FOR CARMEN: A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS: PART 1: THE STORIED SAGA OF THE HAIR-SHAVING INCIDENT!: (i will relay Part 2 in an upcoming blog post)

Once upon a time, the Danielson family embarked on a journey never taken before in the history of their family...they bravely took their four children, ages 7 and under, to Elbow Bible Camp. All was well as the children skipped gaily through the fields and forest pathways with their cousins and little friends. Songbirds were chirping, flowers were blooming, and Mr. Sun was shining, as the children innocently spent their days going to Bible class, singing, doing crafts, and collecting toads. Meanwhile, in the warm dark recesses of the roots of Jemma's long, blond, clean locks, an evil insect was busy, making itself a cosy home, and taking the shocking liberty of munching on Jemma's scalp (and probably drinking her blood too). One dark and starry night in the girl's bathroom, I, her mother, was softly brushing Jem's freshly washed hair when i noticed something was amiss. It appeared that my daughter had run through a cloud of little fruit flies, and they didn't wash out in the shower. "How strange", i thought, but "oh well, they are just tangled up in there, they'll fly out or fall out eventually". And i did not think about it until we returned home, only to find out they were STILL THERE! Even more strange......then a growing nagging suspicion began to arise in the pit of my gut as i came to the horrifying realization that it could be...HEAD LICE!!! And, after a visit with our friend, Google, found out the awful truth. Well, almost 4 weeks (and 2 shampoo treatments each, on now 3 kids with the little critters, and a bazillion tonnes of laundry) later, my loving husband finds me THOROUGHLY INFESTED (worse than the kids), one late Saturday night, and this mommy just starts to bawl, a WEE bit overwhelmed with the thought of ME having it too, and Duane having to spend hours on my hair, after i've just spent hours nit-picking the kids' hair!!! YIKES!! "Take it off!", i sob, "just shave it ALL OFF!".............................
And so, with trepidation in his razor-clad scissor-hands, Duane, sadly and rather unwillingly, shaved us all as bald as the day we were born! I told the girls they didn't have to do this....but that mommy NEEDED to have her own shaved FOR HER OWN SANITY!...and IF they wanted to, they could. Well, lo and behold, as D was shaving mine, he started to comment that it looked kind've neat and funky, that i had a good shaped head, that he actually kind've liked it, that i was brave, etc., (which, let me tell you, did me a WORLD of good...encouraged me IMMENSELY!), ......and suddenly Jemma blurts out, "Daddy, can i be next?", then Siri too. (Nate, however, was sitting in the corner, UNUSUALLY quiet, almost with tears in his eyes, saying, "I don't like for your pretty hair to come off, Mommy." It was very sweet... he didn't want the girls to cut theirs either!). Anyway, after all was said and done, i felt a huge sense of RELIEF that these yucky critters were GONE!!!!...and that my laundry load was again back to normal, that we didn't have to keep our kids away from people, that we could all go to the pool again, that they could go to VBS with no worries, and no more HOURS of nit-picking in the summer heat!! We had our summer back! YAY! HAPPY DANCE, HAPPY DANCE!! And THAT is the unfortunate saga of the "hair shaving incident"!



THE END. :)

OK, SO BECAUSE IT MADE ME HAPPY, MAKING MY SISTERS HAPPY, THAT I FINALLY UPDATED MY BLOG, HERE IS ANOTHER POST FOR YOU WITH MORE SUMMER PHOTOS! :) At the end of August, Duane had a week off, and we decided to pose as tourists, and "do" Calgary and Banff! So we went to the Calgary Tower, and the next day to Banff. These are some of the Banff pics. First we had lunch at Cascade Pond. The kids wanted to walk around the whole pond twice, so we did. They loved this little bridge that had a mini-waterfall under it! Near this bridge we saw (pretty close up too) a coyote running through the field beside it. We were all excited to see some wildlife, and as we got closer to the bridge, i was exclaiming to Jemma, "Look, Jem, another animal, right there by that bush, wow, we're getting really close, what IS that animal? Jem, go slowly you don't want to startle it, what if it's dangerous? What IS that? And guess what "animal" it was? A guy and a girl laying on the grass, making out in the bushes!! The thing we saw was the guy's leg up in the air!! :) HOW EMBARASSING! Anyway, after our picnic, we went on the gondola, and to Sulphur Hot Springs. Another embarassing moment for me.... you know how the hot springs has that little mini-pool for babies in the middle of the big pool, where you can let them sit in really shallow water higher up? Well, Kalle and two other babies were in there, and suddenly Nate shouts "Eeeewwwww!! Mom, is that POOP in the pool? YUCKY!!" I look and am instantly horrified that Kalle is sitting amidst someone's disgusting diahhrea floaties, and i say out loud, "Oh gross, one of those babies pooped in the pool!", and i whisk my precious daughter away from that contaminated water, concerned for her health and safety of course. In about one second i feel something funny all over my arms and stomach, and look down to the even more horrific realization that MY sweet precious innocent baby girl has chunky diahhrea gooping all out of her exploded swim diaper....ALL OVER ME!! Is there a hole somewhere i can crawl in? And we had only been in the pool for 5 minutes! Our swim was rather short! All in all, we had a GREAT day though, and another highlight was the cool automatic garbage cans in McDonald's that said in a deep voice, "THANK YOU" when you put trash in! Man, we seriously could've spent the day in there!...forget the big expensive activities....all they need is a talking garbage can (and shiny rocks from the shiny rock store) to fascinate them! :) I LOVE KIDS!

It was a gorgeous day for a picnic!

We took the kids on the gondola up Sulphur Mountain. I hadn't been on it for many years, it was so much fun! :) The kids were FASCINATED!!!!.....and these two had perma-smiles on!...they were just smiling and laughing the whole time! (Nate was SO fascinated, that his little curious mind told him to search out the spot where the gondola cars come into the building, at the top of the mountain, UNBEKNOWNST to his FRANTIC parents, who just happened to turn their backs for a split-second!! In a VERY short time he had run down and around the boardwalk to the well-marked "DANGER-KEEP-OUT!" area, and was standing, fascinated of course, eyes glued, to the WAY too close-for-comfort, HUGE, HEAVY gondola cars whizzing into the building!! YIKES! I just pray, "Lord,...just keep him ALIVE while he's in our care!" :). Of course, the whole time we're searching, 10 min. or so, i'm imagining him falling off a cliff, or being snatched...you know that horrible feeling in your gut! So then me and the girls started praying while Duane's searching, and this couple from Ireland say, "Are you praying about a little boy with blond hair?...he went that way toward the back of the building a little bit ago...we thought he must've been following his parents". THANK YOU LORD!!

Jemma had the best face of the day. :) I LOVE her expression!! She really did not know if she wanted to be in this thing...she was surprisingly quite nervous!

Even Kalle wasn't so sure about the whole thing. She looked a little leery!

Kalle had much more fun on the way DOWN the mountain! It was such an awesome day!

Here are a few more pics of the Sollid visit! "Little purple girl on the big purple slide!"

All-out war between Duane and Kari on the bumper boats! Nate was DEVASTATED he was half an inch too short for this ride...we pleaded with the worker (because after all, the little kids ride with a parent on it), but no go...they are quite strict. A bag of popcorn later, and Nate forgot all about it! :)

Sophie LOVED this ride...it was hilarious...she laughed the whole way through, and sat up tall like a little queen, waving to everyone! (didn't quite love the log ride as much...which is why she's covering her face on the previous post).

Mark and Kari also brought their new puppy, "Hershey", with them. We fell in love! :)

Kalle loved her new friend, "Huffy"! I came in and Sophie was "reading" books to Kalle. It was so cute! She asks about Huffy all the time! What a fun visit we had with them!

Our best friends in the whole wide world came this summer too! We had a SUPER FUN party all week-end!...the zoo, Calaway Park, and just hanging out! The kids were so excited to discover that they are actually cousins!!! We love you guys! :)

The third week in August we had a SUPER FUN visit from the Engen cousins!! It was way too short...the kids love each other so much and they have so much fun!

We had an awesome visit from Noah too this summer!!! What a kind, thoughtful, fun, responsible boy he is growing up to be!! We love you and miss you, Noah! :)

In August, Sue, Naomi,and Wendy Whalen came for a visit. So fun to reconnect!

August long week-end we camped with our good friends the Thomas' at Little Bow Provincial Park. It was a fun week-end with great times and good weather too!

April, Torstein,Isak and Victoria visited us at the end of July! So fun to see her again after 15 years!!! It was way too long! We'll have to plan a trip to Norge someday! :)

Nate and Kalle chillin' on the deck!

Here is a good photo of all the kids before the hair shaving incident. It was taken on the way back from Bible Camp this past July.