So I decided to create an Excel sheet under Google Docs so I can access it anywhere I go. I have successfully saved all the receipts (so far) and have recorded them. Now this way I will know exactly where our money is going!

However….this recent weekend was Labor Day weekend. I took a mini-break from saving money to splurge a little bit. I mean…. c’mon there were great deals!

I went to Pier 1 Imports and found a really cute lantern on sale for $2 and a cute little white bowl for $2. Two things all under $5! I decided to use the white bowl for my rings. I’m not sure what I’m doing with the lantern yet as I have many different projects going on in my head right now and need to figure out what to do first, second, and so on.

We also went to IKEA over the weekend too. I think I might still be shopping at IKEA when I’m 40 years old. I seriously never get sick of that place & the fact that IKEA is amazingly cheap!

We decided to buy 2 Ribba picture ledges for the bathroom in our master bedroom. We have limited space in our bathroom and that’s not a good thing especially when I have a lot of products everywhere on the counter & trying to make them fit in the medicine cabinet.

You can obviously see that Tyler’s products are on the top shelf and mine are on the bottom shelf. We still clearly have a lot to do with our bathroom which is at the end of our list of projects.

As soon as the weekend was over, we went back to the plan of saving money. It’ll be good for us in the long run to save a lot of money and be able to put more into our savings especially now after I recently got a raise at work!

I also have been working on ways to become debt-free. I happened to find a credit card that has no interest for 18 months. We signed up and did a balance transfer so now we’ll actually get to pay off our credit cards soon! Last night Tyler was THIS close to winning $30,000 (Streak for Cash) but he didn’t. Bummer!

Here’s to being frugal and making it worth it in the long run!

Tyler woke me up at 4:30AM with this horrible & scary look on his face like something bad really happened. All kinds of bad things were running through my head: house’s on fire? someone die? an intruder broke in?! and quickly enough he told me he had to go to the hospital because his lips were swollen and possibly his tongue too.

We get to the hospital and thankfully no one else was in the waiting room so we knew we didn’t have to wait long. We finally got checked in and waited for a nurse or doctor to come in. All within 5 minutes, he broke out quickly and it spread to his whole body.

I was starting to get restless because no one was seeing us yet and it was getting bad. A nurse finally comes in and as Tyler is getting checked out, I started explaining to the nurse about what happened with cleaning the kitchen floor.

He immediately interrupted me and asked, “What’s wrong with your voice?”

UM, REALLY?! No one has ever asked me that question before. I told him maybe it was because I’m deaf? and he continued to ask Tyler more questions. I wonder if he felt embarrassed for asking me that. I know that sometimes my voice is quiet because I’m afraid of speaking up and possibly being too loud. Whatever, I’m over it now.

We were released from the hospital with 3 days worth of medicine and was told to go to the doctor if he broke out again. Around 5PM that day, he broke out again…just when the doctor’s office closes for the weekend. I made sure I kept the epi-shot nearby so I could be prepared to stab it in his leg if he stopped breathing.

On Sunday we decided to get out of the house because maybe it was something in the house that he’s allergic to. We went to see Inception which happened to be open-captioned…FINALLY! The last time we saw a movie in the theaters was probably in 2008 – way too long.

Just when we thought the worst was over with Tyler’s allergy reaction, he woke me up again on Monday morning at 6AM saying he had to go to the hospital again. His face was swollen up!

Again we were fortunate that no one else was waiting in the emergency room. We felt that we were getting the proper care we needed this time rather than the first visit. A doctor came in and asked Tyler all kinds of questions and did blood work. Tyler was drugged up on steroids and fell asleep.

I tried walking around his room because I was so exhausted and cold. So I had this brilliant idea to go outside for a while because it was 90+ degrees. A while later, Tyler woke up and smiled at me and said, “I’m on steroids. Are my muscles any bigger now?” while flexing his muscles for me. I thought it was so funny and Tyler doesn’t remember saying that at all.

This picture proves how bored I was at the hospital and how crappy I look. Seriously I need to get my hair done. It’s been months since I got it colored & cut.

Anyways, finally the doctor came in and said his blood work was fine and gave him more meds for the week. He also gave us a doctor’s name and phone number to call and make an appointment to find out what he’s allergic to. We called and made an appointment for today later this afternoon (hopefully we’ll get some answers).

Off we skipped (not really) to the car together hoping that was our last hospital visit for a long time.

We were driving home on the freeway and I came up next to this school bus and I had a feeling that it was my dad. Sure enough it was him!

He looked over at us and was surprised to see us. We rolled down our windows to briefly update him on Tyler’s hospital visit since he didn’t know we went to the hospital again.

I love how seeing my dad just brings a smile to my face and makes all my worries go away. Just the kind of medicine I needed for the rest of the day and week.

Now it’s Friday & I’m ready to enjoy the last weekend of August. I hope you all will too. Also Tyler and I wanted to thank you for all your awesome thoughts & prayers this week through Facebook and Twitter. You’re all amazing!

Our good friends, Haley & Chase, were in town this weekend. They were stopping in to see us on their way to begin their new chapter in Austin, Texas from California.

I posted a status on Facebook that we were getting ready for their arrival. A friend commented saying, “With all the entertaining you’ve been doing, perhaps you should make a sign for your house, The Bed & Breakfast”.

While on the road, Haley saw the status & commented, “I expect to see the sign tonight. Make it happen.*waves wand*”

It was up for me to decide if her wand was working or not.

So I immediately told Tyler that we had to do this! I was up for the challenge to make it happen. Tyler looked through the garage and found two scraps of wood so we spray painted them.

The hardest part was thinking of a name when being rushed! Tyler suggested “The East Wing” and “The West Wing” right above both of the guest bedrooms. Um, very creative?! Ha!

I was looking around at words for inspiration and then my eyes wandered over to the dandelions that we have in our kitchen. There it was!

The Field of Dandelions

I was feeling rushed when painting it since Haley & Chase were minutes away from arriving. After I was done, I didn’t like my handwriting and wish I had done it in cursive. (I heart cursive!) I think I might re-paint it again later. For now it’ll grow on me.

I’ve been discovering new recipes and want to try at least 1 new recipe every week. We started with Grilled Chicken & Pineapple Quesadillas from The Pioneer Woman.

I’m so embarrassed of my recipe book that I created in college. White ring binder with a scrap paper inside from a magazine. I barely have any recipes inside and they’re all horribly written on lined sheets. Also I need to stop filling up the dessert section, enough of that!

I’m going to wait a few more months when all the new recipes start piling up before I create a new recipe book or have them on index cards and get a cute box for them. I could design my own cards & have them printed. Decisions!

Do you have recipes? Do share how you have them organized.

I went through my photos and found some of the places I’ve lived in during college. I don’t have any of my 1st year since I lost all my photos when my computer went bonkers on me back then.

2nd year: In the dorms.

3rd year: On campus apartment living with 3 boys and Tyler.

3rd year: Apparently I thought it was cool having jeans up on the wall!

4th year: Off campus apartment with Tyler and another roommate. This was my crazy red obsession phase.

Married life (present): Obviously a big improvement from a dorm room to an adult room.

We’re still not done with our bedroom but this is what we have so far. I love how much natural light we have in our bedroom. I’m thinking about adding different kind of frames on the wall to the left. Our bedroom is pretty much the last thing on our minds right now anyways compared to other rooms in the house. But it has been interesting to see how colorful we have gone to white/sea blue in the past few years.

Since last week we have decided to recently let 2 friends of ours move in with us for a while so we can help them save money and they’re helping us save money so basically a win/win situation. Also because of that, we have recently been able to pay off one of our credit cards. We have been enjoying their company and playing games almost every night. I love having a full house… this explains why I want 5+ kids someday!

This year was the first time they were hosting DeafNation World Expo in Las Vegas which turned out to be a huge success since 23,400 deaf people from 73 different countries all were there. Unfortunately Tyler and I couldn’t take the week off to be there but we were able to go for the weekend.

The drive there was boring since I was in a car full of boys! We got to our hotel and within minutes I was ready to go to the Deaf World Party which was hosted at Mandalay Bay. Who would’ve knew that the boys would take forever to get ready!? Rahul was being emo with his hair and the boys were swapping clothes/shoes. Finally we left after a while and got to the hotel. We had to pay $20 each to get in and I was hoping that it was going to be worth my money!

I was immediately overwhelmed at first seeing everyone again in the dark club. There were times when some people would come up to me and I couldn’t remember exactly where I knew them from….school in Washington, school in Arizona, college in New York, camp, etc. Luckily for me I didn’t embarrass myself!

I felt like I had a speech prepared for the whole weekend of how to sum up my life in a few sentences. The deaf community is so big that it’s hard to keep in touch with everyone.

It was really awesome seeing deaf people everywhere we went….in the bathroom, in line at a restaurant or club, & gambling next to us. Usually if deaf people see other deaf people in public – they usually ask in excitement, “You’re deaf too!?!” and then they introduce themselves because it’s not that often you see deaf people that you don’t know. In Las Vegas no one did that & I’m glad because I personally think it’s annoying when people approach me because we’re both deaf.

When Tyler and I normally see deaf people in public that we don’t know – we stop signing and then I make sure my hair is covering my hearing aid. I know this makes me sound like I’m a rude person but I’m not… I just don’t normally feel like talking about where I’m from, what school I went to, who else I know in the deaf community, and so on.

Anyways, there were so many other people we intended on seeing in Vegas but there wasn’t a lot of time and so many different groups & plans. We even picked up on some international sign language too and saw people signing in different languages too. It was fascinating seeing them sign and not even understand what they’re saying….but there are some signs that are obvious & similar to ours.

Haley and I’ve known each other since elementary school.
We hung out with Haley & her boyfriend, Chase, a lot that weekend.

We were leaving the club when the Deaf World Party ended and this
kid got his hand stuck in the elevator only seconds after I took this picture.
What an idiot and we had to push his hand out!

At the pool party (Treasure Island) with my Sigma Sigma Sigma sisters!

Catching up with old friends from high school.

Please ask me any questions you have about being deaf or the deaf culture. Anything and I’ll answer your questions!

the sun on your cheek,
the wind in your hair,
the speed beneath your feet.
summer in your lungs,
a sparkle in your eye,
a dare in your heart.

-unknown

• We just got back from Las Vegas (a recap on that later) where DeafNation World Expo was. It was indeed great seeing old friends & meeting new people!
• Seriously where has the time gone? I can’t believe it’s going to be August next week. I feel like I’m constantly changing my monthly calendar at work every week or so.
• It’s been a sickly month for me. The doctor told me I had chest congestion but I’m still not sure since I’m still coughing my lungs out and it’s week 3. Last week the joints in my hands & wrists started hurting so bad! It’s actually painful in the mornings and took me forever to get ready. I don’t know if I have carpal tunnel or if it’s something else. It doesn’t hurt as much today and I’m hoping it doesn’t continue in the mornings. I need my hands to sign with my deaf friends!
• I need to get back into going to the gym…seriously! I have no excuses. Our grocery budget is out of control and because of this I’m determined to change that and cut our budget into half. It’s hard though since we buy our household items & personal care stuff with groceries too. I need to work on my habit of saving receipts and not losing them or throwing them away. This is a goal for August!
• Another mini goal is to tackle Google Reader. I’m definitely behind and need to catch up on commenting! Amazing how one day can really get you behind….I guess depending on how many blogs you’re subscribed to. <3

First came Lolla then Zella and now let me introduce you to Carmella!

I never thought we would come to the point of owning a new car until we were in our 30s. We didn’t have much of a choice anyways when Zella (2002 Hyundai Elantra) gave up on me last week. Tyler had to borrow my mom’s car and come to my rescue!

Apparently the transmission was messed up and would not let me go faster than 40 mph while it’s at 4 rpm. Tyler managed to get it to go faster while in 3rd gear and so I followed him to drop it off at the car place where we usually get it fixed. The next day we found out it was going to cost a lot of money to fix it. I was financially exhausted of putting more money into Zella so I decided it was time to get rid of her.

Saturday we decided to go car shopping. Unfortunately Tyler had to work so he couldn’t come with me. My parents took me to a few places starting with Ford which we didn’t even stay long enough to test drive since I don’t really care for Ford. Next stop was Dodge/Jeep. I saw the Jeep Patroit and I didn’t really like how the windows were small and it wasn’t worth the price it was at. Looking around again, I saw a Dodge Journey and we took it out for a test drive. Really smooth ride!! We were hesitant though since our family doesn’t have good experience with Dodge & the reviews online were not good at all. We got an offer on it then left and went over to Kia.

The Kia Soul is so cute but too small and not what I want for a long time. Of course I wanted the Kia Sportage so we got an offer on it and it was ridiculously high and not what I had hoped for. The number I was hoping for was way too low that they would have been offended. Luckily for us we had an awesome salesman, Paul, helping us. He was funny & talked with us while waiting for them to do the credit check, get an offer, etc. After going back and forth…we showed them the offer we had from Dodge and at that point all eyes were on me when they had made another offer. I told them I needed more time and went outside to talk with mom for a while. After mom talked some sense into me & gave me some advice… we came back in. Paul asked me what my magic number was so I told him and he came back with an offer of $11 over my magic number. I couldn’t believe it and took the offer!

I texted Tyler and said, “We just bought a car!!” I wanted to see what his reaction was. I think he knew what kind of car we got since he knew I wanted a Kia Sportage anyways.

His replied, “Sunroof? Color?” Supposedly he was too busy at work and only cared about if it had a sunroof & the color of it.

“No sunroof and it’s volcanic red”, I replied being short with him as I was distracted at the dealership.

“Does your dad like it? He hates red. & tinted windows?”… now he was asking more questions and obviously cares about what my dad likes?! I read my text out loud to my parents & we all had a good laugh. Seriously who cares if my dad hates red? He’s not married to him & it’s not his car. It’s ours!

They only had 3 cars left before bringing in the 2011 models. Two of them were blue and the other one was red and the interior is beige. I’ve always loved dark interior but the beige color is starting to grow on me now. It just makes me want to drive barefoot so I don’t get the inside dirty at all. It’s like getting new shoes and not wanting them to get dirty at all.

The offer included the trade of my old car. It’s a huge relief getting rid of Zella since I don’t need any more financial emergencies with her.

Last year we purchased a house last year in July and now it’s July and we just purchased a car. What’s next year? Another car, pool, or babies? Or all of the above! Now having experienced purchasing a house and car… I definitely have to say buying a car was more fun only because I got it the same day I purchased it! That’s huge for me since I always want things the minute I lay my eyes on them. I’m guilty of that! Don’t tell me I’m the only one…

Now isn’t Carmella pretty?!

We went & had lunch then came back to the house. We ended up doing her hair & make up. This was not something I did often when she was a little girl. She hated people brushing her hair so it was impossible to play with her hair and have her be my doll… and now I had a chance to do this!

Shampooed her hair in the kitchen sink….and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her allow a picture be taken when she does not have make up on!

Blow-dried her hair then teased her hair on top.

Then it was time to give her the beach curly look that she wanted.  We had a few close calls with burning each other!

Ta-da!!

I helped her do her make up then we also did our nails and I swear I only had 1 Diet Pepsi that day.
Got to love $2 nail polish from ULTA!

As soon as Tyler and I dropped her off at home… it was time to go back being 25 years old.
Not sure if I know how 25 year olds are supposed to act anyways.

The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping, coughing,
being nursed by my darling husband, doing laundry & watching movies.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

I hate those days when I wake up feeling like the dream was real and then I can’t seem to shake it off for the rest of the day!

Last night I had a dream where a bunch of friends and I were in a house hanging out. A friend and I were in another room checking out pictures on the computer. After a while, we both saw the door open slowly and we couldn’t see who it was since it was pitch dark. We started laughing because we thought a friend was playing around and was getting ready to scare us. Two guys we didn’t know busted in and started shooting at us then left the room. I started bawling and didn’t know what to do and when I looked over at my friend, he was dead. I ran out of the room and saw that all 10+ friends were shot and laying all over the place. None of them were moving. I saw Tyler, my husband, faced down on the floor. I was hysterically crying while trying to call 911. It was horrible!

I hate it when I have bad dreams like this because it feels so real like I went through that horrible ordeal but I’m really grateful that it was just a dream.

This is normal anyways…. supposedly I have a history of waking up in the middle of the night screaming bloody murder and almost giving Tyler a heart attack. One time I thought the house was on fire for real and I was this close to jumping out the window until Tyler confirmed me the house was not on fire.  Also there has been countless of times where I’ve woken up thinking there was a boogeyman in the room ready to murder us and poor Tyler would have to get up and check the entire house just for me so I would feel safe and go back to bed.

Maybe I need to buy a dreamcatcher but I’m not a kid anymore so it might not work. By the way, remember those things?!

I’m jealous of those people who can easily dream of puppies, kittens, cupcakes & rainbows!

Anyone else going through the same thing with bad dreams?