Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

As I've mentioned previously, my family and I are in the process of moving from the Pacific Northwest down to California.  What a change - and what an adventure!  (To say the least!)

We left our old home in the rearview mirror today just before lunch and amazingly have made it to our halfway point with very few issues.  That's saying a lot considering we're traveling with a first grader, a newborn (one month today!), and an old dog who has never been in a vehicle for more than an hour in her life.  Luckily I have Husband 2.0, as I like to call him, who is an incredibly organized chap.  We were able to plan ahead and eliminate some of the issues that come up on road trips before they could consider rearing their ugly heads.  Here's what's worked for us so far:

1. Dry-pack your vehicle before you load up the luggage.  We "dry-fitted" the containers that we would be packing and figured out what fit where the best - and safest.  So far we've had nothing in our load shift and things have been fairly accessible, especially for the kidling who is looking for things to keep her occupied.
2. Speaking of occupied: pack an activity bag for each child involved so they can occupy themselves or each other.  Thankfully I didn't have to do this; Gramma stepped in and created a special canvas activity tote for my daughter that was chock full of brand new coloring books, Color Wonder pads and pens, storybooks, a pack of fancy new colored pencils, and even two new games for her Leapster.  Nothing could be used until we actually officially hit the road, and she had a wonderful time today going through the bag.  Wait'll she realizes Gramma and Grampa even put a pack of gummy candies in the bottom for her!
3. If you have a built-in or portable DVD player, don't be ashamed to use it!  When I got pregnant with my son we traded in my bench-seat F-150 for a Ford Expedition, and we just happened to find a good deal on a model that already had a DVD player factory installed.  We've made good use of it for months now, but today it had a very special purpose.  All of "Chatty's" DVDs are stored in a disc book, and I purchased a brand new movie for her last week that (you guessed it) couldn't be opened until we were actually on our way today.  She actually waited several hours before she popped her headphones on and watched her new show, thanks to Gramma and Grampa's activity bag - but when she did start watching, she sat quietly through the whole thing because it wasn't the "same ol', same ol'" that she'd seen a hundred times before.  BLISS, people - it was BLISS for all involved!
4. Keep the cooler and snacks handy.  We picked up Capri Suns and organic chocolate milk boxes ahead of time and stored them in the fridge so they'd be chilled, then loaded them into the cooler which is accessible to me from the front passenger's seat.  Snacks like Sun Chips, pretzels, and dried mango strips are in our center console, and the kidling has her own small bag of Momma-approved (aka semi-healthy) snacks in her activity bag along with a nice big bottle of water to enjoy as she likes.  We didn't stop for fast food or snacky things at all once we hit the freeway, though we did kick off the morning with a nice big Frap from Starbucks.  (And by "we" I mean, uh, ME.  Hey, this month-old baby deal can be a real sleep stealer!)

We've had other things that have led to a successful trip thus far, but after being on the road for nine hours I think I'll share the rest with you tomorrow.  Hopefully by the time you read those we'll be at our destination safe and sound.  Ahhh, the joys of telecommuting!  Wireless and a laptop and I can work anywhere, any time.  See why I enjoy my job so much?