Live to the point of tears
This little treasure sits on my bookshelf. The card reads “Live to the point of tears,” a quote by Albert Camus. I fell in love with the card the moment I saw it and it fit perfectly inside a secondhand frame I’d also fallen in love with. The saying reminded me of how I’d like to live my life: a joyous adventure with no regrets and lots and lots of good memories.
This past week has been a good memory, and by good I don’t mean wonderful and fabulous. It’s more like it may go down in history as one of the most exhausting, frustrating, put-me-in-a-straight-jacket weeks ever. Oh, I am currently living to the point of tears, but not those kinds of tears.
Don’t get me wrong, I know my problems are inconsequential compared to most so I rarely dedicate a blog post to them, but when I found myself asking, “Is this REALLY my life?” on more than one occasion, I thought it fitting to write about why I may run away tomorrow and never come back…or at least not come back until the kids are grown and the husband is out of MBA school. Here’s why.
Friday
- Discover Livi has an adult louse crawling around her scalp. Call the pediatrician and confirm but feel better because it’s not an infestation. One shampooing should do the trick.
- Drop Madison off at school and hit Walgreen’s for lice shampoo. Spend far too long trying to figure out which $@%*& box to buy.
- Discover an adult louse in George’s hair while looking at lice shampoo boxes. Exclaim, “You’ve GOT to be kidding me!” loud enough everyone in the store can hear.
- Head home and proceed to de-lice the kids. Listen to them cry as I pull that fine-toothed lice removal comb through their hair. Look forward to doing it again in 7 to 10 days.
- Pack everyone’s bags and finally shower.
- Take 5 hours to drive to St. George thanks to traffic.
- Attend “Tarzan” at Tuacahn, which would normally be thoroughly enjoyable but find it less so because a 2 1/2-hour play is hard on kids who’ve been sitting and sweating in a car for 5 hours not 20 minutes before the first gorilla walked on stage.
Saturday
- Wake up desperately hoping Livi will sleep better the next couple nights.
- Who the heck knows. I think it involved swimming in a frigid pool, cold even with the 102-degree weather. It may have also included a nap and a few chapters of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
Sunday
- More swimming and shivering and sweating at the pool.
- Enjoy a few blissful moments at a fabulous playground.
- Face reality when Nathan tells me he thinks he saw another louse in George’s hair. About lose it thinking I have to spend another $20 and de-lice my son’s hair while on vacation.
- Visit the St. George LDS Temple, which looks gorgeous lit up at night.
- Leave the temple grounds, cross the street and hear a loud thump followed by Madison and George in tears. Turn around and notice both have fallen down, hard, after stepping off the curb into a storm gutter (sloped rather than flat).
- Realize Nathan is going to help her and immediately turn on my heels. Storm to the car, totally annoyed because someone had to go and get hurt while on vacation.
- Quickly remember it’s not a vacation if the kids are along for the ride. (Family vacations often involve strange rashes, trips to InstaCare and vomiting. Why not add lice and sprained ankles to the mix?)
- Stop at Walgreen’s for lice shampoo, ibuprofen, an ace bandage and a bag of peanut butter M&Ms.
Monday
- Watch Madison hop on one foot part way, crawl part way to subzero pool. Try to have sympathy but give up. Come to the realization (again) I’m a horrible mother.
- Clean the condo. (Stripping beds, scrubbing bathrooms and cleaning floors is what truly makes a vacation a vacation.)
- Eat some yummy chips & salsa at Panama Grill. Discover I never again want to use the bathroom at Panama Grill. Gross.
- Drive home.
Tuesday
- Take Madison to Dr. Pete and learn, via x-ray, she has a moderate to severe sprain and some funky benign cyst we needn’t worry about.
- Indulge my growing grumpiness in a Big Mac meal from McDonald’s, large Diet Coke included of course.
- Agree last-minute to bring goodies to a Childhelp.org meeting that night. Bake a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and peanut butter swirl brownies and try not to eat them all on the way to said meeting. (Stress will make me do crazier things.)
- Receive a call from Madison at 10pm on the way home from the meeting. Listen as she tells me she thinks she found a louse in her hair while showering. Exclaim, “Seriously?!?!” into the phone and hang up.
- Spend a good 1 1/2 hours de-licing Madison’s hair.
- Open the garage fridge and find a can of Diet Coke has exploded inside due to partial freezing. (You think I would have learned the first time soda went “pop” in my fridge.)
- Clean caffeinated slush out of the fridge and ponder the meaning of life, or at least why in heaven’s name everything always has to happen at once.
Wednesday
- Mow the lawns because one daughter has a sprained ankle and the other has so much else to do she’ll throw a royal fit if I remind her she needs to mow the lawn and I can’t deal with any royal fits today.
- Take some aggression out on the dandelions scattered here, there and everywhere in said lawn.
- Check Lauren’s hair for lice. Find one. Spend 1 1/2 hours de-licing her hair.
- Open the garage fridge and discover a can of Fresca has also exploded all over the inside, though a bit better contained this time. Take every last $&%@ soda off the shelf and leave them on the garage floor.
- Consider making a paper chain that counts down the minutes until I leave for a girls’ trip to L.A. with my mom and sister.
Amidst all this I’ve been lucky enough to vacuum nooks and crannies, do about a hundred loads of laundry, comforters and all, plus sanitize hair brushes, combs and clips. Nathan and I also sported the lice shampoo last night just to be safe. (Fortunately we are lice-free but the image of us picking nits out of each other’s hair reminded me of our recent 2 1/2-hour Tarzan experience.)
Oh, and I’ve been averaging about 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night, worked out once and have my last sprint triathlon on Saturday morning. It’s going to be awesome.
Living to the point of tears? It’s more like hysterics.
You can read more about the inspiration for this site 
oh oh oh dear!!!!!! (I have to admit, you had me in hysterics at the 2nd soda can explosion).
Steph Bond @ Bondville´s deep thought ~ Bondville 3-Year-Old Birthday Party
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Wow. Hang in there. L.A. definitely cannot come soon enough…you deserve it more now than ever!!
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A heavy load for sure! Keep you chin up!
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love you
vanessa´s deep thought ~ Redoing Abby’s Loft Bedroom
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Oh, no! I had no idea! Good thing we get to stuff our face with lots of food tonight, and commiserate with Bridget Jones.
Kristina P.´s deep thought ~ Nap Dancing
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I found myself thoroughly itching my head during this entire post! I’m always super super worried about lice… Holy smokes, my head itches!
If I lived closer I would have brought you a diet coke, a bag of Peanut M&M’s and then I would have mowed your lawn.
Here’s to having a better week.
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…a day in the life. I can SO relate!
Robin Feltner´s deep thought ~ Designers Lie To Men- Too
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Well that explains why you’ve been absent from the ether. My head is so frickin itchy right now. I hope this week is like a million grazillion times better.
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Oh dear Emily! What a week! We did the lice thing two summers ago and it made me CRAZY. I have total sympathy for you. Guess we’re riding the same wave right now… I felt so tired and bothered with everything this morning that I went back to bed after the kids left for school and slept until 11:30. Pathetic!! I was thinking this morning that if homemaking was my paid profession I would have been fired many, many times already! Chin up… things will get better, right? :)
Jeanette´s deep thought ~ Julias New Bling
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So although it may feel like complaining, I’m glad you posted this. It tells me that no, weeks like that don’t *only* happen to *me*. :P Which, of course I knew, but sometimes it does a girl good to be reminded. I’m sorry you’ve had such a crappy week. Hopefully things are looking up now! I haven’t had to treat anyone for lice yet, but I spent many hours being de-loused as a kid. It sucks for everyone. :P Good luck!
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Whew! My head has itched since last Friday. And hey, I didn’t know you liked peanut butter M&M’s. And, just think…starting in 5 days we
DO NOT have to make our beds and we get to eat anything we want whenever want…Watch out L.A. here we come! Guess you’ll be doing the happy dance on Ellen’s show. By the way, b-day present should be there Sat….it’s just fun random stuff…hope you like at least one thing. Love you!
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Steph, I guess if I can make someone else laugh then it’s been totally worth it!
Jennifer, doesn’t it make you want to come out and visit ASAP?
Susie, trying to keep my chin up. I have to do it often as I check for lice!
Vanessa, right back at ya.
Kristina, please stuff my face with lots of good food if I’m not doing a good enough job of it myself tonight.
Elisa, my head’s been itching ever since I found the first louse! And you’re welcome to bring those goodies by next time you pass through town. I can do the same for you!
Robin, it’s nice to know others can relate, isn’t it? Kind of keeps us sane.
Alexis, perhaps another Chick-fil-a playdate to make things at least a million times better. A lice-free playdate would make it a million gazillion of course.
Jeanette, this lice thing sucks rocks. And I would have gone back to bed as well. You rock! P.S. I let Nathan know he can fire me any time.
Athena, sometimes those reminders are good, aren’t they? I’m sorry you had to be de-loused for hours on end. No fun.
Mom, you don’t even know how excited I am for next week. Seriously.
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You can be my gorilla life partner anyday. I will be sure to cover myself in bugs next time we are together.
The fact that you can even write about all of this just shows how amazing you truly are. A weaker woman would have run off to live with actual gorillas.
Steph´s deep thought ~ Lifes Peachy-Easy and Delicious Peach Crisp Recipe
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oh man, I shouldn’t complain about…
devin is teething.
savannah has another cold…two times in 3 weeks.
house is wreck.
no sleep.
but we don’t have lice!
Loves.
evonne´s deep thought ~ 3 pay it forward friday
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What a week! We’ve done the lice thing here and it’s not pretty. And don’t you just love it when you spend $ and time to have a great family vacation and all you get is a headache and strong desires to be anywhere else than with your family? I’m glad to know I’m not the only one:) Hope you got a good break on your birthday.
Lindy´s deep thought ~ Weekend adventures
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Oh. My. Goodness. My lack of sleep lately is NOTHING compared to lice. I’m impressed that you didn’t run away because that would be tempting. I just really, really, really hope that this week is better because really, we all have our limits. Have fun in LA!
Lady of Perpetual Chaos´s deep thought ~ What My Life Looks Like Right Now
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that kind of week would bring me to tears too. i taught at an after-school program and when kids would call saying they’d had lice the week before i’d go home in tears thinking about everything i had to sanitize wash and rewash. not fun.
i’d give you a hug but ya know… hopefully a virtual hug will do.
i’m glad that you were able to still have lovely moments in the midst of all that chaos.
wishing you a better (and less lice filled) week!
ooxx
jen´s deep thought ~ the weekend- a recap
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All of the Friday night chat makes sense now. I’m so sorry. I wanted to say “You’ve got to be kidding me.” just reading it! Please bless this week is better. Ellen will give you a laugh!
Michelle´s deep thought ~ Young Women Activity
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Wow. You are amazing to laugh at all this. Some how it always hits at once. I tell my mom about weeks I have like this and she pulls out her journal and reads me about her weeks like this when I was a baby. I love that she journaled and now we blog about these things- only this is better because we can share and relate to each other.
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Wow. Ya know, if I won the lottery right now, I would give it to you…..well. no. I wouldn’t do that. BUT! I would take you on a girl’s only vacation with all our friends to some exotic place for a week. I have always wanted to do that…if I won the lottery, which I don’t play (anymore) cuz that’s a sin and I live in UT ;-P
That is one crazy week in which I hope I never have to experience. I am too lazy and too insensitive for all of that! Good job being awesome! You’re a good mom. Also, I want to do a triathlon! No wonder you’re so hot.
I hate you.
xoxo
Jones
P.S. Just kidding. I don’t hate you!
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Oh, Em!!! This is HEART-BREAKING to read! Bless your heart! Maybe your vacay needs to be extended a bit to make up for all this? ;)
Quinn´s deep thought ~ Food Photography Friday- Hoppers
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OH MY GOODNESS! I just itched myself to death but also checked my children for lice!! I’m SO sorry!! I hope you totally enjoy yourself in Cali!
Tiffany´s deep thought ~ Oh once upon a time
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Oh I like that quote.
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