Lice!!!

These pictures have absolutely nothing to do with this post.

 Today we found out that our children MAY have been exposed to lice. I did head checks and haven't found anything yet, but we've washed bedding just in case. I also oiled the heads of the children most likely to have been exposed. Luckily Brenna is pretty bald and the boys don't care if their heads get shaved, so that only leaves me two children to really worry about. I'm not even going to think about the chance that I could get them, not with my nearly waist length hair.
 There is a problem with lice today. It seems that they are becoming resistant to the usual treatments. What this means is that parents think they've treated their children and everything should be fine, but it's not. The good news is that as creepy and itchy as lice are, they aren't actually all that harmful.

I figured this was a lot prettier than a picture of lice.

 Even with nine children, we've been lucky enough to have only had one actual lice outbreak and one exposure scare before. When Kristi was in first grade her entire classroom had problems with lice for several months. The school had to institute new policies like hanging coats on chairs rather than in a common coat closet and asking long haired students to wear their hair up. We never actually found any lice at our house, but she did get treated at her mother's house, so we followed precautions anyway. Then 10 years ago a child at scouts was found to have lice. Our children hadn't really been close to her, so we oiled everyone's hair and did head checks for a few days. Hopefully this will blow over that easily too!
 I myself had a case of headlice back in second grade after a slumber party. It seems that first through third grades are the most likely age for this sort of thing. I assume it's because the kids are old enough that parents aren't doing all of their care (hair washing, brushing, etc.), but they aren't quite old enough to be aware of something not quite right yet. Even though it seems to be a rite of passage, I wouldn't be at all upset if it just passed us by this time.