Leaving in a Caravan!

Okay so I had to tweak the Peter, Paul, and Mary classic "Leaving on Jet Plane"...but here I am a few days away from our family vacation. So happy its finally here!

In my world, getting ready for a vacation is extremely exhausting. Not only do I have to make sure my family life is ready for the trip, I have to make sure my work life is well taken care of. This means a ton of preparation. My job is fast paced, high volume, and full of "has to be done this second" moments. This means I have to spend weeks getting everything in order. Yes, this means I'm going to have to tackle that "I'm trying to pretend you're not there" research project, I have to respond to the dozens of "you should have responded yesterday" letters. I have to make sure that my world will run smoothly without me in it for awhile.

Then of course there is the packing. I am the family packer...the one responsible to pack for each member of my family, including my husband. And this usually leads to beautifully packed suitcases for my kids, maybe a missing pair of socks for Todd, and a suitcase of "well there's always Wal-Mart" for me as I tend to forget everything.

It's funny that even in this age of "connectedness", where I am taking the iPhone and iPad that keeps me on the pulse of my life, its still really hard to get ready to leave. Why is it that you can have a week of absolutely no fires to put out, yet the week you happen to take a vacation all hell breaks loose??

So this week I have been in a mad dash to get everything ready. This has led to lots of late nights, lots of checklists, lots of "I'll be out of the office"-type warnings to all the insurance adjusters that will have to handle their files solo for the week.

So in just a few days, off we will go on vacation! I can't wait. But for a woman that tries so hard to keep complete control, complete balance of my life it will be hard to leave the chips where they may lie and step away from reality for awhile. I have to admit I miss the days when I was a kid and I had no cares in the world as I left on a family trip!

Wish me luck...luck for happy traveling kids, luck for beautiful weather, luck for time to slow down so I can enjoy this family time, and of course luck that I'll remember to pack Todd's toothbrush and deodorant (otherwise it might not be such a fun trip!)

Mandi