Cash pics

These pics were taken at our favorite water park downtown on main street. It's a manmade waterfall/creek with a concrete base and sandstone rocks. The kids love it. Cash bruised himself again, this time it was while we were cleaning the truck camper after our camping trip. Cash fell from the dining couch and hit on a lip which holds the kitchen table when it's converted into a bed. I guess his shirt slipped up and he bumped on each rib as he crashed onto the floor! I wish I had taken a better picture and on the day it happened. It looked so sore, it's a lot better now. I just had to prep the nurse at the doctors last week to make sure she didn't think I was abusing him. She'd never met me before and I'm sure she had some doubts. Another funny story, Cash has been telling us his throat hurts because he heard Evin say it a few weeks back. I asked him where his throat was and he pointed to his belly, we all started laughing including him. He knew he was caught. His favorite phrase ending is "right now". I guess I've overused this one on him so since he's been using it on me. Gymnastics has been a blast for him, I'm not sure if it's giving him more ideas for when he's at home. He's been doing some crazy stunts and climbing on taller things to see if he can jump off them and land on his feet. Well that's all for now. Talk later.D

Pictures, Maybe!

Camping

Last weekend we went camping at Gunlock with Eliza, Ryan and their kids Jake & Cate. We found the least windiest spot, which also happened to be the Caterpillar haven. When the wind picked up it was almost raining caterpillars, I think Evin had the most caterpillars crawling on him at one time. The funny thing was, you didn't even feel them land or crawl on you until someone else noticed but at least they were the harmless kind. We made our own firepit even though there were at least two others really close. I have to agree our's was the best. The kids had lots of fun catching, squishing and tormenting the caterpillars and there was plenty of them to go around which meant no fighting over them. Evin also caught a frog which Cash seems to think was so cool, especially when it peed all over Evin's hand. The story keeps getting better every time Cash recalls it. I forgot my camera on the camping trip so I'll wait until Eliza sends me some. We took the kids on a little hike and I was amazed at how much cactus there was. I think you tend to notice it more when you have two 3 yrs olds and a almost 2 yr old who seem to be naturally attracted to it. We made it through the hike with no incidents, amazing! This was a good test for the truck camper since we had a full load, we almost ran out of fresh water in the tank and had filled up the grey water tank, so I stopped doing dishes and became more water savvy. I guess that's why a lot of people camp in RV Parks. We are looking forward to more local trips since the weather has been nice. Well I had better stop for now, you're probably tired of reading or have fallen asleep. See ya!D

Wow!

I can't believe it's been weeks since I posted a blog. Things have been busy. We went to Viva Las Vegas carshow two weekends ago and had a fun time. Cash was very excited to swim at the hotel pool. We stayed at the Orleans, note to any parents of toddlers: Steer clear from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate store which is on the way (the only way) to the hotel room, keep to the left and distract, distract, distract! Well I think we had about 2 m&m covered caramel apples both way past Cash's bedtimes. I'm pretty sure he'll remember that store forever! We also promised him we'd take him to see Monsters vs. Aliens if he was good. We got to watch it in 3-D which Evin and I enjoyed, neither of us have seen a 3-D movie in a while. I just wish I had some coupons for the movie theater because I think it cost close to dinner out that night! I also wish I had a camera in the movie theater because we all looked so funny with the glasses on which are fashioned more like sunglasses now. The glasses were so huge we had to get some rubber bands and attach it to his head. His little nose barely kept them on, he did really good. He was glued to his seat the entire time and said the bouncey ball hit him in the face at the beginning. The story line was pretty good also. Evin saw one car worthy of a picture so I'll post it when the uploading thing is working. We also gave Cash a mohawk hairstyle which lasted about 5 minutes. Hope everyone is well! I'll post more soon.

Happy Day!

A good start to a Happy Day?, well it's a Saturday and I don't have anywhere to be! I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long. The yard sale was a success, we made $120 and got rid of a lot of stuff. In these bleak times I would have expected people to bargain more (I do, more than ever!). All I can gather is I must have had the stuff reasonably priced because I can only remember one person asking for less than the sticker price. We didn't have a very good turnout, I don't know if it was the dirt road or the mass of single wide trailers leading to our street that turned them off. I was told that there were a lot of sales going on that day. We pretty much had the yard sale money spent in less than 24 hrs. We did have a great dinner at Samurai 21 with sushi and other food, Cash loves the plain rice there and I'm just now remembering I forgot to use my dixie direct card for $8/off.  I think raw dollars burn a hole in our pockets so we spend them as fast as possible. I don't usually carry much cash with me so it's kind of a treat. I can't track cash as easily as debit/credit so my budgeting efforts are lost. I'm a little crazy about tracking expenses. I've tracked in Quickbooks for years but lately I've been trying to start the your money or your life plan and they want you to track everything and then chart it out on a graph. If anyone comes to our house in the near future don't think we are both crazy. It's just me being crazy but am I the only one wondering where did it all go at the end of the month. Evin's always asking me where it all went so I usually can tell him where to look. I am proud to say I stayed within my grocery budget last month thanks to my couponing efforts but I did have to make a lot of trips to the store so I'm not sure it's worth my time/effort but I'm not valuing my time in $/hr these days and Cash has to have a lot of rewards for being patient with me at the store. I have to also say I forgot to take the camera outside at the yard sale so I didn't get any pics of the kids selling lemonade. I think we went through 3 pitchers and the patrons paid more than the asking price of $0.10 per cup, I think some paid $.25 per child per cup!. It was the perfect day for a lemonade stand, they had to split the money 4 ways so I think they pocketed more than $2 ea which I think was pretty good. Evin also paid them $1 each for pulling weeds during the slow periods, they thought that was a good deal until Evin showed them how much ground they had to cover. I think he and them lost interest after about 3 minutes but he did pay them for their efforts. Cash thinks yard work is fun. The Scott kids got Cash a $5 gift card to the local Dollar Store, it was such a great idea. I have been avoiding that store since Evin doesn't like anything I bring home from there (they make pretty good yard sale items without loosing money though!). I ventured in there on Thursday with Cash, he thought that place was the coolest because he I had told him he could pick out five toys. I'm not sure I've entered any other store with him and prepped him before that he could actually buy something.  I usually have other things in my purse so I don't have to buy something in every store. We didn't make it very far in the doors and he had all of his toys picked out. He bought a rake, a bucket/shovel combo, another small shovel, a pencil shaped squirt gun and some chocolate covered bunnies (thanks to Grammy Trudy these are his favorite, what will I do after the Easter candy is gone).  He was most happy with his rake purchase, we planted a garden and all the rakes/tools were too big except for a shovel. He helped us move all the rocks and could only use this little hand shovel. When we got home he used his rake while I filled his bucket with water and showed him how to use the squirt gun, he was in heaven. I think he played with this solo for about 30 mins until I made him come in for dinner. It wasn't super warm outside but he wasn't freezing yet. He has wanted to go and play outside again with. Yesterday it rained almost all day long so he didn't get to go outside, all of his rain/snow boots are too small and I haven't encountered a good sale, I must get back on ebay but it's so hard to know what size he'll be wearing this coming winter. I'm pretty sure the sandals I just bought him will not last for the whole summer, his feet are huge and seem to spread out even more when given the chance. Cash had been asking to see his friend Marli all week, he finally got to see her yesterday. We went swimming at the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center with her and Marli's lil' bro Dylan. Cash and Marli had so much fun with each other and neither of them got upset, amazing! I can't believe how well they handle the water compared to last year, plus they are taller so they can go deeper. Cash loves the lillypads and the huge slide. De'dy and I got to share good deal and coupon info while the kids splashed around. She finds good deals that I haven't even heard of and sometimes vice versa. I also took Cash to a gymnastics class last week he loved it. I'll have to take a picture of his handstand on a wall pose. He picks up physical things really fast (that's not my trait for sure, my wii fit still calls me unbalanced!) I think I'm going to start him in it again, I see a lot of improvement from last year and I enjoyed the coach. We also trialed a montessorri class, he loved it. I may have to be a helper in the school so I can afford it but I could instantly tell it was just the stimulation that his brain is begging for these days and I am not that creative. Plus I have a partial mess phobia, I usually have to clean up enough messes during the day. We did bring home some fun ideas and it was not as messy as I thought. The 3 to 6 yr olds all enjoyed the same free play activities and the reading, math etc. were all individually paced and they all seemed to enjoy this too. I was amazed at how independent they all were, which is what they encourage.  I may have to trade 7.5 hrs of my week but I think it will be well worth it. If anyone has made it this far reading this blog, good for you! Lot's more to say but I don't want to bore you. Oh one more thing, I've figured out how to add pictures en mass (you like my french!) in facebook directly from snapfish. If you don't have a facebook or snapfish account I urge you to get one. I don't know who works at facebook but I love seeing my old high school friends and their families. If you store your pics at snapfish it will ensure my dad will always have a job at the Austin Data Center. The picture books are really cute but I haven't ventured there yet (they are a little pricey, yes I pay full price for everything, no family discounts that I've figured out yet). Anyway if you want to view all my pics go to my facebook page. I'll still post a few here. Talk later.D