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!