I have to remember to take Mikey to the doctor before he goes potty this morning. They need to check his urine for protein. I know I alluded to it a couple of days ago, but to refresh and update, the other day, I took Mikey's blood sugar, and it was high. I've been diabetic for 35 years, so that caused concern. I took hiim into the doctor, and his urine was high in protein, and he was "a little high" in his sugars. We have an endocrinology appointment at Children's Mercy tomorrow morning. Yeah, the day before vacation. Nice.

We're about halfway packed for vacation. We have the clothes done! I'm the consummate list maker, so packing is quite the scene. I list the items needed, and the amount needed. We sit in the front room with our respective suitcases open, and one by one, I read off the list. "4 pairs of underwear. 2 pairs of swim trunks," so on and so forth. One by one, we march into our rooms and get the items to pack. It's usually pretty orderly, and the control freak in me knows that all is packed well. Nothing unexpected makes it into the suitcases!  Tonight we pack the "stuff." That means snorkel gear, walkie talkies, shoes, etc.  Tomorrow we'll pack the suitcase of food. Hey, we're doing Disney. It's cheaper to keep snacks with us! The food suitcase, when emptied, will serve as a good place to cart our souveniers back home!

I'm a little conceerned, though. We are going to the Bahamas on a cruise, and we still haven't received Matt's passport. We have the rest; just not Matt's. We've called on it several times, to no avail. The rest of us have had ours for over a month.  He can technically use his birth certificate, but it concerns me that nobody knows where this passport it, or who has it.

Darren planned well. Insert eyeroll. He is a cub scout Webelos den leader. Tonight is the den cookout at our house. In the midst of all of the suitcases and chaos. Gee, thanks! Hot dogs, chips, and s'mores on the grill. I pray the yucky rain doesn't come, because I can't fathom all of those people in my house tonight! He really kind of HAS to do it tonight, though, because Webelos Camp is the weekend after we return from vacation.

We've been organizing the kids' rooms for school. Once a year, we go through and get rid of extraneous stuff (you know, the Happy Meal toys, the too young books, the outgrown clothes). We whittled Mikey's room down quite a bit. We moved his room around quite a bit, and it seems to have given him a lot more space. His desk is rid of all of the old art supplies, and has paper and pencils awaiting school!  Matt's room was mainly a mess of too young books and clothes strewn throughout his closet. It was frustrating because I was pulling out clothes with tags, that he swore we didn't buy for him when we asked him to wear them, and now they are too small. Grrrrrrrr.  Luckily, we can hand them down to Mikey. We gave Matt Emily's old desk, and got it set up with notebooks and pencils for school. Emily's room has undergone the biggest transformation. She's slowly peeling away the vestiges of her childhood. This year, she put her toy horse collection in a crate for safekeeping. She got a new bedside table that looks like a desk, with pens and pencils in a box on top, and paper and other needed school study stuff in the top drawer. The two bottom drawers have her dance gear. We turned her long, narrow shelf on its side, and put her journals, remaining special dolls, two shelves of stuffed animals, and her video camera. We stacked my old pom pons on the shelf, with her current poms on top. I'll get a picture. It's really cool. We also got her a floor to ceiling bookshelf, and some of those cute pink and brown basket bins. She has one for crafts, one for costume-y things, and one for her winter acoutrements. She has her series books on there, her sewing box, and her games. She also got a new vanity. We gave her a cedar chest for her jeans and slacks. She has ZERO closet space, so we had to do something! She already has a huge chest of drawers.  We hung jaunty Christmas lights around her bed, and hung her fan from her dance last year. All we really need is to get a shoe box for her.  I'll have to have pictures to share!

Oh, it's time to get to work!