March Update in June :)

We have still been busy working on the house; unfortunately it has been slow going.

Funds have been tight which has brought the project to almost a complete stop. Tyler has been out of work since right around Christmas time. We expected a slow down because it always does that time of year, but because of the economy it hasn’t come back. Usually Tyler’s short on work for a couple of weeks at most, but this year he gets in a couple of hours every couple of weeks if he is lucky. On the bright side Janis has lots of honey dos and brings home projects for Tyler to work on. He recently has become a Jack-of-all-Trades.

He has been working on anything from cars & trucks to putting up insulation in Janis & Steve’s garage rafters. We are also finally coming out of the shock/depression of Tyler being out of work so long and working on the house with things we have on hand.

Tonight as I type this up Tyler is sanding and mudding the dining room. A couple of weeks ago he put up a dividing wall between the dining and living room. This will give each room more definition and hopefully make it easier to arrange furniture. Tyler also tired of hearing me complain about not having a functioning kitchen and having no money to go out every night for dinner has built me more temporary counter tops. I even have 1 shelf to help store pots and pans.

New Wall Going Up

Tyler also got the dishwasher up and running. So far I love it. It is super quite does a good job of cleaning and looks pretty. J A feature I am excited about is that the buttons are up on the top of the door instead of the front of the door. This will help keep future little hands from pushing random buttons. To turn the dishwasher on you have to open the door, push the buttons and then close the door. That is all that has been going on with the house recently.

While Tyler has been busy with honey dos I have been busy working at an accountant/financial planners’ office, so have been busy with the tax season. Accounting seems to be the one area that hasn’t been impacted negatively by the economy. Most everyone needs taxes done, and with all the lay-offs and stock market’s downward slide they have taken money from their retirement plans. Of course even if these people have had 10% withheld from the early withdraws they are still getting hit with owing the government. Many people who normally don’t use an accountant have come to us in hopes of us finding tax breaks they didn’t realize they qualified for, and also a chance to get the stimulus check, that the government isn’t issuing.

It also has surprised me at the number of people who have come in thinking they are getting another stimulus check, because the stimulus bill was passed. This bill has nothing to do with handing out free money to the public and those in need, but helping line the pockets of the politicians and their friends. So far their will not be any checks issued to the general public. We may see fewer taxes withheld from our paychecks though, as long as you’re a W-2 wage earner.

It also surprises me that the government isn’t doing more to help small business and entrepreneurs, seeing as how so many have been laid off and will try to start a new business. Self employed already pay a disproportionate amount in taxes as punishment for pursuing the American dream. Anyway, I am rambling now, so let’s move to more pleasant areas of conversation.

Working in an accountant’s office reminds me of a hurricane. At the beginning of the season you get people rushing in to have their taxes done because they know they are getting a refund and need the money. Then there is the “eye of the storm” a couple of weeks that we don’t have back to back appointments. And now the storm is starting again. All the people that are dragging their feet because they know they owe.

We only have 27 more days until April 15th.

Other Activities

A couple of weekends ago Janis took Tyler, Josh, and me up to Bogus skiing. It was Josh’s first time and more-or-less mine too. Josh, I am ashamed to say, did much better then I did. I fell more then I skied. But we had fun, and I ended up with some pretty cool bruises.

Josh and I went down the bunny hill quite a few times, and then I went on the coach lift once I figured out the basics. I went down to the right a few times, and then it started getting crowded with kids. Being as I am not able to stop on demand, unless I throw myself to the ground I opted to take the harder “evil” route to the left. I never did make it down that side without falling most of the way down.

Josh after a few more rounds on the bunny hill decided to try the coach lift too. He took the slope to the right, let go of Mema on accident and “snowplowed” all the way down, while doing the “airplane.” The “airplane” is sticking your arms/elbows out and turn like an airplane. Tyler says it looks like he is doing “the funky chicken” all the way down the slope. After that he was doing it all on his own the rest of the afternoon.

After the crowds had cleared a little I tried the slope to the right of the coach lift, and was able to make it down without falling until Janis asked me how I was doing. I then promptly took her down with me. I think that is the first time she has fallen on the coach lift slopes in a long, long time.

We skied from about 11:30 am to 5:30 pm with a short lunch break in between. As we were leaving Josh was begging to come back tomorrow, next weekend, and the weekend after that. He also asked if we could do it this summer.
My ski injury (Isn't it lovely)

Last Friday Josh went up with Mema and Dawn to Bogus. I am told he had a good time and did well.

Anyhow that’s all I can think of right now, pretty boring I know. We live such exciting lives, now you know why I only blog a couple of times a year.