Things I'm looking forward to about going to St. Louis

In no particular order:

• Food!! Too many favorites to name, in fact I don't think we'll hit them all while we're there
• Sun! As Callaway said, I will definately thaw out
• Family! Seeing my parents again when they come down on Sunday
• Friends! (DUH, seemed like a no brainer) and meeting Ellie Loo
• H&M
• City Sprouts- my favorite baby store to buy gifts in, I may just have to pick up something for myself!
• I'll go back to food: Growlers, Cicero's, Blue Hill, Houlihan's, CiCi's Pizza, Bread Company, Bandana's BBQ, Il Vincino (do you think we can bring any of this home with us???)
• Running in Forest Park. I don't think I'll be doing my normal loop there, but a quick 5K won't be bad either. I wish Casey could come :(
• Being in the central time zone

It's going to be hard not to go to all of my favorite stores and bring back an entire suitcase of new purchases! I wasn't going to rent a car but as more and more of the weekend fills up it would be nice to be fairly mobile. I'm so glad that we didn't decide to skip the trip becasue it would be too expensive. It's just money, right? What would we do with it if we didn't spend it to fly 'home'? Probably spend it on something insignificant that would have no where near the impact on my overall happiness as this trip hopefully will. These are the lessons I learn as I get older, the benefits of making sacrafices, are often worth it!! I'm off to finish thank you notes and hopefully enjoy a date with my husband tonight celebrating the fact that it stays light out till way after my bed time, we are going on a picnic at 8pm. Sweet, huh! Tomorrows mission, find a store in down town Seattle that sells maternity pants that fit me. That aren't too short or too big. Today my 'normal' pants are no longer zipping. I used to be able to at least zip and using a belly band no one was any the wiser. It's getting tougher when they don't zip so I'm constantly pulling them up and re adjusting the belly band. Also, as Dr. Levine says: The best thing about being pregnant is it's temporary and out of your control. Would you rather be a look a little chunky and un-attractive for 4 months or for 2 years? That seems like a no brainer. But he also said it's a natural woman's instinct to compare herself to other women and seeing or being told about 'the cutest pregnant girl ever" or the girl that didn't gain any weight, that barely looked pregnant from behind, that looked fablous the entire 9 months, makes her wonder what is wrong with her and why she can't be like that. That is a natrual feeling (do we call it jealousy?) so I'm going to let myself have it. I'm going to reserve my feelings of inadequency and unattractiveness for my husband (lucky guy) who has to love me anyway. He made a promise to God and to me. And for my close friends or family who get the privledge of calling me on the particular day and saying "how are you feeling" to be replied to with "fat, uncomfortable, and unattractive, how are you feeling?". We've been trying out nicknames for the baby for some time now since we haven't decided on a name for him yet. Nothing has stuck. We are using Garfunkle now, or "garfy" for short. I kinda like it!