It’s been a while since I have posted a bunch of pictures of Frugal Boy. The grandparents are probably getting itchy, so I better remedy that.
We transplanted a patch of creeping phlox from our backyard to a flower bed in the front yard. The resulting bare dirt patch has since been claimed by Frugal Boy.
We tried out a ‘dress yourself’ day. After he ran to Shae’s closet and grabbed a dress we reverted to picking his attire for him.
He has made great strides in potty training.
just kidding!
Wagon rides are pretty fun. You can sit, kneel, and lay down in the wagon. Frugal Boy still likes to test boundaries and try standing and straddling the side of the wagon.
Big hats help to keep the sun off that buttery smooth baby skin.
We learned that Frugal Boy’s attention span is better than we thought. He sat like this for almost 30 minutes.
He was watching a tree being cut down.
He has a new adventure friend.
The neighbor girl had a lot of fun playing with him one evening.
It has been a jam packed weekend for us with lots of freebies!
A Free Chair
Here is a free chair that I found on Friday. The upholstering is a bit rough but it is a solid chair. The label on the bottom says Fairfield, so someone probably paid a few hundred bucks once upon a time.
Free Movie Rentals
Redbox is running a deal right now (PLKMP982) where you can get five free DVD rentals for each account that you have with them. The deal runs until 4/30 and you must reserve your DVD online (the code won’t work at the kiosk).
So far we have watched Interstellar and The Imitation Game. Both excellent movies that you should watch if you haven’t already!
Free Laundry Detergent +
On Saturday, there was a cloth diaper expo in town. The first twenty people got goodie bags. We happened to be walking nearby so we stopped in and got a large bag filled with detergent, an insert, various balms, and literature.
Free Charcoal Grill!
Also on Saturday we won a free charcoal grill as part of a city wide scavenger hunt.
Our local library has been promoting National Library Week and the rollout of their brand new bookmobile by posting a scavenger hunt on Facebook every day for the past week. It has been really fun to try and figure out the clues and race across town to get to the destination before other treasure seekers. The prizes were usually claimed within 10-20 minutes of the first clue being posted and twice we were in sight of the goal line just to see someone else get their first. The last prizes clue started with:
Subtract the number of dwarves from a baker’s dozen
Add the number of blind mice to the loneliest number
Subtract the number of calling birds from the number of gold rings
My gut told me that it was a call number so we went to the library. We had books to return and they were having cake to celebrate the new bookmobile so even if I was wrong we would still score some free cake!
After getting to the library the second part of the clue was posted
.LVII
Add the value of two quarters to Walter Payton’s number
“Bam!” You got it!
I’ll leave the answer at the end of the post so you can see if you figured it out.
Here was Shae with the prize envelope. We were so thrilled to have found one and win a prize!
Then we took a group selfie to commemorate the occasion. Frugal Boy was obviously not as excited as his parents, but he’ll come around after he gets to eat some meat seared over red hot coals.
After eating some free cake and checking out the snazzy new bookmobile we headed home.
Free Garage Door Fix
Arriving home I pressed the button to open our garage door and the door shook a lot on the way up and then stopped 3/4 of the way. In the words of Frugal Boy, “Uh Oooh!”
The culprit was easy to spot. One of the rollers had dragged and bent its hinge completely out of alignment.
I grabbed some tools and pulled the broken hardware off the door.
My first attempt to fix the door was to go to Lowes and buy a new hinge and ten new rollers. Our garage door dates back to the 70s and as this little incident proved, it is on its last legs. Returning home, I lined up the new hinge where the old one was and discovered that it was incompatible. The replacement hinge was far too tall and if I screwed it into place then the roller wouldn’t line up with the track. I would have to move the entire track back at least 1/2″ to accommodate the replacement parts. To add insult to injury, the new rollers are too thick to fit into the old hinges.
In a last ditch effort, I resorted to Great Depression tactics and laid the old hinge on the garage floor and beat the snot out of it with a four pound hammer until it was straightened out again. I also tightened up and replaced any missing nuts that had shaken loose from 40 years of operation. So far so good and the fix was free!
Free Car (Blocks Sold Separately)
Saturday night, Shae asked me if I wanted to come with her to walk around the neighborhood to find any curbside deals. A couple of blocks away we found a Little Tikes Cozy Coupe. I asked the man outside of the house if we could have it and he was more than happy to let us drag it away. He said that they had inherited it with the house and his kids had ridden it pretty hard. The front wheels were bent and one of the columns had been ‘repaired’ long ago.
This morning we went back to Lowes to return the incompatible garage hardware and to pick up some new wheels for Frugal Boy’s pimpin ride.
A couple of casters, long carriage bolts, some scrap wood, and a little ingenuity had Frugal Boy’s ride back on the street, err alley, err garage (it was raining today).
So there you have it, our freebie filled weekend! I still have to assemble the grill and break it in sometime, we have three more redbox movies to rent, leave a recommendation down in the comments, and our garage door is running on borrowed time.
Scavenger Hunt Answer
641.5784 which refers to a section of grilling cookbooks in the Adult Services Department. The reference to “Bam!” was intended to narrow down the options to Emeril Lagasse’s cookbook “Emeril at the Grill: A Cookbook for all Seasons.”
In the interest of not falling too far behind on blog posts here is a new one. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough quality material for an on focus post, so let the ramblings begin! Please do try to keep up, we’ll be switching topics rapidly.
A New Hat
The last bit of winter weather was the straw that broke Shae’s back. She brought out the sewing machine and made a custom fleece hat for herself with ear flaps (a must have feature according to her) and a special cutout for hair.
We Visited Family
Easter weekend we visited with family. Frugal Boy got some one on one time with Grandma.
Vegetable Korma
Shae planned out April’s dinner menu. A surprise favorite so far for me was vegetable korma. This vegetarian dish is big on flavor and texture (depending on how long you cook the veggies). Next time I think I want to add some chicken or a white fish for that little extra bit of extra flavor.
Walking Becomes The New Thing
Frugal Boy can now be seen wandering aimlessly through the house on two limbs instead of four.
Blueberry Bushes Get a New Home
We ordered two dwarf blueberry plants for our backyard. The two varieties are suitable for container gardening and in a few years we will hopefully be collecting 5-10 pounds of fresh berries each summer! In preparation for the new arrivals we got their large pots ready with nice acidic soil.
Is the Carnival in Town?
The weather has been fantastic and we have been booting Frugal Boy outside as much as possible. Our neighbors seem to have the same idea, so when a bounce house got set up and they invited Frugal Boy over to jump in it I couldn’t say no!
Slides are FUN!
We’ve found that playgrounds offer a better place for Frugal Boy to express his climbing desires than our living room furniture. He seems to be taking after his oldest cousin and is completely fearless about going down any slide by himself.
Hanging Out and Eating Crackers with Mom
We are working on getting Frugal Boy used to the idea of spending all day outside when it is warm out. I have fond memories of childhood and playing outside until it got dark out. Hopefully with the proper nurturing and boundaries Frugal Boy will be able to experience some of the carefreeness of our youth.
The weather has been very Spring like lately. Some days it is overcast and cold and other days it is sunny and warm. We have been trying to get outside as much as possible to get some fresh air and vitamin D.
I have been keeping busy with a new project, one that I will be showing off on this blog once it is finished. Frugal Boy hangs around and plays in the dirt. Well, technically he eats it.
