I'd never been to Florida in my life. Never. Not even barely across the state line. Not even close to the state line. A travesty indeed.
One that apparently I mentioned a lot.
Last December, while at the IWU Christmas party, I said goodbye to my dear friend Ronda, who was about to leave for...Florida. And as I said "I hope you have a great time in the state I've STILL never been to...." apparently she picked up on a smidge of bitterness.
And she said to me, "You know, I've been thinking about that. You busy on spring break?"
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
A few weeks later, toward the end of January, she asked again if I'd want to take a week off during IWU's spring break. Jonathan (of blog fame) is Ronda's son, and he's in the IWU Chorale. Chorale toured the state of Florida during break, and since it was his last tour, she really wanted to see him. I asked for the week off (despite the fact it came RIGHT at the start of our uber-busy season at work) and once given the go-ahead, Ronda and I booked our flights!
And I booked it into the living room to make us some countdown paper chains!!
Lesson learned...Braeya thought the carefully organized (by color and date) strips of paper waiting to be chained were actually toys for her. It was a mess.
About 2 weeks after we booked our flights (maybe a little longer than that), Ronda came to see me and told me her daughter Megan wanted to join us on the trip. Megan also has 2 little boys - Khi and Silas. They'd be going too. She was worried I'd be upset about that, but I sure wasn't!
So...the Saturday before Valentine's Day, Ronda and I made a trek to Megan's house to do the final planning. And of course, I had to take presents!
Little tropical inspired gift bags....
And something for Khi too!! The puzzle was for him but he was more interested in the tropical scented anti-bacterial hand gel...which he thought was hair gel and applied it as such.
Then of course...the week of the trip, it was time to pack. (I did not take the clock. It was relocated to the bed because it had been ON the cedar chest where the out of season clothes were housed, so I had to move it.)
The list was as follows: 15 shirts, 8 pairs of shorts, 5 pairs of capris, 3 pairs of pants, 2 swimsuits, 2 skirts, 1 dress, and 1 jacket. And that, my friends, is the pared down list.
Little tropical inspired gift bags....
And something for Khi too!! The puzzle was for him but he was more interested in the tropical scented anti-bacterial hand gel...which he thought was hair gel and applied it as such.
Then of course...the week of the trip, it was time to pack. (I did not take the clock. It was relocated to the bed because it had been ON the cedar chest where the out of season clothes were housed, so I had to move it.)
The list was as follows: 15 shirts, 8 pairs of shorts, 5 pairs of capris, 3 pairs of pants, 2 swimsuits, 2 skirts, 1 dress, and 1 jacket. And that, my friends, is the pared down list.
I have titled this piece, "Please Mom, don't go."
But go...I did. And I can't wait to show you the fun along the way!! We'll go to Florida together after tomorrow's break for SSMT!!!
2 comments:
I TOTALLY understand the overpacking...I'm one of those, too! But wait...no shoes?
Oh goodness yes - there were shoes. 8 pairs of flip flops, 1 pair of tennies and 1 pair of dress shoes.
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