one week and counting

One week from today I will be doing something incredibly exciting/terrifying.

I will be meeting another child with the same syndrome as our sweet Ella. And not just one child.. hundreds! We will be attending our first National CdLS Conference in Chicago-eek! They hold this event in the US every 2 years and I am so excited to meet the people I have bonded with over Facebook that share in my fears, joys, and every day life. I am excited to learn more about the syndrome and how to best care for daughter. I am also terrified of learning about things my heart may not be ready to accept. I am worried about fitting in with the other moms and feeling "out of the loop" of others who already know each other from previous conferences. I am concerned about navigating our way through a city of over 2.5 MILLION when I can't even follow very detailed directions in a city of 400,000 without a nervous breakdown..

But mostly?? I'm totally unprepared...

(We've only been planning on going for about 6 months or so.. how did this sneak up so fast??)

Here's my list of things to do before we leave next week..

1. Call hotel to find out how early we can check in.
2. Try to remember which hotel we're staying at first.
3. Lose 20 pounds (Thanks for the reminder Becky)
4. Decide where to farm the boys out for the week (kidding.. I have a clue where they're going. kindof..)
5. Do laundry
6. Move the (outside) cat who had kitties (in the house) to the porch.
7. Get a hair cut.
8. Figure out if I want a trim, 4-5 inches cut off, or the full 10 to donate to Locks of Love.
9. Get over insanely guilty feelings if I decide not to cut off enough to donate
10. Spend too much time debating how much to cut off and end up doing nothing. Sorry about the split ends everyone...
11. Laundry
12. Fix flat tire (Ok you got me. I totally added this just for the sake of crossing it off)
13. Put new songs on iPod to listen to in car (yes, we're driving)
14. Clean car so it looks less like Chuck E. Cheese after a busy Sunday afternoon and smells less like my boys gym shorts and soccer cleats.
15. More laundry
16. Pack
17. Realize that even my nicest, most hole-free sweatpants might not be acceptable attire for Conference.
18. Go shopping for new clothes.
19. Feel depressed nothing fits. See #3
20. Charge camera battery
21. Smother boys with hugs and kisses
22. Locate someone's GPS to use
23. Figure out how to use GPS
24. Look up address of hotel in order to program it into GPS
25. See #2
26. Laundry
27. Decide which tourist-ey things to do (any suggestions??)
28. Look up addresses of tourist-ey things
29. Throw out old food in fridge so it's not old+4 days old
30. Worry needlessly about Conference
31. Get oil changed, fluids filled, tired checked (did that yesterday but man it feels so good to cross it off)
32. Laundry
33. Email picture of Ella to the foundation to make pins. (you know.. so we can figure out whose little, adorable, long eyelash-ed, crazy-haired, button-nosed kid is whose.. right Christie?)
34. Get SUPER EXCITED to meet amazing families who from all over the country (might already have done this too..)
35. Try not to feel depressed that they are from all over the country and I probably won't see most again for 2 years at the next Conference in California.
36. Start planning vacation in 2 years (in California)

So basically, I have a lot of unnecessary worrying and laundry to do in the next week...

Wish me luck! :)