Can I make you envy me?

As I told Sheila last night, I'm excited for our little getaway but not the the jump around and bounce up and down kind of way.  In some regards, it all just feels quite surreal that we are actually going.  I don't want to be a family that restricts their travels due to the children being difficult, so I am really hoping that all goes well in that regard.  I figure that if Asher is good on this cross country flight at 18 months old, then we will have faced one of the biggest tests and passed.  He is a good boy.  People keep telling us that, and we keep on believing it.  He is pretty happy go lucky, and we are planning on giving him no reason to get upset while we zoom across the country.  I've never been as far away from home as we will be in 36 hours.  Neither have Sheila, Jasmine and of course Asher.

 I came home last night after working both shifts, from 630 AM until 1030 PM to find the house looking cleaner then it EVER has.  Sheila keeps a clean house and I have increased my efforts in helping her lately, but yesterday she took it to the extreme.  "Oh, I did I big cleanup downstairs" she says, after I had already noticed the perfectly manicured lawn on my way in, and the spotless kitchen as I took my stuff from my pockets and dared to put them on the counter.  Sheila is excited, and this apparently gives her boundless energy.  While she cared for Asher, Jasmine, and Jasmine's friend yesterday she also found time to:

-mow the lawn both front and back.
-weed both the flower gardens in front and vegetable garden in back yard
-water the lawns and gardens both front and back
-clean, disinfect and organize the kitchen, not a single thing out of place
-tidied the living room
-organized our bedroom
-cleaned the upstairs bathroom (might have done basement one, I didn't see)
-organized the rec room complete with rearranging the furniture
-moved things into the spare room as part of this organizing
-vacuumed, dusted and polished everything in the rec room including my disasterous computer desk
-swept and mopped the laminate floor upstairs
-washed, dried and meticulously folded every piece of clothing in the house (She told me as I peeled off my undies that they were the only dirty piece of clothing in the house)
-readied the suitcases and packed up for her, Jasmine and Asher
-went to the store and bought an array of snacks and other things we want to bring with us
-baked her famous banana bread

Seriously, she did all of this in one day and did I mention that she was watching an 18 month old boy with plenty of energy the whole time?  This was her idea of getting ready to go, and I will say this: "Wow!"  Sheila deserves this holiday more then anyone I know, and I am glad that she is so excited.  It will be good to spend some really quality time with my sister and brother-in-law.  Maybe Sheila will get a chance or two to sleep in and really get "rested".  I think I can make that happen.  When I titled today's post I had our trip in mind, but I realize now that the above list is another reason people should envy me.  You see, I really dislike clutter.  I like to be able to take advantage of the space that we have, as I feel claustrophobic when my space is restricted.  But, I am not the most avid cleaner.  I do a fairly good job of keeping clutter to a minimum, and my increased energy from exercise has led me to be a better helper, but the above list is just ridiculous.  Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to have a neat freak for a partner.  So envy me for that, but at the same time be very jealous of our jaunt to the old city of Montreal.  Activities that are tentatively planned:

-Montreal Impact game, complete with new stars Marco di Vaio and Alessandro Nesta
-Touring old Montreal, with visit to Schwartz's for their world famous smoked meat
-Visit to La Ronde, Montreal's Six Flags amusement park
-Visit to the Insectarium, home to hundreds of different species
-Adult night out for dinner and a Just For Laughs show
-Casino Montreal, the largest Casino in Canada, and one of the biggest in the World
-Mont Royal, Montreal's version of a mountain, and home to plenty of historical significance
-Shopping, most importantly used bookstores and vintage clothing stores
-Swimming, Jasmine is itching to visit an outdoor pool or two


I'm off to do more dreaming about Montreal!