- Used a metal detector.
- Consumed Mountain Dew (I have tried Dr. Pepper, though!)
- Had a part of my body impacted by frostbite.
- Owned a dog or a cat.
- Caught a wave on a surfboard. (I’ve tried surfing, but never managed to actually get my body upright.)
- Eaten something so spicy it made me cry.
- Ridden in a convertible.
- Touched a tarantula.
- Had lice. (Ditto for the kids, thank goodness.)
- Eaten raw oysters.
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7.
You know the drill!
- For those who have used a metal detector, did you happen to find anything fun?
- I count myself very lucky neither I, nor my children, have had lice. Tell me your horror stories to make me even more thankful.
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I have done #1 and #4. I bought a metal detector for the kids one holiday, and it turns out that my husband used it more than they did! He used it to find nails in the grass after the roofers finished andin the back once the garage was demoed, and to find the spikes in the ground that denote our property line. So not fun but wildly useful.
# 3 I currently have 2 cats. I’d have a few more but my husband said no. I had a cat as a kid by accident. My dad wasn’t big on pets, but my sister needed us to take her cat while she moved and settled in. She got engaged to a guy who was allergic to cats ( or so he said) so we wound up keeping Midnight for 16 yrs. I did not get a cat as an adult until many years later- we kept the house pet-free so my mom could visit. ( her pet allergies got worse as she got older).
One daughter had lice, but I think it was actually bad dandruff. It went away after treating it with mayonnaise in a shower cap, and none of my other kids had any issue. Later, when it seemed to happen again, it was because another daughter had grilled cheese crumbs in her hair, the school did a lice check of my kids, and the same daughter got marked as having lice. I did the mayo treatment to both of them just so they could go back to school – I really think they didn’t have it. She had sone terrible thick dandruff as a young teen, that daughter!
No tarantulas or oysters, thank goodness.
I laughed out loud at “or so he said.”
I am highly allergic to cats (and just slightly less so to dogs). John would love to have a cat. In a perfect world where someone else managed the upkeep and paid the vet bills, I would have a dog. I love the idea of walking a dog and having something home to keep me company when John is away. But even without the fact my allergies would be a mess (I have friends who have developed allergies to their hypoallergenic dogs).
Other than the pets, I’m with you on all of these and so many of them fall into the category “I hope I never will!” (Lice and raw oysters and super spicy especially). I had a dog growing up and we have two working cats currently. I loved having a dog and would be just fine without having cats.
I’ve seen a lot of people using metal detectors but have never seen anyone find anything exciting. Can see how it would be a fun hobby though!
Wouldn’t it be incredible to discover some long-lost treasure…or even a coin! I think it would make a fun beach-day activity for anyone who isn’t keen to go in the water.
I’ve been owned by 2 cats, ridden in a convertible [a high school friend had one], and eaten a raw oyster [in NOLA during Mardi Gras]. The other items on your list I’ve not done. Very thankful about the lice one. Do not want.
Hahaha. “I’ve been owned by 2 cats.” Spoken like a true cat parent.
We have had many, many lice notices from school but somehow neither kid has ever gotten it. Surely I’ve jinxed myself with this post…
Funny, we just got out our metal detector for our family vacation! It was my son’s. For as many beaches as you guys venture to, you should get one. They are a lot of fun, but no, we’ve never found anything besides bottle caps that I can remember.
I haven’t done any of the others, though I probably came close to frostbite a few times on my fingers. I’ve never understood how people can drink Mountain Dew. It looks like antifreeze! I loved Dr Pepper as a child but I haven’t had pop in 22 years.
I think it would make a very fun beach-day activity. Tucking this away as a gift idea for Indy!
How have you had two kids and no lice??? How were you a lice-less kid? For some reason this one blows my mind entirely. I had lice as a kid multiple times, and then as an adult about a year and a half ago and it was soooo gross. I feel like since you have managed to go through childhood and then parent-of-small-children-hood without getting lice you will likely never ever get lice. Mind blowing! 😀
I am hoping the same, Rachel! Surely if I made it this far, I can make it to the end. We’ve also never had pink eye, strep throat, or pinworms.
I’ve likely jinxed myself now!
I have only done 4 and 7. My husband loves to have pets around, so we’ve almost always had a dog or a cat. Except for a year when we lived in an apartment. Right now we have a dog and a cat and they get along great. They love to wrestle with each other. Our previous pets did not get along at all.
And I rode in a convertible when my brother was a car salesman and he let me take out a convertible to the store. Pain in the neck to get in and out of! And I don’t have the money to invest in an extra car. Need a good quality 4-wheel drive car in mountainous WV.
I don’t like spicey food and I don’t like seafood, so 6 and 10 are out.
And unfortunately, my daughter had lice. She had a birthday party in second grade and someone gave her a bunch of dress up hats that the whole class tried on. All 7 girls in the class got lice that year. UGH!!! I never cleaned so much in my life!!!!!
And I am not a soda person, but I know people that “do the Dew” or diet Dew everyday. If I do drink soda, it’s an ice cold Coke.
I don’t have any desire to own (or take a ride in) a convertible, but I know people who own and love them!
That’s the horrible thing about lice. The spread! My kids have both had lice “outbreaks” in class, but they’ve never actually gotten lice. Knock on wood…
I’ve done 1,2,4 and 7! No one in our family has ever had lice. I don’t know how we’ve escaped it… at least so far. Until last week no one in our family ever had pink eye, so I’ve learned there’s a first time for everything!
Oh noooo. Because we’ve never had lice, pinkeye, pinworm, or strep throat…so I’m thinking one of them will have to hit our family eventually!! Eeks.
I’ve done #2, 4, 9, and 10. I have to admit that I think Mountain Dew is delicious. I haven’t had it in years, but it IS tempting. For comparison’s sake, I think Dr. Pepper is sort of nasty, so they aren’t really comparable in my mind.
When I was in late elementary school, my sister and I kept trading lice back and forth and no matter what my poor mom did, we would just get it again. *sigh* I remember sobbing at getting my hair combed over and over again to get the nits out. At one point, anything soft in our house was covered in plastic, including furniture and toys. This is not a pleasant memory. LOL. Why am I typing it out on your blog? I’m sorry. I hope you never have to deal with it.
I would love to play around with a metal detector. It sounds like so much fun!
I do want to try Mountain Dew, now. Everyone seems to indicate I will find it VERY sweet.
The whole “trading” thing is what terrifies me about lice. It feels like it can last forever. We had friends who had fleas get into their apartment. Belle was still a toddler and I remember the WEEKS it took them to deal with the issue. I think they ended up throwing one of their mattresses out. SHUDDER!
I am only with you on 1, 5, 8, and 10.
Pretty sure I was about 80% Mountain Dew in the late 90s. I loved that stuff so much! Drank gallons of it daily. It’s much too sweet for me now, but I do give in to nostalgia once in awhile.
My kid had lice one summer. It was… an experience, lol. I learned that there are people whose job it is to comb lice out of kids’ hair, and oh how I treasured the woman who did it for my kid.
Ha; that sounds like a lot of Mountain Dew! I will have to make sure I try it sometime soon.
Wait, there are people who will handle the lice issue. First, that sounds like a gross job, but perhaps very satisfying. And where on earth do you find these people. Is it like a hair salon? A medical facility? I’ve never heard of such a thing.
Ooo, nice. I’ve never:
1. Used a metal detector
3. Had frostbite
5. Caught a wave (never been surfing, ever)
8. Touched any spider let alone a tarantula
9. Had lice
10. Eaten raw oysters … ewww!
All the others? Yes. I think I already wrote about how I love spicy food. And I don’t think (remember) anyone in our family ever having lice. Though I know this is something that is a regular occurrence in some schools. I guess we were all lucky.
It is impressive, given the size of your family, that no one every had lice. I’m sure your mother was very, very glad about this!
I think the only one of these that I’ve done is ridden in a convertible. That’s largely because the family I babysat for FOR EVER owned car dealerships, so there were different cars available at different times. I love a convertible ride, but my hair does not.
My sisters’ girls had lice and we’d JUST been with them tailgating at an Notre Dame game. Mini even posed for a photo, with heads leaning against her infected (unaware) cousin. Fortunately Curly wasn’t there. Mini was about 6 or 7 and Curly stayed home. OMG, have you seen photos of Curly’s hair? I lived in fear of getting it then (and other times). They never got it, but I did go thru Mini’s hair just in case. Curly has a literal afro, so that would’ve been impossible to deal with. Bullet dodged. I made them wash their hair with mint shampoo for ages after that scare, because lice don’t like mint. Or so I’m told.
Every time the lice notice came home from school I would get so worried…so I think there is a high level of anxiety that naturally comes with it (especially as a mom knowing how hard it would be to deal with it as the parent responsible for “fixing” the problem). I’m so glad they didn’t end up getting lice.
Belle has so much long, thick hair it would be a nightmare. I suspect I would get a buzz cut for Indy!
my only “yeses” are:
– oysters
– convertible (we rented one in Hawaii on our honeymoon!)
– lice
1/3 of my children have had lice. I took all 3 to the official lice place (bc I had lice as a kid that was NOT handled in this manner because I don’t think these places existed, and we spent way too long trying to get rid of it) and got myself inspected as well as the 2 non-itchy children and only the one kid had it! surprising but great. (and this was months ago, so they didn’t miss anything – we’d know by now!)
I did not know “lice places” existed!
Mountain Dew is a weird color; I’m wondering if RFK Jr. will address this. It also is the most caffeinated of all sodas, which adds to its weirdness.
I once saw my sister-in-law consume 53 OYSTERS!! FIFTY-THREE. I am still traumatized and hope I’m never hungry enough to try one.
Instead of a metal detector, I use a great big magnet to collect loose nails after construction. Destruction too—my husband’s cabin blew up in a propane explosion (in 1983 before I met him in ’85) and so many people drive over the lot where thousands of nails landed without ever knowing about it. No one has gotten a flat as far as I know, but using the magnet is great fun for neighbor kids.
I tried to be catless once; made it 3 months. Hated it.
I always think of caffeine in dark colas, but I know that Mountain Dew takes the cake with caffeine (and sugar, I think?).
That is a lot of oysters.
I just read a post from Michelle where she uses the magnet method. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but it’s so simple and genius – as most great hacks are!
“Catless” for three months! I’m glad you have a furry companion <3
I have done 2, 4, 8, and 10. I consumed sickening amounts of Mountain Dew in HS and college. Ick. Now I could not drink a can of that stuff.
My brother had a pet tarantula named Jafar for many years. He ordered it from a catalogue and did not tell my parents until it showed up. I cannot imagine my children doing this. I would not be happy! That spider lived for so many years and was cared for by my parents for many. My brother tried bringing it to college but his roommmate covered the aquarium it lived in with paper towels because he felt like the spider was watching him… so my brother brought it back home where it lived for several years until my older sister’s husband decided he wanted it. I think it lived for 10 years. Would not recommend as a pet. It was fine most of the time but it was awful when we would have to clean his cage and get him out of it for that process. My mom would put him in an old cool whip container with holes poked in it while we cleaned the cage. Gah. I cringe just thinking of that dang hairy spider!!
Lisa, I literally cannot imagine living with a pet tarantula. It gives off Home Alone vibes.
Yuck, yuck, yuck. And then your parents got stuck taking care of it. Blergh.
I’ve not done any of that either. Except for the raw oyster, I’ve had exactly ONE and that was enough for me!
Maybe I should follow your lead. One raw oyster to say I’ve done it? Then again, maybe keeping it on the Never list is fine too. They look very…slimy.
So jealous of the fact that nobody in your family has had lice! I definitely can’t say the same thing.
Mind you, if there’s even some suspicion, there’s immediate combing and treatment.
I love oysters – don’t order them very often though. My sister had them at her wedding reception, which was pretty awesome.
Definitely have a cat boss atm and eaten very spicy stuff.
I HATE spiders, so that is never coming into my house. Like ever. It will get killed if it tries to stay.
Ha. Laughing at the “cat boss.”
I’m with you on spiders. *Shudder*
I have consumed Mountain Dew, owned a dog AND a cat, ridden in a convertible, and had lice. Multiple times. My poor mom!
As for the rest of it, I do not care to ever eat something so spicy it makes me cry or try raw oysters. I also don’t think I will ever be able to catch a wave and the ocean scares me too much to even try surfing, lol.
John loves spicy things and has definitely eaten things hot enough to make him cry (I’m feeling like Kae probably has, too). I just don’t get it. When I eat spicy things it overwhelms my palette completely and I can taste nothing. John jokes that I find ketchup spicy. I’m not quite that tame – and happen to love ketchup – but my spice tolerance is extremely low.
I’m late to the party but I’m here!
– Metal detector. No, but Hubs and the boys have one and they have an epic collection of nails and a few pennies to show for it.
– Mountain Dew. Yep, do not recommend. There’s something in it that makes my stomach hurt.
– Frostbite. Thank God no.
– Owned a dog or a cat. Why yes I have!
– I’ve never surfed, and I am indifferent
– Spice tears! It’s rare but it’s happened.
– Ridden in a convertible. Yes!
– Touched a tarantula. Not that I remember
– Had lice. No but I still remember when they would check us for lice at school. Ugh.
– Eaten raw oysters. Yes! It’s a bit overrated but I will never say no to them.
Now if they’d found an ancient coin or some diamond rings you would really have had my attention…
Used a metal detector. NOPE
Consumed Mountain Dew (I have tried Dr. Pepper, though!) Tried MD, once, just to show my kids I’m not a sissy. It’s gross!
Had a part of my body impacted by frostbite. NOPE
Owned a dog or a cat. ALL MY LIFE, so many pets
Caught a wave on a surfboard. (I’ve tried surfing, but never managed to actually get my body upright.) NOPE
Eaten something so spicy it made me cry. NOPE
Ridden in a convertible. YES
Touched a tarantula. NO THANK YOU
Had lice. (Ditto for the kids, thank goodness.) My girls had it in elementary school and its a nightmare!
Eaten raw oysters. NOPE
Lice always sounded like a nightmare, but readers are confirming this. Knocking on all the wood right now!
I grew up with a dog, but technically I guess she belonged to my parents. Now, I do dog boarding in my home, but we don’t have one of our own, so I’m just the fun aunt to many furry friends.
Unfortunately, I had lice at least twice as a kid, roughly 7-9 years old. It was horrible and my mom threatened to shave my head if I ever got it again. Hours and hours of combing the nits out. There do seem to be some better methods now, maybe? And I have three daughters and it seems inevitable that someday I will have to deal with it. My head is itchy just thinking about it.
I love the idea of being a pet aunt. Seems like the best of both worlds. Time with pets, without the vet bills!
Ha! No perfect score this time!
Used a metal detector. I want to say yes, because we had a bunch of snowbirds who used to stay with us in the summer and they would use them on the beach and I was a curious kid, but this one is hazy.
Consumed Mountain Dew. YES, but only because it has the most caffeine (I think) and so I have used it in overnight ultraraces to help me stay up at night (because they have it at the aid stations; I would rather have coffee personally, but needs must)!!
Had a part of my body impacted by frostbite. Thank goodness, this is a no, and I am happy not to have a perfect score!
Owned a dog or a cat. So many cats, one dog.
Caught a wave on a surfboard. I am like you, did not really stay upright. There is still time. Vietnam 2026!
Eaten something so spicy it made me cry. Of course! Bring it on.
Ridden in a convertible. Yes.
Touched a tarantula. Not sure. I would do it if I had the chance, but I think the answer may be no.
Had lice. Yup. I remember my Mom killing me with that tiny comb.
Eaten raw oysters. Many of them! I like them, but they are not really something I would normally order, as they tend to run on the expensive side, but if someone else gets them, I will definitely share.
I have one for you! I had food poisoning last week for the first time, but up until about 5 days ago, I could have said that I have never had food poisoning! This is not one thing I wanted to add to my list, but…yay? Have you ever had food poisoning?
I have complete faith you will get upright on a surf board!!
I have never had food poisoning, thank goodness. I have heard so many horror stories from others and I am very much hoping this ALWAYS stays on my Never Have I Ever list! What did you eat? Was it as absolutely horrible as it sounds? John had it once and had to go to the hospital for fluids. Eeks. I am nauseous just thinking about it.
I don’t know what I ate, but I assume it was a dish I had out (a beef stew) as I can’t imagine it was something I ate at home, although I guess I could have not washed my hands well enough or something. It was not fun, and I was traveling so that made it even worse!
Ugh. Kyria, this sounds positively AWFUL.
Consumed Mountain Dew (I have tried Dr. Pepper, though!) – a long time ago, when it first came out in Australia
Owned a dog or a cat -yes, multiple dogs and our family also had a cat growing up
Caught a wave on a surfboard – yes, just
All the rest are no. When we go to restaurants with tasting menus we always write no oysters in our booking comments.
I’ve seen that picture of you on a surfboard! It was part of your guest post. What a proud moment.
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