An open letter to Walmart RE: Great Value Freezer Bags

Dear Walmart,

Your Great Value Brand Freezer Bags are a joke. 90% of these bags have holes in them.

In this economic climate people are trying to save money where ever they can.  In know, in my family, after my husband's lay off we looked for creative solutions for shrinking our grocery bill.  One solution was to buy commonly used meats in bulk. When we get home from the store we portion it out into freezer bags to use as needed.  Since the object is saving money, we purchased Great Value freezer bags instead of the more expensive Ziplock or Glad bags.  I am here to tell you, that when you end up throwing out meat because your bags have holes it is NOT a great value.  Also, if you thaw in the refrigerator, your fridge is covered in bacteria filled meat liquid. If you thaw in cold water, your bag is full of water and your meat soaks in water all day.

Tonight's chicken breasts soaking in water. It's pretty obvious there's a hole in the bag. 

Seriously, improve your product. I didn't respond when approximately 90% of the bags in the first THREE boxes I purchased had holes in them. But enough is enough!

I know that Walmart does not manufacture this product themselves. You contract it out to a supplier. I get that. But you are very large corporation. When you tell your supplier to improve, they will. If you need a consultant to visit your supplier and walk them through a Six Sigma improvement plan, that is my husband's specialty. I'm sure he would be willing, at a fee, to help your supplier with this obvious quality control problem.

As it is, I would advise any would be freezer bag shoppers to purchase a different bag.  Great Value, they are not.

14 Months

Evelynn turned 14 months old yesterday. We hung out with a friend and her 5 week old baby last week and Evelynn just seemed so much more like a child than a baby to me. There is so much that she can do and is really fun to be around most of the time.

She's a girl who knows what she wants and she finds all kinds of ways to communicate that to us.  From pointing to grunting to trying to speak to just going and getting it for herself she's communicating even without a vocabulary.  "Bah-Bah" is still her favorite, use for everything, word. Even her Daddy is sometimes "Bah-Bah". But she is getting better. Ask her the cat's name and she will reply "Nnnnnnnnnnnn-nah!"- her version of "Anna".  She calls me "Ma-Ma" but mostly only when she's upset. And when prompted she will call her daddy, "DA!" But even without many true words if you listen to the tones of "Bah-Bah Ba-Boo A-Boo" etc she is picking up on the rhythm and tone of language.  I have a feeling she has a lot to say and when she learns the words we won't be able to keep her quiet!

She's an Action Baby- Running, Jumping, Climbing Trees... Well, maybe not climbing trees. But climbing the couch, ottoman, high chair, rocking chair, stairs and swing set ladders are no problem for her.  We really have to keep a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't fall off those things once she's up.  Her favorite thing to climb is the rocking chair in her room and she is FAST.  The other day I was getting her undressed for her bath when Mike came in her room to hang a new picture. I put the little naked baby on the floor with the instructions not to pee while I helped her daddy.  In the second I turned away to check the placement of the photograph she climbed into the white rocking chair (pictured above).  She loves to make it rock and was having a great time, and since I was close enough to catch her, I let her play for a moment (again with the instruction not to pee on the chair).  Of course that's exactly what she did. That little stinker just peed all over my white chair!

July has been a busy month! We celebrated Canada Day with her first ever black eye.  The cat literally pushed her off the ottoman. She fell into the glider. But, those stem cells must work wonders because it was gone in a couple days.

Evie and Mommy on July 4th

The 4th of July was really fun. Evelynn helped her boyfriend, Shooter, celebrate his first birthday.  He got blocks and we discovered that Evelynn really liked them. She's been in a tower building phase ever since, stacking anything she can find as tall as she can get it.

Building with Shooters Blocks and applauding her tower (it had just crashed).

A few days after the 4th we celebrated my birthday and Evelynn showed us all how to properly enjoy the frosting. Through all of this Mike worked on the kitchen (because of our homebuilder's short cuts and negligence the floors in our 6 year-old home were rotted completely through). It was still a wreck the day after my birthday when Evelynn and I went out of town to attend my step sister's wedding. Mike stayed behind to finish the kitchen.

Evie and the beautiful bride.

Unfortunately the wedding was in the evening and didn't start until Evelynn's normal bedtime. She was a very good girl through the ceremony, with only a few "Bah-Bah"s early on. But by the reception she was a grumpy, tired, cranky-pants.

Still, I managed to tickle a few smiles out of her.

The day after the wedding we returned home to a completed kitchen!!

What an amazing husband I have.  This project was going to be intense, even for the contractors we spoke with.  Mike found so many jaw droppingly AWFUL mistakes and shortcuts in the very small part of the house, we are really scared of what else might be wrong.  He replaced subfloor, drywall, exterior plywood, added support floor joists, flashing (where there was none), taped and mudded cracked drywall where the builder's product failed. He laid new hardwood floors and we painted walls, door and trim. I am SO pleased with the result. Of course, I still hate the oak cabinetry and brass hardware, and I would really like to install a backsplash. But that's next year's project.   This was a terrific treat to come home to.

With the home improvement project completed we've been finding more time to play outside, despite the oppressive heat.

Evie was not a fan of the sprinkler.

But the swing set is always a hit.

And when it's just too hot to play outside, we can always keep cool in the air conditioning.  Evelynn is still in love with her bunny but the pink and brown blankie is really gaining her affections. I leave you this month with a quick video of Evelynn playing with blankie. I thought it was going to be a one time thing, but she repeats the performance pretty regularly, much to our delight.