Preparations

If you know me, you know I lead a very busy life. Never a dull moment, but that also means rarely a free moment. So it's all about be prepared. This week we have done a lot to get prepared for this week long trip. Shane, being the great husband that he is, has been taking care of all of the laundry and cleaning around the house. I have been taking care of multiple things, but mainly focusing on the itinerary and Caylie.

It's all the little things that can cause your trip money to increase. Not bringing snacks can have a huge impact on the amount you spend. You will stop at gas stations to get sodas or chips...they cost insanely high prices. Also, not bringing medicines or things like sunblock can increase your spending.

I go grocery shopping twice a month. Knowing that this trip was coming up, I made sure to stock up on items that we would need. I have also learned that it is best to take trial size items or disposable items with you on trips because the likelihood that you will leave something behind is always there. Plus, they take up less space in your luggage than full size items do. This will leave you with more space to take other things. I like to take the airline approach to packing these items. Put them in plastic baggies so if something leaks it won't do any damage. Also, it helps to keep things organized.

I am also all about free samples. Who doesn't like free? Are you kidding me? When they come in the mail I stash them in a tote so they stay together. I don't necessarily want to use them for everyday things. I get them for emergencies or trips. So Thursday night after my MK meeting I dumped out all of the samples we had accumulated over the past 6 or so months. Removed all of the excess packaging and sorted them into categories.  Then I started bagging them up. Soon we had all of the toiletries that would be needed and a few snacks to take with us as well.

I also had put together a tote full of food items that we would be taking with us on the trip. Tuesday night Shane was kind enough to get them all into the snack baggies and put back into the tote. It is so much better to have this done ahead of time for several reasons. The main one is that once they are in baggies they don't make as much mess. You can grab several different items and throw it into a bag to take with you wherever you are going each day.  The other is they take up much less room that if they were in the original packaging. So many dry goods come in large boxes and are only filled halfway, why would you want to waste that space?

Last Sunday Shane cleaned out my car. God bless him, he is an amazing husband. Monday I got the oil changed and a tire rotation. Man, is my car running better! It technically wasn't going to be due for another change until we got back, but I wanted to make sure we would be ok. I also purchased a deal for this through Living Social and got a vehicle inspection as well. Wednesday, I went to the car wash with Caylie. She loves to ride through and see the car "take a bath". They have free vacuuming which is definitely nice.

So, now we had at least a portion of our preparations taken care of before the weekend!! YAY!

Today is Saturday and we leave tomorrow around 3. I actually have to work a half day today and tomorrow morning at church, so I am unavailable for a portion or the time. This just means that we have to maximize the rest of our time.

The itinerary is finished and mostly printed. I only have to input a few more directions and print them out. Last night I matched up each stop with it's directions.

Shane is getting all of his things ready to be packed. He is also setting out Caylie's basic clothes and things to play with. When I get home from work I will start getting everything into luggage. I am trying a somewhat new method that I learned from another blogger where you actually bag up each day's clothes. I think this will keep us more organized. I won't do this with everything, but at least with Caylie's clothes and our small items.

I will actually cook dinner tonight. There is food that will go bad before we get back. Plus it only makes sense to have something that we can eat tonight for dinner and lunch tomorrow. I'll get home from church around noon and that will be just enough time to heat up food and eat before we have to start loading up.

The plan is for me to get to bed early and Shane to stay up later. I have to leave for church at 8:30 am, so I definitely need to get to sleep. Shane is going to sleep in later so he can be awake longer. I'll drive the first leg because I usually do the best on that part. We'll switch out somewhere around Roanoke, VA, then again around Harrisburg, PA. We should get to our first stop in NJ around 6 am depending on how many stops we make and how long each takes.

Wish us luck!