Photo Credit: Dancing in the Rain Photography
Where are you from and how long have you lived in town? What brought you to the area?
I grew up in the Gurnee and Waukegan area where I met my husband and then lived for the first 6 years of our marriage. We moved to the Grayslake area in 2011. We both grew up in the Waukegan area but when our number of kids outgrew our budget for private school we decided a bigger house in a better public school district was better than our 3 bedroom house with 4 kids (now 5) and private school!
Do you have child(ren)? Age(s)
Lots! We have 5 kids. Our girls are 16, 13, 11 & 9 and our son is 3. They fill our house with joy, love, laughter and CHAOS!
Photo Credit: Dancing in the Rain Photography
What are your favorite things to do in the area with and without your kids? Family friendly restaurant? Date night?
We stay pretty busy with kids sports and activities and running our businesses but when we have a night out we are foodies and enjoy a great restaurant, some local favorites include Milwalky Trace, Kuma’s Corner and 129 Center Cut. With our kids in tow we love Independence Grove for a fun family day, so much to do there with an awesome park, a beach, fishing, walking trails. We absolutely love the Grayslake Farmer’s market and The Freeze Downtown Grayslake. That is of course when we aren’t at a volleyball, softball, basketball tournament or a swim meet!
Are you involved in a business venture, a local organization, a creative endeavor or in the corporate world? Please share!
Yes! My husband and I currently own and operate two urgent care treatment clinics for head lice in Vernon Hills, IL and Spring Grove, IL It’s kind of a crazy story that got us here! When our 5th baby was just 3 weeks old, all 4 of our daughters and myself were given the gift of head lice! Well, now we call it a gift because we are firm believers in “everything happens for a reason” and it was that experience that led us to Lice Clinics of America. After a few days of sheer panic and combing for hours first of course. We left the lice clinic completely lice free, with peace of mind and a tremendous weight lifted off our shoulders. This led us to open our own clinic just 6 moths later, having been there ourselves experiencing head lice first hand, and having no idea what to do or look for, the value was obvious and we wanted to provide families with the same relief we felt when we left the clinic.
We are still excited to bring the FDA-cleared AirAllé® treatment to the Lake County area and help families just like ours eliminate head lice once and for all!
How has COVID-19 changed the way you do business?
It’s a crazy world we live in right now, like nothing we’ve ever seen before! Due to the nature of our business, we already practice stringent sterilization procedures of our work stations, salon chairs and tools used to treat clients. On top of that we have changed our protocols for the forseeable future. We are currently scheduling appointments for only one family at a time in the clinic to help keep social distance and avoid exposure to other people. We are also keeping a buffer between appointments to allow increased sterilization not only of our works stations and instruments but all touch points in the clinic including tablets, waiting chairs, door handles, faucets and everything that could’ve been touched during the visit. Our technicians are also wearing masks as an added precaution.
We also have multiple options to help families while maintaining social distance with no social contact during this uncertain time, including DIY treatment options available on our website for delivery or curbside pick up including rental of our DIY OneCure at home heated air treatment.
Finally, our all new Tele Tech teleconferencing can help to answer any questions, prescreen to try and identify a lice infestation without coming into the clinic, or give live demonstration on how to effectively treat lice at home. Our DIY treatments come with a professional and when we can’t help in person, we are happy to help via video to not just tell clients but show them how to effectively treat at home.
How is Lice Clinics of America involved in the community?
We love being involved in the community in any way that we can! We often participate in community events including parades, kids festivals, wine walks. We partnered with Woodland Elementary School West District 50 in sponsoring a book vending machine and continue to support filling the vending machine (Pictured). We recently launched a Schools Without Lice National Educator Partnership to provide free educational materials, free educational talks and Free services to staff members of schools enrolled in our partnership. Starting now, because our community means the most to us and our first responders don’t have the option of working at home for social distancing, lice won’t stop for a pandemic. We want to give our community workers in the front lines some relief during this time of stress. We want to be there for them in the best way we can during this Corona virus Lockdown. We are providing QuickCare emergency lice treatment kits for first responders from healthcare workers to grocery store workers with expert video consult and curbside pickup all for free.
Last business question……..what options are there for treatments, do you take insurance?
We have multiple treatment options, something for every budget! We can help come up with a treatment plan that is effective and affordable for everyone. We also have payment options for every budget. Although we don’t bill insurance directly, we can supply you with information to submit to your insurance for reimbursement, coverage at this time is hit or miss depending on your plan. We do however have multiple treatment options including a medicaid program, as well as accept FSA and HSA plans and offer interest free financing through care credit. We are here to help!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve gotten from another Mom?
I think the best piece of advice I’ve gotten from another Mom is not to be so hard on myself. With 5 kids and running two businesses it is probably no surprise that I can not do it all! There are often things that I think or wish I could do better and wonder if I am getting this whole mom thing right. You know, that mom guilt!! I am often reminded especially by my kids but also by other moms that they don’t see it the way I do and they are happy, well cared for kids!
What are your favorite places to travel near and far and why?
I’ve not done a whole lot of traveling in my life but we’ve had some favorites for sure. We have a family condo in Florida, that is always a favorite place to visit. You can’t go wrong with sunshine and the ocean. Florida is certainly an old faithful. Gatlinburg, TN was by far one of my favorite vacations though. There is something so incredibly amazing, breathtaking and awe inspiring about the mountains. I could wander the trails and play in the creeks for days! How incredible would that be, a hiking trip in the mountains.
Tell me something about you yourself, what do you enjoy doing?
If I can get a free half an hour I enjoy running, a few months prior to my last pregnancy I ran a half marathon and it felt amazing! The last few years of my life have been a little hectic and I haven’t run as much as I used to or would like. I have kind of a love hate relationship with running, when I am actually doing it, I kind of hate it, but when I am finished with a good run I feel so good. It’s a time to be alone, listen to worship music, be in prayer, clear my mind and get some endorphins pumping! It’s kind of a love hate relationship of course!
Tell me about your favorite book/s. I love receiving fiction and non-fiction recommendations!
I am not a big reader, I would have to say when I do read, it’s Christian books. Some of my very favorites are 1000 gifts by Ann Voskamp, a reminder to be thankful. Counting your blessings. Maybe a good one to go through again during a time like this. I also love books by Tessa Afshar that takes bible characters and expands on the bible stories with biblical fiction stories and new characters. Lastly Karen Kingsbury is another wonderful Christian fiction author, I get lost in her stories, one of my favorites of her series was the Angels Walking, Chasing Sunsets and Brush of wings trilogy.
What is next for you?
We love being business owners and are always keeping our eyes and ears open for opportunities to grow in other areas or expand what we have currently! Right now we are focusing on growing what we have and really getting into the community as we grow.
Credits: Dancing in the Rain Photography
Social Media:
IG: @LiceClinicsNorthernIL
FB: @LiceClinicsVernonHills
Twitter: @LCANorthernIL