Trip to Trader Joe's,FedEx, Costco..Tote Bags, China, Tank Man, YoKids, Prius Envy

Spencer LOVES these tubes full of yogurt. Stoneyfield YoKids Squeezers, and we freeze them They are like an organic yogurt freeze pop.

Woman at left: Devil or Tote Designing Diva? You decide. Though, I gotta say, her friend's vest is a little kooky... reminds me of Sally O'Malley (a Molly Shannon Character on SNL, a dancer who brags that she is "FIFTY YEARS OLD.")

Bill and Spencer shopping in Trader Joe's this afternoon. What a pair. Spencer has his stoner hat on and Bill is wearing a shirt from a guitar string company.

Spencer wore his hat that makes him look like one of those skateboarding/snowboarding stoner type kids you see a lot of in the Pacific northwest mostly downtown or in REI. He looked so funny.

We went to Trader Joe's to get some more Sauce to make Indian food. That is the only place that sells it. We were right by there anyway, because Bill had a ship a dude's guitar from the Fed Ex in Lake Oswego.

Ok here is a nutty little story: back when Spencer was first learning to talk he would see things and just shout out the name of them. He got to know the Fed Ex and UPS truck well because they came to our house like every day for Bill's business. However he had a little trouble pronouncing them correctly at first. When he would see a UPS truck he would shout "LOOK! PS Truck PS Guy!!!!!" That was fine. the trouble came when he would see a Fed Ex truck on the road or just anywhere. He would point, and shout "Look Mommy!!!! FAT ASS! FAT ASS Guy!!!!!" Uh, I think you mean FED EX, right Spencer? "Yes Daddy! FAT ASS!"

"FatAss" Truck

We also needed stuff from Costco - groceries and more importantly, GAS! Costco usually has pretty good gas prices. They also have great prices on fruit I think stuff like blueberries and strawberries, both thinbgs that Spencer would just INHALE if he could. We have discovered a great salad kit they have there two of them actually One is called Parisian Blend orMix or something its like a kit with everything you need to make this great salad: lettuce, dried cranberries toasted almonds, some kind of cheese and this white balsamic vinaigrette. Its GREAT and WAY cheaper and better then the kind you can get at the regular grocery store. Then they also have this great broccoli slaw kit thing you can get to make a huge bowl of broccoli slaw. Not that fattening, has 5 g protein per serving, it is like cole slaw but make from broccoli instead of cabbage. it also has like these soybean nuts in it, dried cranberries the dressing and some other stuff.. it is awesome. And Bill was out of coffee - can't have that. I rarely drink coffee anymore... Bill makes it pretty strong, so that mostly I will take a few sips from his ginormous daily morning mug and that is all I need to hit the ground running.

I am really getting much better at remembering to bring my own reusable shopping bags to the store. I must have like 25 of those bags that I have purchased but I really do use them everytime I go. it is a huge change for me, because i was ADDICTED to collecting plastic grocery bags. I had a HUGE collection of them in a giant Cheerios box under the kitchen sink, with instructiuons on the box to anyone who might happen upon them that they are NOT to be thrown away. I was using them for everything, especially back when we were still in the diapers phase... Long gone, thank goodness.

Now I use the reuseable bags. There is a kind they sell at the Fred Meyer here that are made by a co in Portland called Patty Reed Designs. Her bags are awesome and Fred Meyer has them for like $3 each. They are really festive, strong, well organized and durable. I use the INSTA-TOTES. Here is the Patty Reed website:
http://www.pattyreeddesigns.com/instatote/index.htm

But also here is a woman in Portland who says Patty Reed is evil because her bags are made in China and she sells them to Walmart too.
http://effdupgirl.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/to-patty-reed-designs/

SO maybe Patty Reed IS the Devil, but her bags are really really cute. I do not like any of the other bags out there, and I have tried a bunch. These are cute and they stay that way. They can stand up to me, my dog , my family, all kinds of abuse. One thing I like about them is that they do not have the STORE's name all emblazened all over them. I have like 8 of them at least: I like the Wildflowers one so much I have like 6 of those. I got enough to make sure I could always have them in both cars, so I do not forget to bring them to the store ever.

hearts

fruit on one side, veggies on the other


cherries
poppies

Wildflowers - my favorite one

Anyway. Bill is tired of me buying these totebags. They are made in China and I saw this program recently on PBS called The Tank Man about that guy who stood up to that line of tanks right after the Tianaman Square thing in China. I think it was an episode of FRONTLINE. In fact I thnk you can watch it on their website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/
China is a scary place and I wish they would not exploit workers and I do make an effort to not buy stuff made in China I guess but sometimes it is really hard, I mean WHAT ISNT made there now?

So. 53 days left on the Goat Farm. I have to go make a list to pack up the POD in an orderly fashion. Spencer is SUCH a pill sometimes but he has to be one of the sweetest kids EVER. Unlike his complaining mother, he derives such pleasure out of the simplest things. if you tell him that Yes, we will buy some YoBaby Yogurt tubes at Trader joes he is like doing backflips all the way home. I have never been that excited about yogurt. However here is a tip: freeze them. Kids LOVE them frozen. He is awesome. Spencer's favorite is the YOKIDS Squeezers. We freeze them and he eats them like a freeze pop.
http://www.stonyfield.com/ourproducts/kidsyogurt
Also: its not that I do not LOVE my Matrix, but I would LOVE a PRIUS and everytime I see one on the road, which is a LOT here in Portland, I want one. I wish we could have gotten one. Especially now that gas is $4.20 A GALLON. If things get much worse I may trade in my matrix for a Prius later this year.

I have Prius Envy.