Friday, August 25, 2006

New Countdown

I have a new countdown to start today. Hubby finally cleared his calendar and I started booking a trip to Hawaii. We have had a hit and miss on this trip for a couple of years now, so we are really looking forward to it.

We are leaving on September 25th and returning on October 2nd. Yes, the kids will be in school but I’m going to pull them. They have conference that week and school gets out at one everyday. The teachers are so busy with parent conferences they give minimal amount of work so I think we can work with it. This is the problem when one is self-employed, there is no one to take your place, and so we have to find time when we can.

We’ll be staying on the Big Island at a condo complex called Mauna Lani Point. I originally wanted to stay in a hotel, but the more I thought about it, the less appealing that idea became. First, and those of you considering having a third child, keep this in mind, hotel rooms only hold four people. If you have five, you have to get a second room. Usually they cut you a deal, but still, it adds up. Second, condos roomier. Third, going out for every meal is expensive. Fourth, going out to any meal with my kids is as fun as a root canal. And fifth (this is the weird one), I get antsy if I can’t cook. After 3 or 4 days of not cooking, I start crawling the walls. I’ll cook cheerios if that’s all that’s available. I haven’t always been like this but I noticed it kicking in when I started staying home. Maybe because it is habit, I’m not sure. Oh, I won’t be pulling out the gourmet stuff or anything like that and we will be going out to a few restaurants (and a luau), but I need the security of having the option of cooking.

I don’t plan to do a whole lot. I’ve been to the Big Island before so I don’t need to do much in the tourist department. I do plan to spend lots of time at the beach. So now the fun chore begins: what books do I take? This is strictly a fluff-reading trip, “War and Peace” will not be amongst my selections. I’ve got tons of books in my TBR stack so I probably have enough to keep me busy, but I would hate to miss out on an excuse to buy books.

Yeah, I will have a laptop as well. I do tend to write on vacation. And I will have to blog about what a great time I’m having.