No I don't really have much time but I am taking a lunch break.

The good is that most of my stuff is done or extended. I don't feel very behind. The bad is everyone is so busy at the top that my boss gave me something I don't understand in the least. Hope I don't screw it up too much - LOL. Might take all week to mull through as for now it is I come up with something, someone corrects it, I fix, it might take all week. Of course, I Won't feel too bad, the reason he gave it to me is it is so complex he doesn't have time to figure it out. He just has faith in me figuring out or something, I don't know. Whenever I get through this ugly thing I will be feeling a lot better. Of course I have the annoying last-minute clients, one of whome doesn't have the money to pay the IRS and 2 that dropped off the face of the earth. They are annoying me but not very time consuming, their problems I guess. The ones that don't care bug me because I got everyone else on extension. I don't do things last minute. But I hold on hope that they will have some say to their situation before the last minute extension out of desparation. One of them had a spouse with a brain tumor going in for brain surgery so I have been worried and hope all is okay for them. IT is not like her to just disappear and not care that April 15th is around the corner. I know, it's been one of those years, everyone seemed to have bad news this year, going through tough times.

Well, other items to note:

*Finally upgraded our Verizon plan. We have some old ancient plan they haven't even offered in ages, but I asked dh to call and ask if we couild upgrade BUT keep our peak minutes ending at 8pm as it stands now. We decide we would give it a whirl and maybe upgrade ages ago because the new plan is twice as many peak minutes, plus free to any verizon cell, and will only cost $5/month more with my Cookie Lee discount. So he FINALLY called yesterday. They wouldn't budge on 8:00, but whatever. We generally don't call anyone between 8 & 9 anyway because it is kid bedtime. Now I just have to get my paperwork in for it is only $5/per month more instead of $15 more (full price). Anyway, the 8:00 and the cheapness have held us in for years, but they had been getting obnoxious, maybe we were the only ones left on the old plan - LOL. They were so obnoxious they called dh asking him to switch 15 minutes after he did - because they kept calling us and asking us to upgrade. So he is like, "well, I already did!" It makes you want to not upgrade to spite them - hehe. but having 700 peak minutes between us instead of 300 is pretty sweet, I must admit.

*kids clothes - BM is growing like a weed and I had been meaning to run and get him some summer clothes. Well, procrastination pays. MIL and GIL usually get him some clothes (more him, less for baby since they bought so much that never even fit BM - they never listen to me when it comes to size - but with the second one on the way, a boy at that, we just kept all the clothes for him). Anyway, piles of new clothes have been deposited here and there and I hadn't really noticed until I cleaned up for Easter and found about an entire wardrobe for BM. Okay, to me 4 or 5 outfits is a wardrobe, we do laundry every other day for the diapers anyway. BUT then dh's aunt came by with 2 outfits for each kid. So um, yeah, I don't think I have to buy any clothes! BM needs underwear and socks though, more money for that. I am actually thinking of splurging on the insanely expensive wide size shoes now since I don't have to really buy him anything else for summer. Hopefully there will be more wide-feet options when he grows a little bigger. My baby is in a 5T wardrobe - gah. Everyone keeps asking me what grade he is in. HE is only 3! But this latest growth spurt was intense. I guess I figured he would slow down a bit by now. Um, no.

*Toys - MIL delivered our pile of free Scholastic books and video games sunday as well. But I was proud because they did not bring candy. I was shocked because they did not bring cash for the kids (figures since I just started saving all their money for them - now it's not there?). But they did bring lots of toys. & dh bought a couple of games - Cooties and Connect 4. I have to update my 2007 purchase list. But 1/2 way between Birthday and Christmas and not much in the way of purchases for the kids this year. In fact the toys they have been getting have been a bit much, seems to me, maybe with me being in purge mode. To date I have kind of made every other birthday a no gift affair and I am feeling like 2007 will eb a no-gift year. But we'll see. They certainly do not need gifts from everyone and their brother, that is for sure. Not after the insanity of Christmas. There are probably still toys in the closet untouched from Christmas. But I haven't been spnding money on toys - that is the good. Not that I usually do anyway...

*I was kind of suprised our auto gas bill was so low last month, with prices and all, but whatever. Just thought we had been extra good, when I got a 3rd credit card statement for the month. I guess on 3/15 I pulled out the wrong card - didn't even notice. Bah. So I checked and I indeed had not bought gas on my regular card between 3/7 & 3/25. So this 3/15 charge lookes pretty dang reaosnable - yup - it was me. LOL. I wasn't so sure at first. & that must have been the worst gas day too because it was $51 - yikes. Why I thought it was an error at first. I will have to go back to Quicken and see if I am still under budget with that. Bummer, was too good to be true. So I have 3 cc bills to pay this month. That sucks too - LOL. This card had rewards but I am not sure if I can redeem 5 cents.

As tax season draws to a close I am dreaming about vacation and feeling pretty good. IT has been a crazy few months but the rest of the year looks good. I have 2 holidays in May. One is a floating holiday from february that I can take anytime but tax season. HAven't decided when but will take a Friday off for a trip to monterey and to see family. Plus there is a regular holiday.

June I have a week off, as well as taking 3 days off the week of thanksgiving, it's always my de-stresser before craziness begins - plus it's a neat trick to take off 3 days for vacation and get the whole week off with the holidays. My old job I always took a week or 2 at Christmas but here I am lucky to get a day off, and with less vacation time, I compromise with Thanksgiving.

But I have a whole extra week this year. So with all that leaves me about 50 hours vacation time. I know dh wants me to hold on and see if he needs me watching the kids so he can work on a movie shoot or what. But I am pulling for leaving early every friday june through september. I don't think my boss will mind. Will beat taking a whole week off, I think. We'll see. I just want to wait and see how May is. If it settles down a bit. Summers are usually slower, but we are really short-staffed.

But all in all I plan to work a hell of a lot less these next few months. The difference is night and day. woohoo. With this kind of schedule I think I can deal. I want to shift to part-time eventually but working 37-hour weeks in the summer and all the vacation and holidays and whatever just feels a breeze compared to this crazy tax season. Plus I have been taking time during the week to see the family here and there. I told dh if I could drive his gas saver I would come home again for lunch more often. I used to every day and I did a couple of times this last week and it was so nice to see the fam early in the day and fresh as opposed to all grumpy at night - LOL. Decided I really missed it, such a quick drive. I will do more of that in the summer, even if the gas sucks. Can't put a price on more time for family I guess. I worked so little these last few years that this tax season has been tough for me. But the big light is at the end of the tunnel - phew. Nice to get back to that taking some time off. Oh well, just a few more weeks before I get there.

I guess when I am stressed I am wordy. I don't expect anyone to read these monster posts - hehe. But you know I know I always say I haven't had to work too much and put a huge value on time. But I say this as we have been scrimping and saving and probably working harder than we ever had since the kids. So I am just brimming with excitement to slow things down and get some time off. For a while I thought working harder to ctach back up was worthwhile. But for the long term, eh, my goal is still to work as little as possible. Maybe I am just lazy. More to the point I just wish I had more time with my kids. & I will, soon enough.

P.S. I forgot to mention we had a lovely easter at dh's cousins' home. He is local. & with all his pets and big yard and toys the kids always have a BLAST - wish we did more holidays there since it cuts out the long drive for us! He is the poster child for frugality as he owns his home about outright (bought at the right time - when you could still buy a decent house for $100k - he has like 1/3 acre+ for that price too). Anyway, no college degree but does just fine and drives a Corvette. Or drove I should say. Traded it in for a Prius. Could knock me over with a feather. LOL. That is the shocking news for the day. Actually his entire family had hybrids so don't know what took him so long - probably the Corvette drove him to it. But yeah his parents had the Honda Insight & his sister bought a Prius - absolutely ages ago - like the first years they came out. I am not sure why no one else in our family has yet to get a hybrid. I just know we feel too broke for now and the Escort at 40mpg isn't 1/2 bad. But they got him - hehe. Anyway, he is no longer such an impressive example of frugality without the fancy car, but the Prius isn't exactly cheap either. Or maybe he truly couldn't afford it so he is a better example now - who knows. But I know I mentioned a few times he doesn't make a huge wage and has done quite well even in such a pricey area.