Something about Wednesdays

Our youngest daughter, who is almost 2 and a half, has always been a great sleeper. I sincerely hope that she will be one of those children who takes a nap up until the time they start Kindergarten (I would not know anything about such children since my oldest stopped napping at 22 months - but I've been told that they exist). Several months ago she stopped napping for several days. I was bracing myself, thinking that she was giving up her nap. However, suddenly and inexplicably, she started napping again regularly after about ten days. So when she stopped napping last week I began to wonder if this was another "episode" or if she was actually giving it up this time. She stopped napping last Monday (2/11) and has not had a good one since, except for Wednesdays. It is the strangest thing because that is the night when we usually go to church for dinner and New Community. It is the one night that we keep them up late so if she doesn't nap it becomes unbearable. It's like she knows that she needs to take a nap those days or we will be stuck at home. So thanks Raquel for taking a nap on Wednesdays so that mommy can go to church. I appreciate it! Now if we could just go back to napping everyday...

Life after Death (and Taxes)

(For those of you out there who are Relient K fans, yes I am aware that I stole the title for this post)

Well, as you can guess I finished the taxes. What an absolute pain. I know that I should not complain since we are getting money back, but you would think that the government would make it a little easier. I even used H&R Block Taxcut (I've got people, apparently). But the tax software doesn't actually help me determine when we stopped being Michigan residents and became Ohio residents. It was a very ambiguous experience. Anyway I think I figured out the dates that were both accurate and got us the most money back. At one point I just sat at the computer and cried. We probably should have broken down and paid an actual person, but I've always done my own taxes and it is something in which I take a lot of pride. Since I don't bring home a paycheck, it is nice for me to be able to say that I got my family some money! Next year should be a lot easier since we will have lived in the same place the entire year. Yippee! I must say however that Ohio has the coolest tax filing system. They let you do your taxes online through an interview process and then you can submit them online for FREE! Take that H&R Block! They even let me file them online with a part-year resident status. Taxcut said that I couldn't do that. Score one for the Buckeyes!

A Foray Into the Known

I've finally gotten around to making my own blog. Aren't you so proud of me? It has been a long time coming. I have my own Facebook page and my own photo website (smugmug.com - it rocks), but for some reason I haven't made the time to jump on the blogging bandwagon. My sister and a bunch of my friends have them and I've heard it's very cathartic. So here we go..

It has been a long day (aren't they all) and I decided that I deserved some computer time this evening. We had our friends Matt and Abby and their daughter Claire over for dinner this evening. It was a really fun time. We are really enjoying getting to know the people in our ABF better. It is so nice to be able to swap stories with others in the same stage of life. We ended up spending the majority of the time talking about Facebook and how cool we think it is. What a bunch of dorks we are! Earlier today I cleaned the entire house. I told James that we should have people over at least once every two weeks so that I have motivation to clean the house. I also did all the laundry. Then, of course, Raquel decided not to take a nap and had a leaky diaper all over her freshly changed sheets. It never fails! Oh the things we do for our children!

Anyway, it feels good to have gotten so much accomplished today. Maybe tomorrow I will finish the taxes. It looks like we are going to get money back so I guess I should be looking forward to it. Well, I think I am just rambling now so I will sign off. See you soon...