What do you do...

Throughout the year, I take care of the finances, but at the end of the year, my hubby does the taxes. I give him the folder with all the documents I've gathered and he files them. Somehow, for us, it balances out. Tom prints out a hard copy for our file and keeps an electronic copy on the computer.

Last year, in April we decided to move. For whatever reason, Tom still had the Taxes file folder on his computer desk... instead of back in my filing cabinet. We've just realized this in the past week as we prepare to file our taxes. I've gone to my filing cabinet (in storage) and found my taxes from 1991-2002. 2003-2006 are in the manilla folder which Tom had on the desk. Apparently, that file folder got packed with the desk contents instead of returned to the folder... which means, it could be ANYWHERE within a 10'x15'x8' storage unit which is COMPLETELY packed! :P

Never fear! We have an electronic copy... right? No. Tom installed an update of Windows a few months ago which wound up CRASHING our hard drive and formating a good number of files... including our electronic tax records. :P

Foiled again.

So. What do you do? Tom even tried looking back (online) at our banking records, since we received our refunds electronically, but, they only keep the past six months online.

One other thing... it's been delightful that Tom always does our taxes in February... but, if you'll recall, Tom spent most of February on prescription pain-killers... so, doing taxes was out of the question.

Anyway, if you have any ideas about how I can recover the records of my previous rebate, so I can pay taxes on a refund that I've already been taxed on, please, let me know!

Thanks.

A Great Literary Series

When preparing for my last road trip, I went to the library and checked out several audio-books on CD. One of them was a literary series that we are really enjoying. It is a:

• Young Adult Fictional Series.
• Written by a European.
• About a pre-pubescent boy.
• The main character is brilliant and extremely wealthy.
  
• Audio and Video rights to the series have been sold.
  

Sound familiar?

Sounds like Harry Potter by JK Rowling, right?

Well, what if I add these points:

• Written by a Irish Man.
• About a Criminal-Mastermind.
• Whose parents are alive and well.

Now do you know who it is?

Artemis Fowl. Written by Eoin Colfer. Currently, there are six books in the series with a movie in the works.

• Book 1 - Artemis Fowl
• Book 2 - Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident
• Book 3 - Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code
• Book 4 - Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
• Book 5 - Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony
• Book 6 - Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox

There are also some supplemental materials out like The Artemis Fowl Files.

You should go check it out. Really. Go to your library and check it out! Then, in a few days (that's all it'll take to read the first book), let me know how much you enjoy it!

Phrase of the Day: I will Scoop you up like a Bowl of Soup!

"I will destroy you! I will Scoop you up like a Bowl of Soup!"

This is the threat Frank just made while lying on the couch playing with his Transformer, Starscream.

Tom and I just laughed and laughed when we realized what he'd said. Then we took it a step further... "you will be like Minestrone! You will be like Chowder! You will be like a Can of Cheap of Soup!"

For some reason, to us, this was funny. I hope you enjoy it and that you stay away from people who will "Scoop you up like a Bowl of Soup!"

Fit for Life - Action Plan

I just wanted to give you an update... or maybe I should just be informing you in the first place. I recently realized that I gained weight this past winter. This was a surprise for me. It's never happened to me before. I mean, well, once, I worked - consciously - for a FULL YEAR to gain almost 20 pounds. But since last fall, I gained 25 pounds... without even trying OR being aware of it. Okay, maybe on some level I knew I my clothes weren't fitting quite the same, but I had NO IDEA that such a thing would ever happen to me! My whole life has been one of those "I can eat whatever I want and I'm still always skinny and healthy." It's just been like that for me. Always and forever. Well, then I had two babies (does this story sound familiar) and with each pregnancy I gained about 50 pounds... I grew 'em big! (10 pounds 2 ounces and 9 pounds 3 ounces big!) Still, it was three years ago when I birthed my last child and since then, things have been sitting pretty much the same. I've been fluctuating around a size 14. I just figured the weight would slip away without much effort on my part, because I never had to think about it before.

I think I'm rambling. Yep! The size of the previous paragraph says I'm DEFINITLY rambling! (I do that when I'm tired, which I am).

This wasn't suppose to be a rambling or a whiny post. Just a quick little update, and then relax for the night...

So. Suffice it to say I recognized *something* had happened and it needed to be corrected. With the assistance of my Aunt, I devised an ACTION PLAN to help me get back to a size 10, around 128 pounds... I liked that weight. That's where I plan to get back to.

This plan includes:

• regular water consumption
• vitamin and mineral supplements
• regular, nutritious food choices
• yoga
• meditation
• self-reflective periods
• consistent sleep patterns
  
• walking
• stair-climbing
• bike-riding
• swimming

Now, for the original point of this post, the quick update...

I've been "doing" the exercise portion of my Action Plan for two weeks now. Yesterday I noticed a bit more of a spring in my step and also more energy. I'm glad to feel these things, even though all of the parts of my plan have yet to be implemented and even though I'm still working to forge better habits.

So far, I've been doing the following:

• regular water consumption
• vitamin and mineral supplements
• yoga
• walking
• stair-climbing
• bike-riding
• swimming

Oh, one other thing... I'm going slow and taking it easy on myself. I started with 10 minutes biking and 10 minutes swimming, three times a week. Also, walking and stairs and yoga each day, but just in small, manageable portions.

Now, this next week I need to get my sleep and eating habits on track. Then my meditative periods (or maybe visa-versa, I'll have to think about it.)

Finding Jeans that Fit

A friend just pointed me in the direction of 5 Minutes for Mom who is giving away $200 to the site called True Jeans! I recently went through a blue-jean-fitting-crisis and my hubby found a similar survey to help find the "right" fit of jeans. I'm grateful to know these surveys are out there to help us along (especially now that I'm "rural" and have limited shopping options!)

What's That Name?

I know many people name they're vehicles.

• My first car, a 1979 Chevy Malibu was "Millie".
• The Chevy S-10 Blazer I had for ten years (and three husbands) was "THE Blazer".
• Then, I had a Dodge Dakota Extended Cab, that had been my Father-in-Laws... it looked like a miniature version of my hubby's Dodge Ram (even the same color) and his license plate read LRDVADR (Lord Vader), so, my mini-vaderesque truck became "Ani", for "Anikan Skywalker".
• Currently, I have a dark-red Dodge Grand Caravan (2005) van... my boys' LOVE Thomas the Tank Engine, where the red engine is James... so, guess what my van is called? You got it, "James".

I've even met people (well, okay, just one person - that I know of) who name they're weapons.

• My hubby had a Smith & Wesson 44 Magnum "Katherine" (which he sold in during an impoverished period to his brother and desperately wants to buy back, but, brothers (being what they are), his refuses to sell the gun back, even for an inflated price. Personally I don't understand why another S&W 44 Mag wouldn't do just as well, but then, "I'm a woman" and I don't think I'm "suppose" to get this quirk... so, I don't loose sleep over it!) Katherine. That was also the name that my hubby wanted to give our first-born daughter. Katherine. Also the name of his former fiancée... hmm... do we see a trend here? Anyway, I'm off-track here... from what I understand, my husband has named all of his weapons (and that's not a small number!)
  

I've even named my favorite appliance.

• My mixer... a giant, behemoth of a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer (The Professional 6 in Red). It's name is "Big Red". And that's what we refer to it as. All of us in the house. To the point when we went to visit my Mom recently, my boys wanted to know what she called her smaller white Kitchen Aid mixer;
• it became "Baby White".
• My Aunt calls her Dyson Vacuum, "Mr. Dyson", like a name, not the brand.
  

What inanimate objects do you name?

Technology Overkill

As I strive to simplify my life, I was thinking of some of the things we do without. Then I started thinking of things we do have and also of some that I would like.

Here is a list of some of the things we “live without” in our home…

• Scale (to weigh a person on)
• Blender
• Toaster
• Cassette Tape Player
• Coffee Maker
• Cable TV
• Satellite TV
• Video Game System for TV
• Telephone
• Answering Machine
• Television
• VCR
• Microwave

Many of these items are considered “necessities” of our times, and others have simply become outdated (tape players, for example). I delight in the absence of these things from our home, and often boast that we “don’t have a TV” (I especially boast about that one).

Some things that we do have - perhaps to an excess - are:

• Toaster Oven
• Mrs. Kitchen / Magic Bullet small blender
• High-Speed Internet
• 4 Computers (3 Laptops (2 personal, 1 work) & 1 Desktop)
• 4 Handheld electronic games (2 Leapsters, & 2 (old) Gameboys)
• 3 Cell Phones (2 personal, & 1 work), with Voice Mail
• I-Pod Shuffle
• 6 Sewing Machines (3 antique (1 treadle, 2 electric), 2 “regular” (1 for me, 1 for my son), & 1 serger)
• 2 Scales (to weigh mail on)
• 4 Digital Cameras (3 card-deck size (2 personal, & 1 work) & 1 video)

Sometimes I think that “one day”, I might like to have:

• Headphones / Speakers with Volume control (for use with Laptop)
• A Sewing Machine with a stitch-regulator for free-motion quilting
• Popcorn Air Popper
• Flat-Panel / Projection TV (something that will “disappear” behind a quilt on the wall)
• “Nice” SLR Digital Camera

Technology can help us so much, but I think sometimes we forget that it’s purpose truly is to HELP us. A big thing I notice is how so many people feel compelled to answer a ringing phone... I say, answer it if it's convenient, if not, they'll leave a message / call back. Sometimes we become over-run by things. It reminds me of a scene from the movie “Sabrina” (with Harrison Ford). Linus Larabee tells Sabrina that he has a personal helicopter to “save time in traffic”. When she observes that he never stops to look out the window of his personal jet (he’s busy looking at work documents), he says he “doesn’t have time to look out the window”. Pointedly she queries “what happened to all that time you saved on the helicopter?” We rush, rush, rush. Sometimes, I think it’s good to purge things from our lives; to reevaluate their usefulness, or how much they hinder us.

What are some things that you don’t have which others seem to consider necessary? What are some of the things that you “can’t live without”? What items do you think about acquiring?