Scabies & Animal Babies

I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. It's been a long time since I have had enough time to blog and I have a lot I want to catch up on.

Let's go back. Way back. To Thanksgiving weekend. Just wanted to share this picture I found of Christine and I paddleboating across the lake:

Now we can skip to Friday the 4th. The pipes running to our trailers froze, and we had no water all day. We couldn't shower, wash our hands, brush our teeth, etc. Not very fun, but things got better that night when we went to the Polk County Christmas Parade. It was definitely entertaining. I have never seen so many ATVs and ORVs in a holiday parade:

Later that night, or possibly the early morning, the county hit a record low temperature of 15 degrees and of course, my trailer also ran out of propane. So we had absolutely no heat during the night. One of my roommates, Michelle, went outside at 4 in the morning to try to switch the valve over to the backup propane tank, however the valve was frozen. It was an all-around miserable night, but we got everything fixed the next day.

Saturday, the whole team went to the Animal Control Center in Mena for ISP (Independent Service Project). Every Corps Member has to complete 80 hours of ISP by the end of the year. That was a lot of fun. The woman that owned the shelter, Tammy, was incredible and all the animals were awesome. We spent the day cleaning cages, grooming animals, organizing nicknacks, and building a roof over some outdoor cages. I found the scruffiest, most adorable kitten who refused to be held, and instead insisted on climbing up my sweatshirt and standing on my shoulders. Since she spent a significant amount of time acting as my own personal parrot while I worked, I decided to call her JJ, short for Jessica Jr. :)

And here's Ashley with her favorite cat:

Ben and Bear:

Kelly and Beans:

Beth and Sally:

We ended up getting 9 hours of service for the day. I now have 16. I have quite a ways to go, but I expect I will also have plenty of opportunity to do more.

After work on Monday, Beth and Nicole went to the doctor's office because Beth has had a rash for weeks and Nicole and seriously inflamed tonsils. The diagnosis? Nicole has strep throat and Beth has Poison Ivy AND a very high chance of scabies. Got that? Need me to repeat it? SCABIES! For those of you who don't know, scabies is a very contagious skin infection caused by a mite. We asked Jim if we could have the day off on Tuesday and work Saturday instead. He said yes, so when we woke up on Tuesday we packed up all of our clothes, sheets, and sleeping bags and headed for the laundromat. We washed everything, which cost an estimated 140 dollars, and put them into plastic bags. When we got home, we scrubbed down our trailers, sprayed all of our mattresses with lice spray, and covered our bodies with this treatment cream that we had prescribed to us. The morning after, we all had to wake up extra early to wash it off in the shower.

Today, shortly after we got to work, I went to pick up a bucket full of tools, and as I did so, the metal square swung back and the corner nailed me right above the lip. It hurt. I bled for about 10 minutes. I came into town today to find some kind of scar-prevention cream because at the moment I have a slight hole in my face. Needless to say I have not been having the best time lately. Things have been stressful and exhausting, but hey, we only have a week left. And tomorrow we get off work early to go to a potluck at the park's Visitor's Center. That should be fun. Or tasty at the very least.

So...that's what I've been up to lately. Cross your fingers that we avoid getting any more diseases, infections, or injuries.

Toodles!