One Day Left!

Tomorrow at this time I will be on an airplane headed for Hawaii! Am I excited? Yes...but I'm also thinking about the packing thing, and wondering if I'm taking everything I need to take. The correct answer is "yes", I'm taking enough. But I find that I always review over and over - what ELSE do I need to take? What if I get blisters? Should I take Band-aids? What if I get a headache? Tylenol and Ibuprofen? Enough for just me or enough for everyone? What if I crochet so much that I run out of yarn? Should I take more yarn? What if I don't really like the clothes I've packed? Should I take more? So you see, the list goes on and on. At some point, I just have to tell myself that whatever I've forgotten, I didn't really need, or it's something that I can buy "there". I always find that when packing to come home, I have definately overpacked. Why can't I realize that from the beginning? My goal tomorrow is to be comfortable on the plane, and help the little girls be happy. It will be a long day since we are leaving for the airport at 5:30am. My other goal is to be patient. I feel like I'm preparing for some serious surgery here and I'm the surgeon prepping for the event - walking thru all the steps, preparing for every contingency. Once we get to the airport, I think I can relax a little. Then we have a 6.5 hour flight. Next worry? Getting off the plane, luggage and getting the rental cars. Finding our way to the North Shore will be more fun than anything, I hope. Once we are there...who cares? Well, I do. I will need to unpack my things and then go to the grocery store to make sure we have everything we need for breakfast and snacks. Zack has agreed to take pix, so we will post those next week. Can I say that I can't believe this is happening? There are very few events in my life that have actually been planned out for such a long time. I think I made the initial inquiries into accomodations last February. I had my doubts that it would really happen on a few occasions, but here we are. I think my focus this year was on the trip, not Christmas Day. I enjoyed Christmas Eve for sure. But yesterday was all about packing, for me. So, Happy New Year to all! See you on the return! AloooooHA!

I'm Alive!

Yes, I know. I'm pretty much of a failure when it has come to blogging these last few weeks. Fortunately, I've been pretty busy at work, but that means that there has been little time for other things. Back in November, I was trying to make time for a brief trip to Canada. I was really nervous about whether or not I would be able to go, and up until the weekend before, I was trying to figure out how I could ever tell Cathy and the girls that I would not be able to make it...not an easy thing - ever. Then I decided that if I came home on Sunday instead of Monday, that would help the work situation. So I pushed on. Why is it that anytime you are getting ready to leave on vacation, issues arise? Anyway, I was able to go, and let me tell you, it was so much fun! Check out Melinda and Lara's blogs for the pictures. Banff is beautiful and the weather was not too frightful. We tried really hard to stay up late, and we did a pretty good job. But the reality is that some of us are old, some of us are tired mothers, and then there was Melinda. I think she was tired, too. We were taking bets as to who would fall asleep first. I think I won.

The biggest surprise was the birthday party that appeared for me on Saturday night. Honestly? Totally disorienting for me. The girls presented me with photos from our trip - from which we had returned earlier that day - all put together in a beautiful display frame! I also got a Josh Grobin CD and if Caitlin ever gives it back to me, I'll finish listening to it! The most amazing thing was the gift from Cathy. The previous day we had gone shopping in Calgary and she said she was looking for a gift for Grandma. Long story short - I picked out my own gift without knowing it. Good thing I really liked it! Those girls, and their mother, are amazing. It's very humbling to know that there was so much thought put into the event. One other thing, on Friday, while Cathy and I were out shopping, she had to pick up something in Kensington. Doesn't that sound fun? She said it was something for Rick. So we went, I waited in the car. She carried back what looked groceries. I figured she bought him some treats since he would be home alone. Turns out that she had purchased some really yummy cupcakes for the birthday party. I've been CRAVING them ever since.

So just wanted you all to know that I wrote a whole bunch of other stuff - and the blog monster ate it all when I went to publish. I'll re-type it later - you'll really like it, but right now I'm so frustrated because I really like it the first time. So for now...