The Tides are Finally Turning and Life Decisions

I'm very optimistic that the ukus are now under control. I know it hasn't been 2 weeks, but it has been over one and I haven't seen a live one in a few days now. I'm not ready to declare victory yet, but I'm close!

Other than that, there's not really a whole lot going on here - physically anyway. Mentally and emotionally our panties seem to be all in a knot as we're trying to decide what the future holds for our family. Now that I'm done with school we don't really have a hold on our life here in Hawaii, rent off-campus is way too expensive to just be "hangin' out" until we figure things out. Seriously, every time we make a decision, something happens that makes us rethink the choice we made. The mental seesaw of chaos is getting heavier and heavier by the day. But we have faith that the Lord has a plan for us, we just need to be patient in our waiting to find out what it is. In the meantime, I'm applying for teaching positions - mostly in Utah, but I have applied here in Hawaii as well. There look to be a few jobs available on the east coast, but as that's unfamiliar territory (well, at least in our married/kids lifetime) I haven't actually put in an application anywhere out there yet. I'm also waiting for my actual teaching license to be issued, that will be immensely helpful in the application process:)

So, nothing too exciting, just wanted to update you all on the buggy battle, as I know you're all waiting breathlessly to make sure that our heads are clean before we all may or may not visit you over the summer - I would be too:) I did take the perfect summer nap picture of Juliana the other day, but its still on the camera and I'm too lazy to go find the camera and the card reader...so sorry!

I think the ukus are winning

Seriously, I'm so close to waving the white flag and just letting them have our heads.

For those of you that are not local, an uku (pronounced oo-koo) is a louse, as in head lice. We've been battling them pretty steady for the last couple of weeks and I'm beginning to feel defeated. See the heat and humidity here in Hawaii are just the perfect climate for these little parasites. And quite frankly I wonder how we made it for 3 years without a single infestation - but this one makes up for it all, believe me.

It all started back in May - I went to the Big Island with my fourth grade class for 4 days. I came back and the next morning was kindergarten "graduation". As I was getting everyone ready for school I say down to do Abi's hair and before I even put the brush in it I knew - she had ukus. A LOT of ukus. The infestation was all the way up to the crown of her head. Live lice as well as so many nits I don't even think I can put a number on it. After a quick check of everyone else's hair I promptly put Abi's hair in a tight pony and put a hat on her head and called her in sick. But she did come to Danielle's "graduation" with us. Then I had to head off to school myself, but Cameron washed Abi's hair with the lice shampoo I happened to have on hand - seriously, it was bound to happen and I found some on clearance on shopping trip that didn't expire for a long time, so I picked it up.

So I got home Friday and picked.....and picked....and picked some more. Oh and on Saturday, too. Oh, and Sunday. On Sunday I picked until about 10:30 at night and called her uku and nit free and sent her off to school on Monday.

So that was the end of it, right? Right??? We did wash everything and I check her hair every day. I did pull out a few more nits here and there, but they were pretty far up the hair shaft, making them old and I wasn't seeing any new live lice.

Until my birthday. Which started out great - I slept in. We were finally all moved over to our new place as of Saturday night. I had nothing on the docket for the day and I was planning on just being good and lazy. That was until I was lazily laying with my 2 yr old as she was waking up from her nap and I was running my fingers through her soft and gorgeous baby hair (which is finally getting thicker, if not longer) and here they were - NITS. A lot of them. I didn't find any ukus on her head though. But there they were on Abi's head, and Danielle's, and Isaac's. I was not a happy camper. And as my father so witty-ingly said "it made for as lousy birthday". Get it "louse"-y. Funny right - I totally didn't get it the first time. Maybe it was my grumpy mood at the moment that made me miss it, because it was funny. Anyway, the rest of the day was spent picking and shampooing and washing and drying. Loads of funs - literally loads (you know, of laundry).

And every since then it's been a constant battle. Everyday I find just one or two little suckers hanging out on someones head. We've used every kind of shampoo we can find. And last night I finally got some coconut oil - hello! Hawaii, it's not hard to find, and it's what everyone uses, but somehow I got stuck on the shampoos. And then just today a friend reminded me that she used Listerine on her daughter a couple of months ago and it worked great.

So that what we're doing this week - Listerine treatments everyday and coconut oil on every night. For two weeks - I'm serious. I'm going to squash these little buggers if it's the last thing I do!!!

Actually, I think Juliana and Isaac are clean. So 2 down, 2 to go. Oh and I'm treating myself just to make sure. Cameron's avoided everything so far. But coconut oil is going in everyone each night, I'm not messing around. And tomorrow I'm seeking out some tea tree oil - I head it repels ukus. Anyone around here know where I can get some? I figure I'll at least have to drive into Kaneohe or Kailua, but I'm willing to drive all over if I have to.

Wish me luck!

**I thought about starting this post with a nice big picture picture of an uku, but I decided I'd spare you the grossness - and also the pity you might feel for me having to pick them off of my kid's heads.

I'm DONE!

I did it, I'm done, and I just wanted everyone to know!

Today at 2:30 pm (Hawaii Standard Time) I handed in my final papers and forms to my advisor and walked out with a paper stating that I passed and will be recommended for licensing! Yippee!

It's only taken me 15 years, but I've finally officially graduated from college!

PS - the May Day post is all done, but I can't get the videos to upload. I'll try loading them on youTube next week and post it all then.

May Day 2010

OK, while I’ve had the commentary all finished up for May Day for this year I hit some major snags when I was trying to upload the videos. And since I actually made sure to take some good video this year I wasn't about to post this without it. So I finally broke down and uploaded the videos to youTube instead of blogger and embedded them here for your viewing pleasure. {Those of you who get this by email will need to click here to see the post online to watch the videos.}

So without further ado, I give you May Day 2010. For those of you long-time readers, you'll notice that this year's commentary is a little longer than usual since not only were the kids in their May Day at Laie Elementary, but my "kids", well students, and I were in our May Day at Hau'ula Elementary.

For those of you who may not have read here about May Day before it's a big production here. This is our fourth year running, so if you want to check out past year’s posts:

{Sorry, wasn't blogging back then... so you can't link to May Day 2007}

Here's the link to May Day 2008.

Here's the link to May Day 2009.

Here's the run down this year. Laie's May Day was first. Like usual the performance was at the Polynesian Cultural Center ampitheater. And for some reason my pictures keep loading in backwards order, no matter the order I upload them in, so Abi's up first even though she danced last out of the three.

Abi and the third graders danced to a song from Disney’s Hercules, among some other Greek music. She looked great in her toga and gold leaf laurel crown.

Isaac and the first grade were paying tribute to New Zealand. Isaac's favorite part was the boy's haka - I think even I have it memorized for how many times he practiced it at home (Juliana has it memorized, motions, too)! His face painting was really cool, too, but unfortunately it was washed off by the time the performance was over and we were taking pictures

Danielle and the kindergartners danced to a medley of British import songs - all decked out in their hippie costumes. And Danielle had a special dancing part that we didn't even know about, so that was fun.

Hau’ula’s May Day was a week later, thankfully. It’s certainly different working May Day from the teacher side, a LOT of work, but really fun none the less. The most unexpected part for me was the kids getting tired of practicing. They would be so excited all morning, knowing we were going to practice later – to the point that it was distracting to them. But the second we got out to practice they would all grumble and moan and not want to dance! But it did finally come together. There were a few things that we would have liked to add to it, but we just ran out of time. It didn’t help that we left on our Big Island trip the following Monday, so we were preparing for that at the same time, too. Anyway – I got to participate in May Day in 2 ways. First of course was with my students. The 4 graders decided they wanted to do something with Michael Jackson, so my cooperating teacher and I set to work to come up with a medley of songs and dances for them. I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. And just to toot my own horn – I did all the choreography thank you very much. Well, and a big THANK YOU to youTube and all those faithful loader-uppers, because it would not have been nearly as cool if I had to do it all from scratch.

The second way I got to participate – at Hau’ula the staff and faculty do a number of their very own! Hello – so much fun! We did an African number which I think turned out great, though attendance to practices was a little sporadic as teachers really don’t have much free time, ya know.

All in all we had some great May Day festivities. And that was just the beginning of the May crazies. As I mentioned, my fourth grade class went to the Big Island the next week for 4 days, then the day after we got back Danielle “graduated” from Kindergarden. Then the following Tuesday was the last day of school, Wednesday was Abi’s 9 (!) birthday, and Thursday was my last day of student teaching. Not that things really calmed down after all that though – I was working nonstop on my portfolios so that I can actually be done with school and trying to pack up the house at the same time. I am ecstatic to say that now both are done!

**Whew! This better all work - it's late and I've been working on this FOREVER! Hope it works...I'm going to bed.