I Just Look Like A Sherpa.

Now don’t make plans to rob us or anything (because you know we left the puddles and Dane on guard at the house!), but we are in a hotel tonight, many footsteps away from our humble casita.

Even more, we are without children. I feel like my arms are missing. But I’m also pretty ok with that.

What consistently surprises me is how the smallest member of our party takes up the most luggage space.

Since backpacking around the world several weeks at a time I learned the hard way you only pack what you really need. My first backpacking trip I packed an entire box of granola bars. They were heavy as lead but kept me from starvation and the load lightened as I gobbled them up, so I figured that was a decent trade-off.

When we married both Lizard and I could pack our clothing for a weekend trip away, all toiletries, etc., in a single carry-on piece of luggage.

That’s mostly still the case these days, although the wedge pillow I’ve discovered helps with back pain does take up more space.

But the kids! Oh, the kids! They take up oodles of space!

First, you can’t pack just one outfit a day, particularly if you’ve got a baby. You never know when that little bundle of joy will vomit or poop with reckless abandon and go through an outfit an hour!

Once you’ve gotten the mass quantity of back-up clothing in place you have to consider the diapers. And diapers do not compress like memory foam. They take up space!

Add a stuffed lovey and a blanket for each kid and all of the sudden you’re carting bags around like a sherpa on its way you Mt. Everest.

{sigh.}

We made it out of the house, however, and left only a few dirty dishes in the sink.

The girls were delivered to their grandparents and we headed to a marriage conference. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Love and Respect cycle as a way of filtering marriage, but that’s what we’re learning.

I have regarded the conference with deep suspicion because when I read the book four years ago and tried to use one of the techniques it recommended it spurred a major fight with my true love.

Then there was the staff member I once had to let go who told me I just needed more love and he just needed more respect.

Suffice to say, I came suspicious.

So far, however, it’s been pretty awesome. I’ll know more tomorrow after we’re done and hopefully I’ll have a few practical ideas I can share with you.

In the meantime I’m staying in a hotel room that was unlocked upon our arrival and smells like smoke (the front desk lady in adamant this is a non-smoking hotel. I believe her. But she’s not trusting the pregnant blood hound nose to believe me when I say someone’s been lighting up the Marlboro’s on the sly in room 111.).

I also noticed the soap on the bathtub side is “purifying.” I read that as a euphemism for: “Use this and your skin will dry out so quickly you’ll peel like a molting snake.”

All of that is secondary to the idea I can spend the night with my husband without interruption and there’s a 0% chance a little girl will crawl into my side of the bed at some point in the wee hours of the night when my REM cycle has progressed to the point I’m unable to protest the new occupant.

It’s a treat to have a night away.

Here’s hoping you have a treat in your life today! (I feel like I should get all chain letter-ish: You must share this post with 10 other friends in the next 3 minutes or you will be forced to use purifying soap and eat Rocky Mountain Oysters and fruit punch for 49 days straight.)