Tied down by too much stuff

We're supposed to leave this week for a short vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC to pick up the kids from the grandparents, get some sun and enjoy the beach. Should be an easy trip, right? Just jump in the truck or van and head to the beach.

It's not quite that easy. See, first we have to find someone to be us while we're away.

The pseudo us-es must take care of the 13 horses, 3 dogs, 2 ferrets, various barn cats and chickens while we're gone. They're those little responsibilities whiich sounded good when you got them, but grow into a burden severely limiting your spontaneous travel opportunities. Summer's not quite as bad because the horses largely feed themselves on the pasture. Trying to get someone to take care of the horses in the winter, when they are stalled, is another story, though. The dogs, ferrets, cats and chickens always require daily care. We're planning to go on a cruise this January and are already lining up pet sitters to be surrogate us-es.

And to top it all off, we're adding another "pet" while on vacation. We will pick up our 2005-06 exchange student, a boy from Germany, at the Myrtle Beach airport. He'll be the 11th exchange student we've hosted, and the third German, dating back to our first student in 1998. He'll be with us for the school year. We've also hosted students from Russia, Spain, Mexico, Hong Kong and Venezuela.

So it's another busy week and we'll return home from the beach with a van full of more responsibilities. The children will be home and our exchange student will get his first view of his new home for the next year. More changes and responsibilities.

We wouldn't have it any other way.