practice

We are heading off to South Bend by way of the Windy City to see this girl (my cousin Nena, aka Margarita) graduate from college.  It makes me sound so old, but I totally remember coming back from an amazing trip to New York City with my mom and the Serranos to find out that Nena had been born.  In true Latino style we totally got yelled at by the hospital staff for having too many of us in the hospital room and for passing Nena around like she was a hot potato.  Apparently we didn’t do too much permanent damage – she graduates Saturday from here and we couldn’t be prouder of her.

I consider this trip our ‘practice’ trip for our big trip in a month to Quito.  Think it’s easy packing 3 kids for 5 days?  Think again…

two boys – two outfits a day (just in case) times 5 days equals a.l.o.t. of stuff.

Packing is my nightmare.  Really, flying is my nightmare… I’m a terribly nervous flyer and the whole experience kicks my OCD in to complete overdrive.  The worst part is that I can no longer take my little Xanax when flying because I’ve got to be completely lucid for my kids.  Ugh.  And, because I’m crazy, I insisted that we could only take 1 suitcase between all five of us.  My OCD is so bad that I actually started making packing lists two weeks ago.  So you’d think that I’d have finished packing like ages ago, right?

the mess in the hall tonight… but seriously I’m packed.  We’re packed.  In worst case, we’re headed to a big city – they’ve got diapers and wipes there.

So we’re off to Chicago until Friday when we drive to South Bend to meet up with the graduate, Javi, Tia Marga, Jack, Cutter, Richard, Nana, & the Bug.  Can’t wait to see each and every one of them.  Fingers crossed for smooth travels, no TSA pat-downs, and vomit/cry-free flights.