STL

last weekend we went with our friends to st louis. it was their idea..they planned the trip and invited us to tag along. as it went on, i think we were really just there for the cards/mets game and the trip was built around that. i have to be honest, i was not excited about going to st. louis. i've been twice before and have yet to be impressed. if i'm going to take time and money to travel somewhere, i'd rather go somewhere cool and fun. preferably somewhere i've never been before. but it was their idea, their trip, so we went.

what i didn't take into account was that the first time i was there, i was 8 years old. the second time, i was 18, there for a convention and locked downtown. this time, we had a car, the internet to help with research, and a kid to dictate our choices. it was actually a fun city. i'm sure the city has revitalized and improved in the past 12 years as well.

of course, we did the arch and the cards game (thankfully, we were not at the game that lasted 20 innings...) we ate at the American Incredible Pizza Co. the pizza was nothing to brag about, the same quality as cicis (but much larger) but the 50s/rte 66 atmosphere was worth it. we also hit the City Museum, City Garden, Magic House, Grant's Farm and Blueberry Hill. we explored a very small portion of route 66. it's on my life's list to drive what i can of rte 66 from chicago to LA. they said that every year there is less and less drivable road, so i guess we better do this soon. we also drove through the huge forest park, which is home to their zoo, art museum, science museum and several other little surprises. we stumbled upon a huge pavilion and the jewel box, a funky 60s style green house. however, we walked inside and it was really cool. i literally said "wooww" when we walked in. our only disappointment was our attempt to experience st. louis BBQ on our way out. we drove to 3 places only to find them closed, or completely torn down. we never found any and ended up eating at an authentic local taco bell
a few miles down the interstate.

i owe st. louis an apology.

however, what really has stuck with me was driving through the midwestern farm lands of southern illinois. you guys know that jared and i have been moving toward more natural, holistic views of living. away from the crazy culture that has become american of big box chain stores, processed foods, buying brand new, disposable items. i was all natural with the pregnancy and birth and have remained very strict with what alena eats. last summer we planted our first garden in our neighborhood's community garden. we've read asa andrews' book and watched food, inc. all this has culminated to plant a new idea. as we were driving through illinois, i started wondering how much land it would take to live on a sustainable farm. i wondered if we could grow our own food. i've always thought it would be cool to live in an old farmhouse, but never gave it much serious thought. i voiced my thought, jared got excited about it. i called my mom to ask her how much land she and dad grew up on, since both their parents raised virtually everything their families ate (with 5 and 4 kids, respectfully). she quickly answered that 10 acres would do it. 1 cow for meat and 1 milk cow would be more than we would know what to do with. 1 pig would be plenty for food and then the chickens would just be up to us. she told me my dad and grandma (mom's mom) once split 100 chicks one year. then they butchered 100 chickens....and my grandma could hardly ever eat chicken after that.

so this little thought is rolling around in my mind. a friend told me i should blog about the experience, which has gotten me even more excited. there's A LOT of things that would need to happen before we could move. we've been kind of in a survival mode since i've been home with alena. which has been fine, but we would need to pay down some of (or all) our debt and do some minor improvements to the house before selling it. we'd probably even want to wait until after this fostering thing gets underway, if not have a finalized adoption first. so this may be a few years in the future, if it happens at all. but it's an exciting thought and it's what my current daydreams are made of.