Taxes

I've decided that paying taxes kind of stinks. However when you get some of what you have payed BACK the stench is considerably less. We received our state portion of taxes back this weekend and have already spent it ALL. That's right it's all gone, towards bills that is. Our pediatrician is payed off and soon our OBI will be also. Yippee!! I love getting things pawed off. Now we can start to try and save to get our hospital bill taken care of. It will probably take us about a year to get that all payed. Oh well, our baby has been worth every penny.

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New Neice, New Baby, New Joy!!

Here is the newest member of our extended family!! Kaitlyn Nicole was born on February 23, 2006 at 2:40pm. She was 7lbs, 12 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. What a doll she is. I got to be there for the birth and it was such a wonderful experience. What a miracle children are. It was a very special time to share with my sis-in-law Melissa. I even got to stay for a few hours afterward and snuggle the precious new one. I also became the designated photographer. They didn't get a lot of photos with their first one, so we were trying to make up with the second. I took about 60 pictures in a 4 hour time period. Now my Katy will have another Kaity to play with. How fun to have a cousin only 8 months younger than you.

Baby Shoes

Katy got these adorable ruby red shoes for Christmas from Grandma Jensen. This is the first time she has worn them. They were too big before. She was wearing her Christmas dress again to church on Sunday and the shoes matched perfectly. I just love little baby feet. They are my favorite part of her body. I went a bit picture crazy I think I ended up with about 33 pictures of her in her shoes and dress. She was quite patient and just let me snap away.

Nothing New

There has not been a whole lot going on lately, yet it seems so busy all the time. Cassi and James are coming this weekend. They will be here thru Monday. Mom and I have Monday off, seeing as it President's Day. So I will get to enjoy the day with family and my baby. Cassi has graciously offered to watch Katy tomorrow so she doesn't have to go to daycare. That will be nice and helps us out on our bill. One new thing I guess I forgot about. We just got our taxes done last week and we are getting enough back to finish paying off basically all our extra debt. That means no credit cards, no doctor bills, nothing. We will only have what I classify as "standard" items, house payment, car payment, phone, gas, utilities and groceries. Oh we will still have our home equity loan that we used to pay off the hospital, but the payment is somewhat manageable and will take about 1 more year to have payed off. I digress, we would have a couple hundred dollars left to buy Kathryn a new bigger, better carseat. Yesterday John's car started making a funny noise. He took it into the shop this morning and he needs some new part having to do with the wheels. CV joint, or axle or something, I can't remember. Total cost: about $150.00 Oh the joys of being grown up. Now we are going to use ALL the tax money to get stuff payed off including his recent car repair, which for the time being is on a credit card. I guess Katy will have to wait another month or two for her new carseat. At least she can still use the one we have.

Elephant Love

Cool picture and even though the holiday is dumb, I still thought the picture was fitting for the occasion. Aren't elephants cute? Look they love each other! I bet they don't know it's Valentines Day!!

Sappiness Alert

I really don't like Valentines day. I think it is somewhat pointless. I mean why do we need a REASON to show our spouse, or children or whoever that they are loved. Shouldn't that be a daily occurrence. Seriously if John only told me once a year that he loved me or did something special, he would be so gone. I will be spending this Valentine evening by my lonesome. John will be working at the video store, so it will just be us girls. Now most would pity a married women spending tonight alone and wonder what was wrong with the husband. I really could care less. In fact I'm kind of looking forward to being at home by myself, maybe I'll have time to do some reading.

Kitchen Utensils

Kids will play with ANYTHING. Katy found the potato scrubber and canister on Grandma's countertop quite interesting. Katy is such an easy going baby, almost anything will keep her entertained.

Wow Paint Job

My friend Heidi and her husband Mike just finished painting their living room. Can I just say WOW, I would never have enough patience to PAINT that on a wall. That's right rolks they drew, then painted that themselves. Update to follow on how long that took. Looks great and all I can say is "When are you coming to do mine?"

Busy, Busy, Busy

Boy has it been a busy week. I missed Tuesday and was in classes all day Friday, so I went into the office this morning to see if I could get caught up a little bit. I hate it when I can't see my desk because of all the paperwork that is stacked on it. Got that taken care of now, so it won't be as bad Monday morning. Came to my parents house tonight for dinner and to visit them. Haven't seen them for a couple of weeks. Had a nice talk with my mom, and now I'm just catching up on my internet stuff before going home. Not anything too interesting going on right now. Just waiting for taxes to come back. I can hardly wait to get the checks in my hot little hand and get stuff PAID off. Granted we still have other things to pay off, but the more we can get out of the way the better.

Coffee Talk

Today I went to have our taxes done in Rigby, the birthplace of television. For you that are familiar with the area, it's not too far from were I live. It is a very fascinating place with a quite small population of mostly farm folk. I was WAY early for my appointment, partly because I was nervous and partly because I was afraid I would get lost. Since I had like 30 minutes to kill and there is not much to do I stopped in at Me n' Stans for some breakfast. I LOVE "Coffee Talk!" This is my self made word for what farmers do in the mornings over coffee. I was surrounded by it and yes it was pure bliss. It has always been interesting to me why farmers discuss the things that they do and why the things they discuss are so important. They are worse than a bunch of women if you ask me. Being surrounded by it is like being some part of a secret club or something. I know this sounds totally crazy, but that's just me. You all knew that anyway. I was just sitting there basking in the conversation, perusing the paper, but not really reading it. Floating all around me and sounding like the hum of honey bees were snippets of wonderful conversations. "did you hear about old so and so, his tractor busted so he got one of them new John Deer models. I wish my tractor would bust, then the missus wouldn't mind when I HAVE to buy a new one." or "looks like the Johnston family finally got their place sold. Too bad what happened to them." The best though is when you hear a drop in their voices and you can just FEEL everyone else at the table lean in for "I heard that Susie Smith was finally leaving Bobby for that other man." Then I hold my breath as a collective gasp comes from the rest of the table and mutterings of "it was to happen sooner or later," "no, really" and "well Bobby got what was comin' to him, always drinking and such." Like I said, worse than a group of women. I finished my toast, tipped the waitress graciously and proceeded to my appointment. Which by the way turned out much better than I though and we will be getting a much needed refund.

Sick Day

Yesterday Katy and I stayed home sick. I was just not feeling well and we had been up all night it seemed like. Katy has had a runny nose for a few days and I think she lovinly passed it along to me. I have a headache, sore throat, runny nose and eyes, you know the whole shebang. Feeling a bit better today, but still not great. Katy seems to feel fine and was happy, happy this morning. One more thing: it is incredibly hard to conduct business from my home without having a computer or anything else. You see, I was still taking calls yesterday, but there is not much I can do without a computer or any of my files. Will look into getting one soon, with internet access!!

NOT Sleeping

Why is that when children wake up in the MIDDLE of the night they think it is time to be AWAKE for the day? Katy woke up about 2:30 am, had a bottle and then did not go back to sleep. Instead she was playing peek-a-boo with the pads on the side of her crib. It took another bottle, being sang to and crying for 1/2 hour before she went back to sleep. However I gotta love the picture She is just too cute.

Silly SuperBowl Sunday

Okay I know that some of you will be offended by the title of this post. My apologies in advance. I actually like watching the super bowl, but haven't for a few years. Here's why: 1.) no team that I actually like has made it. (john is a 49ers fan and I'm all about the raiders) 2.) we hardly ever watch TV and why would I want to spend 5 hours wasting my time. 3.) we had a wonderful day together as a family, which is way better and more entertaining. Katy was a joy and is getting SO very vocal. Oh, my heck she just yells and yells and yells. John and I finally got some stuff done around the house and thoroughly cleaned out Katy's room. We have been given so many clothes, but there are a lot that no longer fit, so we were trying to clear out a bit more space for the stuff in bigger sizes. Anyway, her room now looks great and I can see the floor again. We reorganized the living room and got rid of a bunch of clutter that had been piling up. It feels so nice to have a clean home again. I hate being gone for 8 weekend in a row, there is not time to REALLY clean everything. Were lucky if we have clean underwear. Anyway to those of you that watched the game I hope you enjoyed the Steelers 21 to 10 lead over the Seahawks. I was kinda hoping the little guy would win, but no such luck.

I'm cute!

Love this picture of Katy!! Here she is ready for the day with her two teeth, big shoes, pigtails, and new sweatshirt. Her sweatshirt looks like it's dirty though, don't know whats up with that. That smile on her face is a recent development at least when a camera is around. For the last 2 months when she sees the camera she instantly get a big frown. No more, at least for now. Big smiles all around!!

Oh Happy Day

Oh........... happy days are here again!!! Or so we thought! Katy slept through the ENTIRE night on Tuesday and Wednesday. Entire meaning from 9pm to 6 am the next morning. I was so overjoyed (or exhausted, not sure which) that I did not even wake up once wondering why she had not awoken earlier. Then last night, Thursday we are back to being up at 3 am. Oh will the madness never end. It is so hard to believe that she is now 7 months old, but please, oh please I'm sadly wishing she was 7 years instead and sleeping through the night. Don't get me wrong I love this stage and everything about it. I'm especially loving her new personality coming out more and more each day. She is happy and just loves everything. Last night I was looking at her, JUST looking at her. Not doing any funny eyeball things, or making weird noises, just looking at her in all her cuteness and she started laughing. Not just a little chuckle either, a belly laugh. It was adorable!! She is becoming a big tease too. When I try to kiss her cheek she turns her head or pulls away, then laughs and buries her head in my neck. I just want to pinch her cheeks and eat her toes!! Well the sleeping through the night will come I know. I just wish it would come sooner. One last thing: why is it when I mention that I'm tired from being up with her that I get this LOOK from other moms and then have to hear a 5 minute story about how their child was 3 before sleeping through the night?! AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGG!!!!! It drives me crazy!!