Strep and flu and ringworm...and wildlife...Oh my!

From January:

I seriously feel like someone is out to get me.  I cannot, CANNOT, catch a break these past two months.  It's curious that most all of the curve balls have happened when Nick is away.  We have been PUMMELED with sick bugs and infested with fungus and, now, wildlife.  I can't even make all this stuff up, and even if I could, I wouldn't even do that to my worst enemy.  But I am trying very hard to keep all of this in perspective (as in continual pep talks going on in my head.)  In the grand scheme of things, this all is temporary as there's never been a storm that didn't pass.

Once we finally finished 16 days of antibiotics for strep throat (because Emmy needed to complete a second round on a different medication after her allergic reaction on day 6 of Amoxicillin) and ten days of Tamiflu for the conventional flu,  James came down with the stomach flu.  For a week and a half.  In that time, Hannah, Emmy and Julia all took turns with similar GI upset.  In the last month, the kids and I have spent the large majority of it in isolation so as to not perpetuate any of these sick bugs.

I am also waging war against ringworm.  It has been the bain of my existence for the last month.  I never knew how pervasive that fungus is until now that I've viewed every document google has to offer on the subject.  Darla is patient zero, and Molly, Emmy, James and I all contracted it in that order.  Both Molly and Darla require frequent anti fungal baths followed by a lyme sulphur "dip" that makes our house smell like rotten eggs.  Because of how very highly contagious the fungus is, I have kept the dogs in quarantine and they are none-too-thrilled with the arrangement.  The frequent sterilization of every surface of our home and laundering of every stitch of fabric that touches our skin has commanded every bit of down time.  The dogs were contagious for three weeks after aggressive therapy was initiated.  The incubation period is 4 days to two weeks after exposure before the ringworm patch even shows up, which has made this a long term battle and we still have a couple of weeks before we have confirmation that it's behind us.  I feel like a crazy person trying to prevent the spread of this miserable slow-growing fungus. My house has never been so clean...so I thought.

As Nick was shaving before leaving for a week-long trip, and I was doing my best to put one foot in front of the other after a 5 am wake-up scream courtesy of Hannah, I saw a small dark creature jet across the floor of the kitchen.  I panicked and snapped into high gear and ran to Nick to please check  it out and make it go away.  He was in a big rush trying to get out the door, but, took a look under the oven and even vacuumed it out before he had to leave.  That sneaky mouse was still at large.  Through tears, I bid him goodbye, PETRIFIED to be left alone with the kids, the dogs and a mouse loose in the room I spend the most time in each day for the next 6 days.  I did my best to breathe through the fear and pulled together breakfast for the kids making sure I was standing away from the oven and baseboards when that rodent made a break for it back from whence it came.  I screamed and the kids started crying.  I told myself I HAD to keep it together, I was scaring the kids, so I told them a story that we were so lucky to have seen it come and go so now we know it's out of our home.  Of course now the kids were terrified, too, so I spent the majority of the day reliving the encounter and doing my best to fake reassurance to them that it was no big deal.

I was in perpetual fight-or-flight for two days anticipating another vermin ambush, when, as I was rounding out bedtime, I picked up on a skunk odor wafting through the air.  I hoped it would dissipate quickly and tried to move on with my duties without much more thought...Until I went outside and realized that it didn't smell like skunk outside of my house.  I had no energy to deal with it and convinced myself that it didn't smell so strong anymore.  It wasn't until I went into the master bathroom after serving the kids breakfast the next morning that the odor had become staggering.  I knelt down to the air vent to hear chirping sounds on the other side.  I sat down on the couch, and stared at the wall as I tried to think of what to do next and who to call for help.  Our neighbor, Mr. Richard, has offered so many times to help when Nick is away and my head kept going back to him.  Ten minutes after I texted him, at 730 in the morning, he was standing in front of my now open crawl space door with a game plan.  We would leave the door open for the skunk to hopefully come out on it's own and pray the the smell was just it's body odor and that it hadn't sprayed.  By the Grace of God, that creature found it's way out during the day as Richard, so very kindly confirmed when touring our crawl space with a flashlight after he got home from work that night.  How grateful I am for Richard's help and for that creature leaving our home and taking his miserable smell with him.

The following day, Emmy and I heard rustling sounds in the fireplace area, and upon closer inspection, I found a bunch of mouse droppings.  With heart racing, I taped up the vent holes, covered the front of the fireplace with a diaper box in addition to the plexiglass already there for childproofing, placed a bunch of traps and sterilized the floors with bleach, again.  I am counting down the minutes until Nick gets home so he can check all of the traps I've set because I cannot bring myself to look.  A silver lining of this debacle is that I have the kids scared silly about walking around with food and leaving crumbs for mice.  Small victories.

With our future decision made, we are on the clock to get our home on the market and sold.  Leaving this house will gut me (although the wildlife situation as of late is making it slightly easier.)  Last weekend, the focus was on decluttering the house before Nick left for the week, so that I could deep clean it and we could have a pre-emptive home inspection prior to putting it on the market.  This week has been filled with very, very long days and nights, but I can't remember the last time it was so neat and clean.  If it weren't for the critters in and under my home, I would be a zen mama in my clutter-free surroundings!  Now keeping it clean with my crew is going to have the opposite effect on my mental well-being, I'm afraid.  We had the home inspection on Thursday and it went well despite a leak from the humidifier under the house rendering the insulation in that area dripping wet.  After two visits from the HVAC people and one from a plumber, I think we've got the issue ironed out.  Now to pick and agent, knock out the list of repairs and touch-ups and get this place listed...But that's for next week, for now, Mama's tired.