THIS IS GOOD!

Yesterday...it was one of THOSE days.

I was overwhelmed.

I should have been really happy,

after all...my husband and daughter

had JUST returned from their trip to Utah.

And Ben showed up on my doorstep soon after.

The family was ALL together again.

BUT...

I was overwhelmed,

and I'll tell you why.

First off, I'm still in week 3 of my recovery.

It's been a really painful process.

On top of that recovery I thought I had a UTI.

Easy fix for a very painful problem, right?
WRONG.

Turns out I didn't have a UTI,

instead I have a condition called

"Interstitial Cystitis".

It's like having a UTI

ALL.THE.TIME.

Have you ever had one?

They are PAINFUL.

Think about ulcers in the bladder...

that about sums it up.

Oh, and there's no treatment.

Throw in a yeast infection.

(TMI?)

How about insomnia?
I have that too.

Meanwhile, I am still dealing with Stevie's LICE.

Everyday for two hours I pick through her hair.

It's a TEDIOUS process.

My back and neck hurt from bending over.

My fingers are sore from picking.

And it produces a LOT of daily laundry.

Then all of a sudden I have mounds

of vacation laundry from the Utah trip.

A heaping pile of it.

The door bell rings at 8am,

it's the REHAB guy dropping off a lift system

for Ben to make lifting easier during my recovery.

It's a massive piece of equipment.
(in my humble little home)

He's trying to explain how to work it when

Uncle Roger and his son show up

to help us fix an electrical problem.

Meanwhile, Ben's PT walks in the door,

but Ben hasn't arrived yet.

He finally shows up with all of HIS stuff.

My house is CHAOTIC,

stuff is everywhere.

People are everywhere.

I can hardly breathe.

I sit with Ben during his session of PT

and try to ignore everything else around me.

Stevie sits down at my feet for her daily hair check.

I pick through her hair for an hour and only find 4 nits.

I'm making serious ground - it used to be 50.

The end is in sight.

Just as I finished combing through the last part...

in walks Kayla fresh from her shower.

"My head is really itchy" she tells me.

"Can you PLEASE check my head?" she asks

I roll my eyes thinking she does NOT have lice.

But I sit her down anyway.

I look down at her curly mop.

All of a sudden my heart sinks.

Now MY head is itchy!

I want to vomit.

Her head...

it's COVERED in nits.

I throw her outside.

I can't even think straight.

My head's turning in circles.

I call for Steve

(who's knee deep in house projects with U. Roger)

"GO GET ME SOME RID!"

"What's going on?" he asks

"YOUR DAUGHTER...SHE'S GOT LICE!!!" I yell

Steve's in shock...HE starts itching.

"I'm OVERWHELMED" I yell again

"I'M OVERWHELMED TOO" he yells back

"REALLY?" I ask

"Are YOU gonna sit here and pick out nits with me?" I reply

"Um...no?" he whimpers

"THEN DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE OVERWHELMED" I tell him

"I'M OVERWHELMED!"

"Now go get me some RID!

Oh...and don't forget to call Utah

to let the whole state know

that they've been contaminated

by YOUR daughter!" I remind him

Off I go to strip, bag and spray their room.

More laundry.

Oh...and the clean laundry that made it home from UTAH?

Kayla's contaminated brush was in that bag.

More laundry.

In the middle of the electrical work,

U. Roger discovers our front door has problems.

(we sort of knew that)

Termite and carpenter ant rot.

All of a sudden, my front door is ripped out....

along with the frame.

(because apparently we didn't have enough chaos)

It was a HUGE mess, made worse by the rain.

My head was itching,

and spinning,

and hurting.

I escape up to my bathroom,

I stare in the mirror.

That's when I saw it.

A NIT!

Yup.

I'm contaminated.

I start crying.

"Who's gonna comb through MY hair?" I whine

Off to my bedroom I go.

More bagging and stripping and spraying.

More laundry.

Meanwhile U. Roger kept telling me

"THIS IS GOOD".
ALL.DAY.LONG.

With a BIG smile on his face,

he'd repeat over and over again...

"THIS IS GOOD".

I needed to hear that.

Because really?

Life is good,

and I know that.

(Termite and Carpenter Ant damage)

(Door frame rot...)

(MESSY/TIME CONSUMING/EXPENSIVE PROJECT!!!)

In the midst of the chaos...
I snuck away to watch some of this:
(it's a clip from our family reunion)
It made me giggle.
It reminded me of all the things
that I have to be grateful for.
One of them being LAUGHTER.

I LOVE my sister-n-law Rachael.
We love to LAUGH.
That's all we do when we're together.
**********
I was feeling better already.
So I called my lice infested girls up to the bathroom.
"Come join me!" I excitedly tell them
"And BRING SOME plastic BAGS!"
"We're gonna have some FUN!"
"We WILL be victorious!" I proclaim.
The girls do their victory dances.
I joined in.

Then I lathered us all up in Listerine,
threw the bags over our heads...
kissed them all soundly
and put them to bed.
As I layed in mine,
(itching)
I thought about all of my many blessings.
(too numerous to list them all)
I thought about Uncle Roger and his son
who gave up a day to spend working at our house.
I thought about how he got my dishwasher working again
after 3 years of not being able to use it.
I thought about how my family was safe from their travels
and that we're all together again.
And how lucky we are to have a home to live in,
even though it has some issues.
I thought about how I could finally fall asleep
knowing that everything will be okay.