Officially Summer

Goggles

Yesterday we made a quick 3 minute run into Sprouts to pick up some chicken for dinner.

Sully was in brown cargo shorts,

a blue old school Kellogs Tony The Tiger shirt my mom bought him,

his green frog rain boots,

and neon blue & green swimming goggles.

He insisted on wearing them in the store as "gwasses."

We got more than a few double takes, smiles and a whole lot of laughs.

Its times like that, that I'm smiling ear to ear, pleased as punch he marches to his own drum. All I could think of was Big Daddy when the kid is in his rain boots and insists on going by the name Frankenstein.

Sully, rock on with your inner Frankenstein baby, anytime.

"UH OH ...."

Tonight Shaun and I were sitting outside, and Sully was riding his trike, when he started to back up.

Clear as day and making sure to be as loud as humanly possible he yelled ...

"UH OH, backin' up. Watch out for your BOOBIES!"

We laughed, a lot. I'm sure our neighbors think we're questionable parents at best.

Where do they get these things from?!

*************

My sister messaged me later in the day to inform me Sully ran up to the bra's in Target and screamed ... "Yaya, BOOOOOBIES!" and laughed.

He takes after his dad.

Crayon "LIS-ARRRDS"

If you look very carefully, what you will see is Sully's very first "I-drew-on-my-moms-wall" award.

I was informed it was a lizard.

It looked more like a baby dinosaur with its 4x3foot dimensions. This picture really does it no justice. (It was done in brown crayon.) I actually felt bad soft-scrubbing it away, because he was so proud of it. He actually sought me out, showed me - and completed the art show with a lizard reenactment.

I washed it off when he was napping.

I'm kind of sad I did.

Happy Birthday ...

To the guy who doesn't look a day over 20 -

and doesn't act a day over 12 ...

We love you, and wouldn't have it any other way.

I've resigned myself to the fact you'll be 70 ...

still wearing cargo pants,

Vans and print tees, of course.

Who says we have to age gracefully anyways?

Hope your next 33 are just as great.

Happy Birthday, baby.

Coupons, Take III

Yesterday I did a coupon marathon run before picking up Sully to go back to work for a concert. I knocked out the stores in little over an hour. Here's what I was able to score, the entire excursion costing me about $88 bucks.

Ralphs

(2) 32 oz. bottles of Lysol 4-in-1 cleaner

(2) 32 oz. bottles of Lysol Mildew Bathroom cleaner

(10) 16 oz. bottles of Honest Tea (Normally $2.49 a bottle, got them for .50 each!)

6 boxes of Special K cereal

3 boxes of Hamburger Helper starters

(3) 4-carton packages of Boost Children's Drink (Normally $9.99 got it for $3.99!)

Carton Blue Diamond Almond Milk

(5) 64 oz. bottles of Juicy Juice (Normally $4.19, got them for .99 cents each!)

Cost before coupons and rewards: $154.95

What I actually spent: $63.66

Big Lots

7 rolls of 4-pack Angel Soft toilet paper

10 bottles of Gatorade

What I spent: $13.40

Kohls

3 large beach towels (Pool weather is starting!)

Retail price: $59.97

After sale and coupons, what I actually spent: $11.18

Fresh and Easy

I'll spare you the details of my grocery list for the week, but I will let you know we saved over $5 in store by shopping their sales, and then saved an additional $23 bucks in store coupons, yay!

We've decided to put some shelves up in the garage for our growing stockpile, which is kind of cool to see as it's starting to grow. I never did get my Lipton Ice Tea for under $10 bucks. =( By the time I got to the store (and I checked two different locations) all they had were flavors we're not fans of. So I'll be using my coupons at Target instead to get 10 bottles for free. Not as great but I'll take it.

Wednesday night I ventured out to Petco to get a few things for our new pup, Buster. Using my Pals card ....

Dog bed normally $14.99 got it for $7.49

Dog ball normally $3.99 got it for $2.98

Dog harness normally $19.99 found THE last one there in the style for $4.00!

His dang dog tag was the most expensive thing at $8 bucks!

I feel like I'm shopping all the time now, which is crazy because I know that by shopping all the time I'm actually saving us way more money than before when we would go out and buy things as needed, regardless of sales or thinking about prices. It's kind of crazy how that works. Even Shaun is getting into it, how cool is that?!

Coupons, Take II

So, I've been all over couponing lately, like I said a little while back in some post. Shaun and I decided that creating a small stockpile is something we could definitely do, and not the worst thing to have, given that we don't spend it on crap just because its on sale, like we see a lot of people do on the show or on blogs. We still aim to shop as organically as possible, which means we mainly focus on household items. I'm still learning, and finding stores policies here are a lot different than the Midwest, but we're absolutely saving more than we ever have by shopping this way now. It's actually a little bit addicting! I try to check for any good new deals once a day, and have taken to going out for a Sunday paper and donuts with Sully when he wakes up, which has become a fun new thing for us to do together.

Target Trip I

10 packs of Zantac heartburn relief pills

Normal retail: $89.90 What I actually paid: $9.90

(Shaun suffers really bad from heartburn, so he goes through them a lot.)

Target Trip II

3 bricks of individual wipes

Box of Finish dishwasher gel packs

(2) 18 oz. bottles of Bull's-Eye Bar-be-Que sauce

(1) 40 oz. bottle of Heinz ketchup

(2) 20 oz. French's bottles of mustard

(1) 18 oz. French's honey dipping sauce

(2) 20 oz. bottles of Lipton 100% Natural Ice Tea

18 oz. bottle of Caress body soap

4 bottles of Target Brand Ibuprofen

2 packs of Aquafresh Iso Active whitening toothpaste

Bathroom wall shelf/towel rack ($4 bucks after a coup!)

2 cartons of foil

2 boxes of sandwhich bags

2 boxes of Shrek Nexcare bandages

2 12 oz. bottles of Dove Intensive Repair conditioner

2 12 oz. bottles of Dove Intensive Repair shampoo

First Response Ovulation kit, 2 sticks

Before coupons: $92.28 Final price after coupons: $44.99

Target Trip III

3 Jumbo packs of size 4 Huggies diapers (31 diapers each)

Normal Retail: $26.97 What I actually paid: $12.97

Big Lots

(8) 4-roll packages of Angel Soft toilet paper

4 containers of bleach wipes

(3) 14 oz. bottles of Ivory dish washing soap

No coupons, just found some good deals that day. I did sign up for their rewards to get an additional 20% off future purchases.

Final price: $14.70

Ralphs Grocery

(8) 50 oz. bottles of All Free and Clear detergent

Final price before coupons and rewards: $63.92

Final Price after: $14.42

(This was my best find yet! Reward member sale $2.99 from $7.99. I also had a dollar coupon of each bottle of ALL Free and Clear detergent, bringing it to $1.99 each. I also had a member coupon for an additional $1.50 off when I spent over $5 bucks on a detergent. Woo for being stocked up on laundry soap for the next 6 months!)

I'm attempting to go pick up 30 bottles of Lipton 100% Natural Ice Tea later today for under $10 bucks, normal retail $44.70. Wish me luck!

Camping

On June 3rd, with a truck filled to the brim with WAY more crap than I ever remember needing to camp, we headed to Malibu Creek State Park, for our first camping trip with Sully.

Since Shaun and I hadn't been camping in 10 years, we decided something close to home would be best - you know, in case things took a horribly wrong turn.

It wasn't the kind of camping I necessarily remembered, with camp grounds stacked together side by side - but it was fun.

This, was our camping training wheels.

We ended up having a blast, and Sully seems like a natural born camper for never having gone. He thought it was awesome sleeping outside in the tent, had fun learning to play football with Uncle B and Dylan, and let daddy teach him how to properly roast a outdoor hot dog. We went for a hike and saw a really pretty rock pond, and I successfully crossed a small creek over a log with a 30 lb baby strapped to my back in pack and didn't once touch water - with the help of some strong arms of course. We saw mule deer, which was pretty cool too.

Saturday night Sully and his friend Jayden climbed up into the Xterra while Shaun hooked up the dvd player and we all sat at the picnic bench right next to the door so we could get a game or two of Apples to Apples in, in the pitch dark. Note to self, more lanterns next time. The "wilderness" is dark.

It rained a little - and I won't talk about how Shaun gave me crap for all the blankets and double pjs I brought. I won't talk about him insisting it wouldn't get that cold at night. And I definitely, will not, talk about how he woke up at 2 in the morning shaking like a leaf and chattering his teeth mumbling some expletives about how bloody cold it was and had me give him some extra blankets. Yeh, I won't talk about that at all.

Overall, we're really looking forward to doing it again and had a lot of fun with everyone.

Sully and Jayden playing in the ice boxes. This went on for about an hour, and they thought it was the funniest thing ever taking turns spitting the ice out.

The boys playing some football.

Sunset on Friday night

Sully getting ready to roast some dogs

The boys caught wind of one of these little guys in the bushes right behind us ...

And did their best to lure them out ...

To no real avail - Chipmunks 1:Sully & Jayden 0

Jayden "C'mon lets go! He's not coming out."

Sully - "Well I mean, should we try that cheeto tactic again?"

Sully - "So is that a no orrrrr ....?" Jayden - "You're on your own! I'm out."

Saturday morning

What he's lived in for 12 months - on our second pair

Cars, don't leave home without them

Being a dude

Eating lunch with Jayden

Our little hike

Whatever you are, be a good one.

"Be who you are

And say what you feel

Because those who mind don't matter

And those who matter don't mind"

- Dr. Suess

Yesterday Sully and I made a trip to Target for some last minute camping stuff when he found the pacifier's down an aisle. We've been working on curtailing the "paci" usage, so I did my best to sway his decision by offering up an Icee once we got ready to leave for being a big boy.

He wasn't budging, so I said okay since we just threw away all but 3 that were bad.

After a lot of deliberating over all of his choices (its the first time ever he got to pick) he handed me the pink ones.

The purple and pink paci's with PRINCESS slapped across them.

In a span of 3 seconds or so my mind raced back to an article I had just read last week about the expectations we place on children's gender roles and the freedom we as adults should be giving them to make choices for themselves, gender expectations placed aside.

I consider myself to be laid back about these kind of issues - for his birthday he got a kitchen (not a BBQ "boy" set) to "cook", he has baby dolls and I encourage all forms of dancing, even ballet in our house. We practice the acceptance of everyone in our home and work really hard as parents to teach Sully to celebrate people's differences. Yeh, I'm aware this all sounds very hippie-dippy, and perhaps a bit naive, but I really do believe change in our world starts at home. It starts here and now.

But I won't lie, even my knee-jerk reaction at the blatantly "girlish" paci's was to say those weren't for little boys. Way to practice what you preach, girl.

Damn it.

I didn't, thank god - catching myself in that 3 second span of time before I actually opened my mouth and said something stupid. I smiled, and held out the pink paci's with a set of green ones and asked him to pick again, just to make sure he got the ones he wanted.

He jumped and smiled and yelled "The pink paci's Mama!" - I offered them up, and he grabbed them and smiled and hugged them to his chest.

Walking through Target I wondered what other people were thinking as my obviously boy child protested loudly for the purple and pink princess paci's to be opened for him - if they thought anything at all.

I wondered for about a second, coming to a quick conclusion that I really didn't care what other people thought. I care more about my son feeling supported in the choices he's learning to make for himself, whatever those are.

That small tinge of fear wasn't for how people would judge me - but how they would judge him - because society is harsh, and ignorant people will place and pass judgments even on a two-year-old little boy for having a purple princess binky in his mouth, jumping to conclusions about who or how someone is. I can only hope now that our choice in how to approach and support these matters , no matter the context - makes for a confident and bold adult some day, willing to go against the tide or popular thing when need be.

I wonder if those people know his favorite color is purple because its his beloved King's hockey color or that he has no idea what a princess even is - and that he likes pink because piggies are pink, and he adores his piggies.

We never even made it out of the store with them. Once we rounded to the front and his eyes caught the Icee machine he placed them on a shelf and asked for one instead of the paci's. I would have preferred the paci's - because 20 short minutes later I was on my hands and knees cleaning neon blue puke from my floor my kid decided to ralph up everywhere.

Note to self: I have never been so happy to have wood floors as I was in that moment.

I kind of wish he had come home with them. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy that he made the choice not to, I know he's growing up - but part of me wishes he had, for so many reasons. I never expected that having a child would make me feel so soundly grounded in my convictions, so completely passionate and ready to stand up for my son in regards to his, whether he's 2 or 20. Because one day he'll possibly come across this - and he'll know his Mama always had his back, and proudly held his hand as he clutched his pink paci's in the other that one day in Target that he doesn't remember - haters be damned.

There's a sense of perspective I've gained with the birth of my son, of understanding and unconditional love. He's my heart, walking around outside of my chest - he's our decisions and choices and personal character and life lessons staring us right back in the face. He's our Bubbi, our hell raiser, our cuddle-bug, our computer wizard - our dirt eater and lizard catcher. He's our little hockey player, our artist, our car and train fanatic, our chef, our rock star and sometimes, even our little Princess.