Gone fishin'



On the road again...
Photo by Kim Newberg, courtesy of Public Domain Pictures

By some miracle, I managed to finish packing, and hubby, the kids, the dog, and I are now on our way to see my parents.

Okay, that's not entirely true. I'm actually writing this post at 1:46 a.m. as I wait for my ninth of eleven loads of laundry to dry. I'm surrounded by half-packed suitcases and a long list of things I still need to do. But no matter. I'm optimistic that my first sentence will be true by the time you read this post. ☺

I'm also writing to let you know that I probably won't be posting during my vacation. I'll be staying with my parents, who have neither a working computer nor Internet access, and I don't own a laptop (yet. Every time my husband asks me what I want for Mother's Day, Christmas, my birthday, whatever, I always mention a laptop. Someday...)

Anyway, I'm going to try to get in a trip or two to the library, and if I do, I'll definitely post here and visit your blogs. I'm not sure how likely it is that I'll get to a computer, but I will try. (I can't stay unplugged for long!) So I hope you can forgive my two-week absence here and at your blogs. I'm looking forward to catching up when I get back!

Happy Sunday! See you soon. ☺

We're leaving in a cramped van...

Image courtesy of Sanja Gjenero, rgbstock.com

This week I have to do something I really, really don't like to do. Unfortunately, I can't avoid it any longer.

I have to pack.

On Sunday we're going on our annual journey back home to visit my parents. I look forward to this trip all year. Growing up, I was the kid who never really wanted to venture far from family, but as it turned out, I'm the one who ended up living the farthest away. So my husband, my kids, our dog, and I have a thousand-mile trip to look forward to, if I can get over one hurdle:

Packing.

I don't like packing. Actually, that's a bit of an understatement. I loathe packing, especially since around here it seems to go hand in hand with cleaning.

Confession: I am not Monica Geller.



During the time we're gone, our next-door neighbor will be going into our house every day to check on our cat, and, since I don't want her to think I'm a complete slob, I need to make sure the house is clean before we go. My husband thinks I'm being ridiculous, but I think most women can probably understand where I'm coming from. Also, it's nice to come home to a clean house, isn't it? It's just too bad I have to clean it first in order to get it that way.

So this week will be filled with laundry and folding and packing and finding toys and buying last-minute items and explaining to the kids why they can't take their gigantic dollhouse and big yellow dump truck with us and late nights and exhaustion and looking through the suitcases for things I packed too soon and last-minute laundry and take-out pizza and arguments about what counts as a necessity and trips to the grocery store for snacks and cleaning and more cleaning and moments where I pull my hair out and...

You get the picture. I'm sure you've all been here before.

And since you have, do you have any tips for me? Any stories? Any ways to help me procrastinate?

Because have I mentioned? I really, really don't like to pack.


Happy Monday, friends!

I'm back!

We arrived home last night after two days of travel. What a trip! I'll be posting here again this week after I've had a day or so to recuperate from the drive--and do all the laundry...

I've missed this place! :)