One of the best months in Nashville! The leaves are gorgeous, the weather is perfect, and we get to spend some quality time with family and delicious food. I started November with a 20k that was held at Montgomery Bell State Park on Nov. 5. It is located about 15 miles West from where we live (farther out into the "country"), and it was beautiful. There were around 20 people running the 20k, so once we got a couple of miles into it and people started spreading out, I was running along beautiful tree-lined roads and paths alone. Not a bad way to run. I finished in just under 2 hours and ended up being the first female finisher. Even though that's not a particularly great time and the competition was slim, I won an award for finishing first. $250 to be exact. This was quite a pleasant surprise to me and you can imagine that I was thrilled. Anyway, I've registered to run the Music City Marathon this April, so I've really got to step up my training and get ready.
Later in November we had Wade's brother HF and his wife Ginni and their little boy Alexander for Thanksgiving. It was great to see them and the boys loved cousin Alex! They stayed for a week so we spent some time touring Nashville and then had a delicious Thanksgiving meal. I even made my first home made apple pie (which I thought turned out great and ended up eating most of by myself :(). After a long day of cooking, eating, and enjoying company, we were surprised with some unwanted guests that I noticed in Ben's hair at about 6pm on the evening of Thanksgiving.
We had lice. Wade ended up shaving the boys hair off and I got to work loading every article of clothing, bedding, coats, stuffed toys, etc into our laundry room to wash. Uncle HF ran to the store to buy the necessary shampoo and supplies. By 9pm the boys had been striped, shaved, washed, combed, nit picked (that's literally what it's called to get the nits out of their hair), and were in bed asleep. We still had lots of laundry and vacuuming to do. We also had to check our own hair for lice and nits. HF and Ginni were planning on leaving early the next morning, but decided to start he drive that night and stay in a hotel on the road (and I don't blame them). No one else had the lice, but our three boys. Later that evening, I was combing through my own hair fairly casually with the nit comb, when I pulled a hair out by the roots as it stuck to the comb. I looked at the hair and there was live louse on it! I called a friend and she came over and spent several hours going through every single hair on my head looking for the nit eggs (and only found one)! It was a long night and a longer few days that followed. I have learned a lot about lice and would not wish them on anyone. If you ever find yourself needing info about lice, this link from the CDC is the best source.
The boys before:
The boys after:
