I *heart* Walgreens

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I never realized how wonderful drive through windows are until I had a baby. Before James, a drive through was just slightly more convenient than just parking and walking in. Now, with the logistics involved with unstrapping him out of his car seat, making sure you have a burp cloth and a diaper bag with entertainment, and finding a sanitary place for him to sit in a shopping cart or losing the use of an arm so you can carry him around, drive through windows seem like magic. The drive through we use the most? The drive through pharmacy window at Walgreens. I have been using Walgreens for my prescriptions all of my adult life and I love it! Such friendly pharmacists and great convenience.

Recently, Walgreens tried very hard to renew their contract with Express Scripts, a company that pays Walgreens and other pharmacies to fill prescriptions, so that they can continue to be a pharmacy network provider but were unable to. Possibly because Express Scripts has its own mail order prescription business that it doesn’t want conflicting with a retail pharmacy…Which is kind of a scary prospect to me because I have seen how inconvenient and inefficient being forced to get your prescriptions by mail can be.  So, if your pharmacy benefits are offered through Express Scripts, you will no longer be able to use Walgreens and their beautiful drive through window and extended hours. This means driving out of your way to a different pharmacy, and having to transfer all of your information and fill out new paperwork. So not cool. If you want to see the official press release on what is happening, check it out here: Walgreens and Express Script

Luckily, since Walgreens is awesome, they are doing their best to find ways to keep Express Scripts customers. They are offering discounted rates to join their Walgreens Prescription Savings Club. For $10 a year, a family membership covers everyone in your immediate family included your spouse, dependents under 22 and pets. Individual memberships are only $5! Membership provides savings on more than 8,000 medications, discounts on flu shots, pet prescriptions, nebulizers and diabetic supplies, and discounts when you buy Walgreens brand products and photo services. The savings could allow you to stay with Walgreens, even if you no longer have coverage because you are an Express Scripts customer. Shoot, at those membership prices, I’m thinking of joining just for all the discounts!

If you want to support Walgreens and show them that you appreciate their efforts, go ahead and like Walgreens on Facebook and follow Walgreens on Twitter and show that drive through window some love!

Yay for Spaghetti!

Monday night we had spaghetti for dinner and we've started giving James more food from our plates now that he is better at chewing and not spitting out new things. He had so much fun playing with his spaghetti! I was proud of myself for letting him get so messy. It was a struggle for sure, I just wanted to wipe him down and give him something less messy, like some peas, but he ended up having so much fun that it was worth it :)

11 Months Old

Earlier this week, James turned 11 months old! Can you believe it? How did I get to be the parent of an almost 1 year old? Crazy! He is getting so big and becoming such a little boy, definitely not a baby anymore :) He is constantly on the move, always wanting to explore things, touch things, see how things work and rip things apart just to see what will happen. He LOVES remotes and controllers. I've seen him giggle out loud with excitement when he sees one on the couch, cruise over to it, and then pull the couch blanket closer to him so he can reach the controller. Then he presses the buttons and keeps looking towards the speakers to see if he turned it on (you can hear the xbox turn on when he does that, but the tv is off so he can only hear the sounds). Changing his diaper has become such a difficult process because he doesn't want to stay still! The light switches are close to the changing table and he is constantly trying to get to them so he can turn the fan on and off. He will push at the switch and then look behind him to see if the fan turned on. He really likes to see how things work. Maybe he will be an engineer! He is such a happy boy, we are always telling each other every day how happy we are to have him in our family.

He has started to really love music and his favorite toys are the ones that play songs. He will sit there and press the buttons over and over again and then "sing" along with the music and wave his hands like a conductor. I think it is his version of dancing along :) He just started clapping his hands a few days ago, and he is pretty good about waving hello and goodbye (he gets a little overwhelmed when we try to get him to do it for new people and he usually just stares at them).

Here are some pictures of our cutie:

 I don't know what made him upset in this picture, but Anthony kept taking pictures anyway :)

 Now that he sees his bottle, everything is better!

 Of course, he had to push it off the table and now he is going for the clock.

 Now he is pointing the clock, letting us know that it is now on the floor. Thanks son!

Look at that mischievous face! Don't you want to squish it!!!