Can somebody pack for me???

Okay, so I am sitting here writing on my blog when I should be packing. I have been busy today, really... I spent most of the morning working, then the afternoon organizing... I usually try to avoid working on the weekends but there is so much to wrap up before I leave for 18 days. Now I am making stir fried rice for dinner. The brown rice is cooking right now... My kids love brown rice, yea! They are pretty good about eating healthy food so that makes part of my life easier!

Usually for trips I pack the night before. I know I really need to at least pull the suitcases out or something. Instead I have been organizing the house. Right before I leave on a trip I do this crazy deep cleaning, sanitizing - clean out junk drawers OCD type of cleaning. I have two reasons for this. First one being that I like to return to a clean house after my trip. Second, and this is morbid, but I think if anything happens to me on my vacation, I wouldn't want anyone to see my house messy - yes, that means my junk drawers! Yes, I do this for every trip, not just because I am heading the Middle East! I do clean my house every week and even pay someone to do it for me on occassion, but the junk drawers are not a weekly thing for sure! I couldn't believe how many pencils I found! I am talking about the ones for kids with characters, holiday pencils, and pencils from party grab bags. I am talking over 100 pencils!

I have been doing laundry too! In my book that counts as part of the packing process. Because if it is not clean it can't go in the suitcase! I am still working out the whole different climate issues, and what to bring because I hate overpacking! Plus the few more formal things I have to pack. I have to go find our adapters and may need to go buy a few more. Between the cell phones, ipods, cameras, nintendo ds's and of course my hair dryer and flat iron we have a lot to plug in.

Well, off to finish making dinner and spend a nice relaxing evening in front of a movie!

So the week begins....

Okay, this is the week where my life goes completely insane! My head is throbbing at the thought of all that I have to do! Where to begin? Why I am even writing this? Do I have time? Right now I do since it is six in the morning and I have ½ hour before I have to start waking everyone up. Plus I have been up since 5am and just worked for an hour! That is the great thing about my job; I can work whenever I want to and mostly in my jammies! Which I will be extremely busy this week completing one major project, conducting two training conference calls and getting the monthly invoicing started, plus all my other stuff. Okay, moving on I have to help Bailey get her project done for school on a famous African American – due this Friday. I need to haul the glitter glue out – Bailey likes things to sparkle! Well, since I opened my big mouth last week to Jake’s coach, I am now the Team Mom, First duty – pick up the uniforms and get them distributed at practice. Also, I need to make a basket for the auction held at the opening ceremonies for this Friday night – basket is due on Thursday – ugh… Okay, with that we have homework to worry about, volunteer at the school, guitar lessons, tennis lessons, baseball practice – no Brownie meeting this week – thank goodness, but I should really get around to ironing Bailey’s patches on her vest. I feel bad because they are all piling up and everyone else’s are already on their vests. Okay, I loathe having to iron anything!!!! I wish the patches would adhere themselves to Bailey’s vest without my involvement!

Well, all of this is generally about what my life is about every week, more or less – just slightly different versions. I think I am mostly stressed out because next week I am leaving on my trip and sometime soon I have to worry about packing and getting the last minute things we need for our trip. Packing usually is very easy for me and I generally do it the night before. This trip however takes more thought as we will be in different climates, four different countries, all kinds of “dress codes” including being very covered up when out of the Company Camps while in Arabia, then on top of that we are attending some events that are a little more formal than a pair of jeans. The whole idea of packing is consuming me as it is – the thought of all of this other stuff I have going on this week is going to raise my blood pressure. Which is not good, since I have my yearly physical tomorrow… Wait, do I have time to go do that tomorrow?

Okay, gotta run. Need to do the pre wake up stuff around the house, my last few minutes of sanity before the chaos of the morning begins. Did I mention today is Jake’s teachers birthday and I will be at the school for her party this afternoon? I am happy to fit that into my busy schedule, she is a wonderful teacher and it is fun to celebrate other peoples birthdays. So the week begins….

Bailey's Hair

I was going to write about this yesterday, but it didn't really work out that way. A year ago on the 15th of February my darling daughter had 11 inches of her haircut off for Locks of Love. I am posting pictures of the before, after and a year after. After my Father in Law's funeral last year we stuck around for another 10 days to help my Mother in Law with everything, then we ended up flying her back to Orlando with us. Well, during the time after the funeral, my sister in law, Anne was going to get her cut and donate to Locks of Love in honor of her Dad. She told Bailey about Locks of Love and Bailey was interested in donating her hair too. So together they had a hair appointment and got their long hair cut. I was so proud of my little 8 year old who had had loved her hair so much.

Bailey has always had the most beautiful hair. When she was born, I was shocked to see her come out with a head of dark hair. Then when she was an older baby and a toddler she had these bouncy, beautiful curls all over her head. When she hit around 3 1/2 years old her hair went completely straight, no more bouncy curls but her hair was just as pretty. Bailey has "dirty" blonde hair which turns a beautiful golden during the summer months. Her hair has always been long.

So as I sat there watching her get her haircut, I start feeling very sick to my stomach. This happened before a few months earlier when she got her ears pierced for her birthday and I thought I was going to pass out in the store. She ended up with this cute little chin length haircut that was actually very adorable on her! I stared at her the next few weeks because she looked so different to me!

Well after returning home she got a lot of compliments from friends. She read a story to her second grade class that she had written about her Grandfather's passing and her donation to Locks of Love. In the following months, six of her friends now had the same cute little chin length hair cuts and had donated their hair as well.

Although we had fun with her cute little haircut, I think she is glad her hair is longer again. If she ever wants to donate her hair again - I will support her!

February 5th....

Well, today I am home with Jake (Day Two) who has been sick. This is his first time being out of school! He is looking perky enough to send back to school tomorrow. Thank goodness, I have errands to run!

Okay, so today is February 5th, not a great day for our family as a year ago today my Father in Law lost his three year battle with cancer. We were lucky in the fact that we had lot's of time to prepare and say our goodbyes to him. Although we live several states away, we were able to fly out several times and spend a lot of time the last 6 weeks of his life and help in his care. We miss him!

Later in the year we learned my Dad had cancer and he went through surgery last September. The cancer part has been taken care of, but since the surgery he has had more problems with his heart.

I have since been involved with the American Cancer Society as a Relay for Life Team Captain. We raise money through the year that goes to the American Cancer Society. It has been very rewarding for me to feel like I am doing something about the terrible disease that affects so many. I am looking forward to our all night Relay this coming May, last year it was such a wonderful thing to experience.

Okay, so it is February 5th, one month from today my family and I will hop on a place and head out of the country. Where we are going seems crazy to most (including several family members of mine).

Peter's Dad worked for Aramco out of Saudi Arabia. They are having a reunion for former expatriates in March. That is where we are going! Peter has not been back since his Dad took an early retirement back in 1994. The kids will get to see where their Dad grew up and where their Grandfather (we call him Pop) worked all those of years of his life.

If anyone knows Peter, then you would know he cannot just go to one place, therefore, we have a bit of an itinerary. We first fly out of Orlando and go to London and spend a few days there. Then we fly from London to Bahrain and spend one day and night there. From Bahrain we will take a taxi over the causeway into Saudi Arabia. We will spend the next 9 days there. After leaving Saudi Arabia we take a flight into Cairo where we connect with another flight to Luxor, Egypt. We we will spend two nights in Luxor then fly back to Cairo for two more nights. From Cairo we will fly back to London then home. It sounds exhausting and I am sure it will be.

We will gone a total of 18 days - yes, the kids will be missing school. Their principal has granted permission and pulled a lot of strings for us to have Bailey miss the mandatory FCAT testing going on while we are gone. After they are back, they are in school for one week then off for Spring Break. You better believe Peter is already thinking we will be ready for a trip for Spring Break, we will see....

I am posting a picture of my Father in Law in his Dodger's baseball uniform. No, he wasn't a Dodger, but probably could have been. He was a great baseball player, however he chose to pursue a career as a geologist rather than going to the minors. He attended Dodger's Fantasy Camp for years in Vero Beach. The two big interests for my kids are baseball and tennis and those were two of my Father In Law's favorite things. It is nice to see his interests carried on in my children.