Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Daily Life-Every day I'm Shuffling

Daily life around here has been going crazy-what is new?? My new Calendar reminder on my phone plays the funky LMFAO tune-'Everyday I'm Shuffling', definitely fits!!!

On a sad note, we lost our dear neighbor, Isabel Pena. Isabel was a GREAT lady. She made tamales every Christmas and always had special treats for the kids in the cul-de-sac every Halloween. The kids would always go over and take her mail in when the weather was bad and scoop her sidewalk when it snowed. We will miss you Isabel- your smile, your kindness, your belief that the Saints were with you every minute of every day, your ornery giggle that you gave while hiding your mouth and shrugging your shoulders while we talked about the crazy neighbors...RIP!


Football x 1.5 boys is in full swing (I will explain the .5 in a minute) and Cheer x 2 is in full swing.

.5 Football=Well, about 3 weeks into football, and before the first game, Boo was completing 2 a days and working his fanny off..he made it to Starting Running Back for the Freshman Team...he.was.STOKED!
He came home one day complaining that he had 'jammed' his left pinkie finger, and could I ice it for him. After examining it, I felt that more damage was done than 'jamming' but what do I know....I was an EMT and Instructor, but when I talk to him I am just 'mom'. We iced and buddy tape for almost 2 weeks...me moving it and checking it every day, him telling me "it was fine and did not hurt...to quit making a big deal about nothing". One day, almost 2 weeks later, he comes to me and says "mom, my finger REALLY hurts and every time you move it to check it, frankly it makes me want to vomit!" Ok...into the doc we go-several x-rays and a Hand Specialist later, we have a severely broken pinkie that cracked into the knuckle and growth plate; surgery is a MUST.
Fast forward now to today, surgery was done Sept. 12 and required 2 pins into his knuckle, pinkie is healing and we are still waiting to be cleared for play in football...eh, maybe we will just be ready for Basketball when that season starts...haha
C-Man will be wrapping up his first season of Tackle on Oct. 8th...just in time to begin the newly formatted Basketball League our School District puts on. Not sure how I feel about it, since we are going away from 'Teams' and just having 'Clinics' on Saturdays for a couple of hrs. with 2-3 Saturdays being 'Game days'. Will definitely free up the week nights, which have been crammed with activities for 2 months now...YEAH!!!!!!

Cheer will begin Competition Season and our first one requires the girls and I to travel to a small town in the upper part of the state-great weekend getaway (I tell myself this and if it is a lie, don't remind me..)

If we were not busy enough, we have a new kitten, Gimli. Gimli's mama kitty is a wild stray at work. She had 3 kittens and while moving them, abandoned Gimli in the conex box for 2 days. After 2 days, the guys were sure mama was not coming back so they brought the 2.5-3 week old, hungry and matted kitten to me...now I am mama. Bottle feedings and washing her to get her to go potty has taken me back to the old days of Squirrel rehabbing, but it has been great. Daily Gimli goes to work with me and either sleeps in a cat carrier (or on the desk if she is whiny..ha) Rich people have purse dogs, I have a purse cat!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

And The Tax Saga Continues

Alright, I didn't want to come here and complain, but here I am...We originally submitted out Taxes for 2010 in February 2011. New laws had taken affect for Adoptive Families, making the 'credit' you received towards your adoption expenses as completely REFUNDABLE. What happened before, is that when we adopted C-Man & Mitch, we received an Adoption Credit on our taxes that was carried over for up to 5 years. This year was the last year for us to claim our adoption tax credit, and next year our taxes will be completed like 'normal' people. ;-P
Out of many of the people I have spoken to, our refund amount is TINY..not to us, but to many. However, we are moving at a snails pace for the actual refund. We have received letters stating the IRS needed more info from us, to assure we were not defrauding them out of the money we say is owed to us, and that the children are actually people, and not pets I guess. We have sent all our paperwork that is required, once with the original packet in February and once again in April. Now, get this: we received a letter from the IRS, stating that we are "DENIED SAID REFUND DUE TO TRYING TO CLAIM REFUND ON OUR BIOLOGICAL CHILDREN"...really? Did you JUST put THAT in writing?
ANYONE that has ever seen my family KNOWS the children are adopted-it could be the extreme height of our Roo, The afro of our Boo, or possibly the fact that C-Man and Mitch came home when they were 5.5 years & 2yr 7mo...I don't know, but I WANT, NEED to know how it is POSSIBLE for a woman to give birth to a 5.5 year old and a almost 3 yo Simultaneously......
I asked today if it was possible to send a photo with my Appeal Letter, so they can see our smiling faces and see some of the 'differences' that make up our family unit.
WOW...so Proud to be in a Country where Idiots can have such a powerful job! FRUSTRATION at its peak!