@ the beach

Jonette and Chris invited us for a picnic at the beach nearby. Fortunately there was a bunch of cloud cover for the first little while we were there, but it wasn't long until the sun came out in full bloom warming up our bodies and the sand to unbearable temperatures. Okay, I'm being dramatic. But, it was hot. And, I didn't really dress for the occasion considering I don't own a swimming suit. And Richard no longer fit in his. Fortunately, he can wear any shorts, and it's appropriate. I, on the other hand, can't just wear shorts.
At one point, we ventured over to the seaweedy part of the beach. It was very squishy, and a little icky on our feet. I couldn't stand it very long, so I went back to the nicer area and Richard continued to scavenge under rocks finding mini crabs that would hang on him. Too bad I didn't stay long enough to get pictures of that. Michael liked the seaweed area because that is where all the birds hung out. He would walk after them, but couldn't get them.




See that boy in the background holding the football? He accompanied us to the beach. He's 10. Do you remember being 10? Hang out with a 10 year old, you'll probably remember.

What better way to cool down, then by stuffing your face with delicious, juicy cantaloupe.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Michael has been sitting like this for at least the last 15 minutes.

Happy as a clam. Cheesy smile for me too.

Donut Thief

Richard gave Michael a donut and saw him take one big bite out of it. Later, Michael still had a donut in his hand, but with only a small bite out of it. That confused him a bit, since he didn't think Michael was able to reach the box on top of the table. Then a second later, he saw Michael making his way to the box one more time. Too good to resist.

My Ward

These are just some of the people in my ward that I have come to love so, so much. (That is what you get for putting your faces on your blogs--picture stealers like me!) I emphasize "some" because, obviously, my ward is much bigger than the few I picture here. I am so bummed that so many are moving away at such a rapid pace, or have already. But I am also excited at how many new faces I saw today! I have felt immensely welcomed from the first month I moved in, and although I've felt like the kazoo in a beautiful orchestra sometimes, I don't think I'm alone. We are all a bunch of kazoos trying to become better, and that just strengthens me.

I had two take 2 of Rory, cause they are just too hilarious!

Okay, so I know you're not in our ward--but close enough, Andy

Whoops, how'd that get there?

Type, type, type

This is a LOW-ACTION movie, just so you're aware. I primarily recorded it for the moment that happens at about 40 seconds. There are two things lately that Michael loves carrying around everywhere: the computer mouse and a stack of Rook cards. If he doesn't have one, he typically has the other. He even went to sleep with the Rook cards last night. Should've gotten a picture. Oh well.

So, before I distracted him with the camera, Michael consistently clicked his mouse, and then turned to the top level of the floor scraping his fingers against it. (Once again, he does it at about 40 seconds). Use your imagination-what do you think he's doing?

As I saw it, he was typing on an imagined keyboard! Isn't that absolutely adorable, although 113% of the time, I think he is absolutely adorable.

Michael has just come up to the desk clicking his mouse next to me. I guess he wants to feel part of this blog post even more.

Visit from Suzy and friends

Once upon a time, my sister, Suzy, and her two friends, Sara and Mel came for a visit. Despite spending a long weekend up here, I only have a few pictures to prove it. The first being a picture, I knew Mel would lovingly approve of me putting on my blog . Oh yeah, and that's my boy in the forefront. During their visit, we made a fun visit to the EMP/Science Fiction museum. Michael especially loved the music rooms where he could bang on the piano, and a table that played various instruments depending on what picture was showing. (I can't really explain that one.)

Bug-eyed Sara, Mel, and Suzy
My sister and me. I can't believe how much taller than her that I am. Grow Suzy, grow!
Michael LOVED having the girls here. Constant entertainers, and loving book-readers.
Oh, did I mention that Suzy and Sara both ran a marathon while here!? They made it in just under 5 hours, (I believe), and that is commendable in my opinion. They kind of make me think of running.

Kind of.

Albertson's Deal thru 7/21

Pardon another shopping post, but this was just too good NOT to share! See this order, I got it all for 8.96! That's like .64 cents for each item! The majority of that cost was the chicken breasts, which actually I shouldn't have gotten the Foster Farms brand, because the Albertson's brand was on sale for 1/2 the cost/lb. Doh! Oh well, I made up for it, by some other awesome deals. In order to do these transactions, you need to have multiple "double your coupon" coupon exclusively at Albertson's. If you can scrounge up about 7 of them, then follow my lead. (I had to make it three orders, cuz you can only use 3 doublers per order)

These pints of Breyer's ice cream are on sale for $1 each! Now that's a steal of a deal on it's own, but combine it with a coupon and get all 4 for free! Go here and print off $1/2 Breyer's coupons, (print twice if you want to purchase 4).

Here's my transaction:

Buy 4 pints Breyers, $4.00

Use two $1/2 coupons
Use two doubles
Grand Total: FREE!

And, the additional bonus is a catalina coupon will be triggered at the end of your transaction as listed here:

Buy (2) & get $2/3 Breyers, Klondike, Popsicle, or Good Humor
Buy (3) & get $3/4 Breyers, Klondike, Popsicle, or Good Humor
Buy (4) & get $4/5 Breyers, Klondike, Popsicle, or Good Humor
Valid through 9/23/09

(thanks Thrifty Mom)

So, I plan on going back later this week, when they have more Reeses ice cream in stock, and getting 5 more pints with my catalina coupon, spending a total of $1 on 9 pints of ice cream. Then, I'll invite some friends over for an ice cream visit on a hot day!

Next deal: Softsoaps on sale for $2 each. I printed out two $1/1 coupons, and doubled both of them, and wallah, these two Softsoaps cost me .19cents!!! (And that's just cuz I had to pay the tax.)

And here's Michael playing with all the chocolate milk. Alright, so another splurge. But, who can pass up Nesquick for 25cents a piece! Recently there were coupons in the paper for $1/2 bottles of chocolate milk, so I bought 6 and doubled the coupons. You can read the details here if you wanna know more about it.

Finally, if you want to enter in a giveaway for a $100.00 Gift card to Albertsons, click here! I thought the giveaway suited this post real well!

Anyone else spot any good deals?

I need help

I won a giveaway on a blog, and Little Debbie snacks sent me this:

And now I feel like this:

Not that their snacks are gross--I just have eaten WAY too many of them in such a SMALL amount of time.

What's the deal?

What do 4 boxes of storage bags + 2 Pillsbury Cookie Dough + 1 bottle of Ketchup equal?

How about $2.27!

I absolutely LOVE when Albertson's has their "double your coupon" coupons. Previously, I printed off two $1 off/1 Pillsbury Simply Cookie Dough from coupons.com, and Albertson's had them on sale for $2.50. So double my $1 coupons, and well, you do the math. (50 cents a piece.) I also received quite a few coupons in the mail, one being a free bottle of Ketchup from Hunts. I probably learned about these available mail-out coupons from this site, or this one, or my new favorite one here.

As for the Hefty bags, Safeway had a buy 4 or more and get them for $1.25 each. I knew there were $1 off/1 coupons out there in previous newspaper prints, so I asked around, and my mom actually sent me 3 of the 4! Add tax, and there you have it! 25 cents a box-stocked up!

And for all you baby lovers

The end.

Monkey Boy

Food, Glorious Food

A recent Facebook status of mine stated, "I'm obese at heart." This thought stemmed from a recent temple session I attended, where the entire time my thoughts were on food. No joke. And when I'd try to focus, it wasn't long before I was thinking of chocolate lava cakes, pizza dough, and weekly meal plans to say the least.

In this post, I mentioned that my mind reverts to food when I lay down to sleep at night. This is no exaggeration. In fact, right now I am baking this in the oven, despite feeling sick with a cold that I caught from someone somewhere. This menu has been on my meal plan for too many days I just couldn't wait any longer to try it. 

I also made some delicious banana chocolate chip muffins the other day. That was before our apartment became so blasted hot every time we used the oven. Oh summer. We were and weren't looking forward to thee. 

This is what we did last year when we got so blasted hot in our third floor, sunrise apartment.

And when I prepared these veggies to be roasted, I had to take a picture, because they looked so colorfully beautiful and healthy to me.

And we served them with mushroom stuffed ravioli with a cream cheese, parmesan sauce (suggested by LaylaJ). 

And because someone keeps whining that I haven't posted a baby picture in a long time, here ya go:

He likes food too. 

Oh my gosh. I literally just pulled out my Italian chicken roll-ups from the oven, and they smell fantastically delicious. 

What are some of your favorite meals, or food obsessions? 

In Honor of our Soldiers

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave."  

~Elmer Davis

We definitely appreciate those that serve our country, abroad and also in their communities.