a little tax check-up

I'm not an accountant, but I'm a total math nerd and secretly love doing our taxes each year. I'm so much of a nerd that even though I do our taxes using H&R Block Tax Cut, I still do a pencil/paper version on the side to make sure my calculations would have been accurate if I'd done them myself.

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Since we aren't students anymore and have a real job and it seemed we were paying Uncle Sam a load of taxes, I thought I'd check into it and see if Matt's claiming enough withholding on his paychecks.

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I found this great withholding calculator on the IRS website. It takes into consideration your projected income for the year, you current year-to-date tax withholdings, and asks a few other simple tax questions. Then it magically estimates what your 2007 tax return would be and gives you a suggested number of allowances you should be withholding on your paychecks. It took me less than ten minutes to do.

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I laughed right outloud and nearly fell off my chair when I read my results.

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Matt should resubmit his W-4 form and change his claim from 5 alllowances to 39 allowances.

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You're welcome, Uncle Sam, for the heftly, interest-free loan we have given you these last three months. It will end now. And I'll be filing for that tax return on February 1st.

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Maybe I should start using an accountant. Here's the link again, in case you are as clueless as us and want to give your own taxes a little check-up:

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withholding calculator

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why I love fridays

Well, I don't really know how to come off that last post. I received more comments on that one than any other (thank you, by the way) that maybe I should only tell you about my bad days. I will strive to have a better emotional balance in my blog, right after this one.

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I apologize for jumping right back in to the happy, rosy stuff but I really want to tell you about my fabulous Fridays. This is one beautiful aspect of my life I have not yet bragged about. And it is brag worthy.

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Matt gets every other Friday off. The Fridays he works, he's home no later than 4 pm. It's really, really beautiful. His work is a short 5 minute bike ride from our house. Since we're pretty certain we will never has such ideal circumstances, we're living it up while we can.

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Today, we picked Garrett up from Kindergarten and headed into San Francisco for a little picnic in Alamo Square. Garrett summed it up perfectly for us when Matt announced our plans to him,

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"Oh GREAT! We haven't taken a trip in a long time!"

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It's true. Since our trip to Boston in May, we have only gone to Redlands twice, Idaho and Utah. I love it that they're growing accustomed to many family trips!

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Get used to it kids!

Postcard Row in Alamo Square

(Is anyone hearing the "Full House" theme song in their head?)

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We drove through Golden Gate Park and along the coast for a little while. We would have had a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge if it weren't for the thick fog rolling in at an incredible rate. It was really cool to see it come in over the water and cover the city in a matter if minutes. It looked like special effects from a horror movie. I should have taken a picture.

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I did get these at the beach though:

This is going to be a good weekend.

if you only knew...

I have been wrongfully accused of being a supermom (in one way or another). These accusations have derived from my blog and I'd like to set the record straight. I apparently (and unintentionally) tend to highlight only the good aspects of my life. For those of you who have been deceived, this one's for you.

Yesterday I:

-woke up way too early with kids who went to bed way too late.

-ignored my kids while I read blogs.

-found Lydia standing on the kitchen table on 4 different occasions.

-yelled at Ethan for pooping (pardon the verbiage) on the living room floor (I know, I know, an absolutely "no no" in potty-training, but I'm at the end of my rapidly fraying rope. Movie Buffs: name the movie that's from.)

-yelled at Lydia for playing in the poop on the living room floor.

-yelled at Garrett for yelling at me to stop yelling at the other two.

-slammed my purse down in a fit of rage (not about the poop, though) and consequently broke my cell phone.

-left my husband at home to cook spaghetti for dinner (again) while I went to a baby shower.

-ran a red light.

-accidentally cut someone off in the parking lot and got yelled at.

-stifled a sob and had to repeat my response to the sweet old lady of a cashier at Target when she greeted me and asked how my day was going.

-high tailed it out of Target before anyone could see me crying and forgot to get cash for the baby shower restaurant.

-planned to go to bed early, went grocery shopping instead, got home late, couldn't sleep (probably a combination of being so emotionally worked up all day and worrying, because I always worry) and finally dozed off 30 minutes after taking a dose of Unisom.

Don't worry. I'm doing much better today.

Except for the lack of a cell phone.

my little schoolboy

It's official. I have a kindergartener. .

He couldn't be more excited.

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I couldn't be either. We need a little more structure around here.

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I didn't cry. I always thought I would. Should I feel guilty about that?

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Maybe it was because today was the first day and they only stayed for 90 minutes, 30 of which I was with him. I spent the remaining hour in parent orientation.

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We'll see how I do tomorrow.

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I'm not the least bit worried about how Garrett will do.

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Today was the best day of his life.

Today

Dear Blog,

Happy Birthday.

Love,

Me

Reunions

August was family reunion month. We just got back from a little Glauser reunion as we all (minus Jeremy on his mission) gathered in Redlands for Nathan's Eagle Court of Honor this weekend:

And here is the official family photo from our Lehnhof Reunion in Island Park, Idaho earlier this month:

We had so much fun at both. As Garrett said to Stevie at their parting in Island Park,

"See you in 2 years!"

(but hopefully a lot sooner)

under construction

I need a new look. We'll see how this turns out...

maybe I'll take up babysitting...

...but not like day-care in my home.

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I mean babysitting like I used to do when I was a teenager: make some mac & cheese, play a little Chutes and Ladders, put kids to bed, clean up the house, watch a movie until the parents get home and get paid $2.00 an hour for it.

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Only now those girls are making $15 an hour around here. I thought I was paying a lot when I paid $8/hr in NJ. Anyway, sign me up. I'd give up 3 hours of my evening at someone else's house with someone else kids for $50. Well no, on second thought, I probably wouldn't. Just like I probably won't be paying for much babysitting of my own very often.

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We're going to visit grandparents and uncles this weekend. Maybe we can get a little better rate.

move over and make room for Marty

I got our Limeliters CD in the mail yesterday. To say that Ethan loves music would be an understatement. He's very passionate about his music and the Limeliters top the charts by his calculations.

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Now, unless you grew up in the same house I did, you will likely not fully appreciate this post.

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We've been listening to the same old tape us Lehnhof kids grew up listening to, and it's already poor quality has dramatically diminished over the years. Despite it's poor quality, my kids love it (particularly Ethan) and I can't listen to it without being reminded of my dad, who too loved the limeliters.

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I've spent a good part of the last several months of my life rewinding the tape, then forwarding, then rewinding again to try and find the beginning of Ethan's various favorites on the tape.

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Buying the CD on Ebay was the best $17.99 I've spent in a long time. He's been listening to it quite literally non-stop since it arrived. I can set it on repeat and am free to carry on with my other responsibilities. He carries the picture from the CD around, asking if we can go to it.

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I'm not sure the limeliters are even alive anymore, but if anyone hears of a concert they might be having, let me know.

It's August

It's August and we're back. We had a great vacation in Idaho and Utah. We had a good time, and it's nice to be home again. I especially love being back to our Bay Area Weather.

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The high yesterday was 66 degrees.

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Today it's supposed to reach 71, ant it'll be up to the low 80s by the weekend.

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It's August.

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Beautiful.

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Pictures from the reunion will have to come later- we probably have over 500 between all of us and I don't have them all nor have I sorted through the ones I do have. In the meantime, I do have these to share:

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Our first stop in Utah was Cafe Rio for lunch with Marci's family. It was just as delicious as we remembered and the kids were happy to get out of the van. They had a fun time with their friends and just picked up on right where they left off a year ago!

After the LFR, we had a small New Jersey Reunion. Our friends, the Cannons, are living in their cabin in Island Park right now, so we met them and our friend, Dori, there. We miss them all and had such a fun couple of days with them!

We made a stop at BYU so we could go bowling, eat in the Cougar Eat (which ended up being closed) and buy some new BYU t-shirts. I love going back. It always remind me of when my mom and dad would take us back to BYU when we were little. Garrett likes to hear stories about when he went to class with me once or twice when he was a baby, or how we'd meet Matt on campus and eat bagels.

And just before we returned, we helped Grandma Payne celebrate her 90th Birthday!

It was fun to see so many cousins and relatives from the Payne family!