Un Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear Kristen... Elvis has chicken pox. Yup, that was my birthday present from E. I have a mad, itching, frustrated, fussy little man. And poor thing hasn't quite grapsed the concept of itching so he's just kind of throwing his arms around and slapping them and his back will itch and he'll just kind of go around in circles trying to figure out what's going on. Poor thing. :( But I think we got it covered; we're doing oatmeal baths, calamine, etc. He'll be good to go in no time.

I remember I got the chicken pox when I was in 2nd grade and I remember my teacher saying, "You're entirely too young to have acne, that must be chicken pox...you need to go to nurse young lady right away." So I did and it was. I remember taking a bath and getting out and my Mom covering me in calamine and dancing in front of the mirror naked making up a song about the spots all over my body. I thought it was awesome because I felt totally fine and I didn't have to go to school for like a week!

Wordless Wednesday

Re: Aldi

I retract anything positive (besides the prices) that I said about Aldi in my last post. The food was HORRIBLE. Everything tasted awful. Some of the food wasn't even edible it was so awful... i.e. the breakfast sausage. Even E wouldn't eat it. I tried to give him the nuggets, jell-o, applesauce, & these dino bites that he just spit out all over the kitchen floor. Oh well. It was worth a try.

Aldi

I decided to put my guard down tonight and try something different: Elvis and I made our first shopping trip to Aldi's! I've heard good things and I've heard bad things so I finally decided to check it out for myself. I knew ahead of time that the carts cost so I made sure to have my quarter (stole it from Kennedy's piggy bank...I know, that's awful. But I couldn't find one anywhere! I mean, who carries cash these days!). I was actually kind of excited. I never thought in a million years I would be excited about a trip to the grocery store to possibly save some money. I remember in HS my Step-Mom wanted me to run to the dollar store to buy some cleaning products. We owned a cleaning business and she had ran out of something and was on a job. I was like, no way. There's no way I'm stepping foot into a dollar store. I would be totally mortified if anyone saw me. I argued and argued and I think I even ended up fronting some of my own money just so I didn't have to go. The thought of saving and bargain shopping didn't exist back then. Yes, I was a snooty little label whore. Anyway, so we made our way in...oh, and we didn't even need the quarter because a nice lady in the parking lot gave us her cart. I was surprised at how small the store was. I think there was a total of 4 isles stacked half high. I immediately started putting stuff in my cart. $0.49, $0.87, $0.99... heck yeah! I went in there just wanting to kind of check it out and get a few snacks for E and I ended up getting a full weeks worth of groceries for like $60. Score! They had awesome deals on their meat and dairy! I got 2 dozen eggs, milk, fish, breakfast sausage, bacon, smoked sausage, hot dogs, shrimp... not to mention sides and fixings for all of those for $60 freaking dollars! I couldn't believe it! I was totally impressed. Of course, the produce didn't have much of a selection and a lot of stuff was pretty limited (especially pasta & sauce choices), but that's okay. If I could just get the basics there and get everything else at Wal-Mart I would totally cut my grocery bill in half. So we finish up and go to check out and as we're checking out I glance over and see the person behind me has her stuff in boxes and there's another person that had just checked out bagging their stuff in their own bags and that's when I realized that there's no bags available. I was like, crap...what the heck am I going to do with all this. I ended up just stuffing everything in the floorboards in hopes that nothing would get squished or broken and when I got home I would just grab a box from the garage and load everything up. So we got home, I got a box...put it together and loaded everything up and as soon as I picked it up I realized it was heavy as hell and before I could even finish my thought everything fell out of the bottom. Ugh...I was so embarrassed (I live in an apt complex and there were multiple people outside watching me load my groceries that were strewn all over my car into a box and then that box breaking). So I went and got my good for the environment bags (which I should've brought w/me in the 1st place) and loaded eveything up and took everything upstairs and unloaded it. And that was my Aldi trip in a nutshell.

Still not quite understanding the concept of Hide N' Seek...

Nice hiding spot...

Run Forrest Run....

So Lindsey and I have decided to take up running. For real this time. We even went to Luke's Locker and let them measure us and watch us walk and run and what not. Turns out I'm a Nuetral Runner.... whatever that means. Anyway, we both bought shoes. These are mine:

I totally love them! They're so comfortable! So much better than what I was wearing before and I was totally wearing the wrong size and never even knew it! We also went to Run On! over in Allen or McKinney or some place over off Eldorado and bought all kinds of running gear. I mean, we look like total dorks but wearing the appropriate gear really does make a difference. Before when I ran I would just wear a cotton t and some tights and I would also be totally sweating my ass off. The running clothes totally breathe and you don't get as hot...so much better!

I've tried to run outside in the past and I totally sucked and I still do suck, but I'm getting better. Man, give me a treadmill and I can run for days. Put me on some concrete and it's like I'm slow as freaking molasses and I might be able to run a mile at the most...like 1 time so far. I'll walk and run and walk run and walk and run. My goal is to able to do a 3K by the 1st of next year. So wish me luck! :)

Before & After