January 09, 2016

Fun with Eli's birthday gifts

We celebrated Eli's birthday on Thursday, and he got a couple of gifts that we have had so much fun with! My sister sent him a game called BeanBoozled, which is by Jelly Belly. Basically, you spin a spinner which determines the color of jelly bean you have to eat. Each color is one of two flavors--one is good and one is gross. For example, one of the beans could be Buttered Popcorn or it could be Rotten Egg. The only way to find out is by eating it!


It sounds horrible, especially when you see the different flavors:


As a 10-year old boy, Eli thought it sounded delightful, of course, and was super excited to play it. I didn't have the heart to NOT play it with him, so the four of us sat down and took turns spinning the spinner and eating jelly beans. My first one was the Buttered Popcorn/Rotten Egg color. I was so nervous! It took all of two chews before I realized it was definitely the Rotten Egg flavor. I spit it out and then started gulping water. It was terrible, and the taste just wouldn't go away! The kids were cracking up, and Jerry was filming it, of course ;)

I lasted three rounds, and all three were bad luck for me--Rotten Egg, Toothpaste, and Stinky Socks. The kids got all gross ones, too, but somehow, Jerry didn't get any! I insisted that he keep eating jelly beans until he got a gross one, because it wasn't fair ;) He tried Canned Dog Food, and I could smell it on his breath from several feet away.

As gross as the game is, it was fun to play with the boys. Boys love that stuff! My parents were even great sports and played with them yesterday.

I always have a hard time buying Eli a birthday gift, because his birthday is RIGHT after Christmas. He mentioned something called a Wubble Bubble Ball that he'd seen on TV, so I ended up getting that for him. It turned out to be one of the coolest toys ever! Last night, Jerry was working, but the kids and I had a blast playing with the bubble/ball. It's a very lightweight rubbery ball (it comes deflated, with a pump to fill it). It's practically indestructible, and we proved that last night.



Noah was terrified it was going to pop, so he kept running to his room when Eli or I would sit on it. It's lightweight enough that you can play catch with it in the house, but it's so flexible that it can't pop. We had so much fun messing around with it last night.

(Edit: Well, so much for "it can't pop", haha. What a bummer! After I wrote this post, it got a hole in it. There is a lifetime warranty on it, which was appealing, but when I checked out the details, you have to pay $6.99 for a new one! Since it only lasted two days, we won't be doing that. That company underestimated the activity level of 10- and 11-year old boys!)


I was a total insomniac last night. I didn't fall asleep until sometime after 2:30, and got up at 6:00. I almost fell asleep again after I ate breakfast, but I wanted to get in my long run before it started raining, so I got dressed to head out. It was 45 degrees! Two years ago (actually, it was Eli's birthday in 2014) it was 30 below zero, and the coldest day on record in over 100 years.

It was a little windy today, so it actually felt colder than I was expecting. On the schedule today was a 75-minute long run (at easy pace), so my only goal was to keep my heart rate under 146. I am loving running at an easy pace! I actually really looked forward to my run today. I didn't look at my Garmin at all while I was running, so I had no idea what my pace was; but my heart rate alert only beeped twice in the entire 75 minutes (both times were when a dog bark startled me), so I knew I was running at a very easy pace.

This was the first run in a VERY long time that I was able to completely zone out and forget that I was even running. When running at a pace that's even slightly uncomfortable, I'm constantly counting down the miles or minutes. But today, I zoned out and didn't think about the running at all. It was kind of weird, actually--I don't even remember huge chunks of my run! It was nice to not really think about anything at all. When I got home, I saw that I was probably running a little too easy (my heart rate was really low), but it was still in the aerobic zone, so it didn't really matter.



I was tired all day, so I worked on my puzzle for a long time, and actually took a short nap in the afternoon (something I never do). Hopefully I can get a good night's sleep tonight!

12 comments:

  1. I swear that most of the jelly beans in Bean Boozled are the bad flavors! I've played a few different times, and most everybody eats the gross ones. Somebody is always like Jerry with the good luck to get the few yummy ones. Happy birthday Eli!

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  2. Hi Katie!!!! Just wanted to remind you that SHAMELESS starts TOMORROW NIGHT!!!! So excited for it to finally be back on!!! If you have Comcast I just saw today that the new episode that's going to be on tomorrow is already on on demand- I'm waiting till tomorrow tho bc I can't wait for my normal Sunday night TV before the week starts!

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    1. You have been such an inspiration to me, I'm down 9 lbs and have a lot to go but I'm just taking it 1 day at a time! Thanks for being my motivation!

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    2. (I had to add on to my original comment bc for some reason the comment box wouldn't let me add more- strange lol)

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  3. We played bean-boozled at my office Christmas party!! So fun! And, yes, there are more yucky flavors than good ones.....that's what makes it fun!! :)

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  4. I brought that Bean Boozled game to my work a couple of years ago....working a before school program with kids. I played it with some 4th/5th graders and they LOVED it.

    I agree the dog food was the smelliest ever!!! Pretty fun overall for sure!

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  5. My boys (5 & 7 YO) got those balls for Christmas and they lasted less than 2 days. We also decided to not replace them!!!!😳

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  6. Hi Katie! New-ish reader here, also working on slowing down my long run pace by focusing on heart rate. I was wondering if your route was flat, because your paces seem pretty consistent and mine are all over the place. I run some hills so I think it makes sense, but it's hard to get used to seeing such large differences from mile to mile!

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    1. It is truly PANCAKE FLAT where I live... I wish we had some hills, so that I could do hill work, but the most elevation change I will get during a run is usually about five feet. So yes, your splits will likely vary much more than mine because of the hills!

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  7. I think it took a whole 15 minutes for my kids to pop their wubble. I opted not to get a new one either. I cheat at Beanboozled. If you smoosh the jelly bean, you can smell what flavor it is.

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  8. The game looks awesome...my youngest nephew would LOVE it!

    I LOVE runs where I forget that I'm running and everything just works perfectly!

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  9. We had one of those balls and the kids were playing outside with it....it bounced against a shrub and popped!

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I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

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