This and That

If you live in Boise, get yourself to the zoo and check out the new butterfly house.  It's impossible to be unhappy while you're standing in a space filled with flowers and beautiful butterflies.  Unless you're my kids, then you'll be completely freaked out.  Seriously, we were there a week ago and Blake still randomly says, "No go in butterfly house!"  Yep, these kids need a little more exposure to animals.   Where to start?  With a Butterfly in a Jar, of course.



Seriously, this looks like the kind of thing that should be sold on an informercial, or perhaps in the coupon section of the sunday paper, next to an offer for "3 comfort bras for $9.99."  This thing serves no true purpose, and most likely it will soon end up in our donation pile, but that's okay.  For the time being, it is wildly entertaining.  After seeing one at work, I showed Hadley youtube video and asked if she'd like her own butterfly.  She asked, "Will it get out of the jar?  Will it touch me?" Once she determined that she would be safe in the presence of the blood-sucking butterfly, she decided she wanted a pink one.  Right now.  Amazon has them in stock, but after being asked 100+ times (no joke), "When will my butterfly get here?," I decided that we needed to shop locally.  A google tip lead me to Grocery Outlet, and within minutes we were loading up the car and heading out to meet the newest member of our family.  Her name?  "Alex, but not Alex the fish, Alex the the butterfly."

Oh, Grocery Outlet, where have you been all my life?  Can somebody tell me why I've never shopped there?  Not only did we get our butterfly (the last one!), but we found so many other great deals.  They have a lot of organic and natural foods, many were the same items that we normally buy, but at much lower prices.  Organic orange juice- $6 at our grocery store, $2 at Grocery Outlet.  Natural frozen pizzas: $2.49 (or was it $2.99?) at G.O., MSRP $7.99 (although I think our grocery store often has them on sale for $6)...  organic chicken nuggets for 50% less than the co-op... Some of the items were close dated, so make sure you check the label before you buy.  The store was nothing fancy, but it looked clean and the employees were very friendly.  It certainly won't be my primary grocery store, but I'll be sure to stop in occasionally.  I love a good deal!

The Sky Lodge deal that I told you about yesterday got me thinking about Park City.  Have you heard of the Sundance Resort?  I never knew that the Sundance catalog was born out of the resort gift shop.  Pretty neat.  Sundance is known for it's jewelry, some of which comes from a Boise artist, Jamison Rae.  Also part of the Sundance family is the Sundance television channel, and the Iconoclasts series.  The show matches two people, both well known, but unlikely as a pair, to do one on one interviews.  I've only seen couple of episodes, but they were so good that I watched them a second time.  You can buy entire seasons for $9.99-$14.99 each on iTunes, or rent them from Netflix.

So, just in case you are thinking, "Wow, she watches documentaries on the Sundance channel.  She's so cultured," well, ummm I'm currently watching Sex and the City 2 on HBO.  And it's pretty mind numbing, but I'm watching it for the second time in a week, just because it's on.  I think I might be drawn to this movie for one, and only one scene, and how well it relates to my life right now.  I can't embed the video, but here is a link.  Being a mother is hard!

Well, it's time for me to go say goodnight to Alex and Alex and get myself to bed.