New Pictures

Check out the cutie on my photography website here.  I met her in Balboa Park while on another shoot. 

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Death and Taxes

I don't like doing taxes.  I made that Jesse's responsibility because I did not understand it.  I am beginning to second guess that decision.  2006: a "retirement" I received was omitted by mistake and the IRS found the mistake in 2008.  The taxes and accrued interest came out to $1300.  OUCH!  2007: Something is not adding up right, according to my business accountant, so we have to go back through the paper work again to see if we can fix it or the IRS might just find the mistake another two years down the road.  2008: Jesse put together all of our W-2's and 1099's and brought them to an accountant for our personal taxes.  I bring the same materials (or so I thought) to my business accountant.  We come to find that my 1099 is missing.  That's $2,800 of money NOT taxed that needs to be.  Does that mean it didn't get to our personal accountant either????  Grrr, the lack of organization skills in my husband drives me up the wall.  I tried not to question his method but now I wonder if he had one to begin with!  

I get what I can straightened out and call him at work.  I leave a message asking about said document and tell him to call me.  That was at noon.  Taxes, to me, says urgent.  It says, call me with an answer ASAP!  I stew and stress all day not hearing from him and not knowing where to look for anything because of his "method".  Finally the phone rings at about 8 pm.  He just starts talking about nothing in particular.  

"Did you get my message?"

"yea"

"Why didn't you call me when you got it?"

"Uhh, you did say to call you right away."

I didn't know I needed to scream over the phone "I'M FREAKING OUT BABE!!  CALL ME, CALL ME NOW!!  ASAP! "  Apparently I do.  

We have a new rule in our house now.  No matter WHAT I say or how calm I sound if it has to do with death or taxes he must call me ASAP.  That's right people, the only two constant things in life death and taxes.  (and a crazy wife) 

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Biker Chick

Here are Jesse and I all decked out in our leathers.  I have to admit, when we first got married and he asked for a bike I said "when pigs fly."  Bacon must be sky high because we have a motorcycle and I LOVE riding with Jesse.  Leathers are 100% necessary in the winter because the wind is so cold.  But don't we look cool?:)

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Photo Promo and New Esty shop

Hey all!  My cousin has set up shop on Esty and has some super cute stuff for sale.  My fav is the 2 in 1 superman cape!  Hmmm, I wonder why.  Here's the shoppe:) Cut.Sew.Repeat.

In the spirit of her entrepreneurship I have decided to do a little promo of my own.  Visit my photography website here and look at my photo of the week slide show.  Tell me your favorite and you could win a free sitting with me.  Who doesn't like free right?  Spread the word to all your friends.  

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I am a training athlete...

I am training for the Solana Beach Triathlon on July 26th.  I will be swimming 1/4 mile, biking 9 miles, and running 3.1 miles. Swimming isn't the hard part.  Biking isn't even that bad but all of you who know me know I'm not a runner.  Whelp, I'm up to two miles pushing 100+ lbs of stroller and kids in front of me so I figure I could go twice the distance without it.  I know, I'm crazy:)  Keep up with me on twitter to see my little successes on my way to becoming a serious competitor.  

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FNAR... for no apparent reason

Last Thursday I was talking to Jesse in the kitchen.  I was laying out our plans for the weekend and suddenly he interupts me and says "Ok, I'm going to tell you something.  Stop making plans because you and I are leaving at 4 pm tomorrow for a weekend."

What pops into my head???  All the reasons I can't go.  I know, way to kill the sweetness of thought right?

"What about the kids?" I ask.

"Your mom is going to watch them.  And before you ask, I talked to your boss and got your Saturday class covered.  We're packing the bags for the motorcycle, getting our leathers on and riding up to Julian tomorrow at four.  So, stop making plans."

Needless to say, I was elated.  I woke up Friday morning waiting for the clock to strike four.  I had plenty of stuff to do in between but I couldn't wait.

We dropped the boys off at my mom's and took off.  I literally threw my arms up and yelped "yahoo!" as we were riding away from the house.  The ride up to Julian started out chilly and turned bitterly cold as we got further up the mountain.  We prepared with layers of clothing, fleece, and leather but the longer on the bike the more the wind whips through your layers and chills you down to the bone.  We were only going thirty miles an hour, thanks to a car in front of us who was slow as poo, and a wicked cross breeze kicked up around 15 minutes into the ride.  By the time we reached our destination we could barley get off the bike and walk.  Picture the scene in Dumb and Dumber when they are riding up the mountain and actually reach Aspen, yea, that's us.  Our getaway was a quaint one bedroom cabin that a friend of ours mother owns.  It had a spacious living room with a pot belly stove.  We got a fire started right away and I went hunting for the hot cocoa.  We sat by the stove with cocoa in hand and felt our fingers and toes slowly come back to life.  As our shivering subsided we decided to go out to dinner rather than make what we brought.  Luckily, town was only three frozen minutes away.  We rode into town and had a FABULOUS italian dinner at Romano's.  Best italian food I have ever tasted!  We took two hours to eat... TWO hours!  When was the last time I took two hours to do anything?!  Jesse and I went back to the cabin, threw on some sweats, pick up a book and read for hours.  Curled up in my over stuffed chair I realized something.

"Jesse," I whispered. "Shh, shh, do you hear that??  Nothing."  That's right.  No kids jabbering or whining.  No neighbors banging around on the ajoining walls.  No machines humming or street noise.  Nothing but sweet silence.  

The next morning we just puttered around, ate breakfast around nine, and rode into town.  I have never been into the mines of Julian so Jesse took me up to tour one.  It was really cool and very informative.  At one point we were way down in the shaft and the guide turned off the lights.  It was the darkest dark I had ever experienced.  I can't imagine how people worked in that.  After that we high tailed it home.  It was sunny and warm so a much more pleasant ride.

My awesome husband did all this for me for no reason other than we needed it and he loves me.  How great is that?!?  Thanks honey, I love you.   

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I'm a teacher

I'm the eleven and twelve year old teacher in my ward now.  My class consists of seven boys and one girl.  What is it inside 11 and 12 year olds that compels them to be SO goofy??  The blatant sarcasm, taking the literal meaning of everything, the "I'm not touching you."  What is it?  I love my class but I look at them and go "Was I ever that rediculous?"  

Answer: Yes, and then some! 

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Recycling... reusing... conserving...

Just a thought:  If I try to conserve water I kill trees.  If I try to recycle I waste water, and if I try to reuse I still create waste and waste water.  This is something I have been thinking about all week. 

 Example #1:  I buy paper plates to conserve water and because I don't like doing dishes.  Paper plates do come from trees but a good percentage on the market are made from recycled paper.  I do buy dixie for special occasions though:)   So we use the paper plates, then throw them away.  Upside, I'm not rinsing dishes and running the dishwasher as much, thus conserving water.  Down side I am adding to the land fills and killing trees.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  Which is better?

 Example #2:  I am trying to recycle all that I can.  Cereal boxes, pasta sauce jars, apple sauce jars, milk jugs etc.  That means I need to rinse out the containers and tin cans BEFORE I recycle them.  Did you know that it is necessary to do so?  Upside, I am doing my part and trying to save the planet one can at a time.  Down side, water is too precious to loose.  Our reservoirs are at 25% capacity right now and we are in our third year of drought.  They are threatening to ration water in SD.  I'm torn.

Example #3: I like to reuse plastic grocery bags for liners in the bathroom trash cans, holding wet clothes, and carrying other items.  What happens after they are reused???  They still wind up in the trash or I try to rinse them an use them again.  Thus, killing the planet or wasting water.  Do you know how long it takes for one of those plastic grocery bags to break down?  It can take hundreds of years for a bag to fully decompose.  See the article here.  I was watching Wall-E with my kids one day.  In the beginning when he is on earth and the wind kicks up you see what almost looks like sea gulls flying and fluttering around.  They aren't sea gulls my friends they are plastic BAGS!  

So what am I to do?  Maybe I shouldn't think so deeply about little things like this.  

 

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