it. We still might go traipsing through the forest in search of a bigger tree... or stop on the side of some deserted country road and hack one down. We'll just have to see. It's still only November.

Last week was the Trans Siberian Orchestra. This marks our third year going and by next year I should know the whole story by heart because the show never changes. It's still worth it. Besides putting on an AMAZING show worth more than the $60 price tag... we've found joy in bringing someone different with us every year and watching their reaction. It's not everyday you experience rock opera.

This year was great although I do feel they rocked it a little better last year. I can't imagine what goes in to a production like the TSO and have them charge only $60. Any celebrity show... Madonna, Britney Spears, Rolling Stones, can't possibly cost as much yet their tickets are 6 times the price. Greedy celebrities. "I love my fans" my ass. I love you now pay $350+ to come see my show. Nonsense.

Every year at the show there is someone in the audience to make us laugh. The TSO also does a fine job of that themselves. It's really quite funny to see them with their long hair.. rocking out to Beethoven's Fifth. It's great... but funny. They remind me of rock stars that just couldn't make the cut for a band like Def Leopard or White Snake or something and attain that celebrity status. So besides their hilarious, genuine rock antics there is also some fan putting on an embarrassing, genuine show of their own. Last year there were 2 teenagers right in front of us head-banging to every song. This year it was a grown man who rocked his air guitar the ENTIRE show.

Rock on.

Christmas is a comin'

The day after Halloween I told the kids that they can expect to see Christmas lights any time now. People are crazy. And what our neighbourhood lacks in Halloween spirit they more than make up for in Christmas cheer. Sure enough... TWO DAYS after Halloween while driving home from swimming lessons we saw someone hanging Christmas lights.. all lit up & ready to rock. "CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!" Who knew they could be so exciting?

Home Birth 101

So I'm starting to prepare the kids for what to expect when the baby comes. My midwife suggested that I give the kids the option to stay for the birth, all the while making sure that there is someone to take care of them if they choose to leave. No problem. When I asked them what they'd like to do they both agreed that they would like to stay. So... the next step was to show them videos of home water births (of which there are plenty on Youtube) so that they know what to expect.

I decided a couple of weeks ago that it would be a good time to show them a video. I searched on Youtube and found plenty of examples that I screened first for appropriateness. In the first one I watched the woman gave birth with a bit of moaning & groaning. I was like... seriously? I need a video of a woman moaning & screaming through childbirth not having an orgasm.

We sat down to watch a video, both kids excited. I pressed play and watched my kids take it all in. It wasn't a bad video... just realistic. They were both fully aware of where the baby 'comes out' so I knew there wouldn't be any questions about that. I told them that I would probably be making the same sort of sounds and that even though it hurts mommy it's okay... it's nothing to worry about. They seemed okay with that... but Sam quickly changed his mind about staying for the birth and asked "Can I go to Patrick's house?" Juliet's reaction, "I don't want to grow up".

It was a good start. I sort of figured that Sam would be un-interested in participating and that Juliet would be front & centre. Sam would rather be playing Wii. I've said before that as long as the Wii is on... I could be right beside him having the baby and he wouldn't even notice. If he want's to go to his buddy's house... that's fine with me.

I see my midwife in a couple of days. It's a PD day at school so the kids will be coming with me. I told them that they were going to get to meet the lady who will help me deliver the baby. "To who?" Sam asks. I guess 'deliver' is too literal a word for a 6 year old. I explained what I meant and he reiterated that he was going to Patrick's house. I asked Juliet if she was going to stay and help the lady 'catch' the baby. "Does she need help from little girls?" She asked. Of course she does.

So far so good. As it gets closer we'll talk more about it but I think it's going to be a great experience for all of us. I've asked my friend Ashley to come... or rather she asked me. My mom will probably be in town and I've asked my sister if she wanted to be here, so there will be no shortage of people to help with the kids. I'm really looking forward to it, as crazy as that seems.

insert appropriate title here because I have nothing nice to say...

I couldn't think of an appropriate title for this post because the subject matter only makes me think inappropriately. You never think it'll happen to your children. You never think it'll happen to you. You spend years watching other children & families suffer through it and pray it doesn't happen to you. Phew... another day unscathed. Not this time. This time we got hit and we got hit bad. This time we are the family suffering through the ordeal. This time.... we have lice.

I noticed that Juliet was itching her head a few days ago... Friday or Saturday. I didn't react to it.. because who wants to admit to themselves that it might be lice? But I did take note of it and thought it stood out as abnormal. The next day... I noticed that I too was itching my head unusually. Still... no reaction. Finally on Sunday night after a dip in the hot tub I recalled the itching and decided that while getting Juliet ready for bed I might as well check her head. F*$%. Saying that she had lice is an understatement. She had a frickin' colony. An infestation. She didn't have lice in her hair, she had hair in her lice.

You never really know what to do in this situation. My husband & Sam were still in the hut tub so I went & told them to get out because we had some work to do. Then I turned to the internet for answers. Of course I knew that I had to go by lice shampoo, but turning to Google is just a normal reaction. And a hopeless one at that. There really isn't much info. I mean there are home remedies, holistic remedies, toxic remedies & organic remedies but it all comes down to the same thing... the same answer that you DON'T want to hear. Treat with lice shampoo to kill the lice, but nothing kills the eggs. No matter what you do, hours of "nit" picking lie in your near future.

We decided that the first thing to do would be to check everyone's head, get some lice shampoo & strip the bedrooms of linen, clothes, stuffed animals etc. My husband's head is shaved bald so he was no worry, but we discovered a couple of lice in BOTH mine & Sam's hair. Awesome. So off my husband went to the pharmacy while I gathered anything that could possibly be infected and brought it down to the laundry room for loads & loads of laundry and dryer time for anything that can't be washed. Luckily, lice cannot live off the human head for longer than 24 hours and any egg needs to feed immediately upon hatching. So I declared the basement off limits for a few days to make sure that anything that might have fallen off a head would die off in a few days and then I could go clean the whole room without worry.  I didn't want to have to worry about the basement when I had the entire upstairs & main floor to deal with.

When my husband came home we decided that Juliet needed treatment first because she was the lord of the lice. Then we'd treat Sam & just shave his head... and then I'd treat myself last. Lucky for us my good friend Ashley came over to help. Thanks Ash. We treated Juliet and sat down to start the fun while my husband took care of Sam's treatment. Ridiculousness.

The amount of lice & nits (eggs) coming out of Juliet's hair was astonishing. Ashley had never seen anything like it even after suffering through the same ordeal with her own boys. Juliet's shoulder length hair was no help. We spent over an hour combing her hair until bedtime was 3 hours ago and Juliet just couldn't go on. And while shaving Sam's head was the way to go, I have to admit that when he came back downstairs I had to leave the room so that he wouldn't see me cry. He looked like a boy who was just released from a concentration camp... and it just broke my heart. My beautiful Sam, (although still beautiful)... looked horrible (way more so than in this pic). I couldn't handle it, and I didn't want him to know that. I was so upset that we had to do that because of these f*%!ING bugs!!!!!

Sam could care less. He likes his hair... or so he says. And obviously I never let on that I didn't. After returning to school today for the first time he came home & told me that his teacher & all his friends were stunned... and of you ask him he'll tell you that all his friends like his hair (phew). But to make matters worse (for me), he said that one girl on his bus said "yuck". Although it didn't phase him, it was very hard for me to hear.

As for poor Juliet... well I've spent at least 4 hours of each day under intense light picking nits out of her hair. A couple of hours or so first thing in the morning & another couple of hours before bed.

As of yesterday I was still finding live ones amongst the many, many nits so she had another treatment last night before bed. Although I've picked 20+ nits out today I haven't found any live ones so I think it's safe to say they are all dead. But until all the nits are gone we're not in the clear. All it takes is one missed nit to hatch & lay more eggs.

I seem to be in the clear though. Although we did find 3 lice in my hair the first night... there doesn't seem to be any trace of anything else. No lice, no nits. Thank god. So why is my head still itchy??!

As for the rest... I have done at least 20 loads of laundry in the past 48 hours (& counting). The upstairs has been stripped of anything that may carry lice that are just waiting to jump back onto a head for a snack. Vacuuming has been done. The kids linens are stripped everyday and re-washed along with all clothing & towels that we use. All stuffed animals & throw pillows have spent at least an hour in the dryer. It's not done yet but it's been 2 full days now and I think I can actually say we've got it under control. I can only hope that this means the end is in sight. If not... kill me. Or give me a cold sore... I'll trade lice for that.

Mac J

I love fall and what I love even more is the awesome weather we've been having the past 2 weeks! What better way to enjoy the beautiful weather than walking in the Mac Johnson Conservation area. Nothing beats a walk in the woods on a warm, sunny fall afternoon....

Halloween in the stix

BOO!

Yes... Halloween has come & gone. I've been editing photos galore and am finally ready to share our adventure!

This year the costumes were planned as follows: Juliet, mermaid. Sam, Pirate. So I made Juliet a mermaid costume (which was my first ever attempt at using a sewing machine) which turned out a little something like this...