Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Totally frantic and unshowered

We are leaving tomorrow for about 10 days. We're driving to New Brunswick and back with a short stop in Quebec City and New Brunswick's armpit (aka Edmonston, although in its favour is the best Best Western ever... kid's pool with waterslide and cereal dispensers. Assume it will be the highlight of their trip). John has a conference out there so we've rented a cottage with our pseudo-family, Pam/Jim and kids.

So all you would be thieves out there.... you've been told! Of course, we do have eagle-eye neighbours and ruthless hooligans living nearby so you may want to think twice before approaching our well-guarded house.

I'm very excited and so are the kids. But, being a large trip with lots of planning and organizing to do not to mention a very long car ride with three kids, I am totally short on time and cleanliness. The garden has needed serious attention the last few days to get the veggies in on time and it seems my organizational prowess let me down yet again when I booked Henry's one-year check-up and the girls' dentist appointments all for today. Oh, and I left our three sweaters at the doctor's office across town. There's something I relish adding to my to-do list: drive across town due to incompetence.

I also have to do one last shop at Loblaws, go to the Post Office, vacuum the car (might be sent to the bottom of the list), fill out dental forms, shower. (Who am I kidding? The shower is totally at the bottom of the list.) Am I missing something? Oh, right... PACK.

I want to be very selective about what comes with us. We have a Mazda 5, a baby and two other kids. Space can be tight even with our box on top of the car and I don't want it to be tight. I'd rather hand-wash clothes than over-pack. I plan to be ruthless. There are stores in New Brunswick if I am really desperate.

Pam and I have pre-planned the meals so that we only buy or bring the ingredients we need. In looking over a couple of the recipes I'll be making, I came up with a brilliant plan: I'm going to pre-mix a sauce and a marinade ahead of time and take them in jars. Bob's your Uncle. Done.

Time for those dental forms.

4 comments:

Julie said...

have an awesome trip!! and if you want, i can do some gardening for you. let me know.

Marnie said...

Have a great time! Key to success: keep those expectations low low low. And forget vacuuming the car you silly - leave it for when you're back, because then there'll be at least a few more inches of filth to clean, and wouldn't that be more satisfying?

Karen said...

Marn, you're totally right. I don't know what I was thinking. It didn't get done of course. Neither did the trip to the post office, picking up the sweaters or the showers. So while my expectations were high, the actual execution was low. And I don't care!

I think my mantra for the trip will be: keep expectations low!

little b said...

Have a great time. Can't wait to hear how it goes.