The Mall!

After the conference yesterday, which let out about 12:30, we headed out for lunch. Hhmm...fajitas. Although I really didn't love the place we went for lunch, we had a gift card to use, and saving money always feels good.

Kevin and I chit-chatted about the conference and then went over some questionnaires we each had to answer about ourselves, our marriage, and our partner during the marriage conference. We covered all of our answers together and discovered we're pretty off on some things! Hahaha..So there was lots of starring and asterisks scribbled down...things to review at a later date, for sure.

We have our maternity pics this upcoming weekend and our baby shower is in three weeks. So since we were already going to be out, we decided to head to the mall and quickly pick up a few outfits for me at Destination Maternity. I had no plans for staying up and about all day and risking starting up uncontrollable contractions, so as soon as I walked into the clothing store I went straight for a sales associate. I don't usually have people help me shop for outfits...especially for important events...and certainly not people I don't know and who don't know my style...but desperate times equals desperate measures.

Well...I didn't choose wisely when it comes to a personal shopper. The sales associate we were working with tried to put me in a "summery" dress WITH pantyhose AND open toed shoes. Foot in mouth, but my first response left my mouth before I could filter it.

Me: " Ohh no! You certainly can't do open toed shoes with panty hoes!..( as I sarcastically chuckle...I think some part of me maybe thought she wasn't serious...but I later realized she totally was and I looked like a complete snot.)

Sales Associate: " Well, they aren't panty hoes with a reinforced toe....( as she let out a half annoyed and half embarrassed laugh..)


Awkward. But, seriously, even Kevin knows this is a no-no.

Needless to say this was not a match made in heaven. So Kevin and I perused the shop and both picked out different things and I tried to be as quick as possible with trying everything on. We developed a system: I tried things on and then handed Kevin who sat in a chair right outside my dressing room what item I just took off and the hanger so Kevin could hang everything back up. It was also during this time I discovered something new: kankles! I noticed as I was changing that my ankles and calves were swollen. No wonder I had been feeling a burning sensation in them the entire day. The swelling wasn't horrible, but it certainly was something I haven't ever experienced. Oh, and the other thing I've noticed that is new is that I have dark patches of skin under both eyes. Not in my under eye skin, but right below that where your "normal" face skin begins.  I think these areas are actually old sun spots but for some reason just in this area of my face they are getting darker. Maybe it's a part of the whole "pregnancy mask" thing and my hormones are causing them to get darker. Nice. Thank goodness for concealer. Good ol' pregnancy.

We ended up leaving the maternity shop with plenty, but I needed two more items that we would have to find elsewhere for the dress I bought to wear to the baby shower. Little did we know finding these last two items was about to turn into an all night event. Arg!

We needed shoes and a bellero to wear over my dress. So the hunt was on...and it was a looong hunt that took us all over the mall and required many, many steps from my tired body that isn't used to walking this much. We tried to take it easy and take our time, but as each hour passed I began feeling horribly bad for our fur kids. They had been stuck at home for hours and hours with no way to potty. So I was feeling rushed to get home.

Finally, after hitting up what seemed like lots of stores to find the cropped cardigan I needed for my dress and having to go and change into my dress to try each cardigan on over the dress, which was time consuming and labor intensive, Kevin says, " Why don't you just leave the dress on until we find what you need so you don't have to keep changing clothes." At this point I was pretty exhausted and agreed. So here I am in the super busy mall wearing a cute little dress, with suuuuper pasty white skin, swollen ankles and legs, albeit cute red granny panties, but still granny panties under a fitted dress that shows every line, and ..drum roll...brown leather bowling shoes. I did have black socks, but I figured this was a little too much. Hahaha..I looked like a complete idiot. At one point Kevin was walking behind me and he says, " Dang, babe, you look ravishing right now! ( In his best very sarcastic tone)" Yea, I was lookin pretty smoking hot, I'm sure. But I didn't care.

As time continued to pass and we went from store to store I was dragging. Kevin helped as much as he could by tracking down shoe associates and helping me take off and put back on my shoes..over and over again and by searching the racks for the navy cropped cardigan I needed. In the end, we ordered the cutest shoes for my dress and found the bellero at the most unlikely store. Yea!! When we left the mall it was now dark and cold. Uhg! Have I ever said how much I hate winter.

We had to quickly grab dinner and then we had one more stop to exchange a gift for someone. We knew we were pushing it, but at this point I just wanted to get everything we needed to get done, done. So we pushed on.  I certainly did not want to have to get back out again. By the time I made it into the store to make the exchange, it was now my ankles, calves, and knees that were swollen, burning and red. Oh, I knew I had been walking around too much and I hadn't drank near enough water throughout the day with  all the shopping. Now I really wanted to be home!

We made it home about 9:30pm. We both were exhausted! I knew I would sleep after all of this activity! As soon as we got home, I sucked down tons of water, sat down, and propped my feet up. We ended up staying up to wind down and watched some mindless TV. We knew the dogs needed some time out of their crates before we put them to bed. We headed off to bed about midnight and it took me about ten minutes to fall asleep. Yes! This is a far cry from the hours and hours it usually takes me. It just goes to show that not having enough mental or physical stimulation during the days is severely inhibiting me from being able to sleep at night. So getting more activity will do me some good...within reason, of course. No more 5 hour mall trips!

I woke up with no more kankles. It was nice to see my veins and tendons again. Today we're taking it easy and hanging around the house. I think we may head out for a quasi-Valentine's Day dinner..although we don't really do a whole lot for this "holiday".  Oh and I woke up feeling great. No contractions, no cramping, and in a good mood after some good sleep. Thank goodness. I was super worried I was going to really hurt myself with so much activity. But so far so good. Thank you, Lord.