Poor Me

I'm feeling like quite the martyr today. As I slave away at my desk, my parents are gallivanting around Europe and Christopher is go-carting with his "work". *Sigh* It's tough being the only one committed to earning a living sometimes.
 

Anyway, I guess in all fairness, my parents are visiting my brother and family, and Christopher's go-carting exploits are a legitimate work outing (Carfax is a pretty absurd company in some ways - good ways, but still).

So back to the point of this post - my recent trip to Kansas. I arrived late Saturday morning and stayed through Tuesday morning. Which was, in hindsight, not nearly enough time for me to recover between plane trips. Ok, I'm sort of kidding, but who knew plane travel would be so uncomfortable at 7 months?? Answer: probably a lot of people, but I was still surprised at how much my back and butt hurt. But it was a good trip, punctuated mainly by my napping, eating, shopping at bookstores and, much to my father's delight, waddling. That's right. I'm now a full-fledged waddler. I did manage to run fairly comfortably while there, though my pace was far below that of my glory days on the LHS track team, but walking was a whole mess of uncomfortable. When my dad, who has been through major knee surgery, is walking faster than me, I think it's time to finally accept that pregnancy does, in fact, slow you down.

But among the highlights of the trip: a quick stop at one of Tonganoxie's 5 Sonics en route home from the airport for some cheesy tots. Yes, we'd already stopped to pick up lunch at Arthur Bryant's, but since I don't eat meat, I felt justified in needing the additional "nutritional support" of cheesy tots. Man, I could go for some of those now. I did not, however, make it to a Dairy Queen. That's not to say I wasn't well-fed with sweets, but this did not, unfortunately, include a blizzard. Oh, well.

Other highlights: Annie kindly let me share my old bedroom so I didn't have to sleep on the horrible futon in my brother's old room (hint to Mom and Dad - REPLACE!!), I went on several nice walks with Annie, ran into a few old friends' parents (always a little awkward, but fortunately, when you're pregnant, all you really have to do is gesture in the general direction of your large belly and conversation steers itself), walked around downtown quite a bit, and napped. Oh, naps are a beautiful thing.

But sadly, the trip had to come to an end, and, after a nice breakfast at one of downtown Lawrence's many hipster cafes with my dad, I found myself once again at Kansas City's beautiful airport.

Of the many things I can't wait to share with Sparky about his Kansas heritage, the airport is probably not high on the list. BUT I did see Lawrence in a new light - that of introducing my son to where his mom grew up - where she went to high school, where she worked (no comments, Dad), where she got a traffic ticket, etc. Very strange sensation, indeed, but not an unpleasant one!

The 30-week bump. Ummm...how the hell am I expected to deal with 10 more weeks???

Dad and Annie on Naismith trail near the house. I remember when there was no trail through that park and it was just a random mini-forest where the druggies went.

Mom and I on the back porch.

Grams and Gramps. Babs and Jean-Louise?

I'm pretty sure I'd given up on maintaining posture by this point. I need a massive Ace bandage to support my stomach.

Annie making an appearance. She doesn't usually like to go outside.

Had to take a picture of this at the KC airport - only in Kansas (well, technically, Missouri) will you see a "Tornado Shelter" sign at the airport. Home, sweet, home!

And the ever-obligatory photo of Maya after I got back. Not sure how she contorted herself into that position, but she seemed to be comfortable enough!