A Vacation in My Mind

I didn't intentionally disappear this week - it just happened. This has been the craziest week I have had in a very long time and I'm ready for the roller coaster to end (which, apparently, my body is going to take care of for me).

We made it home safely from vacation Sunday afternoon. Vacation itself was wonderful with a beautiful lake house in Michigan and a visit to the beach on Lake Michigan. I'm such a sucker for a beach - even if it is just on a very large lake. My favorite highlights of the week, though? Spending time with my feet propped up in a chair next to the lake, reading People magazines while my children played happily on the sand in front of me; finally getting the time to scrapbook our family's vacation to Disney last year; getting the chance to laugh hysterically as the whole family played games at night; and getting the chance to spend a week with my grandparents and brand-new niece. It was wonderful.

However, this week has totally made my shoulders tighten with tension yet again. It's normal for my life to be a little crazy returning from vacation since I always come back to a stack of work from the previous week. But I was a little crazy when I also agreed to help teach VBS all week in the evenings following work this week. I left my crazy work day to run to daycare, pick up kids, and eat dinner in the car as we sped off to church. We were there every night this week until a little after 9:00, making it about 9:30 before we made it home each night. Given all that, I think it's safe to say everyone in the family is a little exhausted.

So I totally need off the crazy roller coaster I've been on all week. Unfortunately, I think my body is going to personally grant my wish. A slightly sore throat I started feeling late Wednesday got worse last night and the fresh white spots for strep popped up early this morning. I would've skipped work and headed to the doctor but the other girl in the office with me was out today for her own vacation so I was the only one who would be running the office for the day. No subs for me. So I headed to work and convinced myself that my throat was fine (minus maybe one funny looking possible canker sore on the right side of my throat). Unfortunately, that funny looking canker sore seems to have spread through the rest of my throat tonight so I'll be headed to the local walk-in clinic tomorrow.

But all of this is OK. I've also had a blissful vacation in my mind all week. That was my bright spot for the week. After making the decision that our family needed to try our own separate vacation next year (we haven't had our own family vacation ever - not in the almost 11 years we've been married), we had so much fun dreaming with the kids in the car on the way home Sunday night. All four of us talked about where we'd love to go and what we wanted to do. We finally narrowed it down to two places - the beach or Disney. Of course, the kids made the executive decision for us. I'll give you one guess where we're headed next year.

The fun thing, though, is that we've all been vacationing in our minds all week. OK, I confess - I've vacationed more than the rest of us. We've dreamed of the rides we wanted to ride again. The kids dreamed of the characters they wanted to see again. I even made my own decision to make sure to get my picture made with Cinderella (my favorite princess) and Mary Poppins (my favorite "other" Disney character). We decided that, next year, we were even going to stay on property. So all week long, we've pulled out our Disney guides and looked online to dream away of the places we wanted to go and the things we wanted to see. And even though we're not there yet, I've discovered that part of the Disney Magic must include all the time you spend dreaming in preparation for your trip.

Of course, now we're so Disney-psychotic that we're suddenly starting to dream about annual passes! Hhmmm...I wonder how many trips we'd have to make to actually "save" some money on that decision? And I wonder how I'm going to be able to concentrate on anything between now and next summer.