It just happened to be David's half-birthday on Friday. We didn't really go out for his half-birthday, but it was fun to pretend that it was a giant celebration of how special David was. In actuality - we've been looking to buy a treadmill for a long time and treadmill shopping with a 23 month old is not the most fun thing in the whole world. Lots of "I want to try it!" followed by climbing all over the treadmill and then running around the store. (Even if she started in the stroller, we didn't have awesome success at keeping her in there.) One of us was always trying to contain her, and it wasn't super conducive to making such a big purchase. So buying the treadmill was really the main goal of the evening (as was using the Texas Roadhouse gift card my parents so generously gave to us after Melissa's wedding). However, I did surprise David with a Bocce Ball set as a little half-birthday gift.
Apparently, we were in a spendy mood and we came home with a bunch of great things:
1 Treadmill
2 Scheels hats
3 bags of jelly beans
1 diaper bag/backback combo
1 bloomin onion
12 Texas Roadhouse rolls
1 20 oz bone-in Ribeye steak
2 mashed potatoes
2 house salads
The best part? We only spent about $70!
Here's the story:
When David's firm merged into Eide Bailly, we found out that they now offered a "fitness stipend" to help their employees stay healthy and happy. It's actually pretty awesome, you get $600 a year to spend on fitness whatever (it can be a gym membership, fitness equipment, etc...) and the only catch that you "use it or lose it" and you have to use it by the end of April. We'd been talking about getting a treadmill for a long time and we'd saved up a couple hundred dollars for it - but this stipend opened up a larger variety of treadmills that we could buy (read: buy at a store instead of KSL). While looking at treadmills we found that one of the features that stood out to us was the hydraulic lift assist on some models. Pretty much every model folds up for convenient storage, but most of the ones in our price range just stayed in place with a steel pin in the side and when released crashed down unless a fairly strong adult was lowering it down. (Those things are heavy!) One child couldn't release it, but I kept having visions of two of my children working together to release the pin and then getting crushed under the track. We thought a lot about it, but couldn't ever make a decision. We couldn't make ourselves buy one without the hydraulics even if it was in our price range. But we also couldn't quite justify spending an extra $300- we could justify it in words, but couldn't ever pull the trigger.
We decided to go to Sheels to check out their treadmill selection. We were instantly woo'ed by their "Free Delivery and Set Up." (About an $80 value at RC Willey and not covered by the fitness stipend.) We'd been looking at treadmills for a long time, in-store, and online. We knew we just needed a basic treadmill with at least a 2.25 motor. The only extra functions we cared about were the easy-lift, and that it had a place to set our ipad so we could watch netflix while running. (Both kind of silly things.) The guy who was helping us kept trying to sell us on the super cool features of some of the more expensive models, but we don't really need "runs a simulation of a trail around Boston" or whatever. After talking with the guy for a while about several other models we found out that they had a model with the easy-lift that was only $599. They didn't have a model out on the floor, but he said that they had several in boxes in the back. We looked at some pictures on his computer and it looked good. We told him we wanted to think about it, and that we were going to go look at some other places and we'd call him back later if we decided to buy it. We took his card, stopped by the outdoor games to look at Bocce Ball and then headed to the escalator. Before we even got to the bottom we decided that we just wanted to buy that treadmill. It was basically everything that we'd been looking for, and for almost $300 less than we'd been able to find anywhere else. We turned around and headed right back up to make our purchase. The guy seemed a little surprised to see us, but we had been looking for a treadmill for so long that we were just ready to make it happen. Our final total? $641.09. Plus, they threw in a couple of Sheels hats for spending over $250. Haha. Awesome. But not as awesome as the fact that our treadmill was only going to cost us $41.09 including delivery and set up!
(Delivered and set up today!)
We finished all the paperwork and were so excited as we got back in our car (around seven o'clock). I called Texas Roadhouse for their "Call Ahead Seating". Earlier we had decided that we'd go to dinner later in the evening instead of right at 6, but when I called they said that they had a 70-90 minute wait. Yikes! We were really feeling TRH, and so we decided that we'd just wait. I texted Josh & Wendy to make sure that he'd be okay to watch Lydia for a little longer than planned and we headed to American Fork to burn an hour while we waited for our table to be ready. We stopped at Target to look at Bocce Ball sets (just in case David wanted a different kind) and walked around for a while. Sometime during this, I started telling David about this diaper bag/backpack combo that I really wanted. We had gone to the gardens with Elsie and Carson (and Ashley) earlier in the day, and I was wishing SO much that I had a little backpack to wear instead of carrying my purse/diaper bag all over. My shoulder was killing me. I had noticed a pretty inexpensive backpack type diaper bag at Walmart so we headed over there so I could show him. I think we were both on a spending-high from our awesome treadmill deal, and I barely had to twist his arm to buy me the diaper bag. (I've never been much of a purse girl, so it makes me laugh at how many diaper bags I've accumulated and how much I love them.) I'm seriously in love with it! It's grey and pink (David thinks that it's red, but it's totally just a hot pink) and it's perfect.
We also picked up a couple bags of jelly beans because they are so yummy (we've gone through like 4 bags in the last month - luckily they are only a dollar). Then we headed to dinner. We basically walked in and were immediately seated, it was awesome. We decided that because we had a gift card we were just going to get whatever we wanted to eat. We ended up with a yummy bloomin' onion appetizer, and then decided to split the 22 oz Ribeye described as "our most flavorful steak", we each added some sides. Our waiter took it to heart when we said that we didn't want any peanuts but that we really loved their rolls. He kept the fresh rolls coming and even brought out four extras to send home with us. It was a delicious dinner, and we had a great time eating and talking. After using the gift card from my parents, the total was only about $1.20 (plus tip). So awesome! We are so grateful to my parents for giving us such a nice night out. It was so nice to be able to go out on a real date and be so successful at getting the things done that we wanted to get done. We got home, and Josh had taken great care of Lydia who was sleeping soundly. *sigh* It was pretty much perfect!
Our Saturday was just as fun and successful. We got up fairly early, ate yummy breakfast, then went out into our yard to do some spring prep work. We turned on our sprinklers and weeded our front flower bed. Lydia was such a champ and she walked around and helped us, never trying to run away into the road (which is real progress for us). She would pick up a weed stem and say "I help" and then drop it into the bucket. It was nice to be outside as a family and get some good things done that we needed to get done. The afternoon was busy, as David went and presented at a Beta Alpha Psi meeting about "The First Audit Engagement", and I had a Red Ladder Design consultation while Lydia took a nap/chattered up in her bed. After those things, we hung out for a while and then got ready for Elsie's birthday party!
We had volunteered our house to the Coopers to host Elsie's 2-year birthday party so that they didn't have to worry about renting out a church or a park. The kids loved playing on the slides outside, and the adults all seemed to have a great time. Elsie was a darling birthday girl, and Lydia loved eating the birthday cake. She savored every single crumb.
It was a fabulous weekend, especially because it was my last Sunday of doing all of the Primary Secretary responsibilities. An assistant Secretary has been called, and I met with his this week to divide up the duties. I'm so relieved and SO so excited to be able to really be able to feel like I'm fulfilling my calling and not just barely staying above water. Yay for wonderful weekends!
