[No, we haven't left yet.]

And it's a miracle I haven't strangled anyone (particularly Ms 12 with the "I can't find it, I've looked everywhere" thermal top.)

Or opened something stronger than a can of coke.

Marc and Cait left early this morning for their Touch tournament, leaving the rest of us heaps of time to pack. Silly me, I thought it was going to be stress free, what with several hours till we have to leave.

Alison and Zoe have been at each other all morning. That's hard enough at the best of times. [ie. Must.. resist... urge.. to... bang.. heads... together....]

But intermingled with the tears and tantrums, and the tearing up of packing lists.. there were missing items of clothing - and then pigsty that is their bedroom ... and well, if I had a stash of valium, I'd be popping it like House and his vicodin.

I was more mad about the missing stuff because it is "specialised" clothing - polypropolene top and pants to keep you warm when you're wet - not just a favourite t-shirt. (We just refer to them as our 'thermals'.) If you're going to take kids on "adventures", then appropriate clothing is a must, and thermals are a good basic item to take wherever, because they keep you warmer when you're wet. (I still have bitter memories of the only snow trip I went on as a kid, which I hated because I was so damn cold... the problem being I didn't have appropriate clothing.)

They've had them for several years now - and we've already gone through at least one 'hand-me-down' stage with them. Some are lurid rainbow stripes, some just navy. I don't know, I've lost track of who owns what. It just shouldn't be that hard to put clothes away.. should it? But, given the weather forecast, it wasn't something I would feel good about saying 'too bad' about if it couldn't be found. (There are consequences, and there are consequences..)

Eventually, after much storming around and yelling by me, (and sobbing on Alison's part) it turned out that Zoe had packed Alison's pants. I found Zoe's pants in the 'putting away' basket that Alison had "already looked through".

I was putting various bags back on top of the wardrobe (after looking through them all AGAIN), and I stepped back down off the chair onto my bung knee, which buckled and sent a shooting pain through me.

Amidst the tears (mine this time) I then found Alison's top scrunched up in a wooden box on the bottom of the shelves, despite the fact that she had "already looked EVERYWHERE".

It was all I could do not to tie it round her neck and pull it tight!

S'ok... I am ok now, and it all seems rather trivial... and it is. Funny what stirs you up, isn't it?

Just about ready to go, and not before time, because if I hear another 'Muuuum... she's got something of miiiine', I still might just scream!

Of course, then we'll have the 'three across the back seat' fun all the way to Sydney.

What FUN!

I'm really off now!

Labels: kids