Friends, Food, and Feeling Ick

Feeling a little better today. I've been not feeling great since about Friday. Sore throat and headache. I hate being sick, especially on a holiday weekend. Somehow it just doesn't seem fair. So, I spent Saturday laying around in my jammies, and totally forgot a birthday party that Madeline was invited to. Oh, the guilt. Luckily, I think she forgot too. She so wants friends to play with here, and I don't quite know how to accommodate that for her. I see kids running around our neighborhood sometimes, but they all seem a little older than her, and now that school is out, I have no way of contacting her school friends. I had been planning on harvesting a few phone numbers at said forgotten birthday party, but obviously that didn't work out. There were a few little girls in our old neighborhood in Utah that she liked to play with, but they were all a year older than her and had a tendency to ditch her. A couple of them were downright mean sometimes, and I worried a lot about her getting her feelings hurt. There was one though who was SO sweet, and they were really building a nice little friendship the last couple months we were there. I feel for her when it comes to the friend thing, after moving so much as a kid, I tended to look for one good friend, and not worry about the rest. I did, however, always have my sister around to play with (or fight with, depending on the day). Maybe kindergarten is a little young to be making those kind of friends, and I have high hopes for first grade.

Sunday, I convinced myself I was feeling well enough not to cancel a little dinner party we had planned. We invited a couple and their almost 2 year old beauty over for dinner. They are really nice, and seem to be becoming official friends of ours. He sold us this house, and hit it off with both Clark and I during the process. Then, a couple weeks after we moved in, they actually called and volunteered to babysit. Dude, you have to love anyone who volunteers to watch the kids. We reciprocated a few weeks later and had their sweet little girl over while they went to some kind of business dinner thing. This finding babysitters is hard. I was so spoiled with having my mother and sisters available. It was actually one of my biggest concerns with moving, and has proved to be a valid one. Clark and I used to get out at least twice a month, sometimes more. Often, it was just for a Sunday matinee, but still, any grownup time is good. Since we've been here, I think we've gone out a grand total of 3 times. Not good. (sidenote: while Clark was grilling the veggies for our dinner, Zach asked if he could 'chonk' the barbecue. No idea what he was referring to on that one.)

Monday we had a family day out. We had late breakfast at Weck's, then proceeded to the mall for "Madagascar." Clark was sweet enough to offer to take the kids to the movie while I did some shopping. I found some great deals on summer clothes for the kids, and bought myself a cute top and a new bra. Happy new bra day, cause shopping for a bra, for me, can be an all day, frustrating as hell process. I probably should have just gone to the movies with the kids, though, as I think I overdid it a bit, and was feeling pretty crappy by the end of the day again. So, Tuesday was another laying around the house trying to rest and feel better day. Seems to have worked, so far. I think the kids and I will head back to the mall today, have to exchange a couple shirts that didn't quite fit Miss Madeline. Sizing for kids clothing is a mystery to me, one of the 6x's was too big, the other too small. Ah well, we'll just go enjoy some free air conditioning for awhile, no biggie.