My kid had scabies

To everyone we came in contact with between August 18 - 31st, sorry, but you might have scabies now. Let's think... where all did we go and who did we see?

Gracie spent two nights in San Diego with Katie and Henry.  She had a few bumps between her fingers that were itchy when she left, but the day she came home, her left hand and arm were covered in bumps.  Her sister was puking and had a fever. What a way to end a sleepover!  She really didn't have anything noticeable on her hand or arm until she woke up on  Aug 21st.

This is the first day of (noticeable) scabies:

We quickly decided she has eczema. Yup, that must be it. We rubbed cortizone cream on her and went on with our day. We did decide that the rash was too ugly for school, so we went shopping and got her some long sleeve tops. I also bought her some Eczema lotion.

The next day was the first day of school. I had her wear long sleeves, but she insisted on pulling up her sleeves and showing her friends her eczema rash. They all touched it to feel how bumpy her arm was. In hindsight, ewww.

I decided maybe I should take her to the doctor. Eczema is weird, but this was more weird. My husband insisted it was eczema though, and he's usually right about such things. Here it is on  Aug 24th:

The doctor said, "Gracie, Your daddy is a smart man and he's usually right. But not this time. It isn't eczema."  It was Scabies. I had no idea what that is, so I said, "Hmm, Ok." She prescribed a wash and gave me instructions to spread this wash-lotion all over my child from the neck down right before bedtime. In the morning after the lotion has been on her for 12 hours, shower it off. The rash should go away after that treatment. She also prescribed a steroid cream just in case the wash didn't work. She said if the wash doesn't make it better, then it's probably a contact dermatitis and to use the steroid cream. Give it three days to see if the wash treatment works first. And, she told me that Scabies is very contagious. She was amazed that nobody else in the family had it. Yet.

I dropped off the prescription at the drugstore and went on home to look up what Scabies is. Never heard of it.

Once I googled Scabies and found out that it is little bugs under the skin, I was so grossed out! Disgusting! Ewww! My kid has scabies! AAAAAAA!!!

My husband was equally disgusted, but he knew what Scabies was, just had never seen it before. We looked on Google images. So very gross, but the rash matched what we saw.  The worst part is that it is often a venereal disease. Lots of the google images were of body parts we shouldn't have to look at on the computer, especially icky covered in this rash.  I can safely say, it's not just a social disease, kids get it too. I suppose, in reality, any rash or virus or anything passed from person to person could be considered a venereal disease. But, this sure made the gross aspect of her rash even more disgusting.

The wash was a tube of lotion and the active ingredient in it was the same as the flea powder for pets. So, I picked up a container of carpet cleaner in the pet aisle for killing fleas. Same ingredient. Basically, we spread a pesticide all over our kid.

After showering and waiting a few hours, her rash looked like this on the 25th: Remarkable difference!

And I tore apart her room in an effort to kill any bugs that might be in the carpet or mattresses. I used a liberal amount of the pesticide carpet powder and let it sit for four hours then vacuumed thoroughly.

Anything washable, went into the wash. All toys, pillows, bedding, clothing, etc  was put in the washer on Hotter Than Hot setting and dried the same way. I didn't want any bugs to survive my wrath!

Her rash looked a ton better, but I still had the heebie-jeebies so I repeated the wash just on her arm and hand a couple of days later. The life cycle of a scabe could mean that the next generation would hatch and thrive if the eggs didn't die in the first wash. But, I didn't have enough of the pesticide wash to cover her all over, so I just did the affected area. This wasn't recommended by the doctor, pharmacist, instructions on the lotion, google nor anyone for that matter. But the Mom-Doctor in me thought it was a good idea, so I went with it.

Here is her rash a few days later on Aug 29th:

You can still see that her skin is splotched with what were once bumps and spots. The palm of her hand still had bumps, but none were white like they were before. She was keeping that hand balled up in a fist a lot though, and I wonder if it itched more, plus being in a fist probably made her palm warmer and darker. All the more attractive for the bugs. The little bit of the rash that was left was under my watchful eye, but for the most part the scabies rash was gone. Over the next few days it disappeared all together.

Nobody else ever got it and it never spread beyond her one hand and arm. I never heard anything from any of her friends, so I don't think they got it even though she had her little buddies all touching her arm. And, I didn't hear from the teacher neither. The dog didn't have fleas, so she didn't get it from the dog. Nobody knows where she got scabies or why it didn't spread. But, it was scabies. If it wasn't, it wouldn't have improved after the pesticide wash. Hopefully we never see it again.

It's pretty embarrassing to say, "My kid had scabies" because it's so disgusting. But I decided to post this with full disclosure because I had a hard time finding scabies in kids on google. If anyone is wondering, this  is what scabies looks like on a six-year-old. At least, on my six-year-old.

If your six-year-old has a rash like this, I sure hope she's not so loud and bold and tells everyone she meets, "I have scabies. See? Wanna feel it? My dad thought it was eczema but he was wrong."  So embarrassing!

My Favorite Things

Oprah has her favorite things, well, so do I.  And after my last blog post about things I don't have but I wish I had, I need to balance things out by showing some appreciation for the many wonderful things I already have. I am pretty spoiled.

The tippy top of my favorite things list is, of course, my family. That goes without saying; they are just the best!  But, they are not "things" so they don't really make the list. They're over and above it.

1. Rug Doctor.  This thing is my best friend in messy times! And with a houseful of kids and a dog, there are plenty of messy times.

2. Electric pan. It's amazing. How did I live without this thing for so long?

3. My remote control van doors. Presently, one doesn't work which makes me appreciate them even more.

4. Coffee.  No explanation needed.

5. My Nike cushiony flip flops. I wear them every single day.

6. My laptop. It's my connection to the world and to myself. I'd probably go insane if I didn't have an outlet.

7. My sewing machines. I love them!

8. Dawn dishwashing liquid. Yeah, I'm really saying that.

9. My washer and dryer. They make my life easier.

10.  The portable dvd player.  Long road trips would suck without this thing.
 

11. My books. I have gads of books, most of them I haven't read yet. But, I love them. I always want more books and I instantly love any book that comes into my possession. I hate getting rid of them, but I don't mind sharing.  I wish I had more time for reading, but I need big fat chunks of uninterrupted time so that I can just keep turning pages and that kind of time is hard to come by right now.

12. My china. I haven't even seen it in years, but I love it. It is all packed away snug and tight and safe under my stairs right now. It's beautiful. The china is a huge set of dishes that were a wedding gift to my Great Grandmother circa 1900. My grandma handed it all down to me.

13. My Fun Passes.  I love going out and about and having fun! I have passes to the SD Zoo and Safari Park, Science Center in Balboa Park, Sea World and Universal Studios. I no longer have a pass to Disneyland; I miss it very much but we had passes for three years and it was fantastic! I love having tickets to fun!

What do I want?

My husband just asked me what I want for my birthday, which is tomorrow so I gotta give him credit for thinking ahead.

Hmm.... how do I narrow down the list to a more manageable size? I'll just list the things I want most!

1. Disneyland passes. I want annual passes for me and the girls and a parking pass. Total comes to $936. I know, I know, it's a bit much, but that' s Walt's fault.

2. I-Touch. It's such a cool little gadget and I miss my Palm Pilot that I had 10 years ago. I'd love an I-touch.

3.  An embroidery machine. Everything is better when it's personalized. As if, making something isn't personal enough. But wouldn't embroidery be fun!  Yes!

4. More bookshelves. My books are crammed onto the shelves I have now. They're so cluttery looking without any little spaces between the books.

5. Bread machine. I want to bake some yummy cinnamon/raisin bread and make italian bread. I'm sure there are more delicious breads I could make. We had a bread machine once and it made wonderful bread. But, it died after just a few months.

6. A car. My van is showing signs of aging. I want a 2013 Nissan Altima. No particular color, but not blue or green or any Easter egg color.

7. Clothes and shoes. Seriously, I'm a girl.

8. Smart phones. Note that I said phones in the plural form, one for the hubby too! I think we are the only people left who don't have them and they look so handy-dandy! I know I could use it for the GPS.

9. Kindle Fire. Of course, only if #2 doesn't pan out because I think you can load books onto an I-touch. Since this is sort of a repeat, I guess I will instead say, a flat screen TV in my sewing area.

10.  A new camera. I want a little Canon.

Well, there's the top ten. It's funny, I used to be "ah, I don't want anything, just a nice day" but now I'm all about being pampered with big ticket items. Have fun shopping!  I'll just be sitting here waiting for a parade of presents to walk through the door! Don't forget the cake!

Praise The Lord

I prayed today. Yup. True. I wasn't even in dire straits. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park this morning. Totally did not see this coming.

Usually I only pray in church (which isn't very often cuz I'm a very bad Catholic), or when I am in extreme distress. For example: when my kid was getting stitches. 

I dropped Gracie off at school, and since school just started, it is chaos at the drop off until the new people learn  how to do it and stay out of the way of the ebb and flow of the parents who know how. So, I decided to walk her into the school instead of dropping her off in the car-line. Plus, I was bringing a donation for her classroom (a clock) and I wanted to make sure the teacher got it.

So, there I was.

I said "Good Morning" to a mom who I got to know a bit last year. Her child is in a different class than my kid this year. She said "Good morning!" Seeing I had Libby and Charlie with me she added, "I'm headed to a playdate at the park, would you like to join us?" Sure! She told me which park and we headed right over. Gotta do these park playdates in the morning since it's still pretty hot by mid-day.

I met up with her and her friends at the park, they had picnic blankets and they apologized for not having snacks and shade umbrellas. Wow, serious playdate mamas! I told them I usually have picnic blankets and beach towels, but I don't today because I washed them and they are at home. I wasn't really planning to go to the park, but it was such a great idea that I came without snacks and my picnic blanket. We'll get by just fine.

We took care of introductions and the kids made fast friends and ran off to play. Turns out, the other moms are all moms from Gracie's school too. A couple of them have their kids at another campus, and one lady didn't have children but she comes to the playdates as a friend. Ahh, nice to meet you all.

We sat on the picnic blankets and I positioned myself to make sure I could see everything and not lose sight of Charlie. This park has lots of opportunity for running off. The boundaries are not well defined. Had to make sure the bench and the trash can were not blocking my view of the playground.  We visited about parenting, sending our children to school, balancing marriage and motherhood, normal conversations among women at the park. Or, was it? One lady was asking rather deep questions and the other ladies were saying, "with the Lord's help" and things like that.

Hey... wait a minute.... they all have leather zip up bible cases... matching.  Hmmm.

One lady whips open her book and reads something about Noah's wife and they all start discussing how supportive and strong she must have been. I'm telling ya, if my husband comes home on a normal day and says, "Honey, I'm a gonna build a big arc and save all the animals on the planet from impending doom." Without hesitation, I would assume he went crazy. I would turn around and go about my business completely ignoring his insane plan to save the world. Noah, dude, good thing you didn't marry me!

This is when I realized I was at a church playdate. Ohhhh. Ok. Well, no harm in that.

But then, they wanted to have a closing prayer. They all joined hands and prayed for each other out loud. I found myself included in this circle of women.  Lengthy too, really, my palms were getting sweaty and I could see Charlie climbing to the top of the highest play structure. He seems fine, but I wish they'd hurry up with the park praying cuz I felt weird holding hands in a circle at the park. I'm Catholic; we don't take it out of the church.

They all said it was nice to meet me and see you next week! Wait, did I just join the group? Oh boy. I accidentally attended a prayer group at the park and Praised the Lord in public, and now I am a member of the park church too?

It was nice to meet them and they were very supportive to each other.  They were not pushy at all! Hard to say that about most religious people that you find in the park. I could feel the empowering positive vibes from their friendships. I'm so glad they invited me and were happy with having me in their little group, but I'm not a pray in the park type so I'm not sure if I will go again. They were such nice people though.

Noah's wife must've been nuts. 

Another Epic Roadtrip

All of our roadtrips are epic. You know what they say, "Go Big or Go Home." We "Go Big"!

We were gone for two weeks, so I think I will have to blog about our adventures in several posts. Every day was blog-worthy, but I cannot blog while away from my laptop which means I am going to be playing catch-up.

Here is a general overview so you know what sort of reading you have in store for you:

We drove 3,000 miles, attended a birthday bash/family reunion, a cowboy wedding, another family reunion, camped, had a very sick kid and we baked in the summer heat. Very adventurous indeed! A few of the things we planned were scrapped from the itinerary, but we managed to squeeze in a lot of sight seeing and visiting. We had a great time. Luckily, no mechanical problems with the van. I like it when we avoid car repairs on the road!

We did get a rock chip in a construction zone in Wyoming. It hit the edge of the windshield and then the chip grew and grew. By the time we got home, it had snaked it's way across to the middle. We called the Glass Dr and we have a new windshield already!

Since we drove, we always drive, we can take whatever we need. We try not to over-pack, but we do try not to forget anything. This trip, we forgot all kinds of things! Apparently, we did not over-pack!  Keith and I forgot our sleeping bags, which made camping a little more interesting.  We left our frying pan in Wyoming, just forgot it along the way. We thought of all kinds of little things that we forgot: extra SD camera cards, flashlights, stuff like that.

We did take over 300 beer glasses with us. Yes, you read that right: beer glasses. Keith designed a couple of logos and had them custom printed on beer glasses and delivered to the house.  Then he took them to the Schumacher Family reunion and sold them to family members for cost. He and his brothers have been brewing their own beers and the glasses are very nice, perfect for the home brewed beverages. Traveling with a van full of glass, kids and a dog was a fun experience.

Luckily, we're flexible with our vacation schedule. That worked well for us because we had a very sick little girl and we had to cancel some of our plans and hunker down for a few days to let her rest and get better. We ended up taking her to the doctor and getting some medication for her, but it was great to be able to get off the road while she was sick. We don't know why she got sick, it didn't seem to be carsickness or food poisoning, but if it was a virus she kept it to herself. Who knows, it was just one of those fluke things. Poor kid.

It was one of the best road trips we've ever had (except for the puking kid), but we missed little Charlie every day. We thought about taking Lexie and Charlie, but she had things to do and Charlie is the type of toddler who likes to be on the move, not strapped into a carseat all day long. We put in some very long days in the van and spent a lot of time in places that are not safe for an active curious toddler. But, we did go to some places that he would have had a ton of fun so we'll be sure to take him when he's a little older and can better handle the long drive. Sure was nice to get home to see him again. We missed our little grandson Henry too, but we often go 2 to 3 weeks without seeing him so we are used to the gaps between Henry visits but the kids especially missed each other and were happy to be together again once we got home. 

I will catch up with the blogging and stories from the roadtrip and the rest of the summer. But for now, my brain is mush. It's so hot out that I'm just not feeling much like doing anything. Even blogging sounds like too much work.