"New Moon" Trailer

So Excited!

Getting Our Money's Worth

We try not to spoil our boys. We try to enstill the principle that nothing comes for free; that money has value and must be earned.

So, naturally, when the boys asked for a "marshmallow treat" we told them they had to earn it.

"But we don't know what to do!" they whined in unison.

Eventually, Challene and I agreed that the boys should have to dance for their marshmallows. A fair transaction, if I say so myself.

So, we put on some big-band, "Pennsylvania 6-5000", and let them go for it.

I think they earned their treat, don't you?

A day of celebration

A very happy Korean National Independance Day to you all! Let's all crack open a can of the korean "8-15" cola (pic not found) in commemoration.

For you non-cola drinkers, how's about a can of Pocari Sweat?

You who don't need the electrolyte boost may want a can of the "Cool Piss" (pic not found, but it is a drink - a very refreshing, wonderful drink at that!)

Oh.... there's more!

Ethan got stung by a wasp today on his belly... twice.

Painful summer strikes again!

Painful, Painful Summer!

I was reading a friend's blog a while ago about a potentially serious accident with her son. It's after a post like that that you take inventory of your life and situation. Aside from Joshy's birthday finger slamming accident our household has been relatively accident free.

In a rather sickening twist of fate, it seems that our kids have been making up for lost time. Join me now for a look back over the summer at some of the accidents that my boys have had:

#1

We enjoy having family walks now and then. Sometimes the boys will take the big-wheels out with us, and sometimes we'll walk. We have a common routine of heading East through our neighborhood to an undeveloped block and then back home. This fateful evening, however, was different. We decided to head Westward. We crossed the 1000 West thoroughfare unscathed and let the kids loose to run ahead some.

For some reason the boys like to jump from the sidewalk to the sprinkler boxes placed on every houses lawn. 1/2 block into our walk was a house with two boxes on either side of the walkway. Josh jumped onto one, Ethan jumped onto the other. Of course, you can't just jump on one when there's a house with two! It was like watching a kid in a mirror. They turned at the same time, jumped onto the sidewalk at the same time and ran for the opposite side at the same time.

WHAM!!!

They collided with what didn't seem like that much force. Joshy was thrown back a step or two, but Ethan, in a laws-of-physics defying moment was thrown 90 degrees from his travelling path. If Newton himself was present his jaw would have dropped. Conservation of Momentum has no bearing with my boys. Ethan fell, first to his knees, then on his forehead (looking as if a devout muslim facing mecca), dragging his head for several inches. Below is the resultant scab.

I carried him home with him screaming and bleeding. Days later we revisited the scene. Where he hit we noticed that the sidewalk had a hole. We joked that his head broke the sidewalk. They got a good laugh.

#2
I was working... diligently. We were at Hill Air Force Base teaching our "Freedom From Headaches" class. I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. It was Challene. I pushed the "busy" button and went back to the class. A moment later it wrang again. "Hmmm," I thought and pressed busy again. Not moments later it rang again. "Ok," I thought, "that's the signal that an emergency is happening. I got up quietly and left the room to answer the phone.

"Hello?" I say.

*sniff* "Dad?" says a little trembling voice.

"Ethan? What's wrong?"

"Dad, I fell and I hurt my neck," he said, voice still trembling.

I tried to ask him more, but he was trying to give the phone to Challene. She explained the story.

Ethan and Josh have a game. They climb up our loveseat and onto the window sill. Then they jump (or slide depending on the cusion setup) down back onto the loveseat. We've asked them, and asked them, and asked them not to do this explaining the dangers that could happen.

This day, I guess Ethan had taken our advice to heart. Not wanting to get hurt, he decided to take measures to prevent injury. He took the cords from the blinds and wound it around his neck several times. Then he jumped.

The cords caught and as his weight pulled it slowly unwound from his neck. I'm sure it choked him a little, but the rope burns were the worst of it. Scared out of his mind he ran to Challene crying. It was sometime after that I got the call.

This was the day of the accident. Doesn't look too bad, does it? The burns start on the right side of his neck below the ear and go all the way around to the left side of the neck up behind the ear.

This was the day after when the burns started to scab over.

That same day, Ethan cut Joshy's finger with some scissors. Minor cut, but just one more thing on the pile.

Also that same day the boys were in back flying kites. Joshy crossed in front a Ethan's kite and got a much smaller rope burn on the left lateral side of his neck. Again, not as bad, but definately noticable.

If that wasn't enough to warrent a call from DCFS, then read on:

#3

Ethan and Josh were playing yesterday. We have a kitchen/dining/family greatroom that they run through, ride cars through, somersault through, you name it. I was preparing for a job interview at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital. We were all going to go so we could hit temple square afterwards. I had tied my tie and was wearing a nice, crisp, clean, white shirt. I was getting something ready when I heard a tumble, crash, cry from Josh. I saw him walking over to me, crying and just thought he bumped his head or something.

I picked him up trying to console him. He snuggled in, happy for the consolation. When he calmed down, I pulled him away to assess the damage. It was then that I noticed the blood on the shoulder and sleeve of my shirt. I looked at his chin only to notice a gaping wound.

"Challene," I said, "Joshy's gonna need stitches."

I was fully prepared to cancel the interview, but Challene said to go ahead and she'd take him in.


Kind of hard to see, but they glued his chin back together. No stitches. Every time I try to look at it he reminds me, "My doctor says, 'no picking at it' ok dad?" or when we try to put him in the bath, "My doctor says, 'no getting it wet' ok dad?" My Joshy's such a good boy.

I think that's about it... Oh, I beaned Challene on the knee with a softball. Then yesterday we went to the batting cages and she got beaned on the chest with another softball. She was helping Ethan bat when he tipped it right into her. Hence the "bat at your own risk" signs.

Throughout this, I've remained relatively unscathed (knock on wood).

Now, here's some fun shots of the kids. Our camera has been broken since Easter. We finally got it in and fixed (thank you extended warrantee! You all laughed at me when I bought it, but now who's laughing?)

This was waiting for it to get dark to do our one firework we bought. It was a "30 soldier parachuting firework". It was pretty dang cool. Ethan and Josh had a ball trying to find the parachutes after all was done.

Keeping these guys fully clothed is a task in and of itself. But who can resist two underpants clad, rain boot sportin', toy gun weildin', eye patch wearin' boys?

This was from Easter. Josh would open the eggs by squeezing the top causing the bottom to explode away!

Making Money!

Who would have ever thought you could actually make money while going grocery shopping? Well, I sure didn't, however I did it today! I am so excited about this deal that I got today that I just have to share! This is the best deal I have ever had!! So this morning I actually was so excited about this deal I couldn't even sleep. I woke up at 6 am! Those who know me well know that I am not a morning person. Kellogg's has a promo that says if you buy 5 items you will save $5.00 instantly. Then they also have an additional $10.00 mail in rebate when you buy 10 items in one transaction. So here is the break down just below the picture of my items.

Kellogg's Rice Krispies $2.88 for one box

-buy 5 and they are $1.88 per box

-use a dollar off mfc from RP - 6/7 =.88 cents

-then use a Alberstons double = Free

(I bought 5 boxes of these. Also you can use the doubles for this or the transaction below it really doesn't matter.)

Kellogg's Special K or Raisin Bran $2.88 for one box

- buy 5 and they are $1.88 per box

- use a dollar off mfc from RP - 6/7 = .88 cents

(I bought 5 boxes of these. 3 Kellogg's Special K and 2 Raisin Brans)

I forgot to take a picture of the two 8 oz Reser's Dips (Chip/vegetable dip) but here is the break down for them.

-$1.00 on sale

-use a $1.00 off printable coupon

= FREE

(Here is the link for the free printable coupon http://www.resers.com/sign-up-for-savings/save-a-buck/)

My total out of pocket expense for this trip was only $4.89. However, remember I will be getting $10.00 rebate from Kellogg's making this actually a money maker $5.11 to be exact!!! Also just an FYI without any coupons or if these items were not on sale I would have spent $54.37.

(Remember that you have to buy 10 items to get the rebate. Also just so you know I got 3 of my doubles from RP - 7/12, which I have never seen before. They normally are just a loose 12X12 size paper in the ads in the Sunday paper. The other 2 are from the bottom of the ad. So together I had 5 doubles!)

My Second Trip

Once I got to the car with my first above mentioned deals I turned right around and headed back in for my second trip of doubles. Just so you know as long as you leave the building you can go back in and use your other doubles. Also since I only had 3 double from the RP 7/12 I actually asked on my way out of the store if I could get an ad. This was so that I could have the two doubles on it making my next trip have 5 doubles again!

Nestle Nesquick Flavored Milk on sale for $1.25

- Nestle promo Save $2.00 instantly if you spend $10 on participating items which makes it then $1.00 per item

-use $1.00 off of 2 mfc from RP 2/21 = .50 cents per item

-use 5 doubles and get 5 FREE

- making the rest of them only $3.25 with tax

(Remember I bought 10 because I had 5 mfc that said $1.00 off of 2. I would have spent $16.15 for all of these without them being on sale or if I didn't have any coupons!)

Also I finally took our camera in to get fixed YEAH! It is actually still getting fixed but I took all of these pictures with my phone. Enjoy I know it has been awhile.

29 ugh!

No this isn't a cake I made, nor did anybody make this for me it is just a picture I pulled off of the Internet. However some day I hope to be able to make beautiful cakes like this one.

So here I am entering the last year of my twenties and yes I am freaking out. I don't feel this old! I know I have a year to prepare but I don't want to ever turn 30! Anyways I just thought I would blog about my 29th Birthday.

First off kudos to my Husband for making it the best day possible with all of the obstacles in the way. My birthday unfortunately had a lot to compete with this year, like a chiropractic conference, a camping trip, and Will's boss was out of town so there was no way Will could not take the day off.

The day started out with a treasure hunt. I had to go through 10 horribly hard clues to get to one of my birthday presents which was hidden in the linen closet. The present was the Carolina Liar CD if you care to know.

Later I had lunch with my family (My Mom, Sister and her girls, and my Grandparents). Thanks for my gifts!

After lunch I wasn't sure what to do with myself until my hubby was off work so I actually went grocery shopping. Not a surprise to those who know about my new addicting hobby of couponing.

Once Will got home from work and before we went out for dinner he gave me my presents. He got me my new favorite perfume. To be honest I don't even know the name I just know that you get it from the Hollister store in the mall. Then I got a pretty plant to plant in my garden, this was instead of regular cut flowers he did this because he wanted me to enjoy them longer (ha ha, lets just see how long they last. I don't really have a green thumb). And last of all but definitely not least he gave me the season 4 of Battlestar Galactica (yes I am a Battlestar Galactica geek - go ahead and call me Dwight Schrute).

For dinner, Will and I actually got to go out without the boys! Thanks to Will's parents for watching the kids. We went to Braza Grill for dinner, as always it was good. After dinner we had hours to burn (again thanks to Will's parents for offering to watch the kids till 11pm), but unfortunately in our old age we had no idea what to do with ourselves on a cold rainy June night. So here it is 9 pm-ish on a Thursday night and we had absolutely no idea what to do. So my crazy husband literally let the car idle around the parking lot until I said I couldn't take it any more and we went to Target to wander around (no I didn't get anything, I am surprisingly a lot more frugal with my money these days).

That's it, that was my b-day, exciting huh? Well admittedly it wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst and no there are no pictures we still haven't gotten the camera fixed.

Oh, however, I forgot the next day whilst camping my husband had everybody sing me happy birthday. Will actually had two candles that read 29 precariously set on top of some stacked mint oreo's (my favorite) and yes they (the candles) were lit I had to blow them out, the 2 fell over when I blew. Then Will gave me my last of last presents, a directors book of the making of the "Twilight" movie.

Thanks to all the Birthday wishes and to a very wonderful husband who always does/tries his best. I love you!