Cancer.

I decided this weekend to get some new ink. Okay, so really, I was jealous that Jim went to California, so I wanted to do something awesome too. I went to B Cool tattoo shop to get it done. I've driven past it hundreds of times in the past four years and always thought it looked pretty "hole in the wall, probably pretty ghetto"ish. I was pleasantly surprised. Unlike Rose of No Man's Land tattoo that I went to several months ago, the folks at B Cool greeted us immediately and were VERY reasonable in their prices. I met the guy that was going to do my tat and got to work.

I decided to go with my Cancer Zodiac sign, as it is very much "me". I am very happy with how it turned out.

While I was getting my tat done, we were discussing my horseshoe tattoo and how disappointed I was with how it turned out. He said for $20 more, he'd fix it. SNAP! So he went to town on that...and WOW...it turned out great. Check out the before and after:

I left completely satisfied and will definitely be back for more. I'm looking forward to working with Mr. Dutch to create some new masterpieces.

Bombs away!

Yesterday was the big day. After hours of cleaning and then goes of destroying the house, we set off the "smoker"bombs to kill the lice and fleas. Thankfully my mom came over to help me out... I was lost.

So when Jim got home from work, we set off the canisters and headed out on our 2 hour adventure. We ended up on Wisconsin at a burger king play place...I can think of worse places to spend the time. After that, we went home and started in on the mess. Cleaning, wiping, washing... On the bright side, I cleaned out my cupboards and organized them!

Yesterday was also the final lice treatment. Lily and Fiona were both lice free!! After the massive after bomb clean up, I went to my mom's house to have her treat NY hair. We used lice MD, which I had highly recommended to me. so I sat for an hour to make sure it grooved just right and spent over an hour having my hair sectioned and combed thorough. All clear. Mom and I didn't get done until 1 am. I'm so done with the late nights this crap has caused. Ready for a nap today.

Today I get to clean some more and do a billion loads of dishes and laundry. But to get a mental break, we're going to the zoo later. Can't ask for nicer weather this time of year.

I want to end this entry by saying thank you to everyone who has helped me out during this mess. Whether or was combing my hair, giving advice, suggesting treatments or just giving me a shoulder to cry on...you are all appreciated. It was so nice to know I wasn't alone. I now declare that chapter of my life CLOSED. :D

Why hide?

After having someone anonymously post a comment on my last blog, that is obviously somebody I know, I am not thrilled. You are obviously not a friend if you can't even come out and say something honestly, without hiding behind "Anonymous". I honestly don't think I would be this pissed if you had just come out and ask me instead of going about it the way you did. This way makes it sound like you're afraid of offending me or something. Well, this way of going about it did offend me. I feel like I was being accused...of something. And it's not just me that took it that way. If you you were any sort of a friend, you would have offered a helping hand instead of criticizing my general public ethic. Instead of acting like I'm intentionally spreading Tuberculosis...read my blog

and see that I've been busting my ass to get things under control. Now that I've defended myself, I leave you with this:

Stressing to the max.

Ever wonder what you did that was so bad that the universe decided to punish you? We've been battling head lice which is hard enough...then the other day, I had a giant flea crawl from the dog onto my arm. So now we've got two different parasites infesting our home (on top of the 3 kids :p). How the hell did we go from no bugs to this? It's bad enough with lice, but the fleas might just be worse...those suckers JUMP! *shudder* So we had to go get tons of flea killing products...and now I have to find something to do with the cat and dog for 2 1/2 hours one day so we can bomb the house. Is it bad that I kinda wish we were really bombing the house??

Speaking of houses...we're getting closer and closer to moving day. The foreclosure is final and we have to be out by March 11th, and we have no leads on a place to live. We can't afford more than $900 for a 3 bedroom...which is not a lot of money to work with. Basically all I can find are crappy places in bad neighborhoods. There's no way I'm moving my kids somewhere that isn't safe, in the ghetto where I can't feel safe either. Did I mention that moving to Minneapolis terrifies me? It's hard to wait to look, but we're going to have to stop looking until January. It's really hard not knowing what's next. Having pets sucks too because it's going to be an added cost for rent every month. With everything going on I had a weak moment and considered getting rid of the cat and dog. I could never do it though. They're my fur babies, and they're best friends. Lily and Eoghan got their report cards this week. Eoghan is so very smart, but can't control himself to save his life. Every day he has to take breaks, and a couple times a week he has full out fits where we can't get him to calm down for hours. Then there's Lily who is well behaved and popular, but not the brightest bulb in the shed. She's not really stupid, but she doesn't apply herself at all. "Gee, that's too hard, I can't do it...duuuurrrrr..." So now when school gets back in session, I have to look into getting her a tutor. Just another thing to add to my list of things to do. The kids have been on break from school for a week now and I'm ready to punch myself in the face. Because we've got bugs, I can't let them go anywhere or have anyone over here, so we've been stuck with each other.

Jim's birthday was the other day and he got himself the new game..."Black Ops" or something like that. Let me just say, watching somebody play video games is SO BORING! It's also super frustrating when the person playing is getting really grumpy and yelling at everything because the game isn't going as planned. I love you dearly, but you really need to pop some Xanax before you play. Maybe I should too lol. That being said HOLY EXPENSIVE! The game itself is stupid pricey, but the equipment to play is EVEN MORE than the game. WTH!? Now I have two boys in the house that are into playing and I can see that it will get much more expensive as the years go on.

One bright side I created a chore game for the kids...We decorated a jar and I put slips of paper that have a chore and points earned for completing the chore...plus there are random "+1 and -1 point" cards to keep it game like. We keep track of their points and every few turns, I have them do the math to add up their points. Each point is worth a penny. So they get some money to buy their own toys and I've got a clean house. Hell yes. Lily was saving up for a walking puppy toy and Eoghan was saving up for more Sky Landers guys. They both caved early and ended up buying their own happy meals and a small toy from walmart. Works for me! haha. There's more I could rant about, but I'll save it for another blog. Until next time. :)

The "L" Word.

Well, our time has come. We've caught the dreaded LICE. We've made it until until Lily's 2nd grade year before it hit. I should be grateful...and I am...but right now, after a full week of dozens of lice treatments, I'm just frustrated. It started out that Lily was exposed pretty extensively to lice...and for a couple weeks afterwards, we were watching and praying it would skip us...then last Monday morning she said her head was itching. So, I looked...and saw a GIANT bug on her hair. I almost puked on her. I don't handle bugs well. That began our journey of eradicating the enemy. We treated with Nix, coated hair in mayonnaise and let it sit for 4 hours, combed and combed and combed with olive and baby oil. Then I took bedding and toys and have been washing and drying non stop, using the steamer to clean everything else, spraying stuff with furniture spray and spraying ourselves with peppermint oil. Eoghan and Jim got their hair buzzed as a precautionary measure, I treated Fiona just to make sure she was bug free...and thankfully she was. Then last Wednesday, I combed through my hair just to make sure I was clear...and wouldn't you know, I found a big ass lice clinging to a piece of hair for dear life. I about crapped my pants. I called the doctor to have them phone in a prescription for lice shampoo (this is killing us financially) and after 2 full hours of calling the pharmacy and our clinic's phone line to reach the doctor, we finally got it squared away. So I go to Walmart to pick it up...and insurance won't cover it. It's over the counter. OMG! If I had known that it was the same stuff we had used before, I wouldn't have been bugging the shit out of the pharmacist and doc all night! I was annoyed. Thankfully my mom was willing to help me out and treat my hair. I tried doing it myself and ripped out tons of hair. Now, after a week of hell...I found freshly hatched lice in Lily's hair. I have been defeated. So we started over. Washing, cleaning, combing, itching, crying. I had to have my hair treated again and combed out. My hair is pretty long right now, and since it's so thick, it takes a ton of the special shampoos and a full hour of combing to get through it all and still not be done. I've decided I want to get my hair cut to help make it easier...but now I'm stuck. Can't go get my hair cut with lice, but can't get rid of the stupid lice and need my hair cut to cut costs of treating. I'm hoping that I can find someone willing to come to my house to cut my hair for me...but I'm not holding my breath. I'm at my wits end with it all. I hate the dreaded call of shame to tell people that we've discovered lice. I'm mortified that we've passed it along to another of Lily's friends. I'm ready to buzz everyone's head to be safe and bug free lol. I feel like we've been dealing with this forever, and it's only been a week. I read somewhere that it could take up to 6 months to finally get rid of everything. omg. 6 months of this would kill me. Thankfully the kids are off for the next 2 weeks...so I'm thinking that since we have nowhere to be, we'll be spending today with our heads covered in mayonnaise and a plastic bag, cleaning the crap out of everything I can. I'm ready for a nap. :(