country roads, take me home!

... i know that song mentions West Virginia which is not technically Colorado, but it was sung by John Denver so it's good enough for me ;)

going on vacation is (tantamount to) a full time job. i have washed and folded so many loads of clothes looking for specific items that aren't in my closet that i must must take. i put all my lenses and cameras and batteries and chargers on my desk trying to be discerning in what i pack and am pretty much taking every last thing. (i just know i will STILL regret the one polarizing filter i leave at home.) i have baked. and cleaned like a maniac. and stressed about snow delays and running over wild animals and flat ipods and screaming children who have run out of coloring pages and DVDs. and mapped and printed (we are soooo out of ink) and calculated and planned and pored over realtor.com for days on end and yelp reviews and lists of hobby lobby locations and dinosaur museums and the hours they are open and if we can drive 11 hours and arrive in Colorado which is one hour ahead by 3pm when the museum closes (3pm!) and still have time to actually see the museum. i am so ready to just go already before i think of something else to review/clean/pack!!!!

on Saturday a realtor is showing us around houses. Aaron wondered if there was any point since we won't be buying one any time soon... no point???! but i LOVE looking at houses!! more than life itself! any house!! anywhere!! HGTV's House Hunters is almost too exciting to watch. and forget their Dream House show - urgh, can't watch it. it makes me physically sick with envy! sooo, houses in a brand new state... two states east of here and the other side of the Rockies, (heck i bet they even have Edy's icecream out there!) and so dramatically different that houses actually have basements, not to mention WALK OUT basements and more square footage than all the houses i have ever owned combined... garages bigger than our first house... houses with adorable porches on olde worlde streets... no point???? please!!!!

Dr Phil today was about that single mom with 14 kids in Whittier and he had on none other than earring tugging expert-mom Kate from JnK&8 (probably in town for free teeth whitening or breast augmentation:) oh she was going on and on about how hard it is raising soooo many children and how she is superhuman so if she can only just manage to do it, forget anyone else EVER surviving... which made me wonder how on earth she can be 3000 miles from her kids if it's such a tough nonstop job??! God love her... she must have REALLY superhuman powers!!

off to bed! back in a week!