El Cheap-o

Technically I guess I would be "La Cheap-a", but then again, I wouldn't be saying cheap if I were truly speaking Spanish. I wish I could speak Spanish, but I can't so I'm forced to add "o's" to English words and pretend.
So I don't speak Spanish (even with a minor in it), but I do posses the talent of stealing items from people's garbage cans.
You know those really cute Little Tikes cars that every child of privilege owns? Yeah, well we own two now. We're moving up in the world. I found one at the thrift store--Wait--I mean, at Toys R us, where I only buy new toys for my precious 'you're-worth-every-penny' and a ridiculous -return-policy children.) The other Little Tikes truck came from a garbage can. (Maybe we're not moving up in the world, just down into the garbage can.) I was out for a rare early morning run, and a mile from home I spotted this truck upside down in a garbage can on the street. It was early, so traffic wasn't surging, and I stopped, curious as to why someone would throw away a valuable and coveted item. The wheels worked, so I pulled it out and the only thing wrong with it was a hornet's nest (unoccupied at the moment) and a bad attempt to paint it white. Nothing I couldn't fix.
So yes, I rolled it home. I only wish I could share with you a picture of me running a mile with a little black truck. It was early morning, so I even had an official-looking reflector vest on for awhile, until I took it off and hid it in my little running buddy's interior. I think my girls should give me some sort of prize for subjecting myself to this humiliation for them.
On my way home I had nightmares about the people who formerly owned the truck sending out flyers that would read, "Would the crazy person wearing a reflective vest who stole our truck out of the garbage can please return it? We were just trying to teach our son a lesson, and now he cries every day for his precious truck."
I would have knocked on their door and asked if I could steal it from their garbage can, but it was 6:00ish in the morning. I don't know if they would have appreciated that.
It was in their garbage can, right? It would have just gone to waste if I hadn't taken it. And I totally cleaned it, twice. Besides Kenzie threw her arms around it (after it had been sterilized and the bad paint job removed) and declared, "I love this truck!" And she did love it--for about two minutes and then it was a small plastic bag that she could fill with water that she played with all afternoon. I did not steal that from someone else's garbage can. She found it all on her own.

The stolen toy garbage truck was only part of our exciting weekend. We also refinished the deck, refinished the swing set (another item that was cheaply obtained. Although not from a garbage can, from ksl.com), and went to the Aquatic center.
The refinished swing set. Now we can invite the neighbor children over and their parents won't have to warn them to stay off the "sliver" machine.

Oh yes, one more thing-- I would like to thank my sister Shaelynn for letting me pretend I was cool and go to the Jack Johnson concert with her and her roomies. I had a great time and tried not to dominate the conversation with stories about boogers and babies.

One last item: My camera is dying. Any recommendations on a good camera? I'm looking at either really cheap and good and small, or really large and expensive. I can't decide if I should move up to an SLR or stay with a point and shoot. Any advice??