Tax Woes and Miscellaneous Pictures

Again, I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted. It has been a crazy time for us between tests, relaxing, weird work schedules, and trying to get the taxes done.

TAXES--Now that is an interesting story. I set a goal for myself at the beginning of the year that I would have our taxes done by February 28th. I was proud of myself as I walked away from Shannon and Michael's Turbo Tax at 10:00 on the 27th with taxes in hand and the promise of a pretty good tax return. But then we realized we had deducted too much for charitable donations, so I was back a few days later to remedy the problem. A few days later, I took them to school to get them mailed out (I don't get things like that done at home--don't ask) and realized that I needed Pret's signature. So back they went to home and it took a few days before Pret and I had coordinating schedules to get them signed. We also sat down and planned all the great things we would do with the return--we were pretty excited to have a little bit of "free" money to spend.

Again, I brought the papers back to school but as I went to put them in the envelope, I noticed the line that reminded me to include the W-4 forms, which I hadn't--they were with all the extra copies and papers I had used to do the taxes. So back they went again. I got the W-4's and put them on the counter, but forgot them there for a few days.

Finally I had everything together on Tuesday, ready to go in the mail. As I was putting the state forms in the envelope, I noticed that there was a retirement benefits page. I looked carefully and saw that Pret was over the age of 65. I knew that wasn't right, so I looked closely and it had his birth year as 1892 instead of 1982!! WHOOPS!! I caught that the first time I did them, but when I went back and made the changes, it must not have saved with all the new information. As I told my co-worker, Anne, she got the biggest kick out of the fact that I was romping around with a 117 year-old man!!

Back to Turbo Tax I went and got things all straightened out only to find that our return was cut almost in half! :-( We are pretty bummed and have to now re-budget our free spending. At least we still didn't have to pay... So I got them in the envelopes, sealed and in the mailbox yesterday. Today when I went to gather things up, I saw the W-4's still sitting in my bag. So I had to run out, grab them, break the seal, put them in, tape/re-lick the envelopes (yes I was too cheap and lazy to just get new envelopes and stamps), and finally take them to the post office ready to go. If something else goes wrong with them, I will scream!!

Here are some pictures of my cute nieces and nephews--Lauren, Matthew, Susan and Tyler (Melanie and Alan's kids). Enjoy!!

He did it again!

Pret just got a 94 on his test today! Way to go Pret!

Natural Birth Control and Its Antidotes

Just to start off, the last week and a half have been much more calm and accident-free, so we are happy. We are submitting a claim to have the car fixed, so I will be driving a rental for a few days--I am excited! Unfortunately, as detailed as these stories are, I don't have any pictures to go with them--sorry!

Last week, though, I babysat for a couple in our ward. They have a 3-year old boy, Mason, who is full of energy and lots of fun, and Anna, a little girl who just turned 1. A disclaimer about the following story: Anna is really a cute girl and is normally not a problem.... This was the first time for me to babysit them, so I was still getting to know the kids and the way things work around their house. We ate dinner and then played for a little while when Pret came over to hang out with us before leaving to do a few other things. At 8, I started getting them ready for bed. The parents mentioned Anna would take a bottle for a bit, go to sleep for about 45 minutes and then wake back up, but i was to just give her the bottle and she should be fine. So I got Anna to sleep while Mason cried for his mom (he hadn't had a nap, so I figured he might be a bit harder to deal with.) Finally I got Mason to sleep with relatively no trouble once the crying stopped.

I checked on Anna before going out to the living room to read the book I had brought. I had read about 4 pages before I heard her crying. I figured I would be able to rock her with her bottle for a few minutes and quickly return. But alas, things didn't go quite as planned... I tried to give her the bottle, but she pushed it away (I had no idea 1-year-olds had such a mind of their own!), I tried singing songs, but she cried through me, we tried looking at the family picture, but all she would say is, "Mamamamamama..." After about an hour, I remembered what worked for my neice, Lauren, at this age and whipped out my cell phone for her to play with. That pacified her a little, but she still whimpered a little. I tried taking her back into her room and pulled some toys off the shelf, but she wasn't too interested in those. The books, on the other hand, were a sucess! That is the only way that we made it through the last 30 minutes (after her parents were about 15 minutes later than planned.) I don't think I have seen a child as excited as she was as she heard the garage door open which meant salvation!

Needless to say, I went home and crashed, so much so that I could barely mumble a hello to Pret when he got home about 15 minutes later. There goes my story of the best NATURAL BIRTH CONTROL (NBC) EVER! Pret and I definitely are not ready for kids, at least not when I have to be up at 6:30 the next morning. Pret did save me, though, as I left the kitchen a disaster when I left for the babysitting appointment as I had to drop off dinner to my visiting teachee who had just had a baby, but when I came home it looked fabulous!!

The baby mentioned in the previous sentence and the one that we got to visit last night (along with many others we have encountered recently, to make sure that we are not offending any of our other friends with children...) luckily are the antidotes to the NBC! One of Pret's mission companions is married and has a little boy about 9 months old. We ate dinner with them last night and he is a doll! He was falling asleep while eating dinner and Pret would not stop laughing at him. I already feel sorry for our kids! He has also recently discovered his tongue, so he was blowing raspberries the whole night. He loves being kissed on the neck, so I had fun necking with a 9-month-old!

Anyway, Pret and I were again discussing last night that we are not ready for kids. We are still trying to figure out what we are doing with our own lives, let alone adding another life to the mix!

CRUNCH! and stitches!

**Warning--Nasty pictures below!!**

Read the title and you will have a summary of last week for Pret and me. It was a crazy week and we are glad we have moved on to a different one that has things looking a little better for us.

Last week Pret was stressing about whether to try to take a test on Friday, but in the end decided to wait and study over this week, which is his spring break, and take it instead next Monday. Then, I was stressing because it was parent-teacher conferences and report cards were due and we were really not ready for them. We both had our own agendas and they didn't go together very well, so we really didn't get to spend any time with each other until after 10 p.m. on Thursday.

Ok, now that you are bored of reading without any of the good stuff, I will proceed to explain the title. I managed to make it almost 7 years without an accident. Those of you who have never gotten in one, count yourselves lucky and get knocking on some wood! Thursday morning on my way to work, I was noticing a house that was for sale and wanted to take a closer look. Traffic was already slow as there was a stalled car up ahead of us. As I was trying to examine the backyard of the home through a fence, I noticed that the car in front of me was moving forward. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that it stopped VERY soon after--hence the CRUNCH! (I have determined that the only time "crunch" has a good sound is when you are eating a Nestle Crunch bar (and that's only when you like them, which I don't) or crunchy caramel popcorn (which I really like!) or playing in fallen leaves. Any other time, it usually means something is getting smushed or broken: glasses, toys, important papers, etc.) The two funny things are 1) I hit a newly restored 1967 Mustang with duel exhaust pipes, so it did minimal damage to his car (just a new $100 bumper) and 2) I was literally a block and a half from my house. Pret was really nice about it and we are now trying to decide what to do with our car. It is perfectly drivable, so it just depends on what we want to do about insurance.

Next, Pret's stitches. We volunteered to help out our old singles' ward with a "Mystery Dinner Cruise" on Saturday night. It was held at the Jordan Institute building where we attended church and other activities for over two years. Pret went to go talk to someone out in the hall, but as he opened the door, he noticed it was dark. Thinking he knew the way, he ventured out, mis-stepped, and was seeing stars. He immediately realized he had cut his chin and would need stitches.
Luckily, we were literally across the street from the hospital, so we were there in minutes and had no waiting time before he was admitted. The whole process took about 2 hours and ended with Pret receiving 5 stiches in his chin. He is still swollen and in some pain (the worst being when we make him laugh!!), but luckily as mentioned before, he is on spring break and was called off of work this morning, so he is getting some good rest.

Oh yeah, and I got my ring back, but it was all wrong, so we are waiting, yet again, to have everything just right on my wedding ring. I feel so naked!!

Thus ends our tragic week. Hopefully this week will result in a more positive post.

Pret's Quiz

Here is the quiz about Pret. We both got 100%, so I guess that means it is ok. Good luck!

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/quizpage.php?quizname=070301172843-923131&

A Quiz About Megan

So I am bored at work and don't really feel like going to do anything that I should be doing, so I thought I would make-up this little quiz about myself. Some of them are pretty easy, especially if you have been reading this blog. I will try to get one up about Pret, too, but I wanted to do this for now.

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/quizpage.php?quizname=070301171639-136303&