and off we go to florida!!!!

Life IS all sunshine and roses sometimes, isn't it? Never mind that we have to drive 1,276 miles to get to Grandma's house...our van burns lots of oil, so Evelyn and I will have to be on that. Jon isn't coming with us on this trip:) The tires need air frequently too, but according to the mechanic in town, the van is fine for the trip.

Jon is staying here for winter break because his good friends will be on break too, and will be doing fun stuff. Kathryn has work, so she'll be here, and Joseph works from home and will be here too. Kathryn has today off, and is taking Jon ice skating. She says they'll have fun, and Jon agreed, he said, "We'll have fun even if we don't have fun."

I'm leaving soon to pick the three high school girls up from school, before their lunch time, early. My three girls, and their friend Irene, who is coming with us. As soon as Jon seat was empty, and he was positive he would rather stay here and do boy things with the boys, the girls started in on, "Can we bring Irene?" Now, Irene is a great girl. Seriously. She has never been one of those girls who can only be friends with one of my girls at a time, she brings them together, and she brings fun. She enjoys things tremendously, appreciates things, and gets along great with the younger girls too. Having Irene around is not like having company, she fits in, she's like family.

So anyway. We're leaving soon. Did I pack enough? Too much? Sunscreen, toothbrush, phone charger, Dramamine for poor Suze who gets car sick..check. Nuts, gum, apples, oranges, chips, Tic-Tacs, a whole assortment of chocolate bars, protein bars, crackers...check. Evelyn told me specifically not to bring too many snacks, but did I listen? ha.

I got the kids an Echo Dot for Christmas, and Jon is asking Alexa about the weather. It's rather fun, but she says this too often, "Your Echo Dot has lost it's connection.", as we have terrible internet service out here.

Camille made French toast for their brekky, I told them a good breakfast is smart this morning. Jon took over so Cam could take a shower, and he cooked up the rest of the egg mixture for me, a dash of cinnamon made them actually good, with salt and pepper. Served to me while I blog, on a plate with a fork, couldn't ask for more. See? Sunshine and roses.

I just painted my toenails, because bare feet, beach...and guess what? It's honestly the first time I have done them since before I went to California last August.

Here's the thing: I don't like driving. I don't like going fast and passing tractor-trailers, and I don't like merging. I don't like not being 100% certain which lane I should be in, and I don't like driving in the night when I can't see. I just don't. I tried to get as much sleep as I could last night, as we won't be going night-night again until Saturday night at the hotel in Amelia Island. But ha, we all know how that goes. Your body will not be talked into sleeping when it has things on it's mind, like not forgetting to pack the wipes for the van and your favorite sunglasses.

But driving there is the way we are getting there, so I'll suck it up and drive. The kids are going nuts with excitement, and they have this president song they're probably going to sing all the way down, I'll know all of my presidents in order by the time we get there.

I AM bringing this laptop with me, and I'll take plenty of pics, so you can all come to Florida with us. Oh, and here's a funny thing: Evelyn's English teacher is going to Magic Kingdom a few days after we're going, and we are going to hide a family picture there so they can find it.....