T-18 hours

The snacks are packed, and the extra batteries too. We are ready to go on vacation tomorrow!

I have us as packed as we can be before tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to not cooking or cleaning for a whole 5 days, and of course doing all kinds of fun stuff with Hubby and the girls.

The biggest nightmare of getting ready for this vacation you ask? The dog. Yeah, not so easy to go on vacation for 5 days when you have a dog that can't go with you. The place we wanted to kennel him at was going to cost almost a hundred bucks. Yeah, like I'm going to pay someone a hundred bucks to feed my dog and take him potty while I'm gone. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but my mom decided to go on vacation right before us. She gets back late the night before we leave.

Hubby's sister said we could leave him at their house but it's not like they need another project. Drake and one of their dogs don't "get along." I didn't want to subject them to refereeing dog "fights" for a week. It's kind of funny actually, Drake is a small Shih-Poo and Maxi is a huge Alaskan Malamute. Can you just picture it. There would have been a positive side. Less of an empty nest. Two of our three nieces are gone right now. One is working at a camp not too far away, and one is in Korea...uh, very far away. Love you both!

That's okay. I want to drive an hour out of the way tomorrow morning to drop off the dog to my mom at our designated meeting spot. Really, I do.

Oh, the joys of being a dog owner.

This morning I made a dent in the hot mess called our playroom. I tossed all the toys from around the house that I was tired of looking at/picking up/putting away down there and today was the day when I finally got to deal with it. I should have done some before and after pictures for all of you who don't believe me when I say it was a mess. [Insert your OCD joke here]

The other hot mess I need to deal with today. My hair. Fortunately, I was able to get an appointment for this afternoon.

Last night I went for a walk by myself after I got the girls in bed. I was headed down Main street when a huge, silver, Diesel Dodge Ram came driving my direction. It's what my dad drove. I started crying right there on Main street. It happens quite often actually, seeing the silver Diesel Dodge Ram in town that is, not crying about it. I think it might be harder than I'm expecting to have Genie and Daniel pull into town without my dad with them. It will be the first time we've been together since the funeral, and I just know it will be hard, but very, very good too.

Today Gracie wanted to pack a bag for the trip. For her baby, of course. A good mommy has to pack plenty of diapers and toys for her baby. She was so frustrated that she could find this certain bag she was looking for. So I tried to get a description from her.

Me: "What does it look like?"

Gracie: "You know, the bag with the chick on it!"

Me to myself: WHAT???

After a few moments of silent thinking it finally came to me.

Me: "You mean the Tweety backpack?"

Gracie: "Yeah, the Tweety backpack that Poppy gave me!"

If she would have said, "Mom, I want the Tweety backpack Poppy gave me," it would have been so much easier.

Me: "Keep looking. It's somewhere around here."

Gracie: "I did look everywhere."

Me: "If you had looked everywhere you would have found the backpack, because I know it's in our house."

Gracie: "I'm going upstairs to look for it."

Me: "Gracie, it wouldn't be upstairs."

Gracie [holding the backpack she'd just found upstairs where I said it wouldn't be]: "Na-na-na-boo-boo!"

Uh, where did that come from?

Rachel-I think it must have come from the same place that Emma got "lame" from.

After she packed her "chick" bag, she looked over at me and told me about how much she still misses Poppy since he died.

Yeah, me too girl. Gracie and I are both feeling sentimental today. Here's Gracie holding her Tweety backpack and a picture of her, Poppy, me and Ella on his last visit to our house...

Stay tuned, vacation pictures coming soon!