My Frenemy Costco

If you have never had the pleasure of walking into a Costco, the best analogy I can provide is that it is like a siren from Greek mythology – beautiful, luring you in with its striking wall of TVs and attractive warehouse prices, but eventually it consumes you until at last it owns you.  And that is where I found myself Saturday as I upgraded to an executive membership.

My relationship with Costco started out innocently enough, like most people I know - paper products.  We’re out of toilet paper, time to go to Costco.  We are having a party this weekend; let’s pick up plastic cups and plates at Costco.  From there it logically metastasizes to toiletries.  I already buy Aveeno lotion at Target, but I can get three times as much for a dollar more at Costco.  Wow, I can get a year’s supply of razor blades and it only costs how much!?!  

After toiletries come snacks (crackers, trail mix, granola bars) and staples (milk, meat and produce).  Then something interesting happens, rather than go to Costco to buy what you use, what you use slowly gets defined by what Costco carries.  Case in point, I never used to use Dove shampoo, now I use the shampoo, conditioner, body wash and moisturizing bar.  Why?  Because Costco carries it AND they had a coupon.

I don’t remember Costco having coupons growing up, but at least for the last five years this has been a hot item I eagerly look forward to in my mailbox every month.  I plan my shopping trips around the coupon book.  Stocking up on items when they are featured, holding off on those that aren’t hopping that next month, please God, be there.

Costco has got consumers down to a science.  They don’t tell you when you sign up, that you can’t leave the store without spending at least $100.  I went last weekend to buy soap, just soap (I had a coupon).  I ended up buying soap, trail mix, tennis shoes, swim trunks and yogurt.  If you can think of it, or even if you can’t, Costco carries it. In addition to what you can buy in the warehouse, you can also purchase vacations, home improvements (from flooring to swing sets), appliances, clothes, flowers, you can even buy coffins!  We now buy all our gas exclusively from Costco.

A little over a year ago we looked at how much we were spending at Costco and decided it would be smart to open a Costco Amex, to cash in on 1% back on all we spend at the warehouse where otherwise we couldn’t because they don’t accept credit cards plus 3% on gas from Costco.

For over a year Costco has been bugging us to upgrade our membership.  An enthusiastic employee would accost us after random shopping excursions to tell us how much we would save if we just upgraded (2% on everything you buy in addition to the Amex benefit).  It made sense, but we were always in a hurry to get home or go on to the next thing that we never made the switch.  That is until Saturday. 

It is to the point where when I look around my house, well over 50% of what comes in, comes from Costco.  They own me, and I think I might just be okay with that.

Adventures in Whole Grains

A few years ago, we hopped on the whole grains bandwagon.  We had been eating whole wheat bread for years but slowly we have been growing our whole grain repertoire. 

Yummy!

The shift was precipitated by my first pregnancy and the need to keep my blood sugar more stable throughout the process.   I started buying whole grain pasta.  You have to cook the hell out of it, but for the most part (some off-brands withstanding), it tastes good and I don’t miss the refined noodles.  I started checking the labels on cereal, English muffins, bagels, etc.  These were all easy switches.   These were things we were buying anyway and manufactures were making it easy by offering more whole grain alternatives.  You can even buy whole grain Goldfish!  If it is whole grain it must be healthy right?

More recently, we started making brown rice at home.  If you thought you had to cook whole grain pasta forever, brown rice is an eternity.  You really have to plan ahead because it takes nearly an hour, making it tough on a week night.  Also, it seems every time is like a science experiment,;too much water and you get a risottoesque mush, too little and you get wood chips.  We have made both. For breakfast, Kevin started eating something he affectionately calls ‘horse feed’.  It is something he picked up at Trader Joes, a combination of whole grains.  He swears by it now, but the first couple of weeks were an adjustment period.

My most recent experiment was baking with whole wheat flour.  If you have ever touched whole wheat flour it feels a little bit like really fine ground sand, not the silky texture of all-purpose white flour.  That should tell you something about how it is going to taste, but I foraged on anyway.  I was making banana bread last night.   I figured it was a heartier bread and could handle the whole grains.  It survived the baking, taking the same amount of time, rising properly, etc.  But….it certainly tasted different.  It was as if I had added corn meal or something to the dough.  It wasn’t bad exactly, just texturally very different.  Straight out of the oven it was disappointing because I was expecting something warm and soft and what I got was something dense and chewy. The next day I toasted a slice for breakfast and it was definitely better than the night before.  Even so, I may need to draw the line at brown rice and call that good enough. 

My next experiment will probably be pizza dough.  I have five pounds of the stuff, we’ll see if I find a reason to keep buying it.  If anyone has any good whole wheat recipes I would love to try them.

Big Sister All Star

When you are having a second child, you never know how the older sibling to be will react.  Cara was not quite two and a half when Brianna was born really understand what was happening or how her life was about the change.  I expected jealously and anger, hoped she wouldn’t hit or bite and would at least tolerate her new sister.  Now that Bri has arrived, I am filled with joy and pride as I watch them interact; Cara is such a good big sister.
 

The day we brought Bri home from the hospital Cara couldn’t wait to hold her.  We had been in the hospital for a week and she had seen Bri and touched her, but never held her.  You could see on her face how happy and proud she was to be a big sister when she looked down at her in her arms.  It only lasted a few moments before she lost interest and wanted to go play, but it was beautiful.  When we had to change Bri’s diaper, she went racing up the stairs.  Kevin looked at me and said, “Ten bucks she comes down with the wipes.”  Sure enough, a few minutes later there she proudly held the wipes she had carried down the stairs to help us with the diaper change.

We haven’t been completely devoid of jealously issues.  There have been moments when she thought life would be better if I would just put Bri ‘there’ as she pointed to the crib or swing so that I could be free to play with her. But if that is the worst of it, we are doing pretty good.

Every night she gives Bri a hug and a kiss before going to bed.  When Bri is sad she stops everything to tell her she will be okay and pat her on the head (gently of course).  She is Bri’s personal paci gopher and is an excellent interpreter of Bri’s cries, translating to me that Bri is hungry and needs milk.   She gives Bri toys to play when she is doing her tummy time and is my assistant when I give Bri a bath (she is in charge of the legs and the tummy).

I am sure they will fight as the grow up, I would wonder if they didn’t.  But right now, I look at Cara with so much pride at what a kind and generous person she is becoming.

I Think I Can

When my husband and I bought our house three years ago we knew someday the floors would have to go.  The home’s previous two owners had both been foreclosed on, so there was little incentive for them to maintain an off-white carpet.  Note – off-white should not be an available color for carpeting.  Compared to many of the other homes we looked at, it was in great shape, but by no means quality.  Last December, the day finally came to bid the carpet farewell.

Before going on maternity leave my husband suggested we think about replacing the floor while I was home, so I could supervise the work.  My response, “Why supervise when you can do?”  My dad had installed some flooring in his home.  I am a relatively capable person, why couldn’t I do this with my dad’s help.  My husband was doubtful. (see blog entry about the Elmo birthday cake)  He took the opportunity on multiple occasions to question the idea with two extremely valid points: I had no experience and two small children to look after.

Fast forward to end of November.  With extra time on my hands, I took full advantage of the extreme deals to be had before Black Friday.  One thing led to another and next thing I know, I had ordered 700+ square free of flooring, transitions, waterproofing paper, etc.  Game on.

It was supposed to take three weeks to get materials, but as luck would have it due to an overstocking issue in Sacramento, all the flooring was shipped directly to my house in less than a week, no charge.   Awesome.  Transitions were a different story, stay tuned.  We had family coming in for the holidays so we had to make a decision: bust our ass to get it done before Christmas or wait until January.  I am not a patient person. Take a wild guess which one I choose.  The very next day I was moving all the furniture from the dining room into the family room and ripping up carpet.  Something about ripping up carpet makes one feel pretty bad ass.  This was the point of no return.

The next day we started laying down the floor.  My dad got me started and I went on a three day tear, nearly completing the first room.  It was at this point, I almost admitted to my husband that he may have been right, every muscle, bone and eyelash on my body hurt.  I had to take a week off to let my body recuperate.  My knee took nearly two months to heal; I think child birth may have had a faster recovery time.  

We did the dining room first, then the hall and into the family room all the while moving furniture back and forth to free up the next space.  The living situation with a two year old and an infant was a little chaotic to say the least.  Then I hit a wall, both literally and figuratively.  The hallway to the guest room was next; full of doors and tricky corners.  Luckily, dad swooped in to save the day.  Over several evenings, he put in the hallway while I kept him fed.  At this point, we had a week before family arrived and the guest room was the only space left.  In one weekend, my dad and I double-teamed the project and with a lot of pride and relief laid down the final pieces of floor.

Remember the transitions I mentioned, they still hadn’t come in.  I was calling the store every day.  I would bet they were starting to screen my calls.  Then finally, part of the order came in, enough to finish the entry way, we were back in business with family coming in two days.    The glue was still drying as my in-laws came through the door, we had finished in time.  Well, sort of.  The rest of the transition order came in well after the holidays, so the project wasn’t 100% finished until January,

After all is said and done, I am happy to have had the experience.  I can look down at that floor and be proud of what I have accomplished.   My husband and I agreed that we were both right.  I shouldn’t have done it BUT I proved that I CAN and that is the most important thing.  When we get around to doing the upstairs, we are definitely hiring someone.