Mort my dear........I know. Big Hug. But if not you, then who? We're on hiatus now and we'll be back reinvolved somehow in a few years after the boys get a bit more one on one.......But for almost ten years, Karen and I said that almost daily at times......If not us, then who? Still sucks though. SO..........How about a couple of varmint stories?

I had never had any experience with lice until we got into foster care. Within a year, we were experts on extermination. We had one little girl with this beautiful long brown hair who was a lice magnet. We'd been in it for 4 or 5 years at that point, so we were pretty calm, but after awhile I began to think we would have to shave her bald....and then I wondered if even that would work. Her hair was so thick that we were treating her at least once every 4 days for about 6 weeks and even then we were still finding them. BUT.....No one else in the house had them during that time, including her sister who slept with her!!! The lice knew a good deal when they saw it I guess. I did consider buying stock in Nix.

I was doing a training session with my friend Marlin and she had a great feel for getting a group involved so we worked well together and folks were pretty loose. We were discussing the baggage attached to parental/home visits which as you know tend to screw the kids up a lot and they return with more problems. After a brief and excellent lead-in, Marlin flipped her easel pad to a fresh page and said, "Okay now.....When you send the kids home for a visit, what do they come back with?" From the back table came the obvious answer......"LICE!" We laughed for years over that.

Had a 16 year old male, very gothic, come into the system straight from court. The caseworker, Jenny, and I went to the house to meet Mom and try to get some things picked up and set up some visitation. In the meantime, Karen was attending to the details and wait at the detention center. Jenny had a brand new Toyota (like 2 days old) and when we arrived at the "house" to find something inhabitable only by aging chickens. If the outside wasn't bad enough, the inside was completely hideous....I can't begin to describe it. Amongst the trash littering the floor and furniture(?) were many cans of RAID and bottles of assorted bug killers mixed with lots of lice remedies. We talked to Mom for awhile and I noticed that I was starting to itch badly. Looking at Jenny, she was too. Mom insisted on bagging his clothes (all dirty) but had no ties and the bags were ripped anyhow. We went out to the car and poor Jenny had no choice. We talked and laughed about it going to our house, but I did feel for her. A new car on a Caseworker's pay is no small thing. I won't get into the details of what it took to rid that boy of varmints, but it was a progigious effort!!!

Love you Terri......Best today, but better tomorrow....Uncle Pat