My rules for preparing for vacation

We have a big road trip coming up this month.  In case you have one of your own coming up I thought I'd pass along my rules for getting ready for vacation.  How about you, do you have any rules to add?

1. After finishing your last load of pre-vacation laundry, do not wear a single piece of clothing you like until vacation begins.  All possible clothes you like must be saved for when deciding what to pack.

2. This means it's time to bust out your ugliest sweat pants, because 1) you won't be packing those and 2) you must wait till the last day before vacation to shave your legs.

3. Since you will be seeing family, it's time to paint your toe nails and finger nails, this way they'll never know that in your real life you look like a slob most of the time.

4. Buy all new toiletries to take with you and while you're at it buy something random that you would normally not buy and totally don't need as a treat for pre-vacation prep.

5. Make lists, approximately 17 of them, scatter them all over the house, lose them, re-start them until you are sure you are losing your mind.  In the end pack up every item in your house that you, your husband, or your children have used in the past six months, that should cover it.

6. Go to the library, check out enough books to read over a 9 month period, and bring them all, you never know when you might not like one of them and need to change books.  Also for variety bring magazines and the child raising books you're reading.  Tell yourself that you'll have tons of time to read, so this is necessary.

7. Dream about your vacation and begin to get excited.  This is important: make sure to dream about your vacation as if you do not have a 1, 3, and 5 year old who have a long road trip ahead of them, not to mention will require the same amount of attention everyday of vacation that regularly makes you so tired you feel like you cannot get off the couch in the evenings.

8. Unpack the suitcase that Kylynn packed for herself, re-pack with appropriate clothes and shoes that aren't ballet shoes.

9. Try to finish your packing and realize that half of it will have to wait until your way out the door, because it is needed for eating/sleeping/living.  Because these are the most important things for your trip put sticky notes around the house saying, DO NOT FORGET: blankies, fans, cups, medicine, booster chairs....

10. Make brownies, from scratch, because if you are going to spend two days in the car with your loud/whining children you will NEED brownies to survive.

11. Eat up all the food in your house, avoid grocery shopping it would all just go bad while you're gone, avoid eating out because you're about to do a lot of that.  When you run out of food the day before you are to leave, open the fridge and stare, repeat as many times as necessary.  When you become famished eat the brownies that you made for the trip.

12. Give up on ever packing while your children are awake, decide instead to return to daydreams of child-free vacations.  I hear that the anticipation of vacation can be as gratifying as the vacation itself, and lets face it with small children the anticipation is much better than the reality.