February 22

It is a beautiful day to celebrate the birth of George Washington.
You may disagree, but Mrs. Bluth believes that some words to describe him are:
-Strong
-Wise
-Creative
-Brave
-Caring
-Leader
-Successful
-Willing
-Determined
-Extraordinary

The list could continue, but all those words also describe Mr. Bluth. The irony of this post is that Mr. Bluth and George Washington share the same birthday. Mrs. Bluth looks at George Washington and Mr. Bluth as honorable men with numerous successes.

Happy Birthday.

Mr. Bluth is so incredible that for his 25 birthday, he deserves to have his face on a quarter just like George Washington.

Thrifty Fun

The past week involved Mr. & Mrs. Bluth searching for fun in thrift stores.

Thanks to a thrift store find, Mrs. Bluth was able to create the cheapest Valentine gift with her own adaptation of a pinterest idea:
One year, she will improve the quality of the gift for Mr. Bluth.

At another thrift store, we found some more fun and purchased a puzzle and three books. The best part about this experience was that the thrift store was having a sale so instead of 49 cents for a book we got it for 50% off. To be thrifty shoppers, we only bought a few items.

The thrifty fun really began as we stopped at the Brown Elephant which is classified as a resale shop.

Here is a picture from the inside which hardly shows how big and how many different items were in the store.
The exciting news from this store is that we finally purchased a couch. We have looked in so many different places and we found what we were looking for and couldn't say no to the price.

Now in the picture she doesn't look like anything special, but she is comfortable and will easily match other furniture that we search for and just imagine some cute accent pillows on her and she will be perfect! To top off the thrifty fun at the Brown Elephant, we also found this gem.
Finding this huge atlas is like having Christmas all over again and will provide hours of entertainment for both of us and especially for Mrs. Bluth. This atlas is about 300 pages and it is full of maps of the United States and the world. Mrs. Bluth had some home improvement ideas/Do it yourself crafts using maps, but she is not sure she can cut out pages from this beautiful book.

Mr. & Mrs. Bluth are happy to report their success of thrift shopping.

The New Meaning of Free

As a single college student, you seize upon anything that is free. Attending ward activities is partly due to the fact that you will get some dessert or even better an entire meal. You do not just go to dessert night at someone's apartment to socialize, but to actually eat the food. All the student government officials that stand outside the Wilkinson Center or the Library have a better chance of talking to students if they are handing out something. And we cannot overlook all the club booths and that the most popular booths always have something to give away for free. College students love to go home not just to see mom and dad, but to raid the pantry and food storage.

Mr. & Mrs. Bluth both experienced the single college student syndrome and all they can say is that the fanatical lifestyle of getting anything free only amplifies as a newlywed couple.

We have been enjoying the codes to get us a free Redbox

January and February means free Museum Days so we went to the Field Museum on Friday.

This museum is huge and there was just not enough time to look at everything. We started by visiting this little guy first. This is Mr. Bluth and Sue

We then spent most of our time learning about ancient civilizations which included looking into the civilizations from Mexico, Peru, Egypt, and all over North America. One of the many fascinating facts is that there were sloths that were 10 feet tall!

There was an exhibit that highlighted women's fashion throughout the ages and there was a wall covered in women's shoes. A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes.

We also learned about the Tsavo Lions and they are huge. This one was shot in 1991 in a small village in Zambia. This lion killed at least 6 people and the citizens in the village did not know what to do because it was against the law to hunt lions, so a man from Chicago was on a Safari and he heard the story and went and killed the man-eater. This lion may not look too big, but it is the largest man-eating lion ever recorded.

Another furry friend we came across was Bushman. He was adopted by Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo in 1930 and is a legend. On a single day in June, about 120,000 people came to see him when it was thought he was dying.

The Field Museum has been focusing on natural history since 1893 and they have an amazing collection.

We got to see and learn about many things and it was all free.

Mr. Bluth rode the train for free while Mrs. Bluth had to pay, but the couple of dollars was worth the ride to the Field Museum.

On Saturday we enjoyed Chicagoland by going to the temple. The drive out to the suburbs was relaxing and the temple was beautiful.

And finally to end our weekend of free activities we stopped at Wendy's on the way home. Here are the reasons for Wendy's.
1. Mr. Bluth loves Wendy's
2. There are no Wendy's in downtown Chicago-only in the suburbs
3. Mrs. Bluth had a gift card to Wendy's that she got for a graduation present-her High School Graduation which was in '07.

Mr. & Mrs. Bluth enjoyed splurging off the value menu as they ate their free meal.

Feels like home

Mrs. Bluth moved to Nampa, Idaho when she was about three years old. Her family has never moved since, but instead has watched the town develop and grow. One of the many tourists spots the Lee family would take family and friends to see was the meat-packing plant. Everyone would whip out their cameras as they would drive by and they loved to see the gut wagon. Imagine animal carcasses, flesh, and other remains falling into a truck. Most visitors were slightly disgusted, but Mrs. Bluth embraced the abnormality and thought nothing of the meat plant.

Remember this book

Maybe you are like Mr. and Mrs. Bluth and have never read the book, but the storyline is well known. Well this is where we live. We live in the meat packing district and while the meatpacking industry has changed since Upton Sinclair wrote his book, the industry is still thriving in Chicago.

This might sound appalling to live in such a place, but we live in the West Loop which is a safe and great place to live. In fact there is a very popular club right next to us so during the day our area is industrious and at night it is social and lively. Another bonus is that all the meat packaging occurs inside so you never see a gut wagon or any sign of what they are actually doing. At the end of the work day the workers spray off the sidewalk and leave no trace of their work. Mrs. Bluth does swear that she saw a hoof once.

Mr. and Mrs. Bluth are perfect for each other because both have dreamed of being a spy or a CIA agent and so maybe they can fulfill one more dream and investigate into what is really happening in their neighborhood. We have no footage of the trucks, but just a couple of the buildings on our street.

This sign seemed a little interesting. Never had thought about purchasing all my meat and pizza supplies at the same location. No wonder Chicago is famous for their pizza.

Mr. and Mrs. Bluth had no intention of turning you into a strict vegan, but only wanted you to experience one of their adventures.

Beef, it's what's for dinner.