How I'm preparing for my summer vacation

1) Clean house. Because no one wants to come home to a dirty house.
2) Clean stove, microwave, and all those nooks and crannies of the counter. Well, I don't clean that much, so if I was already cleaning...
3) Buy various necessities for trip.
4) Buy a bunch of new makeup while purchasing said necessities. Even though it's not a necessity, and in fact is probably not something I will even want to wear when hiking/swimming/relaxing. But I'm going on vacation!
5) Buy hiking pants.
6) Buy lots of other new clothes to go with hiking pants.
7) Realize that nothing makes hiking pants look cute, but keep new clothes anyway. I'm going on vacation!
8) Prep kids for their "vacation." Panic a little when K responds firmly, "Me. Cry." Buy a couple extra movies to keep them happy.
9) Begin having extra scoops of ice cream at night. We all know I'm going to gain weight anyway.
10) Pick garden. Give garden a very firm talking to about its rate of production. Remind it to be kind to the people taking care of it. Tell the corn not to ripen while we're away (which is a bluff, since we all know I have no idea when to pick corn anyway).
11) Obsess about how much DEET I'm bringing. Resist urge to buy more DEET because it's not like I'm going to a third world country.
12) Panic again when I realize I have no idea if the country I'm going to is in fact a third world country or not.
13) Log on to the internet, and learn not only what level of the world the country is, but also that it feels like 104F at 7:30pm.
14) Return all clothes. Buy another bathing suit, one of those clever misting fans, and a gallon of sunscreen.
15) Realize that the extra scoops of ice cream might have been a little premature.
16) Buy a larger cover-up, and two more tubs of ice cream. Because I'm going on vacation!

Seriously, can you tell I'm excited? And a little frenetic? If I thought I needed the vacation before this week, I most certainly need it now. And it's not even vacation time yet. But closer!