Here is my public service announcement for the day:

It is SHARK WEEK on Discovery!

::Post from last summer, but SHARK WEEK starts TONIGHT!::

My children have been crowded around the TV each night, sitting in the dark, freaking themselves out on the AWESOMENESS that shark week is! We look forward to this like people look forward to The Super Bowl, or The Olympics,  or new season of The Kardashians 🙂

I knew that shark week had to be coming up again as I had only a month before, finally gotten my 5 year old out of my bed and back into hers every night. That same irrational fear that I have about loosing my coupon binder, she has about sharks coming into her room at night. Go figure.

Tonight is the BIG night, we are watching the great whites at seal island. I thought we would make it even more fun and frugal to make up for last weeks disastrous non-frugal family night. I thought about having Sushi for dinner so we could get the real “shark” experience, but the kids voted me down.

We had fish sticks instead.

And shark punch, I froze shark gummies in ice cube trays. Then made blue Kool-Aid and mixed with Ginger Ale. I added the shark ice cubes and the kids were thrilled!

Total cost for dinner and entertainment: $7

Total saved from last week: $104

Total satisfaction that “money bags” had fish sticks for dinner (she hates them): Priceless!

Oh I don’t feel that bad for her, I hate fish sticks and had to eat them also!

Do you watch Shark Week?

I should totally work for Discovery… they need to pay me to advertise for them! 🙂 

This post could also be titled: We were almost washing dishes: What to do when you forget your money!

Last night we took the kids to see a movie. All of them. We don’t often do this as it is expensive and hard to find a movie that everyone wants to see together. But it was $5 movie night at a theater, a town away, PLUS $.40 cent wings night so my husband was the one motivated to go. It is one of these movie theaters where you eat at the theater. We were calculating about $7 a person for dinner and a movie, not counting the 2 little kids who don’t eat anything, and they baby, who they usually don’t charge a ticket for.

We walk up to the counter and the cashier says, “How old is the baby?”

Paul thinking she is admiring how cute she is, cheerfully says, “12 months!”

Cashier says, “we don’t allow anyone under the age of 5”

Huh? We did not know this, we have been here before but with the older kids. We were seeing a kids PG show, so we ask, “not at the kids show?” thinking maybe she though we were watching something R?

The cashier says she will talk to her manager and came back 5 min later and says we can bring the 1 year old in, but we have to pay an adult ticket for her. Um o.k. all the tickets were $5 anyway! Paul goes to pay and can’t find the debit card. He looks at me, “where is the card?” I say, “I don’t know you had it last”. Now there is a line waiting to get in. I tell them to go ahead and we dump out my purse and Paul’s pockets on the ground looking for the card. “Do you have any cash?” he asks, I pull out a crumpled up few bills. Paul finds a gift card we had from last year, “I think there is some money on it!” he says! The girl tries the card and IT WORKS! Yea! We had $51 on it and the total was $45.

We get to our seats, Paul and I are laughing, “she must think, wow, they have no money and are digging for cash to see a movie!”

Now, we have to order our food. I had about $30 in cash so we can still get dinner…. we hit the button and the server gets to us as the movie starts and it gets dark. Paul orders the wings and we tell the 7 year old she can get a basket of 4 mini burgers to share with the kids that won’t eat wings. Paul orders 2 drinks thinking that they are $1.25 each. We figure we should be at $20 and be able to tip pretty well.

Movie is horrible. It was (The Zoo Keeper, I don’t recommend it)

As the movie ends we get our bill. $65. WHAT?! OMGosh! In disbelief Paul and I are reading it over and over again. We ask the server if it is right. Only the bone in wings were on sale, we got boneless. I DIDN”T KNOW! Paul’s 2 drink were $2.75 each. We were looking at the kids drinks apparently. The 7 year old ordered 2 mini burger baskets not 1. It was dark and they were at the end of another row so I didn’t see them, they walked over to us to get wings. Plus, the tip was now 20% added on and $5 in tax I had not counted on! What a disaster!

I am freaking out, we only have $30 in cash on us. We can’t even go get cash as we can’t find the debit card and it is 10pm so I can’t run to a bank. We start asking kids if they have any money on them! Paul runs out to the car to see if he can find any there under the seat and the 7 year old says her wallet is in the car. OHH, please let her have her birthday money in there! I am laughing thinking about begging her birthday money off of her!

Seriously, what do you do? Are they going to make us wash dishes? Do I leave a kid and promise to come back with cash? I am just kidding. I started thinking of what friends I could call that would run me up some money, this was ridiculous. Paul comes back with the 7 year olds wallet. It has $6 in it. “Where is your birthday money?!!!” I almost yell. “You told me to leave it at home and not carry it with me.” she cries. Since when do they listen? The 13 year old has no cash on him, he is now hiding from embarrassment.

We just stand there for a minute looking at each other trying to figure out how to come up with $30 from thin air, when I see the 11 year old “money bags” wandering around. “Hey, do you have any money on you?” I ask as if she didn’t know what was going on. “I might have a little.” she says. “Can. I. Borrow. Some?” I ask her trying to be nice as she can clearly hear what is going on. She pulls her wallet out and has no less then $120 in it!!!!

“Are you kidding me?! When were you going to tell us you had money!!!” I ask. She has watched us scrounging for money for 10 minutes. Did she want to see us do dishes?  “I don’t know” comes the standard kid answer. “Well, can I borrow $30?” I ask. “I guess” she replies painfully.  We pay and leave. I am still sweating.

As we get in the car, we are still shaking our heads, our frugal family night out has cost us $110 to see a horrible movie. Everyone is also hungry still. What a waste, Paul and I are sick about it, but the kids had fun.

This morning I get up and walk into the kitchen, on the fridge door is a note: “You owe me $30” it was from “Money Bags.” Sheesh, now I just need to find my debit card!

Guys, I have heels on! She is TALL! O.K. I am pretty short….

This week I am in New York City for the BlogHer 12 conference. This is the largest conference for all bloggers and brands. Right now I am having lunch, blogging and listening to Martha Stewart ( today is her birthday!) talk to us for our lunch speaker. They don’t mess around here with speakers! We have Katie Curic tomorrow….

Today Kate Gosselin was at the Coupon Cabin table. She is a writer for them and has a regular column, and does use coupons herself.

Last fall when I heard that she was their new spokesperson, I was a little skeptical. I joked to my family I was challenging her to a “coupon throw down!” We can see who can shop for 7-8 kids with online coupon codes etc. and see who can save the most at Christmas. I had the entire thing all planned out in my head. Of course, I win! 🙂

Today I thought I would say hi, and you know she was really GREAT! I don’t watch much TV and so I rarely ever saw one of the Kate Plus 8 shows. I DID see the very first original one where she was pregnant that was done by Discovery (I think). I had just had a baby and was miserable on the couch trying to breastfeed without screaming because I also had mastitis at the time. I was such a good show and I was glad I only had 1 newborn!

We chatted about people knowing her kids names and all about their lives, then we talked about what kind of car you can possibly drive with that many kids. She can totally relate to the dilemma of having to find a vehicle you can fit everyone into. BTW she has a Sprinter, which I love, with rubber floors… brilliant! Just hose it out!

I will say I was really surprised at how amazingly nice she was, down to earth and friendly. I could see her as my next door neighbor, and carpooling to kids practice with everyone else. We personally know what TV does to you when they edit the way that they want the outcome to be. I really felt like the real woman in there is doing what everyone of us are, and just trying to take care of her kids, and get through everyday the best she can!

* SERIOUSLY! Why does my arm look so fat! I need to learn to pose with my hand on my hip! LOL! Ummm, or start working  out!

I really love to watch the interaction between Dads and their kids. The relationship is different then what you see with Moms. There are many different situations, for example that Dad might be the pushover, and easy going one. The Mom might be the disciplinarian, and no-nonsense one. Or it’s the other way around, or even a good combo of both.

But it is the way kids look at their Dads that I love to see. I watch it in the mall, parks, church, all the time.

I took this picture with my cell phone at the rodeo this year. That little girl above is looking at me thinking, ” Oh yeah, see this guy? I have him wrapped around both little fingers… and he loves it!”

Today we were at the airport standing in line and a man and his (I am guessing…) 17  year old son were in line behind us.  The father was wearing a jumpsuit, like overalls with his work badge and name sewn on the front. The son was dressed a little preppy, polo shirt, white shoes, and shorts. They looked as if they almost didn’t belong together. But you knew instantly they were when you saw the way they looked at each other.

The Dad looked worried, and all through the line he was instructing his son on how to do everything, because it seemed the son was flying alone. He was demonstrating how to put his luggage in the overhead bins, how to hand over his ticket to the person at the gate and where to keep his ID so he didn’t lose it.

From listening to the Dad, I could tell that he himself had not flown in a quite a while, as things have changed in the last few years, but he was confident in front of his son.

I watched them all through check in and then through security. The Dad was allowed to walk him to the gate. This scene brought tears to my eyes a few times as we stood there. I could see my husband doing this with any of our children and could remember my Dad doing this same thing with me. Teaching me how to drive, ride a bike, and fly alone for the first time. I wanted so bad to offer to help or wait at the gate with him so the Dad could get to work, but I didn’t want to interrupt something that you just can’t explain.

It was like a scene from a movie in real life. I don’t know their situation, or what their story was, but just from the body language it was playing out. Here is a Dad who looked as if he never had the the chance to go to college, worked a hard job to support his family and was proud of his son. He wanted him to have opportunities that he didn’t have. The son seemed like in certain situations he might be embarrassed by his families situation financially, but loved his Dad very much. I don’t fault him for that, as a teenager once myself you just need some time to grow up. But he needed his Dad there with him, he asked him all kinds of questions and wasn’t irritated when his Dad kept telling him to not lose his ID.

We lost them after security, but I can’t stop thinking about them and wondering where the son was going? College, camp, or to see family?  I love to see that same look on my kids faces when they look at their Dad and Grandpa. I know that my husband and I feel that way for our kids, and worry about them, and try and teach them everything we know so that they are safe and confident. I am thankful for the glimpse into their life that they gave me today. It was beautiful.

Happy July 4th! I hope you are having a wonderful and safe day with your family!

I collect Starbucks mugs. I don’t even drink coffee, but I love the city mugs. They remind me of the Hard Rock Cafe stuff that people used to collect back in the 90’s. I don’t collect many things at all, except kids, of course! 🙂 But I have fallen in love with these mugs!

Every city that I visit I find a Starbucks, order a tall white chocolate hot chocolate and buy a mug. These are the mugs I have gotten this past month, minus the Las Vegas and Arizona mugs I forgot to unpack.  Crazy group of cities I have been to!

When I bought my California mug I asked the cashier for a box to put it in as I had with all my other ones. He said they didn’t have a box. I explained I had a long way home and that I had gotten boxes before. Then he admitted they had boxes but they toss them because they don’t want to store them. But don’t worry, he can wrap them like I had never seen and it would make it home just fine. I was really worried and he kept saying he does this all day and nothing to worry about.

“Oh yeah?”

I managed to get 3 mugs home from China and Niagara Falls, but my California mug broke. 🙁 I am tempted to mail it back to him. I am going to try superglue first, if that doesn’t work, “Mr. I can pack it just fine” will get a broken mug in the mail at work in the farmers market in Hollywood, CA.  🙂

My husband just informed me I was admitting to you that I pay too much for coffee mugs, and that I don’t even drink coffee. Yes,  it is a splurge…. but they are so pretty!

While we were in Las Vegas, the only place that my kids wanted to see and visit was this place…

Anyone know what this place is??

Yep, the location of the History Channels TV show Pawn Stars. Sadly, Chumlee had just gone to lunch and the kids didn’t get to meet him. We waited in line to get in and spent about an hour looking around. It was not very big inside, but we did see a bunch of items that had been featured on the show. At home we only use Net Flix to watch TV, where  you can get all the seasons of Pawn Stars all day long. We all are addicted and watch them all the time. Honestly I have learned more American history from this show then from any other source.

In the pawn shop my 4 year old was tired and hungry. He is NOT a fan of Pawn Stars on TV. Watching it means he was probably kicked off watching The Backyardagains or some other cartoon, so he gets mad anytime it is on. He was whining like crazy and in an effort to make him stop I started pointing things out and explaining where we were. You could slowly see it click in his head and without warning he starts yelling at the top of his lungs….

“I hate PORN STARS!!!!!!!”

See, he has a little speech problem and doesn’t say all his words very clearly and correctly. But clear as day he was screaming about “Porn Stars” in the store packed with people.

People were staring at me, holding a flailing child, and trying to cover his mouth at the same time. I finally had enough and just  let him drop to the floor with his next tantrum flail. He picked himself up, took two steps towards the door, turned around and yelled…

“I twold you, I hwate Porn Stars!!” with his little lisp and walked to the exit door.

My husband yelled back at him, “Good, keep it that way son!”

The crowd around quietly watching us erupted in laughter. I felt the need to start explaining why my 4 year old was saying that, but my husband just grabbed my arm and walked me to the door after the kid.

“Baby, we are in Vegas, no one cares!”

This is the picture of a 2 year old who has discovered the buffet in a hotel in Las Vegas. I realized we had never taken the kids to a buffet (other then something like Chuck E. Cheese) and we had BOGO coupons for the one in the hotel we were staying at.

We walked them in and quickly showed them around telling them we were not eating again until dinner, so fill up! I grabbed a plate for me and the little ones and started getting food. Every time I turned around I bumped into one of my kids.

“Go! Get some food, you don’t have to follow me around!” I told them.

They continued to just do what I was doing and were very conservative in putting anything on their plates. We all met back at the table and they only had a few pieces of bacon and some scrambled eggs.

“Seriously, we are not feeding you again until dinner time, so you had better get some food and eat!” I explained again.

“What can we have?” The 6 year old asked.

“Anything. Just go get what you want.” I say.

“Anything? Like there is breakfast and dinner stuff at the same time? What do we eat?” The 8 year old asks.

“You can have both, whatever you want.”

“At the same time?” The 6 year old is confused.

“Yes! EAT ANYTHING YOU WANT!” As I realize this is completely blowing their minds! “Just go get whatever you want to eat, and drink, anything at all!”

Their eyes start getting bigger and bigger, I can slowly seeing it clicking in their little minds. They are FREAKING out at the idea that they can have whatever they want to eat, as much as they want, and it didn’t have to be breakfast!

The 14 year old comes back with lasagna and bacon. The 12 year old has carrot cake and sausage links with grapefruit juice. The 8 year old has a omelet, oatmeal, donut, and biscuits with gravy. I lost track of the 6 year old and how many bowls of cereal she had. It was a smorgasbord  like you have never seen!

The baby capped the entire thing off with running down the long booth seat, just sampling everything that everyone else had not eaten. It was a blast, then I realized we were there to sightsee and not sit in a buffet all day. Taking kids to a huge buffet for the first time is almost just like sighseeing!

Wrapping up, this was just about the longest post in post history! Pat yourself on the back if you made it this far! You got 3 stories in one. I just want to know, if you collect anything like I collect Starbucks mugs and what was your experience taking your kids to Vegas if you have? 

Any yes, I had a better title for my post, but you never know who is just skimming and not reading… mugs, big buffets and porn stars in one title the way that I had it just wasn’t working for a PG site.