Preparing for the Drive

We are leaving for the in-laws on Thursday... At least I think we are. This has been a moving target all summer. But I think I am getting ahead of myself.

Every summer, we pack up les filles and chien and head east... way east.. to Long Island (pronounciation guide... Lawn Guyland, for those not in the know). Every bloody summer, I pack up the kids for several weeks with Nana and Papa. Fun? Wow!

Well, kinda, sorta, NOT. The first problem is that after 16 years of marriage to their beloved baby boy, my in-laws have still not warmed up to me. They had big plans for him and high expections about his wife. She would be brilliant, beautiful, talented, from a wealthy family and apparently lobotomized. Yes. They expected this paragon to have no opinion of her own and to listen to the wise counsel of FIL for the rest of her life. BLECH!

Clearly, I have fallen waaaayyy short of their expections, being overly opinionated and fat to boot! Oh! and I have failed to carry out my primary directive to produce a male heir for the dynasty. As if I have more than an X-chromosome to provide into the mix! Frankly, after producing two beautiful filles, which provided me with 2 C-sections, the loss of a gallbladder and a hernia that needed to be repaired, I think I have done my fair share!

Yet here I am, doing tons of laundry and thinking through packing lists and resting my voice so that I can read Harry Potter HBP aloud all 900 miles. Dreading my coming fall into stupidity and irrelevance. (Apparently everyone can parent better than me and they are going to SHOW me.) I am hoping that blogging will help me survive. At least I will get some good pix of the chicklets as they get tanner and undergo their annual growth spurt.