Here we are.

Well, school starts tomorrow.  As per tradition, I'll drop the girls off for their first day.  Tomorrow night, all three kids will bring home loads of homework for me.  Health forms, lunch money forms, field trip permission slips, contact update forms, and something begging for money, I'm sure.  They never have homework on the first day, I always do.  *sigh*  It'll have to be done after Big Brother is over.  That's all I've got to say 'bout that.

Brett called in sick tonight.  I started to blow, since he has a friend over for the night, went to Oak Grove to visit old friends, and seemed fine last night.  I started to, then I quit.  In two months, he'll be an "adult."  I can control when he goes to school, what he does in this house, and where he goes.  I cannot control how he treats his job.  That's between him and his employer.  He even talked to me like an adult and said, "I don't know why you don't believe me that I got sick.  I've been doing so good lately."  Point taken.  He really has.  Anyway, it's not for me to decide.  It's his deal.

Natalie had another bout of lice while she was at Grammy's.  She attended camp there, so who knows?  Anyway, Grammy did an alternative treatment, suggested by her neice (a hairdresser.)  It got rid of them, but didn't kill the eggs.  That made my mission clear.  Do all treatments, back to back, to ensure they're gone before school starts.  We did Rid, and it appears they're gone.  That's not good enough for me, though.  I'm an extremist.  The next day, I filled her hair with Vaseline.  I knew (from reading) that it would be hard to get out, but I decided to deal with it.

I left it on for 6 hours, then had her wash her hair twice.  Couldn't even tell it'd been washed.  So greasy.  Then, we used Simple Green on it.  It's a great cleaner/degreaser, and totally organic.  It helped some, but not enough.  She went to Mom's with greasy hair.  Monday night, we washed it two more times.  Still greasy.  Tuesday night, we washed it, let it dry, then filled it with baby powder.  Now, we were getting somehwere.  It helped a LOT.  The suggestion was corn starch, but I didn't have any.

Tonight, we used corn starch (thanks to a trip to Wally World on the way home) and she's in the shower again.  School starts tomorrow, and I hope to have her looking minimally greasy.  I'll have her say she used too much Mousse or something.  Whatever.  I don't want lice in the house.  Everyone else is clear.  Why does her baby-fine hair seem so appealing to them, while the rest of us (with thicker hair) stay clear?  Who knows, but I'm prepared with at least two more non-traditional treatments (non-chemical) which will both be used before the weekend is over.

The puppy is doing well.  She'll play and bark and run around for an hour or so in the evening, then put herself to bed.  It's so cute.  She just goes to sleep in the kennel with the door standing wide open.  She looks up as someone passes by, as if to say "HEY!  Turn off the lights, will ya?"

What a messed up household.  What an unconventional mess of a family.  Such a weird group we are.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.