Des Moines for a day

So hubby had a one-day conference to go to in Des Moines about Social Media. It was decided that his brother would drop him off, since he was going back up to school in Ames, Iowa anyway. That left hubby in Des Moines all day without a vehicle, but that was okay because he could walk to get something to eat on his lunch break.
That left the lovely wife and son back in our hometown, about an hour and a half away from Des Moines, but we had decided the night before it would be okay if after lunch I could drive up and spend some time with some friends- more about them later- and then pick hubby up when he was done at 4pm.

My first stop was the Barnes and Noble Bookstore on University Ave. Last weekend on Focus on the Family Weekend Magazine I heard about a book called 'Guilt-Free Motherhood: Parenting with Godly Wisdom,'  by Dr. Julianna Slattery.  A must have book for any mom, although I haven't actually got my hands on this book yet- it's on the top of my list of books to buy.

You have to realize that this was really brave of me to go off on my own in Des Moines, a city I'm not from and didn't grow up near- I grew up near Minneapolis-St. Paul and almost anytime we go to Des Moines hubby is driving around the city- not me. I pretty much know how to get around, but I was thankful that I had my Des Moines map in the car yesterday!

So I didn't find the book there, nor at another bookstore we stopped at later- the only answer I was given was 'I can order that for you.' Great. Except, I don't live in Des Moines.

Last summer- the 2 year olds
playing together at camp. 

After one failed attempt at finding my book I want I headed off to my friends' house. I had never been up to visit them, and although my friend Jessica had to work yesterday, we still got a little time to talk, before she had to get ready. Jessica and my hubby have known each other since they were young- middle school, maybe? Her dad is still the pastor of my church after 18 + years of being there! Jessica and I were pregnant with our first born children at the same time. Her daughter was born in November 2007, and my son was born in January of 2008. The now- three year old's played really well together while we were there. Since then, she's gone on to have twin girls who are about 6 months old now. So that was fun for me- especially because I got to hold each of them! These precious babies have been in cloth diapers since they were born- can you blame the parents? I can't- I know we saved a lot of money by putting our son in cloth diapers when he was a baby... the diapers they have now! The ones the babies are using are called Fuzzibuns, and I've heard of them, I'd just never gotten the opportunity to use one- well, I did because one of the girls needed a diaper change! Her dad walked me through it, and he said I even got it on right, but the little girl wasn't just wet- she left other surprises in there for me! Guess she must like me!

So after my diaper-changing adventure and I was reminded of why I'm not having any more kids, I left the girls in the perfectly capable hands of their dad.
I drove to where hubby was having his conference to pick him up and somehow because of my rush to get to Des Moines (yes! out of this little town!)  I forgot to grab lunch, so we checked out the 2nd bookstore and then headed to the Jordan Creek area of West Des Moines. I decided we should eat at Red Robbin. It had been a while since we ate there, and when we did our son wasn't with us, but we knew he'd like it. I had the Banzai Burger (pictured above)... it was super yummy and I saved half of it! Our son pointed to the Onion Rings on the menu so we ordered those right away, we found out he's a big fan of the breading, but not of the onions! Oh well. He did eat most of his Mac & Cheese he ordered.

We decided we needed to walk off some of the food we had just eaten, so we headed over to Jordan Creek Mall. I promptly headed to the Lovesac store.  Our lovely hand-me down (twice before us) furniture in our front room is driving us crazy. It doesn't work in the room, so we've been looking for the best solution and we think we've found it.

They are called Sactionals... and they come apart, just like Lego blocks. The sides come off, the bases come apart, so you can have different configurations. We've decided that instead of blowing some money now and getting the furniture we would use it as a reward for paying off all our credit cards- we have 2 large ones left! Kind of a motivation for becoming debt free, and no we would not walk in there and put it on a credit card- we'd pay with cash! We can't wait to finally buy some 'grown up' furniture- something that's not passed down, or found at a garage sale and something we can even change the covers on! Awesome, huh?

It was a fun trip, but although I took my camera I didn't take any pictures- I told the hubby that and he said 'good for you.' The photographer in me says 'No! That's bad!' Oh well. Hubby already thinks I take to many photos as it is. What can I say? I'm a shutterbug! I guess in Des Moines I was to busy driving!