It Has Been Brought to My Attention...

That I am a boring blogger. My dear, darling, beautiful, and (most importantly) frugal friend Lea recently left this comment on my blog:

"Ok....so let me get this straight... I teach you overage, learn you the art of Coopon Recon, take you to Five Star Sunday Brunch, Car chase law breakers, and steal things from peoples back yards and you post about a ... R U G!! Seriously!?"

So to appease Miss Thang, here you go. A little more about myself you might find interesting.

Or disturbing.

Did you know that lately I've been saving an average of 80-100% off of my grocery bill? Oh yes, I do. Its delicious. I do it with coupons, if you must know. Just don't ask me how I get so many coupons, ok?

I said don't ask! Twist. My. Arm..... YEOWCH! UNCLE!!! OK, OK... Jeeze! Here it goes... its called Coupon Recon, or better known as Dumpster Diving!

THERE! I said it! I get into recycling dumpsters voluntarily and collect as many coupons as I can at a time. I go with 2 other friends (and I'm only outting YOU, Lea... mwa hahahaha!) on Sunday nights. Its a BLAST. Its an art-form. Perhapse one day maybe Lea will send me the pics we took at Candy Mountain. Leeaaaa?? You hear me? EMAIL! Blogs are better with photographic evidence, don'tya know? ;)

And yes, we've been busted before. The stories I could tell you would have you pee your pants with laughter. Or maybe only I pee my pants when I laugh... hey, I've had 2 kids, don't judge me. It really is good fun. Call me trashy, whatever... I walk out of the commissary with $80+ in free groceries every week, do you?!

And to touch on the other things that Lea talked about in her comment earlier...

* A couple weeks ago, Lea took me to a 5-Star brunch at a super swanky hotel on the beach. It was pretty much the most glorious day of my life (well, besides the times I pushed 2 little blonde monkeys into existance). I cried tears of joy atleast 12 times, the food was THAT good. We both went back for probably 5 plates of food. Oh yes, we did. And then she pushed me in her stroller back to the car. Because I was too fat/sick to walk. It happened.
But not the stroller part. I pushed HER.

* On our way home, we chased bad guys in our car (hey, we witnessed blatant child abuse, we weren't gonna let it slide). A couple of vigilante moms, doin' what was right. We made a police report and everything. I hope they caught that lady...

* And YES, I take things from curbs and back yards. Wait, wait... don't throw stones just yet! There was a SIGN saying I could! We kind of have a habit of driving the nice neighborhoods once a month to see what kinds of treasures people put on the curb for the bulk trash guys to pick up. Some things I've scored: a matching (but smaller) buffet to the one I already have, an outdoor climbing toy with slide for the kids, brand new bookshelves, an eliptical machine, stroller, a Razor dirt bike/motorcycle (!!!). Those are the main things, but there have been many more. Its great fun, if you ask me. Call me a cheapskate, I don't care! Those things would go to the dump if we didn't save them!

SO. There you have it. All my dirty little secrets. Did you learn something new about me? Did you lose some respect for me?? Hey, don't forget to lose some respect for Lea too... she was in on ALL of it!

Now, back to my regularly scheduled programming.... RUGS.

His birthday was dino-mite!

Ok so his birthday was on the 4th, so I'm a bit late in posting this. Better late than never, eh? Here he is posing in front of our family's birthday flag. Too bad we don't have a flag pole to fly it on! He started his day at preschool, where he got to pass out the home made chocolate chip muffins with icing and sprinkles on top that we made together. He was SO proud, and got to wear a birthday crown while his classmates sang "Happy Birthday" to him!

Conner asked for a strawberry dinosaur cake, so that's what his mama made for him! I kept it hidden from him, so he was seeing it for the first time here. Awww, I love this pic :)

There was no big party; instead we had a few close friends over for cake and ice cream after dinner that day. It was perfect! Here's Jordie and Conner, the betrothed LOL. She's his bestie :)

Me and my boy... gosh I can't believe how fast he's growing up. FOUR already?! Since when was I old enough to have a FOUR year old?!

Oh, and here's my creation. Nothing super awesome, but I think he got a kick out of it! Maybe someday I'll actually put my Wilton cake decorating classes to use and make a fancy shmancy cake. We'll see...

Conner was thrilled to get all these cards from his grandmas and grandpa's!! And look at the neat pop-up dino book he got from my dad... we only read this one when Cohen's napping, otherwise he'd destroy it LOL. Last but not least, his new dinosaur tshirt from Grandpa! I think he wore this for... oh... 4 straight days? It was washed, and now he's wearing it again haha.

Happy 4th birthday, Conner Allen! We love you so much!!

Hale'iwa town

Yesterday we spent the day up on the beautiful North Shore in Hale'iwa (the surfing capilal of the world) Our day started at 10am when our church met for Sunday service on the beach... how neat is that?! There we all are, nestled beneath the trees, with a gorgeous view of the ocean :)

Raise your hand if you can say the same LOL

After worship and the sermon, some ladies from our church came up to dance the hula for us. For me, it was one of those, "Wow, I really *do* live in Hawaii" moments!
SO neat.

After service, there was a potluck. With bellies sufficiently stuffed, we headed down to the beach to play, of course! I don't have photos from the beach... you'll just have to believe me ;)

Soon enough, we were hungry again and needed a break from the sun and fun, so we went up the street just a little bit and got some Matsumoto Shave Ice. Its world famous LOL. Its DELISH. I like to get mine with ice cream on the bottom and condensed milk on top. Some people get the azuki beans, but that's not really my thing. Conner and Cohen of course thought it was such a treat!These people here are commenting on how they can't believe Conner ate that whole shave ice all by himself. They must not have kids... kids find room in their tummies for junk!

Later on, we drove up the road a mile to Laniakea Beach, known better as "Turtle Beach." This is why!
Honu!

The honu (turtles) were out in full force yesterday. Usually I'll see maybe 3 while there, but this time they were peppered all up and down the beach. I counted 10-15 just in the small area I was standing with the boys, and there were tons more that were floating in and out with the lapping waves. Cohen had never seen them before and didn't really care, but Conner got a big kick out of it.

Great day!