Overwhelmed is an Understatement

I'm making lists (4 of them) and checking them twice (an hour) and no it's not to see who's naughty or nice....I already KNOW the answer to THAT question....and was reminded of it in full force tonight when I took all 4 kids with me to 'pick up a few things' at Fields (think Zellers in a smaller size). By a few things I mean bathing suits - the worlds worst thing to shop for - ever...unless you are a guy of course. It took 4.5 seconds for Owen to pick one (not that he needed a new one but it was a good way to keep his mind off the half size skateboard I've been avoiding buying him for weeks) but getting new ones for the girls was a totally different story. Emily wasn't too bad although it would have been easier a week ago when the rack of suits was FULL. Somehow we managed to find 1 that fit her but Aarica was another story. Women's bathing suits just aren't made to fit a 16yr old built like her - but we managed to find one, after trying on about six, that wasn't too revealing, fit well in all the right places & it looks pretty good on her. She's happy. I'm happy - as a mother with 4 kids in a store can be I guess. There were some moments where I could feel the grey hairs sprouting - like when Owen was looking under the changing room door (egged on my his brother who to this moment claims his innocence) or when Aarica and Tyler had a spat in one of the aisles or when Owen decided he'd had enough and started running around and saying 'you can't get me' with this evil tone. My tone must have been moreso but it didn't even phase him......but the phrase "you will spend the weekend sitting BESIDE the pool watching the other kids play if you don't get your butt back here NOW!' seemed to catch his attention. There were a couple other moments but those were the highlights. So we finished our shopping and almost got all the things on list #2. I gave up before I got to the bottom of it and called it done. List #1 was taken care of partially by Alan and Owen earlier in the evening and it consisted of grocery shopping. List #3 is in progress and I'm just waiting on the 8th load of laundry for the day to be done so I can finish it up. List #4 is kind of a 'if i get a chance, these things should be done' list and it's 50-50 on if it will get done or not. Why all these lists? Because we are going on a road trip tomorrow morning. Am I ready yet? NOT EVEN CLOSE! At 8am this morning I was close to tears at the thought of all the things to do today.....that weren't even ON any of the lists, never mind the ones that are, so I'm completely overwhelmed. The idea that a vacation is a relaxing thing is something of a mystery to me. I'm failing to see the 'relaxing' in any of this. Hopefully I'll feel different tomorrow night when I'm sitting beside the hotel pool with a glass of wine in hand.....darn I forgot to go pick up a couple bottles of wine!

Technically there is very little 'vacation' to this whole trip, but it's as close as we get each year so I like to pretend we are actually on vacation. Humor me and go with it. We are heading out tomorrow morning on a 3 hour tour (hmmm, that sounds familiar - wonder how that little trip turned out?). It's approximately 3 hours to get from home to Brandon which is where the Gimli Barvinok Dance Club is in the Troyanda Ukrainain Dance Competition this weekend. As competition weekends go (this is our 4th year), this year seems kind of laid back to me. Emily dances Friday night at 5. Owen dances at 9am Saturday morning and Em dances again at 3 Saturday afternoon - and then we are done. No costume changes in a hurry. No rushing and fussing. Should be plenty of time to sit and watch dancing or hang out at the hotel & swim and visit with all our friends - cuz there are a whole lot of us going to Brandon this weekend. At least that is my master plan. :0) I'm also looking forward to visiting with family/friends that moved out to Brandon last fall. We miss them and can't wait to meet up with them.

Now originally, I was thinking 'wow, our schedule is great. our kids don't dance Sunday so we can sleep in, hang out some more, do a little swimming before we check out and then maybe watch some dancing before heading home' *sigh* So not the case though. Tyler qualified to represent Gimli in the Junior catagory at the YBC - Bowler of the Year tournament which is...........Sunday in Winnipeg. Yikes! We have to get up early and maybe the kiddos will get in a quick swim before we have to pack up and get out of there to make it back to the city in time for Ty's tournament.

I started this blog 2 years ago - in 2006 right before we went to Brandon for dance competition. Let's do a little comparing - Back in '06, I only wrote a couple posts then kind of forgot about my blog and this year I've already posted more than I did back then. That year it was Tyler and Emily dancing and this year it's Emily and Owen. That year I woke up Sunday with a pinched nerve in my neck and by the time we got home I was in agony and this year my neck has been burning and tingely all week - I'm taking my 'magic muscle relaxers' just in case. Last time we had car trouble on the way home from Brandon and it was a long long long drive home and this year we've been having trouble with the van again so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have any problems this time. Maybe we should just stay home. I got a big box of CTMH scrapping stuff on my doorstep this afternoon. I could easily amuse myself with paper, pictures, scissors & glue all weekend.......or not. So it's off to Brandon we go. Creativity...with paper will wait and with any luck at all I won't forget my camera and I'll put it to good use this weekend........hopefully taking lots of pics of my great kids - with medals around their necks!!!