More Couponing, Photo Marketing Convention and pictures!

So today I took my cousin Rachel and Aunty Lasi to do some couponing at Albertson's. We are totally taking advantage of this sale! Our checker was extra 'nice' to us, and by nice I mean extremely RUDE! But do you think we cared? NOPE! We "KILLED HER WITH KINDNESS"!!! It was funny funny funny...here's what I wrote at the PYP forums:

"That's my motto (well most of the time-lol). So today I went to Albertson's in Orem on Center Street. I had my cousin and my Aunt with me, they're newbies like me, but I had gone to take advantage of this sale last week and they kinda wanted me to help them to show them the ropes I, of course, agreed!

So we got our items, my cousin had four transactions and my aunt had four, I had one (but stood in a different line). Mind you, they only had TWO checkers at this Albie's at about 10 AM and one of those checkers was also monitoring the Self Check AND Customer Service!

After I had checked out, I could tell my cousin was getting flustered and the checker had the grouchiest look on her face, EVER! So I went over to help out. The checker was extremely rude and kept saying snide remarks. She also mentioned to a 'buddy' of hers (the bagger) how unhappy she was about having to be pulled from her break to do 'this'. It is so not like us to be rude back, but I seriously wanted to. Instead we were telling her how excited we were about this sale and how this is our first 'real' couponing trip since we took the 'class'. The checker looked SHOCKED, and I mean SHOCKED at that comment and said, "THERE IS SOMEONE WHO TEACHES YOU TO DO THIS?!" (I'm typing in caps because she was on the verge of shouting/crying) And we began to tell her about Grocery Smarts and Pinching Your Pennies and she says, "Only in Utah County would they do that!" She was TICKED!!! She was SOOOOOOOO MAD that someone actually TEACHES US to make her life MISERABLE! (At least I know that's how she felt) I told her, "Actually, I think Utah County is kinda not as busy as SL County" I also said, "And there are people ALL OVER the US that do this" and she said, "NO WAY! ONLY Utah County, NO one else does it!" She was totally arguing with me. Now, I could have thrown a fit, argued right back with her and told her not to be mad at us because their store manager didn't schedule enough checkers during a major sale like this, but instead we decided to "kill her with kindness" and keep positive over the whole thing. After we were done, we thanked her and told her we really appreciated it and she could have cared less.

It's funny because there were about at least 4 other women there who were fellow couponers (hi guys!) at that same store. So to all the frustrated checkers, please direct your anger/frustration at your store managers (or whoever does the scheduling) and encourage them to schedule MORE checkers during a sale like this.

That is my story LOL Sorry it was super long, but I just wanted to share my story in case someone had a similar thing happen to them. Kill 'em with kindness my fellow couponers, because in the end...WE are the ones who walked away with KILLER savings!!

I'm soooo extremely greatful for Grocery Smarts as well as PYP and all the hard work everyone puts in to these sites so that people like me, who can't afford to pay full price for anything, can actually be excited (not stressed) to spend money on food

Yay! "

On to the Photo Marketing Convention. My sister Lini works for Caesar's Palace and she's one of the Catering and Convention Manager, people, thingy. LOL! I don't know her "official" title, but it's something along those lines. Anyways, she called me today and said that one of her clients could get tickets to the convention, ALL INCLUSIVE-HOLLA! I've only been hearing all the hoopla (is that the word?) about WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention) but haven't heard anything about PMA. So when Lini told me about it, I googled it and they have a ton of stuff, mostly catering to helping you market your business/products but I'm soooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!! I should have made arrangements for WPPI, but I didn't even think to ask my sis for hookups, SILLY ME! But there's always next year :-)

And lastly, look at this McCutie (shout out to my Grey's girls! LOL):

 

Check out more of him and my other handsome boys, here.

Love you all and have a fabulous week!

7

Sister time, Saving time, Shoot time

Berta and Jon came down from Logan for another weekend of, wait for it....F-U-N!! I swear, we look forward to their visits all day every day-hehe. As soon as they leave, we wish they'd come back! I know I always talk about how much I love my siblings, especially my sisters. I just really REALLY do! Anyway, so speaking of sisters, Berta and I took Kailei and Mariana on another shoot :-) It was a really short shoot and Berta got the most pics because my stupid memory card is soooo small!! And I forgot to erase the pics from our previous shoot...oh well! I got a few shots and here's a teaser, as I will post more later:

Moving on. Last night, soon after Berta and Jon arrived, Berta and I went and did some grocery shopping to use some of my coupons. Here's a pic of da goods:

 

This is our purchase from Macey's and Smith's, and here's what we bought:

4-4 pack Yoplait Yoplus yogurt (Which can I just tell you that the blueberry is da bomb!)

2-Betty Crocker Fruit Roll Ups Stickers 

12-Ortega Taco Seasonings (We use Taco Seasoning on so much, so this was a steal!)

2 Loaves of Grandma Emilies Bread

1 Bag of Hostess Donettes (Powdered, of course!)

4 Boxes of Ritz Crackers

4 Boxes of 12 ct. Pop Tarts

5 Tubes of Colgate Toothpaste

1 Gallon of Milk

Total Spent: $38.60

Total Saved: $17.93

Not bad, eh? This was definitely exciting for me...but the best is yet to come. Here is our shopping trip from Albertson's:

 

 

 

Here's what I bought:

3 Totino's Pizza Rolls 

2 Bags of Bagels

10 Lunchables

14 Lipton Sides

2 Albertson's Potato Rounds (Tater tots)

2 Albertson's French Fries

12 Cans of Manwich 

45 Items Total

Total Out of MY Pocket: $34.66

Total Saved: $75.83

 

YAY! I'm so excited over this :-) If you want to know more about couponing, check out this blog. 

 

Goodnight!

 

Coupon Mania, a Photo and a memory....

Tonight I've been making my grocery shopping list as well as clipping my coupons that I'll be using with my shopping list. Can I just tell you that I get so excited using coupons! The money you save is...just plain silly. Wait, scratch that, NOT using coupons is JUST PLAIN SILLY!! I love calculating how much I'm going to be saving, amazing I tell ya!

Anyway, while I was couponing, Tui came in to my room with her cousin Kailei's BIG yellow flower, in her hair. It was too cute! So I hurried and busted out my camera and took a few pics. Here's one:

I still think my daughter was switched at birth...I can't believe I created such a beautiful being :)

And on to the memory...well I was reading Omi's latest blog post about her parents divorce, and how (at that age) she didn't know how to love both parents without feeling like you were betraying the other. She also said that her dad always would tell her that if she didn't want to spend time with him, he would understand.

Those are things I have thought about a lot (more so earlier in my life, than now) but never said out loud or wrote even. My parents divorced when I was 3 years old. So, I grew up with this after-the-divorce kinda life. I wasn't old enough to know how it was during and soon after the divorce and that is something that I am grateful for. My dad was always a HUGE part of lives, even though my parents were divorced. He would come and visit us and it was a total holiday every time! BUT I ALWAAAAYS felt guilty about leaving my mom behind. I would seriously feel...torn...between the two. It's nothing that either of them said or did, but I guess it was natural?

Reading Omi's post also made me think about how when I was little...I always asked my mom if she loved my dad. I would get a sick feeling in my stomach every time I asked her that, afraid she might finally say, "no". But that was never the case...she always said she loved my dad and that my dad loved her. That made me feel a MILLION times better. I never knew what kind of a toll the divorce took on my mom, I didn't even know we were poor dirt poor, because my mom always told us we were "rich with love". I always loved when she would say that, when I was LITTLE. But as I was growing older and started to realize that we didn't have money to do all the things my friends were doing, when she'd say that I would roll my eyes. I am so grateful that my mom was the woman she was...I wish I was HALF as brave and classy as she.

Time to go mohe,
Rina

Happy Birthday Allie!

Allie sure knows how to throw a birthday party-hehe. We had so much fun, especially the kids. It was fun to hang out with family we don't see very often and da grubs was NO KA OE!!! Oh so good :O) Anyway, here's a little teaser...don't you loooove the cupcakes?? Me, Kailei and Mariana decorated it all...so much fun! And soooo easy and it was a hit =) Love you Allie girl! {aunty} Rina

Pom Poms and Treat Bags

Tomorrow is my nieces birthday party (and birthda)! She's turning one and of course her mama had to do it Island Style and make a biiiig deal out of it. But it's all good, I have an excuse not to diet--hehe. So today I was helping Bakerella's teddy graham cupcakes-yum-o!

Love,

Me

iPod and Nemo....a mom's best friend :)

Today Popo was a little cranky and didn't know what to do with himself. It was way after his normal nap time and the kid was still awake (hence the crankiness?!) and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. So, I ran and grabbed our iPod, a pillow and a blanket...laid Popo down and turned Nemo on, via the iPod...he loved it! And...fell asleep watching Nemo on the iPod...do I feel guilty? Am I horrible mom? HECK NO! Quite the opposite if I do say so myself. A little Nemo never hurt nobody! LOL

Check him out :)

Here he is watching Nemo....

 

And then BAM! The boy is out like trout :) Ahhhhh, the part of the day I like forward to-hehe

  

 Oh yeah, and here's my pic of the day...isn't he handsome?

 

Love,
Rina

Project 365

This last weekend was fun. J n B (Jon and Bert) decided, spur of the moment, to come down to my neck of the woods to spend the night. How excited was I?! Also, Noa did not cry about going to bed this entire last week, we were so proud of him and decided we should do something fun for him. So Mani took Noa and Iuli to the Nickelcade (as well as little miss Tui). They had A BLAST! They did this while I took Kailei and Mariana on their little shoot.

Anyway, on to my 365 picture:

 

Today I was hanging out with Nat and Meg for a little bit and we got some awesome free stuff due to the cosmetic civil suit against the major department stores. I got some COCO Chanel Body Lotion (it smells soooooooooooo yummy!) and some VERA WANG "Princess" Body 'shine' lol. It's just Body Wash-hehe. But the Vera Wang smells so heavenly I love it! 

I had fun hanging out with the girls for a little bit today...they make me laugh :)

Happy Tuesday!

Love,

Rina

Kailei and Mariana

Introducing Kailei Asalele Selina Peters, my oldest niece and the oldest granddaughter on our side of the family. She will be turning 13 this summer as well as entering in to Kailei is the reason my being spoiled for Christmas came to a complete (and I mean COMPLETE) stop! There are fewer years between Kailei and I, and Teri and I. So, Kailei is pretty much like a little sister to me. I like to think I was a huge help in raising her. I remember I used to torment her when she was a baby...hehe I was just jealous of her. But I'm glad we're close and that she feels comfortable to talk to me about anything. Kailei is a beautiful and sweet girl.

And who is this gorgeous girl? This is Kailei's little sister, Mariana Kaloline Peters, BKA "Nana". She is turning 12 this summer and is also entering Junior High this year. Nana is super hyper and caught our "stuck on myself" gene. LOL Like Kailei, Nana is like a little sister to me. However, I didn't torment Nana like I did Kailei :) Nana makes me laugh all the time and she's very very good with the kids.

I had to end this post with the above picture. The girls most definitely had the closest relationship with my mom, their grandma. This one is our favorite one from our little shoot. This one is for you mom!

Love,
Rina

Project 365...well that's what I'm hoping?!

Ok so I'm getting started a little late in the game for the 365 project. If you don't know what that is, it's just where you take a picture every single day of the year and blog about it (well I don't know if you have to blog about it). Anyway here's my picture for today:

My sweet baby boy. I'm going to try to do this 365 thing, but just for fun. If you're interested in knowing more about this project, you should google it and see what others are doing. I love Google.

I'm also hoping that this will help me to improve my photography skills...wish me luck!

Love,
rina

A great day for a bike ride!

 

Today was fun, the kids and I went outside so they could ride their bikes and so that I could take some candid pictures! Popo was so fun to watch, he got his first bike for Christmas and he's been riding around the house but this was the first time he got to ride it outside. Boy he took off! 

I'm so glad I captured the memory in the picture below. I finally caught Popo not only sucking his thumb, but also holding on to Tui's hair. That's his ultimate comfort "thing". It's sooo cute!

I'm hosting a Grocery Smarts class tomorrow night! I can't freakin' wait! I seriously need to save money in any way possible :) I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Love,
Rina

Tuiselina, my very first client!

Tuiselina was my first practice photo session. She was very excited (as was I)! We just went over to her grandma's backyard (it's HUGE!) and took some photos in the snow. Anyway, I hope these turn out non-pixely (is that a word?) lol.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think ;O)

Love,

{me}

PS Click on the images to make 'em larger than life! hehe

I will not be intimidated!

I don't talk about it a whole lot, but I am obsessed with photography. Not only that, but I'm also obsessed with the idea of possibly becoming a photographer. I look at all of these different photo blogs and I'm so intrigued by how talented these photographers are and how beautiful their pictures are. I, of course, was like, "I can't do that, but I really really want to!". The idea of being able to practice this art of photography, really got me excited. But of course, I kept getting in the way of myself.

I came acrossed this post on Naomi Masina's blog and it really hit home with me. Someone once told her that "many of us will choose UNHAPPINES over UNCERTAINTY". That was truly the case with me, I wasn't sure if it was going to even be remotely possible to become a professional photographer, so I got scared and the cycle continues that way. But after reading Omi's post about this, it really occured to me that I would fully regret not trying.


With THAT (allll of that-lol) said, I'm going to commit myself to practicing my (little) photography skills and maybe I can get good enough to do what I love and what I get so excited over, as a profession. Of course I know I can't snap my fingers and be the baddest photographer out there, but I will definitely try my hardest to learn everything I can to be the best that I can.

Wish me luck!

{rina}

Pics at the Cemetary

So we decided to take some pictures while waiting for some of our family to show up to burry Stacey :) I'll post more tomorrow!

Love,
me