If she had the proper words to say,

I'm on a break between icings on cookies. :-)

I filed our taxes tonight. It feels wonderful to have that done!

These cookies are just not being what I want them to be. It's disappointing.

Philip works this weekend. We've planned for next weekend to be the big sleepover for January. Unlike in November, I won't be manning the millions of boys here all by myself.

I need to begin meal-planning tomorrow. A.J. wants to peruse my cookbooks for his choice this menu plan. I'll have to do my shopping on Sunday (the commissary is closed on Mondays), since there's no way I'll get it done tomorrow.

Today was the end of the 2nd quarter for the boys' school year. I cannot believe they are halfway done already! Report cards come home next week, but the grades are online at all times. So proud of them. :-)

Jack's first game of this indoor soccer league is at 5pm tonight. As soon as the boys arrive home from school, though, we're taking them to the base hospital for the H1N1 vaccine. Last week when we went to the youth center, a gal was handing out fliers at the door, announcing that all students would need the vaccine by 1/29 to be allowed back inside the building.

So, we're cutting it close. ;-) Jack will be fine, but A.J. has a debilitating fear of needles and vaccines. When we got his last set of vaccines in the fall, he must've cried for twenty minutes straight. It was pretty horrible, and I'm not looking forward to a repeat performance. He's known of this afternoon's plans days in advance, and last night's dinner conversation was situated muchly around needles. I hope he pulls through okay, as he really, really, really likes the youth center.

I got a Christmas card last week from mostcurious! Thank you, chickie! I really want to get my own out, too. I've got all the supplies sitting here on my desk, but I've not written the newsletter yet. I know they won't arrive until February, but I figure that everyone will cut me some slack since we moved in December. Hee!

I emailed the Runza National office again, as Philip and I have still not received our W-2s. I had originally contacted them two weeks before they were due to come out with our new address, so we wouldn't have to wait on them to forward up here. I was assured then that ours would be mailed on the same day as everyone local. Instead, the locals received theirs in the mail on the 15th, and we've seen nothing yet. :-(

Our Nebraska State tax refund deposited into our account today. It was not scheduled to do so until February 1st. Now we're so rich!

$12.00 - w00t!

My hair is freakishly curly today. I don't know what's so different than any other day, but I'm digging it.

Philip bought me two bottles of 7°Up last night. Craving = quenched.

I still need to put something in the mail for a friend.

The last pieces of my new camera arrived today. Now I can begin playing!

Big dinner planned tonight: brown-sugar ham, casserole of scalloped potatoes, rolls and veggies. I imagine we'll all sleep wonderfully tonight with such full tummies.

I'm still loving the results of the carpet cleaning.

Yesterday was Elvis's birthday. I didn't forget (I told Philip about it), but I didn't post about it. Today is the (fictional) birthday of Severus Snape.

My phone rang off the hook this morning. It seemed like everyone needed me for something.

I spent the weekend seriously decluttering (once again) after having put up the holiday decorations late last week. I declutter on a monthly basis, and I'm always amazed that I can still get rid of enough things to stuff the back of the car and take to Goodwill. Philip built new DVD racks, and we donated our old ones to friends. (We actually loved our current DVD storage system, but Crate&Barrel discontinued the racks, and we couldn't stand to have mismatched storage.) In the process of moving the DVDs over, we also tossed out several VHS tapes that we've since replaced on DVD anyway.

The only thing left in the house to reorganize is my scrapbooking stuff. The task seems huge, and frankly, I'd rather just hide my head and pretend it doesn't need to be done. ;-)

Away From Her is a seriously sad movie. I knew it would be, though. Especially with so much Alzheimer's in my own family, too. The next movie up is Soldier's Girl, and I've read that it will be quite the tear-jerker, too. :-(

I'm the laundry queen today. I'd love for someone else to come be the 'Put It All Away' princess, though...

Michael Bublé ringtones are LOVE.

I did the preliminary computer stuff for our taxes this year. Now to just wait for Philip's military W-2 to arrive, as I never can estimate exactly how all the nontaxable combat pay stuff will shake out. I got the rough estimates done last night, including the final numbers from all our Runza stuff, and it'll only take me two minutes to input the rest on the 21st. In other words, our taxes are almost done - wheee!

About that dinner...

"In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes."
~ Ben Franklin

Well, I'm not dead. It must be that I'm done with our taxes.

D-O-N-E. Filed and done. Just waiting on the refund DONE.

It feels nice. Now to see how else I can enjoy my Friday. :-)

I am absolutely GOBSMACKED that the IRS does not have a street address. When I send this Big Envelope o' Important Stuff, I am to send it to this address:

IRS
Fresno, CA
93888

I must have made the tax lady verify the line for "no street address?" about four times.

Gobsmacked. Wow, is the IRS THAT big?

O_o.

The rain showers that we had this morning have made it much colder today, and I just had to turn the heat up a little to compensate for it. Brrr!

It's pizza night for dinner, and the boys are tumbling on an extra blanket on the floor while they wait for it to cook. Silly boys. The whole family had massive tickling sessions all afternoon while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for the umpteenth time. Jack is such a squealer when he's tickled - he sounds like a baby pig. Finally, we all smooshed under one blanket on the couch together, and that was a nice time.

I've going to clean off my desk some while the pizza's cooking, and then finish up after we eat. The error in our tax return will result in some money coming our way in 2-3 months... but only if I ever get this correction form finished and mailed in! (We got our original tax return over 5 weeks ago now, and I still haven't done this part.) Once I'm done with that, I'll scrapbook for a little while as my 'reward.' Maybe even watch a movie...

I watched The Prince & Me 2: The Royal Wedding a couple of nights ago. It was an okay storyline, but it just wasn't the same without Julia Stiles in the lead female role. I figured as much when I put it on my Netflix queue, but I still wanted to give it a try for the eye-candy reason alone: Luke Mably. And it was worth watching for the sake of watching him. ;-) I also watched Must Love Dogs that night, and it was good. I love John Cusack anyway, but I especially love movies where he's the 'Lloyd-Dobler-good-boyfriend' type.

Someone kick me. I need motivation to actually get up and get some things done.

It's February, y'all. How'd that happen?

I'd like to clear off the kitchen counter. Today was payday, and Tax Refund Day is Friday; as such, I should make a list of exactly what we want to do with this money. Add to the fact that I made a mistake before I e-filed our taxes this year, and I've got to fill out and mail the correction form (which can't be done before Friday) and then we'll have another $4k coming later, so I really need to be making some lists.

I did sort through coupons this afternoon and tossed out all of those that expired in December and January. (I'm ashamed at myself for those December ones, too - I never leave them in the coupon organizer this long!) I lit a few candles (which reminds me - I need to make a candle list!), and the house is all picked up. That's something, I guess.

I need to finish up the photo CDs for my mom. I want to get them in the mail very soon. I also need to make a HUGE picture order, so I need to get that ready as well.

I was glad to flip my HP calendar today. Though January's 'Magical Objects' theme was neat, I was ready for something new. February's theme is 'Gryffindor,' and it includes several scenes of our favorite G's. I can't wait for it to be March, though, as that's the month of Slytherin. ;-)

I want to rearrange the board games. I need to get to that.

I pulled all my Christmas cards down two nights ago, but I still need to go through them and figure out which ones I will keep from this year. I always save all the photo cards - that's a given, but I also save a few handfuls of really unique cards to put in my scrapbooks as well. I love the kitty card and special signatures on the card from laurushka. Then's there the super-sweet message to just me inside the card from hermioneluna. irishphoenix711 has the most joyful handwriting, and the card from tjoelyn was handmade. Then little Korben helped tabbyfoo make their card, and he even signed it. The card from curledfries was my first ever from Thailand, and the most adorable card came from xellegirlx. I loved the non-traditional colors and the 'floating' feature of the card from kataclysmic, and Jack was enamored with the little moving star on the card from mionemione. The card from little_liebchen was the smallest - yet very elegant - card, and I can't bear to throw it away. And I was most touched to receive the card from heartrot, so afraid that I would never know where to send his own card to him.

And that's what makes Christmas cards so special to me. Each one has a memory, a story, a laugh, a smile, a tear - an emotion - connected to it, and I cherish every single one I receive. It's so tough every year to decide which ones make it to my scrapbook, and I always end up putting in more than I'd planned to, but it's a labor of love.

Today's agenda includes super-fun things like these:

• at least three loads of laundry - maybe more (we'll see if I feel "spontaneous" later on)


• filing the paperwork that has accumulated on my desk since our return home only eight days ago


• dishes - unloading and reloading the dishwasher


• vacuum


• pictures - these need so much work, it's not funny (I'm backed up to mid-November, I'd say)

I also need to get the finishing touches going on our taxes. They're just about done, really, but I'm going to wait until Philip's W-2 from the military comes online only because it's always a guess (for me, that is) to see exactly how much of his pay will be nontaxable due to his being in a combat zone for nine months. When I estimated this figure from his Saudi Arabia tour four years ago, it was still off by a few hundred dollars, so I'm just going to wait this time.

...

When did I become so boring?