back to the grind tomorrow

Today is the last day of Christmas Break for the kids. We just put them in bed at 7:30 am. I am sure that Simon is already sleeping as I know longer hear him bellering his usual songs. I am not sure how tomorrow morning will go as they haven't had to get up at 6:45 am for quite some time and neither have I. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. It is so strange knowing that the kids have only 3 days of school before we leave on our "vacation". I was just discussing with Trevor how the only part of our holiday which will be relaxing may be while participating in the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. Why???? well the kids are at that age where they are constantly bickering with one another. Honestly, it drives me bonkers. My brother and I were the exact same way when we were younger. This truly is a concern of mine while vacationing with the children. Am I going to go crazy??? Will I be able to handle them (will we)??? While we were in the car coming home from the gym (the kids were at oma's place) we discussed some options (bribery), which we could put in place to make for a more pleasant vacation. We came up with the following idea...beginning of Thursday, January 8th first thing in the morning the kids will each be given $5 dollars (play money). If we catch them doing something bad like fighting, arguing with each other, complaining about something, lying, talking back ...etc. then we will give them a warning. If the continue on with the behavior then we take $1 away from them. I guess that leaves them with a total of 5 times where they can misbehave before they have no money left for that day. If for some miraculous reason they were excellent and were able to keep there $5 that day we will add an additional $2 to their pot. At the end of the day the money which they are left with gets banked. The next day they start out with $5 again and so on and so on....this continues till Saturday at 6pm (January 17th). Then on Saturday evening their banked play money gets turned into real money and they are allowed to go shopping at the Magic Kingdom with their money. SO that is the plan of attack to keep the kids in line for the holidays. Now I just have to find some play money. I was hoping that they would have some at the dollar store, but it looks like I will have to go to Toys R Us instead.Besides the above plan we also discussed some goal setting for myself. Trevor seems to think that a 2:30 half and a 5 hour full would be reasonable for me. I do think that sounds achievable for me and after reading a bunch of blogs and knowing what to expect as far as the course goes I think my nerves have settled down a wee bit...Trevor I am sure would beg to differ and call me a basket case, but that's okay. That's how I deal with races. I love that Trevor spends hours and hours researching everything and anything about the race, so that I don't have to waste my time. If I have a question he always has the answer. I even know that I start Corral C for the full marathon and Corral B for the half and Trevor is Corral C for the full and A for the half. Anyways...he is just a wealth of information...that's my guy...good looking and smart : )Well tomorrow is a new day and I too have to get up bright and early. Fortunately I do not have to work, but I do have 2 appointments in the morning so till then....