Walmart To Go

So I realize that one either hates Walmart or they love it!  I'm a fan of Walmart prices but not other things such as having 25 check out lanes and only 2 open during the busiest time of the day which is pretty much all day long.  Out here in CO we have Neighborhood Walmarts which are pretty great mainly because they are smaller (downside:  they don't have all the stuff the "regular" Walmart does - i.e. clothes, bedding, etc so once in awhile you have to make a trip to the "big store") and because in addition to the 6 check-it-out-yourself lanes, there are usually about 2 lanes open which for the size of the store and the amount of people (in my Neighborhood store) is pretty good.  

However, my newest love is the To Go option.  I realize that not every Walmart has this option but mine does and I am in LOVE!  I go online, do the shopping, hit enter, and then at my pre-determined time, I swing by the Walmart parking lot and pick up my groceries.  It takes me all of 15 minutes which includes driving time to do my weekly grocery shopping outside of the comfort of my couch.  It is the best!  They also deliver but you have to pay about $7 which in reality is not bad but seriously, I can drive the 2 minutes to pick it up for free.  

In addition to my loving it for time efficiency reasons, I also love it because I am not swayed by shiny objects that I just so happen upon at the store.  My bill has lowered due to this fact alone.  That in and of itself makes me smile!  

Yes, I realize that this post is boring and 55 years down the road, I'll be amazed that I was excited about such a thing since groceries will be a thing of the past and we'll all just have to drink some kind of kool-aid and we'll get all our nutrients and whatnot from one small drink that flows into our house through some kind of tubing.  But for now, I'll be super excited!

Breckenridge CO

Elianna had off school Monday and Tuesday of this week, so we decided to have a Family Day on Monday.  We thought exploring Breckenridge CO would be fun so we headed over that way.  The weather on our way there was beautiful!  

Breckenridge is definitely a ski town!  Many stores were closed because the summer months were over but were also not open since many of the ski resorts have not opened yet either.  Because of that, we simply walked around the town but found some fun things to, well mainly, eat.  A fry place with so many many choices of fries - thanksgiving fries, breakfast fries, Canadian, fries in a pickle ... the list goes on and on.  Chris is determined to take the boys back there and try all some of them.  

We also found the most wonderful cookies there!  They are a little dangerous but so so good!

Not my picture but wanted a remembrance of the delicious cookies!

When we first arrived, it began snowing just a little and as the day went on it increased but didn't seem all that bad.  Elianna loved it and tried catching them to eat them (in addition to licking them off of Chris's hat - gross!) and had us all singing "If all the snowflakes were lemon drops and gum drops oh what a snow that would be!  I wouldn't mind if the sun never shined 'cause I'd stand outside with my mouth open wide singing Ah Ah a Ah Ah a Ah Ah all the time!"

Because Elianna had karate that evening, we wanted to make sure we made it back in time so we left at 1:45pm for the 1-1/2 hour drive home.  But.... it ended up being so snowy and dangerous on the pass back home.  Cars were swerving everywhere.  Accidents all over.  Cars stuck.  Wheels spinning. Truckers putting on their tire chains.  It was crazy!  At one point, a state trooper was standing (very bravely) in the middle of the road telling cars that were having problems driving to pull over.  Those of us with AWD or 4WD were allowed to go on.  I have never been so thankful for Reny than yesterday!  He did so great in the snow!  

Unfortunately it took us 3-1/2 hours to get home due to all the accidents, crazy drivers and, of course, the snow.  We had to go directly to Elianna's karate lesson but after that, I was never so happy to be home!

Photo Booth Fun

A few Sunday mornings ago, I (re)introduced Elianna to Photo Booth.  The last time we did it with her was a few years ago and she did not remember the fun that can be had.  Here is the result of our fun.

"Chipper" Update

Well my Chris thought that naming the new car Chipper was just ludicrous!  He said if we had another kid we wouldn't name her Elianna now would we?  Crazy man!

Therefore, we have named the new car Renegade.  Elaine was so heartbroken over the new name concept that she actually cried.  Because she was so upset we conceded (slightly) and left his middle name as Chipper.  So technically his name is Renegade Chipper Promersberger.  Reny for short.  

I know we are ridiculous and weird but it's what makes up our family and we love it!  So welcome Reny to the crazy family!

Halloween 2014

This year's Halloween was so disappointing.  Apparently since our road is so dark, no one comes down our road to get candy.  We love that part of Halloween - giving out candy and this year, caramel candy corn popcorn.  We had all of 3 groups (one group being our group that went out) come trick or treating to our house.  So yes, we have a TON of candy and popcorn leftover.  

This year Elianna wanted to be Elsa (of course).  Someone had given her a blue dress that in my mind represented the dress Elsa wore at the end of the movie with a sheer train flowing behind her with braided hair.  In Elianna's mind it was the dress Elsa wore to her coronation - totally different look.  We went round and round with it until I finally came to the realization that it wasn't a big deal and if she wanted it to be the coronation dress then fine - it was the coronation dress.  So I scrapped the hair I was going to braid and made it into a crown holder and then I whipped up a cape for her to wear.  It was fine.

We ended up going with a bunch of our neighbors and had the best time walking around with them (until my pirate boots started hurting then it wasn't so fun).  Apparently adults don't dress up around here - just the kids but oh no! I wasn't having that in our group.  Chris was Superman, I was a pirate (again), the other Chris (or downstairs Chris as Elianna calls him) went at a Best Buy employee (lame since that's what he is), Elianna went as Elsa, Kaylah went as a alien mom (she wore a headband with 3 eyes coming off of it that her daughter made at school that day), Marilee went as a sorta red riding hood person, Jaylah also was red riding hood (but refused to wear the red cape), Emery went as a fairy princess, Mike was a pirate (I made him wear Chris' pirate hat from last year), Katie was a cat (I quick made her some ears and a tail and drew on her face), baby Ben was a duck, and Abraham was a train conductor.  Katie did such an awesome job on his outfit!  I was totally impressed!  Check him out!

Our fun group!  Bonus:  You can see some of our house decorations.

Isn't it the cutest?!  You can see it from the side in the picture above.

We had to walk kinda far to find people who were giving out candy (oh Aurora how I miss you and your Halloween loving ways!).  Toward the end, Elianna looked at me and said "I'm done!  I don't want any more candy!"  A gasp slipped out of my lips as I looked at her in astonishment.  What kid says that?  Ours apparently!  Her bucket was full and heavy and she had enough of it all.  Really, our family much prefers to hand out candy than to go and get it.

Gross part of the story:  She only ate one piece of candy that night but was still up all night sick to her stomach.  Should have given her a bunch more to eat so she would have had something to actually throw up.  It was a crazy night.  I had taken Nyquill because I randomly came down with a cold while out trick or treating so while she was sick I kept nodding off and in between trying to wake a snoring Chris to come help.  Not the funniest of things to do.

And do you know what is the best thing about the day after Halloween?  Elianna stayed busy the next morning counting and sorting and counting the sorted piles all out.  She got exactly 100 pieces of candy - good thing she stopped when she did!

Goodbye Chipper

For the last year my car, Chipper, has had severe difficulties and then about 6 weeks ago, he died.  Totally and unrepairably died.  Chris and I had been sharing his truck which worked out fairly well since in emergencies (or Monday and Tuesday nights for karate) I could borrow one of the boy's cars since Chris has CG in the evenings.  Then the boys got jobs (yay!) and often work those evenings leaving me with no transportation.

This is how badly he died - he wouldn't even start to put up the window resulting in the beautiful addition of a garbage bag

Back when Chipper first died we looked hard for a new car and the result was a lot of stress and fighting between Chris and I so we stopped and resorted to sharing.  But now... I really needed one.  So the other day I showed Chris some cars on the internet and the next thing I know he is telling me we needed to leave now to go look at a car (not one of the ones I had showed him).  We had looked at many many other ones with no luck so I was not excited when we went.  And then we bought it.  What?!?  Without even having our mechanic look at it (in the past he was the third party in our decision).  The people at the car dealer kept congratulating us (I thought that part was weird) and then would say, "You don't seem very excited".  If you only knew the stress and tears... it was more relief than excitement on our part.

Now I am the proud owner of a new (to us) Hyundai Santa Fe and Chipper was donated to Goodwill. I didn't think I would be sad or emotional (although I kept making Chris think I would be since Elianna and I act as though Chipper was a real live being) when they took him away but then I thought "I brought Elianna home in that car" and then I was slightly emotional (no tears just a sad sad feeling).  Now we have a new Chipper since Elianna wanted to name the new car the same name.  He has a lot more room for Elianna in the back and tada! will drive much better in the snow! Yay!

Goodbye Chipper!

Hello {new} Chipper!