Am I the only one who does taxes at more than one place?

I did 2 free online programs. It always amazes me how I can enter the same information and come up with 2 different numbers. Not largely different, but different none-the-less.

on a Saturday???

This morning was trike-a-thon at 9am in the park that is a ways away.

So, the alarm goes off at 7:30. We get up, eat b'fast and send the kids to get dressed. I get dressed, dh goes out to wrestle with the bike rack and the bikes.

Of course, the tires need air. Then, we couldn't find the helmets (we did find them). Then - oh wait, sunscreen! We need sunscreen, where is that? Oh wow, it's cold! It's only 68, where's the heat? It was still hot last night at 3:00 when I woke up sweating. Great, I don't have any biking pants, I guess I'll just freeze in shorts.

They planned a community breakfast afterward. We were asked to bring 5-8 cold drinks. We forgot to put them in the fridge last night, so dh stuck them in the freezer.

It turned out to be a decent event, but I'm tired. I was trying to keep up with 2 extremely fast kids. I thought they needed an adult with them, they didn't think so.

One of our clients brought in 4 packs of soda. It was a gift to the ladies who had helped him. They never took it home and it's been three days.

So today, I again got the shakes (our 10:30 clients came at 10:00 and I didn't get a snack until 11:30, I can't go that long without eating). I tried eating some sunflower seeds and chocolate chips, but it just wasn't helping.

One of my coworkers saw my hands shake and asked if it was a no caffiene thing or a sugar thing. I said probably sugar. The soda was hers and she said "that's there for everyone, go get one".

Clearly, I need to take some more food to work. My snacks work fine IF I can eat at 10:00, but if it gets pushed back too far, I can't get things in balance.

I have been tested for diabetes 3x (2x while pg and once before) and test as being fine, so I don't think it's diabetes, I think it's just a tiny stomach combined with a decent metabolism and so I blow through my food too fast.

I came home and snarfed some turkey and an eggroll. Then I had a glass of milk and some candy. Then, dh came home and I took a nap. Now, I feel great. Wide awake, but great!

My boss finally admitted they needed to hire another person. We've all been under stress to turn stuff out. I have a will that's been on my desk for a month. There's just more stuff than we can do in the time we have and stuff isn't getting done. AND they just took on a HUGE new client. So yeah, we need at least one more person. I think they should also look into figuring out a way to get me set up to work from home since I'm usually up at least an hour or two after everyone has gone to bed. If I had access to the stuff from work, I could easily get some stuff done and get closer to being caught up.

Which sucks for work. I've got sooo much on my plate right now and I was so tired I actually had the shakes. I fought off going to the vending machine, though, so I'm proud of myself.

I ended up falling asleep on the couch. Good thing my kids are old enough to follow the rules of "STAY IN THE HOUSE" and "DON'T OPEN THE DOOR". DH woke me up when he got home and sent me to bed.

I did wake up in time for a pick-up meal and then I went out and mowed 1/2 the front yard. DH mowed the other half. Now we just need to work on the backyard. Unfortunately, we have johnsongrass back there and the reel mower won't cut it.

I mentioned the cool displays at Whole Foods in an entry a week or so ago.

I now have a pic to show:



That's the fish section. Doesn't that look cool? It was even better in person. It really looked like they were jumping out of a stream.

DH just told me there's a Sam's near where we will go on vacation. This can't be too bad, right? We'll be flying so it's not like they can buy out the store, right?

I guess it's worth going to check out Sam's in another country, but eeek! I hope their pizza is the same, things will be so different for the kids that going to their favorite store and it not have the same food will be too much.

It's not your house until the deed is recorded. I don't care what kind of agreement you think you have, it isn't your house.

So, don't go fixing up the house - even if you have the keys and they were sent to you.

Especially if you don't even have a contract.

I STP this actually happened. One of our clients is getting appointed executor of an estate. A local flew up (our client is out of state) and made an offer on the residence. Neither of them tell the same story, but what it comes down to is that there was never a contract and no money exchanged hands.

The local got keys somewhere (that isn't clear) and has actually gone into the house and done work. He says over $3500 worth of work.

Our client tells us it looks awful. Half-assed, cheap materials, etc. So he's thinking he's going to have to spend money to undo all this guy did.

Oye. So anyway - it isn't your house until the deed is recorded.

DH and I discussed them and he's fine with them, with the exception of the no-drive days. He pointed out that we probably can't meet that goal since we will be driving on 2 weekends and he has to drive to work.

So, I'm lowering my goal to at least one no gas day/week. Of course, today he used none of his own gas, so we had a semi-no gas day (he had offsite meetings and so was allowed to bring his work car home last night and keep it here tonight).

I think I might have gotten rid of the kitten.

When we started walking to the restaurant tonight, it followed us. This was unacceptable, we were going to be walking on a very busy street, it would get hit.

So, I made it follow me home, put food in a box, put the kitten in the box and then closed it (just closed the flaps, not secured it). It was gone when we got home and hasn't been back since.

I put more food out for it, so we'll see. Maybe it has found a new home to hang out at.

Poor kitty, I hope I didn't traumatize it too much. I just didn't know what else to do. I couldn't put it in the house with my kitty and locking it up somewhere else seemed to be inviting poop and pee everywhere. But it would have been killed if it followed us.

My family is back. Poor guys are still sick. DH had to take them to the doctor in Tulsa. Thank goodness we have BC/BS and had an in network doctor there. It was $50 in copay for each, then $26 for the meds for them. Poor guys. We've been really lucky though, this is only their 3-4 sick visit to the doctor in their lives.

DH's dad gave him $100 to help pay for the gas to get to the funeral. It doesn't pay for all the gas, but it was unexpected and helpful.

The family is still recovering from the death. I think we're the least touched by it. DH's grandmother wasn't that nice to us, we were never more than acquaintances to her (this goes back to the way she treated FIL, dh was just a byproduct of that). We've been asked if we would like anything of hers (and in the same breath told not to expect anything).

I don't know, I think I might feel a little hypocritical taking anything from them. But, I guess it would be nice for my boys to have something of hers. They weren't old enough to realize that she shunned them in favor of the other great grandkids (that and we limited their contact to a certain extent).

We got the word that dh's grandmother died last night. This is his first grandparent to die. She's been in bad health for 2 years or so, so it isn't unexpected, but ...

He needs to go back to Oklahoma for the funeral. He's decided to drive, flying would cost $500 and we just can't swing that right now (not after having spent the money on the tickets for vacation). He's going to take the kids with him. I'm staying home, I can't get off work.

One kid is still sick, but we expect him to be better by tomorrow afternoon. They'll leave Tuesday morning.

So much for not eating out in January. But I'd say this doesn't count.

I got nothing accomplished today. Well that's not entirely true, I did get our cable bill paid and set up to draft automatically and I changed my address with my credit card.

But, I've got clothes in the washer that have been there forever, so now I need to rewash them (soured - it's hot here). I'm just hoping that it will be warmer tomorrow morning because I can't for the life of me find any of DS1's pants or my slacks and this morning it was COLD (44F).

I've been keeping track of the money I bring in at work (for the firm). Does anyone have an idea what percentage of my income I should be bringing in? Like if I make $2k/month should I bring in $6k, $10k, more, less, some number in between? I want to have an idea if I'm profitable for them and to what extent so when I've been there a year I can successfully negotiate for a raise.

Speaking of work, my boss will be gone tomorrow mid morning and won't come back until Monday. I'm looking forward to actually getting some work done without him coming to me every few minutes to ask if I've remembered to do x, y or z (things that need to be done, but aren't as pressing as other things) and to tell me to repriortize everything.

DH didn't change the address with his work to get his check to our new address. And, with one thing and another, I didn't get the forward order in early enough for the move, so we've not gotten any forwarded mail. Which includes his check. We've been lucky, none of the bills have been due yet, we got some xmas money and I have a paycheck, but we were getting a little worried - if that were lost, we would be fine, but things would be a little bit harder than they needed to be.

But, it came today.

I'm so glad 1) we no longer live paycheck to paycheck and 2) it finally came!

We immediately walked to the bank to put it in the account and get the address changed there. All the way, the kids whined about being tired, etc. But when we walked back, we walked back a different way and came back by the park. Guess who had plenty of energy to run and play tag, etc? You guessed it. I had enough energy to get on the swing for about 5 minutes and then my hands started hurting.

DH found wood blinds at linens 'n things for $15. Ones just like we wanted. Unfortunately, they only had enough to cover one window, not the 2 we have. He went ahead and bought what they had in the hopes that we can eventually find ones that match. I've got emails out to family members asking them to check their local stores (what family lives near a store). We'll see.

Well, we didn't run any errands, but we did walk to the furthest park. And it was so not worth it. I mean the walk was worth it, but the park was lame. Only one swing and a play area for litle kids. We walked around some more and found 3 more swings, 1 by itself and then we found 2 together.

We walked back a different way to figure out what is within walking distance. In addition to the grocery and KMart, we have sonic, pizza hut and a gas station.

We think we're going to try the library tomorrow. I'm not sure how that will work, we don't have locks for the bike, so we'll have to walk. Carrying 10 books. 2 miles. Each way. With 2 kids. That might be a bit of fun.

Thanks for the suggestion for the diet, but I'm doing south beach which doesn't allow fruit during the first phase. All the veggies I want, but no fruit. Unfortunately, I don't like most veggies so I'm forcing myself during this first phase. I remember last time we did this (2.25 years ago) after the first phase, apples were so sweet they actually made me sick to my stomach. Milk chocolate was gross, but semi-sweet chocolate was still the food of the gods.