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.

I like digging in dirt

Several days ago I was watching our little garden from our kitchen window and decided that it was time to replant the tomato plants in the buckets. I knew that I would be busy during the next several days studying for a test, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to play gardener that day.


Daniel drilled holes in the first bucket and then handed the drill to me. After breaking the drill twice, I was ready to give up. However, my hubby believed that I could do it and in about 5 minutes I learned the art of drilling holes.


Washing out the buckets was next on my agenda. After rinsing the buckets I filled them up with dirt.



I added Osmocote, which is a slow release fertilizer, to the dirt and mixed well. My friend, Jennifer, shared with me that when you plant garden in the buckets, it is better to use slow release fertilizer to avoid burning the roots of the plant.


Later I transferred tomato plants into the buckets. In the article that I read a few weeks ago, it suggested to plant tomato plants pretty deep into the dirt. I hope I planted them correctly. I guess only time will tell.

On a side note, I purchased green beans seeds and will start planting them soon. Maybe they will be ready to harvest by fall time!

Finance, Fried Chicken and Tiramisu

I am tired…no I think I am exhausted. Do you have a moment to hear me out? I promise it will be short!

About a one year and 6 months ago I made a decision to go back to school for MBA (what was I thinking?!). I was so eager to start classes, write papers, and study for tests that driving 45 minutes one way to the university was not a big deal. Plus I would be taking one class at a time and will only have to go to school one day a week from 6 pm until 10 pm. In no time I realized that working full time, going to school full time and being a wife full time is a challenge.

This challenge finally got a hold of me. My loving husband listened to me complain day after day about the difficult finance class that I am taking and my lack of social life (I crave girl time). Every single weekend is occupied with either writing long papers or studying for a test. And after studying for 5 days straight about future values, present values and balance sheets, I was going crazy. My finance class is not over yet, but I already think about my next class, international business. It should be easy, considering I majored in international business undergrad. But I can picture that my weekends will be once again occupied with writing lengthy papers. The papers don’t scare me; I just want to spend time with my mom, when she visits instead of the book. Right about now I feel like quitting, but I can’t! In 5 more months I will be done with school…forever.

Just when I stop thinking about school, my mind switches gears and I start thinking about my parents. I keep pleading with God that He would allow for my dad to come with my mom next summer. However, my flesh questions if God would really open the door and will make it easy for my dad to obtain a visa. Is it normal to question God or does it show a lack of faith on my part? I keep reading a quote that a family member shared with me, “Faith doesn’t mean we will always feel the power of God in our lives. But faith does mean that we will somehow find strength – even in the midst of our greatest weaknesses – to shout, “Where are you God?” That cry to the heavens, even if it is seems to be made in moment of little faith, is actually a moment of great belief that God is present and listening.” I know that God is in control, but at times it is so hard to let go of it.

Oh, and while I am sharing a glimpse of my crazy and busy life…let me also tell you that when I am stressed I reach for sweets. Honey buns at work have become my new best friend, but my waistline’s worst enemy. I wonder why don’t I crave vegetables or fruits when I am stressed?! Well, and the answer to that is because they just don’t taste as good as a fat laden deliciously sugar spiking honey bun. Since my husband is out of town, I decided to call a local Italian restaurant to find out if they have Tiramisu, my new favorite dessert.

I was so thrilled to find out that after 5 o’clock I will be guiltlessly indulging in the heavenly cake, because I finally found a place that is not one hour away that serve my kind of dessert. To my surprise the cake was free!!! When I pulled out money to pay for the dessert, I was told that it was free because the side of the cake was touching the box. This means that the cake was not in the perfect condition to sell, so I should just take it and enjoy it. Trust me, I didn’t object to the offer and was very thankful for it.

After devouring the cake (I probably set the world record), I once again vowed that I will exercise regularly and eat sweets occasionally starting the next day. By the way, I also stopped by KFC for dinner, which makes me feel guilty right about now. Not only did I have sugar overload, but I also had grease overdose. At least I know that the walls of my arteries are well lubricated, right?! This time, I am serious about my promise of becoming a healthier eater. Will you keep me accountable? My mom is coming on June 26th and will be bringing me my absolute favorite dessert (we will try to make it also during her stay and I will share the recipe with you). For the next 3 weeks, I will do my best to exercise regularly and declare 3 weeks of no sweets holiday. If you need encouragement and accountability, please let us know…we would love to encourage you too.

Thank you for listening to my rambling.

Lead Me to the Cross

It was the month of December. I have been looking forward to my mom’s visit and finally it was here. In 10 years that I have been living in the US, I have seen my mom only 4 times so you can only imagine how eager I was to spend time with her. She was flying in to Atlanta, where I would pick her up and drive back to our mountain home. I hardly slept the night before her arrival and decided to drive early in the morning to Atlanta way before her flight was due to land. My phone rang and it showed that my mom was calling in. I thought she was calling to let me know that she was about to board the plane in Germany and is on her way to the US. However, I was wrong. In panic she told me that her flight was canceled due to heavy snow storm in DC and she does not know what she needs to do. A little fact, my mom does not speak any other language but Russian. I calmly told her that I would call airlines and reschedule her flight only to find out that the wait to speak to a representative was at least 40 minutes. Frantically I ran to the grocery store to buy a calling card so I could call my mom from our home phone. The day got worst when the calling card would not scan at the register and the manager told me there was nothing that he could do about it. “Great… can it get any worst?” I thought to myself. In tears I walked out of the store trying to figure out where else I can buy a calling card.

The card was the least of my concerns, all I wanted at that moment was for the customer service rep to pick up the phone and help me reschedule my mom’s flight. My body shook uncontrollably as I patiently waited. “God, please help!” I begged out loud. Psalm 39:12 say, "Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping”. Before too long customer service rep picked up my call and helped me reschedule my mom’s flight to depart the following morning. I stopped by another store, purchased a calling card and rushed back to the house to call my mom. She nervously answered the phone and was relieved to find out that her flight has been rescheduled. My mom is a very strong woman and in my lifetime I have seen her cry only a handful of times. However, during the next several days my mom and I cried more than ever before.

Tears began to fall down my face when I hung up the phone with my mom. I was sick to my stomach because I felt so helpless and could only imagine how my mom was feeling in a foreign country not knowing the language. The whole evening I pleaded with God and begged for the rest of the trip to go smoothly. I barely slept that night and periodically would call airline automated service to check if the flight was leaving on time. The phone’s ring woke me up bright and early. It was my mom calling to let me know that her flight was about to leave. Ahhhh…finally!!! My mom was on her way to the US and hopefully all our problems were now behind us.

Unfortunately all the problems followed my mom to the US. One hour before her flight was to depart from DC she called to let me know that she was standing in a long line to have her ticket re-printed because of the changed itinerary. There was no way she was going to make her flight on time. Because of the delays all the passengers had to wait for 3 hours before their luggage arrived on the conveyer belt. Hearing my mom cry just broke me apart and I couldn’t help but cry with her. Trying to speak to the customer service representative who was printing all the tickets in Washington, DC was unsuccessful. He wouldn’t even take my mom’s cell phone so I could explain the situation. I told my mom that I would have to call airline’s 1-800 number to see if anyone can help me on that end.

Help was nowhere to be found. I was so angry, upset and confused with airlines that I could barely speak. I also became angry with God. “Is this some kind of joke, God”, I said with bitterness. As I broke out in tears, I question if God was even listening to my cries. I became like a kid who was stumping and kicking because she didn’t get her way. Thankfully my God loves me just the way I am. Soon I was able to reach a representative and explain the situation only to be ignored. I asked to speak to a manager and was transferred to speak to the manager whose office was located in Hawaii. He reassured me that my mom has cleared the ticket booth but couldn’t promise that she was on the plane. At that point in time, her airplane was supposed to have been in the air. When I hung up the phone, I called my mom back just to learn that all the people in front of her were moved to a different line allowing her to re-print her ticket, check her luggage in and now she was running through the airport hoping that she could make it to her flight.

We later learned that the flight was delayed (that time I was very thankful for the delay) and she made it on time. We were still unsure if her flight will operate due to bad weather. “God, I beg you, please don’t let it be canceled”, I prayed earnestly. I was already informed by the customer service rep that if they cancel this flight it may be days before they could put my mom on another flight. Now we just had to wait. Every second felt like an hour. I decided to call and find out the status of the flight from the customer service rep instead of automated service that updates only every 30 minutes. I was informed that the wait for the next available representative was 50 minutes, so I turned the phone speaker on and waited patiently. All of a sudden 45 minutes in to the waiting my phone’s battery died. After laughing hysterically for 5 minutes, I began to weep again. As soon as I put the phone on the charger, it rang. That time it was my husband calling to receive an update on the situation and I couldn’t answer the phone to let him know what was going on.

Finally the phone charged enough that I was able to call my husband back, who was traveling from Canada. As soon as I hung up the phone, it rang again. It was my mom letting me know that she is about to depart DC into her newly scheduled route to Greenville. I jumped and jumped and jumped and then jumped again from happiness. Finally I will get to see my mom! “Thank you, God, for answering my prayer”, I shouted. Quickly I slipped on my shoes and took off to the airport just to find out through the airline agent that the airplane have not left the DC yet. “And here we go again” was my response to the agent. I wanted someone to pinch me, so that I could wake up from this nightmare. I couldn’t understand why we had to go through this. Why can’t everything just run smoothly as it was planed? Isaiah 55:8 say, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD”.

I kept on telling myself with eyes glued to the flight information screen that everything was going to be fine. And it was, the flight departed and in no time my mom landed in Greenville safely. After hugging we went to pick up her luggage just to learn because of the changed itinerary, the agent forgot to reroute her luggage, but that’s another story. Several days later my mom in details explained her trip to me.

My mom shared with me that she met a college student from Russia, while she had a delay at a German airport. The student took care of my mom by adding additional phrases in English to her translation list and walked her to the gate as she boarded the plane. In Washington DC my mom paired us with the American girl, who gave my mom Tylenol to help her with her headache. Oh and when my mom finally cleared the ticket counter in DC she noticed that a gentleman in front of her had the same gate so they ran together to catch the flight. At one point she said, “I know that angels were all around me.” This came from a woman who does not believe in God. It all came together for me as my mom shared how each person and different events were strategically placed on her path during her travel. That was designed by my Mighty God. After realizing the work of God’s crafty hands, I felt guilty for throwing my tantrums. Even though I never want to go through airline ordeal again, I was thankful that God used this situation to reveal to my mom that He is bigger than any customer service representative or a gigantic airplane. Because I couldn’t see the future, instead of trusting God, I let the fear of unknown rule over me. Romans 8:28 say, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose”. And I will hold on to His promise.

TIGHTWAD'S SAVINGS

I had a pretty boring grocery shopping experience this week. Since we eat a lot of ground turkey at our home, I was able to stock up on meat for $0.99 a package (I must admit it kind of thrilled me to pay so little for meat). At Ingles I redeem some of the coupons that I had for free items since the expiration day was approaching. This means that I snatched slaw dressing and two bottles of flavored water for Free…woot…woot!!!

CVS was my next stop and I only bought 2 free bottles of body wash, several packages of baby wipes and paid $1 for BBQ sauce that I used to make BBQ meat…yummy in my tummy!

At Bi-Lo I snagged free French’s Worcestershire sauce and McCormick seasonings. I enjoyed sharing the sauce with my co-workers and using the seasoning for marinades. For baking I picked up butter, baking cocoa and cookies. Although this wasn’t the most exciting grocery shopping week ever, I guess it wasn’t too boring either.

Spent: $30.54

Saved: $61.84

Free eggs = saving money...

My family loves eggs…well…let me be more specific. My husband loves eating eggs. There are times when I cook 4 scrambled eggs for Daniel for breakfast, which means that one dozen eggs in our household are gone in no time. I promise you, sometimes I wonder if it would be profitable for us to raise our own chickens for eggs. Oh, yeah…and while we at it, perhaps we can acquire a cow for milk.

Since the cost of eggs keeps going up, I was very happy the first time my co-worker shared a dozen of fresh eggs with me. I let my friend know how much my husband enjoyed the eggs and now she frequently brings eggs to share. Not too long ago she brought over two dozen of eggs, which meant that I did not have to buy eggs for at least two weeks. Her kindness of sharing the eggs saves us a lot of money and I am a firm believer that every dollar saved adds up to hundred of dollars in a period of one year.

Saving money thrills me and I am very grateful for my co-worker’s kindness in sharing free eggs with my family. As I transferred the eggs to the fridge an idea was born. Why not share the wealth with others which can help us all save money?! I have previously, thanks to coupons, bought a gazillion boxes of pasta, and I really mean a gazillion. Knowing that there was no way that we could eat it all, I brought extra boxes of pasta to work to share with my co-workers. In the same way, others bring herbs and vegetables that they grow in their gardens, eggs or cooking magazines to share. We all enjoy and appreciate each other’s kindness.

In the same way, you can start a group among your co-workers or neighbors to spread the kindness and help each other save money. If you are blessed with an amazing crop of tomatoes this year, bless someone else. Others in return may be blessed with coupon skills and bless you with several bottles of BBQ sauce. The most important part is to give with out expecting anything in return. Plus God’s Word says in Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

Saving money on tips

I love dinning out for many reasons. Reason number one is that I do not have to cook. Reason number two is that I do not have to worry about what to cook. And reason number three I do not have to wash dishes. However, one thing for sure I do not like about dinning out is the monetary cost of my stress free meal. Many Wednesday nights Daniel and I go out to eat before church. We live about 17 minutes from the church so going all the way home after work and trying to prepare a meal is not tome efficient, so we resort to dinning out somewhere quick and inexpensive.

When eating out we count it as a treat but still try to cut corners and save money when possible. As I have shared before, if we eat at our local Mexican restaurant I bring my own sour cream. Another way that we save money is by ordering a take out so we don’t have to pay for a tip. We don’t eat out anywhere too fancy; our meals are usually around $15 dollars. I know many of you may not like our money saving ways, but paying $5 dollar tip every time that we eat out adds up quickly. In fact in one month that adds up to $25 dollars and way over $250 dollars in a year just for tips.

Call me a tightwad but $250 is a lot of money to me. We don’t always take the approach of avoiding eating inside the restaurant, but some weeks I call before leaving work and place to go order of lets say Japanese food. I then pick up our food and meet Daniel at our local grocery store, which is practically across from the church that we attend. Our grocery store has a section of tables and chairs where we enjoy our dinner filled with fun conversations. Other times we eat in our car and make the best of it. So next time you considering dinning in, think if there is a fun tip free place that you can eat your food and you too can save over $250 dollars a year.