A few updates on my health issues and how we spent part of our tax return.

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I know it's been a while since the last time I posted anything. Actually, I think it's the longest break I've ever taken from blogging.

First, I want to thank you all for your kind comments and get well wishes. I'm so blessed to have all these amazing friends like you. I wish I would have some awesome news about my health but alas :(

Just like I planned, I went to see the doctor on Tuesday. Well, I don't have strep (I guess, that's good news) but I do have a sinus infection. But that's not all. After having a lengthy conversation with the doctor, he has suspicions that I might have low thyroid issues and, possibly, anxiety too. I've been having shortness of breath on top of constant exhaustion and many other symptoms that made him suspect it.  Nothing is confirmed yet. I had blood drawn but because they have to send it to a separate lab, I'm yet to know the results. Keeping my fingers crossed that I will get some news by the end of this week.

And because of other possible things, he didn't give me anything for the infection. So I was pretty miserable most of this week. Constant headaches wouldn't even allow me to use the computer, and I missed it (yes, I'm an addict!). I think today is the first day that I feel a little bit better and can actually partially breath through my nose. But the Baby is not doing very good. He was running a fever all night, so we are heading to the doctor later today :(

Because of a sick household, we ate mostly junk all week. And I mean junk like frozen pizza, hot dogs, chinese takeout and McD's. I can't wait to start eating normal (read, healthier) food again. Especially, because now I have something new to cook it on:

Yes, we got a new (WORKING!!!) stove!!! I wish we could get gas, but we can't do gas in our house :( But it's very nice, and did I mention, it works properly???? I love it!

And of course, we got a good deal on it (I know, you are not surprised :). After looking at many different places ( we actually got it last week, before we all got sick again), we ended up at Best Buy. This stove was originally $649 but last week it was on sale for $489. But when we got to the store, turned out that they were so back-ordered that they couldn't even order us one. So they offered us the floor model with a 10% discount. For a floor model, it was in very good condition. Actually, the only damage it had was a little scratch on the handle.

But we still didn't like only 10% discount, so we negotiated another $40 off which brought the total price down to $399. You just can't beat this price! We still had to buy a new cord (which was  another $28) but overall, after taxes and everything, we spent only $457.30.

Plus Best Buy was offering free delivery and haul-away of your old appliance if you make a purchase of $429 and higher. Well, with the new adjusted price, we couldn't get it any more (and delivery alone is $69.99!!). But it kind of erased all the purpose of the discount, so the manager waved it all for us.

So all in all, we got, well, at least $250 discount. Not bad! Not bad at all. And I love my new stove. It's not fancy but it works great and gets the job done!

At first, we wanted to use most of tax return for savings but after some discussion, we realized that there are a few things we need. I mentioned before that we'll use part of it to pay for any old and new medical bills. Then we really need to buy a new mattress for the Baby's big boy bed. Also we need a new door for the back of our garage because ours is all rotten and nasty. I don't know how much we'll have left from our tax return after all these purchases but if there is anything left by the end of April, we'll move it to savings.

So here's what's happening on our side of the world. How was your week??? I missed you all!!

DONE!!!!

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 "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."( Benjamin Franklin)

 

I had such a long day yesterday...I literally left home before nine and came back after seven. I'm so tired!!!

First, I was helping in Kid's class, then we went to a couple million stores unsuccessfully looking for something for another project. After that we went to Lowes to buy paint and paint rolls. Then we stopped by the Russian store, and after that we went to do the most important (and the most time-consuming) thing on our to-do list - TAXES. It took us a while to get Hubby's 1099 for his bonuses from last year. The part-time accountant at his work is absolutely terrible. She never returns calls or e-mails and only talks to the owners of the firm (she's too good, I guess, to talk to the little guys). And she waited till the very last second before the penalty dead line to get the 1099 to us.

Well, at least we got it... Because of Hubby's bonuses we weren't sure if we would get anything back or if we would end up owing. I really need to study more this year about how taxes are calculated. Well, to our surprise we did end up owing $87 to the state but we will get almost $1700 back!! We are excited. We tried to use a free calculator on Turbo Tax but it was just too confusing (and showed us that we will only get like $500 back). We actually used a free service offered by the state (for those whose combined income is less than $50000 a year to file. It's operated with the help of volunteers who do taxes for a living. We've been using them for the past 4 years because our income is far from the limit :)

So now we are thinking about how we want to use that unexpected money. More than likely, we'll save most of it but we are thinking of buying a new stove too. Our stove that we have right now, came with the house, and I suspect, it was original from the time the house was built (and that is more than 30 years ago). It' just slowly dying, and we really need to get a new one. At first, we were thinking of putting some money aside for it but now we can afford one.

But we won't start shopping for it until we actually get the money. Until then I'm just happy to be done with our taxes until next year!