April 16, 2006

Hello everyone,Well today was tax day, and as of 10:48 PM I got my taxes filed! And we get a refund too which is even better. There was a while there when I thought we would owe money and that would have really stunk. Yes, I know financially it is better to owe than to get a refund, with the whole earning interest thing, but still I'd rather get it back right now than owe. Maybe when we're doing a better job saving money it won't be so worrying if we owe money. But I do have to gripe about TurboTax. This year's version really stinks. Lots of reasons that I won't bore you with, but suffice it to say that at various times of the day I was silently cursing TurboTax. Well, at least when I was momentarily distracted from the insanity of our tax code... Most of the day I spent silently cursing our tax code!! There was one point where I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to put in a certain line, and I went to the instructions for my 1040 form to read more about that line, and I seriously couldn't even finish the instructions!! It was like 8 paragraphs of pure babble. Write this if you did a, b, c, or d, UNLESS you did e, f, g, or h, AND i, j, k, and L, but NOT m, n, o, or p. It was way worse than that. Finally I totally gave up and just put "0" in those lines. I'm pretty sure that was not the right answer, but I'm also around 99% sure that it will not affect the bottom line of my tax return, so I'm hoping for the best. I mean, what are the chances really that I'll be audited, huh? The boys finally go back to school tomorrow. YAY!!!!!!! I know they are anxious, too. We did exactly NOTHING today, as I spent the morning trying to clean the downstairs and then most of the afternoon trying to do taxes. My poor boys... Tomorrow I will be a much more fun mom. Chicken pox is going around. At least 3 kids in the primary (junior primary, where my boys are), and it's also going around the local elementary school. And these all in kids who had the vaccine! Melissa's girls have it and I am hoping and praying and hoping and praying that my boys don't get it. Because I would hate for them to be sick, first of all, but second they are supposed to go to California this weekend to stay with their grandparents and if they don't get to go, they will be soooooo disappointed. And so will I!! I have been looking forward to a few days off for months now. I just inspected my boys, and I DO see some bug bites on Mosey's and Joseph's legs and arms, but nothing on the rest of their bodies. And they have spent a lot of time in mosquito-y areas over the past week or two. I looked up Chicken pox on line and so far I don't see any resemblance, but I will examine them real close tomorrow before school. Brigham doesn't have any bumps or bites at all. Which isn't unusual since he never gets bites. Well, he probably does get bites but his body isn't very allergic to them and they disappear right away. Please, everyone say a quick prayer that my boys don't get sick!
I'm trying to think of ANYTHING positive or uplifting about today and I'm at a loss. I'm just glad it's about over! Although now that I think about it, I am reminded of something one of the speakers in church said yesterday. He said, "Someone asked me once if I was grateful for the things I had. I said, yes, of course I am. Then he said imagine if you lost it all and then the next day you got it all back; think how grateful you would be then." It doesn't sound that profound, but I did sit there and think about it for a minute. We shouldn't have to lose something to be grateful for what we do have, but it seems like that is too often the case. I have a lot to be joyful about. Maybe a little sleep will put that smile back on my face!