My dryer is getting fixed as we speak. Belt was shot and needed new ball bearings, which was exactly what went wrong with my mom's dryer, and we have the same model. We have both had our dryers for years, so they are well beyond warranty. Total cost for repairs and labor $160.00 which is still cheaper than a new dryer. And I had set that money aside in our budget with our last paycheck, so we didn't have to touch the emergency fund.

I have to admit. I cannot live without the dryer. Yes, we have dramatically cut down our use of it in the past 6 months, but to go at least two to three weeks without it at all was not fun. For towels, it is a must. My towels came out like rocks hanging on the line down the basement, even with fabric softener added to the rinse water. I cannot hang a clothesline outside for many reasons. My mom actually washed and dried our towels twice for us. Thanks mom.

This past weekend our toilet overflowed sending water all over the bathroom floor and then seeping some into the basement. We had to use every sweet smelling towel my poor mom just cleaned for us to sop up the water. I didn't want to make her wash all these wet towels again, so I did washed them myself and hung them all on the line. It took days for them to dry and when done we had fabric bricks.

As for the regular clothes, we only throw them in the dryer for 5 minutes when they first come out of the washer to get the wrinkles out, and then I throw them in another 5 minutes when they are all line dry the next day just to soften them up. And believe me I noticed a difference these last few weeks in not getting to do it. They felt much harder, had more wrinkles.

We are still living without a dishwasher. And that hasn't been too bad at all. The dishes still come out clean by hand. But my dryer, I need it. Case closed. Welcome back friend.

Being the owner of 7 pets and a former animal rescuer and shelter volunteer, it is well known amongst most of my friends and colleagues that I like my furry creatures.However that doesn't stop some of them from doing things about animals or saying things about animals that makes me lose my mind, pull out my hair, or bite my tongue until it bleeds.Let me give you some examples. This might give you a clue on what not to say to an animal lover.

1.) A picture of a dead deer that someone hunted hanging over their desk is not awesome to me. A picture of a dead deer that your sister sent you with a funny sign over it is still not funny.

2.) Telling me how you are getting your cat declawed even though I gave you 800 other options to do instead is not a wise move. If you are going to do it anyway, just don’t tell me you did it. And don’t tell me not to judge you if you do it anyway. You tell me, I will judge.

3.) #2 also applies to buying from a pet store or add in the paper instead of a shelter, getting your dogs ears or tail cropped, giving it up to a shelter cause it peed on your rug, or putting it to sleep because you don’t want to spend the money to get it medical attention. If you don’t want to hear a peep out of me, never tell me it happened.

4.) Start off a sentence with “I know you love animals, but…” is never a good again. Again “Silence is Golden”.

5.) Don’t come to me or send me info on an animal you found that you need to find a home for and threaten me with “if I don’t find a home for it in 5 days, I am taking it to the shelter”. Emotional blackmail does not make you my friend.

6.) Don’t tell me animal horror stories, or a bad report you saw on the news. I see plenty of them myself. In that case, misery doesn’t want any more company.

What you should do

1.) Treat my love of pets with respect. You don’t have to feel the same way or understand why I do. But respect my opinion.

2.) Feel free to come to me for suggestions on helping you with finding a pet in a shelter or rescue.

3.) Ask me advice on dealing with pets behavior. I’m not an expert, but with 7 cats I got a pretty good handle on what they do. If I don’t know the answer, I will find it out from someone for you.

4.) Know that getting a pet is a responsibility you should honor for the rest of its life. It is not a “starter child”

5.) Adopting one from a shelter or rescue does require some paperwork, some money and some checking into your background. Don’t expect the shelter or rescue to bend over backwards for you and just give you a pet if you say Boo and hand them money. They want to find the best home for the animal they have been taking care of for weeks or months. You have to prove you are a good owner and have a good home. If you are not approve, don't bad mouth shelters and rescues in general. You may have just not been the right fit for that dog, that shelter or that rescue. There are others.

Since we last talked there has been some progress with my headaches. Once I got my new glasses they have started going down, but are not gone. They don't come with as much intensity anymore, and the sides of my head and eyes don't burn anymore. But I still get tightness in my scalp and the back of my head and my ears hurt alot when I get them. I also have had almost 3/4's of a day or two without any pain. So having the decrease has really helped in me dealing with them every day and has really helped with being at work. So maybe its getting better on its on, but its still awfully slow. Its been over a month.

I go today for an MRI. Its just a precautionary thing my neurologist wants to start off with. Oh yes I went to a neurologist. So we will see what he thinks.

The medications my general practice doctor gave me two weeks ago for the headaches so messed up my system. I will never take that stuff again.

My husband swears I am going to fall asleep in the MRI machine. I can sleep pretty easily. But I don't think that will be happening with all of the banging noises and technician talking to me.

Keep you updated.

A local TV news crew is coming to my house today to interview my parents and brother for a health story. My brother asked to borrow my house as I have a nice big room for the interview and my house is, shall I say, less crowded and little neater than my parents house.

I have spent the evening cleaning, and made sure everything is in its place. Please don't let my husband or pets muck it up before they come. I told my mom to give it a once over when she gets there. The picture above is how it looked about 5 years ago, we have painted over my beloved checkered wall since (long story) but its not too far off in the same design.

I told my dad before I left. "Don't embarrass the family." Oh boy.

With using a portion of our emergency fund, putting some money aside for our little anniversary excursion (which was fun) and all the doctors stuff with my head in this past few weeks, I feel off track with our whole financial budget world and I don't like it.

I am looking forward to getting back on track. However I do have a couple of extra things I have to add to our budget in the next few weeks. I have a pet that needs to go to the vet, a dog that needs to be groomed, a dryer that desperately needs to be repaired and my husband is going back to school so a portion of that needs to be paid.

I want to get our emergency fund back up to where it was and above. I want to keep up on the credit card snowballs as much as I can with putting more into the emergency fund. I want to get back to my normal grocery shopping and our normal budget amounts without all the extras. I want to get back to making weekly menus and building back up my ECB's with CVS.

Hopefully when I get paid this Friday it seems a little more like old times.

Patience my child. Patience.

As you may have read on here previously, I have been having headaches. I have been getting kinda bummed about them lately and writing about them is therapeutic. Maybe some of you might even have some suggestions for me.

They started on March 29th, a Sunday evening. Just thought I had a regular headache. Went to bed. About an hour after waking up on Monday it came back. Took some generic medicine but it was still on an off all day. The next day woke up feeling awful, stuffy, sore throat, and eventually the headache. Stayed home from work. Also stayed home on Wednesday but the stuffy and throat part were getting better. Went to my primary doctor on Thursday where he said I had a slight fever and figured I had allergies. Gave me Clarinex and told me to take Excedrin for the headache. I took both for 3 days and the headache stayed. The cold part eventually went away on its own.

I am now on day 18 of this.

Here is what it is like:

I feel great when I sleep and when I first get up. They start about an hour and a half to two hours after I get up.

It is a tightening on my scalp and around my head. And sometimes it moves around to my forehead, or down the back of my neck. Sometimes my eyes burn and it wears me out and my head feels hot.

Its not an agonizing pain, like a migraine, more like an annoying grating thing on and off all day.

It feels better when I chew gum, eat food, take a nap or use cold compresses.

I have tried every kind of Excedrin (extra strength, Migraine, Tension). I have taken two Fiorcet a day for 3 days, nothing.

I went to my eye doctors last week as I had problems with headaches while wearing contact lenses about a year ago. Those headaches also didn't go away with medicine, only when I took the contacts out. Since then I have worn glasses and for months had no problems with them. My eye doctor isn't sure its my eyes but he is giving me a lesser strength prescription and added glare protection to the glasses. I am currently waiting for the new glasses to come in and am stuck until then wearing the old ones. I can barely see a thing without glasses so I can't go a whole day without wearing them to see if that is the cause.

I am waiting to hear back from my thyroid doctor to see how my levels are. I do have hypothyroidism (I sound like an old lady, don't I). But have not taken any meds for it, as I have never had symptoms. But both my primary and eye doctor suggested I get checked with him again.

I also have an appt with a neurologist on the 22nd, just in case we don't find out what it is before then. Which is good cause I called 7 other neurologists and the soonest they could get me in was May.

So on we go. I'm trying to be a tough girl about it, but it just gets annoying. My husband is a doll in dealing with me with these headaches. But I would just like to be normal again for both me and him.

I'm so glad you got to see it. We will miss you Harry.

As I mentioned in my grocery shopping post, I have been having headaches. I've had a tension headache now for 14 days. We are pretty much convinced it is eye strain, as me and my eyes have never been too friendly. And the headache gets better when I sleep and when my glasses are off my head. So after seeing my regular doctor and medicine not working, I made an appointment with my eye doctor.

He is an awesome doctor and checks every inch of my eyes and runs every test. And he recommended lowering my prescription and putting some glare protection on my lens. And that meant new glasses. I already used my eye insurance allowance for the year, so all I had left was our vision discount plan under our medical. And under that plan it was cheaper for me to get a whole new set of frames and lenses than replace the lens I have. Plus I would be without glasses if I had to get the ones I had replaced.

So we ordered new ones and of course it cost a little bit of money. So we had to use a little of our emergency fund. Right before I paid I must have stared at my wallet for 10 minutes trying to figure out some way not to use the emergency fund. That is when my husband said "Hey, this is what we have the fund for. Your eyes and head are killing you. It is okay for you to use the fund for this.".

So the fund dipped down a little bit. It is just a hair under $1000 and we still are putting money in it every check. So we will get it back up there soon.

The next day my dryer started making a horrible noise. They say when it rains it pours. My mom has the same dryer model and when her's made the same noise a year ago, she needed new ball bearings in it. We have an awesome little repair guy that will come and do it. But with the dryer I can last a little while without it. I do have to get it fixed sooner than the dishwasher, cause our towels are coming out like rocks when we line dry them. So we are going to wait until our next paycheck and budget in the money for that repair and not touch the EF for this. Once is enough for me for now.

So I can't say enough about having an emergency fund. If you don't have one, please start it now. You won't regret it.

I know, another stinkin razor review. Its one of the few things in my stockpile of things I get cheaply that seem to stand out in my mind when I use a new kind. So I feel the urge to review it. Maybe I'm obsessed with getting a good shave on my legs. Who knows.

In all my stockpile of razors, I always avoided using the Intuition, as they looked so awesome, I wanted to save them for last. I finally decided a few weeks ago to break one open and give it a try.

The Intuition has 3 blades and has a skin conditioning solid that surrounds the blade. When you get the solid wet it lathers up a little so you don't need shaving cream or a moisturizer. What an awesome concept.

So what did I think about it? I absolutely loved it for its innovation, and handiness. It did leave my legs silky smooth, didn't knick or cut them. Yet I had two problems with it. With the conditioning solid around the razor I found it a little bulky to get it into the small corners of your body for a close shave. But the funniest problem I had with it is because of my eyes.

I have horrendous eyesight and wear glasses every day. Of course I can't wear them in the shower, although I have left them on a few times and realized shortly after the water hits my face. Brilliant huh? So when I put shaving cream on my legs and shaved, I could see what part of my legs I completed shaving by where the cream had been removed. Well with the Intuition, you don't use shaving cream so it doesn't really leave a marker for me to tell me where I have completed. So I had to improvise and just run my hand on my leg to see where I still need to complete and where I may haven't done it well enough. I know weird problem, its fun being almost blind. That isn't Schick's fault.

But overall I really love the Intuition and will definitely use it and buy it again. Its just a fantastic idea for traveling too, because you don't need to pack a bulky can of shaving cream.