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Monday, March 28, 2005

R.I.P. 

Today we mourn the passing of Belle Gutleben. Belle's life was short but well lived. She enjoyed sunflower seeds, carrots and running in her wheel at two in the morning. She is survived by nine loving children and her lifemate Cinderella. Sometime early in the morning of March 28th 2005 she fell to her death in a glass of water while attempting to rescue one of her offspring who had escaped from the cage. She will be greatly missed.

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Sunday, March 27, 2005

The Longest Weekend Ever. 

Yesterday I helped Dawn and Keith move to the West side. We left the house right around 8 am with the optimistic goal of reaching Bothell by noon. Not entirely unrealistic. We stopped at McDonalds on the way out of town which didn't slow us down too much. Still a very good chance of making it to the lease signing on time.

I confess I stopped in Elensburg to pee. It's tradition! But all I did was pee, buy a pack of gum and make a quick phone call to Keith in the moving van.

The pass was Snowy and slick. We went on average about 10 miles an hour the whole way. After that the rest was a breeze. We got to the apartment about 2:30. The apartment manager was out we waited around until 3:00. The lease signing took 45 minutes!! She actually read the lease out loud to them WORD FOR WORD including the addendum while David, Keith's sister and I died of starvation in the next room!

We finally got the keys to the apartment. But they were the wrong keys!! We got settled with the right keys and were finally able to open the doors and get in out of the RAIN at about 4pm. But only briefly as it was starting to get late by then and we needed to get the truck unpacked.

As luck (haha) would have it the apartment in question was on the backside of the building. So we had to hike around the building with every box in the rain!

We were all sore, tired, road weary and starving! We called Amy and Jim Lawler and the promised to come and help and bring Pizza! So with renewed hope we continued. When they arrived with three TAKE 'N BAKE pizzas I almost cried. I ran in and turned on the oven. About 20 minutes later we were finally EATING!! We were also able to locate a dolly and hand truck! Hooray! I think we were done unpacking the truck at about 9:30.

I fell quickly asleep in Dave's bed.

This morning I went out to breakfast with Leanne. I was nine minutes late getting back to the apartment but I still take no blame at all for the following disaster.

We left Bothell at about 11 am. We were supposed to meet Keith's dad at his cabin which is about 30 minutes outside of Yakima. The idea was that this was somewhere near 'half way' and would make it easier for Keith to get home and get stuff ready for his first day of work tomorrow. The reality was that this 'half way' cabin was on highway 12 and no one but Tanya realized that highway 12 is WAY FAR AWAY from Seattle! We figured we would arrive at the cabin between 1 and 2. Instead I think it was closer to 4! Again we were starving because we hadn't stopped for lunch. Keith's dad wasn't even ready to go and said he would be another hour or so. Since Keith was taking I-90 back to Seattle and needed to get to Yakima to do that we went ahead to Miner Burger and had a LATE lunch. After eating we waited there for Keith's dad who gave Tanya and I a ride the rest of the way home. I walked in my door just as my clock chimed 7.

That was an 8 hour drive form Seattle! And I thought the trip up took forever! LOL

All in all though it wasn't horrible. The worst part is that Dawn and Keith are so damn far away now! : (

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Thursday, March 24, 2005

Hottie From the Past 

This year marks the tenth year I have been out of Highschool. What that means is that it's come down to big decision time. To go to the reunion or not. I'll probably go. I'm not sure why, as I didn't like most of them ten years ago and can't imagine I will like them much more now. But there's part of me that wants to go. And it IS local. And my husband is willing, actually eager, which is odd since he never seems to want to do stuff like this.

My class has a website set up where we can get in contact with each other. It's interesting to look and see who's married and who's not bothered to let themselves be found. I happened upon Mike.

For those of you who don't know. Mike was the ~love of my life~. We had an amazing friendship. Best friends! We spent so much time together it was crazy! We understood each other in ways that only best friends can. He was perfect. His only fault was his FLAMING HOMOSEXUALITY! I knew. I would have had to have been deaf, dumb, blind and STUPID to not know. Everyone knew! Of course this barely phased me because I was in love with him.

Not everyone was so enamored with Mike. Most of my close girl friends disliked him intensely. Leanne and Dawn to name a few. Mention Mike to either of them now and they are likely to roll their eyes and groan.

Looking back years later it's easy to see how unhealthy my fixation on him was. Unhealthy for everyone involved. But at the time, a time of RAGING adolescent hormones and religion inflicted shame over them. Well, at the time it all made perfect sense.

Mike and I started to drift apart in college. Slowly at first and then all of the sudden we were in different classes entirely. I met Gordon and started having real sex (which, I admit was not nearly as good as all those years of fantasy sex!). Before long Mike and I were barely even acquaintances. The I was getting married. And he sang at my wedding and I swear to God he dropped off of the planet after that. I'd still hear about him here or there but pretty much he was gone.

One day when Kathrynn was a baby I walked by his parents house and his dad was outside. He told Me that Mike had gone to Atlanta to live with his cousin. I got in contact with him a bit and when I was pregnant with Aiden Mike was in town and we got together for lunch. It was awkward and weird. We had both changed a lot in different ways. I think we exchanged two emails after that and then he was gone again.

I didn't really expect to see his profile on the class website. I figured him for one who 'got out' of the Tri-Cities never to return or have voluntary contact with it again. But there he was. And this is the point of my whole post. There was Mike in his Yahoo profile. Gay as ever. Grown up and happily doing his thing and... FUCKING HOT!!

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Sunday, March 20, 2005

IRS 

I got a letter from the IRS yesterday. Scary when that happens. But surprisingly the letter said (paraphrasing here)

"In looking at your taxes and the pitiful amount of money your family earned last year it has come to our attention that you screwed up and we might owe you more money than you asked for. So we're sending you this worksheet, which you must have overlooked, so we can send you more money."

I know the IRS is trying to repair it's bad guy image but I was shocked. Well shocked and a little skeptical because I did my taxes and quadruple checked them for errors. I assumed they were wrong. Shawn was sure they were just stalling because they want to keep our $3000 in THEIR interest bearing account as long as possible. (lol)

But I did their little Additional Child Tax Credit form. And just as I suspected we didn't qualify. In reviewing the forms though I found an error. A rather large error it seemed! On my taxes I put a $2000 child tax credit where I discovered it should have only been $353! Yikes. Then I realized that it was all a trap. They thought I had cheated on my taxes and this was their way of verifying that I was a crook!

If I adjusted that line on my taxes and made it correct then we DID in fact qualify for the Additional Child Tax Credit of $800+. So I was at a loss what to do. I showed Shawn the predicament and asked for his advice. He said to go ahead and do the form correctly and send it in and let them sort out the mess. I figured if I did that I should send in a little note explaining myself. Maybe they would be nice.

So I did the form and then went back and re-did my taxes from line 33 down just to see what our new return might be. But what I found was that the line where I made my big $1647 mistake was erroneous. It cancels itself out by being less than $2000
a couple lines later anyway!

So, the good news is that we will be getting an additional $800 in our tax return (well $400 since half goes to Amy). The bad news though is it could delay our return for up to 8 more weeks! This after already having waited almost two months!

Someday I will get smart (and have money) and get someone else to do my taxes!

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Thursday, March 17, 2005

Denial 

I'm trying to remain in denial about the fact that Dawn is leaving me to go to Seattle for her stupid husband and his stupid job (no offense Keith). It's not really working though, because she's still leaving. *sniff*

I should be really, really happy for her. But mostly I'm just really, really sad for me! And really, really jealous.

Not only am I losing another dear friend to Seattle, but I'm not moving there myself. Which is sort of like not letting me have my cake, not letting me eat it and then crapping right on top of it. :(

I know, I know I could go to Seattle. But that is a completely unreachable goal in my current married state. Shawn is convinced that Seattle is occupied entirely by liberal, radical, communists. He will NEVER move there. He says he doesn't even like going there.

It was more fun to wallow in the self-pity-of-not-getting-to-go-to-Seattle WITH Dawn. Now she's leaving and I have to deal with the fact that I'm never ever getting out of this hell hole of a town all by myself!

*sniff*

I am happy for her. That she got out. But it's a bitter-sweet happy that makes me a little nauseous.

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Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Jury Duty: Conclusion. 

Monday morning I had Jury Duty. I showed up promptly at 8am. We went through a line where our barcodes were scanned and we had to give them our one way mileage from home. Then we sat and waited for everyone to come in. Finally a deputy came and spoke to us. He explained things and asked if there were any questions. An older man on the other side of the room raised his hand to say that he didn't know the laws and didn't feel he was qualified to bring justice in a court case. :)

Then they split us into two groups since they had two cases to try. He explained that one group would be a 'pick-and-send' and the other a 'pick-and try'. I was in the pick-and-try group. What that meant was that we would be asked questions by the lawyers and a jury would be chosen from our group. Then the trial would start immediately. He said to report back at the courthouse at 1:00. It was only 9:00!! I had 4 hours to kill and no car! The other group was to stay, answer questions and choose a jury, then they would be sent home and called back later in the week for the trial.

So, with 4 hours to spend doing nothing I walked over to Craft Warehouse. *sigh* there's a reason I never go there anymore. Too many fun ideas, not enough money. I spent almost two hours in there! I came out with some charcoal sticks for Aiden and some glow in the dark Fimo for Kathrynn. With still more time to kill, I went to Hancock. Same problem. Then I called my husband and met him for Lunch at the Burger King right there. I hate that Burger King. Everytime I eat there it sucks! I guess at least they are consistent.

When we all returned to the jury room and signed in the Deputy came back in. He thanked us all for returning. Then ho told us we had all done our jobs so well that we scared the defendant and he plead guilty so there wouldn't be a trial.

That's that. I still have to call in the next two Fridays as a technicality but he said that the odds of them going through the whole jury pool for this month are slim to none. So I'm off that hook for at least the rest of the fiscal year! LOL

Painless.

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Saturday, March 12, 2005

Adventures of the Day. 

Friday I only worked a half day so the kids and I went walking again. We were headed to The Dollar Store for lightbulbs and then to the park. We passed the cemetery on the way. Kathrynn asked about it. What all the stones were for and why they buried dead people there. We ended up going in and reading a bunch of the stones which was interesting.

As a child I passed that cemetery often. We would walk up to the place where it started and RUN as fast as we could to the other side or we would cross the street to avoid walking right in front of it. I'm not exactly sure what we were afraid of. But the place always creeped me out. I remember when I was about 12 my good friend ran in and touched the back fence. I was impressed.

But yesterday the kids and I went in. We read stones, talked about the flowers and things left on the graves, compared dates and talked a LOT. Kathrynn was very interested in the stones that belonged to children and babies. One in particular, surrounded by Easter decorations and flowers belonged to Baby Doe - found in the Richland landfill in the 80's I think. I was most interested in the ones that had birthdates before the turn of the century.

We found a few where one half of a married couple was still living but had their names on the stone. We saw the oldest grave in the cemetery (it had a plaque) right near the center. The most recent one we saw was from last December.

I had always assumed that that cemetery was full. Everyone I ever knew who got buried got buried in the other one off the bypass. I guess there are still empty spots in this one but they are all sold (according to my sister).

As we were leaving I told Kathrynn that I used to be afraid of that cemetery. She thought that was strange. She also made me promise to take her to the other cemetery where her cousin is buried.

We did eventually make it to the Dollar Store. And the park. We met a lady there with 3 year old twins who homeschools. We went to school together but I don't remember her at all. Her husband went to Hanford and his name sounds really familiar but I can't place him. LOL Man, I'm getting old.

She was nice but she uses Abeka (with 3 year olds!) and I felt a little awkward trying to explain unschooling to her. My sister was also there with her anti-homeschooling sentiments so that made it even harder.

All in all it was a good adventure.

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Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Procrastination: A Sport All It's Own. 

I keep meaning to blog. I even get on here and get into blogger but then I can never seem to get started. Even with something in mind to blog about I can't seem to make myself do it.

So this will be a conglomeration of thoughts (again, I seem to have done this just 2 short posts ago, hmmm).

Currently the kids are in the bathtub wearing bathing suits seeing how many air filled 'water balloons' they need to shove into their suit to float. Kathrynn is up to 11. And she's floating. LOL Aiden insisted on wearing a 'girl bathing suit' because he wanted to look like a bee. Yes, it has stripes. It makes me wonder what sort of comments I would get if he were to wear that suit to a public pool. Hmmm.

Today while walking home from work I saw a young lady trying to singlehandedly push start her car. She was doing an admirable job but it was clearly not going to work. I helped her and we got it started and she gave me a ride home. Swell, how that worked out.

Yesterday I spent a chunk of time calling people we owe money too. We're currently behind on ALL of our bills and we have 3 separate medical bills in various stages of collections from Shawn's surgery. I've been pretty much ignoring them because we didn't have money to pay them. This is NEVER the best course of action. Now I feel more overwhelmed than before. But they do have to be paid.

Last week we got a notice in the mail from the Washington State child support people that they were going to start garnishing Shawn's wages. We expected that so it was no big surprise. The big surprise was that they were going to be collecting the $305 a month order plus $500 a month for the back support for a totally of $805 a month!! Shawn was on the verge of killing everyone it seemed. I was sure if left to his own devices he would do something phenomenally stupid. Monday I called our support enforcement officer Doug. Doug I have to say is the most humane case worker I have ever met in any social service agency EVER!! He doesn't treat us like criminals for having to pay child support, which is nice. I briefly spoke to Doug and he said he would take care of it immediately, which he did (got the new papers in the mail today!).

Monday the kids and I walked (and walked, and walked) for 5 hours! Shawn came home on his lunch break and dropped us at the dollar store near Dairy Queen. We went there then walked to Liquidation World (where they have 4 sizes of Sailor Moon dolls!!) The we walked to Amazon Bay in Uptown for hamster bedding, then to The Spudnut Shop. We had maple bars the size of loaves of bread! Next we took a cenic rout to the bank along a drainage ditch/creek where we saw lots of ducks and quail. From there we visited my dad at work and then we went to the library. We checked out movies there Pokemon, Barney, Pipi Longstocking, Mary Poppins, and Little House on the Prairie. After that we walked home. We returned gone just after 5! It was fun and the kids survived. :-)

Sunday I dyed my hair red. And it is RED! I also have a cute new haircut. I got it the Friday before Radcon and the only one who has seen it, of my blog readers, is Keith. LOL So if anyone else saw me right now from across the park or something you probably wouldn't recognize me. Oh, wait, Jennifer DID see me at the park, so she has seen my haircut too.

Speaking of parks. Last Friday I went to a parkday with some homeschool moms and met a new friend. Her name is Beth and we hit it off right away. She doesn't homeschool and I'm not exactly sure who she knew or why she was sitting with us. I think she actually knew Glory. But she's cool and she SHOULD homeschool. :-)


We have new neighbors across the street. Between the two sides of the duplex there are 7 kids. And Kathrynn doesn't like them. It's weird because it's the first time Kathrynn has not liked someone that I can recall. I noticed them all out playing yesterday and encouraged (pushed :( ) Kathrynn to go play with them. She's been lonely since the two families with little kids on our block both moved out just a month apart. She said she needed me to come with her, which is unusual. And then she wouldn't let me leave. I guess she had met them before. She played with them on their trampoline and they were rude. Not to her really, just to eachother. I don't think that alone bothered her but she clearly didn't feel comfortable with these kids. On the way home she said that we need to get our own trampoline so she can play in her yard. Since then she's been more content to play with Aiden.

I was hoping that when Shawn got his job I could quit mine. Doesn't look like that's going to happen. I am considering getting an evening job instead though because I don't like being away from the kids all day. If I had something in the evenings while Shawn was home I would feel better. It would still suck, but not as much.

My group number didn't get called for this week in Jury Duty. Maybe next week though. :-)

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Thursday, March 03, 2005

Jury Duty 

Did I mention I got a jury duty thingy in the mail? It seemed so far off when I got it, but March snuck right up on my ass and tomorrow I have to call in for the first time.

Somehow I thought jury duty was something that only happened to other people. Like people who were registered to vote and stuff. Evidently, this is not the case.

It's kind of exciting. Not that I'm itching to serve on a jury. And actually I'm pretty sure I will not be appointed to one. But still it's nice to be nominated! LOL

My sister got called to jury duty once. She got a note from her doctor saying she was breastfeeding and couldn't serve. It rocked! They called her again when her baby was over 18 months old and she got a note from her sons doctor saying that he had ADHD and she needed to be available for him any time even though he was in school. After that they seem to have left her alone.

It always seems that it's some sort of game to see if you can get out of it. Maybe that's why it seems most juries are made up of old people with nothing better to do.

Shawn got called too, right after we moved to Richland. He just didn't respond. Probably there's a warrant out for him or something now.

I was reading the super classified paperwork that Shawn got from his new job and apparently they will pay you your regular pay if you are assigned to jury duty. How cool is that? No such luck at my job!

I told my boss I got called and that really screws things up for her. The weirdest/worst part is that her 'backup' guy who would cover my shifts ALSO got called for jury duty at the same time! Weird hu?

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