I am a multi-tasker extraordinaire. I’m at the gym at 5:30 most mornings, have lunches packed by 7:30, the whole kid/morning routine thing comes next and then off to the bus they go. Then I work. (Okay, I admit that I checked email before going to the gym and then again before making lunches when I went to get the YooHoo and the mini waters for lunches.) I work fairly solid through most days with a quick sandwich break mid-day. Until the kids come home and then it’s carpools and homework and, you know the gig. And except for today (I took 1/2 day off and went to see Million Dollar Baby with my sister-in-law) , I don’t take much time off. And Andrew never does.

So we decided that we need a vacation. We spent hours — no days — researching where to go. We had a lot of deadends – since we wanted to go away to somewhere warm during Spring Break and it was already January. Places were booked. Even Club Med had no vacancies. Well, there were some places with vacancies, like the Atlantis, but it was too rich for our blood. So we looked into cruises – though we were secretly (no longer secretly I guess, as I post this) afraid that we’d be cruising with a white bread and Miracle Whip crowd. But having 3 kids is a huge problem on a cruise – most rooms fit only 4 people and that 2nd room gets expensive. And even the 1 cruise we found with a room for 5 didn’t work – the airfare to get to it’s port of entry was outrageously expensive. So we tried Barefoot Cruises, which I’ve heard are very fun. But we needed to get to St. Thomas and again, not affordable.

Finally, more than 2 weeks after this intense project began, Andrew found a reputable resort in Puerto Vallarta with an air/land package that fit into our budget. So we booked. Huge sigh of relief. Mexico books from the library. Spanish books for the kids. We were hugely excited.

Still are. Except. Except now I have a week to get 5 of us ready to go. Need to wrap up some huge projects before then. Need to let our wonderful clients know we’ll be out. Need to arrange for email and voicemail pickup – since I have no idea what the phone or Internet situation is going to be. And frankly, since the reason we’re going is to relax and have fun, it’d be awfully nice to actually take the week off – something we have never really done.

I need to pay the cat sitter, get a pedicure (hey, it’s the beach!), pack (yikes!). I’m going to be so wound up by the time we leave, I’m going to need a vacation.