We're going on a jet plane.

Kudos to Lisa, Kristin and Shelley, who all successfully guessed that we are heading to Hawaii!! My sister lives on Oahu (her husband is in the Army and they are currently stationed there). My parents are already vacationing there, so it is going to be like a mini-family reunion. We will be staying at this lovely place. Leah and I will be staying a full 10 days, with my husband leaving a few days before us so he can come back to work (lucky him)!

I will be leaving all the packing to my hubby (because, to be quite honest, he can fit WAY more stuff in our suitcases than I can). So what does that leave me to do?

Well, really two things:

• CLEAN THE HOUSE - I hate the idea of coming home to a mess, so I have been working hard to clean, do laundry, change bedsheets and get everything nice and neat for my return. I'm not too obsessive compulsive, am I?
  
  
• PICK OUT BOOKS - Probably even more important is the task of picking out the right reading material for my vacation. I have about eight books sitting on my bedside table, all calling out to me "take me, oh please take me!" I took a peek at one of my old posts, in which I asked for great book recommendations, I have narrowed it down to these few:
  
  The Kite Runner - Set partly in Afghanistan, the novel follows the relationship of two childhood friends through political turmoil and hardship. Greatly recommended by Lisa, Tammy, and the woman I sat next to at a recent wedding, who also just happens to be a freelance writer and book reviewer for Publishers Weekly. Hey, how could I go wrong!
  
  The Undomestic Goddess - Hey, a girl has to have some super juicy, easy reading while sitting on a white sandy beach, right? Written by the chick lit author Sophie Kinsella, it is a story of Samantha, a high powered lawyer who makes some "big" mistake in her office, and in a daze hops on a train out of the city. She ends up in the countryside where she is mistaken to be the new housekeeper. I don't know if Kim has read this one, but she did recommend the author.
  
  And here is where it gets tricky. I have two more books in the running for a spot in my carry-on:
  
  Ursula, Under - I had picked up this book at the bookstore months ago, because the premise sounds so interesting. Then, I read this post on Pomegranate, where not one but two commenters wrote about how much they loved it. The child in the story, Ursula Wong, has fallen down a well. In the story of her rescue, the tales of her ancestors (including a Chinese alchemist, a Finnish peasant, a priest and a queen to name just a few) are interwoven into the main plot.
  
  One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd - I received this book from my girlfriend Ariel quite a while ago. A neighbor of mine is a die hard fan of the book. The story is about the fictional peace treaty between Ulysses S. Grant and the chief of the Cheyenne nation, and the 1,000 white women who were given to the Cheynne tribe for wives.

So, which one should I bring? Of course, do I really have that much time to read all these books with a four year old running around? Probably not, but I like to be hopeful!

Anyway, see you guys when I get back (or if I check my bloglines from my sister's computer). ALOHA!