New Year's Eve

Tonight Brian and I are planning on watching the ball drop from our couch in our most comfortable pjs. We also have a tradition of getting a unhealthy amount of fast food and just pigging out as we ring in the New Year. Then at 12:01 we start a diet! Hmmm... I love New Year's Eve.

Brian and I worked a half day (I brought Savannah with me) and then by noon we went to Tri-City park. We had Pepe's for lunch and played on the swings. Savannah loves the swings and kind of cries when we take her off.

Savannah ate dinner before us since we are planning on eating late. I guess the park (or most likely her antibiotics) took a lot out of her- as evident in the video clip.

Wall Street Journal

I was quoted in the Journal on December 28th. The article is called Beyond the Mortgage Payment and is located in the Real Estate section. Here is the link.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624424273068790.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_realestate#articleTabs%3Dcomments

Christmas Part 2

Savannah's first time with pig tails.

Christmas Part 1

This year for Christmas we went to Seattle for 8 days. We rented a car and drove from Seattle over the pass to Ellensburg, Yakima and Leavenworth to visit family and play in the snow. Savannah had a difficult time adjusting to sleeping in a new place, but we quickly learned that on vacation she likes to sleep in between Brian and I (side note: she was able to adjust back to sleeping in a crib very easily when we got home).

Some pictures from Yakima in the SNOW!

Tanner was standing across the street...

Because he had uncles that were trying to tag him with snowballs.

Savannah's first time in the snow!

Home from the Holidays...

We just got home last night. As we were excitedly walking from our garage and rounded the corner to our condo we saw a gangster-looking man with a white shirt, long black shorts, tall white socks and a "13" tattoo on his forehead standing on the wall next to the row of dumpsters. We don't know why he was there or what he was planning on doing. All Brian and I know is that we NEED to move. Period.

I LOVE DECEMBER!

Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love baking, shopping, wrapping, decorating, eating, listening to Christmas music and seeing family.

As our little family is settling into our first Christmas with Savannah we are creating some new traditions. Something we have done in the past that continued this year is having Aron come to visit. He flew in on Saturday and left Sunday (so a pretty short visit) but we had a full agenda. We had a small Christmas party, went to Disneyland, Savannah and I went over to my Aunts house to visit for a little while, then the three adults went out that night. We napped, watched a Christmas movie and ate lots of cookies.

Our trip to Disneyland was very wet. Our friends generously GAVE us tickets to go on Saturday, but it was pouring. As soon as we started driving over the ran stopped. It was perfect at first, but as we made our way over to It's a Small World it starting raining again. Savannah was all bundled up (trying out her new hat and mittens for the snowy weather in Leavenworth for next week) and had rain gear for her stroller. The three of us figured out that our jackets weren't as rain proof as we thought, but Savannah was perfectly dry and EVEN slept!

Here is a picture of our tree. I love decorating. Our tree tends to look the same every year, but we are really adding new decorations to represent things that are going on in our lives (as long as they match the color scheme!).

It's looks so much more beautiful with the lights dimmed, the fireplace on and the red, cream and white pearl lights on the tree. It seems even better with Christmas music and the smell of cookies baking!

Brian was covered in sap. I had him pick up at least 30 trees before I found the one I liked.

This is not the tree we choose- we almost did, but then I saw the picture and we started looking again.

On Friday we are off to Seattle, Leavenworth, Yakima and Ellensburg! Right now I get to do my favorite part of traveling... MAKING A PACKING LIST. I am very particular about making sure everything is packed perfect and that we don't forget anything. I like to be prepared. Everything goes in zip-locks. This year I am even making a zip-lock for each outfit for each day. This is because Savannah clothes are so small everything tends to disappear in the suitcase when you are looking for it.

There is just a bad feeling when you get an envelope in the mail that has a return address from the IRS. I have been filing my own taxes for 6 years with the exception of 1 year! I think it is silly to pay someone to file your taxes when there are such great programs and resources to do it yourself. In 2007 I was just WAY to busy to even utter the words "Itemization". This was when I was finishing my bachelors and just didn't have time. Of course the ONE time we went to H&R Block we WERE AUDITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I immediately pulled out my tax returns for that year and saw the error almost right away. They tax preparer doubled our mortgage interest tax deduction from 14,000 to 28,000! So, we don't have to go through real audit since it was one error, but that error is costing us $2,000 by December 30th. When I called H&R Block and gave them a piece of my mind they said they only pay the penalties and interest, and even then I have to fill out a ton of paperwork. The part that sucks is the penalties and interest is only $164 of the $2,000.

On another thought... I WANT A KINDLE!

So far in the Ph.D. program I have print more than 10 reams of paper for articles that I have to read, highlight and take notes- besides taking down the APA citation for the literature. Plus I have to lug all those thick documents around in heavy bags. The Kindle would solve ALL of these issues. (Brian, hint hint!... my birthday's in February)

"When it rains it Pours"

My boss called me into his office today. He has been on vacation for two weeks. As I walked done the hall to his office I was scanning my brain thinking what went wrong that I overlooked while he was gone? There is so much to do when my boss comes back from a long trip. He usually has a laundry list of items that I have to take care of as well as pointing out things that went wrong while he was away. When I sat down he handed me some paperwork and I looked more closely and YES! I got another grant. This time it was for 20,000. Everything seems so small compared to the B of A 200,000, but it is still a BIG deal. My boss was so happy on his first day back, and so was I- this is a statement I have never said in the last four years at CCCS.

When I was walking out of his office he said, "Well, when it rains it pours." Isn't that a phase used to describe a series of negative events? Oh, well. I'm just happy I have another grant to put on my CV and I can actually hire another part-time educator.