#131

Homeschool….

As a homeschooling mommy, on the road, I take every opportunity for my children to learn about the roots of our beautiful country.  While in Wisconsin, which is steeped in history, I decided to delve into a lesson that would change their lives forever.  I took the family to the Jelly Belly Packing Warehouse! For the kids… of course!

Seriously if you know me, you know that I love me some Jelly Belly’s!  I can eat my weight in them, which I often do.  My post baby bod is half due to the fact that I’m still eating a large amount of them guilt free hoping the “I just had a baby” excuse holds for a little bit longer!!  I’ll be milking that excuse until the youngest is 7!!!  “I’m nursing and need the extra calories” is also a great one!

Apparently, I’m ecstatic!

Anyways…They have a HUGE candy store with Jelly Belly Beans, chocolates, gummies and other souvenirs…which was my heaven!  There was a Belly Sample Bar where I sampled one of every single kind!

Then to top it off there was a 35 minute train ride tour through the warehouse where sadly I answered all the Jelly Belly history questions correctly.
“Where did Jelly Belly go where no candy had been before?”  “That would be space, Reagan was a huge Jelly Belly fan and sent some in a shuttle” ….Correct.
“What flavor did Jelly Belly create for Reagan” “Blueberry. So they could gift him with a red, white and blue set to go in the specially made jar on Air Force One”  Correct.
Did I look like a crazy psychopath for knowing way too much about the dumb candy?  Yes I did.  Did I mention that 2 weeks ago I toured Air Force One at the Reagan Museum where  I found all this out, to look less insane?  No I did not.  I rolled with the ‘crazy Jelly fan’ theme, it got me a whole lot more free samples!!!
While on the tour, I gotta admit, that while learning about the family that has owned and operated the company since 1869, the thought did pass through my mind… ‘do they have children under 10 that I could marry my children off to’…..just being honest.

The Jelly Belly’s that are not absolutely perfect are separated from the bunch and put into an irregular pile.  They bag up all those bunk beans and sell them in 5 pound packs.  They also bag into 5 pound packs everything else they make that doesn’t pass the perfection test (Chocolate, fudge, mints, candy corns, gummies etc) and call those packs Hodge Podge.  (PS I make a soup called Hodge Podge soup that got so popular with my friends that Hodge became a nickname, so I HAD to buy a bag of that!!) They had a deal of buy 2 bags get 3 free for each.  So yes I walked away with 50 pounds of candy, don’t worry about it…

Some ‘Lovely’ trick flavors.  The same exact colors as the most popular bunch, just gross….hmmm

We became good friends, Mr. Sample Man and moi!

Saylor chose a pack of jeweled princess Jelly Belly’s

Renn out of focus but stylin none the less!

And going off on a tangent…Speaking of post baby (not) hot bod….Have any of you seen the picture of that fitness model mom, Maria Kang, in her skimpy workout attire showing off her perfect abs while her 3 little boys play at her feet, with the caption “What’s Your Excuse?”

Well, Maria Kang, My excuse is, I’M FREAKIN TIRED!!  And you know what, God knows that if I had a body like her, I wouldn’t be nice.  I’d walk around naked… all day… every day… every where….and stare at my reflection in every store window I’d pass…because even if I didn’t need clothes, I would still go shopping to show off the hotness that was me.  So I’m basically protecting myself, family and others by NOT working out!

Which brings me to our outing after The Jelly Belly Warehouse.  While driving back to the venue we saw a sign advertising a place with 400 types of cheeses.  Uh, yes please!  Because the perfect way to end a day stuffing yourself with candy is to then stop for a buttload of cheese!  YUUUUUMMMM!

Like mommy these girls run when they hear cheese!

Thanks Wisconsin!