Take a trip, they said. It will be fun. It will be romantic. It will be a delightful, Caribbean getaway with your boyfriend for life.
Suddenly, I'm dreaming of white, sandy beaches, cool, fruity drinks by the pool, and warm, relaxing days with my husband.....
Then the cold, hard reality hits.
Because what they failed to tell me is first I have to........do the laundry, run 152 errands, create the packing lists, find the suitcases, record two podcasts, make a color-coded schedule for the grandparents, email the teachers, purchase groceries for the kids, paint my toenails, edit two podcasts, send out birthday party invitations, finish our taxes, call the schools, help the kids pack, help my husband pack, charge the camera, checkout books from the library, find the passports, try on my summer clothes to see what fits, go shopping for new summer clothes, pack myself, and attend a basketball tournament, soccer game, music concert, and character assembly at school.
I'm putting all of my focus on the hope that it will be worth it once we get there, but right now I'm ready to throw in the towel....even if it is a beach one.
My husband and I are celebrating our 15-year anniversary by taking a warm getaway together. We've been planning this for months and looking forward to the relaxing, kid-free time. A month ago, Michael started counting down.
"Just think, one month from today we'll be sitting on the beach."
"Three weeks from now we'll be lounging by the pool."
"Ten more days until it's just us, the warm breeze, a cool drink and a book."
At the ten-day point I had to stop him.
"Honey, I love how excited you are and, hear me, I'm excited too. But every time you mention how many days are left until we leave on our trip, my anxiety increases exponentially. My head is about to explode."
He got the hint.
Vacation are wonderful. But, getting to those vacations can be brutal.
All the advance prep to make sure the kids will survive and your parents, who graciously agreed to stay with them for the week, won't regret their decision. Plus, thinking through what you need to pack and what the kids need to pack.
Speaking of....really, school? Did you have to schedule dress-up days for two of the three kids during the week we'll be gone??
Instead of a simple packing list of five shirts, five pants, five pairs of socks and five pairs of underwear, we have Green Day, Camo Day, Favorite Hat Day, Favorite Sports Team Day, Red, White & Blue Day, Pajama Day, etc.
Hold me.
You're wonderful, but no. We'll try our best, but you should lower your bar right this minute for the Meggison kiddos.
I'm quickly discovering there's a reason why my husband and I have only taken:
1. a honeymoon,
2. a cruise when we were pregnant with our first child, and
3. this trip.
The vacation prep is enough to send any sane person into the fetal position.
But, I'm not sane. I'm a mom. I already have Mom-nesia most of the time.
Case in point, I tried to make my vacation-prep week easier by planning a meal in the slow cooker. Got the food ready. Turned the crock pot on. And returned to a cold crock pot four hours later only to realize that I never PLUGGED THE DANG THING IN!!
Lord, have mercy.
But, who can really complain. It's not like I'm getting ready to take a trip to Siberia. I'm not being sent to solitary confinement. I'm going to an all-inclusive resort where my every whim and desire will be met for five straight days. Ahhhh.......
But, before you want to punch me in the face, keep this in mind:
When I get back, I'll come home to cold, Midwest weather, piles of laundry, 1 million emails, tired kids, stacks of bills, scary dust bunnies, 587 school papers, and nothing in the refrigerator.
You do the math.