Schools of Choice and Welcoming in Spring

According to my archived emails, Greg last sent an update to the family in um...November 2015. Of course, it's not like we've been silent since then. So though it isn't my turn I thought I'd help play catch up while Greg writes his prelim paper and prepares two other presentations.

January highlights: 3 day weekend in Indianapolis with epic bubble baths and an R2D2 cake and watching the Russian Ballet perform Cinderella on a "Mommy-Daddy-Toria date"

February highlights: the Blue and Gold Banquet, Valentine's Day, a few theme days while our friend's dad was away at his first grad school conference

March at a glance
Week 1: We went to the annual Fairy Tale Ball at the Urbana Public Library.

Week 2: We battled super lice and won! Karen's advice was timely beyond all else. We got rid of it for good in less than a week while all or friends were still trying to battle it with other methods. Thank you Karen and your professional nit picking friend!

Week 3: Greg went to the APS conference and did well. We had theme days again (see photos.) The day after he got back we went to Newsies and the temple for a belated birthday celebration in Indy, courtesy of my aunt and uncle.

Week 4: We babysat an almost two year old for a week while her parents vacationed in Africa! We registered Victoria for kindergarten (see attached newspaper clipping) and were featured in the local newspaper. Easter was great and low key here at home with friends from the ward next door; we tried to celebrate all week for greater impact.

April highlights: General Conference and yummy enchiladas Saturday night with friends, an upcoming wedding, several singing performances for me, learning where Victoria will go to Kindergarten and whether Greg got the Blue Waters Fellowship, Greg's prelim at the end of the month. My favorite quote is actually from the Women's General session (the last Saturday in March): "Love is making space in your life for someone else." Make space for God.

Our top two choices for schools have elective classes more often than some of the other schools. Neither school has uniforms and both have slightly longer lunches (20 minutes is still short.) The teachers were all impressive--welcoming and genuinely so.

Carrie Busey
The school day begins and ends sooner.
It's close enough to walk or ride.
She gets to help in their garden.

The open house "tour" was a perfect balance in meeting the needs of child and parents. There are 4 kindergarten classrooms and we met with 3 of the teachers. They were friendly and informative, answering our questions as parents while letting Victoria explore without trying too hard to engage her. They did guide her a bit and get her to answer some of their questions. I am excited to go back during the school day with Victoria and see how a typical teaching day goes.

Each kindergarten class has their own garden in which they plant and harvest a fast crop (think spring garden salad) and a long term crop for the next class to harvest in the fall. Because there are 4 classrooms of about 21 each, the students are able to have an elective class of some sort every day. Every other day they go to the "learning lab" for 20 minutes to practice gross motor skills before going to P.E. On the other days of the week they go to music or art. And of course they go to the library weekly. The principle added that if a student is a particularly hungry reader they make arrangements for more library time before or after school. :)

At Carrie Busey, Victoria gets a morning snack and then around noon she goes to play at recess before lunch. Because her grade is the last to use the lunchroom, the students have greater flexibility in how long lunch will last. It's still fast but it's not short to the point of rudeness.

South Side
The P.E. class and music classes are impressive. 
They integrate their curriculum very well and are constantly using technology.

It's the farthest away of my top 3 and so she would ride the bus. With a later start time (8:45) that's good for my mornings but harder in the afternoon. Their profile sounds very welcoming and they encourage visitors to come familiarize themselves with with the school. Victoria and I love that they specialize in music. I had high expectations for our tour and they were met.

You Would Cry Too If It Happened to You: Head Lice

It happened Friday morning. My husband was staying home from work for the morning, so he went in to wake up the sleeping toddler princess. I got called in because he found dark little bugs crawling in her thin, blonde hair. "Yeah, I know what those are," I said with a shudder. It wasn't until I discovered a single bug in my long, thick, blonde hair that I wanted to cry. When it's on my kid's head I can see and kill it. But these critters and especially their clear, sticky eggs are beyond hard to find on my beautifully thick and long blonde hair amid the dandruff.

After a few phone calls, appointment with the pediatrician, and a trip to my favorite grocery store pharmacy, we buckled down and began treatment. After combing through everyone's hair with an electronic comb which kills lice on contact, we got to work with the medicated shampoo. For the record, my hair takes a whole bottle for one application and you're supposed to use it twice.

Most lice shampoos have Permethrin which kills the louse and the nymph but not the nit. (Never mind the new type of lice which are resistant to the stuff!) So we're still stuck with the tedious process of combing and hoping we caught every last one. Every day. For ten days. Yep. Since a female louse lays up to 8 eggs per day and each egg takes 7 days to hatch, discovering and killing early in the infestation is key for complete eradication. Thankfully the bugs don't fly or jump; they just crawl from head to head. This is how most infestations begin. Lice can't live more than a day off the scalp so some say only 2% of reinfestations occur from unwashed bedding etc. (Sources: See the following article and its resources.)

I finally found a bottle of shampoo on Amazon that is bigger than anything I can buy at Meijer. ("Family sized" apparently means 6 to 9 applications for hair shorter than ones shoulders. If you have longer, thicker hair, the nits are harder to find and remove so you're going to need a hair cut to save time and money and stress. Sorry.) The best part is the shampoo I just bought seems to live up to its claim of dissolving the nit glue so most if not all of the eggs also wash out! Looking at the ingredients I'm guessing it has to do with the coconut stuffs. There are also lice repellent shampoos made out of rosemary, tea tree, and olive oils. One reviewer commented, "There is a prescription medicine Sklice that kills the lice, nymphs and eggs. I tried to get some today. Went to the doc, got a prescription, but since I have no insurance, 4 ounces (1 dose) cost $330.00." Actually, Natroba (generic name: Spinosad) kills lice, nymphs, and eggs but Sklice does not. No matter what treatment route you choose, your stuck nit picking daily for 3 weeks before you can truly declare your family lice free. Did you know there are professional nit pickers?! If can find one in your area make sure they use the Shepherd Method of going through strand by strand because that's the only guarantee in the lice world.

So if you need me, I'll be in the shower washing my hair yet again.

A few days later...

Bad News: After a second medicated washing I managed to find a live nymph or two on my daughter! We've got a super bug on our hands that is resistant to the OTC stuff.

Good news: We can still suffocate them to extinction. Thanks to Kate Lovett and Camilla Decker for bring this to my attention and for Hildie at Hive and Nest for writing about this new-to-me method.

Reality Check: Yes it is a blood sucking parasite on my child's head. Yes it's gross. No it does not cause disease and is therefore not dangerous. Yes you aren't allowed in most schools if you have it or have had it recently (which I just now realized means that she and I cannot visit the elementary schools like we've planned these next couple of weeks: darn it!) No they cannot jump or fly, only crawl. The only way you can get it is for my child's head (or something that has touched her head) to touch yours. The lice and their eggs cannot survived 24 hours away from their food source and they get killed with heat pretty easily (hence putting combs and brushes in boiling water and clothes and bedding in the dryer for a full cycle.) Eggs take a week to hatch and then another week to grow up enough to lay more eggs so treatments are expected to take at least a month.

Spiritual lessons learned from this:
1. Be careful who you spend time with and what you do with them. “Friends are people who make it easier to live the gospel of Jesus Christ,” taught Elder Robert D. Hales. This includes repenting.

2. Having good friends makes it easier to endure trials. (You're on the list Camilla Decker, Kate  Lovett, and Karen Hart Wilding.)

3. True repentance is not a one time thing and it must be done thoroughly each time in order to be effective.

4. To stay clean and safe from sin, the only guaranteed way the that of the Good Shepherd. Apply daily for the rest of your life.