10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

Only 10 days left until we will be on the beach in Cancun!!!

When I gave Ken the trip for Christmas I told him he could plan the rest, like what we would do, eat, etc. He was pretty excited about that. But then he would look on the internet and ask me how I felt about this or that. So finally after 3 weeks I told him, "Look, I don't want to know anything, I just want to be surprised!"

Since then he hasn't told me a thing except for that he is making plans. I don't even know what to pack and it's kind of driving me crazy now. I'm kind of at the point where I'm sure I could drag it out of him (he's not that tough:-), but then that would ruin my surprise.

Anyway, so I am trying to turn my attention towards the things I need to take care of before I can get away with him.

Here's my list of things to do:

10. Get over being sick. I have had a cold/virus since Friday. I tried to say it was allergies and now I am still not feeling well. Thankfully Ken was home for the weekend and took care of me. But he left Monday morning. Which brings me to...

9. Think of something nice to do for my parents. They both took care of us yesterday. My dad watched the girls so I could take the dog to the vet. When he was here he also vacuumed and did my dishes too. Then my mom cooked me a roast on Sunday, and then on Monday night she made it in a stew for my sore throat. Then she went home and ate dinner and came back to give my girls a bath and get them ready for bed. So there is all of that, plus they are going to watch all of our kids while we are in Cancun.

8. Wash my sheets and bedding and clean my room. Ginger and Rose have loved playing in my room and making a mess.

7. Clean my bathroom. Because that would just be mean to not do that before my parents use it.

6. Stop eating Junk Food and Candy. I was so happy think our vacation was 10 weeks out, so I could exercise and lose 10 lbs. before we went. Well, I only lost 4 lbs. I have exercised some (only walking like 3 days a week). But it's really been hard with Ken traveling the past 6 out of 8 weeks.

5. Get all of our paperwork in order: Wills, insurance, phone numbers, and stuff like that.

4. Have the boys clean their room and bathroom. It was scary when I went in there this morning and their Lola spoils them so much already that I am not going to let her clean their bathroom while we are gone too. Because she totally would.

3. Finish shampooing the car rugs. Last week me and the kids started on cleaning out the Suburban. There is just a few finishing touches to add. I totally love the Bissel Little Green Machine! It heats the cleaning solution up and it is perfect for steaming the carpets clean in your car.


2. Get the soccer season carpools together. Darin is on a team with 3 of his buds. And Nathan is on a team with one of his friends. Anyway, Nathan has Monday/Thursday practices. And Darin has Tuesday/Thursday Practices. Thursdays their practices are at the same time but on fields 20 minutes apart. And Tuesdays those 4 boys will need to leave practice 30 minutes early to go the church building for scouts. So it's going to be interesting juggling it. The good thing is that they are doing it with friends so that will help me out. And Thursdays they have piano lessons too, which I am going to have to change the time of too. It's chaotic but then I think it's only for 10 weeks, we'll be okay.

1. Help the kids adjust to both me and Ken being gone. I don't think it will be hard since they love Lola and Papa.
But with all of the travel Ken has been doing we actually considered canceling our trip so he would have more time to spend with the kids.

I've been doing amazingly okay with kids. It's not has overwhelming as I thought it would be. I feel like we have a pretty good routine going. Don't get me wrong I miss Ken like crazy but us talking for hours each night helps with that.

We feel like the kids are doing pretty good. Ken has found a good routine with the boys. He logs into our home computers and plays BZ Flag (it's a tank game) with them 2-3 times a week. The love it because Darin and Nathan team up against their Dad. I guess Ken is a really good player. And unless he has a dinner meeting he is on speakerphone with us at dinner and when we read scriptures. So he tries hard to still be involved in their lives but it's not the same as having him actually physically here.

Rose isn't too happy about the travel and has started to refuse talking to Ken on the phone. I think we have gotten over that hurdle because Ken has hidden treats around the house so she has to talk to him on the phone to get her surprise. But at the same time Rose has really thrived with more attention from me.

Ginger misses her Dad alot, she wakes up every night and cries for him (Daddy) for a few minutes and then goes to sleep. During the day she is her usual happy self. And she likes to talk to Ken on the phone. But we've been worries because as this project goes on and on he will have missed almost 1/4 of her second year of life.