Shopping Spree!

A couple of weeks ago, I received such a wonderful gift, I'm still amazed by it.

It started with a simple girl's lunch with my best friend Lindsey and her mom, who's long been a second mom to me. I met at their house, and we went out to a local tex-mex restaurant. In the middle of enjoying my taco salad, Lindsey told me there was a reason they brought me out today. They had a surprise for me. Knowing how much stress I'd been under, dealing with my father's cancer, they wanted to do something nice for me - to pamper me and make me feel special.

The surprise? They took me on a maternity clothes shopping spree! They'd even scouted out the best locations in the area for affordable, stylish maternity clothes. Of course, I started crying when they told me. I still can't believe how blessed I am to have people in my life that care enough to take care of me like this!

After lunch, we headed to the mall, and our destination:



I spent a few minutes just looking around the store. It wasn't a huge space, but they sure did pack a lot of great clothes in that store! After getting the lay of the land, I started picking out clothes to try on and filling up the dressing room. Once I felt like I had enough options laid out, I headed to the dressing room to start trying on clothes. First up? My best friend helped me put on the belly pillow. Here I am freaking out about seeing how big I was with that thing on!

Here's one of the outfits I tried on. (I got used to the belly pretty quickly).


(I got the sweater, but left the jeans for another trip. I focused on getting clothes I could wear to work, since I mostly hang out in comfy clothes on the weekend.)

When all was said and done, I walked out with five tops and three pairs of pants - and didn't spend a cent. It was such a blessing, and one that will carry through the rest of my pregnancy (and a bit beyond, as I work on fitting back into my old clothes afterward!).

I'm at fifteen weeks now...after the shopping trip, I threw caution to the wind and just started rocking my maternity clothes early. Let me tell you, I am so glad I did! Maternity pants are the greatest invention since sliced bread. Hooray!