Here We Go...

It's taken us most of the day, but I do believe we are ready to go. You wouldn't believe the amount of bags it takes to get three people 7 hours away for 9-10 days, particularly when you have to pack towels and sheets and pillows and blankets on top of hot and cold and rainy clothes on top of "living" stuff and electronics like cameras and chargers and dvd player and movies and cds and player and iPod and chargers and adapters and toys and stuffed animals and...make-up. Gotta have make-up to sweat off. Then you get to get the house ready for a long absence. Prepare cat stuff. Water plants. Unplug scented thingies from the wall. Electrical stuff off. Dishes and laundry and trash picked up so as to not come home to ants or unpleasant odors. Yadda yadda. But the bags are just impressive. We're not even taking any food or drinks-we'll get those once we get up there, at a store. Anyway, it's 11:30 at night and I think we're finally about ready to go.

I ran errands for a couple of hours today too. I got about six checks sent off, made trips to two banks, to Fed Ex to ship off some SMA Stuff, to the post office, to Glenndale twice, got everything that I could in "order" for a long absence. I even filled up and washed my car, because it looked like somebody drove it through a mud puddle that splashed up over the whole thing. I don't remember doing that. ;) Anyway, on our way to the gas station, I drove through an area of town I'm not usually in, and it's not the most affluent area. Kaylee looked around and said "Mommy, do you see these houses?" I said yes, and she said "They look like the haunted houses on Scooby Doo. I wouldn't like to live in those houses. Everything is broken and scary and ugly. I can't stop staring." So there's a blessing for the day. Our home is not a mansion, and it's not in an old or new money area, but it is clean, not broken, kept up, and does not look haunted. It was actually a good opening to have a conversation about "differences" and thankfulness both.

I was reading a NATA magazine (North American Trainers Association), and in it I skimmed past a picture twice before I realized it was a picture of the T-6 that Nathan and I flew last month. I thought "Hey, I've flown that plane!" Kind of neat, at least to someone not yet overly used to flying airplanes that end up in magazines. ;)

Well, tomorrow is going to come a little (okay, a lot) too early for my tastes. I hope to have internet while we're gone, but we'll see. We're off to the annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh, and I'll talk to you...soon. :)