Pre-Vacation PMS

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Stress, Anxiety, irritability. Please tell me I’m not the only one who gets this way before vacation? I truly don’t remember it ever being this bad before, but in the few days leading up to leaving for vacation I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been a class A Bi*ch the past few days. And… it’s not even really that time of the month! I wish I had a reason for my actions the past few days, but I can’t even give a half good excuse. I still went through a few bottles of wine and chocolate during all my packing!

The constant prep work.

Booking the vacation, starts at least a good 6 months in advance if you want to actually get in somewhere without bed bugs I feel. We booked our trip to Destin, FL clear back in February. It was all fun then when we were freezing in 20 degree weather, but now that I’m down to the last minute it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. LOL At least after booking back in February I didn’t have to think about it again until a few weeks ago when I figured I better grab the boys a few more pairs of swim trunks, and I went ahead and spent the extra investment on good board shorts such as Oneil or Billabong. They don’t have the liner in them and are super thin so they dry quick and we don’t have to worry about chaffing. Nothing worse than any of your boys (big or small) getting sand burn down their shorts. LOL My oldest is a red head and fair skinned so I grabbed him a few swim shirts also to help keep him from burning his shoulders and back while we are out. My other two are blondes and tan like they should be from Jamaica, I actually get a bit jealous at how nice their skin tans.

I usually have a mini panic attack about 20 minutes before we leave for the airport in fear that I’m forgetting something important. Maybe if I’d be more organized and make a checklist that wouldn’t happen, however, that’s just not me. Surprisingly, Andrew’s response for if we forget something is we can just pick something up when we reach our destination.

I find packing for three kids (4 when you count my hubby) for a 7 day vacation can be a tad overwhelming. Madison did great, she packed herself and had me double check her suitcase a week before we left. I was just thankful she had enough underwear in her drawer to get her through vacation plus while we were still home. My 5 year old decided to attempt packing himself. I told him he needed 7 pairs of underwear, shorts and shirts. He brought his suitcase downstairs with three pair of underwear, five dirt bikes, five pair of socks (Who wears socks to the beach?). When I told him he needed more underwear, his response was that’s all he had in his drawer so that’s all he could take. He gets a C+ for effort. Parker… well it is just best if I pack him on my own, he definitely takes after his father in the fashion sense. Orange Under Armour shorts? You match that with an all orange shirt obviously (insert eye roll here). He’s still trying to learn the proper concept of matching his shirts and shorts. So, therefore I paired all his shorts and shirts and folded them together so it would be easier for him to pull them out each day. We shall see how well he keeps them together. There’s still hope to get him trained before he leaves for college in another eight years. LOL

My husband almost didn’t survive to attend vacation with us.

Of course football and cheer practice started the week we leave for vacation. Practice is four nights a week (Monday – Thursday) from 6-8. So, there I was Tuesday evening before we leave still packing after we get home from practice. All suitcases were in my room and I was grabbing last minute things from the kids rooms. ( I snagged these Samsonite hard shell suitcases HERE on Prime Day, Love them!) It was probably around 10:00 by this point. When I came back to my bedroom, the lights were out and Andrew was asleep in bed. Thank goodness the dear Lord was looking out for him that night, because he almost didn’t survive to make it to the vacation. I understand I don’t necessarily trust him to pack for himself or help with the kids, but good grief when I was basically thrown out of our bedroom in the midst of packing. I very well saw red that night… LOL

I know, once we get to the airport and through security I always get a wave of calm over me and am then ready for the vacation to take over and rid of the stress and anxiety of all the prep work.