Leaving on a Jet Plane

Leaving on a jet plane,
Don't know when I'll be back again.

Okay, so not exactly true.  I'm leaving on what will most likely be a tiny, two seats to a row airplane and I know when I'll be back: Sunday night.  Still, I couldn't help but have these lyrics playing in my head today was I was going through my mental (and written) to do list to get ready for our trip.  On top of our normal oblications, I was thinking about how I needed to scrub the bathrooms, finish several loads of laundry, and put the mounds of displaced clutter on my tables, countertops and entryway back where they belong or in the trash.  My in-laws will be spending the weekend at our house taking care of the 4 boys while Jon & I head to Memphis to run our second marathon.  While Jon & I are use to the clutter and the level of cleanliness (or uncleanliness) in our house, I didn't want to subject Grandma and Grandpa to it. 

Tomorrow morning after we drop our 2 littlest at my good friend Yvonne's house and the big two at school, we'll be heading to the airport.  At 9:10 am, we will officially be starting our 60 hour vacation.  Now, some people don't think you can call 60 hours a vacation, but I doubt that they are parents of several young children.  They are probably singles, married without kids, or empty-nesters.  People who are use to flying on airplanes without a lap child (by the way, I'm REALLY looking forward to traveling sans kids). 

3 days and 2 nights away is technically only 60 hours on the clock, but it feels like a full week vacation.  When you eliminate all the things you do on an hourly basis for multiple little ones, an hour suddenly takes on new meaning.  No packing and repacking diaper bags to make sure you have everything because heaven forbid you get caught out and about without a paci when its naptime (not that I've done that because I'm supermom and I ALWAYS remember). 

Also, I will get to carry JUST a purse (hopefully I still have one somewhere in my closet upstairs) and I won't have snacks in it (unless I'm sneaking candy in to see a movie).  I will only have to go to the bathroom when I actually have to USE it, not when someone needs me to wipe, turn the water on, or remind them which side is the hot water.  There will be no meal prep and better yet, there will be no meal cleanup where I question if ANY of the food made it into their tummies because so much is on the table, the chairs and the floor. 


Don't get me wrong.  I love being a mama.  Really, I do.  But, I also LOVE getting away from it all.  I mean, they don't say "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" for no reason.  In the last 24 hours, I've pulled a jar of shaving cream out of the toilet (after Caleb threw it in), had my shower interrupted when someone just HAD to use the potty and the other two bathrooms weren't sufficient, entertained all 4 boys playing in my bedroom while I straightened my hair and had someone reach over and wipe something on my shirt that they didn't want on their hand.  For the record, I don't know what "it" was, I just removed it with a baby wipe as fast as I could and moved on.

A couple of days where I don't have people banging on the bathroom door, interrupting whenever I speak and undoing everything I clean within minutes sounds fabulous.  And if I have to also run 26 miles while I'm there, so be it. Although secretly, I'm kinda freaking out about how hard that's gonna be.  But who cares if I have to hobble into the movie theater on Saturday night because my knees are throbbing like an arthritic 90 year old who was hit by a car? My date will be limping around pretty badly too.  It's all good, I'm going to the movies and I can stay for a second one if I want (not that its likely since I could barely keep my eyes open past 9 pm after the Chicago marathon), but I technically could.

I'm still kinda surprised that my husband bought into this idea (going to Memphis to run a marathon 8 weeks after completing our first marathon in Chicago).  When I brought this idea up in May, I had just had a high ankle sprain injury and we didn't know when I'd be able to run again.  Part of the reason I wanted to add Memphis to our goal for the year was that I didn't think I'd recover as quickly as I did and I thought the Chicago marathon would be a lot worse.  I was hedging my bets.  If I have two marathons, one should go well, right?  My theory was that Chicago would be my warmup and then I'd go to Memphis and do better. I'm not sure that's likely to happen since Chicago's weather was absolutely perfect on marathon day and the course is flat and I exceeded my time goal.  Memphis will have more hills and we won't have any fans cheering us on like we did here, so I'm readjusting my expectations for my running.

I'm also making a list of things to do while we are there like eat ribs, go to a movie, take a nap, eat some southern food, finish the book I'm reading, eat some more local food (I'm running a marathon for pete's sake, I have a lot of extra calories).  

Memphis, here I come.