Headlice and belly rings and a whole bunch in between.

Staring ahead, that's what I've been doing for 15 minutes while I try to come up with a great idea for this poor blog that is fizzling out of everything.
The most exciting thing I could come up with was nits! Yes! head lice, imagine that. Actually we did have nits, even me.....those things don't just itch they hurt! I only ever had 3 in my hair but dear life, it felt like those things had teeth like razors. Even Isaac got them, the boy who doesn't do head to head contact, those were some determined little nits I tell you. It took 4 weeks to get rid of them ( anyone scratching their heads yet?) FOUR WEEKS! We tried everything, we bought stuff that smelled like creosote, we bought stuff that was conditioner that promised to kill nits and eggs, we tried this shampoo and that comb....and you know what did it? Body shop Ginger shampoo, for dandruff, smells divine, doesn't stink, has no chemicals and it gets rid of every nit and egg and makes your hair as shiny as a shiny thing.
I also bought a Nitty gritty comb, guaranteed for life, won't rust or break, gets rid of lice, eggs, old and unhatched, and It DOESN'T HURT! Even on my curly, knotty, hurty hair it slides through and not a swear word to be heard and this thing works.....actually I just believe it works because we DON'T HAVE NITS so who knows? I bought it because I am going to use it at every hair wash for the boys to make sure I catch any rogue crawling things before they comfy ( and yes, I am scratching my head just writing about this!)
I don't freak about nits, I hate them and if I get them I truly hate it but really, they like clean hair, kids get them, I don't get that whole screaming freak out thing, pillows in the dryer, wash the bedding and use ginger shampoo and a good comb, sorted.

Christine asked about my singing...well I love to sing, it makes me happy.
When I was younger, say from 15 -20 I sang in shows, at weddings, in church, I even recorded a song that a friend and I wrote and performed.
It was all about my first love ( not my first husband, who wasn't my love ever really, maybe I should tell you about him another time, we should never have married though I am so glad we did, life without the 3 big kids wouldn't be fun at all, they are what makes that marriage a good thing, not to be regretted) I loved my first love, who was called Gary, from when I was 16 until just before I met H, 2 or 3 months before I met H, after more than 20 years, I knew, at last that Gary wasn't the one for me, he could have been and I am sure that had we married when we were younger, it would have been a happy and a good marriage, we didn't get married though and it all ended when I was 20.
He had been in the falklands, he was in the Navy and while he was away, I would write to him, send funny cards, light letters etc and I wrote him a book. In the book I told him what I was really feeling, all that heavy stuff and I stuck cards in it and wrote poems ( heh, that makes me almost want to write H a poem, just to see how he reacts!) When he came home from the Falklands, I gave him the book and he loved it.
He and I loved the same kind of music and he loved hearing me sing.
The friend I wrote the song with was someone I knew all the time I was growing up, we had a fleeting romance that ended when we realised that we were much better friends than anything else, so we stayed best friends.
When Gary and I broke up ( oh the pain! Is there anything so exquisite as a broken heart?) I truly thought I would never get over not being with him and for more than 20 years I didn't stop feeling that overwhelming need for him, even when I was married to the first one, even when I loved the first one, it was a completely different love, I loved him eventually because I was married to him, I worked on loving him and did a great job, I married him because he was the only man I had met that I felt anything for, everyone after Gary was just so hopeless, I couldn't even look at them without sighing and knowing I was wasting my time! I met the first one , who is called Kevin by the way but 'the first one' suits him so much better.
Anyway my friend, Martin ( who spelled his name with a 'y' MARTYN, because he was so cool back then) was so clever, there wasn't an instrument he couldn't play and he sang beautifully, his life was all about music and he would come over to my house, he would stay night after night while I cried and he would play the piano and the saxophone, we would sing and sing some more and together we wrote a song all about heartbreak and it was marvellous, I wrote the words, he composed the music and we sang in harmony. We went to Bristol and we recorded that song.
I kept a copy of the song for years, I lost it when I moved to the States.
I know it was played on BBC radio one time, Martyn was interviewed and that was the song that was chosen and played on air....oh the giddy heights I reached in my youth and all thanks to heartache.
Right before I met H, I knew, absolutely that the whole heart ache and missing, not to mention the ' what if's with Gary were over. It was quite the most incredible and freeing emotion. It was quite literally like a thunderbolt, immediate and done with.
I knew that at last I was ready to meet someone and love him for whoever he was, no more comparisons, no more wondering if or why, what or when. I felt so relieved.
I will always wonder how he is, I will always have such tender feeling for the way he loved me, he was a good man, he was always so honest with me and I loved loving him. I loved being able to talk to him about anything and there was never enough time to say everything we wanted to say......I loved that we enjoyed all the same things, that has certainly never happened to me again!
What I have with H is very different to that first love and completely different to the feelings and relationship I had with the first one ( anyone confused?) What I have with H is the safest feeling I have ever had, I don't think I ever imagine meeting someone who has my heart and my head, I didn't believe I would ever trust anyone after the treatment from the first one and yet I trust H implicitly, there are few days that pass without me holding my breath and standing while I watch H with the boys, as time passes, with enormous surprise, I find him funnier, I learn more about him that impresses me, I enjoy his company more. How wonderful is that? It's just as it should be, imagine that.
I like being older, I have no issues with getting older and as the years go by, I find I like my age more than I did at 20, much more than 30 and I apart from becoming creaky and unable to move, I am not worried about getting older still. I find myself looking at really old people and wondering what stories they have to tell, I wonder how beautiful they may have been and what tragedies they may have faced. Age is something to be proud of and having never been known for my beauty, which is what I think many people fear losing as they get older, I think being older is a great thing. I feel sorry for young people and the trials they are bound to face, I don't think of any age I have already been that I would like to repeat. I think right now is a great age, I know more than I used to but not so much that I give up on it all. I have learned enough to know better but not so much that I am bored.
I know great people, I gain so much from the friends I have without an ounce of that angst that comes with youth, no worries about keeping up with or being better than, or having to prove anything.
I have reached contentment with where I am and who I am. Now if only I could change everybody else, life it would seem, would be perfect!
How I got here from writing about nits is anybodies guess, see? That's another great thing about getting older, everything is OK, nits one minute, first love the next, it all flows just perfectly and you can say what you like and just have people pat your head and say you're splendid. I wouldn't swap that for a belly ring and an attitude, would you?