I am coming out of hiding to confess a terrible problem our family is having this week. Early this week we discovered that I and all of the boys have head lice. Man, this is nasty, and way hard. Have I mentioned that my hair is currently several inches below my shoulders in length? The boys have been easy! We chopped theirs down to a 1/4 of an inch, so now the lice and their eggs have nowhere to hide!! Mine, on the other hand, has been an absolute nightmare. I have also considered chopping mine down to 1/4 of an inch, but my husband has gently reminded me that I have to go out in public soon, so we decided against it.
There are a number of situations in a marriage that will either affirm your love for one another, or confirm that your marriage is in trouble. I firmly believe that head lice infestations are a perfect example of one of these situations. I can happily say that we have a GREAT marriage after this week!!
A couple of days ago, I discovered a bug in my hair. Okay, so if you know me, you know that bugs and I are not friends. AT ALL. So, I proceeded to freak out. I called Jeff at work and asked him to come home, armed with lice shampoo and a nit comb. The baby was already in bed for the night, and the boys were on their way. I was totally freaking out and knew I couldn't deal with this alone. Jeff very kindly left work and ran to the store, armed himself with lice-murdering implements, and flew home.
With all of my voluminous hair to go through, it took us a good two hours of shampooing, leaving the shampoo on, then combing through my hair with the nit comb tiny section by tiny section. People, seriously, the girl has a lot of hair. So, Jeff spent his night pulling nits out of my hair. Thankfully, he never actually had to witness a bug being removed from my head. This may have sent me over the edge.
Several times during this process I expressed my fear that he might never want to touch me again, or that he might decide this was enough and head out the door! He made it very clear that nothing was going to drive him away, especially not some dumb little louse! (Or its millions of friends.)
So, we did the baboon act for a couple of hours, and went to bed. The next morning, the great head-shaving of 2010 began. Four young boys and their daddy lined up in the back yard for their 1/4 inch buzz cuts. Then we searched. Every boy had at least one louse on their heads, but not much more. Daddy was in the clear.
As I completed each head, Jeff took them in the kitchen and applied the lice shampoo. The timers were set, then when their timers went off, either Jeff or I combed their hair with the nit comb. We continued on with this process until all heads were shaved and combed, nit and lice free.
Then, we pulled off all bedding and went to town, washing and drying at hot temperatures. Actually, our dryer has only stopped for a short time in the night since 2 nights ago. Today, all of the boys' stuffed animals are being sent through the dryer for a hot, bug killing ride!
So, this trial has shown me one thing for sure. My husband is here for the long haul, and our marriage is in good shape! We have pulled off some major team work this week to get a really big job done together, and I feel blessed beyond measure to have such a great man as my husband. My mom always tells me that he is not normal, and that not many men are are as wonderful as he is. I believe she may be right!
