Delay

  Anyone who knew me in high school (okay, and college) will wholeheartedly agree that I'm a master procrastinator. Major term paper due tomorrow, one that would normally require weeks upon weeks of backbreaking research? Sure, I'll crank that bad boy out the night before, beginning around 1am. Biomedical Ethics midterm? Why, what's wrong with reviewing two months worth of class notes the night before? And so what if it's my 21st birthday? I can always go out to celebrate on the weekend!

  (Yes, I actually spent the night of my 21st birthday, on Halloween no less, studying for a midterm. I'm not sure if that makes me sound incredibly studious or incredibly lame). 

  My point being, I tend to leave important deadlines to the last minute. Adulthood is no exception. See: inviting 12 soldiers and their families over for a Thanksgiving dinner at our house, and not shopping until the day before, waiting until I was in full-blown labor with Alessandra and barely making it to the birth center in time, waiting until I was down to the VERY LAST CLEAN CLOTH DIAPER before deciding I should probably do laundry...you get the picture. I always promise myself that I will grow up, get things done in a calm, leisurely manner, and not running around like an addict who can't find his stash (inappropriate analogy? Possibly. I've only had one cup of coffee this morning). This rarely pans out. For starters, old habits are hard to break. Furthermore, I generally have the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. Pretty much every last-minute deadline, whether it be a test, term paper, childbirth, entertaining, what have you-works out in my favor when I leave it to the last minute. However, being an adult (or so I keep telling myself) I know I need a good kick in the butt every now and then, and I need to get my &#$% together. 

  In a mere four days, we will bid farewell to Will, who will depart for Fort Knox for 6 long weeks. My mom arrives in the Springs that very day, and 2 days later she, I, and my crew will depart for Milwaukee. I'm really looking forward to this trip, but I'm not looking forward to the prep. The "prep" being laundry, packing, map routing, food preparing, grocery shopping, overnight bag packing, car cleaning...the list goes on. My mom and I were chatting a few days ago, and she reminded me to make a packing list for the kids and I. Right. I'll get on that. However, I'm looking around our house, which is in desperate need of a deep clean, there are boxes in the garage from our most recent move that still need to be unpacked, the kids' playroom looks like a tornado ran through it but it's THEIR playroom and I'm NOT signing myself up for that job, people around here insist on eating every day so I still have to prepare meals, and the laundry has reached an alarming state. SOOOOOOO my list kind of looks something like this: 

Laundry. Much laundry. 

Check out Google Maps, compare to Mapquest. Determine not only fastest route, but route with rest stops with playgrounds (yes, they do exist!), Chik-Fil-As, Burger Kings and McDonalds with child play areas. Must find places where kids can get the wiggles out. 

Pack for everyone. Laundry first. Impose harsh restrictions on what children can wear for the next few days. 

Clean house. Thoroughly. I detest coming home to a disaster area after a long vacation. 

Grocery store. Probably should make a shopping list first. 

Drop Murphy off at dog sitters house. 

Arrange for someone to cut the grass at least once during our absence. 

  What have I done thus far? I've thought about making a packing list. Thought very seriously about it. Decided that was too much work, and proceeded to write this blog post instead. 

But with this awesome guy (who's kind of sporting a Jersey Shore-ish look as of late) insisting that he wants Papa time with the kids today and I should "take it easy," well, who am I to argue?