Blue Springs: Home of the Blue Springs (and awesome lakes!!)

I've given my topics over to my Facebook followers. For the next few days, expect to see random posts from all sorts of places. 

The first, Blue Springs. WHERE did its name come from, and WHAT'S SO AWESOME about Blue Springs. MO. (Thank you Stephen Locke for your topic!!).

Blue Springs, MO is a decently populated city just east of Kansas City, MO. It falls into the KC METRO area, however there is a definite change in scenery between KC, MO and Blue Springs, MO. When coming into the city from the West, you come in off of HWY 470, and can enter through Woods Chapel Road. This road takes you between Lake Jacomo (assuming this was derived from JAckson COunty, MO) and Blue Springs Lake. 

According to the City's Official Website, "Blue Springs’ history is tied to the migration of settlers on their westward journey. Pioneers found the area to be an ideal stopover due to the abundance of cool, clean water from a spring of the Little Blue River - hence the name Blue Springs. The presence of water and a need for pioneer supplies led to the construction of a grist mill and permanent settlement at the current site of the City’s Burrus Old Mill Park, on Woods Chapel Road." (Retrieved from http://www.bluespringsgov.com/index.aspx?NID=60). 

During the late 1800's, there were many settlers following the creation of the railroads across the United States. Blue Springs was one of these cities. Blue Springs was one of these cities. Officially a town in 1880, Blue Springs predates Kansas City, MO. 

In the 1970's Blue Springs had a population of around 6,000. Now the population is nearing 52,000 residents. Although the number seems high, Blue Springs is one of the suburbs of Kansas City that still has a small town feel. The 'main' streets of the city, are still the busiest of the town. The town originally consisted of Hwy 40, 7hwy and main street. Now, much larger and still expanding to the north, the city has grown immensely. I knew I was going to love this town when I went to turn on my water. I thought the day would take forever, as I had to update my drivers license, AND register my vehicle. Turns out, the city hall holds ALL of these offices in one building. I was in and out of there in a few hours and it was glorious.

Blue Springs is also ranked #49 in the TOP 100 PLACES TO LIVE by CNN. It has a lower crime rate, good neighborhoods, great ranked schools, and has an overall pleasant aura. I LOVE living in Blue Springs, MO. The settlers were right when they settled here....they were on to something...

IT's BEAUTIFUL OUT HERE, and the people are great! :)

PS...If you ever have the chance to check out Minsky's Pizza in Blue Springs, they have some great old photos of the city hanging on their walls. They're also impossible to find online....

The early morning

So, the husband has been working crazy hours. He is a restaurant manager. (I recommend this job to no one who has a family at home). They've recently opened a new location and the hours he has spent at work preparing for the open and then the after opening chaos has been crazy. Yesterday he worked 18 hours.

Some people only work 18 hours a week...could you imagine doing that all in one day? Sheesh, It's got to be exhausting. Not to mention, he hasn't seen his family in a few days. The hard part is that I understand what he's going through, as we opened a restaurant together years ago. It was fine because we were together. Now that we have kids, the hard part is that they don't understand. They are 2 and 1...and they don't understand why Daddy is gone when they wake up and doesn't get home before they go to bed. Which, in turn, puts stress on me because they're crankier than normal.

{End rant}

Any ways, on with my blog...

With his schedule this way, I haven't had a way to get to the grocery store because he has our vehicle. Our groceries were running extra thin yesterday and we had ramen for dinner because we ran out of all of our basic essential dinners. This morning, some how I was blessed with enough time to run to the grocery store.

4:45 am.

Holy COW.

Can somebody say EARLY?

EARRRRRLY.........

anyways, all joking aside, I survived it. I was up HOURS before the kids got up around 6:30 and 7:30. It was a pretty amazing feeling. Granted, it is only 10:13, and I'm already tired....I would definitely be willing to do this again. It might be a good thing to get up this early, journal, blog, read any books I've been wanting to catch up on, or even have a quiet time with my soul source of energy, Jesus.


Anyways, I created this blog to outlet some of my adult thoughts (sometimes childish) since I am at home with two children who aren't great at communicating yet. I crave adult conversations. I crave intellect and just a meaningful convo. Is that too much to ask?

What should I blog about next? ANYBODY, anybody????? Give me a topic, I'll do some research and give you my thoughts.

The dreaded shopping list

Am I the only one who creates a shopping list in hopes of a better organized grocery trip, but it turns out to be a hot mess instead? I'm not one of those parents who lets the children cry the entire time they are shopping. Instead, I do my best to entertain them and make sure they are well-behaved. This causes me to leave the store with usually only a third of my list. And let's just be honest...we are lucky if any of the ingredients I chose actually go to a whole recipe.

I was introduced to a blog, The Comp List, by another friend. This woman is a saint. She takes a lot of time collecting ads online from stores that are local to this area (KC and surrounding small towns stretching as far as Topeka to the West and at least Blue Springs/Grain Valley to the East). Essentially, with a comp list, you can take a trip to Wal-Mart (WHO PRICE MATCHES) and unfortunately they are never consistent. Some ask to see the ad, others, just take your word for it. So, make your trip to Wal-Mart with all of your ads (compiled by the 'Comp List') and enjoy your savings. Some people save hundreds of dollars monthly.

I haven't made it this far in my shopping organization because the last time I went to the Wal-Mart in Blue Springs at Adam's Dairy Landing, they did not honor my word. I had to have the ad there with me (even though they are supposed to cross check and have a book of ads there at their registers). I don't own a printer and can't imagine printing off adds weekly, but it's a great way to save money if you're dedicated.

Now, when I start creating my shopping list, I literally start listing things off the top of my head that I know we need. These are usually essentials, i.e. bread, milk, eggs..etc. Then I think, okay, none of the recipes that sound good contain these basic ingredients, so I start listing recipes by the name of the dish, and what i need for it under that title.

Right now my list has the basic essentials at the top, and then a title of Chicken Pot Pie. Under that, I have celery, and 2 frozen pie crusts. I know for SURE that once I get to the store, the kids will some how distract me from getting those staple ingredients.  SO..I am trying something new. I am going to grab everything under my recipes list first and THEN, I am going to go through to the items second where I know for sure of their locations. For example, I will run in, pick up celery, pie crusts...and then once those are in my cart, I will head over to milk, eggs, bread because I know exactly where those are at.

I have to go sometime tomorrow, so we will see how this goes.

Wish me luck!!