I love free stuff!

I signed up with coupon sense a month ago and love love love it and it has motivated me to look for all the good deals and free stuff that I can. Grocery shopping is actually fun now. This month Mark and I (thanks to Vonda's tips) have gotten tons of free food and some grocery stuff including

• 2 tacos at Jack-in-the-Box
• 2 Quiznos sandwiches
• QT hot dog and 32oz drink
• $10 at Dave & Busters
• toilet paper

All we had to do was sign up for free on their websites and then print coupons. Good times!

Family movie night

Mark and I just went to see this movie with my mom and dad and it was by far one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. It was action packed and suspenseful. I would definitely see it again and buy it when it comes out on DVD. It was kind of scary though to think that things like what happened in the movie actually happen in the world (I won't disclose what happens in case anyone hasn't seen it yet)

Jobs and Fresh veggies

Yeah! Mark finally found a job! We knew something would come along eventually and we are so happy it did. Mark will be working for the US Census. It's only for 3 months, but it's good pay and is better than nothing. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for him.

In other happy news, I discovered that I love picking fresh vegetables and want to start my own garden at home. My mom took me with her today to her Stake's vegetable garden out in Queen Creek. We were there for an hour and a half picking beets, snap peas, carrots, broccoli, turnips, and green onions. Today was the last day to go I think. The soil was really tough to get through, but luckily one the the brethren from my mom's ward was there and helped us out. It was fun to pick our own vegetables. I'm sure I won't be able to walk tomorrow from all the squatting I was doing, but it was definitely worth it. So now I just need to get some pots for our house and plants some veggies of our own.

Snap Peas

Broccoli

Leftovers and Juicing

So this week has been leftover week in our house cause we got a little carried away with the cooking last week and have so much food left. I made crock pot chili and banana cake and Mark made burrito stuffing, plus we ate out a few days and ended up with left over pulled pork sandwiches and muffins from Mimi's. On top of all that there is usually always a steady supply of baked cookies in the house.

Mark's sister and her husband got us a juicer for our wedding gift. We always saw the infomercials for them and wanted one, so we were so happy and surprised when they got us one. It makes awesome juice. So far we haven't been too creative or adventurous with it, but we'll be juicing up all kinds of stuff soon enough. Now we just need a blender so we can make smoothies! Mmmmm...

Mark had orange/nectarine with a little bit of kiwi

Just the orange juice alone is super good

Mark participated in a President's Day football tournament put together by our friend Joe Hurst. They had a really good turn out. I think they ended up with 6 teams of 8. The games were played down at Power Ranch park on three separate fields. I went to take pictures and support my hubby of course. It was a fun day and the weather was perfect. The guys played for the Spooner Cup

(as in Spooners the cereal, which the cup was filled with)

Here are some of the highlights and amazing catches

Joe McLean gets the touchdown with one foot in the endzone

There's my husband with the ball

I thought this was a cool picture of Joe
Brennan fights for the ball
My camera couldn't stay away from Erik Pugmire. He definitely came dressed to impress, but as the day went on, the clothes seemed to come off.

Erik went from this...


To this...

And ended the day like this...

I think everyone had a good time and it was fun to watch. I hope they do it again next year.

Sorry there is something wrong with the slide show, but if you click on the "view all images" button, you can see all the pictures that are supposed to be in it.

If anyone wants any of the pictures from the football tourni, you can email me at embstar_05@hotmail.com and I can email them to you.

The 7's Tournament

Mark and I went to San Diego for Valentine's Day weekend for the USA 7's Rugby Tournament. (Of course we forgot our camera) I've gone every year for the last 3 years with all of my family and it is so much fun. I'm sure we'll be going every year as long as it stays in San Diego. 16 nations from around the world compete for the World Cup. We usually root for Fiji since that is where my family is from and definitely the USA. It is amazing to stand in a packed stadium and hear the entire crowd shouting "U-S-A!"

(Competing nations from left to right: Uruguay, Mexico, USA, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Samoa, Scotland, Canada, France, Japan, Argentina, Fiji, Australia, Wales, Kenya)

Higley Varsity Basketball

A few weeks ago we attended the Higley Senior Night. Mark's younger brother is a senior this year and is on the varsity basketball team. All the senior players and their parents were honored.

We had to get a picture of the Gabriella brothers on their court. It's kind of sad that there won't be any Gabriellas playing at Higley for a while since there has been a Gabriella boy playing there for the last 8 years.

Seeing the Higley basketball court always makes me smile because that is where Mark proposed to me.

Brothers

Vegas Baby!

Finally I got our Vegas pictures up. Mark and I went to Las Vegas Superbowl weekend.

And we're off...
This was Mark moving his body "like a cyclone". It was hilarious!

We stayed at Circus Circus. It was nice, but I would stay further down the strip next time so we wouldn't have to walk as far to our hotel at the end of the day. Our first night we got there late, so we checked in and then walked down the strip to Caesar's Palace to the Forum Shops and looked around for a while. We were exhausted from the drive so we went to bed. The next day we got up and went to Mandalay Bay for the breakfast buffet. It was yummy and one of the least expensive. After we ate, we went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay.
At the beginning of the Reef they had a bunch of endangered animals like a Golden Crocodile and this Gila Monster. He sat so still that I thought for sure he was fake.

We got to pet the sting rays.

These crabs were gettin' some lovin'.

This sting ray must have liked me cause he came and sat by me and let me pet him for a while.

Jellyfish are so interesting to me

This place scared me. It was made to look like you were in a sunken ship and there was glass all around and above and on the floor. You could walk right up to the side windows and even lay against them if you wanted. It was scary. I'm sure the glass is super thick, but I couldn't help feeling like I might fall into the water. Silly, I know.

We went from Mandalay Bay to Luxor and went through the Bodies Exhibit. It was my second time and Mark's first, so it was fun to see his reactions to the bodies.

We hung around this end of the strip for most of the day. We rode the New York New York rollercoaster a few times, went to see the lions at MGM Grand, and walked through the M&M and Coke factories.

At the Coke Factory, we did this taste test of 16 international coke products. Some were really good and some, not so much...

Like this one...

and this one.

Saturday night we had dinner at Excalibur and then went to TI (Treasure Island) to watch the Sirens of TI show. It was entertaining and even better, it was FREE. We did a little more shopping or rather window shopping in The Venetian and then went back to the hotel to watch a movie. Vegas was definitely a good time. We want to take friends next time we go, so if you're interested, let us know.