*Facebook 5/24/11 - Dentist, grocery store, cleaning the house, physical therapy, oil change, pack. Yup! It's vacation.
Reason number 12 I love South Dakota: (the first 7 are related to me, 1 is traffic-based and the other three could be found sitting at my kitchen counter drinking wine or coffee at any moment…) School gets out on May 23!
I have worked in districts where school went all year and I have worked in districts where the school year extends into the very end of June, but never have I had a FULL THREE MONTHS OF VACATION!! (Perhaps it is because all of those other places I worked had this cool thing called “Snow Days.” Here, they figure you’re used to it and we have school even during blizzards.)
In mid May, I was not prepared for the school year to be over. It took me by surprise. First of all, it was not warm enough to be summer yet. Still in the 60’s, I hadn’t even switched completely over to my spring clothes! Also, given that I was feeling like we should have 6 weeks more of school, it was hard for me to accept that we really weren’t going to be able to finish the ambitious unit I had started in the end of April. I woke up the day after the last day of school and had no idea what to do with myself. I hadn’t had a vacation day since Christmas, so it took a while for the idea of a calm, relaxing, nothing-to-do day to set in.
Then the kids woke up.
We made breakfast, cleaned up breakfast, folded three loads of laundry and walked the dogs. Then I left the big kids in charge of the little kids so I could run to the grocery store. (See Errand Nightmares for an explanation of why I didn’t take them with me.) On the way home I stopped for gas, a car wash and an oil change in preparation for our trip to Minneapolis the next week.
√Laundry
√Grocery Shopping
√Gas, Carwash, Oil Change
Then I prepared 10 different appetizers for Brianna’s Minute-to-Win-It birthday party, which was the next day. (We decided on passed hors d’oeuvres so her friends wouldn’t have to stop playing to eat.)
√Appetizers
After that I organized all the game supplies for the party into separate piles on the dinning room table, making a cute little sign with directions for each separate station. Then I ran out again to a physical therapy appointment. When I came home I did the dishes and picked up the house.
√Party Planning
√Physical Therapy
√Dishes
√House Pick-up
Then we were ready for lunch.
After lunch I took three of the kids to the dentist. Their regular check ups revealed 4 cavities, 3 teeth needing sealant and 3 baby teeth that needed to be pulled. I hunted them down, wrestled them into the car and headed over to the dentist. Where I would be for the next two hours.
I didn’t realize that they were planning to take them all at once, so I did the One-of-Me-Three-of-Them dance in and out of all examination rooms and up and down all of the hallways. During all of this, I did my very best not to listen to, look at, or smell anything, since the whole idea of the dentist makes me somewhat nauseated (which is probably why I haven’t told anyone about that toothache I have).
√Dentist
At the end of the dental extravaganza, I returned home with my puffy-faced, lisping children who had been told by the dentist that they could have whatever they wanted for dinner.
*Facebook 5/24/11 - After 4 fillings and 3 teeth pulled, none of my children can get their faces to work. Funniest. Conversation. Ever.
And this is how, at 5:00 on my first day of vacation, Bill came home to find the dining room table covered with party plans, the refrigerator full of uncooked appetizers, the laundry folded, the dishes done, the car ready for our trip, and me in the kitchen, making pancakes and ice cream for dinner.
*Facebook 5/23/11 – Bill gets the quote of the day today! Upon arriving home he said, “What? Did you do EVERYTHING on the first day of vacation?” Nope, my friend…you should see tomorrow’s list!
© Jody Hoffman 2011
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