There's No Such Thing as a Quick Trip to the Store ...

I had a rough start today.  We were literally down to one package of ramen and some milk, so I desperately needed to make a trip to the grocery store.  I had planned on leaving around 10AM (when the roads are as clear as they get), but due to Ezra's late nap, I didn't make it out until shortly after 11.  What a difference an hour makes!  I spent at least 20 minutes looking for a parking spot in the mall's parking garage.  People are crazy.  Since I don't have a mini cooper, I'm unable to quickly zoom into an open spot.  Seriously, the parking garage was packed at 11AM on a weekday! No sympathy was given to the mom with three young kids in the back.  I was about to give up, but realized that I couldn't.  In order to leave, I needed to go inside to have my parking ticket validated anyway .. so I was forced to find a spot.  Thankfully, A spot opened up, I parked and then this flustered mom headed into the mall.  After two hours, we finally made it back to the car (but not before we had to make a slight detour back inside the mall since I forgot to pay for the parking).

Things got better, however, after we returned home.  I made the kids some broccoli and Annie's Bunny Mac (I found a box for about $4.o0).  Lunch was a breeze since it was their first taste of Macaroni in two weeks. It was well worth every dollar!

At 4ish, we headed to the pool. I feel so blessed to have met another expat (from Australia) there who just moved here as well.  Her family has been here a week longer than we have and they'll also be here for three years.  I'm so thankful that their permanent residence will be really close to ours too. We chatted about life for a couple of hours and she gave me a number of tips.  She's even going to check out a cell phone plan that I was interested in tomorrow, so that I don't have to make another trip to the dreaded mall. It is so good to have a friend here.

I'm looking forward to a better morning tomorrow.  It's hard to educated and train my children when a simple trip to the grocery store takes half of a day .. thus, I don't plan on leaving for a few days.  If necessary, we'll order room service.