Happy Birthday MOM!

Yesterday was my mom's 60th birthday.... hard to believe it!

We are having a birthday party for her this Sunday! I want to make a really cool cake, been looking on line for ideas!

I know what ya mean mom by feeling one age in your head but your body is laughing about the real age. Oh well, it does beat the alternative.

We also has some fantastic news on our tax stuff. We had that appointment Monday, cause Jeromy lost both his properties last year. They have since been real sold and no longer in his name. But we got tax stuff in the mail, after we already filed for the year. Our tax lady said this is bad and we needed to come in and redo our 2009 taxes. Well, I was just sick about it cause she said on paper it could look like we had a gain for several thousands dollars cause the houses sold for less than he owed- which is ridiculous cause we got nothing out of them but lawyers fees. But she said we could possibly owe between $2000- $60,000 in taxes, or what looked like extra income, for the 2 properties.

Anyway to make a long story short, after over an hour if listening to her plug numbers in the computer and saying "oh that's not good, well maybe... I don't know... well that's going to change things... oh no" I was nauseous. At one point I went into the bathroom sick just praying to God to make it all just be done, what ever we owe, just let us handle it with grace. Well, finally she was done. And she said since we had taken such a loss ( duh) and all the money he had put into the properties (double duh) she said we were actually getting back a nice size return! Jeromy and I just stared at each other in disbelief... what? We weren't going to owe thousands but get money back???

And to top it off, when Jeromy was getting ready to pay her her $60 fee, she said there was no charge cause we had to reschedule from last Monday cause she had overbooked us- and she was so thankful that we were so gracious about it. We just stared at each other again....

When we got in the car we prayed to God for taking care of us. We were so thankful. But I do want to make the point- even if we ended up owing $60,000, we still would have been thankful to God cause He never gives us more than we can handle. I'm just so grateful that it went in our favor!!! Woo-hoo!

Ok, time to get on my treadmil- or maybe I'll run outside today it is looking pretty nice!

Oh I forgot to add one more thing, remember how we just took our house off the market a few weeks ago? After being on the market for 6+ months? Well, the tax lady told us we couldn't sell our house for 2 years, cause there's a law some where if you lose a property, then sell another one and make money, there is some kind of penalty. So if our house had sold we'd be owing alot right now, too.... wow, we didn't see the whole picture but God does, this house will sell in His timing. Just another "thank you" moment!

Back to the grind stone.

It was nice having a day off yesterday.

After church, we headed over to our friends Deanna and Eric's house. They were having a surprise lunch for our friend Michelle's 36th birthday! Deanna went all out. Her table was set up with fine china, little spoons and forks, tea sandwiches, tea, scones with raspberry jelly and whip cream. And this amazing salad with several fruits and vegetables in it and feta cheese- so fancy! Everything was delicious! She even had little napkins with the letter "M" for Michelle.

She didn't leave the boys out either, they got pizza and chicken pasta and salad, but they had to eat outside. Deanna did an amazing job of making a special lunch for Michelle, and we all got to enjoy it.

We also had Aurora this weekend which is always nice! She got to come to the tea party, too, with Jade and all Michelle's daughters- 6 of them!

Today started out like all our Mondays. Kent off to school, Jade working on homework. I did my 3 miles- needed to burn off some of that food that I over-indulged in yesterday!

Jeromy did a dump run, he also needs to go to Home Depot. Then we're also going to run a few more errand together, then we have another tax appointment at one- lame.

Then it's off to work to do another 10 hour shift. At least the work isn't too physically exhausting- just mentally and emotionally LOL :0)

Have a great day!

Spring has sprung!

Jeromy picked up Aurora last night and surprised her with 3 of her friends: Beriah, Nadia and Tae'. He took all 4 girls out to dinner!

Then this morning we had an appointment to get pictures taken with all 4 girls. You know how I love pictures, any reason to go get them done! And actually it's Beriah's 10th birthday- a perfect reason! Here they are in the parking lot brushing their hair!

We were a little early to our appointment so we stopped at Barnes N Noble and got hot chocolate! Tae' is really enjoying hers!

Jeromy and Kent went to the Men's Breakfast at church this morning, so it was just all us girls! See Jade in there, too? And my coffee front and center LOL!

We walked around the book store for a bit and the girls found these cute little toys...Now we are just waiting for them to open the doors to let us into the mall! OPEN OPEN OPEN!!

Ok, we got tired of waiting and went outside... we found this cool rainbow chair and umbrella, picture opportunity!

Ok, we were the first ones there with an appointment- no waiting- I love it! Aren't they adorable in these bright spring colors?

Even making faces they are cute!

Ice cream time! I just love these girls, they are so much fun to spoil!

When we got home Jeromy and Kent were out working in the yard. Jeromy took down another tree, our neighbor was so happy he came over to help Jeromy with it!

Now Jeromy has 6 helpers to help pull branches out...

A little video...

Well, I tried to cram as much fun as I could into the first part of the day cause I have to go to work this afternoon and work a 10 hour shift... lame, but the money is good, and this is a very expensive year for Jade!

But first I have to go sit out in the gorgeous sunshine for a while! Have a great day and God bless!

Here they are!!

Get ready for some serious cuteness! Jade's senior pictures were ready for me to pick up today. And here they are. Remember this is a picture of the picture so the quality is a little diminished, but you get the idea!

And this is my ultimate favorite... she's so darn cute! Even Kent said she was pretty. This one I ordered the special matte that they can put her name and year on that match the color she wore and the cool silver frame! This is the last school picture so we were going to do it up right!Ummm, ya.... I got the big gigantor picture- don't judge me!!! It's hard to see in this but the picture of her face is actually larger than the real her! LOL! But I love it!

Enjoy the sunshine!!

Look what I saw today!!!

I have been waiting for them to post my name, and today is the day! This place is right across the street from the high school, so I drove in there. When I went inside I said "my name is Katie" and they signed me up for a massage!

I asked if it was a half hour or an hour, and they said it was more like 15-20 minutes--- I'll take it! So I go in tomorrow at 2pm just before work- SWEET!

SWEET MONDAY!!

First, we had some eggs this weekend for breakfast cause those darn chickens are working over time! This is only some of them... alot of pretty colors and speckles...

Time for breakfast!!!

Also this weekend, I officially registered for my:

ROCK 'N' ROLL SEATTLE

HALF MARATHON!!!

I'm nervous and excited all at the same time!!! The most I've ever run was a 12K which is 7.45 miles. A half marathon is 13.1 miles.... that's why I'm nervous! But I am so excited, too!

I've been running 3 miles a few times a week for several months now and the official training starts next month! Woo-hoo! Here's me holding my receipt- covering up all the vital information!

Today, Jade is spending the night at grandma and grandpa's house. But we have the twins, Tae' and Nadia over. So Jeromy took them and Kent to the park... it was so nice this afternoon!KENTONTAE'NADIACute girls!!Then he took them all to Stone Cold Creamery...And what was great is Jeromy took all these great pictures so I could blog them! So cool!

But what's even cooler is that while at work today, the power went out in my whole shop! And they said it would be out till 7am, so they sent us home--- awesome!!!!!

So I got home about 6pm! Surprise kiddos! Except Jade's at grandma's- miss you Jade! But I know grandma's spoiling you right!

While home tonight, I couldn't help noticing the beautiful flower/tree thing in the back yard that is blooming! It only blooms the beginning of spring- all these beautiful white flowers then they all fall off.

This is just the start... these are for you mom!

GOOD NIGHT!!

The Infamous Tree Faller...

How's that for a title? Mom- you may not want to see these! When Jeromy decides he wants a tree to come down, there's no stopping him. But he was extremely safe mom, he knows the techniques of getting the tree to fall in the direction he wants it to. He's a master researcher when he wants to learn something.

So here's the intro video...

The "Tree Faller" has some helpers that gather the cut limbs... from a safe distance mom!

It's a little scary watching him, but he's very safety conscience and methodical! He is definitely not afraid of heights or a little hard work- reminds me alot of YOU dad!

You can see, as he cut limbs, he left little foot steps to climb higher to the next level!

Another video...

Here's the thumbs up, he successfully cut the upper half of the tree down! Yay!!!!

In case you haven't heard, we took the house off the market. We had it for sale for 6 months and no takers. So we are just going to refinance at this time. So we are planning alot of projects for around the house.

He did alot of clearing out of the brush in front of the house earlier in the week, and it's amazing! You used to not be able to see thru the dense brush...

You can actually see the house thur the trees! A couple of other projects we've been talking about is painting. I'm getting the painting bug from my mom- I love to paint. We've been talking about painting 3 sides of our living room walls, and maybe scraping the popcorn off the ceiling. And Jeromy has been wanting to re-do the master bathroom- sounds good to me!

Well, that's all for now. Everybody in the house needs a shower! Even tho I didn't work outside I ran my 3 miles on the treadmil! I didn't make it to running club this morning Kyle, cause I have been really sleep deprived and I needed to sleep- but I did get in 3 miles!

Tonight we have our church fellowship time with several families from church, we have a HUGE potluck, and this time it's at Laura's- next time it's at our house! Jade is making one of her recipes from her food science class. Brown rice and ground turkey wraps- YUM!