Taxes and Life

Many times, I've wondered if doing taxes is as painful for everyone else as it is for me. I know, you would think, "With her skill set, it should be a breeze!" Alas, you are forgetting one thing - organizing and keeping track of all the little scraps of paper that come in the mail between January and March. About 80% of my time is spent sorting through my "little piles." And yes, I have tried keeping a folder, but I lost that this year, too. So, I ended up with two "2008 Taxes" folders and then some more piles....but I am proud to announce that fifteen hours and 62 pages later, our taxes are finally finished! And this year, I even made it under the Turbotax deadline to save $20 (last year, I missed it by one day because I got my days mixed up). So, here's to celebrating little victories.

Besides finishing my taxes today, I also managed to get almost all our laundry done from vacation, scooped up all the dog poop in the yard, realigned our weed guard, planted flowers in our front flowerbed, went to Wal-Mart, the bank, post office, Fred Meyer, wrote a talk, went jogging this morning, paid 9 bills, and returned 7 phone calls, submitted 2 rebates, caught up on my e-mail, and unloaded the dishwasher today. I even spent time pushing Katie on the swing and chasing Ethan around the backyard. I only mention this because I want to remember that every now and then I have productive days - and how does this happen? Greg took the day off work AND he made dinner. All while coming down with the flu. Thanks, honey!

In the way of an update, we spent spring break with Greg's parents and our extended Utah family. I have some cute pictures, but I have been sitting at the computer WAY too long, so I will post them Sunday. (Tomorrow I am speaking at a Stake baptism and setting up for Sunday and we HOPE to leave the house a lot for showings)