The Best Laid Plans...

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from my friend. We're expecting a blizzard here Sunday, or at least a winter storm (I expect it will get kicked up to a blizzard once it starts) and her husband was scheduled to fly out to a conference on Sunday. But because of the impending bad weather, his flight got changed to Saturday at 9 am. She had hair and nail appointments set up for today for a party tonight and it was too late for her to cancel the appointments without a penalty. So she asked me if I could watch her daughters for a while so she could keep her afternoon appointment.

I said yes because I figured S would have more fun playing with her friend instead of running wild at the hockey rink. Oh yes, J has a hockey game on Valentine's Day. And we have games on Easter and Mother's Day AGAIN this year. Yeah, we had them then last year too. S was very excited when I told her about the play date and kept saying this morning she was going to help "babysit" her friend (who is only a year younger than her). Ah, the best laid plans...

I had to run out to the store for a few minutes. I was gone maybe 15 minutes and I came back home to find that S was running a fever and her head hurt. C had given her some Advil and I was able to talk her into bed because she was shivering. Next thing I knew she was asleep. Yup, she is definitely sick because the only time she takes naps is when she's not feeling well. This was at noon.

I immediately let my friend know what was going on. C had to take J to hockey at the same time I was supposed to be watching the kids so I couldn't leave S with him - she was too sick to take to the rink (and she was asleep at the time). And I was worried about taking her to her friend's house because the last thing I want to do is get my friend's kids sick when her husband is going to be out of town for the week. Our backup plan was for her to leave her youngest, who was napping, with me and S at her house while she took her oldest with her to her appointment. But thankfully she was able to get another neighbour to watch her kids.

This doesn't change the fact that I feel really bad about not being able to help her out. I know we can't control when our kids get sick. And I hope my friend isn't too mad at me - she has kids of her own and knows they get sick without warning. But I don't like letting people down when I agree to do something. I let her know I will make it up to her by coming and watching her kids one day later this week when S is better. And I'll make her some more hats because who doesn't like hats? :-)

Anyway, that's my exciting Valentine's Day - at home with a sick 5 year old while the other half of the family is out at the hockey rink. At least she's stopped shivering so yay for Advil. And there are cupcakes for the kids for later and a chocolate cream pie for me and C. I'm looking forward to it. But then maybe I shouldn't make any plans for eating it with the way my plans have been going today. Happy Valentine's Day!