A Few Days Away

Sorry I've been MIA for a few days. Lots going on.

Wednesday was a hard day for me. Conlan and I got up and went to the library for Toddler Time. It was fun. I met a mom or two, but most were content at doing their own thing. So no new friends there. We went to the park for about 10 minutes, then we went home for lunch. After lunch, I was starting to feel lonely again, so I slapped some sunscreen on Conlan, and we went to the Boardwalk for a little retail therapy. This is what we came home with:

Easter/wedding clothes. Please excuse the baseball shorts. I refuse to buy another pair of khaki pants for that kid. I was trying these clothes on before I took off the tags. The hat is my favorite. :)

Thursday I decided that I was going to be domestic. It's been hard for me to do that here, as I don't really feel at home. But I was successful at cleaning up the apartment, doing the grocery shopping, and spending some quality time with both my boy and my pooch. It was nice.

I spent today in Longview. Conlan and I left about 9:30 or so. We went first to LeTourneau's campus (where else would we start?) where I used to work. I went up to the office to say hi to everyone. I ended up staying for about an hour. It was so nice to see everyone again. I really miss that office. We then went out to our auto insurance agent to give them updated bank information. THEN, we went out to Conlan's friend Wyatt's house. Wyatt and Conlan decided to treat Leigh (Wyatt's mom) and me to lunch at Jason's Deli. We sat there for a while and just talked. It was nice. We had a small celebration for Wyatt's first birthday and then I needed to head back. I've been feeling sick all day, so I decided it was time to track down some of the ginger Altoids that are supposed to be so great for morning sickness. You would think that they would sell them in Maternity stores...nope. I looked at the one in Longview, because I didn't know where the Shreveport one was. Nothing. So I went home. I sucked on Ice Breakers Sours all of the way home; sour helps too. But the fake sugar isn't good for me either. Anyway, when I got back to Shreveport, I decided that it was absolutely imperative that I find these Altoids. Conlan and I sat down and mapped out the route we would take to hit one maternity store after another (after some quality time at Yellow Pages) and we hit the road...again.

The first maternity store on our route was a place called Ladies in Waiting. I got there and found a baby boutique. "Great..." I thought. "I HATE baby boutiques." I decided to go in anyway. Well, this was the most FABULOUS baby boutique I had ever seen. It was inside an old house. There were so many different rooms filled with all sorts of gorgeous furniture. (If we have a girl, I've found a blanket for her!) The people that worked there were so helpful. Honestly, it reminded me of shopping in East Texas. I walked in, and the first woman asked how she could help.

"I know this will probably sound silly," I said, "but I'm looking for ginger-flavored Altoids. Yellow Pages called this a maternity store, and ginger-flavored Altoids are supposed to help with morning sickness."

"Well, we have the Preggy Pops," she said.

"You're looking for ginger Altoids?" someone else chimed in.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Man, those were the best thing ever when I had morning sickness. I just bought them at the drug store."

"Really? I guess since they're specialty Altoids and used a lot for morning sickness, I figured they'd be somewhere like here."

"Here," the second woman said. "Let me call CVS down the street and see if they have them."

They didn't, but that's what I call service. I did stop at a different drug store on the way home, and I found Altoids there. I didn't bother to finish my carefully planned-out route. I was still on the road I live off of, so I was ready to go home. Interesting tid-bit about this boutique: Katie Holmes was in there not too long ago and bought a frame for little Suri. Weird. There was a thank-you note from Katie kind of plastered all over the store. Shreveport is kinda like a second Hollywood. I think I've mentioned that before.

So this next week my mom and grandmama are coming. We're going to go visit my great-grandmothers and take 5 generation pictures. Did I mention that I have 2 great-grandmothers still living? They're both well into their 90's, and this will be the first time they've seen Conlan. I'm pretty sure that I haven't seen either of them for a while. Only one of them has even met Jonathan. He has to work, so he can't come with us...so we need to make it a point to go visit them this summer.

Tomorrow we hope to go to either the St. Patty's Day parade or Sci-Port. I don't ever remember Longview having a St. Patrick's Day parade. Maybe it's because Shreveport is bigger...or maybe they just like their alcohol-themed holidays. Either way, I'm wearing green!