living the freeman life

So, today I went walking at the Blue Ridge Mall in Hendersonville. For those of you who have not been there, this mall is not exactly known for its incredible shopping options. There is a K-Mart on one end, two hair salons, a nail salon, a Chinese restaurant, a Christian bookstore, a few clothing stores including a department store, and a Tuesday Morning. However, this is a "walking mall". People of all ages and sizes come here to walk. It is funny to watch everyone doing laps. It is usually difficult for me to keep Caleb occupied while I do loops around the mall, so mall walking is not usually something I tend to do, but as Mom had Caleb this afternoon, I opted to try to "walk this baby out" for awhile. I put on my iPod, picked an upbeat playlist, and started doing laps. I definitely got a few looks...looks that said, "Holy cow! She's due any minute!", "Did she just steal a beach ball from K-Mart?", and "Hey, she waddles pretty fast for a pregnant lady!". I had a lady come up to me and say, "You look like you should go to the hospital. They don't do deliveries here!". Oh REALLY? Seriously lady, there is an unspoken rule that you should not say anything of that nature to a pregnant lady who looks like she was due last week. I had what I thought was the LONGEST contraction of my life, but really it was just a stitch from walking too fast. As I was in the marching band all four years of high school, it has been ingrained into my nature to walk in time to whatever song is playing, and if that song is quite upbeat, then my feet are just a-goin'. I quickly realized my error and slowed my pace down. That's when I really started getting funny looks as I was trying to take deep breaths to get my stitch to go away. I'm sure it looked like I was using Lamaze techniques,but I don't care. It worked and it helped me make it back out to the car without a wheelchair. Anyway, the other funny thing that happened was that I had rounded a corner and there is a man and his wife who looked just about as pregnant as I do, if not more so (as if that's possible). I asked her when she was due (yes, I know that is the ONE question you do not ask a lady unless she tells you first, but I was pretty sure she was "with child"). She said, "Sunday". HA! So yet another pregnant lady is there, trying to walk out her child-- I wished her good luck, and she wished me the same. All in all, it was a refreshing walk, but now I'm back home, sans contractions, and have decided to put my feet up for the rest of the night. Maybe something will happen sometime soon!