I have been on a hiatus from couponing because I have been out of town or had visitors for over a month. I got back into the swing of it last weekend and bought more newspapers to re-stock my coupons. I got 12 toothpastes, 5 deodorants, 2 packs of floss, and 1 pack of cough drops for $1.69.
What a rush! I know it sounds lame, but seeing a savings of 98% on my receipt makes me giddy.
I am teaching a coupon class next month for my office at work. I hope it goes well!
I wanted a new front door because the old door had a window on it. I normally love windows, but I am a chicken and won’t answer the door when I’m home alone unless I recognize who is standing on my front steps. If I look through the window, then folks know I am home. I want to be able to hide if I don’t recognize the person, unless they are 3 feet tall selling boxes of cookies. I’ll answer my door for them.
Here was our original door. This picture was taken the day we closed on the house and it was the first time walking into OUR home.
Bob’s parents visited 2 weeks ago, so as their housewarming gift to us, they got us a new door and lock. Mr. Spryn even installed it with the help of Bob. Thanks, in-laws!
The old owners had blue accents on the house including the shutters. Luckily I found a can of paint in the garage that matches the rest of the accents. After 3 coats, the new door was looking pretty good! Now I have a small peephole to check for weirdos. I’m talking about anybody related to me.
Out of nowhere Bob said “I want to get my pilot’s license”. I can’t think of anything I did recently that could annoy him enough to want to escape my presence at 150+ mph and several thousand feet above me. He booked a trial flight with Cessna.
I am adamantly against Cessna planes. It seems like every day when I check cnn.com there is a news story about a small plane that crashed and it seems that 90% of the time it is a Cessna. Given my luck with flight delays and mechanical problems on commercial flights, I wasn’t too keen on the idea of riding in a Cessna. It was bound to be my death wish. See that mosquito? They call it an airplane.
First, the instructor explained what every doohicky on the dashboard was for. I was pretty smart because I already knew what the GPS was. Who needs training?
The instructor took off down the runway, and once we were airborne he flipped the controls over to Bob. After 30 minutes of instruction on the ground this clown of an instructor thought Bob could actually fly the plane. Thank goodness Bob has spent countless hours playing video games to prepare himself.
Shortly after takeoff I spotted the Flatirons Mall that I go to. Hi Dillard’s and Macy’s!
Bob flew over my office buildings as well.
Standley lake is in this picture. If you knew where to look, you could see our house in this picture:
It was a hot day- 102 degrees to be exact and the plane didn’t have air conditioning. We also encountered a lot of updrafts due to the heat. Updrafts make the plane feel like it will topple over at any moment. I didn’t like it, but mustered up a smile. If the plane were to crash, I’d want investigators to find my camera so people would think I died on a happy flight.
After about 45 minutes in the air, we were safely on the ground. I was glad to be alive, and glad I didn’t have to use the plastic grocery bags and ziplock freezer bags I stashed in my purse.
Bob, his parents and I came home from eating dinner out and I smelled something burning as soon as I walked in the door. In fact, being a typical Dron I said “mmmm it smells like burning marshmallows”. We put the dogs in the back yard and I threw Paco in my car outside, then searched the house. Mr. Spryn found our garage filled with smoke. No fire, just smoke.
Bob called for help, and it must have been a slow night because 3 fire trucks showed up and 3 or 4 police cars.
I was excited to see ladder 3 arrive. I think of them as my work-out buddies. Several days a week at 3pm that fire truck is parked in front of my gym and a bunch of volunteer firemen are working out. I always feel safe knowing they are there if I ever go into cardiac arrest while working out hard walking rapidly and lifting 8lb hand weights.
They arrived within two minutes, maybe even sooner than that. Turns out it was just an electrical issue with the light in the garage. Neighbours lined the street and walked by to “get their mail” at 9pm. I went over to the sidewalk and met two neighbours that I hadn’t met yet- Debbie and Doug. I think they were disappointed that it wasn’t as big of a deal as all of the commotion made it seem.
I flew to Rochester last weekend for a long-overdue visit home. My cousin Amy and her husband Bryan just had their first baby- Paityn! She was just 2 days old when I saw her. Amy is already grooming her to be a cheerleader. My mom made her cry and she does have a good set of lungs- perfect for cheering!
Some of my friends headed down to Port Bay for a day to hang out. The fellas took the row boat out for a ride and the girls filled water balloons and launched them at the boat.
After a stand-off, Nikki and Brendan went after each other with water balloons.
We took my dad’s boat out into the lake and hung out for a little bit.
The next morning I went out fishing with daddy papa. We each caught three bass! I knew I’d catch something because I was with the fishin’ magician.
On my way to the airport I had to stop at Bill Grays. Mmmmm.
Dad gave my mom the nickname Blossom a long time ago. Her thumb is very green when it isn’t tinted orange from self-tanner lotion. Go ahead and ask her about that incident.
While Bob and I were in Hawaii, mom flew in to watch the fur babies and I left her a list of chores. Her big task was to make the gardens look prettier! A bunch of flowers were already in place, but there were a lot of weeds that needed to be cleared out. Mom had 5 garbage bags full of weeds and didn’t even get to finish every garden.
She raved about O’Tools Garden Center and bought me some hydrangeas, black-eyed Susans and some other plants I can’t think of right now.
The day after I got back from Hawaii she wanted to go back to O’Tools Garden Center with me. The main reason: free hot dogs, apple pie and baby llamas to pet. They were holding some 4th of July sale and turned it into a mini-festival. They had us at “free food”.
I picked out some planter boxes, New Guinea Impatients and Gerber Daisies to put along the front steps. The next morning my mom and her friend Karen were up at 6:30am planting in my boxes.
After working in the gardens mom would take a break from the heat and enjoy a Carona. Of course Paco McTaco Grande loves Mexican beer.
I bet you thought bees were the only critters to help cross-pollinate flowers. If you thought so, you’re wrong. Canines like to help out too!
He ran through a sprinkler and it didn’t wash off. I think a bath is in order.
Bob, Jesse and I went to a Luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I thought it would be an authentic luau since it was at a cultural center.
It started off normal. We each received a lei with real orchids.
While waiting for dinner, we had a Hawaiian host and a show was put on at the front stage. The host was pretty much a Hawaiian Wayne Newton.
Dinner was an all-you-can-eat-buffet and the food was scrumptious! Pork, chicken, fresh fruit, poi rolls.
After we finished dinner we had about 45 minutes until the polynesian show started at the main amphitheater. Conveniently, there was a short tram ride which advertised a tour of the BYU college campus and the town. We hopped right on! The tram started moving, the guide picked up the hand-held microphone and announced that she wasn’t with the Polynesian Cultural center or with the BYU college… she was a mormon. We didn’t learn anything about the BYU campus. We were dropped off at the mormon temple.
As soon as we stepped off the tram, the tram drove away and we were stuck on the mormon temple campus. We were told not to enter the temple because it is sacred and for mormons only. Instead, they tried to herd us into the mormon visitor’s center to watch a 5 minute video about their faith. Bob, Jesse and I were the only people in the group to decline watching the video and told them we’d wait outside. They were offended. Meanwhile, I took pictures of flowers to keep busy for 5 minutes.
As soon as the tram showed up again we quickly got on it to go back to the cultural center. Apparently the entire Polynesian Cultural Center was built and funded by the mormons. It is unadvertised and I maintain we were kidnapped by those crazy folks.
The show started and we had no idea what was going on. We think some little boy was washed out to sea and became the Lion King. We left at intermission.
Anna set-up a 1-hour ATV tour in a valley where LOST was filmed, as well as Godzilla, 50 First Dates, and Wind Talkers. The ATV guide gave us bandanas and we weren’t quite sure what they were for.
Were we playing Cops and Robbers?
Were we making maple syrup?
We drove out to the LOST valley, which is over 4,000 acres and is privately owned by a family. Can you imagine how much money that family brings in?! This photo was taken where Hurley’s Golf Course was set-up for LOST.
Godzilla’s foot was huge! See how big it is compared to the ATVs?
Hey helmet head!
The views were very pretty along the trail.
After ATVing we went to get Shave Ice. I think it should have a “D” at the end of “shave” but apparently it really is called Shave Ice. How annoying. It is basically a glorified snow cone.
After we finished our shave ice we headed to a beach on the North Shore to watch the sunset.
We went deep sea fishing on Maggie Joe and were assisted by Captain Mike and First Mate Nate. I love rhymes.
Captain Mike took us fishing in about 140-180 feet of water because the Wahoos had been biting lately (it was too early in the season for Marlin). Wahoos go after their prey at 70mph and have razor sharp teeth. In fact, they don’t event need to bite. They just ram their prey at 70 mph and cut them in half, then go back and eat it with their friends. Here is First Mate Nate getting the rods set-up.
The rods were rigged with big rubber bands. When a fish was hooked, the bands would snap and make a popping sound which alerted us to start reeling. Here fishy fishy! About 30 minutes into the trip we had a triple-header. One of the fish got off though, so we ended up with 2. Adam and Jesse got to reel them in.
Once the fish were near the boat, Nate speared them and put them on ice under the deck. He then bashed their heads with a bat to kill them right away (hey, I guess it is more humane than letting them die slowly on ice). Blood was everywhere. Gross. I was trying to get a close-up photo of the fish’s face and at that exact moment Nate bashed his head. I decided not to post that picture.
Those 2 fish were the only ones we caught that day. The bigger fish was around 37lbs and the smaller fish was around 19 lbs (I can’t remember exactly.. but they were close to that size).
Nate filleted the smaller fish for the group and we took it home to be grilled for dinner. I didn’t eat it, but Bob tried a bite and said it was OK.
Here are some random pictures from throughout the day:
