WOWZERS

This will be my shortest post ever. I can't sleep so I was blog stalking. Then I thought "hey I wonder how many times I've blogged on ours." I was in for a shocker. Once I got to the end of our older posts and had lost count I saw that the very first one I ever did was on September 18th, 2007!!! Over a year ago! What the hizzle?! A whole year has gone by since I first started blogging my little heart out. I can't wrap my head around that. Wow, does the time fly by or what?!

On the move again.

Matt and I have stayed in one place now going on two years. Much too long usually for the likes of me. I get itching to move right around the 6 month mark; however, the apartment we have been in we actually love and wouldn't mind staying in if we weren't on a mission. What kind of mission? A money saving kind!!!!! I won't spill the beans on how much we pay in rent right now for this 2 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment we're in only because it would blow the minds of anyone who lives in the other 47 states (new york and hawaii not included) and whose mortgage I'm sure if far far less then what we pay in rent.   

We read a book called the "Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey which I would highly recommend to anyone who doesn't enjoy living paycheck to paycheck. It is a good kick in the pants to start getting out of debt one little fork-full at a time, which then turns into a shovel- full, and soon you are on a roll and are bulldozing your way out (called the snowball effect in the book, but I like my shoveling visualization of it too) We decided to get the process going by making a drastic move.....literally. We are downsizing. Going back to a one bedroom apartment which is what we started out our married life in (the first one was about the size of a shoebox, thankfully this one is at least the size of a barbie doll house, not her 3 story dream mansion one though).

 Might not seem like a lot, but going from having an office and tons of closet space down to having NO office makes a huge difference as we are quickly finding out as we begin to move things over. Which brings me to my next point.....we are having a garage sale! Yep, my first one ever. I used to be quite the garagesaler, but have never been the garage seller. I'm excited! One of my co workers is  letting me bring all our stuff to her moms house and we are having a garage sale all together this Saturday. Let the bargaining begin! We have already sold 5 pieces of furniture on Craigslist so far and have paid off a whole credit card with that money. One down......I won't mention how many more to go! 

Check out our new humble abode:

Come on in and have a look-see. 

Watch those beams. They come out of nowhere. 

                         Cookies anyone? 

Just enough to let the light in. I think I see Matt coming home from work. 

              I think Matt's gonna need to see a chiropractor after this place. 

Alright, I'll post real pics of our new place later. After a year of living in our smaller apartment, which we will save $400 a month on, the future looks bright for us! We will be debt free and I can't wait to be able to actually save money for a house of our own one day, not be slaves to credit card companies/car loans/school loans, and most importantly I am really looking forward to being able to freely give of our money to help out others who really need it.  Here we goooooooo!!!!!!!!!! 

Allergy Queen

A few weeks ago I decided to go see my Anatomy teacher who is a Doctor here in Simi to get some tests done. He specializes in Health and Wellness and does Blood Chemistry Analysis and stool testing (yep, a poop test). I have had stomach problems as long as I can remember and was hoping something would show up in my test results as to some kind of explanation. And boy oh boy did it! Right before we left to go to Idaho, Matt and I were both able to go in to have the Dr.  go over all my results. Not only do I have low Hydrocholoric Acid which breaks down food, and low Panreatic enzymes which are crucial for digestion and absorption of food, but here's the real whammy....I am Gluten Intolerant! Go figure.  I couldn't help but laugh when he said that. 
I mean after all why not add one more thing to the list. I already know I'm allergic to DAIRY.....


Quite possibly eggs....
Soy I  may be allergic too as well. Of course we did just purchase 10 cartons of Soy milk in the last month since I can't have milk. Looks like we might end up taking those back to exchange for Rice milk. 

All this time my poor tummy has been trying to tell me it can't tolerate gluten. I guess I just never got the memo. My doctor's words of advice were "From this day forward you are NOT to have anything containing gluten. It is crucial to your health, because you are bordering Celiac's disease if you continue to eat this way."  

In case you are wondering Gluten is... 

"Gluten is a protein contained in the grains of wheat, barley, rye, and oats. It is a unique protein based on its structure that lends a doughy/elastic consistency to flours derived from these grains. Gluten sensitivity implies that there is an ongoing immune reaction to gluten in the diet, usually detected as antibodies against a subprotein of gluten called gliadin. Although there may be no detectable symptoms of the immune response to gluten, the typical symptoms people develop occur when the reaction begins to damage the intestines."

As soon as we got back from our weekend excursion we hit up Trader Joe's and loaded up on foods especially for me. Our eyes are being trained to look for labels such as these. 

In the meantime I did a saliva test (gross I know, it consisted of spitting into little tubes) to see what other foods I might be allergic too so I know for sure. I really hope Soy isn't one of them so we don't have to take all those cartons back! It should be interesting to see what is on it. Hey as long as I'm not allergic to Chocolate or Matt, I guess I don't have much to complain about. 

where do I start?

So much to blog about and so little time! This weekend Matt and I flew to Idaho Friday around 5 to make it to my sisters wedding which was on Saturday. While on the plane unbeknownst to us family and friends were blowing up Matt's phone with messages to see if he was okay. When we turned his phone once we landed we found out that the train, the exact one that Matt takes everyday home from work, was hit head on by a freight train. 25 people were killed and 135 were injured. You can read the story here. It gives me goosebumps to think about it and how Matt should have been on it. We really are grateful for those who keep us in their prayers because we were really being watched over and protected.  I can't even begin to imagine how the families and spouses whose loved ones passed away or are critically injured from that wreck must feel.  So this weekend we not only got to celebrate my sisters wedding, my brother Ben's 26th birthday, but also that Matt is alive!  

Saturday we all helped prepare for Megan's wedding and reception. It was fun seeing so many family and friends that we hadn't seen in a really long time. (This is my shout out to those who I saw and said they read my blog "Hi Grandma Dee!! Grandma and Grandpa Hansen and Hailey!!!" We really enjoyed visiting with everyone and wished we had more time to stay and play before we had to head home.   

            This is my beautiful sis right before we went to take pictures before the wedding. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hinman about to ride off into the sunset in the limo that picked them up after the reception. A red carpet was even rolled out, total V.I.P. style!

Our plane left bright and early Sunday morning, but we did have time to see my besties from high school Kim and Makel

I got to meet Kim's baby Kiya for the first time, but she had all eyes for Matt. (Kiya did, not Kim :) She would just stare at him and giggle. Matt says it's because she thought he was funny looking, I think she just knows a hunk when she sees one!

I finally managed to hold Kiya without her trying to wiggle her way back to her Mommy. This was by end of the night when I held her and she was so sleepy that she nestled her head on my shoulder....QUICK get the camera! 

 After the reception we kidnapped Kim and Kiya and the four of us went over to Makels house to visit with her and her hubby Dan. It was a great way to end our whirlwind  trip! 

We hopefully will be back in good ole' Idaho in February  for longer then 32 hours so we hope to play with everyone again when we come back!

Matt and I throughout the decades

Matt and I and our yearbook pics throughout the decades....

Matt in 1950
My hot specs in 1955. 
Matt's awesome mullet and 90's sweater. 
    My permtastic hair in 1995. 
I almost forgot our 70's afro pics. 
  Groovy hair.