Back to Blogging?

Okay, there have been a lot of reasons that I haven't been blogging.  One of them is actually pretty stupid.  There were two obnoxious widgit graphics that appeared over my text and I didn't know how to get rid of them.  I know that I could look online to find out or just experiment with settings, but our internet can be SO slow sometimes (remember dial up speed?) and with the boys constantly distracting me it was just not something that I was doing.  Today (I hope) I did it!  Yay!  Now that that isn't there to bother me, perhaps I will get back to more regular blogging.  At least I have been doing monthly updates of what I have been doing with the boys on my blog http://entertainingmykids.blogspot.com/

I want to write a bit about our trip to Etosha last month, but for now I will write about my tripS to the store to buy food.  This morning I went to the fruit and vegetable market to buy produce and milk.  That was all that I needed.  I got the produce.  I can generally accept that our produce is trucked in from South Africa and does not always look the way I expect produce to look.  I can also usually deal when an item or two is out of stock.  Today there was no milk to buy.  Correction, there was no milk that had an expiration date any later than today.   There was some with yesterday's date and some with today's date.  That doesn't really help me for the rest of the week.

This afternoon I decide to head out to the market to buy milk.  My husband wants some ramen for work as well.  Simple enough.  Still, since I am making the trip I might as well buy for the week.  They had tortillas in stock (yay!) which I have not seen for three weeks.  We are out, so I bought five packages of eight tortillas to put in our freezer.  That starts us out at $15 US.  I continue, happy that they do have milk AND ramen AND even the kind of yogurt my kids like.  The dates on the products are all good.  Of course since I am buying so much I figure I should get flour since I am low, chips, etc. etc.  Once we get over the magic number of $15 US we need to get a tax receipt so we can be reimbursed for the 15% tax on things here.  (Your state tax isn't sounding so bad now, is it?)  I load up the cart and decide I should check how much money I brought.  I wasn't going to get much and now I have quite a bit.  I have about $100 US so I plan accordingly.  I end up buying about $70 worth of stuff.  The boys have been playing with food in the cart, trying to climb out, making loud noises, grabbing for things on the shelves, etc. etc.  I am so frazzled as I check out that I forget to get my tax receipt.  Grrrr... I could wait in the looooooooong line at customer service, but I really don't want to be with my screaming demons a moment longer.  There goes $10 US down the drain.  I know, not a huge sum, but it still makes me mad.  There was no good reason not to get that "free" money. 

So we get home and the boys are walking so slowly while I am carrying heavy bags.  They are fighting to get in the house and I open the door without turning off the alarm first.  I have to push past the kids who are hanging on my legs and trying to be the first ones in the house and get over to the control panel to turn it off before the alarm company starts calling.  Then Ryan is upset and needs comforting.  Justin decides to help put away the food because he knows I am not pleased with them.  He puts some in special "tricky" places for me.  Lovely.  I think I have found everything.  I wish I hadn't been busy with Ryan so long.

Good thing I got more than milk and ramen because I am NOT looking forward to my next trip to the store!

Under $20

Remember in China how I was always so impressed with how much I could get for so little?  My Namibian shopping experiences are not at all like my experience in China.  I have to take a pasta salad to a party on Saturday.  According to the recipe it serves 12, but since it is a potluck side dish I figure it will serve more.  

• Medium jar of mayo (generic was $1.90 cheaper a jar than Hellman's)
• Red wine vinegar (hopefully!  Didn't see any red wine vinegar at the store, but decided brown grape vinegar might be it.  Generic was $6.28 cheaper than German brand)
• Black olives (jar, but equivalent of a can of olives in the US)
• 1 kg of spiral pasta (saved just over $4 by getting non-colored over tri-colored)
• 2 yellow bell peppers
• 4 tomatoes

FOR A TOTAL OF $17.98

Maybe I am just really cheap and out of touch with US prices, but this seemed like it cost a lot. Often there is not a choice of brand. Since some of the items here had a local or imported option, I was able to save. For produce I got the cheapest option. All the produce was looking pretty dismal.  There are some other ingredients that I already have on hand.  We will see how it tastes.  Perhaps I should have spent $12 to get "quality" ingredients. 

Of course I also purchased additional items including 1.06 gallons of milk ($6.85) and 17 cough drops ($3.32).  The cough drops taste like burped up sausage, though they claim to be cherry flavored.  I think I will stop coughing just to avoid using one.

A Trip to the "Zoo"

Today it was too cold to go outside and Justin really needed to get out of the house. The wonderful Grandma Pat was willing to babysit Ryan so I could take Justin somewhere--anywhere! First I dragged him to TJ Maxx. Poor kid. They were having 15% off all purchases so I had him look through the clearance clothes with me. I ended up finding him quite a few cute things at very good prices. That made me happy. Then we went to Petco. Justin was thrilled to see ferrets, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, rats, snakes, turtles, spiders, lizards, iguanas, birds, fish, frogs, someone with a dog, and probably a few other things I no longer remember. Less crowded than a zoo and much better climate control, not that there is a zoo near where my parents live anyway. We then went to IHOP for pancakes. As we pulled into the parking lot, Justin became concerned. He had told me that he loved pancakes, but then told me that Grandma and Papa love pancakes too. He got upset that they weren't there. I think something like "Grandma, Papa love pancakes. Oh no, not here!" were his exact words. I convinced him that it was okay and we went in. When we were being seated the man asked how we were and Justin replied, "I want pancakes please!" We were told that we were in the right place. Justin and I had a good time and he ate so much. I was impressed. It was a nice afternoon out with my big boy. I truly enjoyed it and felt so grateful that my mom gave me this opportunity for some 1:1 time with my little boy who is learning to share his mom most of the time.