Good Friends, Good Times, Goodbye

I had invited, well, lots of friends over for lunch today with their kids. I had been so excited to have everyone together for a while now. Last night we made a show stopping dinner, yes, but it was pretty dish intensive. My belly and back finally demanded that I stop cleaning up last night and I went to bed. No, I'm not sick, but my huge belly was just sore from being pushed into the counter for so long washing dishes forever and my back was sore for my awkward posture trying to stand sideways while washing...basically I quit after working for more than a half hour. The kids made a mess all over the living room and I didn't want to stoop to pick up anything and I just went to bed. I should have had enough time this morning to finish up all the loose ends before our guests arrived, but Maddie woke up on the wrong side of the bed. She just screamed and cried and tantrumed from the second she got out of bed for a solid hour. No particular reason that we ever discovered. She was just cranky. That threw a huge wrench into my plans, but luckily, Mali saved me. She was my first guest and arrived bearing lunch meat (which we were out of, surprise to me...thanks Mali) and a few other things. Then she helped pick up all the toys in the living room, vacuumed the living room and breakfast areas and dried my dishes so the sink could be cleared and wiped down. What a great friend!! It made my afternoon so much more fun to know things were mostly in order. I have the best friends here. Soon after we got things settled and cleaned our other friends began to arrive. We got to see the Nelsons (Emily and Caitlyn), Soderborgs (Mali, Ben and Jane), Arveseths (Catherine, Eliza, Ali and Sami), Glassetts (Cara, Joel and Cambry) and Miles (Marti, Glori and Sophi). Almost all my dear, close friends in Virginia. It is so sad that life changes and people come and go because I would be totally happy to just "stay" in time and have my kids grow up with these great women around us. But time marches on despite my wishes and it is time to say goodbye to Marti to Africa and Catherine to Utah in less than two weeks now. Sad times around here for me and my kids.