What a wonderful week...

So much to do, but just not enough time to do it all! After work one day I was trying to make a mental list of all the things that had to be done during the weekend. Clean the house (check), study for finance exam (triple check) and the list went on and on and on. Somewhere in the midst of all the chores that I have planned to do, I needed to find time to replant our tomato plants. It looked like each tomato plant wanted to have its own bucket for more space.

To please the tomato plants, I penciled in a date with dirt and buckets for Saturday morning. I knew that Daniel would have to drill holes in the bucket and I would do the rest of the dirty work. Feeling a little stressed, I was trying to time the whole process in my mind on the way home. When I finally arrived home, I went to check on my garden and guess what? Ok…since you didn’t guess, let me tell you. My wonderfully great husband drilled the holes in the bucked and filled the buckets up with dirt!!!! I was so thrilled that all I had to do at that point was to move plants around. This small gesture meant to me more than my husband could ever know.

But surprises kept on coming that week. One day Daniel wanted to stop by Home Depot to pick up some boards. Confused for why my husband would want to buy boards, I took the nagging approach to find out. He finally told me, which ruined my surprise. Almost 3 years ago, we bought a net for hammock, when we honeymooned in Acapulco. Since we didn’t have the stand to put the net on, I just put it to the side. Well, Daniel was buying boards so he could build the stand so we could enjoy the hammock. What a wonderful anniversary gift…a little early, but he won’t be here with me to celebrate it when the time comes. He will be in a military camp training for 4 weeks (sigh).

Now changing the subject back to happy times. While Daniel was shopping for tools, I found movable stairs to rest on. After a long while, I quite frankly was bored out of my mind. I knew that I didn’t have coupons for light fixtures or tools, so browsing from isle to isle didn’t’ seem too appealing to me. So I rested and rested until…I saw a yellow sign that said in big bolded letters CLEARANCE. The bright colors and such a beautiful word drew me to the discounted section in a matter a second. That’s right; I probably set a world record of moving so quickly from one section of the store to another!

The clearance section was filled with treasures, but the prices weren’t the best. Some items were marked down 10% to 15%, so paying out of pocket $80 still seemed pretty high. Despite high prices, I felt like a kid at a candy store and started to dig through the golden treasures. And guess what I found? I found a pretty light fixture that has been marked down from $100 to $24+. Instead of carrying a box to show to my husband, who was on the opposite side of the store looking for boards, I took a picture with the digital camera. My husband loved the light fixtures, so we bought 2 fixtures paid $50 and saved $150..woot…woot!

All in all my week was full of surprises. How about yours?

No more complaining for me

“I really want to have internet at home”, I told my husband one day. He replied quickly, “I think we should wait until we move and then I promise you can have your internet”. I pouted at his response. Why can’t I have internet, and why can’t I have it now?! There are days when it is so inconvenient for me to pack a laptop and drive to the library or to a near by fast food restaurant that offers free wireless internet. I can find a million reasons to justify us spending close to a thousand dollars a year on the luxury of having internet at home, however I can also find a million ways of spending that money elsewhere.

You are probably shocked at the cost, so let me explain. Six weeks before the wedding, I told my then fiancé that while I am on a mission trip for four weeks he can decide where we would live. I was certain that we would stay in the same town that my university that I recently graduated from was located. However, my fiancé had a different kind of surprise for me, when I returned from a mission trip.

“So have you picked out our apartment? What color walls do we have? And does the apartment come with a washer and a dryer?” I questioned my husband as soon as he picked me up from the airport.

After taking a few guesses on the location of our apartment I finally gave up.

“We are going to live in my parents’ vacation home that’s located in the mountains. We would not have to pay for rent, just utilities” said my sweet Daniel.

Considering that I didn’t have a job yet, not paying rent each month sounded like a great deal. We would live in a nice cozy home surrounded by beautiful nature for free. Living in the mountains also meant that the closest grocery store was 17 minutes away and the closest mall was one hour away. No cable, no cell phone signal and no internet would be a new way of life for me.

The first year living without the convenience of a nearby grocery store and luxury of technology was not so bad. We enjoyed spending time with each other instead of checking out facebook for hours. And not having TV on all the time allowed us to really concentrate on our school work. We also did not miss the bills that come with convenience and luxury.

It has now been almost 3 years of us living in the mountains. There are days that I wish we had the convenience of internet; however satellite service is our only option. This also means that by the time we pay for equipment, installation and monthly service our yearly bill would top at almost one thousand dollars. During the days that I find myself complaining about having to drive to the library for free internet use, I check and adjust my attitude. Realizing how fortunate we are not to have the burden of monthly mortgage payment or rent makes me happy. My in-laws generosity of opening their home to us is one of many blessings that I should be thankful for every day.

We would love to hear what are you thankful for?

No more tanning beds for me

my pale self during my best friend's wedding

I am pale…very pale. In fact I joke with my friends sometimes that if they ever need a light in a dark tunnel to give me a call. During my high school and college years I enjoyed going to a tanning bed for a dose of sun kissed tan. I have never been a sun worshiper, but felt like occasional visits would not hurt my skin or my wallet.

Paying $45 dollars for a whole month of tanning visits was not a big deal. I felt that it was a good investment especially during the summer months when my tan legs didn’t look the same color as my white skirt. However, things changed when I got married.

After our honeymoon was over the reality of finding a real job set in. Not that I didn’t want a real job, I just couldn’t find anyone who had a job opening in my field. Oh yeah, plus everyone wanted someone with experience. No job means very, very, very tight budget and tanning bed visits were not part of our budget.

Looking back now I am very grateful for having the opportunity to live on a tight budget. When I finally found a job, I no longer desired to waste my money on tanning bed visits. Please know that I am not criticizing those who visit tanning beds is that I just prefer to be pale now. I learned to love my God given pale skin.

After I made a conscious decision to embrace my pale skin, I came across numerous articles in the magazines about skin cancer. I would read stories after stories about women who suffered from skin cancer. Quickly I would check out my skin for signs of bad moles described in the article and feel relieved that my youth sun bathing trips to tanning bed were not very frequent.

One day I asked my husband to check out a red mole on my back that has been bothering me for some time. I schedule a doctor’s appointment to free my paranoia. Doctor suggested that to remove the mole but did not have any concerns about it. He was right the results came back normal. I knew I worried for nothing.

Several months past and I noticed another mole, only this time it was on my stomach. The mole looked tiny and very black. The shape of the mole was not abnormal, however the edges of it looked burned. I had to go back to see a dermatologist because during the winter months my skin gets super dry. Pointing at my mole, I asked the doctor to look at it and tell me that my alert was false. Unfortunately the doctor felt that we needed to remove this mole, but I didn’t think much of it because the last mole that he removed was normal.

Several days have passed and I received a message from the nurse asking me to call her for results. My heart started to beat fast and I knew that if the results were good she would have said so in the message. Finally I got in touch with the nurse and she said this, “You have A-typical mole that has a potential of turning to cancer. Blah, blah, blah, blah.” I was shocked and ready to see a doctor to remove the skin around the mole as a safety precaution.

That evening I told my husband that I have A typical mole and the doctor is going to remove 10 inches around the mole area on my stomach. He tore a piece of paper and showed me what 10 inches would look like. I then became very scared thinking how huge of a scar I will have on my stomach. Apparently I tuned out the nurse during our conversation after she said the word cancer and the doctor was only going to cut 10mm of my skin not 10 inches. After doing a little bit more research I was at ease to learn that this mole is not uncommon and many people have it and just have to remove the mole for safety reasons.

Today the scar on my stomach serves as a daily reminder to embrace my God given pale skin. Avoiding visiting tanning beds have saved me a substantial amount of money. Just think if I use tanning bed 6 months out of a year the cost adds up to $300 dollars. By staying away from sun bathing or shall I say sun baking not only am I saving money, but I am also sparing my skin from moles that potentially can turn in to cancer. By sharing my experience it is my hope that you will think twice before stepping another foot in a tanning salon.