What I don't love about Costco: all of the packaging.

While I love the efficiency of how everything is packed on pallets in the store, I don't love that it creates so much extra packaging. Fortunately, most of it can be recycled, but my preference would be to not have as much in the first place.

Another aspect of club-store shopping that's somewhat annoying is the fact that when you fall in love with a project, say a large size, 2-[pack of Naked Mighty Mango Juice, and then they quit carrying it. Of course they need to be watching their turns, but it's oh-so-disappointing when you make a lovely new product discovery only to have it ripped away from you.

Finally, I have one wish for Costco: please carry more organic produce and dairy. I know, it's harder to ship, the shelf life is sort of crappy and it's not all that mainstream - yet. Think of it as brand-building and creating more customer goodwill (maybe even increasing that net promoter score). Or, you can think of it as helping your customers live healthier lives so they can live longer and shop for more years at Costco.

Costco vs. Lunds Cost Comparison -or- Our Unholy Love of Costco

As many of you know, we've become rabid Costco fans over the past 6 months. It all started with the whole remodel debacle-thing and tightening our belts. It's since grown to an unholy love that finds us making trips even while on vacation (we went to a Costco in Avon, MA, on our way to Cape Cod a couple weeks ago - pictures coming soon from vacation). Today, I decided to compare what we purchased at Costco to the equivalent products at Lunds, a local high-end grocery store. In all, we saved a whopping $52 by going to Costco! Now, there are a few caveats with that. Tom and both agree that we likely wouldn't be consuming as much lettuce, peppers and strawberries if we weren't buying them in such mass quantities at Costco. We can buy a pound of organic field greens at Costco for $3.99. A 10-oz (~60% of the size) of the same product at Lunds goes for $5.99. A pound at Lunds would cost $9.58! See (tiny) chart above for details on the comparison. Click on the chart to make it bigger.

Another caveat that bears mentioning is the annual fee we pay to shop at Costco. We pay $100 a year for the Executive Membership, which pays us back 2% on purchases made at Costco. If you do the math, without taking into account any of the savings we're racking up by shopping there verses other stores, we'll need to spend $5,000 at Costco to break even. If we don't hit $5K, Costco will refund the difference between our membership and the step below, which is $50. Based on the savings we're seeing in our weekly purchases, coupled with the fact that we'll likely get our membership fee back in rebates, it's all working for us.

We try, and mostly succeed, at buying only what we need and not a lot of extra stuff. Okay, so I succumbed to buying a Shark (the steam floor cleaner) and some 600 thread count sheets. I could make a damn good argument that we needed them. In any case, we usually stick to the things we will use and don't buy things in bulk that will go to waste. We freeze a fair amount of items that we don't use in mass quantities, such as bread and butter.

It's interesting how little we spend at Target now. We make virtually all of our purchases that we used to make at Target at Costco. I wonder how many others are making the shift to club stores in this economy?

Finally, I have to mention the pizza at the Costco deli. Tom, Lark and I ate there today for a mere $6 and change. That was three gigantic slices of cheese pizza and two drinks. Yum. Yum. And it was a little Lou Who, our picky little eater, who begged us to eat there. Costco has even won her little eight year old heart over.

Lark helps with hearing the heartbeat at 17 weeks and first baby blog

Lark came to the first part of my Centering Pregnancy class for my checkup and to see what the class was like. More on Centering Pregnancy below. She helped the midwife listen to the baby's heartbeat. After that, she got to take my blood pressure. She and Tom left after the checkup and he said she nearly floated to the car she was so excited. I think the picture sums it up:-).



A quick explanation on the classes: Centering Pregnancy is offered through the midwifery program at Methodist hospital. Instead of going to see a midwife one-on-one for my checkups, we (sometimes just me) go to a two hour class with other woman who are due around the same time. Right now, we're going about once a month. We'll go more frequently as we get closer to the due date. During the first part of the meeting, each woman gets to talk privately to a nurse and midwife and gets the usual checks - weight, blood pressure, fetal heart rate. After everyone checks in, we talk about the topics of the night. Tonight was managing aches and pains and practicing relaxation techniques for labor. I really like the class.



We'll be 17 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe we're almost half way. Where's the time gone!

Lark's First Eucharist

We celebrated Lark's first Eucharist on Sunday. In attendance were Grandsa and Grandma Alice, Grammy Sue and Poppy, Grandpa Don and Carrie, Grandma Sanday, Grandma Marianne and Patrick, Aunt Debbie, Kristy, Brad, Maxine and Hyde, Annie, David and Anat. Lark was thrilled to be receiving first communion but states that she's even more excited about receiving it this coming weekend as a regular member of the parish.

Lark's Birthday Party

It was a small party this year with a few, close friends - Amelia, Sarah and Eleanor. They played, ate some mac 'n cheese and ice cream cake, opened presents and played some more. The activity for the party was making and decorating cakes. Their cakes turned out better than any cake I've ever made! I believe a good time was had by all. Happy 8th birthday, Lark!

Annie, David and Anat

Lark's homework assignment was to "draw a picture of three people in your neighborhood that make it a better place to live." Naturally, she decided her subjects would be Annie, David and their baby, Anat. She wanted us to tell her what they do for a living, but we convinced her that she should head over to their house herself to do the interview. See the fruits of her labor above.

The Cruise Part II: Just Photos