Turkey Bacon

After grocery shopping in Utah, I have returned to the "sticker shock" mode from when we first moved here.  I walked my way through Safeway repeating, "No honey, it's too much money" more times than I can count.  For the most part, I avoid grocery shopping.  It involves a 25 minute drive with 3 boys and then listening to a screaming Ethan through the entire store because HE WANTS HIS DADDY AND HE KNOWS HIS DADDY IS THERE!  Since Doug is already there most days, I like to call him with a short list daily of little things we need, solving many of my shopping issues.  Now, the problem with that is that Doug has no comprehension of "sticker shock."  Last night he purchased apples for $4.99/lb.  I don't dare eat them - I feel like I need to save them for a special occasion.  

Last night Doug also bought turkey bacon (smoke cured chopped and "formed"), which is especially surprising for him.  He also bought some classic thick sliced naturally smoked with a pepper crust bacon.  We were looking over how much fat and calories we would be saving ourselves by choosing the "healthier" option and this is what we found in a serving of 2 pan fried slices:

Turkey Bacon                 Regular Bacon

70 calories                       80 calories

6g. fat                             5g. fat

30 mg. cholesterol             20 mg. cholesterol

360 mg. sodium                260 mg. sodium

4g. protein                      7g. protein

So tell me folks, what am I saving myself by choosing the "healthier" option?  The wrapping says right on it: 50% less fat than pork bacon - and we are comparing this to thick sliced bacon, not that regular paper thin stuff..  Not seein' it.  So, thinking it might be a fluke, we decided to compare it to another package of a different brand of bacon with the same results.  So, really, eating turkey bacon is all sacrifice and no gain.

*This is my 100th post.  I feel ashamed that I have wasted the grand occasion on a review of turkey bacon, but that's what I have to say for today.

Oh, I guess I have something additional to say - I hate transitioning children to a regular bed as much as I hate potty training.  Yesterday Doug, being home from work, was helping out around the house.  He removed the sheet from Ethan's crib to be washed.  A little while later, Ethan brought Doug a new sheet (which we were both a bit surprised about) and they re-made the crib.  At nap time, Ethan screamed himself into a frenzy and ended up puking all over his new sheet.  At that point, I was out of crib sheets.  Well, I know I have another one, but I still don't know where it is.  I thought, "Well, Brenden was in a regular bed by 19 months, Nolan was 18 months, and Ethan is almost 18 months, so let's see how it goes..."  3 hours later, Ethan was still wandering around the room screaming.  I think he finally passed out on the floor for maybe 20 minutes.  When we let the animal out of its cage, it was wearing no pants and no diaper.

I hate Wednesdays.  Doug has to go to church at 7:00 every Wednesday (6:00 if he has a meeting and no work), which means that he is either gone longer on work days or he still has to go into town on his days off and leave me to still put kids to bed by myself.  (Side note: Safeway pharmacy is debating either being open until 8:00 or opening for 5 hours on Sunday.  I don't like either option - that's not what we signed up for, but I still always put my kids to bed by myself on work nights.)  

So, knowing he was leaving, Doug was kind enough to get Nolan and Ethan in their pajamas.  At 6:30, I read them books, kissed them goodnight and put them into regular beds - for about 1 whole minute.  I again kissed them goodnight and tucked them in.  I went down to make sure Brenden was getting ready for bed and I could hear Ethan screaming.  During the hour I was in Brenden's room, the screaming escalated and started to sound panicked.  I started to worry.  Finally, when the the panicking was muffled, but still very apparent, I investigated.  When I opened the door, I found Nolan laying on a huge pile of "stuff" in his room, but no sign of Ethan.  The pile contained all of the decorative pillows, the bed pillows, every blanket and stuffed animal he could find, and on the very bottom was poor Ethan struggling to breathe.  Unhappy mama.  Blah blah blah fast forward several hours and we have: (1) a disassembled basket that previously held toys (no really, the basket, I did not mean that they removed the toys from it - they disassembled a woven basket), (2) a room that looks like a tornado swept through it and (3) two wide awake boys.  After tossing them back into bed innumerable times, Ethan finally fell asleep around 10:00, right as Doug got home.  I think Nolan was up until nearly 11:00.

It was hard with Brenden during nap time.  We usually found him fast asleep in a large pile of toys, which later transitioned to a large pile of books - he has loved them since he was 2 weeks old.  At night, he was too scared of the dark to get out of bed, but he was still always draped across a pile of books.  Now the kids don't have toys or books in their room except that one basket (I guess they took care of that) which had cars and a few animals.  Nolan was hard to transition (but it had to be done since another kid needed the crib) and still is, but we survived.  Brenden usually stayed in bed, so Nolan didn't have a partner in crime.  Nolan and Ethan on the other hand...  As soon as I put Ethan in the bed last night I told Doug it was going to be a long few weeks.  

Now that is assuming I stick it out.  He is still really little and no one else needs the crib, so he might be headed back to his native land.

And now you've forgotten that my 100th post was sadly about turkey bacon.